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Authors: Nikita Lynnette Nichols

BOOK: Lady Elect
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“Why not?” The question came from Monique.
“Because she can't.” Lance grimaced at her. “And I could use a little help from you.”
Monique folded her arms across her chest. “Humph.”
“Let me out of this office, Lance,” Arykah demanded while pulling on the doorknob.
Lance stood with his back against the door. Arykah's request wasn't an option. There was no way he would allow her and her ghetto friend to leave the office. “Cheeks, please calm down. Remember where you are right now.”
“Screw that,” Arykah said. “Did they remember where they were when they put the ink on my chair?” She pulled on the doorknob again. “Let me out of here!” she demanded.
“No, I'm not letting you out of this office until you calm down.”
“This
is
calm,” Arykah confirmed. “But you just wait 'til I get downstairs.”
“You know we can take you, right?” Monique addressed Lance while slowly moving toward him.
The two of them combined outweighed Lance by more than two hundred pounds. If they double-teamed him, he wouldn't have a chance. Lance had to think quickly.
“I think he's in the first lady's office,” Lance heard Minister Carlton Weeks say from the other side of the door. Lance forcefully removed Arykah's hand from the doorknob, then opened it and poked his head out. He saw that Carlton was about to knock.
“Oh, there you are, Bishop. It's time for you and Lady Arykah to make your way downstairs,” he said.
Carlton couldn't see Arykah and Monique on the other side of the door tugging at Lance, trying to move him out of the way.
“Weeks, you gotta preach for me this morning.”
Carlton could tell that Lance was disturbed. And he noticed Lance couldn't keep still.
The way Lance twitched from side to side, it appeared he had to go to the bathroom.
“You all right, Bishop?” Carlton asked.
Lance was losing the battle. With Arykah and Monique shoving him, he had to end the conversation with Carlton quickly and shut the door. “Yeah, um, something just came up with Lady Arykah. She's not feeling well, so I'm gonna take her back home.”
Lance quickly shut the door, then opened it again. “And Weeks? Get Brother Adonis up here, right now.” He needed backup.
“Bishop, Adonis is on the organ.”
“Now, Weeks. Get him up here
now.
Stop the service if you have to, but get him up here.” Lance didn't wait for a response from Carlton. He quickly shut the door and leaned against it. He was almost out of breath from fighting against Arykah and Monique.
“Both of you stop it right now!” he said sternly.
Arykah and Monique took a step back from Lance, but they were still too close for his comfort.
“I want to get to the bottom of this just as much as you do,” he said to Arykah. “Just let me figure this out, okay?”
“The cards are faceup on the table, Lance. What's to figure?” Arykah asked.
Now was not the time to tell Arykah. It was too soon. But Lance had no choice.
“Okay, listen.” As he spoke, Arykah and Monique were still standing toe-to-toe with him. “Can you both please back up?”
Monique took three steps back to give Lance room.
Arykah folded her arms across her chest and stood her ground. “I'm not moving.”
Lance kept his back against the door and looked into his wife's eyes. “I believe the mothers put the ink in your chair. If they didn't do it themselves, I think they put someone up to it. And I believe that Mother Gussie purposely gave you the wrong time to be at Brother Cartwright's house last week.”
Arykah unfolded her arms and placed her hands on her waist. “Well, if you believe that, then why won't you let me do what I gotta do?”
“Because we're gonna beat them at their own game,” Lance said.
“We?” Monique asked.
There was a knock on the door. Lance opened it and allowed Adonis inside.
“You remember what we discussed last week?” Lance asked Adonis.
Adonis looked from Lance to Arykah to Monique, then back to Lance again. What he and Lance had discussed was private just between the two of them. Lance told Adonis that he didn't want the ladies involved. “Yeah, I remember. But you said
they
weren't gonna play a part.” Adonis put special emphasis on the word “they” and nodded his head in Arykah and Monique's direction.
“Things have changed,” Lance said to Adonis. “Thelma and Louise are trying to go to jail. We gotta clue them in.”
After an hour behind the closed door to Arykah's office, Lance, Arykah, Monique, and Adonis all left the church through the back entrance. They weren't seen by a single soul.
Chapter 8
Monday
morning, Mother Gussie inserted the emergency key into Arykah's office door at the church and wasn't surprised to find that it didn't work.
Yesterday when Minister Weeks had announced to the congregation that the bishop and first lady had an emergency to tend to and they wouldn't be in attendance at morning service, Mother Gussie knew that the ink stain in Arykah's office chair had found its target.
It was known to all that Lance and Arykah arrived at the church every Sunday at approximately 9:30
A.M.
Lance would kiss his wife's lips, then proceed to his office and meditate before morning service. Arykah and Monique always met in Arykah's office for girl talk before Lance knocked on her door at 10:00 to escort Arykah down to the sanctuary.
