The Other Side of Divine (10 page)

Miss Crowe looked up at him without cracking a smile. “I've told you not to bother trying to sweet-talk me. I'm not falling for it.” Miss Crowe adjusted her body better. “Zachary, I need you to find something to do.”

“You're getting rid of me, Aunt Esther?” Zachary said.

“Yes, I am. And take Casanova Lite with you. We womenfolk have some business we need to take care of,” Miss Crowe said to Zachary, then winked. “Miss Jazz, come on over and bring that folder so we can show your mother what we've found thus far for the wedding.”

“I know I've not said this, and I certainly have not been asked, but I pray you'll allow me to attend and possibly give you away at your wedding,” Bennie said.

Zachary quickly looked at Gabrielle. “Come on, Bennie. Let's leave them to their business. Are there any more chicken wings left?”

“Yes,” Miss Crowe said. “So go on in the kitchen and knock yourselves out.”

Zachary stood at the entrance of the den. “Bennie, come on. Let's go.”

Bennie walked over to Zachary.

“After you,” Zachary said, allowing Bennie to go out before him.

—Isaiah 52:2

 

 

 

“M
iss Jazz, let's show your mama what we got done with that computer of yours,” Miss Crowe said. “I'll tell you what: that Google is a wonderful thing. We were able to put in what we wanted and, voila, there it was. Jasmine was a huge help, showing me how to do all this stuff. You know I've been completely out of the loop since my accident. Ten years ago we didn't have stuff like this at our fingertips. We did things like using the telephone and shoe leather. This child started speaking all this foreign language to me talking about Bing, Yahoo, and Google.”

“I know. It's great, isn't it?” Gabrielle said.

“She says she has officially taught me how to surf the Web. I told her that was nice because that was the closest anyone was ever going to get me to surf anything. But we found some of the most gorgeous wedding dresses,” Miss Crowe said.

“I told you now. I don't want this wedding to be
too
over the top,” Gabrielle said.

“Oh, hush up! This is
our
wedding and you're not going to deprive us of
our
dreams.” Miss Crowe smiled.

Gabrielle laughed. “Well excuse me. And to think I thought
I
was the bride.”

“You are,” Miss Crowe said. “But this will be a time when Cinder meets Ella and becomes a
real
Cinderella.”

“I
love
Cinderella! Miss C says we're going to bring it all to life, in living color,” Jasmine said.

“No.” Gabrielle shook her head. “All I want is a simple dress—”

“Well, you can forget that because
that's
out of the window,” Miss Crowe said. “I'm buying the dress, and Miss Jazz and I just so happened to have found the perfect one.”

“You're not buying my dress, Miss Crowe. I'm not going to let you do that.”

“Let me? I tell you what: Try and stop me.” Miss Crowe pulled out a printed photo. “I don't have my own daughter to go over the top with for a wedding. You're like my daughter. I have some money stashed away and can spend it on whatever I like and fortunately, or unfortunately according to how you look at it, for you, you can't tell me what to do with it. Therefore, we
will
have this Cinderella wedding, over the top and all. And you're going to stop causing us problems. Now look at this picture and tell me and Jasmine what you think.” Miss Crowe handed the photo of a wedding dress to Gabrielle.

Jasmine quickly kneeled down beside Gabrielle and grinned.

“Oh, my goodness! This
is
gorgeous!” Gabrielle said. “But it has to cost an arm and a leg.”

“Nah. Just one leg,” Miss Crowe said teasingly. “But seriously, nothing is too much for you.”

Gabrielle slowly shook her head in amazement. “This is absolutely stunning.”

“That's the one we liked, as well,” Miss Crowe said. “Jasmine was the one who picked it. As soon as she saw it, she started ooh-ing and ahh-ing.”

“Well, I absolutely love it!”

“Since we printed them, we'll show you the others we also considered, although I believe we have a consensus that this is the one,” Jasmine said.

“Consensus,” Miss Crowe said with a giggle. “You are just too grown for your britches. Don't you love how smart this child is? Now what nine-year-old do you know who goes around using the words considered and consensus?” Miss Crowe turned her attention to Jasmine. “I really don't see any reason to look at any others. Turns out it was a waste of ink printing them. But since they're printed, we might as well show them.” She handed five more sheets to Gabrielle, who went through them pointing out three others that she thought were also lovely.

“Miss Crowe liked this one, too,” Jasmine said, pointing to the ballroom gown that most resembled ones portrayed in Cinderella books and on television.

“I liked it because I was looking for a real Cinderella dress. But when I saw this one”—Miss Crowe pointed at the one they had all agreed was
the one
—“there was no contest. I love that when you wear this one, you're going to set another idea of what a version of Cinderella can look like.”

