Up at the College (33 page)

Curtis had not seen the check and wasn’t sure if it was right for him to ask to see it. Then he remembered Yvonne crying in
her car earlier today and how he’d comforted her that things would be all right. He knew that it was okay to ask to share
in this blessing.

“Baby, let me see the check.”

Yvonne opened it for Curtis and then passed it on to her sister, who had not seen the amount either. Both of them were in
shock—a good shock but in shock nonetheless. Rochelle held her head back to steady those tears. She had been praying for God
to do a mighty work in her sister’s life. Witnessing this was like catching a handful of manna from Heaven.

“Lena, what is so important that you had to separate me from Marquita’s shrimp?” Obadiah asked as he approached the table
with Maurice, Lamont, James, and Rochelle’s friend Terrence Lockwood in tow.

“This,” Yvonne told him and put the check in his hand.

Obadiah did what he always did when one of his members, and moreover a friend, was the recipient of a miracle. He let his
eyes flip up under his lids for a second, shook his head, and touched his heart. Then he tilted his head to the side, took
Yvonne’s outstretched hands in his and said, “You are evidence that God takes care of His own, Yvonne. Now you know for yourself
what a mighty God we serve and that He will not let the righteous be forsaken or begging bread.”

By now the whole table had gathered around Yvonne and Curtis, who didn’t realize that he was about to be blessed as well.
Lena passed out two bottles of anointing oil and waited for everyone to put some oil on their hands, including Curtis and
Yvonne. Obadiah laid a hand on both of their shoulders and began to pray.

“Lord, everyone standing here has read in Your Word how much You desire to bless Your righteous ones. We’ve read the words
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that if we but have faith the size of a tiny mustard seed, we can cast a mountain into
the sea. We know, because Jesus told us, that in this world we would have trials and tribulations. But despite that truth,
He also instructed us to cheer up because He had overcome the world.

“We know that You answer prayers and we know that You want us to have life more abundantly, and to prosper even as our souls
prosper. Well, Lord, we have watched this daughter of Yours come through the storm. And in spite of all of the high waves
and fierce winds, she held on to Your hand and trusted You. And tonight, we see the fruits of her labors, the evidence of
things that have been hoped for, for years. Bless Yvonne Maxine Fountain, Lord, in the name of Jesus.”

“In the name of Jesus,” Lena echoed.

“Bless her job, the check, and bless the establishment of her professorship right now, in Jesus’s name. We bind up, in the
name of Jesus …”

“In the name of sweet Jesus of Nazareth,” Trina said.

“ … The enemy. Stop him dead in his tracks and do not allow him to do anything to cause any kind of problems with getting
this all worked out. Dispatch Your angels, Lord, to go forth before Yvonne and work it all out right now, in the name of Jesus.

“Lord, thank you for answering our prayers concerning this situation. And thank You, Lord, for letting us see and experience
the answer to these prayers in the land of the living, as You have promised us in Your Word.

“And last of all, Lord, we ask that You touch Coach Parker, anoint him with the Holy Ghost, and cover him with the blood of
the Lamb of God. Touch and anoint every starting player on the team with the ability and wisdom to play that game with Bouclair
College like they’ve never played before.

“Lord, let them play this game for Your glory, so that folks will know that You are ever-present and that just ’cause folks
are on the court, doesn’t mean that You are not there. Bless Curtis and Maurice with this win. Clean house in their department
and get rid of those other two assistant coaches who don’t need to be there. Get rid of those bad players. And bless them
with favor and victory. Lord, we thank You, we praise You, we bless You, and we claim the victory in the name of Jesus, amen.”

Everybody lifted up their hands and said “Amen” loud enough to be heard and observed by folks at the tables close to them.
But they didn’t care. They had just witnessed a miracle of biblical proportions, and the only thing left to do was to praise
God and acknowledge Him as the Author of their fates.

“One-point-five million dollars to start your own professorship doing what you love,” Trina exclaimed. “Can it get much better
than that?”

“I don’t know,” Yvonne said with a big grin spreading across her face, “but I’d sure like to see if it will!”

“Now that we’ve prayed and blessed and come back to earth, I want to know how all of this came about. I didn’t even know that
you knew Bailey Winters, let alone well enough for her to want to sponsor something of this magnitude.”

