Right Beside You, page 4
“Where is your truck now?”
“Parked at the end of this block.” Clyde pulled out his wallet. “Oh, shoot! I forgot my Triple A card—”
“Don’t worry. I can take you to get gas. Let me make you some breakfast first, though. And some hot coffee.”
“Oh, all right then.” He paused and gave me a pensive look. “Fel, sometimes I don’t know what I’d do without you. I tell my mama all the time, you must be the best lady friend I got. I can’t figure out why you ain’t married.”
I didn’t even respond to Clyde’s last comment.
After breakfast, I drove him to a gas station and promised to go to the movies with him next week.
* * *
I had a key to my grandmother’s apartment, so I let myself in Sunday morning a few minutes before eight a.m. “Yoo-hoo, I’m here!” I yelled. I glanced around the living room. I shook my head and chuckled. Grandma Lucy was a borderline hoarder. She had useless knickknacks all over her two-bedroom apartment. One was a spodik, a tall fur hat worn by some Hasidic Jews. It sat on top of a defunct VHS VCR player she had purchased only because it had been marked down to a dollar. It didn’t matter that the thing no longer worked or that we didn’t know anybody who still owned VHS tapes. “Grandma Lucy, you home?” I yelled louder, looking around some more. Just as I was about to panic, she stumbled into the living room, dressed in one of her boxy beige pantsuits, mismatched jewelry, and a black turban.
“I ain’t deaf. So you ain’t got to holler like that,” she scolded as she walked toward me holding her coat and purse. “It took you long enough to get here. I was beginning to think you’d forgot we were going shopping today.”
“Shopping? I thought we were going to church.”
“Pffftt!” She gave me a dismissive wave. “Church, schmurch! If all the time I done already spent in church for almost ninety years don’t get me into heaven, nothing will.” Grandma Lucy gave me an apologetic look and then a tight smile. “Now I hope that didn’t sound too disrespectful or blasphemous. You know I love the Lord, but I like to lighten things up from time to time. It’s boring being too holy and walking too straight and narrow. Shoot. I need to have some worldly fun every now and then. God even said ain’t none of us perfect—except Jesus—so I know he expects us to stray now and then. Besides, I’m donating half of the four hundred and forty dollars I won yesterday at the casino to the soup kitchen.”
“I’m sure the soup kitchen will appreciate your generosity, Grandma Lucy.” I gave her a hug and tickled her chin. “The stores you like won’t be open for another hour, so we can go eat breakfast first.”
“Good. Take me to someplace real swanky.”
“You mean like that seafood place where Mayor Gibson and other celebrities eat?”
“I mean like IHOP.”
After breakfast, we meandered around for the next eight hours and picked up everything from turnip roots at a farmer’s market to a set of wooden spoons at Goodwill. On the way home, Grandma Lucy suddenly ordered me to drive to the south side to a thrift shop one of her friends had told her about. She didn’t have the address, the name of the place, or the phone number of the person who had told her about it, so that part of the trip was a waste of time. I never complained about all the roaming around we did, but it made my grandmother feel badly. “I am so sorry I wasted up so much of your time, sweetie.”
“I don’t look at it that way. Every minute I spend with you is important to me. I don’t care how many times we go on a wild goose chase. I can’t think of anybody else I’d rather ‘waste’ my time on.”
From the endearing look on my grandmother’s face as we cruised toward the freeway, I could tell my words meant a lot to her. And I meant every one of them. No matter how many times she “complained” about wasting my time, I never complained. “I’d spend even more time with you if I didn’t have to work,” I assured her.
“You’re such a good girl. You need to be doing things other women your age are doing, like raising a family. When are you going to get married? I can’t wait to see that happen. It’s the last thing on my bucket list.”
“So I’ve heard. . . .”
“Fel, don’t you have at least one special friend?”
“Yes. But I don’t want to discuss him until I know where our relationship is going.”
“I understand, sugar. He’s shy, huh?”
“Something like that.”
Grandma Lucy chuckled. “Your granddaddy was too. Shy men make the best husbands because they are too timid to argue. I hope your special friend ain’t too shy to propose to you someday—if he’s the one. Whether he is or not, I promise you I ain’t going to leave this earth until you get a husband.”
“Then you might live a whole lot longer than you think,” I teased. “Do you want to come spend the night with me?”
“Naw. Baby, you are so good to me, but I don’t want to wear you out. I done took up enough of your time today. Now take me to my apartment before I miss Judge Judy.”
When I got home, I stepped out of my shoes and dropped down onto my couch. Just as I was about to call up Pam, her caller ID popped up on my cellphone screen. “Hey, girl. How was church today?” she asked.
“I didn’t go. Grandma Lucy wanted to go shopping instead.”
“Oh. I just wanted to thank you for taking Clyde to get gas this morning. My baby told me about his bad date with some woman that picked him up at the mall. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
“Yeah. Well, I don’t think you have to worry about him getting too close to her.”
“You want me to send him back over there to take you to the movies or out to eat this evening?”
