Authors: Brenda Jackson
A Family Reunion
An old man’s grandchildren are his crowning glory.
A child’s glory is his father.
—
PROVERBS
17:6, T
HE
L
IVING
B
IBLE
His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me…
Ethan Allen Bennett had lived a very long life, and today he felt every bit of his eighty-nine years. Each time he closed his eyes seeking a peaceful moment, he heard the sweet sound of his late wife, Idella, softly singing the lyrics of her favorite church song.
Since he was blessed not to have Alzheimer’s, it must be his imagination, he concluded ruefully, closing his eyes once more to enjoy the spiritual melody. He was sitting in his favorite chair in a room that was kept warm by the huge old-fashioned heater. It was a heater that had been in his home pretty close to sixty years. After Idella’s death ten years ago his six children, worried about his solitary state, had wanted to come in and modernize the place. For starters, they had wanted to remove his heater and replace it with central heat and air.
“That heater’s no longer any good. It’s dangerous,” his eldest son, Ethan Junior, had declared louder than a Baptist preacher on a first Sunday morning. And as usual the other five siblings had agreed.
“
That
heater warmed all of your backsides at one time or another,” Ethan Senior had forcefully reminded them. “It stays and so does everything else. Everything stays just like your mama left it.”
And that had settled that.
They had not understood that when a man had been married to a woman for over sixty years, like he had been married to his Idella, and the other half departed to meet their Maker, the one left behind needed something of her to remember, to hold on to, and to cherish, even if it was the one picture on the wall that absolutely rattled his grands and great-grands during their visits. It was the huge picture of the blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus that had been hanging in that very spot on the wall for over forty-five years.
Jesus, as Idella had visualized him to be, was flanked by a portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr., on one side and one of John F. Kennedy, Sr., on the other. A picture of Robert Kennedy—not as large as the others but just as visible—had been added years later and hung underneath Jesus. Until the end Jesus had been Idella’s Savior, the Almighty, the calm in the wake of a storm, the Prince of Peace. Martin, John, and Bobby had been her boys, her heroes who could do no wrong. She would defend their honor to her dying days. In fact, she had.
Ethan heard the singing once again.
It was at times like these, when he was all alone, that he missed his Idella more than at other times. It would probably be somewhat different if he was still allowed to drive; then he could spend more time at the Masonic Lodge every day. Right now he had to depend on his children to take him wherever he wanted to go. Although he knew they didn’t mind, he didn’t like being a burden to anyone.
He hated that he’d let them talk him into giving up his driver’s license but had understood their reasoning. He would be the first to admit that his eyesight wasn’t as good as it used to be. Besides, it was either giving up his license or agreeing to their suggestion of installing one of those devices to have some emergency service monitor his house every evening, since he lived alone. He definitely hadn’t wanted that. Nor had he wanted to follow their other suggestion of letting his oldest great-grand, sixteen-year-old Jerrell, live with him. He loved his first great-grand to death, but the boy played his music too loud to suit him. Although Ethan’s eyesight wasn’t what it used to be, so far he didn’t have any problem with his hearing and wanted to keep it that way. Living with Jerrell would damage his eardrums for sure.
He heard the singing once more.
I sang because I’m happy. I sang because I’m free. His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me.
He wondered just how happy Idella would be in knowing the sorrowful state of the family she had left behind. How would she feel to know that her baby boy, Victor Senior, was now on his third wife and had so many outside children it had become a joke to everyone.
But not to Ethan.
Outside or inside, they were still his grandchildren, grandchildren he would claim although he didn’t even know half of them.
And what about his grands that he did know about? Last count there were fifteen. Two by way of Ethan Junior, three from Joe, three by way of Emery, one from Prentice, one by way of Colleen—his deceased daughter—and the rest from his youngest son, Victor Senior. Ethan Senior had seen his fifteen grandchildren off and on over the years but never together and never at the same time. At least not since the last family reunion, fifteen years ago. Everyone had enjoyed themselves and had had a good time, not knowing that in less than five years the matriarch of the Bennett family, his Idella, would pass away peacefully in her sleep. Since then there hadn’t been any more reunions. There were seldom any visits. Everyone was busy doing their own thing. Last he’d heard, his grandson Victor Junior was busy making babies, outside babies, just like his father had done. Lord knows the boy got it honest.
