Chapter 19
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
âMicah 1:16
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Z
achary gathered Gabrielle by her shoulders after they stepped out of Jasmine's room. Gabrielle almost doubled over, but he held her up. “You okay?”
Gabrielle nodded. Zachary wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they made their way to the elevators. Gabrielle placed her hand over her mouth. She wasn't sure if she didn't clamp her mouth whether the loud cry she was holding in would escape. Zachary kept her close as they rode down. She stepped out of his arm when the elevator stopped and they got off.
Most of the way back to her house, she and Zachary were silent. Zachary had tried twice to strike up some form of talk, but must have quickly figured out that she wasn't in a place to talk right now. So he stopped trying.
“I'm okay,” she finally said when Zachary parked his car in her driveway. “You don't need to come in.”
Zachary turned off the engine, opened his door, and got out. Walking around to her side, he opened her car door and held out his hand. Gabrielle placed her hand in his and got out. Zachary held on to her hand as they walked to the front door of her house.
“Seriously,” Gabrielle said as she took out her keys. “You don't have to stay. I'm fine. Really I am.”
Zachary quietly took the keys from her trembling hand and opened the front door. Standing back, he allowed her to go in. Inside, she flipped on the light switch. He handed her back her keys, then closed the door.
“Thank you,” she said barely above a whisper. “And thanks for going to the hospital with me.” Gabrielle forced a smile, but couldn't sustain it as the corners of her mouth began to tremble.
Zachary looked at her with such loving kindness. He then pulled her into his arms and hugged her.
“I'm all right,” she said, trying to break free from his secure embrace. “Really, I am.” And before she knew anything or could stop herself, she was crying. “She's so sick,” she said between her sobs. “Did you see how sick she is? She's not going to make it too much longer, not in that condition. But she's so beautiful in spite of how sick she is. My goodness, she's beautiful inside and out. And she's smart.” Gabrielle cried even more. “Zachary, what am I going to do? Tell me: What do I do to help her? What?”
Zachary walked her to the den and eased her down onto the couch as they remained locked together. He simply held her as she cried. And after she calmed down, she touched the spot where her face had rested on him. “Look at your shirt. I got you all wet. There's a wet spot there now.”
Zachary didn't even look down. He kept his eyes locked on hers. “It's okay. I have plenty of shirts.” He touched Gabrielle's hair. “You are so beautiful. And caring. And smart.”
Gabrielle primped her lips, then pressed them tight. “You were so wonderful with her tonight. I think she likes you.”
“And I like her.” He continued to pick up sections of Gabrielle's hair and let it fall, just to watch it fall it seemed.
“I'm not sure she likes me all that much,” Gabrielle said. “I suppose I was more in shock than I knew I'd be. I couldn't believe I was standing there looking at a baby I actually carried for nine months, so grown up. Well, not grown up, but she's almost nine. And did you notice how tall she is already. If she keeps on at this pace, she's going to be tall enough to be a model. She's certainly beautiful enoughâ”
Zachary placed his finger on Gabrielle's lips and smiled. “You were fine, Gabrielle. She likes you. She does. I could tell that she does. It's just: I was the only male in the room, so there was no fear of competition to be had.”
“Competition? What do you mean by that? There's no reason for competition. Jasmine doesn't have a clue who I am to her.”
“Well, I happen to know that sometimes when women are around each other, there's a tiny bit of silent competition going on, whether they realize it or not.”
Gabrielle shook her head and primped her mouth again. “Well, there's not.”
“It's nothing bad. Okay, it's like this. Jasmine knew her mother was there. Then there you were, this beautiful woman she'd never met, walking into the room. Now, she wasn't consciously thinking about it in these terms, but
unconsciously
she was aware that if she gave you too much attention in a positive way, it
might
. . . keep in mind I said âmight,' have made her mother feel a little jealous.”
“Oh, that's malarkey! The child is just eight years old. She's still innocent.”
