Homecoming Weekend (23 page)

“Lynette, how are you? You might not remember me,” he said.

She looked at him for a second. “Oh, my goodness,” she said, moving in for a hug. “How are you? What's your name?”

“I'm Jesse. It's been a long time,” he answered. “You look good. Look like life is treating you well.”

“It is,” she said. “I live in Connecticut now. It's cold in the winter, but I enjoy it.”

Jesse's mind started to race. She did not have on a wedding ring and she was alone. He wanted to get Lynette back to his hotel room. If she was anything like she was at nineteen, he was in for a good night. And she would be good for Don, who was not quite himself. Jesse noticed but had not said anything to him about it.

“So what you up to now?” he asked. “I'm with my man over there, Don. We're talking about going to the all-black party. But we'll probably go to the room and have some drinks first. You're welcome to join us.”

“Oh, that's sweet of you; I appreciate the offer,” she said. “But I gave up drinking a long time ago. I'm actually going to catch the end of a prayer service at my friend's church somewhere over in Ghent.”

“A prayer service? Really?” Jesse said. He was confounded. He did not expect to hear that come out of her mouth.

“Yes, I turned my life over to Christ about two years after graduating from Norfolk State,” she said. “It has been the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Earlier this year I was named assistant pastor at my church in Norwalk. God is good.”

Instantly, Jesse felt a level of guilt. He was about to proposition one of God's spokespersons.

“That's awesome,” he said as Don walked up. “Don, this is Lynette. She was at school during our time.”

“Oh, I remember you,” he said. “I didn't know you, but you're kind of hard to forget.”

Lynette smiled, but was not sure if he was paying a compliment or referring to her notorious drunken sex binges. They chatted for another minute or so before she said her good-byes and walked off. Don and Jesse stood there admiring her substantial ass.

“That's the girl I told you about one time; who came to the house and did four, five guys,” Jesse said.

“That's her? Get the fuck outta here?” Don said. “Well, I mean, what's up? Why did we let her get away?”

“Man, you won't believe this,” Jesse explained. “She's saved. Not only is she saved, but she said she's an assistant pastor at her church in Connecticut. And—get this: She's going to catch the end of a prayer session somewhere right now.”

“Well, damn,” Don said. “That's two of Jesus' folks we ran into in, like, ten minutes. Maybe He's trying to tell us something.”

“Yeah, like it's time to start drinking again,” Jesse said.

“I'll drink to that,” Don said, and off they went to the ABC Store.

“Virginia still has these backward-ass liquor laws,” Don said. “How you gonna have a liquor store where you can't by beer and wine? And how they gonna make you finish your drinks by two a.m. but your club stays open to four? That's some dumb shit.”

“It's because it's a Commonwealth state,” Jesse said. “But I'm told they are breaking away from this ABC crap and allowing private citizens to get liquor licenses and open up independent liquor stores. And guess what? All the allotted licenses were purchased in a heartbeat.”

“Shit, I wish I had opened a liquor store,” Don said. “Good times or bad times, people will drink. I go and open a neighborhood convenience store . . . It's hard to survive, man. Wal-Mart in particular is the everything store. And our people, well, I love us, but I guess I don't understand us. They'd rather drive ten minutes away to shop at Wal-Mart over walking to the corner to support a black-owned business in their own neighborhood. It makes me sad, to be honest.”

“I hear you,” Jesse said. “Is that's what's on your mind? You've been having a good time. But you do seem a little preoccupied at times.”

“Yeah, well, I'm waiting on a call from my accountant. It should come today or tomorrow,” Don said. “I need an investor or my days are numbered. Probably have to go back to stinky-ass corporate America.”

“Well, D, let's hope for the best, man,” Jesse said. “We're about to do the right thing: Get drunk to get your mind off the situation.”

And they did just that. Don slowly drove as Jesse poured Remy Martin. They sipped and talked and wanted to light up a joint, but didn't want to smell like it at the party. Before long, the effects of the cognac started to kick in.