Then there was his granddaughter Rae’jean, the one the family had boasted as being the “pretty” one, with her high yella coloring and white folks’ hair. He was proud of her, the only doctor in the family. He’d heard through the family grapevine, the all-knowing, all-gossiping Cuzin Sophie, that Rae’jean was dating a white boy, another doctor.
He couldn’t think of Rae’jean without thinking of Taye and Alexia. Growing up while Idella was alive, those three granddaughters of theirs were always into something. As little ones, their weekend visits had been the highlight of his and Idella’s lives. Taye had been the smart one. She could add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers in her head in mere seconds. She had been the one the family just knew would go far. He remembered the day her ma, Otha Mae, had taken her to college, some prestigious school up north. She had left Taye on the dormitory steps with strict orders to keep her books open and her legs closed. Lo and behold, no sooner had Otha Mae rounded the corner to return back home to Georgia than the girl had gotten buck wild and had opened her legs as wide as they could go. By the end of the first semester she had returned home pregnant. Taye had finished school a year early and had been too young to go off somewhere to college. But her parents hadn’t listened to him and Idella. In the end they wished they had.
Alexia, bless her heart, had been another matter altogether, he thought, smiling proudly. To him and Idella, Alexia had been the most beautiful child anyone had ever seen. But he’d known a few of the Bennetts had thought otherwise, with her dark skin, unruly hair, weight problem, and crooked teeth. So Alexia was never showered with the same type of praise and compliments that had been bestowed upon Rae’jean and Taye. The only thing some family members thought Alexia had going for her was her voice. It was the beautiful voice of a songbird. It was a voice that she had inherited from her Gramma Idella, since everyone knew neither of Alexia’s parents could hold a decent note, although Prentice and Alma still insisted upon singing in the church choir every second Sunday morning.
That’s why now, with Alexia being a successful singer who was a part of that popular singing group, and whose picture, just last month, was in an issue of
People
magazine claiming her as one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world, those who’d thought she hadn’t had anything going for her were walking around holding their heads down in shame.
Just as well.
Last but not least, his thoughts shifted to Michael, who was the grandson of his first cousin, Henry Bennett. Michael had gone through some tough times a few years back after learning he’d been adopted. It was something he hadn’t found out until he had left for the air force right after the last family reunion.
The last family reunion.
Since that time the family had begun dwindling away and so had the values Ethan and Idella had tried to instill. He wondered how he could make his children, his grands and great-grands, understand what a real family meant. It meant more than getting together occasionally for the holidays. It meant being there for one another, through thick and thin, the good times and the bad. It also meant that when friends deserted you, you could always depend on your family to be there.
Ethan slowly stood and crossed the room to the phone. He would call his cousin Agnes. Even at the age of seventy she was still a mover and a shaker and was the one person he knew who could be counted on to get things done, especially the one thing he wanted. The one thing the family needed.
The Bennetts needed to come together for another family reunion. The first one in fifteen years.
Taye
“Taye, are you going to the Firemen’s Ball or not?”
Sharon Langley’s question unsettled Octavia Bennett to no end. She fought to suppress her aggravation so she could give a calm answer. But first she needed to finish getting all of the relaxer out of Mrs. Walker’s hair.
“Taye, I asked you a question.”
Nerves on edge, Taye glanced up from the washbowl and gave her best friend a leveled glare. It didn’t matter that Sharon owned the most exclusive beauty salon in Atlanta, where Taye worked as a stylist in the day while juggling the chore of raising two daughters and going to school at night. Nor did it matter that they had known each other since second grade. Taye would say her piece to Sharon…in private. “We’ll talk later, OK?”