“Malarkey? Wow, that's a strong rebuke right there. I wasn't meaning anything by my statement except to say on an unconscious level, Jasmine didn't want her mother to think she was giving you more attention and love than her. That's all I'm saying here. She wasn't
consciously
thinking that.”
Gabrielle turned her body more toward Zachary. “Oh, and the way you called her Miss Jazz . . . she loved it. That was so precious!”
Zachary reached his hands in his pockets, pulled his hands out as fists, and crossed them. “Alabama hit the hammer, high or low. If you pick the right one, you may go.”
Gabrielle grinned, then tapped his right hand. He opened his hand and another green hard piece of candy was there. Gabrielle snatched it up, then quickly tapped his other fist.
“What?” Zachary said.
“Open that one,” Gabrielle said with a grin.
“Why? You already picked the right one.”
“Open it,” she insisted.
He opened his left fist and began to laugh.
“You are such a cheater! Just like Jasmine said you were,” Gabrielle said.
“No. Not a cheater. But I'm not beneath rigging the system a bit to put a smile on a beautiful face every now and then.”
“That was so right tonight. How do you know that game?”
Zachary grinned. “Aunt Esther.” He was referring to his aunt Esther Crowe.
“Miss Crowe taught you?” Just the thought of the woman who taught her to dance and showed her unconditional love when she felt all by herself, the woman she'd just only recently been reunited with, the woman she'd learned was aunt to the man she was now courting, brought a smile to Gabrielle's face.
Zachary chuckled a little. “Well, I don't know if I'd say she actually taught me. But she would have me and my other siblings sit on the steps and play that game with us. The first one to reach the top by picking the correct hand more times than the others was the winner. I guess you can say that even though it was a tame game that girls were likely to enjoy more than boysâ”
Gabrielle hit him softly. “Zachary! That's sexist.”
He laughed. “No, it's not. It's true. Boys like contact sports. Sitting on some steps with someone holding out two fists while singing a song, then telling you if you pick the right one you may go, is not exactly a true contact sport. But as I was
about
to say before I was so
rudely
interrupted: Even though it was a tame game, I enjoyed the principle behind it. If you choose right, you get to move up. If you choose wrong, you stay where you are until it's your turn again and you get to choose again. If you continue choosing correctly, you have a chance of winning in the end.”
Gabrielle opened one of the candies she now held and put the green piece of hard candy in her mouth. She put the other one on the coffee table. “I saw you placing your hand on her wrist. You were checking her pulse, weren't you?”
Zachary nodded. “Yes. I was trying to see how she was doing. Her pulse is weakening, that's for sure.” He forced a smile. “I'm going to put in some calls tomorrow to see what I can do to help. We're not going down without a fight. And I'm also going to be tested to see if I might be a match for her. You never know until you try.”
Tears welled up in Gabrielle's eyes.
“Now don't you start crying on me again. I'm not telling you this to have you crying on me. I just want you to know you're not in this alone. Jasmine's not in this alone. And whatever you need from me, I'm here for you, Gabrielle. Do you understand me? I'm not going anywhere I don't care how much you insist you're okay. And I'm not going to let you do this all by yourself. It's me and you, kid.” Zachary said that last line like a line in a movie she couldn't recall.
She leaned over and lay inside of his open arm that rested on the top of the couch. He then wrapped both his arms around her and squeezed her even closer.
“You're really the greatest, do you know that?” Gabrielle said.
“I don't know about the greatest . . .” he teased. “But far be it from me to stop you when you're on a roll.”
She popped her head up and looked at him.
“What?” he said. “What did I do?”
“I know what you can do to help me . . . to help Jasmine!”
“What? Name it and, if it's in my power to do it, it's done.”
“Okay, but I need you to hear me out completely.” Gabrielle readjusted her body better. “I've been trying to get back in contact with Lawrence. I haven't heard back from him. And even though it hasn't been long since I told him, we really don't have time to waste. Well, even now, his little snarky secretary keeps putting me off. I suppose Lawrence hasn't told her that I could bring him down or at least cause him some major problems if I want to. Anyway, when I call, she won't give me an appointment to see him, and even though I leave my name and number, I have a feeling she doesn't pass my messages along.”
