Been There Prayed That (9781622860845) (15 page)

“Humph. Been there prayed that,” Tamarra said out loud just thinking about her friend's naivety. What made her think Blake was so different than any other man? All she was doing was setting herself up to be hurt, truth be told.

The phone rang, and immediately Tamarra thought it was Paige calling to apologize for booting her out of her wedding.

“Poor girl didn't even make it out of the driveway,” Tamarra said as she got up to retrieve the phone. “She knows I love her,” Tamarra said before answering the phone. “I'm sorry, Paige. You are my best friend. I do trust you, and I know that I can share everything with you. As a matter of fact, I really do need to talk, not just about me though. But about you and Blake—this whole marriage thing—just everything, girl—”

“Tammy?”

Tamarra froze mid-sentence.

“Tamarra, honey. It's your brother and me,” her mother chimed in. “Thank you for finally answering the phone, sweetheart. We really need to talk to you about—”

“How dare you, Mother!” were the only words Tamarra could muster up. Her mother could not have picked a worse time to call. “How dare you after all of these years try to bring my brother back into my life? You and I barely had a relationship, Mom. We were just starting to get things back on track, and now you feel as though things are going so great that you can invite Raymond to join in on the so-called reconciliation? This was all a trick, wasn't it, Mother? You were just trying to get back in good with me so that you could, once again, manipulate me regarding Raymond. Well, guess what? I don't want anything to do with you or my brother. From this day forward, not only do I not have a brother, but I don't have a mother either.”

Tamarra slammed the phone down and made a quick turn to go back to the couch. Upon turning around, she froze in her tracks.

“Brother?” Paige said to Tamarra with a look of confusion on her face. She'd returned to retrieve her purse that she'd left on Tamarra's couch. She didn't bother knocking, figuring since she'd only been gone a few seconds, Tamarra probably hadn't bothered to lock the door yet. But when she walked right in, she had no idea she would be walking in on such a conversation. She was flabbergasted. But even more so, she was confused. She was now almost totally convinced that the woman standing in front of her wasn't who she thought she was. “You have a brother, Tamarra? Just how many secrets are you keeping?”

“I don't care what you say, if you ain't feeling no better in the next couple of days, I'm personally driving you to the doctor's office,” Eleanor said as she carried a pot of chicken noodle soup through Lorain's doorway.

“Mom, you didn't have to come all the way over here. I'll be fine,” Lorain assured her mother as she closed the door, and then followed Eleanor into the kitchen area.

“Where's your thermometer?” Eleanor asked, setting the pot on the stove. “I need to see how high your fever is.”

“Mom, I don't have a fever.” Lorain sucked her teeth. “Like I told you, I'll be fine. I just need to rest.”

“Oh no, I'm not buying it. There is no way you can be fine,” Eleanor insisted as she made a beeline toward the bathroom to search the medicine cabinet for a thermometer. Lorain stayed on her heels. “You have to have a fever. Never in your life have you turned down a trip to the mall when I'm buying, so I know you're sick—delirious even.”

Just two hours ago, once Eleanor figured church had let out, she called Lorain to invite her to go shopping. When Lorain had first declined, stating that she didn't have the money to go shopping, Eleanor then offered to buy her daughter a pair of shoes if she agreed to tag along. Lorain knew how much her mother hated shopping alone, but still, she declined, this time stating she still wasn't feeling one hundred percent herself. Lorain was a shoe diva, had over 100 pairs stacked in her closet, but she didn't want to spend time with Eleanor for fear she might bring up
him
. And she just wasn't quite ready to talk about
him
yet.

“Mom, please. Now you know it's not that serious.”

“Like heck it ain't.” Eleanor paused for a moment, then turned to her daughter and asked, “Did you even go to church today? Because you didn't call me to come visit with you this Sunday. Even though you know half the time I'm going to say no, you still ask all the time.” She turned back toward the cabinet and began digging through it. “I couldn't have come visit New Day no way. I visited Broady's church today.”

“That man goes to church?” Lorain asked. Her tone revealed a mixture of both shock and disgust.

“Well, yes, he does.” Eleanor ceased her search and faced her daughter again. “You asked that like the man is one of Satan's imps. Yes, he goes to church.” She continued her search. “Loves the Lord. As a matter of fact, he helps oversee the Youth Ministry.”

Lorain lost her balance as her body flushed with heat. She grabbed hold of her mother to keep from falling.

“That's it, we're going to find an urgent care that's open on Sundays,” Eleanor said, now completely putting an end to her search, closing the medicine cabinet. She grabbed her daughter by the elbow in an effort to lead her out the bathroom door and straight out the front door.