“Well, Obadiah,” Yvonne began, “Mrs. Winters came and wrote that check because her husband wasn’t acting right.”

“Yvonne is not telling you the entire story, Obadiah,” Trina interjected. “Jethro saw Yvonne and came over here to hit on
her. I mean, it was a kamikaze hit.”

“Yeah,” Curtis said drily, “it was a pretty hard attempt to hit on Yvonne.” He retrieved his suit coat from the back of the
chair and put it on.

“Man, that’s a sharp suit,” Obadiah said, admiring the black silk vest with the red stripes in it. “Mr. Booth?”

“Who else,” Curtis answered, mood finally lightening up. He was not happy with the way Jethro had rolled up on this table.
This was the Dirty South, not the Ol’ South. And maybe somebody needed to school old boy on that fact before he got a foot
up his behind.

“Jethro was all up in Yvonne’s face,” Rochelle continued for Trina. “And Bailey just got pissed and rolled up on him and did
what she does best—mess with his money. She whipped that checkbook out and put the check right in Yvonne’s hand. And then
she hugged her and thanked her for being a decent woman and left.”

“And Jethro Winters?” Obadiah asked. He did not like that man and was sick of him and his antics. He remembered the last real
encounter he had had with that white boy at his church. His members had to hold him off of Jethro. But if the man messed with
one more person from Fayetteville Street Gospel United Church, Obadiah was going to forget he was a preacher and act like
the street negro he used to be before he gave his life over to the Lord and was called into the ministry.

“There the negro is, over there all up in Regina Young’s face,” Lena said and pointed boldly at the president’s table.

“He’s white, Lena,” Maurice said.

Lena laughed and said, “Well, to be honest, I wasn’t actually, really, and truthfully calling Jethro a
negro
. I hate to tell y’all this but I had a lapse in decorum, and I momentarily resurrected the
N
word but tried to be nice and called him a negro. Pray for me.”

“But he is still white.”

“But he was acting ‘niggardly,’ which is a word used in
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary
to describe a
meanly covetous and stingy person
,” Obadiah, who made it his business to know the meaning and history of words, said. “And if we were to take liberties and
stretch and doctor up Mr. Webster’s meaning a bit, as we black people are prone to do, I would say that ‘niggardly’ could
also include acting like a lowlife or a louse.”

“Obadiah Quincey,” Trina said, “you are the only
negro
in Durham, North Carolina, who could work that thing like that. And … oh … just for the record, I use the term ‘negro’
in the nicest way, as in, ‘Obadiah, you
my negro
.’”

“Maurice,” Obadiah said, “take your wife over to Marquita’s food table and get her some of that delicious shrimp, and add
a few extra pieces for me.”

Yvonne looked down at her spot to munch on another piece of shrimp. But her plate was gone. She hadn’t even noticed the waiters
coming to get her food. If they had
wanted
somebody to scoop up a dirty plate, they would have had to chase one of them down.

“I’m coming with you. I’m still hungry.”

“No, Yvonne,” Trina said, “you are famished. What you just went through will make you sleepy or make you hungry. That’s a
lot of emotional roller-coastering to be on in less than an hour’s time.”

“Baby, get an extra plate for me,” Curtis said. “I need to run a few things by Obadiah.”

“Okay, Curtis,” Yvonne said sweetly, and then wondered what in the world was happening today. In less than twenty-four hours
her entire life had changed, and it felt odd. She was used to the drastic changes for the worse. But this drastic change for
the better was so new. Yvonne understood what those folks must have felt when they came to Jesus with horrible problems and
infirmities, and then walked away completely whole, blessed, and with double-for-your-trouble restoration in their lives.
This was an amazing day that was full of the goodness of the Lord.

T
he music was sounding good. Yvonne wanted to get out there and dance to the Gap Band so badly. She loved it when they started
singing, “You cain’t keep runnin’ in and out of my life.” Right now, instead of dancing, these reception folk seemed bent
on cutting deals, checking out the scenery, and scheming. Black college life was almost as complex, wonderful, and intriguing
as life in the black church—nothing like it. And for all of the ups and downs a person could experience in these institutions,
Yvonne loved them both with all of her heart.