“Okay,” Zachary said.
Gabrielle smiled. “So, what I was thinking is you could call and make an appointment. I bet she will schedule
you
to see him.”
“Especially if I use the name Dr. Morgan and she thinks I'm interested in donating some big cash to his campaign.”
Gabrielle's smile got even bigger. “You would do that for me and Jasmine?”
“Are you kidding? Woman, I would go sit in his office early in the morning and wait on him, for you.”
Gabrielle leaned over and kissed him lightly on his lips.
Zachary began to nod as he looked into Gabrielle's eyes. “I would go down there early in the morning and sit there all day long if I have to, for you and Jasmine.”
Gabrielle gave him another kiss on the lips.
“You know I would take a lunch with me and a sleeping bag and stay all night waiting for him, for yâ”
“Okay, Zachary, I get it,” Gabrielle said with a humongous grin. She kissed him again, but this time, it was a
real
kiss.
“I love you,” he said. “I do.”
“I know. And I love you,” she said.
Chapter 20
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
âAmos 5:13
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ndrew looked up as his father-in-law made his way to the table at the restaurant.
Lawrence sat down. “Thank you for meeting me here.”
“No problem. Although it's not often you take me out to eat.”
“I needed somewhere we could go and talk without worrying about anybody listening in.”
“And a public restaurant is the place you thought was best for that?” Andrew said with a chuckling laugh behind his words.
“This restaurant is the perfect place. I come here often when I want to discuss certain things and not be interrupted.”
“So, I suppose you're upset about Paris and what happened with us the other night,” Andrew said, leaning in slightly.
“Oh, I don't care about your and Paris's little tiffs. All married couples have them. But you know how Paris is. I tried to tell you that before you two got married. She's a bit âhigh-maintenance, ' as her mother likes to politely put it. I just call her a spoiled brat. But”âLawrence held up his index fingerâ“she's
my
spoiled brat. And I don't want her mistreated or being deliberately hurt by
any
one in any way, and that includes by her husband.”
Andrew nodded. “Well, I can assure you, I was at as much of a loss for what was going on as you and Deidra were. I left to get us something to eat, and when I came back, she was gone. The car was still in the garage, but she was nowhere to be found. I phoned her friends; they all said they hadn't seen or talked to her in the past few hours. I called you and Deidra, but your phones went straight to voice mail, which with you, was a shocker, since you generally keep your cell phone on at all times.”
Lawrence sat back against his cushioned seat. “That was mostly Deidra's doing. I wanted to give her a night out and her stipulation to go was that we had to turn off our phones completely.”
“It was okay,” Andrew said. “It was just, I did start to get worried after a few hours when I couldn't find her or anybody to tell me what was going on. I could just see
that
playing out on television. You know how the husband claims he went to do something and upon his return, his wife was missing. Then days roll by, and before you know anything, he's the main suspect or, as the authorities like to put it in the beginning, âa person of interest' in her disappearance. There's no way I could have convinced anyone that I didn't have anything to do with Paris's disappearance had that turned out to be the case.”
“Well, Deidra and I both stressed to Paris to not do anything crazy like that again.”
“I appreciate that. I just hope she listens to you and her mother better than she listens to me.”
A waiter came over to the table and took their orders.
Lawrence sat back in his seat. “Okay. Now what's this about you and some woman named Gabrielle Booker . . . Gabrielle Mercedes, whatever her name is, knowing each other prior to Paris introducing you the other day?”
Andrew laughed. It was a slightly nervous laugh. “Paris told you all that?”
Lawrence nodded. “She did.” Lawrence steepled his fingers and leaned in. “So.”