Jesse said, “Do you know it's actually safer for us to smoke weed and drive than it is for us to drink and drive?”

“Ah, shit, here we go,” Don said.

“I'm serious,” Jesse went on. “There was a study that recently came out. People who drink and drive are three hundred and eighty-five times more likely to have a fatal car accident than those who are sober. At the same time, a study for nineteen years in the sixteen states that have legalized marijuana shows a nine percent drop in traffic deaths.

“And you know why? Because people who are drunk think they are Superman or Wonder Woman. They take more risks. Weed smokers take it easy, drive slower and know when they are too messed up to drive.”

“You might have a problem, knowing all this stuff,” Don said.

“No, man, I read this online,” Jesse said. “The University of Colorado did the study. I'm just telling you what I read. But it does make sense, doesn't it?”

“Yeah, it does,” Don said. ”And since it does, maybe I should stop drinking until we get to where we're going.”

“Good idea, homey,” Jesse said. “Don't mind if I keep drinking, do you?”

“You're funny,” Don said.

With the liquor loosening his tongue, Jesse talked and talked. “You know, sometimes I drink just to be social,” he said. “This is one of those times I'm drinking to be social and to escape my life.”

“I'm the one with problems,” Don said. “If I don't get the call I need to get, I'm out of business. You're a lawyer in Philly, making good bank—and you're single. Trust me, don't look at not being married as a problem.”

“Nah, it's not that. I do miss the good days of marriage—all five of them,” he said, laughing. “But I'm worried about my little
sister. She got caught up with this guy that from the moment I saw him, I thought, ‘He's not right.' I told her that and I told
him
that. About eight months later, she marries this guy. Comes home talking about they eloped. Who elopes these days? It was his idea because he knew I would have talked her out of that dumb shit.

“Come to find out, he's a damn drug dealer. I knew it. He was too flashy and did a whole bunch of stuttering when I asked him what he did. To his credit, he didn't lie. He said, ‘I have my own thing, my own business.'

“My sister played the naïve role, claiming she didn't know. Now she's with this guy afraid to leave because he's crazy as hell,” Jesse said. “I'm feeling like I want to shoot the guy—if I could get away with it.”

“Well, sometimes you hear stuff to make you feel better about your shit,” Don said.

“What's going on with you?” Jesse asked.

Don took a deep breath. “I came here for one reason: to get away from all the bad stuff at home,” he said. “Business falling apart. Marriage falling apart. This is about the only place I could think of where I could go and feel energized. Homecoming. Any place else, I'd probably ball up in the fetal position and crawl under a desk.”

“Man, you need drinks more than I do,” Jesse said. “I'm sorry to hear about that. But just as you said, there is always someone worse off than you. And if there's one thing I know about you, you will overcome—damn, I sound like Martin Luther King. But I'm serious. You're a fighter. And anything I can do to help, I will. Just let me know.”

Don looked over at his friend. “I appreciate that, man.”

Jesse nodded his head. At that moment his mission was to assure Don had so much fun that he went back home feeling
better about his plight, even if the circumstances looked grim.

Just before they arrived at the Holiday Inn for the party, Venita called. Her niece had gone to the bathroom, so she took a few minutes to catch up with her boys.

“Are your panties still on?” Jesse said as he answered the phone.

“Shut up, boy,” she said. “What's happening?”

“We're about to go to the party. We just got here,” Jesse said. “What you gonna do?”

“I might come over there with my niece, Diamond.”

“Oh, yeah, the pole dancer. How is she?” Jesse said.

“If I didn't know you were a lawyer, I would think you're an idiot,” she said. “As a matter of fact, you're an idiot lawyer . . . Anyway, her roommate is pregnant and hasn't talked to anyone about it, so I'm hoping to do that tonight.”

“You?” Jesse asked.

“Look, I'm not even studying you,” she said. “Just text me and let me know how it is.”

“All right, baby girl.”

“I guess Venita isn't coming, huh?” Don asked as he parked the car in the back of the hotel. “I wanted to see this niece of hers. She said she's cute.”

