Been There Prayed That (9781622860845) (14 page)

“Come on in and take a seat, Uriah,” Pastor Davidson instructed as he led Uriah into his office. “I'm so glad that the Lord made it so that you were in town this weekend and able to come fellowship with us.”

“It is indeed a blessing to be able to hear you give the Word live and in person, Pastor Davidson. Bethany makes sure I get a copy of the CD of your preachings when she can. I listen to them faithfully while on the road, but there ain't nothing like being right here to hear them in the presence of the Lord amongst the saints,” Uriah declared as he took a seat at the chair across from the pastor's desk.

After service today, Pastor Davidson had made a beeline straight to Uriah. It was odd because one of the church members had invited a slew of her unchurched family members to attend, yet Pastor Davidson bypassed them all, giving them a simple handshake and wave along with a “Thank you for coming, God bless you, good-bye.” It was the church version of what Russell Simmons did at the end of every episode of his
Def Comedy Jam
.

Pastor Davidson appeared overjoyed to have his brother in Christ in the building. Forsaking all new visitors and his attempt to greet them, ultimately getting them to join Living Word, he asked Uriah if he could have a few minutes of his time to chat it up in his office. Now the two sat in Pastor Davidson's office doing just that.

“Well, I do hope those sermons have been a blessing to you while on the road,” Pastor Davidson stated.

“I assure you that they have.”

There was a moment of awkward silence before Pastor Davidson spoke again. “So Bethany must be beside herself to have you home.” Pastor leaned back in his chair and offered Uriah a knowing look.

“Surely not as happy as I am to be home, and for three whole days straight. I just couldn't believe that for some reason I wasn't on the log for any runs. Right on time to celebrate my son's seventeenth birthday. God is awesome. I know it was Him who orchestrated all of this. At first, I was a little disappointed to hear that I wouldn't be hauling for three whole days. No hauling means no money. But like you preached today, Pastor, I'm going to trust in the Lord that He'll make a way for all of my family's needs to be met. God's bigger than any paycheck I could ever receive,” Uriah testified, on the verge of letting out a Holy Ghost shout. “Being able to be here with my family is priceless.”

“That's good to hear,” Pastor Davidson said. “I, too, am glad that you were able to be here at church and also at home with your wife and kids. I know it must be difficult for Sister Bethany sometimes to have a husband who is always away from home. I know that even though I've been in the ministry for years, First Lady Davidson still gets a little lonesome when I have to go away to conferences and whatnot. But there ain't nothing like the warm welcome I get when I return home, if you know what I mean.” Once again, Pastor Davidson gave Uriah a knowing look. This time he added a wink.

“Uhh, well, uhh yeah,” Uriah stammered with downcast eyes. He was a little uncomfortable with the direction in which the conversation was now going.

Pastor Davidson anxiously leaned in, trying to read Uriah's expression. He couldn't tell if Uriah was looking away out of the embarrassment of his pastor's innuendo about his and his wife's bedroom life, or if he were looking away out of embarrassment that he and Bethany perhaps didn't have a bedroom life. Pastor decided to dig deeper. “You do get that warm welcome, don't you, brother?”

“Well, uhh, in all honesty, Pastor, I really haven't had the time.” Uriah was almost ashamed to say it.

“Haven't had the time? You've been home three days, and you're leaving this evening, right?”

Uriah nodded. The look of shame had not erased itself.

“And you mean to tell me you and Sister Bethany haven't—you know—welcomed one another in the proper fashion in which husbands and wives do?”

“Well, when I got in on Friday, all we did was celebrate Hudson's birthday. I'd driven all the way in from Atlanta just to get home, so by the end of the night I was dead tired. I didn't wake up until after two o'clock in the afternoon the next day. I only got up then because I'd promised Pastor Frey I'd join him on his visits with the sick and shut in.”

“What?” Pastor Davidson's tone was that of anger. He almost jumped up out of his chair. Realizing he'd almost come out the pocket, he relaxed back into his chair. “I mean, how could Pastor Frey ask you to do such a thing knowing you'd need to spend time with your family?”

“Oh, he didn't ask me,” Uriah corrected, “I offered and insisted. After all, that man has made it a point to be there for my family. He was faithful with visiting Beth while she was sick and shut in. He allowed God to use him without murmur or complaint. I wanted to do God's work too while I had the opportunity.”

“I see,” Pastor Davidson's mouth said, but Uriah could tell by his demeanor that he didn't understand. More than likely had a bone to pick with Pastor Frey. “I guess by the time you got finished running with Pastor Frey you were wore out.”

