The Banks Sisters (10 page)

Me-Ma had too much energy to sit around waiting to hear what happened with her girls down at that funeral parlor so she did what she always did when worry got the best of her. She put on her the blue dress with the white buttons that the girls had gotten, for Mother's Day, at some store called Anne Klein. As much as she liked to act like she didn't care about creature comforts, the soft silk and linen fabric against her skin made her feel like the Queen mother. The blue Taryn Rose shoes that Tallhya insisted she allow her to purchase with her “monthly lottery winnings” certainly made walking the six blocks to the church much easier. She would have been happy with the orthopedic shoes her doctor prescribed, but the girls took one look at the ‘prison warden' shoes and refused to allow her to wear them. Those damn shoes conveniently went missing and no matter how much she yelled they all feigned innocence. Because these were hand made by a doctor without looking like she was an old fart she gave in and let them purchase them for her.

“Save your money,” her words fell on deaf ears as usual when one of her girls made up their mind to do anything same as it had been with their stubborn mother Deidra. She had to cover her eyes at the register as the saleswoman rang up the purchase. Me-Ma had lived her entire life being frugal, making the little she and her husband earned stretch to feed every mouth and she never compromised with the 10 percent she placed in the collection basket. She knew a lot of people called themselves children of the Lord except when it came to adding their weekly 10 percent. Then they were heathens and charlatans who pretended at serving God.

“Lord, I hope that wasn't Walter,” Me-Ma talked to herself thinking about that newspaper lying on the kitchen table although she already knew in her heart that it was. She had a strong sense about things like this.

Tell the truth, shame the devil, tell a lie, shame yourself,
she thought as she finished getting dressed for an impromptu visit with the pastor. Congregation enrollment dropped to their pre 1990's numbers down since the former pastor died and too many of the older members, accused Pastor Street of appearing too secular to be a real man of God in his flashy clothes, but Me-Ma had taken the time and gotten to know him. She had been able to convince some of the old members to stay and to trust that the Lord had brought this man to serve them. Me-Ma had a lot of power in that church, and Cassius took full advantage of it by appointing himself as the son she never had. Oh, he certainly played on her need to be close to God, doting on her whenever she was around, making himself available whenever she needed him. But lately she was coming to the church a lot more often just to talk with him and that was getting in the way of his extracurriculars, but what could he do.

Unbeknowing to her, she helped raise money for all his pet projects shaming people into opening their pocketbooks and checkbooks for every little thing he swore would improve the church. Cassius even talked Me-Ma into helping to raise money so that they could televise their Sunday services on some second rate cable channel.

“If one person in pain or shame watches my sermon and because of it finds his way to the Lord then isn't that what God would want?” Me-Ma contributed generously and convinced the elders that the pastor needed to be given a clothing budget since he shouldn't be responsible for his television wardrobe. She cursed the small-minded people who talked about Pastor behind his back. She'd told many of the parishioners that she would pray for them, but coming from Me-Ma it sounded closer to a curse. She figured out that all the Reverend needed to solidify his image was to find himself a wife, settle down to stop the tongues from wagging on the fools running their mouths. She couldn't understand why her grandbaby Simone didn't return the pastor's interest.

“Hello Mrs. Banks,” two young girls in those shamelessly tight fitting spandex pants that exposed all their business waved at her as she passed. Boy did she want to stop and tell those fast children to go put some loose clothes on and to start acting like they had some good sense. “Lord, give me strength,” she said to herself realizing that they were barely out of diapers and here they were looking like straight up hootchies shaking their butts at grown-ass men as they passed.

“Girl, come on over here with alla that ass,” one of the older boys shouted as the girls passed. And of course they stopped. Took everything Me-Ma had not to send those children back to their homes to put on something appropriate, but today, she had more pressing matters to take care of. Without meaning to she'd become the neighborhood matriarch, and as much as she protested she wound up accepting the position since very few adults had the good sense to “pick up after their dogs” as was the old school expression. These were lay down with dogs and get up with flees kinds of people and Me-Ma hated it. Any good therapist would say that her incessant need to help others stemmed from her inability to aid her own child, but she didn't come from that self-help generation where therapy was even an option so for her she was simply being a good neighbor.

Things had gotten so confusing the past few days that Me-Ma needed to make sure she had her house in order and not just her religious one. First this thing with Simone, nearly getting killed at the bank and now this thing with Walter reminded her of the need to get her affairs in order and what better person to help her to do that than her pastor. She took all her legal paperwork out of the safe box in the closet her husband had purchased all those years ago when their daughter was still a little girl and stuffed them in her purse.

“We've come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord . . .” one of her favorite hymns played over the speaker system in the church as she entered. The calming music immediately put Me-Ma at peace.

“Trusting in His Holy Word, he never failed me yet . . .” she found herself getting carried by the spiritual singing along at the top of her voice. God didn't care that she couldn't carry a tune a half a block all he knew was her heart was pure. Clapping hands interrupted her singing and Me-Ma turned to see Pastor Cassius Street coming down the aisle of the sanctuary. He was the kind of man who dressed to impress so unless his look was a hundred percent together, he didn't leave his house. His flamboyant purple suit shimmered as he moved up the aisle toward her, the off white collar shirt, pastel yellow, cream and purple lace tie, and ivory snakeskin shoes had taken him hours of careful planning to match so perfectly, but he would have never admit to that.

“Pastor, you look so handsome,” Me-Ma gushed at how put together he was, not like these other men his age who still had their asses hanging out their pants. He reminded her of the way men got all decked out in the 70's. He threw his arms around her hugging her tightly. This little lady may have gotten on his nerves with all of her suggestions and demands, but she sure did help to keep the coffers filled. Cassius had never met a compliment that he didn't like so he made a point to give Mrs. Banks extra attention for hers.