Yesterday, Mother Gussie had seen Lance and Arykah enter the church and greet the members lingering in the vestibule. She recalled four different women complimenting Lady Arykah on how cute her winter-white boots were. One of the women was plus size, and she approached Arykah. Mother Gussie was close enough to hear the woman confide in Arykah that she could never find stylish boots that fit her calves. Arykah opened her purse and searched for something. Mother Gussie saw Arykah pull a business card from her wallet and give it to the woman. Arykah pointed to the name on the card and said, “Buy your boots and take them to this guy. He's the best in making any boot fit big legs. All of my boots must be altered. He's the only one I trust. Make sure to tell him that I sent you, and he'll take good care of you.”
The woman excitedly extended her arms toward Arykah and hugged her tightly. “Oh, thank you, Lady Arykah. You have no idea what you just did for me.”
Mother Gussie was hot under her collar. Since Lance had first introduced Arykah to the congregation as his wife, Mother Gussie and Mother Pansie had successfully convinced the women in the church to alienate Arykah. But seeing the woman reach out and hug Arykah threatened Mother Gussie's plan to oust her altogether.
When the woman extended her arms, Mother Gussie saw that Arykah's first instinct was to step backward to prevent bodily contact. Because the women at Freedom Temple didn't hide their true feelings from Arykah, thanks to the mothers, Mother Gussie assumed that Arykah may have thought the woman was going to strangle her. But seeing the excitement in the woman's face and hearing how grateful she was to receive the hookup, Arykah returned the love and wrapped her arms around the woman. When they let go of the embrace, Arykah asked the woman what her name was.
“I'm Chelsea Childs,” Mother Gussie heard the woman say.
Arykah smiled. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Chelsea.”
Mother Gussie noticed Lance standing next to Arykah the entire time watching the exchange between the two women. Besides Monique, Arykah hadn't any friends in the church. Mother Gussie saw the expression on Lance's face and knew that he was happy to see at least one lady reach out to his wife, but he was even happier that Arykah had let her guard down.
“Let me know how your boots turn out, Chelsea,” Arykah said. “When I had my first pair of boots altered to fit my calves, it really was an overwhelming experience for me when I pulled them up my leg and they actually fit.” Arykah recalled the moment when she strutted in front of a mirror the first time she wore tailor-made boots. Elastic had been sown inside the boots and extra leather material was added to hide the elastic. No one could have ever guessed that all of Arykah's boots were altered.
Mother Gussie couldn't care less about Arykah or her boots.
“Yes, I will certainly let you know,” Chelsea promised.
Arykah gave Chelsea one last smile; then she and Lance turned toward the stairs. But before Arykah could climb one step, Mother Gussie saw Chelsea grab her by the elbow.
Arykah turned to look at her. Chelsea wanted to say something to Arykah, but she didn't know how to say it. Words were forming in Chelsea's mind, and her lips moved, but no words came forth.
Mother Gussie didn't know why Chelsea had prevented Arykah from going up the steps, but she sensed an uneasiness about the situation.
Chelsea stepped closer to Arykah and Lance. “I want to apologize to you, Lady Arykah.”
Mother Gussie frowned at Chelsea's words. She hadn't a clue what Chelsea was apologizing for. She and Arykah had only known each other for five minutes.
“I'm embarrassed to say that I let all the negative talk about you influence me from getting to know my pastor's wife. I played into what the elderly women were saying about you,” Chelsea confessed.
Elderly women?
Mother Gussie knew that Chelsea was speaking of herself and Mother Pansie.
“And I'm sorry that I didn't embrace you when you first got to Freedom Temple,” Chelsea continued. “I knew you were having a tough time here. I saw how the women went out of their way to shun you and shut you out completely. We were told that you were unapproachable, cold, and shady, but I know better now, and I'm gonna make sure that everyone else knows it too.”
If Mother Gussie could've screamed, she certainly would have. Did that really just happen?
She saw that tears had welled up in Arykah's lower eye ducts. Up until that moment, Arykah had built a wall to convince herself that she didn't need to be accepted by the folks at Freedom Temple. She behaved as if she didn't need any friends at the church. Arykah had let it be known that as long as she had her husband, she was all good. And that was just fine with the mothers. But looking into Arykah's eyes as she and Chelsea shared a moment, Mother Gussie knew that was untrue. Arykah
did
need friends. She needed an alliance, and she needed someone besides Monique looking out for her. Arykah needed Chelsea Childs.
“Thanks for sharing that with me, Chelsea. It means a lot,” Arykah said emotionally.
Mother Gussie saw Arykah blink her eyes continuously to prevent a single tear from falling.
I can't stand that hussy,
Mother Gussie thought to herself as she watched Arykah turn from Chelsea and sashay up the steps ahead of Lance in her winter-white dress and her winter-white boots. Mother Gussie also caught the bishop admiring his wife's thick calves as he followed. But Lance's lustful eyes were the least of Mother Gussie's problems.
Arykah had just made a friend, and that, to Mother Gussie, was something that wasn't going to be tolerated.
At Sunday morning worship service yesterday, as praise and worship was well under way, Mother Gussie and Mother Pansie witnessed Minister Weeks approach Adonis sitting behind the organ and whisper in his ear. Adonis had waited until the choir had finished the second and final selection of the morning before excusing himself from the organ and exiting the sanctuary.
Adonis's early departure accompanied with Minister Week's announcement that Lance and Arykah would not attend morning service confirmed to Mother Gussie that drama was taking place upstairs. And it was drama that she and Mother Pansie had caused.
