Chapter Thirteen
“Didn't your mama ever teach you that it was rude to sit outside of somebody's house and blow your horn?” Unique spat as she made her way to Lorain's car, her three children tagging close behind her. The month of May was approaching, so each child wore a nice spring, hooded jacket.
Lorain was not looking forward to their little Saturday afternoon meeting at all. Unique hadn't even made it in the car yet and already she was running her mouth.
“My bad,” Lorain said sarcastically, figuring she'd speak Unique's language.
Unique paused at Lorain's mocking tone, rolled her eyes, then proceeded to put her children in the backseat and buckle them up. “I'm sure when your mama talked to you about boys picking you up, she mentioned to you how it was a sign of disrespect for them to sit in the car and blow their horn instead of walking up to the door,” Unique continued her rant. She took a moment to give Lorain the once over from the backseat. “Or didn't you have any boys coming to your house?”
Everything in Lorain told her to simply brush off Unique's insult, but she couldn't let it go. “Whether boys came to my house to pick me up or not doesn't matter.” Lorain gave Unique's children the once over. “But I guess it's safe to say that at least three came to yours.” Lorain let out a Morris Day laugh that irked Unique, but she didn't have a quick enough comeback, so she let it go.
“Can you roll these windows up?” Unique asked as she got in the passenger's seat and put her seatbelt on. “I'm not trying to have that wind blow my hair.” She pat at the clump of weave she'd worked in an up-do with a few strands hanging down.
Lorain shook her head, wondering how in the world the wind was going to mess up that capped on bird's nest. Still she obliged Unique by rolling up the windows, leaving hers cracked to Unique's dismay.
“Can we stop at McDonald's or something?” Unique asked as they backed out of the driveway. “I didn't get a chance to feed my babies yet.”
Lorain knew this was going to be a long day as she made her way to the nearest McDonald's and pulled up at the drive-thru. Once the voice boomed through the outside intercom asking for their order, Unique rattled off the order of three chicken nugget Happy Meals. Lorain proceeded to the first window as instructed after the order was taken.
“That will be ten dollars and fifty-three cents, please,” the cashier said.
Lorain looked over to Unique and held her hand out. Unique was fidgeting through her purse.
“Dang itâ” Unique fussed. “Where's myâ” Fidget. “I know I didn'tâ” Fidget. “I changed pursesâ” Fidget. “Left my dang onâ” Fidget. “Wallet.”
Lorain knew exactly what Unique was getting at, but she continued to hold her hand out, waiting for Unique to miraculously come up with the cash to put in it so that she could pay for the food order.
“I cannot believe this,” Unique said, visibly giving up her search as she closed her purse and threw it down. “I left my wallet in my other purse. I changed purses last night when Iâ” Unique caught herself. She'd been out last night at a house party for one of her girlfriends, but she didn't want Lorain to know. She didn't trust her. The next thing she knew, Lorain would be sitting outside Pastor's office just waiting to leak that bit of information in order to make Pastor reconsider her being co-leader of the Single's Ministry. Although she detested the fact that her first leadership role at New Day was underneath the likes of Lorain, she wasn't going to let Pastor down. She wasn't going to let herself down. Most importantly, she wasn't going to let God down. She was determined not to let the devil drive her out of doing work for God, even if the devil was disguised in a tight blouse, mini skirt and pumps.
“Do you want to drive back to your house and get you wallet?” Lorain asked Unique.
“Naw, just forget it,” Unique sighed. “Don't nobody feel like going through all that drama.”
“Aw, man,” the four-year-old middle son stated. “Does that mean we ain't getting no McDonald's?”
“Getting any McDonald's,” his older brother corrected. “Does that mean we are not getting any McDonald's.”
“Yeah, boys. I'm sorry,” Unique apologized. “Mommy left her money at home.”
Unmoved by the little charade Unique had tried to put on, Lorain asked Unique, “Are you sure you don't want me to take you back to your house to get your money?”