I took my time answering. “No, that’s okay. We’re going to the movies next week, if he’s available.” I swallowed hard and took a deep breath so I could get the next sentence out without stuttering. “Um, Pam, I ran into Richard Friday evening at Ralph’s Market.”
“So?”
“He was with Regina.”
“So?” Pam repeated. “I see him with her a lot. What’s it to you?”
“Nothing, really. It’s just that I was looking a hot mess. I didn’t have on any makeup. I had a do-rag on my head and boots even my grandmother makes fun of.”
“Fel, you’re one of the prettiest women I know, with or without makeup. You could never look a ‘hot mess’ in my book—even when you look a hot mess.”
“But Regina always looks perfect.”
“Well, I can’t argue with that. And she’s a nice person. That’s something I can’t say about most of the good-looking women I know. I wouldn’t be surprised if she and Richard end up getting married one day after all.”
“What? What do you mean by ‘after all’?”
“Didn’t you know? I guess you didn’t mingle with her crowd in high school. Anyway, Clyde was in some of the same classes with Richard and Regina. They were real hot and heavy back then. They got even more serious in college. Everybody expected them to get married someday. But right after they graduated, he joined the army and she married another man while he was overseas.”
“I didn’t know that. I knew she was divorced and has been friends with Richard for years. But I never knew they’d once been in a serious relationship.”
“Humph. Between her and some of those flirtatious females at the office, I’m surprised Richard hasn’t remarried. He’s such a good catch. I never knew a man so devoted to his children. His mama sure raised him right. He’ll make a good husband, if he ever decides to remarry. Won’t he?”
“Yeah. He will.”
CHAPTER 6
RICHARD
“Daddy, can I get a nose ring?” Carol asked while we were eating breakfast Monday morning.
“Now, you know better,” I snapped. A split second later, I gave her a smile. “If I let you do that, next thing I know you’ll want a tattoo.”
“Marsha Lawson just got a tattoo of a cute dragon on her leg,” Marva zoomed in.
I loved our early-morning chats, whether they were pleasant or not. Most of the time they were. Despite my strictness, sometimes I weakened and let them have their way. But I was determined to be firm today. “Tattoos are absolutely out of the question. When I was a teenager, the only people I knew with tattoos were criminals, bikers, and circus freaks,” I said. “And guys in the military,” I added with a sheepish grin. I tossed that in before they had time to make a remark about the rose tattoo on my right bicep.
“We can’t wear real makeup yet, go on dates with boys unless you go with us, stay up too late, hang out with certain kids, and you monitor our phones and computers, and what we watch on TV,” Carol complained. “Some kids can do whatever they want.”
“Not my kids!” I boomed. I softened my response with a wide smile and some practical advice. “It’s safer and smarter to stay within your boundaries.”
“Like you would let us get out of our boundaries,” Carol scoffed.
“Exactly,” I fired back, looking from one face to the other and gently wagging my finger. Marva snickered first and then Carol joined her. “All right now.” I clapped my hands and rose from the table. “Finish up, go wash your faces and hands, and grab your backpacks so we can be on our way. I don’t want to miss my bus.”
I loved living in Mandell, Ohio. It was a nice, quiet suburb of Cleveland with a very low crime rate. And it was a great place to raise children. Public transportation was very convenient, and I took advantage of it when I didn’t feel like driving. Webb Street Middle School was only four blocks from the four-bedroom house my late mother had inherited from her grandparents and left to me in her will. Rather than share ownership of the house with me, my brother had preferred the generous insurance policy our parents had left. He’d used the money to buy a beach house in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and start a dive shop business, which had done so well in the first six months, he’d opened two more a year later. My neighborhood had a vigilant crime-watch team, and our police department was less than a mile away, so I didn’t have to worry about my girls walking to and from school. But whenever I decided to drive to work, I always offered to drop them off in front of their school first.
“Ooh, I forgot! I didn’t finish my math assignment,” Marva wailed.
“And why didn’t you? You started working on it right after dinner last night.”
“Um, my laptop screen froze and the next thing I knew—babam! I was so sleepy I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Daddy, can you fix my computer? If I don’t turn it in, Mrs. Brown will fuss at me in front of the whole class.”
I groaned. “That excuse is not good enough. I will fix your problem and make sure you get your homework done before I leave. Starting today, you’ll both finish your homework before you eat dinner so I can make sure it gets done on time. And until it’s done to my satisfaction each evening, I’ll hold on to your cellphones.”
“Dang,” Carol muttered under her breath.
“All our friends can use their phones anytime they want to,” she pointed out.
“If they lived under my roof, they wouldn’t. They’d follow my rules, or find another place to live,” I said with a smile. But the girls knew that I always meant what I said, so they never pushed too hard. “Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Daddy,” they said at the same time.
Unfreezing Marva’s screen took only a couple of minutes. She had completed only half of her assignment, but I made her finish it and that took another twenty minutes. So that they wouldn’t be too late, I decided to drive them to school. By the time I did that, it was too late for me to catch my regular bus, so I decided to drive to the office.