So, Mother Gussie didn't find it strange that the emergency key no longer opened the door to Arykah's office. Apparently between morning service until the moment Mother Gussie tried to enter Arykah's office, the lock had been changed. But a changed lock wouldn't deter Mother Gussie and Mother Pansie's plan to get rid of the pastor's wife.
Mother Gussie knew very little about Arykah, but the one thing she did know for sure was that Arykah was a stick of dynamite, or more like an M-80 waiting to detonate. She didn't have the pleasure of being a fly on the wall in Arykah's office yesterday, but Mother Gussie would bet a year's salary that the scene behind closed doors was anything but serene.
Mother Gussie walked across the hall and returned to her desk outside of Lance's office and called her friend. “Pansie, I couldn't get into Lady Arykah's office. The lock has been changed already.”
“That fast?” Mother Pansie asked. “We need access to her computer.”
“Don't worry about the lock being changed. If that fat broad thinks she's got one up on us, she's got another think coming.”
“So what now, Gussie? We really need her computer for Plan B.”
“Well, I can't get into her office.” Mother Gussie sighed into the telephone. “So, we'll move on to Plan C.”
A half hour later, Mother Gussie sat at her desk waiting for Lance to appear. It was almost 9:00
A.M.
He was due any minute. If Lance decided to go to his construction company and not come to the church, as he often did, he'd always call Mother Gussie before 8:00
A.M.
to inform her of his plans. Lance hadn't called that morning, so Mother Gussie anticipated his arrival. She was anxious to ask him about his and Arykah's whereabouts yesterday.
She wondered if Lance would tell the truth and say that Arykah had sat in red ink and needed to return home or if he would fabricate an excuse for missing morning service.
Mother Gussie heard the front door of the church open and close. Then she heard footsteps climbing the stairs. Lance was right on time. Mother Gussie would prepare his coffee just the way he liked it before she grilled him about yesterday.
Only moments stood between Mother Gussie finding out why the bishop and his wife were absent from morning service. Now the footsteps were just around the corner of her desk.
“Good morning, Bish—” Mother Gussie's words were cut off when she saw who stood before her.
“Good morning, Mother,” Arykah said smiling. Her presence had startled Mother Gussie, and that's exactly what Arykah wanted. She wanted to scare the h ... e ... double hockey sticks out of the old hag.
There was no doubt in Arykah's mind that Mother Gussie was the mastermind behind the red ink finding its way onto her $600 Diane Von Fürstenberg wrap dress that she had purchased when she and Monique visited New York City during fashion week last spring.
Arykah knew that she was the last person Mother Gussie would ever expect to see at the church bright and early on a Monday morning. Mother Gussie's eyes resembled a deer's that had been caught in headlights, and in Arykah's mind, it was proof that she was guilty.
Arykah had to chuckle at the older woman's uneasiness. “I bet you weren't expecting to see
me
today, huh?”
Arykah's question could have been perceived two ways. An innocent person probably would have responded, “Yes, you're the last person I had expected to see, but it's a pleasure.”
To Mother Gussie, however, Arykah's question was an understatement, and she perceived it the way Arykah delivered it. Without actually saying the words, “I know you did it,” Arykah's question told Mother Gussie that her secret wasn't a secret. She had been found out.
Seeing Arykah come around the corner had almost caused Mother Gussie to pee in her panties. Arykah had just told Mother Gussie, in no uncertain terms, that she knew what she had done.
Mother Gussie presented a phony smile. “This is a surprise.”
I bet it is
. Arykah returned the bogus smile, but didn't offer a response. She stood on the opposite side of Mother Gussie's desk and glared at her.
Mother Gussie didn't know what to think of Arykah's stance. What do you say to someone who glares at you with a fake smile when they know that you've wronged them?
Arykah didn't move a muscle. She became a statue with a fixed stare on her face.
Mother Gussie felt a hot flash coming on. She knew Arykah was from the streets.
Arykah's position intimidated her, and it made her very uncomfortable. They were the only souls in the church. What would Mother Gussie do if Arykah became physical? Arykah's stare burned through Mother Gussie and it was at that moment that she knew that she had crossed the wrong woman, but still she couldn't admit to anything. “Is the Bishop with you this morning?”
“No. It's just you and me. No witnesses,” Arykah responded without moving from her spot. She kept the phony smile and continued to glare at Mother Gussie.
Mother Gussie frowned.
What did she say?
“Excuse me?”
Arykah laughed at her expression. “I said, ‘It's just you and me.'”
If there was ever a time when Mother Gussie wanted to run, it was then. She heard Arykah say there were no witnesses, and that meant that there was gonna be trouble. Mother Gussie knew that she had to remove herself from Arykah's presence, and she had to do it quickly. She stood and grabbed her coat from the coatrack that stood behind her desk.
“Um, I just remembered that I have an errand to run.”
Arykah watched her put her coat on and reach for her purse that sat on the floor next to her desk. Without another word, Mother Gussie rushed past Arykah and practically ran down the stairs and left the church.
Arykah laughed out loud. “You better recognize who you're fooling with, old woman.”

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