Marquita’s catering company had outdone itself tonight. The entire hall was decorated in the school’s colors of black and
red. The banquet tables were covered with black linen cloths with red napkins held securely with black napkin rings resting
on black china trimmed in metallic red and silver. Dark red roses in translucent black crystal vases sat in the middle of
each table, with rose petals sprinkled around the area of the vases. And each chair was covered with black muslin, and had
a stiff red muslin bow attached to the back.

Around the room were six-foot-high black metal frames that resembled floor-length mirrors with huge photographs of the school,
the president and his wife, the basketball team, and the coaches. And the food tables made you hungry just looking at them.
There was so much to choose from, Yvonne didn’t know where to start.

But the best part of a reception like this were the people themselves. There had to be every kind of African-American in the
city of Durham represented at this event. This crowd ranged from ghetto-fabulous folk, like Dayeesha Hamilton, to the hardworking
staff members from the university, who worked quietly and diligently to aid in the education of folks’ children, to the professors
who worked hard to make sure that not one black child would be left behind when they left with a degree in hand, to the hinctified
administrators and high-profile faculty who held the erroneous belief that the university actually revolved around them, to
the coaches, band directors, cafeteria workers, janitorial staff, and of course the students, alumni, and parents. It was
a beautiful thing to behold.

Another Gap Band song, “Early in the Morning,” came on, and this time Yvonne couldn’t help herself. She did a smooth step
all the way over to that food table where her friend Marquita Robinson Sneed was busy making sure that all was well with all
of that delectable food. She was about to select some crackers and a delicious-looking lobster spread when she heard a friendly
voice call out her name.

She turned around grinning at her girl, who was first cousin to Charmayne and the infamous and very fine Charles Robinson.
Sometimes Charles reminded Yvonne of a bigger, buffer, sexier, and older version of the actor Terrence Howard. And that was
saying something because Mr. Terrence gave new meaning to the term “redbone
.
”

The Robinsons had always fascinated Yvonne with how very different they were. They loved one another to death. But the families
of the two sisters—Charmayne and Charles’s mother, Miss Ida Belle, and Marquita’s mother, Miss Margarita—were as different
as night and day. First off, Ida Belle was just downright gangsta. She loved the hood, and she was the consummate “hood entrepreneur.”

Miss Ida Belle’s sister, Margarita, on the other hand, was saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. She was an ordained minister
and assistant pastor at Ram in the Bush Holiness Church of Prophesy and Deliverance—the hottest and fastest-growing holiness
church in Durham County outside of the church pastored by Apostle Grady Grey and his wife, Linda. She worked tirelessly to
get as many folk saved and living what she described as “the Kingdom life” as the Lord would allow, and stayed in intercessory
prayer on behalf of her unsaved relatives.

Miss Margarita also supplied Miss Thang’s Holy Ghost Corner and Church Woman Boutique with all of that saved lingerie that
folks were always going gaga over when they were in Theresa’s store. Her best-selling items were the sheer PJs in pastel colors
and matching lacy bra and thongs with PASTOR’S SHORTY, BISHOP’S BOO, DEACON’S DARLING, STEWARD’S SWEETIE, and FIRST LADIES
SIZZLE, embroidered on the PJ top. Miss Margarita’s favorite first ladies were Lena Quincey and Angela Cousin over at St.
Joseph’s AME Church. She personally designed and made their PJs and robes and an assortment of fancy, pretty, girly things.

Despite the obvious differences between the two sisters, there were also some similarities. Both sisters had children when
they were not married back in the day when that was hard on folks.

Yvonne remembered her mother telling her that both sisters’ baby daddies proposed but the weddings didn’t go through. Charmayne
and Charles’s father was an undercover cop who was shot down by friendly fire when he was trying to infiltrate a ring of black
bank robbers and they were busted by the police. Marquita’s father was shot down, too. He was in the army, assigned to intelligence,
and located in an unknown spot in southeast Asia. And the only reason they knew it was southeast Asia was that the Vietnam
War was up and running, and most black folk from the hood were sent south and east when they were dispatched to serve overseas.