“No, not really, but after I got home and ate up that wonderful meal Doreen made for the family, I couldn't move. Fell asleep right there on the living room couch and didn't wake up until it was time for church this morning. My sister-in-law can burn. Doreen ain't no joke in the kitchen.”

“Yeah, Sister Doreen,” Pastor said as if his mind had wandered off. He seemed disappointed and at his wits end. He thought for a moment before saying, “Well, like I said, I know what it's like when you have to be on the road. Trust me, it can't be easy for your wife either, especially with all that she's been through. What do you say that your kids join me and First Lady for dinner tonight? Sister Doreen can join us too. I even think Pastor Frey is going to be there. That way you can have some alone time with your wife before heading out.”

“Oh no, Pastor, we couldn't impose like that. Besides, Pastor Frey already has dinner plans with us. Doreen invited him to share in my farewell dinner before I hit the road again. As a matter of fact, I'd like to invite you and First Lady to join us. There's plenty. With the spread Doreen's got warming in the oven at home, she probably had to have been up cooking since five o'clock this morning. What do you say, Pastor? How about it?”

Pastor Davidson sighed, and then accepted Uriah's invite, all the while with a look on his face the read,
“If you can't beat 'em, why not join 'em?”

“How could you not tell me?” Paige spat as soon as Tamarra opened her front door. She brushed by her, threw her purse on the couch, and then turned to face her best friend. “I thought we were friends—best friends. I thought we could share any and everything with each other.”

Paige began pacing the floor. “How long have you known? When did you find out?” A horrified look covered Paige's face. “Don't tell me you found out along with the rest of the world during the Single's Ministry meeting.” Paige snapped her finger. “Ooohhh, I knew I shouldn't have agreed to fill in at work for Norman. I should have brought my tail on to that meeting like my gut had told me to do. I am still officially single you know,” she said matter of factly. “I'm not married yet. And I promise you I would have told that Maeyl about himself. Humiliating you like that. That's something he should have at least have had the decency to share with you in private. Don't you think?” Paige stopped pacing long enough to look toward Tamarra for agreement.

Tamarra's eyes gazed down toward the floor as she nibbled on her bottom lip. It was a tell tale sign that Maeyl had told Tamarra before the fact.

“So you did already know?” Paige threw her hands on her hips. “And you didn't tell me.” Paige allowed her hands to drop to her side in defeat. She immediately began pacing again. “I guess you took it well. Guess you didn't need my little ol' shoulder to cry on, or my little ol' ear to vent into it.” She stopped pacing and looked at Tamarra. “I mean, did you know how stupid I felt when Sister Noel mentioned it, and I was clueless? I should have known before that walking and talking
New Day Tell All
book knew.”

Tamarra could tell that Paige was hurt. But she couldn't tell if she were more hurt because Tamarra hadn't come to her at all, or if it were because other church members had found out first. Either way, Tamarra didn't blame her friend for being upset with her. In the past two years of their friendship, Paige had entrusted Tamarra with a great deal of things and situations she had gone through. All Paige seemed to have wanted was a little reciprocity here.

Having truly wanted to tell her best friend, and knowing she should have told her before she heard it through the grapevine, Tamarra felt bad too. On Friday night, after the single's meeting was adjourned, she knew that it would only be a matter of time, minutes to be exact, before word would get out about Maeyl's confession of being the father of Sasha's daughter. It was inevitable that word would eventually get back to Paige. Tamarra was surprised it had taken this long, and she knew there was no way they were going to get through a Sunday at New Day Temple of Faith without somebody telling somebody else's business.

The right thing for Tamarra to do would have been to call her best friend and share it with her on the day she had showed up on Maeyl's doorstep and found out first hand. But she'd been way too humiliated to do just that. It was already hard enough for her to get that small child's whiny voice out of her head;
“Daddy?—That woman from church is at your door.”

Upon hearing those words, Tamarra's heart had dropped down to her feet as she stood outside of Maeyl's door as frozen as a Popsicle in a deep freezer. Even his warm, loving voice, when he made his way to the door to greet her, didn't unthaw her immediately. He had to call her name a couple of times, eventually coming outside onto the porch to give her a nudge.

“Tamarra, honey, are you okay?” he'd asked her.

