Miz Ida’s heart almost burst with pride. “Glory to God, girl, you spoke truth to that woman!”
She could hear the smile in Michelle’s voice. “We spent time talking to her, Miz Ida and praying for her. It just seemed that Mrs. Judson had a wall or a guard up that she would never let down.”
“Give her time, Michelle. She needs time to explore, and she needs time to make her own choice. The Lord gives us all that freedom. We get freedom to make a choice.”
“Well, by the time we got out of there, it was so late. I thought I had missed Todd and that it was over, Miz Ida. I kept thinking that he was never going to trust or forgive me again. But you know what?”
Miz Ida smiled now. “What?”
“When we came out of Mrs. Judson’s office, there he was. With all that me, Tonya, and Mrs. Judson had just been through, Todd still made me feel safe, he made me smile. Todd and me were supposed to meet downstairs outside the building. When I didn’t show, he said he thought I was standing him up. He thought about leaving, but instead he found someone who directed him upstairs. When we left Mrs. Judson, I found Todd sitting right there at my desk.”
“Bless his sweet heart.”
“Miz Ida, I don’t think I was ever happier to see him. He put his arms around me, and I just felt like I was home. All the worries, cares, and heartaches just seemed to float away. We had a good talk on the way home—not as long as we would have liked, but I’m still grateful that he was there.”
“God is good, child. God is good.”
They went on for a few more minutes talking about the goodness of the Lord. They talked about His mercy and His compassion and His willingness to heal. They talked about how good it was to abide in the arms of the Lord. Miz Ida and Michelle talked until their eyelids got heavy and then they said goodnight.
Just before she closed her eyes, Miz Ida whispered to her old friend. “Lord, You are a miracle worker. Look what You have done for Michelle. Not only is she able to stand on her own, but now You’ve given her a heart to reach out and help somebody else. Nobody could do that but You, Lord.”
Miz Ida switched off the lamp.
“Nobody but You.”
O
n Monday morning at the office, Michelle turned on her radio and grabbed the first empty box off the stack near her desk. She looked around the pit, then at the elevators and saw Shadrach and Tonya talking. Michelle began to remove items from her desk and pack them in the box.
When Tonya arrived at her own desk, she looked at Michelle, and then at the clock. She waved at Michelle and pantomimed to her,
What are you doing here so early?
She dropped her things on her desk and crossed the room to see her friend.
“You’re here awfully early. What’s going on, Michelle?” Tonya pointed at the boxes. Then she smiled. “I’m sorry. Good morning.”
Michelle smiled so big she thought her face might split. “It’s moving day.”
“Where are you moving? I mean, what’s going on? Mrs. Judson said that everything is okay.”
Michelle still couldn’t stop smiling. “Mrs. Judson is wrong. Everything is
better
than okay.” As Michelle talked, she looked toward the doorway and saw Mrs. Judson coming in wearing dark shades. She looked at the two of them, started toward her office, and then turned back. When she got to Michelle’s desk, she removed her glasses. She looked surprised.
“Michelle, what are you doing? Are you switching desks?”
“No, Mrs. Judson.”
“I can see clearly that you’re packing.”
Now, Michelle was actually grinning. “Yes, Mrs. Judson.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going home, Mrs. Judson. I’m moving back home with my husband.”
Tonya laughed out loud. “Hallelujah! Mercy, mercy, me! You go on, girl. Work it, my sister!”
“Well, you don’t need to take all these things to your home.”
“I’m done here, Mrs. Judson. Last night could have been the last for me. So I decided for myself that today would be the day.”
Mrs. Judson looked disturbed. “Are you quitting? Just like that? Don’t you want the job or the promotion? You’ve been working all these months for a promotion.”
Michelle continued smiling. “I changed my mind. This job never suited me, Mrs. Judson, and I never suited this job. I changed my mind.”
Mrs. Judson’s face looked drawn, but she regained her composure. “Well, certainly, it’s your choice. Some women aren’t meant to work.”