Andrew rocked his body a little before quickly stilling himself. “I'll tell you like I told your daughter: I don't know what she's talking about. It was like this: She and I go to the cafeteria to get something to eat because Paris hadn't cooked anything at home, so when we got to the hospital she was hungry. She wants to say we were going to get coffee for my friends, but that wasn't it at all. As soon as we walked into the cafeteria, she says she sees someone she thinks she knows and heads straight for this couple. Of course, I tag along behind her. It turns out the woman is someone she knows. Which I must confess was a relief to me, since Paris has been known to march me up and introduce me to an old boyfriend or two as though hearing that they were an item shouldn't bother me. Well, she and this woman used to be roommates or something once.”
“I don't know if I'd call them true roommates,” Lawrence said. “She gave this young woman a place to stay until she could get on her feet and find a place of her own after her folks apparently threw her out on the streets for no good reason and with nowhere else to go. It was a noble gesture on my daughter's part. And if I can be brutally honest here, a complete surprise to both me and her mother when she did it, since Paris has never been known for helping much of anybody out.”
Andrew nodded. The waiter brought their food and began placing everything appropriately, momentarily putting a halt to their conversation.
Lawrence knew Andrew really couldn't argue with him on his assessment of Paris even if he disagreed, which Lawrence knew that he didn't. Andrew had apparently been struck by Paris's beauty and he couldn't see anything else lurking beneath. Lawrence had tried to tell Andrew that beauty was more than what could be found on the surface and that people should always dig deeper. Andrew told him he knew all that he needed to know when it came to Paris and that he loved her unconditionally.
Lawrence has never doubted Andrew's love for his daughter. They'd been together for eight years, married for seven. Lawrence knew that Andrew desperately wanted to have children. From what he could tell, Paris didn't until just recently. And Lawrence wasn't sure whether Paris really wanted children now or if she was saying that to string Andrew along. He knew his daughter. Manipulation and trickery were never beneath her.
“Thanks,” Andrew said to the waiter when he finished.
“Can I get you anything else?” the waiter asked.
“Hot sauce,” Andrew said. “I have to have my hot sauce with my chicken wings.”
The waiter left and returned with a bottle of hot sauce.
“Anything else?” the waiter asked.
“We're good for now,” Lawrence said, essentially dismissing the waiter.
“Thank you,” Andrew said to him. The waiter then left.
Lawrence began to chuckle.
Andrew shook the bottle of hot sauce, then uncapped it and began shaking drops on his wings. “What's so funny?”
“I was just thinking of the stereotype you're helping to perpetrate. Got to have your chicken and, oh, yeah, by the way, my man, would you happen to have some hot sauce in the house.”
Andrew didn't crack a smile. “I personally don't care what folks say
or
think about me. I like what I like, and if other folks don't like it, then it's
their
problem, not mine.” Andrew sat up straighter. “Now, are you saying grace or am I?”
Lawrence smiled, then nodded. “Please. Be my guest.”
Andrew bowed his head and said a quick prayer over their food. He then picked up a wing and began to devour it.
“So finish telling me about this woman . . . Gabrielle whatever her last name is.”
“What's to tell?”
“My daughter believes you two know each other.”
“Your daughter believes a lot of things. It never makes what she believes true.”
“That's true. But you seem to be going to great lengths to give me lawyer responses to direct questions. So typical. Forever trying to be politically correct.”
Andrew laughed. “You're the politician of the family. You're the one willing to sell out at any price if it will get you reelected. Now
that's
typical.”
Lawrence leaned in and took a bite of his meatloaf. He chewed a few times, then swallowed. “I didn't ask you here to discuss me or my reelection efforts. I've heard and duly noted your objections to my reelection tactics. I know you completely disapprove of my switching over to the Republican Party. I know you don't like my pretending to embrace the Tea Party movement. But if this is what I have to do to be able to continue to serve the great folks of Alabama, then that's what I'm willing to do. If you can't find your way to vote for me, as you stated you wouldn't if I did this, then that's your right. But you know what they say: One monkey don't stop no show.”
“Oh, so you're calling me a monkey now? You've been with the Republicans and the Tea Party all of two months, and you're already calling the black man a monkey.”
“See, that's the problem with
you people
.” Lawrence grinned.
