His First Lady (2 page)

“Sundi?” He seemed surprised. “How can I help you, young lady?”

“Um, um,” Sundi said trying to get it out before holding up the envelope.

Pastor Leon laughed. “Come on in, young lady.”

Sundi walked in to the office slowly, mesmerized at her surroundings. The office was huge with shiny wood furniture; a large wood desk and gigantic stained glass windows. Sundi continued to look around noticing that across the room was a thick white couch and gigantic vases with plants taller than she was. She looked up at the ceiling at the glistening chandelier that hung in the center above a wood table so shiny that she could see her reflection in.

“Wow…” Sundi gasped in amazement.

Pastor Leon laughed as he closed the door. “So, why do I have this pleasure, young lady?”

“Ms. Hattie wanted me to give you this,” Sundi said stretching out her arm and handing him the envelope but she couldn’t stop looking at the comfortable couch.

Pastor Leon noticed. “Feel free to sit on it. It’s feels great, I promise.”

Sundi almost felt as if she shouldn’t sit on the couch since it was so luxurious. It was hard to imagine touching something so wonderful looking without being told that it was for adults only. She wondered if her mom had ever been in here; Sundi was sure she’d have the same reaction as she did.

“Okay.” Sundi sat. Wow…it was all she could think of as she sat on the couch. This must have been what heaven’s chairs were like, she thought.

“I told you,” Pastor Leon said. He joined her on the couch and bounced up and down. “See, you can’t hurt this couch.”

Sundi immediately felt uncomfortable. She fiddled with the bottom of her skirt gripping it tightly as she thought about how angry her mother was going to be. Her mother liked the Pastor a lot but Sundi knew she wouldn’t be happy knowing Sundi was in here by herself.

“You are such a pretty little girl,” Pastor Leon said, “…and you’re growing up so fast.”

Sundi embarrassingly dropped her head. She didn’t want him talking like that. He shouldn’t be talking to her like that. She just wanted to go back out with the choir but she couldn’t even hear the choir anymore; there was just the sound of the Pastor’s heavy dull breathing in her ear.

Pastor Leon began touching Sundi’s hair playfully fingering one of her ponytails causing the purple ribbon to fall off of it. “Oh, I’m sorry, let me put it back on.”

Pastor Leon picked up Sundi’s ribbon from the floor and awkwardly fumbled at putting it back on but did. “See, its back on.”

Pastor Leon slowly placed his hand on Sundi’s tiny leg. He began rubbing his hand up and down hitting the skirt ever so slightly. Sundi’s leg shook nervously.

“Why are you shaking?”

Sundi didn’t answer. Her stomach knotted up and she thought she was going to vomit but there was nothing to throw up. She wrapped her arms tightly around her body. She thought about her mom. She wanted to stand up and run out of the room and to the sanctuary but she was too afraid to move.

Pastor Leon scooted closer to Sundi on the couch with one hand continually rubbing her leg while his other hand cupped Sundi’s face. Sundi trembled helplessly but she was frozen unable to move or scream. Where was everyone? Why hadn’t her mom come looking for her? Pastor Leon leaned in and placed his large lips on hers as his hand made its way up her skirt.

“You are such a pretty little girl and you are going to be a beautiful woman. Do you know that?”

Sundi didn’t answer as she shook uncontrollably. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out.

Pastor Leon continued to kiss her and touch her as she sat motionless unable to move.

“Now this is our secret. If you tell anyone then God will be really angry at you,” Leon whispered in her ear which had a tiny gold bear shaped earring in it.

A tear ran down Sundi’s cheek as she felt the Pastor’s warm breath on her face. Sundi nodded, closed her eyes and died inside.

First lady Evan’s heels clicked against the hardwood floors in the church. She realized after marrying Leon that her mom obviously worked at making the position of a First lady look easy because it was a lot more difficult than she had ever thought. She might not have been the wife of a President but of a Pastor and that title had set her apart from the other wives. In the church world, the Pastor was the President; he had power and plenty of it.

