After All (6 page)

“
That's right, I'd
forgotten. I wonder how Jamal's doing.” Michelle sat a little less
rigidly next to him. She remembered the young boy Anthony had
devoted so much time to help. Jamal was fourteen and Anthony
nineteen when they were paired by the program. They had been so
close that all their friends had teasingly calling Jamal Anthony
Junior. Neither Anthony nor Jamal had minded one bit.

“
Pretty good actually. His
mother says he finished at the vocational school. He's working for
a air conditioning and refrigeration repair shop in Lake Charles.
Hey, he's getting married in about three months.”

“
Married? Little
Jamal?”Michelle stared at him in surprise.

“
Michelle, he couldn't stay
fourteen forever. He's almost twenty-four now.”

“
Time flies.”Michelle shook
her head with a smile.”Remember that time he punched you in the
stomach when you tried to take him back to school? He was something
else.”

“
Yeah, we had some rough
times in the beginning.”

“
Then there was the time you
brought him to the Friends and Family day picnic at our church and
he called that other kid a-- well, let's just say he accused him of
unnatural relations with his mother.”

“
Sister Stansberry grabbed
him by the ears and shook him until his teeth rattled,” Anthony
chuckled.

“
Yeah, then she made him
clean up by himself and you had to bring him to her house for
private bible lessons once a week for a month.”

“
That was as much punishment
for me as him. Sister Stansberry had that little street tough kid
jumping every time she called his name. All she had to do is say
`Jamal!' in that alto voice of hers.”

“
You should have seen your
face when Jamal asked why y'all couldn't go back to Sister
Stansberry's house after the month was up,” Michelle
teased.

“
He still visits her. Can
you believe it?”

“
Sure. His maternal
grandmother died when he just five years old, and he never knew his
father's family.”

“
Never knew his
father.”Anthony corrected and started tapping the table
again.

“
But between his mama, you,
and good old Sister Stansberry, he had lots of love.”Michelle's
voice softened. She also remembered why Anthony felt so strongly
about reaching out to help other boys.

“
Knowing somebody cares
whether you live or die certainly helps.”Anthony studied her
face.”That's what Uncle Ike did for me, Michelle. I know he's not
perfect, but when my father left us he was there for
me.”

“
Listen,--”

“
I'm not asking you to feel
the same as I do about him. And maybe he's done some wrong things.
Just try to understand. I cared for you and him, but I never chose.
I swear to you, I never chose him over you.”

“
Anthony, I don't know what
to say.”Looking into his eyes, Michelle felt a flutter in her
chest. In that instant, the over two hundred other people in the
room disappeared.

“
Say we can at least be on
speaking terms. I miss our friendship.” Anthony reached for her
hand.

Keisha appeared suddenly. “Here you
are. Anthony, Representative Benson has been asking for you.”Her
lips pursed at the sight of his hand covering Michelle's.”Saying
hello to an old friend I see. Ms. Toussaint.”

“
Good seeing you again,
too.”Michelle muttered. Michelle was irritated at her possessive
attitude.

“
I'll be there in a minute,”
Anthony broke in quickly.

“
You've already been gone
almost twenty minutes. Now, come on.” Keisha's voice took on an
aggravated, nagging tone.

“
There are quite a few
people here I've known all my life, friends and acquaintances,
Keisha.” Anthony's voice was strained.

“
Keisha, dear. How are
you?”A short, plump woman with obviously dyed red hair and large
ruby earrings said as she fluttered painted fingernails at
her.

“
Dr. DeLousse, how are
you?”Keisha smiled winningly before turning a stern face back to
Anthony. “Anthony, are you coming?”

“
Keisha, I'd like you to
meet someone.”Dr. DeLousse beckoned to her.

Michelle feigned an expression of being
impressed.”My, the Dean of Women at Xavier University is a friend
of yours.”

“
She and my mother were
roommates at Spellman.”Keisha lifted her chin just a
bit.

“
Really? Isn't that
something?”

“
Yes, well I attended
Spellman also. Anthony, I'll see you shortly?” Keisha stared at him
pointedly. When he nodded, she flounced off gushing a flowery
greeting as she approached the others.

“
Guess it's time for you to
go.”

“
Right.” Anthony frowned for
a few seconds watching Keisha. Turning back to Michelle, he placed
an arm around the back of her chair.”Listen, let's start over.
Lunch maybe one day next week?”

“
Give me a call.” Michelle's
mind was in a whirl with that simple invitation.

Anthony gave her hand a pat before
leaving. He was all grace as he wove his way through the tables to
join Keisha. Michelle felt a warm stirring at the animal way his
body moved. Her hand tingled where he had touched it. Well, surely
one lunch was harmless. She was still absentmindedly rubbing her
hand when Laree came back.

“
Uh-huh, y'all can't stay
away from each other. Soon as I spotted him over on the other side
of the dance floor eyeing you I knew he'd be over here.”Laree
plopped down and took a swig of ice tea.

“
You wench. Why didn't you
tell me?”

“
You kidding? I wasn't ready
to leave. You probably would've jumped up hollering `Let's go'. No
way, sugar. Not with all these beautiful BPMs.”

“
What?”

“
Black Professional Men. We
got a bumper crop this year and it's harvest time, honey. ‘Course
you've got the one prize every woman in town is after.”Laree nodded
toward Anthony's table.

“
We haven't even been on
speaking terms for years.”Michelle avoided her gaze.

“
I notice you seemed to be
getting along very well

just now.”

“
I suppose it's time to let
go of old grudges. It was a long time ago. We're both mature enough
to, you know, look at things differently.”Michelle gazed at
Anthony, so dashing in his black tuxedo. He wore formal clothes as
easily as a flannel shirt and jeans.