Sharon couldn’t do anything but nod, caught off guard by the curtness of Taye’s tone. Taye was known for her subtle wit and soft-spoken manner. You would have to push really hard to get a rise out of her. Sharon couldn’t help wondering what wrong button she had pushed.
Once Taye had gotten Mrs. Walker’s hair rinsed and conditioned and had placed her under the dryer, she motioned for Sharon to meet her in the supply room.
“OK, Taye, what’s wrong with you? All I asked was whether or not you’re attending the Firemen’s Ball. The look you gave me sent chills up my spine.”
The look Taye now slanted Sharon was partly amused and partly apologetic. Taye had reacted rather badly but felt she had done so with good reason, although Sharon didn’t know that. She owed her an explanation. “Monica’s father is a fireman.”
Sharon’s hand flew up to her mouth and her large bulging eyes told Taye she had literally shocked her speechless, which wasn’t easy to do, since Sharon could be counted on to always have something to say. The identity of Monica’s father was something Taye had never discussed with anyone, not even with Sharon. It had been bad enough that she had gotten pregnant in her first semester of college and had to return home and listen to her mother’s constant spiel of how she’d disappointed the family. Then as if that hadn’t been bad enough, she had screwed up again three years later by getting pregnant for a second time, this time from a man who conveniently forgot to tell her he was married. A second child out of wedlock had been a final blow to the already-strained relationship she’d had with her parents.
“Monica’s father was a fireman?”
Taye nodded. “He still is.” Since Sharon had been away at college at the time, she had never met the man Taye had dated for nearly three months. There was no reason to tell her that not only was he a fireman, but now he was a captain in the Atlanta Fire Department. Back then, ten years ago when they’d dated, he’d been a rookie who’d just made the squad. She had been a lonely young woman of twenty, a single mother with a two-year-old who had fallen under his spell and had believed his story that he was a single man sharing an apartment with a buddy. Even now she cringed every time she thought about all the lies he’d told and how she had foolishly fallen for them.
Sharon’s footsteps furiously clicking on the tiled floor reeled Taye’s thoughts out of the past and back to the present. Sharon was no longer speechless. She was angry and was pacing the room getting madder by the minute. Taye regretted that she had told Sharon anything. The main reason she’d never done so before was because Sharon was like a dog with a bone. Once she got ahold of something, she wouldn’t let go. Besides, when it came to Taye, Sharon was fiercely loyal and protective.
“Octavia Louise Bennett! Here you’ve been working your butt off for ten years trying to make ends meet raising Sebrina and Monica, and Monica’s father has a good job, but you refuse to make the scumbag pay child support!”
Taye sighed. She’d had this conversation about Monica’s father not paying child support with Sharon many times. “You know why I haven’t done that. In order to file for child support I’d have to reveal his identity, and I refuse to do that.”
Sharon’s heated face told Taye just what she thought of that. “Girl, why are you still protecting him? Even after ten years you won’t tell anyone who he is, not even me, and I’m your best friend.”
“You know why I won’t tell you, Sharon. You’d take actions into your own hands and do something stupid.”
Sharon drew in a deep, ragged breath, fighting for control. “It’s not stupid to make a man take care of his child! Why are you protecting him?”
“I’m
not
protecting him. Don’t you think I’ve thought about confronting him and demanding that he do what’s right by his child? But what would that do other than hurt his wife, who doesn’t know he’s a low-life? They even have a daughter who was born a day or so before Monica.”
“Jeez! You mean he was sleeping with both you and his wife at the same time?”
“Yes, but if anyone should have been sleeping with him it was her. She had all the rights to do so; I had none.”
Sharon rolled her eyes. “But you didn’t know.”
“Still, I was a fool to be taken in by him. You’ll never know how awful I felt when I found out I’d been sleeping with a married man. But it was my mistake and not his wife’s and I refuse to ruin his marriage.”
“What kind of marriage is it if he screws around on her?”
“That was ten years ago.”