Evan was in full First lady mode today; grinning, hugging, touching. Lately it hadn’t been often that she’d felt like being in full First lady mode. The church life was demanding and Leon was even more demanding of her. Attend this, wear that, go there, represent here. Needless to say, this didn’t do much for their marriage. It all had turned out to be so mechanical; nothing like she had planned, nothing at all like her parent’s marriage.

Moreover, Leon was nothing like her father who had been a pastor for more years than Evan even had on earth; exactly forty years before he retired. Her father was a lover of God, his wife and family. Furthermore, he was a compassionate man who loved people and certainly cared about their souls. Leon didn’t quite see his calling like her father had. Her father thought being a pastor humbled him but Leon reminded her that he was going to do as a pastor what her father was never able to.

At 28, Evan worked at being the First lady that Leon needed. Leon who was ten years older had the good solid looks of a leader and the demeanor and elegance in speech that made for a successful preacher. Let him tell it, he was groomed to do exactly what he was doing and that included building a mega church that in his words would become the forefront of Christianity.

She loved being a First lady. Being First lady afforded her the opportunity to start JMC’s battered woman ministry, senior ladies ministry and a host of other ministries and outreach. Even with those ministries that made her happy, she was living the life that Leon wanted. Her hair had to be done every week; sometimes twice, her attire; fashionable yet respectful, but most importantly, she had to be a walking billboard for Leon and his church.

She often thought about what life would be like if she had listened to her father and hadn’t married Leon so soon. She would have had her Bachelors and Masters’ degrees in early education by now; maybe a college instructor or a researcher like she had dreamed of.

But nothing was as planned because of the pressure Leon put on her to marry him. It all happened so quickly. The two of them interacted often at her dad’s church; he was the Youth Pastor and she was the Pastor’s pretty young daughter. Leon never seemed to pay her much attention although all the young ladies fought for his. He dated often and the girls he did date spoke well of him; always talking about God and never inappropriate with them. But out of the blue it seemed, he became fixated with Evan and pressured her to marry him six months after they began dating. She agreed without her father’s approval.

She was thrown into First lady Status quickly at the age of twenty having to quit college in her sophomore year because of Leon’s insistence that he needed his First lady with him and available and not sitting in somebody’s class somewhere else. He on the other hand had managed to go to seminary and now proudly displayed his Bachelors in Counseling, and Masters and Doctorate in theology. She dabbled with a few classes which he didn’t have much to say about as long as she was able to perform her First lady duties without distraction.

Instead of Leon demanding respect for her, he constantly told her that she was insecure, jealous of his relationship with God and the flock that God had given him authority over. He had also told her that if she’d been the woman of God that she was supposed to be; taking care of him and bearing children, then she wouldn’t have time to allow herself to be a tool used of the devil against him.

Evan straightened the bottom of her skirt approaching Leon’s office. But her curiosity was aroused when she noticed Sundi sitting on a bench outside of his office playing with a stray string from her sweater.

“Hi Sundi, what are you doing here sweetheart?” Evan asked with a smile looking down at the little girl.

“I’m waiting on my mom,” Sundi answered.

Sundi was different. She didn’t embrace or react to Evan like she usually did. The pretty lite pink and yellow sweater that she wore did nothing for her sad demeanor. Evan had never before seen the usually upbeat and energetic little girl, despondent. Sundi kept her head low and her eyes averted to the floor.

“Oh, okay,” Evan sat down beside her. “You look very pretty today. I love the colors on your sweater.”

“Thank you,” she responded without lifting her head. Sundi kept her head down but Evan was able to see that her large brown eyes looked sad and tired.

Evan smiled. “The Pastor probably has scissors to cut that string so that it doesn’t ruin your sweater.”

Sundi shrugged. “I don’t care.”

Her words took Evan by surprised. “Oh, well I was on my way to see Pastor also so I’ll wait right here with you.”

Sundi stared down at her now badly chewed fingernails and balled her hands in a fist as if embarrassed that the First lady might see them. Evan had seen them noticing that she could only see remnants of pink polish that used to coat them.

“You know that the weekend with the First lady is coming up. I’m excited and I can’t wait to have all you girls over to our home. We’re going to have so much fun,” Evan said with excitement in her voice.