It was all Michelle could do not to giggle. “Mrs. Judson, you’re right. Some women aren’t meant to work. But
this
woman is going back to school. I’m blessed with a husband who loves me and wants to provide for me.” She dropped items into her box with a flourish. “I may have to tighten my belt a little, but I got all the stuff right now that I can use. Mrs. Judson, I’m going to take my time, enjoy my schooling and find the job I really want—
if
I decide I want a job. I’m a blessed woman to even have that choice.”
“You’re right, Michelle. It’s your choice.” Mrs. Judson walked away.
Michelle watched her until she entered her office. “I’m going to do the Miz Ida on Mrs. Judson. If I can pray to move a mountain, I can pray to heal her broken heart.”
Tonya nodded. “Amen. Praise the Lord!”
Michelle nodded at her friend. “So, what about you, Tonya?”
“It won’t be the same without you.”
Michelle smiled mischievously. “You won’t have any reason to watch the clock.”
“Oh, girl.”
“I’m just teasing you, Tonya.”
“Who is going to watch
me,
Michelle, and make sure I keep up my hair and clothes?”
Michelle laughed out loud. “Shadrach!”
“Just rub it in, Michelle. Make me squirm. No matter what you say, I’m more than happy for you, but it won’t be the same without you. But I plan to stay—
if,
that is, Mrs. Judson gives me the promotion that I’m due
now
. We can negotiate increments to get my back pay, but we will be negotiating!” Tonya’s nod was firm and confident. “I have a son to send to college.”
“Good for you. That promotion is long overdue.” Michelle looked at her friend. “But what about Shad?”
Tonya blushed and smiled. “We still have a lot to learn about each other. He might be a little uncomfortable at first about a sister getting paid, but we’re going to take our time and let the Holy Ghost work it out.” Tonya touched the flap of the box that Michelle was packing. “I really am going to miss you.”
“I don’t think so. I plan on coming to see you, you coming to see me, and Todd and I meeting that son of yours. Maybe you and Shad and me and Todd can go out sometime.” Michelle’s grin was back. “Oh, no. It’s going to be pretty hard for you to miss me.”
Tonya looked across the room to Michelle’s desk. Funny, but not long ago she could not have imagined being sorry to see Michelle go. She could not have imagined calling the woman “friend.”
She opened her desk drawer, where there was a folded piece of paper—Malik’s letter. He had been right, and so had Michelle: she had needed a life.
Tonya touched the note affectionately and then moved it to the side. She lifted out the folders she needed and laid them on the desktop as she glanced in the mirror in the drawer. She touched her hair. The bun was dead! No doubt about it, it was a new day!
Malik helped her on the journey, but as painful as the interactions had been, without Michelle, most likely she would still be a team leader instead of the supervisor she was about to become as soon as she had her meeting with Mrs. Judson.
Of course she had to give credit where credit was due. Tonya looked toward the bank of elevators. Shadrach had helped them pull it all together. He was a good man. Tonya giggled to herself.
He’s my man!
She opened the top folder to begin preparing for her meeting.
Thank You, God.
No doubt about it—it was a brighter day!
Mrs. Judson stared out of the window of her office. Everything in her life seemed to be crashing in around her. Carl was gone and she could feel all that she had built slipping through her fingers. She recalled the night it all begin to slip away as though she was still living it . . .
There was no way Delores was going to let this happen. She ran from the small room where she and her husband usually sat—where they could just sit in peace before all the trouble. Delores ran to the stairs. She would block Claudia. She wouldn’t let her granddaughter come down the stairs. She stood there, moving from side to side to block the stairway.
While she stood at the foot of the stairs, she could hear Carl in the bedroom packing. She left the stairs and ran to their bedroom. “Carl, what do you think you’re doing? Stop it, Carl. I want you to stop it, now.” Delores planted herself in front of the chifforobe to try and stop her husband’s progress.
He began to grab things from the dresser drawers. “Delores, you’re being ridiculous.”
“Can’t you see that this is all her fault? Everything that has happened to us was and is her fault.”
Carl didn’t answer, he simply continued packing.
“She had it planned all along to break us up. She doesn’t have a family, so she wanted to break us up.”