“In the meantime, take a shot of this Remy,” Jesse said.

“Make it a double,” Don said.

They sat in the car for about twenty minutes, drinking and watching more people—mostly women—go into the party.

By the time they decided to put down the cognac and, indeed, enter the event, they were more tipsy than they realized.

“I guess this is what it feels like after—how many?—six shots of Remy Martin?” Don said.

A cool breeze provided some relief as they made their way from the car to the entrance. The alcohol, though, was in control.
Don's problems were pushed to the recesses of his mind. Jesse was on the prowl for someone to connect with so he could look to close the deal Saturday night.

“That's what tonight is about,” he said to Don as they stood in the lobby, checking out the scene, but mostly eyeballing the women. “Meet someone and tomorrow night, go in for the kill. There are enough women who come back here with the same mentality. What happens at homecoming stays at homecoming.”

“I'm down with that,” Don said. “I just need something to happen to leave here.”

Jesse did not hear Don. He was focused on Collette Simpson-Washington with whom he'd had a sexual tryst when they were juniors. As sensual and memorable as it was, there was a problem. There were at least a dozen other guys who had the same kind of sexual tryst with Collette.

“You gotta remember her,” Jesse said after he and Collette hugged and chatted for a minute or two. She was with a girlfriend that neither he nor Don knew.

“I'm surprised she's here after what happened three years ago at homecoming,” Jesse said.

“Was I here? What happened?” Don said.

“You were here, but you had your wife with you that year,” Jesse said.

“Oh, don't remind me,” Don said. “I couldn't do anything. I felt like I was in prison . . . But what happened with her? And why didn't you tell me about it then?”

“Man, I forgot,” Jesse said. “But check this out: So, back in college, Collette had this boyfriend as a freshman and sophomore. He wore a high-top fade and she always wore dresses, like she was this Southern belle. She's from Tennessee, I believe.

“Anyway, they broke up and I'm not sure what happened, but
she was like a dude. She was getting it in, one guy after another. She had to have slept with at least ten to fifteen guys—or more—in her last two years. It was interesting because she and I were always cool. We were in the bowling league together and just made a connection.

“She would basically say stuff like, ‘I'm just having fun. If men can do it, why can't women?' I'm not sure if she was trying to defy stereotypes or was just some little freak. But with how she looked and with that body, who was going to refuse a chance to get with her? We were so cool that I would tell her who she shouldn't mess with.

“Anyway, she graduates and no one sees her for years. Then she pops up at homecoming three years ago—with her new husband, who was some guy who didn't go to Norfolk State and who had no idea about how she was in college. Not good. So, the way the tailgate was set up then, she had to walk past the Omegas, the Kappas and then the Alphas. She had slept with at least one or two guys in all those frats. These fools were drunk and when they saw her, one by one, they brought up her past.

“Saying, stuff like, ‘Collette, are you still easy to get?'

“Cruel, ignorant stuff by some ignorant, drunk guys. By the time I saw her, she had passed all those groups. She had a look on her face that told me she was humiliated. She looked at me with a look that said, ‘Please do not embarrass me any further.'

“I picked right up on it. I hugged her and was like, ‘So good to see you.' She introduced me to her husband and I smiled at him, shook his hand. I even gave him the two-handed shake, like the President does when he's really trying to make a connection.

“Dude looked at me like he had been through hell. He was waiting for me to say something; he had his fist balled up. I believe that if I had said something he would have swung on me. He had had enough. He learned that his wife was not who he
thought she was. It wasn't pretty. I didn't see her the rest of homecoming; they didn't even come to the parties.”

“I don't think she has on a wedding ring,” Don said. “That's terrible. I hope what happened here didn't ruin her marriage.”

“I wouldn't be surprised if it did,” Jesse said. “It was that bad.”

The party was not bad at all. It fact, it was good. Something about homecoming put everyone is such high spirits.

“And,” Jesse said, “you can start a conversation so easily because socializing is what this whole weekend is about. You have an easy entrée into a conversation because you went to the same school.”