“No, I'm good.” Unique waved her off.
Lorain twisted her lips and pulled out of the drive-thru line in disbelief that Unique had tried to pull the oldest trick in the book on her. Not even the weeping three-, four- and five-year-old behind her made her go into her own pockets. For all Lorain knew, Unique had trained her kids to put on that act. Real tears probably weren't even falling from their eyes.
Lorain looked into the rear view mirror to peek at the children. Okay, so real tears were falling. Little actors, were they? Still Lorain wasn't falling for it. They'd probably pulled this trick on many people prior to her. They could probably drop a tear at the drop of a dime, but Lorain wasn't falling for it. No siree!
A few minutes later, Lorain pulled up in front of her townhouse and led her guests up the sidewalk to her doorstep. She usually parked in her attached garage, but she'd hoped, no, she'd prayed to be in and out of there in under an hour. The night before, she'd put together an agenda of things for her and Unique to cover in order to speed things right along. Although she was given the name Unique, to Lorain, she didn't look like someone who could come up with original thoughts and ideas to save her life.
“If you don't mind, can you take your shoes off at the door?” Lorain asked as she unlocked her front door. On second thought, she'd wished she had used the garage entrance that would have led them straight into the kitchen where she planned on having the meeting. That way she wouldn't have to trot the troop through her house since she hadn't gotten around to packing and putting away some of her breakable, valuable items.
I don't know what I should be more afraid of,
Lorain thought to herself as they all entered the house and removed their shoes,
whether they are gonna break my stuff or steal it.
“What are you, Japanese or something?” Unique asked as she stepped out of her shoes. “Or you just don't want our kind dirtying up your nice little carpet?” Unique rolled her eyes, not expecting an answer. Lorain didn't give her one.
“I figured we can work in the kitchen,” Lorain said after ignoring Unique's sarcastic comment. “I made out an agenda.” She led Unique and the children into the kitchen.
On the bar that separated the cooking area from the eating area, Lorain had two notebooks and pens set out for her and Unique. On the table she had three Bible story coloring books and some crayons she'd picked up from the dollar store laid out for the children. She hoped that if she kept them busy enough, they wouldn't ransack her house.
“Color, Mommy, color,” Unique's three-year-old said with excitement after noticing the lay out on the kitchen table.
“I see, sweetie.” Unique leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. “You gon' color Mommy a nice picture to hang up on the Shine Board?”
“Yep,” he replied, then took off and claimed a seat and coloring book.
“Me too, Mommy,” her middle child proclaimed. “I'm gonna shine too.”
“Going to,” her eldest son corrected. “It's
I'm going to shine too
.”
Once again, Lorain found herself immersed in the way Unique interacted with her children.
“It's really just the refrigerator,” Unique said to Lorain when catching her staring. She assumed she was looking crazy in wonderment about what the children were referring to as Shine Board.
“Huh?” Lorain said, snapping out of her daze.
“The Shine Board, it's what we call the refrigerator that's covered with pictures the children draw, good reports, and awards from their teachersâstuff like that.”
“Oh,” Lorain said. She was impressed, but she didn't show it. “Shall the two of us get down to work so you and your kids can get out of here?” She paused, realizing that her words hadn't come out right. Well, they'd come out right, she just wished they'd stayed in her head where she'd meant for them to. “It's Saturday. I'm sure you all would much rather be somewhere else than cooped up in my little old place.” She cleaned it up.
“Can I whip my kids up something to eat first? They'll play better and not bother us on full stomachs.”
“Well, I'm not sure what I might have that the children would like,” Lorain thought, kicking herself for not buying snacks to keep the children settled. “I don't do much grocery shopping with it just being me here and all.”
“Child, don't even worry,” Unique said as she began scrambling through the refrigerator. “I'm a single mom, which means I'm sure I've made miracles out of less. Food stamps don't stretch as far as a person might think.”
