Good to Me (8 page)

“I just want everybody to know that me and Cherry are two different people and that’s okay. You wouldn’t want two Ieshas,
so you shouldn’t want two Cherrys.”

“Like I said,” Mama Lorraine said, faking a smile so hard she was bearing down on her teeth, “we ain’t the ones with the problem.”

“Well, why did you want Cherry to give me a job?”

“’Cause you needed one.”

“That’s what I’m talking about. Y’all always talking about what I need. Since when did everybody become an expert on Iesha?
According to y’all a job ain’t all I need.” She held out her hand to count on her fingers all the things she had been told
she needed. “I need to quit clubbing, I need to quit depending on welfare, I need to go to church, I need Jesus… I need
for y’all to let me be myself. I ain’t hell-bound, but if I do go, it ain’t like we on no family plan. I’ll be going by myself.”

Mama Lorraine shook her head at Iesha. “Everybody hold hands. We need to pray.”

She paused so everyone could follow her lead. They bowed their heads, closed their eyes, and joined hands.

“Lord,” she raised her voice. “Oooooh, Lord,” she sang like a preacher in the climax of a sermon. “Let it be known, hah, by
You and all Your heavenly angels, hah, that my daughter Iesha Nicole Brown, hah, bless her heart, hah…”

“Bless her Lord,” Charity chimed in, realizing that her mother was having fun.

“She ain’t hell-bound, hah, but if she do go, Lord, hah…”

“Have mercy, Lord, have mercy,” Charity mocked.

“We just wanna thank You, hah…”

“Thank You, Jesus.”

“That we ain’t on her family plan. Hallelujah!”

“Hallelujah!”

“Let the church say, amen.” Mama Lorraine could not keep her composure any longer. She laughed like she was watching her
Madea’s Family Reunion
video.

“Amen,” everyone, including Mr. Brown, agreed as they laughed along with her.

Even Iesha laughed. That’s one good thing about the Brown family, it was hard for them to stay mad at one another. Their sense
of humor sustained them through some very tough trials. “Y’all the ones going to hell,” Iesha said. “Making fun of the church.
Y’all better check y’all policies, it might be better to get on that family plan.”

JOSEPH KNEW IT WAS CHEAP LABOR,
but it was keeping him from being idle. “Idle hands are the devil’s work tools,” he remembers his mother telling him. He was
a quality control manager for a furniture production company that outsourced its work to the prison. He supervised up to fifty
workers and inspected the office and dormitory furniture they made. Most of the men had never worked before, or they had very
few skills, which contributed to the many inefficiencies he would find in their finished products. His job was stressful.
Oftentimes he walked the fine line between being a buddy and a boss to the workers. He liked to keep them encouraged because
of the oppressive situation they were in, but they often mistook his kindness for a reason to be slack. The workers made furnishings
by hand, therefore, their products were more expensive. He had to make sure their work was perfect and timely, because of
the high demand for their furniture.

“Good morning, Brother Lee. You gone make someone a proud executive with the muscle you putting into that desk.”

“Thank you, sir. It’s turning out good, ain’t it?”

“Oh yeah. You’ve become the furniture maestro around here. Keep up the good work.”

“I will. Making furniture takes my mind off things,” he said, sanding the wood. “I won’t complain, though. Most of my needs
are met here. I got a place to stay, a job, no debt, plenty to eat, and medical attention when I need it. But being here by
myself is lonely. Making furniture fills that void for me. Every piece I make is important.”

Joseph patted him on the back. “And it shows. You should meet some of the brothers in the fellowship. We have intercessory
prayer every night at seven thirty in the Clayford building and we do Bible study on Wednesday nights at that time. You should
come to Bible study tonight in the chapel. The meetings are guaranteed to chase away the lonelies.”

“Maybe I will.”

He went back to his desk after checking on the other workers. He knew exactly what Brother Lee was talking about. He condemned
himself for prescribing the fellowship as a cure-all for loneliness. He had been leading the fellowship for two years and
still had to deal with the aching in his heart to be loved.
Yes
, he scoffed,
Jesus is all I need
.
But it sure wouldn’t hurt to know love on this side of heaven
. He opened the quality assurance paperwork on his desk, and, like Brother Lee, began to pore over his work.