“And you think his penis has dropped off since then? Get real, Taye. Men like that don’t know how to keep their pants zipped. I bet Monica isn’t the only outside child he has. He’s probably no better than your uncle Victor or your cousin Victor Junior. I bet he has—”
“I don’t care, Sharon. Monica is all I care about. She’s doing OK. She’s never even asked me about him.”
“But she’s asked me!”
Taye suddenly felt dizzy. She placed a steadying hand on one of the shelves for support. Had she heard Sharon right? “Monica has asked you about her father?”
“Yes, more than once. She didn’t feel comfortable coming to you and asking you about him, and since I’m her godmother she asked me.”
A lump formed in Taye’s throat. “What did you tell her?”
“Not what I wanted to, believe me. I told her that I honestly didn’t know a thing about him. The only thing I did know was that he must have been good-looking for her to be such a beautiful child.”
Sharon paused for a moment as she considered Taye. “But don’t you see, Taye, she’s getting older. She wants the same thing Sebrina has. She sees Gary coming here every summer to get Sebrina and wonders why she doesn’t have a father coming for her.”
Taye thought about the guy she’d gotten pregnant from while in her first semester at college, the one who had taken away her virginity, Gary Stevens. He was a senior who knew what he was doing when he targeted her. At seventeen, still wet behind the ears, she had played right into his hands and, in no time at all, his bed. “I can’t force a man to want his child.”
“But you can force him to take care of her financially. It’s been ten years. Do you want to know what I think?”
Taye raised her eyes to the ceiling. “No, not really.”
Sharon ignored her and told her anyway. “I think you still feel something for this guy and that’s why you’re protecting him. Don’t hand me that cock-and-bull story about your protecting his wife. If he cared anything for his wife he wouldn’t have been unfaithful.”
“But that’s no reason to destroy their marriage.”
“What marriage? If I were a married woman I’d want to know, even ten years later, that my husband had screwed around on me. And you can’t convince me he still isn’t out there screwing around.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe my behind. You can’t convince me he’s not.”
Taye would never admit to Sharon that she knew for a fact that he was. Over the years she had run into him a number of times with different women, none of whom was his wife. She ran her fingers through her short hair. “Look, Sharon, I need to check on Mrs. Walker. This conversation is over and you’re wrong. I feel nothing for Monica’s father. At one time I wanted to hate him, but now I actually thank him for her. I just wish the circumstances surrounding her conception were different.”
“If you still don’t want to tell me who he is, then that’s fine. But I think it’s time that you sit down and talk to Monica about her father, Taye.”
Taye nodded. “I will.”
Without saying anything else, she turned and walked out of the room.
Two hours later Taye was hanging up her cape for the day when Sharon entered the back room with a deep frown on her face.
“You may as well put that cape back on, girlfriend. The Wicked Witch of the South just blew in on her broomstick.”
Silently Taye cursed. “Please tell me you’re lying.”
“I wish I could, but I can’t. She’s here with her nice-nasty self.”
“But she doesn’t have an appointment.”
“Does she ever? All she needs is some news to rub in your face about her precious Brandy, and she feels she can prance her butt in here at any time to deliver it.”
Taye sighed, knowing Sharon was right. The woman they were discussing was none other than Valerie Constantine. Thirty years ago at the age of sixteen, Valerie had gotten pregnant from Taye’s uncle Victor. Victor had refused to do the honorable thing and marry Valerie, and she had placed the blame for his decision on the Bennett family. She accused them of poisoning Victor’s mind against her by making him doubt the child was actually his. Even if that had been true, any such notion had gotten dispelled once Brandy had been born looking just like Uncle Victor. But Valerie had never forgiven Victor’s family and she enjoyed rubbing any available Bennett’s nose in the fact that Brandy, who was the same age as Taye and was a professor with a Ph.D. at Howard University, was doing extremely well. Valerie figured that if she made it a point to tell Taye, then she would pass the word on to all the other Bennetts and make them pea-green with envy. Little did Valerie know that due to her busy schedule, Taye rarely saw her family, who mostly lived in Macon, which was an hour’s drive from Atlanta.
