Mama B - A Time to Mend (Book 4) (8 page)

They all acknowledged her
with a hint of mystery.

“My name is Ida Mae. I’m B’s
sister-in-law.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “Well, not her current
sister-in-law since she upped and got married. I’m her
former
sister-in-law
and I’ll be movin’ in right behind the church. Plan to come here sometimes.
What auxiliary is this?”

“This is the Mother’s Board,”
I informed her while giving Son a questioning glance.

“Mama, we just wanted to ask
you about a few items in the house. I figured you’d be at the church since your
car was still in the driveway,” Son explained.

“I’ll be home in a few
minutes.” I tried to shoo them away.

“Well, I’m a mother. What I
got to do to be on the board?”

“Be saved, sanctified, filled
all the way to the Holy Ghost and back with fire,” Henrietta misquoted the
cliché.

Ida Mae blinked. “Hmph…at my
old church, we didn’t have all these rules and regulations. We just come as you
are. Get in where you fit in.”

“Well, I’ve got the perfect
place for you to fit in. You can help us on our next community project. We’re
cleaning the house of a woman who broke her leg in a car accident.”

My ex-sister-in-law scrunched
up her face like she didn’t want no part of that outreach. “What else y’all got
on the agenda?”

“That’s all for now. We’ll
can call you back when we need you,” I dismissed her.

She didn’t take the hint. “I
suppose I could help clean up, this one time. I mean, if I’m gon’ be a part of
the church, might as well jump in with both feet.”

“Ida Mae, honey, when was the
last time you went to anybody’s church?” I asked. Now, I know that was out of
place for me, but I didn’t appreciate her comin’ in there actin’ like she gonna
take my spot in my house and the Mother’s Board.

She put a hand on her hip.
“I’ll have you know, I served on the…um…whatchucallit? The phone book committee
at my old church.”

“What the phone book
committee do?” Henrietta took the words out of my mouth.

“We look up stuff in the
phone book. Find the phone numbers and give ‘em to the pastor, the ushers and
whatnot,” Ida Mae said.

That’s one more thing I never
could stand about Ida Mae. She could tell a bold-faced lie and not flinch one
bit. I mean, she lie about stuff you don’t even
need
to lie about, stuff
you didn’t even ask her no questions in order for her to lie about. I’ll never
forget one time when someone or another died in Albert’s family, we all went to
the funeral. It couldn’t have been no lower than fifty degrees, and Ida Mae
come to the repast wearing a fake mink coat, tellin’ everybody she paid close
to five hundred dollars for it. But I was the one hangin’ up coats in the
closet. I seen that
FingerHut
tag in the collar. She ain’t bit mo’ paid
five hundred dollars for that jacket, and she ain’t never been on no phone book
committee, either!

“I think we needs us a phone
book committee,” Henrietta suggested.

“That won’t be necessary. We
have smart phones now,” I closed that idea. “Now, are we all in agreement to go
clean the house on Wednesday?”

I got the vote from the
Mother’s Board and the young women. And another vote from Ida Mae, too.

Lord, help us.

Chapter 10

Ophelia picked up both
Henrietta and Ida Mae, though I wasn’t sure how much help those two would be.
Then again, the more hands the better. And maybe Henrietta’s and Ida Mae’s
sharp words could get to Julia quicker than all my soft reasoning. I didn’t know.

Frank tried to make talk
about the news while he ate his breakfast, but I was so nervous about saying
too much around him that morning. We discussed the latest current events, and I
kind of rushed him about because I didn’t want him to ask me what I had planned
that day. I didn’t think he’d approve of me fiddlin’ around in the Allen
household.

Once Frank was gone, Jeffrey came
knocking for his food. I sent him back home after he ate and told him I’d be
over later. Then I prayed hard that morning because I knew the ladies didn’t
really understand what they had signed up for. The condition of the house was
beyond words. Maybe I should have took some pictures with my iPhone first and
showed them.