Andrew pretended to chuckle. “Oh, a good one: âyou people. ' What's that? Racism One-oh-one. Now it's coming from my own, so I guess you can hide behind the fact that technically you can't be a racist against your own people. Yep. This is going to be an interesting election cycle for sure. And I am so not looking forward to it. I can already see the covert racial attacks. The dog-whistle sound bites that let those who think we don't know the whistle is being blown know that the hunt has begun.”
Lawrence sat back and began to clap softly. “Lawyer One-oh-one mastered beautifully. Bravo, Counselor. Bravo.”
Andrew wiped his hands on a napkin, then grabbed another one and began to wipe his mouth and his hands again. “What do you mean?”
“I know a diversion tactic when I see one. I didn't get this far in politics letting folks spit on me and tell me it's raining.”
“Hey, I'm still eating over here. I can do without the visuals.”
Lawrence nodded, then leaned in. “Now, I'd like a straight answer, if you don't mind. No more clowning around. Did you know Gabrielle Booker . . . Gabrielle Mercedes prior to my daughter introducing you at the hospital cafeteria the other day?”
Andrew's phone started playing a tune. Without even looking to see who it was, Andrew said, “That's your daughter calling me. Now, if I don't answer it, I'm sure she'll be coming to you to tell you something else that she knows
nothing
about. Like right now for instance, when she tells it, she'll be saying she called me and I didn't pick up because I was out with some woman, most likely, and I didn't want to interrupt our time together to answer my phone.”
“Answer your phone,” Lawrence said. “We have time. We're not going anywhere for a while.” Lawrence continued to eat while Andrew talked to Paris.
Andrew placed his phone back in the holder on his belt.
“Is everything okay?” Lawrence asked when Andrew didn't say anything more.
“As you likely heard from my end of the conversation, I told her where I was and with whom. She wants me to bring her some takeout from here.”
“Making sure you're really here, eh?” Lawrence said with a chuckle and a grin.
“I don't know. I just don't understand Paris. I've tried to give her everything her heart desires, but it still doesn't seem to be enough. It's like there's this big hole there and no matter what I do, I can't fill it.”
“Well, I wouldn't stress myself out about it. That's just women for you. If you can figure out how to make them feel special enough days out of the week, and pretend you're listening when they talk, you have ninety percent of the battle won. The other ten percent, I guess you just have to give to God.” Lawrence took a swallow of his soda.
Andrew nodded as he began looking around. “I guess I should order Paris's takeout so it will be ready by the time I'm ready to leave. She asked me to drop it off at the house before I go back to work.” He shook his head.
“Yeah. And I just remembered: I have an appointment my secretary said I didn't need to be late for. It sounds promising. Mattie thinks he could be a big-money donor with the potential to bring in some others from his field.”
Andrew got the waiter's attention, and he made his way over to their table. After Andrew gave him his takeout order, he turned back to Lawrence. “I know you think I'm trying to dodge your question about Paris's old acquaintance, ex-roommate, whatever you and she want to call her. But I'm going to say this to you even though I didn't say it to Paris. I'm really tired of defending myself every time she gets the notion that I'm looking at some woman we pass by on the street, accusing me of either wanting them or knowing them. It's gotten old. I respect you, Lawrence. But honestly, this is between me and my wife. And if you
really
want to go there, Paris thinks you and Gabrielle may have had eyes for each other. So, would you care to tell me about that?”
Lawrence almost choked on the meatloaf he'd just placed in his mouth. He quickly grabbed his soda and began taking swallows to try to clear his passageway.
“Are you okay?”
Lawrence nodded quickly, throwing up his hand to let Andrew know he didn't need him beating on his back. “I'm fine. I'm fine,” he said.
After Andrew saw that Lawrence was really okay, he said, “I guess hearing that didn't go down too well with you, either. Now you know how I feel. You can ask me if I knew Gabrielle prior to seeing her in that hospital cafeteria. And I can ask you what the real deal was between you and your daughter's then eighteen-year-old roommate. You see how this could go if we fall into Paris's little world?”