Ignoring Sharon’s “tell the witch off for once” expression, Taye walked out of the room into the front of the salon.
Sharon’s beauty salon, Total Elegance, was just that. Cashing in all of her savings she’d earned while working five years in the corporate world, Sharon had gone from employee to entrepreneur, coming up with an idea for what would be every woman’s dream—a one-stop beauty salon. The decor was one of total sophistication and style. There was a special room for manicures and pedicures, one for facials and body massages, and another for stylists specializing in all types of hair care services and makeup applications. The shop also contained a library with books on spiritual and personal growth. Future expansion plans included a spa as well as a lingerie shop. Total Elegance was specifically designed for the sistah on the go who believed in making every minute count and wanted to face the world feeling her best as well as looking it. Absolutely no one was seen without an appointment, so it rattled Taye to know each time Valerie Constantine visited she was breaking the rules by being a walk-in. It was time she was reminded of that fact.
Words failed Taye when she walked into the room and saw Valerie standing in front of a makeup display. Evidently she had a lot to boast about today, Taye thought, studying the woman’s anxious air without letting her presence be known. Valerie was wearing a long black fur coat that was superbly tailored to fit her tall form. The coat screamed money, and no doubt Valerie was here to flaunt that fact. Taye shook her head. Of all the women she’d known her uncle Victor to either mess around with or marry, Valerie was one she could give credit to for keeping herself looking good. At the age of forty-six she was still a nice-looking woman.
Taye took a deep breath before she spoke. “Valerie, I’m surprised to see you here today. I checked the books and you don’t have an appointment.”
Valerie’s beautifully carved mouth twisted in an expression of haughtiness that was heightened by the flare of ire in the inky darkness of her eyes. Taye knew Valerie hadn’t liked being reminded of the fact that at Total Elegance she was no better than anyone else. That was a point she seemed to overlook at times.
“Really, Octavia, I’m sure you can squeeze me in today,” Valerie returned silkily. “All I want is a wash and set…and if you can, I’d like you to give special attention to the gray hair at my temples. I want you to do something with it.”
Taye lifted a brow, wondering just what Valerie thought she could do with her gray hair other than color it? She wasn’t a miracle worker.
“Besides,” Valerie was saying, “I have some absolutely wonderful news to share with you about Brandy.”
Like there’s any other reason for your visit,
Taye thought. “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to accommodate you today, Valerie. I promised the girls I’d take them for pizza and a movie this evening. I was just about to leave.”
“Really? I thought you’d jump at the chance to earn an additional dollar or two. I heard you’ve finally moved out of those apartments and purchased a home. I’d imagine it’s not easy being a single mother.”
“You of all people would know.” Taye smiled. It was time she took the bull by the horns and put Valerie in her place as Sharon had suggested many times.
Valerie’s dark eyes turned on her. “Actually, Octavia, that was years ago and I really don’t remember. As you know, Brandy has been doing extremely well for herself. In fact…how do you like my coat?” Valerie asked, giving an arrogant sweep of her hand down the full length of the fur coat.
Before Taye could respond, Valerie said, “It was a gift from Brandy’s fiancé.”
Taye nodded. So that was Valerie’s news. She decided to play along for good measure, hoping it would get Valerie out of the salon a lot quicker. “Brandy’s getting married? Why, that’s wonderful. When you speak to her again, tell her I said congratulations.”
“I’ll be sure to pass that on to her,” Valerie responded in an amused tone. “Of course her wedding will be a very elaborate affair. She may decide to include you, Rae’jean, and Alexia as bridesmaids. After all, the four of you were born the same year and are first cousins.”
Taye rolled her eyes. She doubted very seriously that Brandy would include her, Rae’jean, or Alexia in on anything. Brandy, the spoiled, bad-mannered brat, had grown up to become the witch’s daughter, a title she wore well.