“Uhh, yeah, uhh, fine—I guess,” she said, slowly coming out of her daze. “Did that little girl just call you Daddy?” There was no beating around the bush on Tamarra's end, not today. She'd played games with Maeyl long enough trying to get him to tell her the real deal about him and this Sasha woman, the real deal of which her spirit had already tried to tell her about. But no, she didn't want to trust the voice within her. She just had to hear it from the horse's mouth. So God gave her exactly what she wanted.

“Yes, she did call me Daddy,” Maeyl had confessed, looking Tamarra in the eyes, waiting for her reaction.

A nervous chuckle escaped Tamarra's lips. “And why, might I ask, would she be calling you that?”

“Because I am,” Maeyl said without hesitation. “And I have a DNA test to prove it.”

Tamarra turned as pale as a ghost and almost lost her balance.

“Are you okay?” Maeyl asked her, supporting her by the arm. Tamarra was too beside herself to even reply. “I'm sorry, Tamarra. This isn't how I wanted you to find out. But you weren't really speaking with me and—”

“Then you should have spoken to me!” Tamarra snapped, raising her tone.

Maeyl looked over his shoulder to make sure his houseguests weren't witnessing the brewing argument. “I tried, but you wouldn't take any of my calls since the day you stormed out of here.”

“Then you should have left me a message!” Her tone was even louder.

“This isn't really the type of thing you leave your woman a message about over the phone.”

“Then you should have driven to my house.”

“Without calling first? You wouldn't take my calls.”

“Oh, enough already!” Tamarra yelled at the top of her lungs, frustrated that Maeyl seemed to have a comeback for everything she said. “You're just full of excuses, aren't you?” Tamarra looked him up and down. “I just wonder what your excuse is for being a whoremonger!”

“Daddy?” There was that little whiny voice again. “What's a whoremonger?”

Both Tamarra and Maeyl were startled by Sakaya standing in the doorway.

“Come on, baby, I think we better come back and see Daddy another time.” Sasha had appeared in the doorway behind Sakaya, swooping her up in one arm while carrying her purse and an American Girl doll that resembled and was dressed identical to the child in her other arm. She gave Maeyl a remorseful look as she exited the apartment. “I'm so sorry, Maeyl.” She looked to Tamarra. “We're sorry.” She began to make her way down the steps.

“Sasha, wait, you don't have to go,” Maeyl called out.

“Actually we do.” Sasha looked from Tamarra to Maeyl. “I think you two need to talk.” She looked at her daughter. “In private and without virgin ears around.”

“Mommy? What's a virgin?” The child was full of questions. She didn't miss a beat. Autistic she wasn't. Either the doctors had originally misdiagnosed, or when that woman laid hands on the child and both prayed for a healing and rebuked the doctor's reports, it worked. Because when Sasha took the child to another doctor for a second opinion, no signs of autism were detected. Either way, Sasha had given God all the glory for her daughter being a normal, healthy child.

“I'll call you later, Maeyl,” Sasha stated. “Good-bye, Sister Tam—Tamarra?”

Tamarra was surprised to see that this woman knew her name. That only meant one thing; Maeyl had been discussing her with that woman. It burned Tamarra up to know that Maeyl had been discussing her with another woman. “Yes, that's right. It's Tamarra. But best you believe, I am no sister of yours.” There was a gasp from both Maeyl and Sasha's mouth. Not even Tamarra could believe she had spoken the words she'd only meant to think. Served her right though, for even thinking something so ugly. Especially after Pastor was always preaching about how everybody is God's children. How everyone are brothers and sisters in Christ.

Knowing she was dead wrong for the way she had come off at Sasha, Tamarra wanted to apologize, but her pride wouldn't let her. Her woe is me attitude wouldn't let her. As far as she was concerned, she was the victim in this situation. It was understandable if she said a thing or two that wasn't Christ-like, wasn't it? She couldn't have apologized if she wanted to, as Sasha quickly made her way to her vehicle, strapped Sakaya into the backseat, and drove away.

After watching Sasha peel off, Maeyl had insisted that he and Tamarra take their conversation inside. The neighbors had already heard more than they needed to. It was inside that Maeyl explained to Tamarra how Sasha had been conceived, how he never knew the child even existed, how it was God's doing that the child's mother and he even crossed paths again. Maeyl insisted that this didn't change the way he felt about Tamarra and that things wouldn't change between them. It was then that Tamarra decided she'd sweep her pride up under the rug and pretend that love conquered all. All the while, deep inside, this was the one instance in which she felt that the Bible had perhaps been in error when it stated that love could cover a multitude. For some reason, as much as she loved Maeyl, she just didn't feel as though it could cover the circumstances she now found herself in.

