When All Hell Breaks Loose (25 page)

Her car is in the parking lot. I look around for the gray Mercedes owned by Pastor Dixon and see no sign of it. Shreese opens the door almost as soon as I knock.

“Hey Greg, come on in.”

She’s still in her pajamas. I look at my watch. It’s ten-fifteen
A.M
. I look around and notice the apartment is devoid of the usual loud Kirk Franklin playing on the stereo. No holy water out on the entrance panel. No Bible nearby. “I thought you spent Saturday mornings cleaning your house, singing joyful songs, and getting your Sunday School lesson together.”

“I don’t feel like it.” Shreese looks at me and her lips begin to quiver.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Tears begin to run down her face. “Ulan is seeing another woman and he … he …”

“Did he hurt you?” I ask.

“He left town with all the money I had saved.” She begins sobbing heavily.

I sit on the couch next to her. “How much did he take?”

“A little over twenty-five thousand.”

“Hell, Shreese! What were you thinking?”

“He said he’d use part of the money to help fund the new sanctuary, and the other half as a down payment on a home for him and me. We were going to have a prayer closet and everything.”

“When did you give him the money?”

“New Year’s.”

“That was two weeks ago! Why didn’t you call me?!”

She’s crying a river now. “Up until now, I … I … I thought he was out of town looking … at … at laaaand!”

I sit back on the couch, stiff as a board. All I want to do is find this motherfucker and beat him into a pulp.

“Do you know where he went?”

“He told me he was going to Arkansas.”

“How did you find out he wasn’t there? Did you try to call him?”

“No. When I called the church this morning to get the number, they were looking for him. He supposedly got money from several of the women at the church. It was on the news this morning. Now the police are looking for him.” She wipes her eyes. “Gregory, please don’t tell Mom and Dad.”

“Shreese, I’m not going to have to tell them. Uncle Bennie will beat me to it if it was on the news.” I grin, trying to cheer her up.

She continues to cry. “I can’t believe God let this happen to me! I trusted Ulan with my soul.”

What my mother said about soul needs pops back into my head.

“Shreese, God didn’t let this happen to you. You have to be more careful, that’s all. Ulan wasn’t looking for virtue, he was looking for a nice woman with money.”

“No, Greg! I prayed for a man like Ulan. A man of God! A Christian man!”

“There are still plenty of brothers in the church who would love to
take care of you and eventually marry you. A good man doesn’t have to be a preacher. There are plenty of men at Mount Cannon—”

“No, I’m not going back to that church!”

“Shreese, don’t let one bad incident affect your faith. You’ve grown up in the church, and those people need you.” I rub her shoulder. “What about the other women who are going through the same thing? They need your strength.” I can’t believe I’m saying this to my sister. I never thought I would be telling Nina Shreese Alston to go to church and have faith. Miss “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” herself.

She sits staring at the picture of Jesus on her wall. His brownish-blond hair and blue eyes are settled neatly on the calming face that’s been painted on him. I look away from the picture and take a deep breath.
Maybe I have been listening to Jamal Bilal too much
, I think.
But everybody should know by now that Jesus is a black man
.

“Greg, you don’t hardly ever go to church and look how well you’re doing.”

“Shreese, I count my blessings every day. Me not going to church on a consistent basis has nothing to do with my faith.”

“Then why don’t you go?”

“Because church has never made me stronger. Listening to a man with the same needs as mine has never made me feel any better. Especially a man like Dixon.”

“Then what has?”

“What has what?”

“Made you stronger and able to live such a good life even though you sin?”

I shrug. “I guess just living and learning from other people’s mistakes. I try to do right by everybody, no matter who they are. We all sin, and I don’t have an answer for you why I do it. I suppose it’s because I’m a human being and mistakes are just a part of growing and realizing how much we do need God in our lives.”

“You still need a family to worship with to help you get closer to God. A solid group of believers.”

“Look, we could talk about this all day. I have ups and downs just
like anyone who goes to church every day, so that should tell you about physical foundations versus spiritual foundations. People have to find strength in themselves to do well in life. You can’t pray for no one to do that for you.”