Anyway, I asked the Lord to
help us to treat Julia like Jesus treated the woman at the well. They both knew
she was wrong, but He didn’t dwell on it. He offered the water of life. We was
about to offer Julia water with Pine Sol.

My doorbell rang and before I
could answer, I already heard Henrietta talkin’ noise. “Why he got to move out
here with all these white folk? Her husband think he better than the rest of us
‘cause he’s a doctor?”

And Ida Mae said, “Make the
house my brother provided for her look like a shack.”

“Listen here,” I overheard
Ophelia, “you two need to stop this. What y’all doin’ is what the young folk
call hatin’. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”

Lord, help me. I’m getting
too old to deal with this foolishness.
I had the patience for dealing with Henrietta, but addin’ Ida Mae
on top was my last straw. Shouldn’t nobody have to put up with people
back-bitin’ all the time. Especially not your family and the church folk. If I
hadn’t already told Julia about us coming, I would have cancelled and had
Ophelia take them back home. But I had to remember that it wasn’t about me.
This was about Julia and Jeffrey, and maybe Mr. Allen if he was ever home.

With my neighbors’ well-being
in mind, I chose to ignore what I’d overheard and invite Ophelia, Henrietta,
and Ida Mae inside to my living area, where I had already assembled everything
we would need right
there
in that
front
room.

Soon as she got inside,
Henrietta bypassed my living area and waltzed right on into my kitchen and
dining room. “Oooh, this is biii-iiig! Nice! Where are the bedrooms?”

“I’m not trying to be rude,
but we’re not here for the grand tour of my house,” I warded her off.

“Mmm mmm
mmmph
,” Ida
Mae remarked as she turned a three-hundred-sixty degree circle, taking in the
spacious, flowing areas and the home’s decor. “This sure is pretty.” I was just
about to relax when she added, “Frank’s
first
wife sure had good taste.”
Ida Mae stared at a small picture of Frank’s daughter on the counter. “And
light-skinned, too, I’m guessing?”

Nu uh, Lord, she done crossed
the line
.
“Look here, Ida Mae. I don’t need these little snide little comments from you
today, you hear?”

“I’m just paying respect to
the dead, which is something you don’t do a whole lot of up in this big house,”
she smacked.

“Ida Mae, it’s been nine
years since Albert passed. What you expect me to do, get in the casket with
him?”

“Ladies!” Ophelia refereed.
“We are here on a mission, and that mission is to help someone in need. Right?

The doorbell rang. I let in LaTonya
and Myesha. They both complimented me on the house as well, but of course they
wasn’t tryin’ to be rude. “Mama B, when I grow up, I want to be like you,” LaTonya
laughed.

“God is certainly a keeper of
His word,” I gave the credit where it was due. Ida Mae and Henrietta couldn’t
argue with whatever blessing God decided to give me and Frank.

“We’re all here,” Ophelia
said. “Let’s get started.”

My mini-cooper was small, so we
decided to all get into either Ophelia or LaTonya’s car. I guided the caravan
to the Allens and the six of us arrived with our mops, brooms, cleaning
supplies, and trash bags ready to get to work.

I rang the doorbell.

“It looks nice enough from
the outside,” Myesha whispered hopefully.

I heard the locks clicking.

“Looks can be deceiving,”
Henrietta mumbled.

Julia opened the door. She
had a worried look on her face, so I hugged her right away. “Good morning,
Julia. This is Ophelia, Henrietta, Ida Mae, LaTonya, and Myesha. We’re all here
to help.”

My crew strained to see past
me and Julia, into the house. They barely acknowledged her ‘Hello.’

Then Julia said, “Are you
ladies ready for this?”

“Ready as we ever gonna be,”
Ophelia said.

So Julia opened up the door
wide and stepped back to let us inside. I stepped in first. Henrietta was right
behind me, I don't remember the order after her. All I know is, I didn’t make
it four steps into the house before Henrietta hollered. I mean, she flat out
hollered! “Aaaaah! Aaaaah! Aaaah!” Like she just seen the Boogie Man.