“Mom, no! I'm not sick. Not physically anyway.” Lorain pulled her arm from her mother and then went and sat down on the couch.

“What do you mean, ‘not physically'?” Eleanor raised her eyebrows. “You trying to tell me you're going mental on me or something? Oh Lord, don't let it be,” Eleanor began to plea with raised hands. “I promise from now on I'll go to church to see about you, not to find no man and not to please no man. I'll make sure it's all about you, Lord, just don't let my baby be going crazy. I need her to be my maid of honor in my wedding soon.”

“Oh Lord!” This time it was Lorain crying out to the Lord.

This was the second time her mother had made reference to marrying Broady. The first time she brushed it off as her mother exaggerating her interest in the man. Her mother was a sucker for a nice looking gentleman and had claimed many men as her future husband merely by seeing them in the grocery store line. Lorain had to admit, although she'd only laid eyes on Broady for a hot second, he had aged quite well. His salt and pepper hair that was a cross between both wavy and straight was very becoming of him. His full matching beard and thin mustache was simply GQ. The casual button up shirt he wore with his dress pants and leather loafers defined his six foot two inch, medium build frame. So she could see why her mother would be so quick to want to become Mrs. Broady Leary. Even so, she was willing to bet her tithes and offerings that if her mother knew the truth about Mr. GQ's past, she'd feel otherwise.

Lorain certainly wanted to, but couldn't find the words to tell her mother about Broady; what he'd done to her. Now she felt as though he was abusing her all over again by dating her mother. He had to know the torment she would feel. Or did he? Did he even recognize her? Her mother had gone back to using her maiden name while Lorain still carried her father's last name, so the name thing alone wouldn't have rung a bell with Broady.

Nonetheless, just the thought of the entire scenario is what was making Lorain sick. Right now, it wasn't even just the fact that her mother was dating the man that made her sick, it was the fact that he was somewhat in a position of authority at his church to do to other girls what he'd done to her.

How could God let that man be the overseerer of a youth ministry, any ministry for that matter, but especially one that gave him authority over young kids, young girls. Just like he had been in a position of authority over her. He'd abused that authority once, what made God believe that he wouldn't do it again?

Lorain couldn't help but wonder how many girls like her he'd abused at the church all in the name of Jesus. How many girls he had posed to merely counsel or pray with, but then took it a step further. It tore Lorain's soul apart knowing that these girls may have had to suffer all because of her keeping quiet about what he'd done to her. Her brain could barely obtain all of the thoughts that were traveling around it. She felt that if she didn't do something, she just might go crazy. But for now she would just thank God for keeping her mind thus far and pray for Him to continue to keep it.

“No, Mom, I'm not going crazy or anything like that. It's just that—” Lorain's words trailed off when she looked into her mother's eyes.
Tell her. Tell her
, her inner thoughts urged. “It's about Broady.” Lorain paused and dropped her head.

Eleanor sighed, and then joined her daughter on the couch. “I know already, sweetheart.”

Lorain was stunned. “You do?”

Eleanor shook her head. “Yeah, Broady told me.”

Lorain's voice got caught in her throat. After one hard cough though, she was able to release it. “He did?” There was both surprise and shock in her tone. She didn't know which kind of way to feel right about now. A part of her wanted to commend the old man for stepping up to the plate and telling her mother about his past—their past. Another part of her wanted to knock her mother upside the head for still wanting to be involved with the man.

“Yes, he did.” Eleanor lifted her head and looked into her daughter's eyes. “I didn't believe it at first though. I guess I was just waiting to hear if from you. I mean, you're at the age now where you could have just told me. Back when you were younger, I could understand. But you're not a little girl anymore, sweetie.”

Lorain's eyes watered. “Mom—I—I don't know what to say.” Lorain had to admit that there was a feeling of relief that she didn't have to fix her mouth to tell her mother about what Broady had done to her. She didn't know exactly what to say and how to say it, but now she didn't have to worry about that. Now all she had to worry about was how her mother would see her from this point on. Would she think she played a part in it? Would she blame her in any way? Would she be hurt that Lorain didn't feel she could come to her about it?

“You don't have to say anything, and I won't make you say anything.” Once again, Lorain felt relief. “All that matters now is that I know what's going on, and I'm going to do everything motherly possible to help you get over it.” Eleanor wiped the tear that was now running down her daughter's face. “I just need you to know that I'd never put Broady before you, any man before you.”

“So does that mean you're going to stop seeing Broady?” Lorain didn't hesitate to ask the million dollar question.

“Child, no,” Eleanor was quick to say, as she brushed her daughter away. “I said I'm never going to put the man before you. I didn't say I was going to give up the man for you.”