“But prayer brought Mom back.”

“Prayer got her here, but she came back on her own.”

“I don’t see what you’re saying. Prayer is the moving force behind miracles.”

“Shreese, I know that, but people make decisions for themselves. God and prayer protect us. Now, this is just my opinion, but I even prayed for Louise to come home, just like you did, but still it took me calling her and telling her about a wedding for her to come.”

Shreese’s eyes light up. “Greg, you prayed for Mom to come home? Really?”

“Well, quiet as it’s kept, yes I did pray for her to come home, because I believe that prayer works. But Shreese, sometimes prayer isn’t enough. You have to have action to go with it.”

“You mean works.”

“Huh?”

“Works. Prayer without works is dead. James two and seventeen. It’s in the Bible.”

“So you see what I’m talking about.”

“Yes, and it’s really the same thing.” Shreese shakes her head at me.

“Now what?”

Shreese smiles slightly for the first time since I came over. “I always thought you never went to church because you were a male. Boys don’t go to church often.” She sniffs. “Neither do their fathers.”

“No, I just never believed church could do anything for me that I couldn’t do for myself, but what I do and how I live my life is not for everybody. I still have a relationship with God and that relationship is allowing me to help you in your time of need.”

“I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have Jesus,” Shreese proclaims.

“Well, he better help you figure out how you’re going to get back
on your feet,” I joke. “Do you have money for your rent and car note?”

“No. I don’t get paid until next Friday.”

“I’ll give you the money to cover your bills for the next three months. Don’t worry about paying it back, just get on your feet and promise me, if Dixon comes back around, you will call me.”

“See how Jesus works,” she says sarcastically. “You save me, but still have hatred in your heart. Greg, I’m sure he’s doing good things with that money.”

“Don’t start, Shreese.” I laugh. I’m glad to see she can still joke after all this. My sister always could see the lighter side of things.

She shifts on the couch and looks across the room at nothing in particular. “I’m going to have to move home until I can get some money saved back up.”

“I’m sure Pops won’t mind. He’d love to have you home again.”

“I feel so stupid. I should have known Ulan was the devil.”

“Yeah, and I would love to be the one to knock the hell out of him.”

“Well, he’s long gone now. Sister Meadows called and said that he ran off with one of the choir members. She was one of those young, loose sopranos.”

“God will deal with Ulan in his own time,” I say.

Shreese gets up and goes to the back. She returns with the draft of the wedding program and hands it to me. It’s a cream two-fold. On the back is a scanned color photo of me and Adrian.

“Hey, I like this,” I say as I admire the layout.

“I thought it was a good idea, too.”

I get up to leave. Shreese looks comfortable on the couch, and I suspect she will spend the rest of the day inside. “You need anything, baby girl?”

“No.”

“Call me if you need anything, I mean that. You have Adrian’s number, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

As I walk to the door, Shreese calls my name. “Greg?”

“What’s up?”

“I’m sorry for not listening to you. You saw through Pastor Dixon all along and I wouldn’t listen.”

“That’s what big brothers are for. I’m just glad you’re okay, that’s the important thing.”

“I’m worried. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Tears begin to fall from my sister’s face again.

“Hey, doesn’t Genesis say something about ‘Do not worry’?”

Shreese laughs through her tears. “No, dummy. It’s in the book of Matthew.”

“Well, read it and don’t sweat this. God will see you through, but you have to make some changes. Remember, faith without works … well, you know. Sometimes bad things happen to really good people.”

She smiles and gets up to lock the door. I hug my sister when she walks up to me. It’s an awkward moment for both of us. I hardly ever hug her.

When we were little we hugged all the time; then, when I entered high school, I showed my affection for her by making her laugh any way I could or making her mad. Picking her up and spinning her around, giving her a wedgie, licking my fingers and touching her face, anything that disgusted her but made her giggle.

Now she’s a woman, and I’m afraid to touch my own sister. She’s as stiff as I am, but I’m glad that we’re hugging, even if it’s only for a crisis situation.