Lorain couldn't believe how open Unique had just been in her admittance of being on food stamps. Although Lorain had never been on them herself, she was certain public assistance was a thing of embarrassment, not something to be proud about, or even to tell people about for that matter.
Lorain had been fortunate as a child. Even though her mother and father divorced when she was only ten, leaving her mother to raise her as a single parent, her father paid child support and alimony, which prevented them from having to seek any type of public assistance. Lorain's father even had her on his insurance plan, so they never even had to seek as much as a health card.
A few minutes after Unique had gone through Lorain's fridge, freezer, and cupboards, she'd created her children a concoction that even wet Lorain's taste buds. Lorain watched as Unique served her children plates that had two layers of toast. In between the slices of toast, Unique had spread some spaghetti sauce. She'd somehow managed to split the little bit of mozzarella cheese Lorain had left in her fridge amongst the three children so that it melted between the toast. On top, she'd spread another layer of sauce, sprinkled parmesan cheese on it, and topped that with mushrooms she'd taken from a can that Lorain had in her cupboard.
“Thank you, Mommy. This looks delicious,” the oldest child said after Unique sat the plates in front of the children.
“Thank you, honey. Now join hands and bless the food,” Unique ordered.
Lorain thought that Unique would stand there and lead the children in prayer, but that wasn't the case. She made her way over to the bar, sitting down in front of her notebook and pen, while her eldest child led his younger siblings in prayer. Lorain was absolutely beside herself. Unique, of all people, was actually training up her children in the way that they should go. Who would have thought it?
“So you ready to do this?” Unique asked Lorain.
“Oh, uh, yes. Let's get down to business, but first, we should open in prayer too.”
The women closed their eyes and joined hands. Unique was about to open her mouth to begin praying, but Lorain jumped right in and led them in prayer. For the next hour or so, Lorain led everything else too, while Unique listened.
“Well, I've covered everything on the agenda.” Lorain yawned after about an hour or so. “So I guess we can call it a day.”
Lorain was beat. It seemed like she had been going non-stop covering different issues regarding the Single's Ministry. She'd covered a couple of things she wanted to change with the by-laws. She'd covered fundraising ideas. She'd covered Single's events and activities. Now that she thought about it, she'd done everything. But what could she say? In all honesty, she hadn't expected much out of Unique anyway.
Unique tidied the kitchen back up, washing anything she had soiled in preparing her children a snack. After the children had finished eating, Unique had given each of them a cup of water. She washed the cups too. She had the children put all the crayons back in the box and stack their coloring books up nice and neat.
“You guys can take the coloring books with you if you'd like,” Lorain told the boys.
“No, we want to keep them here for when we come back the next time,” the five-year-old told Lorain. Lorain was hoping that there wouldn't have to be a next time. “It's fun here. And the food is good.” He smiled.
Lorain returned the smile, kicking herself for her most recent thought. Lorain led her guests back to their shoes and jackets. Once everyone was situated, she locked up behind them and drove them home.
“Hold on for a minute while I go in the house and get something,” Unique said when Lorain parked her car in the driveway of their home. Unique unbuckled her children's seatbelts, got them out of the car, and then went into the house.
Lorain tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she waited for Unique to return. She couldn't imagine what she had to go in and retrieve. A few seconds later her curiosity was answered.
Unique walked up to the driver's side of Lorain's car. Lorain had already traded the crack for an all out rolled down window.
“Here you go,” Unique said as she held out her hand.
Lorain could tell something was in it, she just couldn't tell what it was. Reluctantly, she held out her hand to accept whatever Unique was offering.
“There's some gas money for you. Thanks for the ride. See you at church tomorrowâ
sista
.” On that note, Unique walked away, leaving the ten dollar bill, the last bit of money she had to her name, in Lorain's hand. She'd sensed back at the McDonald's drive-thru that Lorain felt she was running game on her about leaving her wallet and money. She wanted to show her just how wrong she was.