Why she had been so surprised, so stunned, at hearing the child refer to Maeyl as Daddy she didn't know. Her spirit had already told her such from the moment she'd looked into the little girl's eyes. The girl's words were nothing more than further confirmation. Now Tamarra realized that as agonizing as not knowing was, sometimes knowing was even more agonizing. Darn that Eve for eating from the Tree of Knowledge!

After bumping into the church secretary and hearing what she had to say about Maeyl and Sasha, Tamarra knew she had previously jumped to conclusions the day she stormed out on Maeyl. All she'd wanted to do was to apologize to him. She had showed up seeking forgivness, not baby mama drama. And on top of everything else, it was the child's mouth Tamarra had to hear the news from first. In her opinion, she should have been the first person Maeyl called once he got the test results. With that being said, Tamarra truly could understand how Paige felt about her not coming directly to her. But just in case she didn't, Paige was going to make sure she did.

“I have to hear it through the grapevine that Maeyl has a daughter—with Sasha.”

“I'm sorry, Paige,” Tamarra apologized. “I wanted to tell you, but . . . but.” Tamarra became choked up.

Seeing her friend in such pain made Paige realize that this wasn't about her. “No, I'm sorry,” Paige said, walking over to her friend and comforting her with an embrace. “It was selfish of me to even come here and try to make this all about me. I can't imagine what you must be going through knowing that yet another man—” Paige immediately stopped her words from coming out.

Tamarra slowly separated herself from her friend. “Go on. Say it.” She looked at Paige. Paige became a big watery blur as Tamarra's eyes became completely full with tears. “Say it, Paige. Knowing that yet another man, a man that I'm in love with, has gotten some woman pregnant outside of our relationship, has a child and is going to run off and live happily ever after with his baby's mama. See, this is why I didn't want to say anything to you, to anybody, because I knew you'd all be thinking the same thing.”

“Tamarra, that's not true.” Paige tried to rub Tamarra's arm, but Tamarra snatched it away.

“What do you mean it's not true? You just said it yourself.” Tamarra tightened her lips. “I knew I shouldn't have shared my testimony about me and my ex-husband in that stupid Single's Ministry meeting. Now everyone knows my business and it's going to do me more harm than good. Now everyone is going to know that something is wrong with Tamarra,” she began to rant in third person. “Tamarra can't keep a man. She must be cursed or something.” She walked over to her couch and flopped down. She looked upward. “I don't blame you, God. I guess since I can't give these men babies, you've got to make sure they get them from somewhere.”

There was awkward silence. In all of her murmuring and complaining, Tamarra had said something, yet another thing that she hadn't shared with her best friend.

Paige swallowed, then slowly walked over and sat down next to Tamarra. “I could pretend like I didn't hear what you just said, but I won't.”

Tamarra didn't reply.

“Do I need to ask you about it, or are you just going to tell me?”

Again, Tamarra didn't reply.

“You always made it seem as though you were happy you'd never had a child with your ex-husband, Edward. You made it seem like it was just something the two of you never sat and decided you wanted to do. So now, are you saying that it wasn't that you didn't want to have kids, but that you can't have kids, Tamarra?”

Tamarra still remained silent.

“Well, it's evident that the two of us aren't as close as I thought we were. I mean, I thought I was a good friend to you.” Paige's voice began to tremble as she held back tears. It hurt her deep inside that Tamarra hadn't trusted her the way Paige had trusted Tamarra. “I thought I was the type of friend that you could trust and share anything with, but I guess I was wrong.” Paige stood. “I guess I was wrong about you too, about us—this entire friendship. I mean, I honestly don't know how well I know you after all.” After making her way to the door and opening it, before exiting she turned and said, “And don't worry about us finding a maid of honor dress for you either . . . you read between the lines.”

Paige disappeared to the other side of the now closed door before Tamarra could stop her. In all honesty, Tamarra didn't know if she even really wanted to stop her. The way she felt, she just wanted to crawl under a rock somewhere . . . anywhere where she could cut herself off from the world. She knew she should be hurt that Paige no longer wanted her to be a part of her wedding, but in fact, it was a relief. As far as she was concerned, Paige getting married was probably the worst mistake she could make. But she wouldn't dare tell her friend that. No, if Paige had said it once, she'd said it twice:
“This is the man I prayed to God for, so I know our marriage is going to be blessed.”