“Gabriella,” Jasmine said.

“Excuse me?” Gabrielle said.

“If you're going to start your own fairy tale, then you need your own character name. Instead of Cinderella you'll be Gabriella. Gabrielle and Ella makes Gabriella”

Everybody laughed. “Okay. I'm not going to argue with either of you. I'm just going to let you do what you're going to do no matter what I say.” Gabrielle continued to look at the dress they'd decided on with an enormous smile.

“So we're agreed then?” Miss Crowe asked. “We have a consensus.” She smiled, then winked at Jasmine.

“It looks that way,” Gabrielle said.

“Wonderful! Daughters of Zion activate!” Miss Crowe said, holding her arm in the air.

“What?” Gabrielle said. “Daughters of Zion? I see you both are in rare form tonight. You, Jasmine, calling me Gabriella. And you, Miss Crowe, calling us Daughters of Zion.”

Miss Crowe began to wipe her eyes. “I'm just so happy. Go get me some tissue, will you please, Miss Jazz?”

Jasmine jumped up and left out.

“I love you, Gabrielle, do you hear me?” Miss Crowe said.

Gabrielle hugged her, tears pooling in her eyes. “I love you, too.”

“But listen: You and I have enough folks to fight these days. Leslie is still adamant that she's not coming to the wedding. She says it's nothing against you personally; she just doesn't think you and her son should get married just yet.”

“I know. I hate that. But I love Zachary.”

“I know. That's why we're going to put our full attention on happy things. Jasmine is so excited about you and Zachary getting married, as am I. I have an amount I plan on spending on your wedding.”

“But I—”

“Did you not just hear what I just said to you? I'm going to do what I want to do for you regardless of anything you say. I don't want to have to fight you. And that little girl . . . she is so happy about this upcoming wedding. If you won't let me do this big for you and Zachary, will you at least allow your daughter this fairy tale wedding? Can you do that for her? I didn't have a big wedding, so can you also do it for me?” Miss Crowe covered Gabrielle's left hand with hers and patted it.

Gabrielle nodded. “Okay.”

“So no more arguing unless you just absolutely don't like something. If we find a cake, I don't want you to say anything against it because of its price. Now, if you don't like it, then that's different. But I don't want to fight with you. I want to pick out what we want and cross it off the list. Your wedding is June eleventh. We're in the middle of February. We don't have much time left before you'll be walking down that aisle. All right?”

Gabrielle nodded as tears rolled down her face. She and Miss Crowe hugged.

“Oh, my goodness!” Jasmine said. “Are you two hugging? Again. And are you both crying? Again.”

Gabrielle released Miss Crowe and smiled at Jasmine.

“Whelp, it looks like we're going to need a lot more tissues.” Jasmine stood with tissues in her hand, shaking her head.

Miss Crowe and Gabrielle laughed. “Come here,” Gabrielle said to Jasmine, who promptly came over and flopped down between them. “I love you,” she said to Jasmine.

“I know.” Jasmine grinned. “I know.”

—Mark 3:25

 

 

 

D
arius was living pretty well at this point. Him having met Divine at the moment he had truly had been “divine.” He smiled every time he thought about it.

There he was, completely homeless and without hope. Nothing was going right for him. Paris Simmons-Holyfield was trying to pin a pregnancy on him. He was not hearing that, not at all. He'd specifically gotten Tiffany to have her tubes tied so he wouldn't have to deal with any more crumb-snatchers. Paris wasn't his wife and the last thing he wanted or needed was to be in court on some paternity question.

He felt pretty good that he had shut that whole talk down. Deep down though, he felt the baby most likely
was
his. Paris had told him how long she and her husband had been trying. If the man was swinging and striking out for essentially four years, which is how long Paris had confessed she'd been trying, although Andrew only thought it had been two, the odds were not in his favor that during the exact time he and Paris had connected in that way her husband would finally hit a home run.

But Darius figured Paris should actually be thanking him for his contribution. He was familiar with sperm banks. A lot of women paid top dollar for the privilege of finally being able to get pregnant. He had apparently contributed to Paris's success for free. In fact, if he wasn't in a much better place right now, he might have thought about charging her for real.

Of course, if he
had
come back to Paris talking about money, she surely would have taken his gesture as some sort of blackmail. That was the problem with everybody. Whenever a businessman came along and wanted to be paid for certain services rendered, folks wanted to scream you were blackmailing them or doing something unethical. But he knew Paris wasn't going to get much out of him for child support even if it turned out conclusively that he was
indeed
the father. Her best shot was to hang in there with her husband, who had money to do right by the kid.