“I love that dress. Designer?” he asked staring at her appreciatively. The whole point of him being a clothes whore had to do with the way people responded to his efforts, the more effusive they were the higher up on the patron food chain they went. Well, that and the size and frequency of their donations also contributed to the kinds of time he allocated for them on his schedule. She also had that fine as wine granddaughter who would give the right look as First Lady.

“How is my favorite member? And how is your granddaughter recovering after yesterday's ordeal?” he reached for her hand and held onto it as he stared into her eyes, all sincerity. Cassius made sure to come off as a concerned pastor. He knew better than to let her know that he had a more personal interest in her granddaughter. He fashioned himself a religious Kanye West in need of a woman of equal measure to help raise his profile and Simone was fine enough and educated enough to do just that and she had that big ole hump on her backside which would even make the men jealous and the women envious

“Pastor I need help with some important legal matters.”

“Absolutely Mrs. Banks. Anything for you.”

“I don't have an updated will that includes my granddaughters. Who knows how long the good Lord will see fit to keep me here on earth?” The walk over to the church had worn down her body. The pastor led her over to a pew and the two sat down.

“I am here for you? How can I help you?”

“Will you be my witness?” She leaned close to him. “There are so many things I need to address. I figured if I ran them past you maybe you'd help me come to terms with what I need to do.” Cassius nodded his head up and down a little too eagerly, but Me-Ma had been so busy thinking about the heaviness of her decisions that she hadn't been paying attention.

“Absolutely, but first let us pray,” the pastor bowed his head and started to preach the gospel. Me-Ma lowered her head, her thoughts traveling to gratitude at having formed such a close bond with this man of God.

“. . . Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” By the time Cassius released Me-Ma's hand she had gotten real clarity on what to do next.

“Now you know I love all my granddaughters equally, but the one that I trust the most to handle my business is Simone. She's level headed and fair enough to look after the others and she's also the oldest and most educated so I trust she will handle the legal matters and paperwork more appropriately than my other granddaughters.

“What about your daughter?”

“There is no way I could leave anything to her. Those girls would be homeless and hungry if she got her hands on my property or what little insurance money I have. Lord forgive me for saying this, but my daughter is the reason I need to put things in writing. My husband and I drew up these papers so long ago that Deidra is still the sole heir to everything and that would be a disaster . . .” Just as Me-Ma started to finish the door burst open and standing there owning a pissed off expression wrapped in a fuchsia colored dress a good size too small with all her woman parts bursting out stood Katrina. The pastor's face clouded over as she strutted to where they were sitting, only to be replaced by a blank smile giving nothing away.

“Pastor, may I speak to you?” she said through clenched teeth her anger so strong she didn't use the good sense God had given her to have manners and acknowledge his visitor.

“Why hello Katrina,” Me-Ma jumped in thinking that if this hot-n-tot thought she could be rude on her watch she had mistaken kindness for weakness and was about to get herself old schooled. The arch of Katrina's right eyebrow raised up 'cause this wasn't a sister used to dealing with other women in any capacity. In fact she usually dismissed females in the most rude and arrogant way. She had a body and an attitude made for men and men only so to have to give some ole biddy her attention fueled her annoyance at the pastor.

“Ms. Banks,” she responded painting on a faux smile. Now Katrina's legendary bad attitude and temper weren't exactly wiped away, but she realized she needed to play her position after her goal was to became Mrs. Street and First Lady of the church and she couldn't have anything getting in the way of that. Her current position as part time church bookkeeper made it so she didn't have much interaction with the members, but in her new role she'd have to at least pretend to like these people. Cassius stood up, always a gentleman and turned to face his visitor.

“Katrina, I am in the middle of something. I can call you later if you need to discuss the books,” he offered trying to maintain professionalism, but she had an agenda and would not be deterred from it and she sure as hell wasn't playing second to this old biddy.

“Well, Pastor, excuse my interruption, but I needed to stop by and make sure that you were okay? When you failed to show up to the elaborate dinner I had prepared in your honor, the one you had confirmed earlier in the day I got worried.” Her words may have been polite, but this bitch was two seconds from blowing. Well before Cassius could respond Me-Ma had grown too tired of this hussy's interruption to put up with another moment of her foolishness and responded for him.

“Ms. Katrina, our pastor was simply being too polite to tell you that he's not interested in whatever you are serving up tonight. Now, you need to get on out of here in that dress you done grown too big to wear and stop embarrassing yourself,” Me-Ma said to a stunned Katrina. At first the fullness of what had just happened didn't register fully to her so she glanced from Cassius to Me-Ma before she had recovered enough to go ham about to pummel a senior citizen.

“He can tell me himself,” she growled her right eye twitching that this old woman had the nerve to be all up in her business. Katrina assumed that it had probably been too long since she remembered what a good dick felt like, but this old lady needed to stop cock blocking and get her ass to stepping. Katrina had no plans to go anywhere until she got exactly what she had come for. Now the pastor cursed himself for mixing business with pleasure because this hothead knew entirely too much about him.

“Please I need a moment,” he asked Mrs. Banks as he jumped up and hustled ole girl out of the sanctuary and into the hallway where they could have some privacy. Even from inside the office where she sat, Me-Ma, could hear the litany of curse words streaming out of Katrina's mouth rolled her eyes at the foolishness. Lord she wished these girls could have just a little dignity which made her think about her daughter, Deidra who had called the other day to announce she had taken up with some new under achiever and was living not too far. Pretty is as pretty does, which was damn ugly as far as Me-Ma could see when it came to her only child. If that girl hadn't been so beautiful she might have had to develop other qualities like humility and kindness, none of which were evident in her. No matter how many times she had prayed up that child Deidra, being Deidra, consistently proved to be an utter disappointment to both God and to her mother.