* * *
Some people worked to live. I loved my job so much, I lived to work. Training and Management Development was a great company to work for. Our highly skilled trainers, twelve the last time I counted, facilitated workshops that helped management employees hone their skills, improve interpersonal relationships, and develop any other area in which they needed improvement. Each year we received at least an eight-stars-out-of-ten rating score for our classes. Our company even produced training videos. Two hundred full-time permanent employees and several temps occupied the second and third floors of an eighteen-floor office building only a couple of miles from downtown Cleveland. We had a smaller office in Louisville, Kentucky, and our home office was in Indianapolis, Indiana. A lot of external companies sent employees to attend our classes, so all three locations were busy most of the year.
The pay and benefits were spectacular. Most of my coworkers were nice people and easy to work with. Another perk was that I didn’t have to wear a suit and tie every day. I could wear jeans and a pullover sweater, or other casual attire whenever I wanted. I did suit up when I knew honchos from the home office were going to be on the premises, and when we had special celebrations.
Some of our classes lasted only two or three days, but most of them were five days long. Equipment was always breaking down, so the company put my electronic skills to good use. Some days I had so many repair requests, I had to come in early and stay late to complete them all. I supervised four other technical support employees. The five of us also fulfilled the reprographic and photocopy issues.
I had a small office with a view of a brick wall on the third floor at the end of the hall a few steps from the elevators. The other technicians occupied individual cubicles across from my office. Our manager, Sam Morello, had a huge office at the other end of the hall. He had a great view of Lake Erie.
Felicia’s office was directly below mine on the second floor. Every chance I got, I wandered down to her floor, hoping I’d see her.
CHAPTER 7
FELICIA
I was disappointed when I didn’t see Richard on the bus this morning. He and Pam lived at one end of the route, so they were among the first people to get on each day. By the time I boarded, four stops later, most of the good seats were gone. But when Richard was on the bus, he’d save the seat right beside him for me. Pam always sat in the aisle seat directly across from us. We always sat near the back because it was quieter. Some commuters in the rear seats either slept or read for most of the twenty-five-minute ride. In the eight years we’d been following this routine, the three of us had become close. We discussed everything from our work to what was happening in the news. We socialized together on special occasions and always with some of our other coworkers and friends present. Each morning that we rode on the same bus, Pam dominated the conversation by talking about her personal life. But Richard and I only shared the basics. I knew he dated, but I didn’t know how serious he was about anyone in particular. And vice versa.
Today when I got on the bus, Pam was in the spot Richard usually occupied, so I sat down next to her. Within seconds, she started yakking away about how wonderful her Thanksgiving dinner had been. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. She finished her monologue five minutes later with, “Girl, with my blood pressure, I don’t need to be eating the way I do. What did you do after I talked to you last night?”
“Nothing special,” I said with a shrug.
“Hmmm. Well, it could have been special if you had come to my house. You missed hearing the speech my grandson is going to recite at his school Christmas program. And I forgot to ask you if you went to some of the Black Friday sales.”
I shook my head.
“Why not? Did you have company?” I shook my head again.
“Humph! That’s a shame. You spend too much time by yourself. I keep telling my son he needs to spend more time with you—”
“Pam, Clyde and I are just friends. You know that,” I reminded. “He’s more interested in other women anyway.”
“Yeah, but you and my baby look so cute together,” Pam said with misty eyes and a chuckle. She was the kind of upbeat, resourceful, and wise old sister you read about in old books and poems. And she was as stylish and attractive as a tubby, moon-faced woman in her sixties could be. She wore a purple tweed suit underneath her gray coat, and black boots that zipped in the front. As usual, her thick gray-and-black hair was neatly coiffed today. “You’re so much smarter and prettier than some of the other women my baby spends time with. Oh well. His first wife was so unexciting. No wonder their marriage didn’t work. If he ever gets married again, I hope it’s with a ball of fire like you—even if it’s not you.”
“Well, this ‘ball of fire’ stopped blazing so long ago, marriage is probably not in my near future,” I said in a detached voice.
Pam gasped. “Girl, you can have any man you want!”
“I don’t know about that.” I sighed. “That may have been true when I was younger. I dated a lot in high school and college. When I was twenty-two, two different men asked me to marry them. But I wanted a career first. Poor Mama. She couldn’t believe I turned down marriage proposals from two different men in the same year.” I laughed. “She can’t wait for me to marry and have children. I promised her years ago that when and if I ever accept a proposal, she’d be the first to know.”
“That’s one promise I hope you keep.”
“I will.” I bit my bottom lip and gave Pam a thoughtful look. I noticed another female commuter in the seat in front of us staring at me, so I lowered my voice. “Pam, can I tell you something?”
“You can tell me anything you want. Who is it about?” Her eyes got so big I thought they were going to pop out of her head. As nice and sweet as Pam was, she loved to hear gossip as much as she loved to share things she’d heard or suspected. Even with a husband, Clyde back in the house, and six other grown kids in and out of her house with their kids, she still had a lot of time on her hands. “Is it about somebody at work? I bet it’s about Ramona, that clerk of yours who’s going to marry that bartender.” When Pam stopped talking, she tilted her head and gave me a pleading look. “Who is it you have something to tell me about? I’m usually the one with all the good news to report.”