Later that evening, Joseph went to the chapel for Bible study. He liked the evangelist who was coming in to teach tonight.
Evangelist Wilhimena Graves was an older woman he could tell knew what she was talking about. He sat at the piano as usual
to open up with one or two hymns. He played “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms of Jesus,” as the group of twenty men sang along.
Instead of playing another hymn, he began playing the chords to a song he felt that God helped him to compose. He closed his
eyes when he saw the looks of confusion upon the men’s faces. There used to be a time when he would’ve been too shy or scared
to sing in front of a group of people. In fact, he knew that he couldn’t sing, but he kept practicing, training his voice,
and asking God for the gift of singing. He opened his mouth to see how well he had fared.

I know in Whom I’ve believed

I know Whose grace I’ve received

Oh, oh Lord, thank You for blessing me.

I know Whose words I’ve confessed

And I know that I shall be blessed

Oh, oh Lord, thank You for loving me.

Now-ow, Lord. Hon-or Your Word.

Keep me in Your will

I promise to stand still.

Oh, oh Lord, thank You for blessing me.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the men standing with their arms outstretched toward heaven. Tears were streaming down their
faces. Again, he realized that God had answered another prayer. Evangelist Graves walked over to him and took the microphone.

“Brother, stand up,” she admonished him. She turned to the crowd. “Y’all stretch your hands toward this brother. He is anointed.”
The men did as she said. She turned back to him and said, “Brother, God says He has heard every one of your requests. And
just like He answered you tonight, He is going to answer you concerning your release from this place.” The young man lifted
his hands to receive her utterances. “Mark my word,” she continued. “Your days here are numbered.”

After the services, Joseph went back to his room encouraged.

“GOOD MONDAY MORNING, IESHA,”
Charity greeted. “How long have you been here?”

“Hey. I got here around eight thirty. I just came on in after I dropped the kids off at school.”

“Is everything all right at home? Because the sister I grew up with doesn’t show up anywhere early.”

“Well, this is the new me. Since our talk at Momma’s yesterday, I decided that I don’t have to prove nothing to anyone anymore—except
to myself. So, I’m turning over a new leaf.”

Charity hugged her. “Praise God. Does this mean you’ll be going to church on Sundays?”

“Slow down, evangelist Holyfield, don’t sling me into the ring just yet. I’mma do one thing at a time. And today, I just wanna
learn how to do my job and be good at it.”

Charity looked away. “Well, that’s a good start.”

“Don’t look so sad. I’mma get back to church real soon. I’ll probably come to yours because y’all got more men in your church
than they do at daddy’s church.”

Iesha was the only one laughing. “Cherry, you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” She forced a smile. “Just thinking of the best way to start the day here. Let me go and put my things down
and—”

“Hm-uhm. You lying. Did you talk to Emmitt and find out who that girl was he was with? Or if that’s his baby?”

“No, I’m not even thinking about Emmitt, Iesha. I said I’m fine.”

“That’s what your mouth say… You ain’t fooling me… I grew up with you… Know you like the back of my hand. Don’t
make me call Emmitt and cuss him out… ’cause I’ll do it… Gone have the nerve to bring a chick to your house, hmph,
you want me to call him?”

Charity laughed. Iesha was so much like Mama Lorraine that it was not funny. It didn’t take much to get her riled up, and
once she was going it was hard to get her to stop.

“Thank you, sis. For the third time, I’m fine. Let me go and put my things down and you and I can go over that little guide
I made for you and see if you have any questions. Since you want to learn how to do a good job here.” Charity walked off before
Iesha could protest.

She opened the door to her office and walked over to her desk to put her belongings down. She wished she had a devotional
book, something quick to help her get her focus. Tears blurred her vision. She rolled her eyes to the ceiling, to keep the
tears away from her makeup.
Lord, I don’t understand. I have faithfully prayed and believed that You would work on Emmitt and restore our marriage. And
here we are, almost three years later, and he has a child by another woman. Father, I don’t know how much more of this I can
take. I love him… we have a child together, we had a life together. Why can’t we be together?