And what her husband didn't know
certainly
wouldn't hurt him. Darius was in such a good mood these days that he was even willing, maybe in a year or two, should Paris need it, to make another contribution toward one more child. After all, no child should grow up being an only child. There should always be two just to keep the one from growing up to be a completely spoiled brat. Yes, he would do that for Paris, if she should desire another one. The upside to that would be the children would at least look like siblings since they would have the same mother and father.

He walked up to the door of what used to be his house. It was March 29 and Tiffany had sent word several times in the past two weeks by Big Red that she needed to see him. He had been so caught up in having fun and making money with his new venture with Divine that he hadn't thought much about Tiffany
or
his children, for that matter. He was sure she was trying to find him because she needed some money. Fortunately for her, he had plenty of money these days. Yes, life was definitely good now.

He rang the doorbell. Tiffany answered it.

“Hi,” Tiffany said. She'd lost weight. She looked good. “Come on in.”

Darius scanned Tiffany from the back as he followed her. Yes, she was looking
real
good. If he didn't already have a good-looking woman right now, he would definitely be trying to get back with Tiffany. But Dee Vine had turned out to be the perfect woman for him. He could be faithful to one woman.
Who knew?

They sat down together on the sofa. “Where are the kids?” Darius asked.

“They're with Fatima.”

“You and Fatima have certainly become tight. If I didn't know any better, I might ask what's going on between the two of you. But I know that Fatima is not into women—”

“Darius, I didn't ask you here for that,” Tiffany said.

“Sorry. I guess I'm still so comfortable with you, I just open my mouth and what comes up, comes out still.” He crossed his leg and leaned back. “So what was the bat signal you were sending out all about?”

“I hadn't heard from you since Valentine's Day.”

He uncrossed his leg and leaned forward, glancing at Tiffany with a smirk. “Oh, how sweet. So you were worried about me?”

“Darius, you're still my husband. You're the father of our children. Of course I care and of course I still worry about you.”

“Well, you could have fooled me.”

“I thought you were going to get with Pastor Landris and try to work on things between us so we can get our marriage and family back on track,” Tiffany said.

“Is that what you thought?” He chuckled. “Well, I guess you
thought
wrong. Just like you thinking putting me out of my own house was a good idea. So how's that working out for you?”

“I wanted you to know I was serious this time,” Tiffany said. “No more games.”

He nodded. “I'll give it to you. You almost brought me down to my knees with this last action. I almost hit rock bottom. Almost. But you see, Tiffany, the Lord knows my heart. He knows I'm a good man whether you want to recognize it or not. And you know what else: the Lord
always
takes care of His own. And as you holier-than-thou folks like to put it: ‘What Satan meant for bad, God used it for good.' ”

“Darius, what are you talking about? You were the one having affairs on me. You were the one lying to me. I asked you if you'd cheated on me recently and you denied it.”

“So what are you saying?” Darius said. “That I cheated on you recently? Did someone tell you I cheated on you recently?” Darius's mind quickly turned to Paris. Had Paris told Tiffany about their night together and about her possibly being pregnant by him?

“No. But then, I'm not out there trying to find out who all else you've been with. What I was praying is that you would see where you've been wrong and that you would come back home with a made-up mind to do right from here on out,” Tiffany said as she looked sternly at Darius.

“No, what you were doing is a form of witchcraft,” Darius said.

Tiffany pulled back. “Witchcraft? What are you talking about, witchcraft? I haven't done any such thing.”

“Not the hocus-pocus voodoo kind of witchcraft. But you were trying to manipulate me into doing and being who and what you wanted. Well, guess what, Tiff? Your plan backfired. You were trying to saw this family in half and make me do what you wanted, and now all you've ended up accomplishing is a house divided. And you know what they say about a house divided? It can't stand. Thus, all of this is about to come to a close real soon.”

Tiffany stood up. “What do you mean?”

Darius stood and smiled. “I mean, I'm going to do what you so far have been too chicken to do. I'm going to file for divorce. I don't want to come back here with you. I don't want to be married to you anymore. I'm sick and tired of you, so I'm going to do what we should have done years ago and cut these chains from around my neck.”

“What about our children?”

“What about them? They'll be all right. People divorce every day. No big deal.”

“But they need a father in their life.”

“I said I'm divorcing you, not dying. As long as I'm still alive, they'll have a father in their life. I just won't be conveniently available to be kicked around by you anymore.” Darius looked hard at her.

Tears started to roll down Tiffany's cheeks. “I don't understand you. What has happened to you?”

“I hit rock bottom. It was the end of January. And when I was at my lowest point and flat on my back, I looked up and there was Divine.”