“Mom, are you serious?” Lorain exclaimed as she stared at Eleanor with dropped jaws. Surely she was missing something here, or had her mother just informed her that she was going to continue seeing the man who'd taken advantage of her when she was just a young girl in middle school?

“I'm dead serious,” Eleanor informed her, confirming that she'd heard her right the first time. “I'm not going to stop seeing Broady. As a matter of fact, I didn't want to go shopping today just to be shopping. I wasn't going to buy you any old pair of shoes.” A huge, proud smile covered Eleanor's face as she placed her left hand on her chest and fluttered her fingers. “I wanted to shop for dresses for us to wear for my wedding ceremony, and shoes to match.”

That's when Lorain saw it. Never mind the words that had the nerve to escape her mother's lips—that's when she saw it, the bling-bling diamond engagement ring that rested on her mother's ring finger. She jumped to her feet like a Jack-In-The-Box. “What? You mean after what he told you, after what I just confirmed, you're going to marry that man?”

“I reckon I am, and you shouldn't be so selfish about this. Your mother ain't no spring chicken you know.” She ran her hands down her thighs that still stuck out in all the right places. “I may look like a spring chicken, but Lord knows I'm not. I may never get a proposal again. Don't you want Mama to be happy?”

Lorain just stood there shaking her head in awe. “I can't believe this.”

“Look, dear, like I said, you're older now. You can get over these types of things.”

“These types of things? You act like this is something that happens all the time.”

“Well, it does, doesn't it?” Eleanor had a confused look on her face. “I mean, Broady said it happened all the time with the girls at the school he retired from.”

Lorain grabbed her stomach. She thought she was going to be sick. She needed that thermometer more than ever now. Certainly it was her mother who had the fever. She was the one who was delirious. If not that, then her mother had certainly drunk the Kool-Aid, recipe compliments of Jim Jones. Or had she been just flat out brain washed by Broady? Lorain knew he had the capability to brain wash young girls, but grown women too?

“So there are others besides me?” Tears began to pour from Lorain's eyes.

“Honey, don't cry.” Eleanor raced to her daughter's side to comfort her. “Broady says it's natural for a girl to feel this way. I know you learn in church that jealousy is not a spirit of the Lord, but you're only human.”

“Jealousy?” Lorain had no idea why her mother thought these words would be comforting to her.

“Yes, jealousy. Isn't that what's going on here? You're jealous that for so many years it's been just me and you, and now that Mama has a new man in her life, you're feeling jealous, scared that he's going to replace you in my life? Broady told me that you'll get over it eventually, once you see that a husband and wife's relationship could never take the place or come between a mother and daughter relationship.”

Lorain just stood there with her mouth agape.

“I know, I know, sweetie.” Eleanor hugged her daughter and pat her back like she'd done so many times when Lorain had been a child and needed comforting. “You don't have to say anything. Like I said, at first I wanted to hear it from you. I wanted to hear from your mouth that you were afraid you'd lose me to Broady, but I won't make you say it. You must feel silly being a grown woman having to admit that you are jealous that your mother has a new man, especially with you not having one. It must be an even bigger embarrassment considering you teaching your Christian folks how to get one as leader of that Single's Ministry. But it's nothing to be embarrassed about. Broady said he's seen it a thousand times over the years with the young girls at school, some of the boys too—”

As Eleanor went on and on, Lorain blocked the sound of her mother's voice out. When her mother had said the words,
“Broady told me,”
Lorain had thought he'd told her about what he'd done to her. She had no idea that all this time, all throughout her mother's and her conversation, that they'd been on two different pages.

“Now we haven't exactly set a wedding date, and I know all of this seems so soon,” Eleanor continued, “but we both agreed that there is no need in us dragging this engagement thing out like you young folks do. Besides, at our age, tomorrow definitely isn't promised. So if I have things my way, we'll be married in the next couple of months.”

Lorain was listening again. “Mom, I . . . I,” she stammered, still at a loss for words as a result of the confusion that had just taken place. “You can't marry him!” Lorain just flat out said in a stern tone.

Eleanor was stunned by her daughter's tone toward her. “Excuse me, young lady?”

“I mean, you can't marry him because—because you just met the man. You can't possibly know everything about him.” Lorain was certain her mother didn't know everything about him.

“I know enough, thank you very much.” Eleanor's displeasure with her daughter's attitude and tone was evident. “Look, I don't have to stand here and take this.” Eleanor headed for the door. “You can stay over here and act jealous and play sick all you want to. That's on you. But Mama is about to become the new Mrs. Broady Leary, like it or not.”