“Claudia is a child. She didn’t break us up, Delores. We broke us up. I’m not leaving because I don’t love you, Delores. I’m leaving because I have to save her.”
“Can’t you see that it’s killing me?”
Carl stopped and held up his hands. They were full of socks and underwear from his wooden chest. “I don’t know what else to do. I shouldn’t have to choose between my wife and my grandchild. We both should be protecting her. You can’t do it, so I have to.” He resumed packing.
“You’re choosing her over our son. You’re choosing Claudia over Carl Jr. Who are you going to believe? If people find out, even if he’s acquitted, his career is over. And what about us? What about the firm? Don’t you see that this is going to tear us apart?”
Carl stood up and walked to her. He laid his hands on her shoulders. “Can’t you see, Delores? If we have to lie to save who we are supposed to be, then the truth was never in us. If we have to sacrifice a child—or two children—to hold our nice little world together then it isn’t a world worth saving.”
“Who are you trying to fool, Carl? You’re not strong enough to survive on your own. You’ll be crawling back. When you come back, don’t bring that teenaged monster with you.”
“Don’t make me lose respect for you before I go, Delores. I want to leave here feeling that there may be some slight chance that you may be right. Don’t make me lose that hope before I go. Let me leave feeling that you didn’t tell me and that you didn’t do anything when you found out about Carl Jr. because you were just too weak—you just didn’t have the heart. Leave me with something, Delores.”
“Carl, you’re ruining our lives. You said you loved me.”
Carl looked very sad then. “I don’t want to go, Delores. I don’t know what else to do.”
Within an hour Carl and Claudia were packed. It was raining outside. The asphalt on the drive was wet and almost shiny so that it softly reflected light from the lamps along the walk. Delores watched them leave through the raindrops on the upstairs front window. The two of them rolled six suitcases from the house and stuffed them in the trunk and back seat of a waiting car. Claudia looked even smaller in her dark coat; the rain plastered her hair against her head. Carl looked harried and beaten.
He would call her later, he said, when he and Claudia were settled.
Delores waited for the call to come. It came not long after midnight. It was the call she did not want to hear. She heard the sound that she had always feared she would hear in her son’s voice. My uncle is the father. He was at the police station, Carl Jr. said. How could his niece make up a wild story like this? After all he had done for her.
Delores knew, when she heard his voice, that it was true—what Claudia said was true. Delores had been right about the sound in her son’s voice all along. The sound gave it all away. It cut just as deeply as she knew it would . . .
Delores had not been right about other things. She still loved her son after she knew for certain what he had done. Delores still put her arms around her only son when he was released on bail to come home. It cut more deeply than she thought it would.
Miz Ida watered her flowers and then headed out to visit baby José. It had been a good morning already. Michelle had called with good news: she and Todd were working things out. She was moving back home and applying to schools. Tonya had gotten her promotion and Shadrach, Tonya, and her son Malik were spending more time together. “Looks like it’s getting deep,” Michelle said. She really wasn’t sure about Mrs. Judson. “She still has that wall up. No one can see in or see over.”
Just before she hung up, Michelle’s voice had turned shy. She sounded like a little girl.
“Miz Ida, thank you. Thank you for all the prayers and love you planted in me. You made the difference in my life, and in my mother’s life. You loved me and you didn’t judge me. No matter how ugly I acted you forgave me. It’s been the same way with Todd. You’re right, Miz Ida, God keeps showing me His love through all the people in my life. All of you have been loving and kind and forgiving. And I’ve been thinking, Miz Ida, much is required of those to whom much is given. I can’t learn to love and forgive others and not let that blessing begin at home. If you pray for me, Miz Ida, I’m going to call Cassie—I’m going to call my momma.”
The seasons were changing again. Miz Ida stood near a sign and next to a bench full of people waiting for the bus to come. A young man caught her attention and motioned to her, offering her his seat. Miz Ida sat down and smiled. It was so unusual to see a young man offer his seat. When people commented on how rude young people were, though, she always said the young just didn’t know how to be good when no one took the time to teach them. It was good to see a young man so kind.
“Thank you, young man.”