“
Are you saying Ike Batiste
is not so bad?” Laree gaped at her.

“
Of course not. But I can't
expect Anthony to turn on the man who practically adopted him and
gave him the affection his father didn't.”

“
So, you're saying Anthony
is not so bad and you two are gonna heat it up. Go, girl.” Laree
gave her a playful nudge.

“
Forget it. I'm only saying
we could be... on better terms.”Michelle still wouldn't look at
her.

“
This is me you're talking
to, sweetheart. With you and Anthony, being on better terms is just
the first step to Love Land. Watch what I'm saying.”

“
He won't get that close to
me, not ever again.” Michelle made it a point not to look in the
direction of Anthony's table for the rest of the
evening.

***

Sitting up in bed at three-thirty the
next morning, Michelle uttered a soft curse at the glowing blue
numbers of the clock radio next to her bed. Hot chocolate, old
movies, even a boring book, all her usual remedies for insomnia had
failed. She had spent the better part of the night in a futile
effort to block thoughts of him. It was as if the image of his
strong jaw, those eyes, and that body was burned onto her eyelids.
Each time she closed her eyes, there he was. To make matter worse,
memories of being in his arms came flooding back. And she kept
hearing his voice. Yes, she too had missed their friendship. But
could she risk letting him back into her life? His admiration for
Ike Batiste disturbed her.

“
Uncle Ike,” Michelle said
out loud.

Uncle Ike, who used people for his own
gain. Who was ruthless in business and, according to gossip, with
women. Even in high school, Anthony had emulated him. And when her
father's business went sour, everything about Anthony seemed to
reflect his Uncle Ike. If what Greg Matthews implied about his
dealing with Charlotte Kinchen and the Housing Authority was indeed
true, Uncle Ike had not changed one bit.

Still, the happy memories of she and
Anthony together crowded out the negatives. Michelle rubbed her
already reddened eyes and sank beneath the comforter. The warmth of
the quilts wrapped around her, reminding her of the way it felt to
be wonderfully enclosed in Anthony's arms and affection. Sighing,
she dozed off feeling a tiny prick of longing. A longing she
thought had been successfully rooted out years ago.

Chapter 3

“
This is a hot one, baby.
Ike Batiste is going down.”Earl pushed a pile of books to the floor
to sit in the chair at an empty desk next to Michelle and
Gracie.

“
Hey, it took me all day to
round up those for one of my stories. If any of my bookmarks have
fallen out, you're in deep trouble, buster.”Gracie got up and began
stacking them on the desk.

“
What's this about Ike
Batiste?”Michelle continued tapping her keyboard.

“
His good buddy James
Bridges was caught with his pants down, literally. His wife
followed him to a fancy hotel last month. Listen to this, she
pretended that she'd checked in with her husband but left her key
inside. She got a maid to let her into the room.”Earl wore a
crooked grin.”Mrs. B. went into the bedroom and all hell broke
loose. She's filing for divorce. From what I hear, she plans to
bleed old Jimmy boy dry.”

“
Juicy stuff, but what's it
got to do with Ike Batiste?” Gracie dropped the last book,
satisfied that everything was as she'd left it.

“
Mrs. Bridges wants to open
up all his business dealings so that she can be sure he won't hide
company assets or profits. Rumor has it that this will throw some
very much unwanted light on his shady business practices.”Earl
leaned over Michelle.”Including his relationship to Ike
Batiste.”

Michelle stopped writing.”Doesn't he
sell insurance and construction bonds, too?”

“
Yep, does pretty well I
hear.” Earl nodded.

“
That's real vague. I mean,
people have been saying stuff like that about Batiste and his
buddies for years. But it never amounts to anything that can be
proven or even something the district attorney can use to make a
case.” Michelle shrugged and went back to her keyboard.

“
Maybe so, but if anybody
knows where the bodies are buried it would be his wife. She's
bitter and wants revenge,” Earl said.

“
He's right. She's a woman
scorned,” Gracie agreed.

Earl stood up.”Anyway, I'm going to
interview her. She claims there are folks high up in the Mayor's
office involved in some of the deals.”

“
Whoa, if you can pin that
down you've got one helluva story. Those guys have been real cozy
for the past four years.”Gracie chewed on a pencil.

Michelle wore a look of pure
skepticism.”Good luck. But don't forget, those guys have been
sidestepping trouble for years without even getting close to a
courtroom. Their double dealings are burrowed so deep, it would
take major blasting to bring it to the surface. Hasn't been done
yet.”

“
I'm counting on Mrs.
Bridges having enough dynamite, babe. I'll keep you posted.”Earl
waved goodbye.

“
You know, this could tie up
somehow with your story.”Gracie pulled a book from the pile and
began thumbing through it.

“
It's shaky. They could kiss
and make-up tonight. Mrs. Bridges would say she was making it all
up out of anger, and Earl's only lead would be a dead end. Still it
will be very interesting to see where it goes.”

Michelle and Gracie went back to the
work Earl had interrupted without mentioning Bridges again. Still,
Michelle decided to file away the fact that Mrs. Bridges might be a
good source for her later on.

***

It was a typical Monday for them. There
were stories to follow-up from the weekend and new assignments
handed out for the week. Hard as she tried to deny it, Michelle's
attention was divided between work and anticipating a phone call
from Anthony. Arriving at her apartment, she changed into her
favorite oversized sweatshirt and old socks. Tuning on the radio,
she started dinner. When the doorbell rang, her heart
skipped.

“
Open up, girl,” Shantae
said through the door.

“
Hey now. What are you doing
over this way?”Michelle led the way back to her kitchen.

“
I got off from work, you
know and just thought I'd stop by and see what you're up to.”
Shantae picked up a piece of carrot and began munching on
it.