A
drian has been busy these last few weeks. The wedding is next month, and I’m beginning to feel more anxious about getting it over with. Adrian has been at her wits’ end and taking me with her. I’ve been trying to get her to relax, but even my efforts go unnoticed. One day she had me out all day looking for a set of earrings for the maid of honor.

We haven’t been spending as much time together as I hoped, either. As a matter of fact, we haven’t spent any quality time together like we used to. She’s either coming by to pick something up or dropping it off. I guess the closer the wedding gets, the less we’ll see of each other. It’s cool, though, because it has given me more time to spend with Mom and Pops.

They were really torn by what happened to Shreese, but she told them she gave him only $800 instead of $25,000. I guess lying is Shreese’s first step to recovery.

I also convinced Adrian to let my sister house-sit our new home in Winnetka Heights until after the wedding. That way, Shreese won’t have to let Mom and Pops find out the total truth about her financial
situation. Adrian owns her two-bedroom town house, so Shreese will move in and rent it after the wedding.

Louise never said much to Shreese after everything was explained to her. She just looked at my sister and said, “I hope you’ve gotten some wisdom from this. There will be problems no matter where you go or who you’re with.”

When Shreese called me and told me about that talk, she said she was glad Mom didn’t fuss like she’d thought she would. She said Pops did all the fussing about the money. I told her it was probably because Louise didn’t raise us. Pops cussed for hours on end about Ulan Dixon and his crooked-ass ways. The last time I went by there, he was still talking about it.

Speaking of going by the house, Louise has done a lot of redecorating. She had new carpet installed, and she removed some of the pictures from the walls. They turned my old room into an entertainment room, and now the Boston grand sits boldly in the living room giving the house a fresh, classic appearance. Pops plays every day and he’s even written some new tunes. I don’t know what’s going on between him and Louise, but it’s obvious that whatever it is, it’s good for both of them. I don’t want to go as far as to say they’ve been doing the nasty or bumping uglies, but it sure seems that way.

Today, when I walk in the front door, they are in the back bedroom with the door closed. I make as much noise as I can to let them know I’m there, but ten minutes still pass before either of them comes out. Pops is first. He has on a pair of old jeans and a T-shirt. He goes straight to the kitchen and grabs an apple before joining me in the den. I assume they’ve been getting busy, because I head straight to the fridge after good sex too.

“Hey, what you know good?” he says as he sits next to me.

“Nothing. I was just coming by to see what you two were up to.”

“Oh, I’ve been in bed most of the morning. It’s still a little too chilly to be doing much else.”

I hear the bedroom door open, and Louise comes into the den, smiling. She’s humming a tune I’ve heard Dinah Washington sing, but I can’t recall the name of it. She’s wearing a dressing gown that flows to the ground. It actually looks like something Versace would create.

“Good morning, Mom.”

“Well, well, this is a nice surprise.” She leans in and kisses me on the cheek. “What brings you to this neck of the woods?”

“Nothing, I was just stopping by to visit. Did I interrupt something?”

“Son, you always interrupting something,” Pops says.

“Adolphus, stop.” Mom laughs.

I watch them laugh and make goo-goo eyes at each other. Looks like they worked out some things … 
worked them way out
.

“How’s Shreese holding up?” Pops asks.

“She’s good. She’s been helping Adrian out a lot on the wedding.”

“Did that Dixon guy ever show up again?”

“Not that I know of. Shreese said someone called her not too long ago, but no number or name came up on her Caller ID.”

“I bet that was him,” Mom says. “Men are prone to doing things like that.”

“And women ain’t?” Pops says. “Women invented harassment.”

“Well, it goes for both, but you rarely hear of stories where women did men wrong, because men don’t talk about things like that as openly as women do.”

“It’s an ego thing,” I say.

“I just hope Shreese doesn’t get caught up with that nigga again. Otherwise I’m gon’ kill him
and her
,” Pops says.

“She’s never had a boyfriend until now, has she?” Mom asks.

Me and Pops both shake our heads. “One boy tried to court her when we were in school together. His name was Earl, and he was churchy like she was.”