Sundi was silent and continued looking down. Evan was confused knowing how much Sundi was looking forward to it. She had told her as much.

“Sundi, is everything okay? How’s school?”

“It’s okay,” Sundi answered.

The question didn’t cause a change in Sundi’s affect. A look of concern crossed Evan’s face causing her forehead to wrinkle.

“I heard that your dad should return soon. Have you been skyping with him a lot?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I bet he misses you and your mom so much. What about singing for the President? How great is that? I’m excited myself to take that trip with you all,” Evan said nudging her playfully.

Evan’s words seemed to cause Sundi even more discomfort as Sundi grimaced.

“I don’t want to sing anymore,” Sundi said looking into Evan’s eyes, “and I don’t want to sing for the President.”

Evan looked shocked at Sundi’s words. “Why? Are you nervous?”

“I just don’t want to sing.” Sundi dropped her head. “I don’t want to even come to this church anymore,” Sundi said folding her arm on her lap and placing her head down on it.

Evan’s eyes widened with surprise. She couldn’t believe this was coming from the little girl who had been in their church for years. She placed her hand on Sundi’s back. “Sundi, do you want to talk about anything? Did anything happen?”

Sundi said nothing but kept her head down.

Evan got up from the chair and kneeled down in front of her. “Sundi?”

Sundi looked up at Evan as if ready to speak before the pastor’s door flew open causing them both to look over at Katie walking out. Evan looked back down at Sundi who had a frightened look on her face.

Leon didn’t bother to look up at Evan when she walked into his office; he continued scribbling on a note pad behind his desk. She sat down in the chair across from him waiting until he had finished his thought; learning from the first time she had interrupted him in the middle of one and was scolded like a child.

Evan looked around the office. It was as immaculate and error free as his side of the bedroom or his side of the closet; seemingly unused or unlived in. Leon stopped writing and put down his pen. He looked up at her.

“Hey,” Evan said with a smile.

Leon didn’t return the smile. “Hey.”

“I sat with Sundi in the hall. She’s really upset.”

Leon’s eyes grew wide. “What did she say?”

“Not much but she did say that she didn’t want to sing anymore and she didn’t want to come back to this church. What’s going on?”

Leon leaned back in his chair. “Katie said that Sundi was acting out a bit at school and at home. I’m going to work with her to devise a plan to help her out a bit.”

“Oh,” Evan said with concern on her face. “What can I do to help? This isn’t like her at all.”

“She’s a kid that needs to be disciplined.” Leon looked annoyed. “Katie dropped the ball when Ben was deployed and now Sundi’s acting out. But this tantrum of hers is affecting everybody especially the choir’s performance at the White House.”

Evan looked at Leon in amazement. “Who cares about that? We’ve known her since anyone even knew she could sing. I find it strange that all of a sudden, Sundi’s acting out.”

Leon raised his eyebrows and leaned back. “Nobody said or did anything to her. She’s nine years old. She just needs direction and some good old-fashioned discipline.”

Evan grimaced in response to Leon’s cynical remark. “I think it’s more than that.”

Leon crossed his arms. “Well, I think we have it. Sundi is just a little defiant but it’s nothing we can’t handle.” Leon took a deep breath and looked at the cross clock that hung near his office door. “So, you came to see me?” he questioned her as if quickly wanting her to get to the point.

Evan hated how he quickly dismissed her feelings about Sundi. But she refused to make anything of it. “Yeah, I was wondering if you’d like to do a late lunch; just the two of us.”

Leon shook his head. “No, someone bought me a salad and a small steak so I’m good.”

“Really?” Evan’s eyebrow rose in curiosity. “I was starving. I would have loved a steak and salad.”

“Maybe they didn’t know you were hungry. It’s no big deal.” Leon stood up and stretched. “I do have Greg coming in here for a meeting in a few minutes though.”

“Okay,” Evan shrugged. “Well, in that case I was thinking that maybe we can run a little this evening just to have some one on one time.”

Leon shrugged. “You’re doing too much running from the looks of things,” he said looking her up and down.

“It makes me feel good, Leon.”