“You're saying that you saw the Lord?” Tiffany shook her head. “But you're talking crazy. We need to work things out, Darius, if for nothing else for our children. They miss you. They miss having you in their lives.”

“Well, you should have thought about all of that before you kicked me out. Amazing the clarity a few months can bring. When I left here, I was determined to win you back and make my way back home. I asked you to let me stay here while we worked things out. But I suppose you were too busy listening to your buddies Fatima and Gabrielle, as well as Pastor Landris and his wife. I'm sure they've all been spewing something or other in your precious ear gates when it comes to me.”

Tiffany touched his arm. “Darius, this is not what I wanted at all.”

“Well, it looks like it's what you've ended up with.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet that bulged with money. Peeling off one-hundred-dollar bills like leaves on a head of lettuce, he stopped, folded them, and placed the ones he counted off into her hand. “That's two thousand dollars. That should just about catch me up on what I owe when it comes to our children's support. No matter what you might think or try to tell them different, I still care about them.”

“Two thousand dollars?” Tiffany said, looking down at the wad of money. “Where did you get all this money from?” She looked up at Darius.

He put his wallet back in his pocket. “Like I said: What Satan may have meant for bad, God used it for good.”

“Darius, I hope you're not doing anything illegal. If you are, I don't want any part of this money. And if you are, then you need to stop before something bad happens to you. I'm telling you, Darius. I'm getting a sick feeling here. Don't you be playing with God out there.”

“Of course, you're getting a sick feeling. And that feeling is knowing that you just lost the best thing you ever had. That sick feeling is realizing that you were trying to bring me to my knees, but it looks like I'm riding high with plenty of money to boot.”

Tiffany placed her hand on his arm again. “Darius.”

He leaned down and gave her a quick peck on her lips. “I'll be filing those divorce papers most likely tomorrow or sometime thereafter. Now, we can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way. Personally, I prefer the easy way myself because I'm ready to move on with my life.”

“Darius, you don't want to do this. Apparently, you've gotten caught up in some fantasy world and you don't know what you're getting yourself into,” Tiffany said. “Now, let's you and I sit down and talk about what we need to do to bring our family back together. Let's pray—”

“I'm sorry, but I'm all prayed out. I reached my limit when I was outside of my own house back in January sitting in the freezing cold trying to get you to let me in. I'm all prayed out from having had a job that was shipped overseas, to getting another job that didn't pan out, to praying and asking God to help me get something so I could take care of my family only to have you throw some old affair in my face that didn't amount to a hill of beans. Heck, now you and the woman I had the affair with are best of friends, so much so that when I come over today, my children are not here because they're with her. I'm all prayed out with going to see our pastor only to learn that it's almost impossible to just walk in and get instant help directly from him. And when they
do
try to help, they make like everything has got to be my fault, as though you, my dear Tiffany, had no misstep or hand in what happened wrong between us.”

“I never claimed I was perfect, Darius.”

“Yes, I know. It was just living with you made me feel like I was always wrong, always a loser.”

“I never made you feel like you were a loser. Darius, I loved you with all of my heart. You know that. I've put up with so much when it came to you. And when you messed up and I found out about your affair that first time, I forgave you. We worked on things and moved on.”

“Well, this last affair you found out about, you didn't try to work it out. In fact, you moved me out. But as I have said: It's all good. In fact, I should thank you. Because if you hadn't put your foot down like you did, if you had let me in to stay that night back in January, my life would
definitely
not be on the upswing as it is right now. So, thank you, Tiffany. Thank you.”

“You've found another woman, haven't you? Is that it? Is that why you're talking like this?”

“You mean like you've found another man in Brother Clarence Walker?”

Tiffany folded her arms. “I told you there's nothing going on between me and Clarence. He's only been by here to do what he can to help. He's been great about doing things that have put a smile on the children's faces, your children.”

“Yes. A divorce is going to be great for the both of us. That way I can move on with my life and you and Clarence can explore more with each other.” He grinned. “I'm not going to contest anything with the house if that will speed things up with the divorce. We'll come up with an agreement for child support as long as you don't try to get crazy about how much you think I should be able to afford. I still don't have a steady job. And I still have to live, too. And without a home to call my own, I have to pay for somewhere to stay.”

“Darius, I don't understand. Why are you doing this?”

“It's like I told you when this all first started happening. We needed to be in the same house to work things out. You saw things differently and you put me out. I suppose you can thank whose ever bright idea that was to do that. You'll be hearing from my lawyer soon. I figure after I file, it will take about two months, tops. Then we'll be legally and finally free. And let this be a lesson to you: a house divided cannot stand.” He leaned down, gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and left.