Charity knew that God was listening, but she didn’t feel that He was responding. It felt like her mind was roaming at top
speed. She knew she could shut it down by speaking aloud. “If a client of mine came to me in the same situation—they were
divorced, their ex had a child by another person, and didn’t give them the time of day, I would tell them… to move on.
But what if that client was a Christian and knew that God didn’t like divorce and believed that God was more than able to
restore the marriage?” It took her longer to formulate a response to her own question. “I don’t know… I don’t know what
I’d tell them.” Unsatisfied with her answer, she tried again. “Okay… I’d tell them one of two things… One, I’d say
that God is more than able to restore the marriage but that if He isn’t restoring it, it’s probably a blessing in disguise.
Or I’d tell them that maybe it wasn’t God’s timing to restore it yet and they’d need to hold on. But the Bible says that God
doesn’t withhold any good thing from us and it also says that he who finds a wife finds a good thing.” She sighed. Talking
it out was giving her a headache. But the responses kept coming to her. “And then I’d tell them to quit punishing themselves
because they were divorced. God hates divorce, but He loves the divorced.”

Charity took a deep breath. She knew that she needed to let go of the outcome. “Thank You, Father.” She dabbed her eye with
a tissue and prepared herself to go back out to Iesha’s desk.

“You ready?” she asked, smiling, standing like a black Vanna White ready to turn letters.

“Yeah. Girl, what’chu do back there? I need some of that.”

“There isn’t anything a little prayer won’t take care of. Now, let’s get to work. Do you have any questions about anything
you read in the manual?”

“Oh, Lord. Sheeee’s baaaaack.”

“See, you’re praying already.”

“Whatever you say. I pretty much understood everything in the book.”

“Good, I tried to put everything in there I could think of that you’d need to do your job. I’m sure some things will come
up as we go along. Are you as nervous as I am?”

“Nervous? You don’t look
nervous
.”

“I don’t know why I am. I guess because I’m new at this too. I’ve always worked for someone else. Everything has always been
laid out for me. But now, I’m having to lay out my own way, and it’s a little scary. I put everything I own and have at stake
for this business and if something happened to it I don’t know what I’d do.”

“Well, so far, so good. You did a bang-up job with the open house, you got two people working for you, and both you and Harmony
got people booked up till the end of the week. I don’t know much about business, but for a first week, seems like you got
it going on.”

“See, that’s why I’m glad you’re here. You know you’ve always been able to do that?”

“Do what?”

“To make me feel better. Even though Mom doesn’t see it, you’ve always been my biggest cheerleader. You knew just as well
as everyone else that I had no business marrying Emmitt, but you were so supportive. You acted like you were just as happy
as I was on my wedding day. Even as far back as when I was in school and girls would try to fight me, you were always there
to take up for me.”

“Well, I didn’t want you to get your behind beat,” Iesha laughed. “And as far as Emmitt goes, I just wanted you to be happy.
But y’all been apart for two years and he still making you miserable. Ain’t there something in the Bible that can help you
with that?”

“That’s just what God and I settled—”

The shrill ring of the telephone startled them both. Charity excused herself while Iesha answered the phone.

“Horizons Counseling Center, this is Iesha.” Charity gave her a thumbs-up from where she poured a cup of Iesha’s freshly brewed
coffee.

“Yes, sir… uhm hum… yes, hold on one moment and let me get that information for you.” It took her a few seconds
to find the hold button.

“I can handle it,” she said to Charity, who was looking at her questioningly. She flipped through the pages of her homemade
manual.

“Thank you for holding, our DWI screening appointments are seventy-five dollars. When you wanna come in?”

Charity felt her eyes stretch wide, hearing Iesha speak improper English. She relaxed when she saw Iesha hunch her shoulders
apologetically.

“Okay, I can get you in today at four o’clock… Will that work?… Okay, I got you down with Harmony Scott. Do you
need directions? Okay, I’ll see you at four.”

“Not bad for a first phone call.”