I turned around to shush her,
but then Ida Mae started up, “My God, woman! What is wrong with you? How did you
let your house get this filthy!” She slapped her hands against her cheeks.

I was nodding my head,
attempting to calm those two down. I put a hand on Julia’s shoulder ‘cause she
look liked she was about to start crying. “Now, ladies, I told you it would be
a big job.”

Myesha shook her head, eyes
like deer in the headlights. “Mama B, I-I’m sorry. I-I can’t…breathe.” She ran
back out the door. LaTonya followed her.

Henrietta clutched her chest.
“I’m ‘bout to have a heart attack, Jesus!”

Ida Mae grabbed Henrietta’s
arm and rushed her toward the door, too. “B, you ought to be ashamed of
yourself bringin’ us up in here like this.”

Julie snatched her shoulder
from my arm. “Go! All of you, just leave!”

So far, Ophelia hadn’t said
nothin’ since we got in the house. I was lookin’ to her for a word of
encouragement for Julia. Thought maybe, if nothin’ else, me and Ophelia could
stay behind and clean. But Ophelia promptly obeyed Julia’s orders. She scrambled
out that house so fast you would have thought it was on fire.

Julia’s eyes started
watering. She sniffin’, “I told you this was a bad idea.”

“It’s my fault,” I said. “I
didn’t adequately prepare them, I see.”

“There’s no way you could
prepare anyone for this mess! It’s unbelievable!” Julia shouted at me. “Just
go!”

The hurt in her eyes, I could
feel it in the pit of my stomach. “Julia, honey, I’m so sorry.”

She hobbled over to the door
on her crutches and stood there silently.

I took the hint and joined my
people outside. Julia closed the door, clicked those locks shut again.

Myeshia was down at the
bottom of the driveway hunkered over like she was throwin’ up. Henrietta and LaTonya
was rubbin’ her back.

“It was too much for her,”
Ophelia said.

“It was too much for all of
us!” Ida Mae shouted.

“I said the place needed a
lot
of help.”

“You didn’t say it was a
hurricane,” Henrietta described quite accurately. “She don’t need no clean-up.
She need a bulldozer!”

“There’s a child living in
that house,” I reminded them.

“Not if I can help it,” Ida
Mae stormed back to Ophelia’s car. “I’m calling the authorities.”

“Wait just a minute, Ida
Mae,” I grumbled, chasing after her.

“I can’t let no child stay
here after seein’ all that, B. I could lose my education license!”

“You’re retired!” I reminded.

“Don’t matter. I’m sworn to
uphold and protect. I got to report child abuse when I see it. And I can assure
you—
that
house
is child abuse! I feel assaulted right now
and I didn’t even walk more than ten feet inside.”

I felt Ophelia’s gentle grasp
on my arm. “She’s got a point, B.”

“Well, that was the whole
purpose in us coming over here, to help get the place in order. I know this
house is dangerous, which is why I wanted to help Julia by cleaning it. If more
folk would help each other out, we wouldn’t need to get the law involved on
everything,” I reasoned as we huddled at the street curb. “Back in my day, when
we saw a neighbor strugglin’ with a problem, we tried to help get it fixed
before gettin’ the police and such involved. Say if a woman’s husband hit her,
all she had to do was go tell her Daddy and her brothers, or her pastor and
he’d round up some deacons. They’d go over there and set that joker straight.”

“But B, times was different
then,” Ophelia said. “We handled our problems in our community because we
didn’t want to turn nobody over to the police. We knew once a black man went
off in the police car, we might not see him no mo’.”

We heard a beatin’ sound
coming from up the hill. All of us turned toward Julia’s house again. She had
got our attention by hittin’ the glass window. She mouthed the word “Go” to us.

So we piled back in the cars
and went back to my house, where the argument continued in my kitchen.

“Jeffrey is special. He can’t
be thrown just anywhere,” I reminded them.

“They won’t take Jeffrey
right away. They’ll give his parents some time to the house cleaned up,” Myesha
calmed me a little.