Promise Kept (Perry Skky Jr.) (15 page)

“Payton is getting some sort of award from the school and their president has chartered something. I don’t know, Dad. All I know is I’m suppose to escort you up there.”

“For real? We have been invited by the president of the school? Your sister always had it going on, I tell you what…Where is your mom?”

“She is going to meet us at the airport.”

About an hour later, Payton and my mom came to the airport too.

“Well, if Payton is here then how are we supposed to be going to…Perry!?”

My dad couldn’t even finish his statement. He knew I was up to something.

“Where are we going?”

“Honey, the kids want to take you to relax for the evening. We’re going to Charleston.”

“And who’s paying for it?”

“Dad, we got a deal,” Payton said.

“Dad, we wanted you to get away from the hustle and bustle of everything and be with your family. You are going through a lot right now,” I told him as we strapped in on the plane, preparing to take off.

“Son, I appreciate this, but I got a business to get back to. I’m okay.” He starting unstrapping his seatbelt.

“No Perry Sr., you sit right there,” my mom said. “You do deserve this break. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I’m glad the children took the initiative. The kids love you, sweetie. Although they are off in their own worlds, they love their dad. And I love him too, and we need you to rest and enjoy your family so that you can heal.”

My dad leaned back in his seat as the plane lifted up toward heaven and he said, “This has been a lot. You all just don’t know. God’s given me the strength to get through it and I’m supposed to get word soon on the results from the surgery. One good thing is the doctors think they got it all. But as I think on my lesson out of all of this, I realize that my life is not about selling cars. It’s not even about my health. My true joy comes from being with you three. I’m a rich man. I’ve got a family that loves me, and it means a lot to me that you all are doing this. It’s taken me a long time, but no matter what the results say, I am going to be okay. I finally understand what it is truly like feeling real joy.”

I
rushed in to the living room when I heard an irate man banging on our door, yelling, “Where is he? I need to see him right now! I’m looking for Collin! Open up now before I kick this door in. This is his dad and I said open up NOW!”

“Is that really his dad?” Deuce said to me. Both of us were a little confused as to why Collin’s dad was outside showing his butt at 11:30 at night! Collin was dead to the world so he certainly couldn’t tell us that his dad was coming. And even when he was in the hospital fighting for his life I don’t recall meeting his dad, so I wasn’t sure if the man outside was really related to him. In other words, I was hesitant to answer the door.

“Dang! Does somebody hear me?” The man continued to bang.

“I ain’t letting him in,” Deuce said, thinking the same thing I was. “Man, go get Collin.”

“I know you’re in there. I hear you on the other side of the door. Open up!”

“He’s gon’ break it down!” Deuce said.

“Collin! Collin, man. Get up. I think your dad’s here,” I said after I woke up our roommate.

“My dad? He’s in Alabama,” Collin said.

“Well, some man outside beating on the door is claiming he’s your father. Whoever this man is we need to find out.”

“He’s beating on the door? It probably is my dad.” Collin grabbed his jeans, threw them on, and sprang to the front door and opened it.

“Get your stuff and let’s go now,” his dad said without a word of hello. He ran into my room. “Get your stuff so we can go.”

“Sir, that’s my room,” I said as Collin collapsed on the couch with his head between his knees.

“Son, where is your room so we can get your stuff and go?”

Deuce went over to him. “Man, what’s going on? Why is he saying you have to leave?”

“Boy, you need to stay out of this!” Collin’s dad said boldly. “Show me where your room is now!” Collin still didn’t move. His dad stepped up to him, yanked him off the couch, and shoved him against the wall.

Lance was always a heavy sleeper but all this commotion woke him up. “Man, who’s fighting?” Lance joked. Deuce and I gave him a look to let him know it wasn’t funny. “Sir, you gotta let go of him.” Lance stepped between Collin and his dad.

“Get back, Lance. I got this,” Collin said as his dad grabbed Collin’s neck.

I couldn’t stand back anymore. I mean, that was his father and it seemed to be none of my business, but now it was. Why was he choking his son like this? “Sir, so I need to call the police?” I yelled out.

He let go of Collin and Collin grabbed his throat and started choking. Lance went to get Collin some water but he wouldn’t take it.

“You gotta let me live my own life. I’m not going anywhere okay,” Collin said to his dad, who had found Collin’s room and was emptying the contents of his dresser drawers.

I was so confused. “What is going on? Why is he so pissed?” I said to Collin. “Explain this to me. You tell your father you’re not leaving but yet in the middle of the night he said you have to. He said some comment about God.”

“There it is. You hit it right on the head. I told you my dad is an atheist. My mom probably told him that I’m a Christian. I knew when he found out it wasn’t going to be pretty.”

“Alright, son, let’s go. Let’s go,” he said carrying a ton of clothes wrapped in Collin’s sheets. “You’re all done here. We can get the rest of your stuff later.”

“Dad, I’m not going anywhere. You can beat me, push me, choke me, hit me, do whatever. You can try to get me to say I don’t love God but I do, Dad. I’ve looked at it your way all my life, as if the Lord doesn’t exist. I’ve seen Him work miracles. I’ve seen Him change my heart.”

“It’s these guys, Collin. If I can get you away from these guys you’ll be fine.”

“It’s not the guys that I’m serving, Dad. If I’m not around them, I’m still going to love God and know that there is a Jesus that died on the cross for our sins. I’m still going to know that the Holy Spirit is going to give me the power to stand up to a dad that bullied and beat me all my life. I can’t even say I love you for the way you treated me for most of my upbringing. But I can say I forgive you for the way you treated me and Mom.”

“Collin, if you don’t come with me now, don’t you ever come back to Alabama. Unless you get this foolishness out of your system I won’t claim you as my son.”

Collin walked over to the front door and held it open. His father walked through it, dropping the bundle of Collin’s clothing. The four of us just stood there, shaken by the whole scene. We knew sometimes following Christ could cost us everything. I was glad I didn’t have to make a choice to forget my family because of it, but Collin did and I admired him wholeheartedly. There was a God in Heaven and as I knew now, I was going to have to be Collin’s family. I could only pray that his dad would come around, and even if he didn’t Collin had found his way. Heaven was pleased. Heaven was pleased.

The next day I woke up at five in the morning. I heard someone scrambling around in the kitchen. After the night we’d just had I couldn’t ignore it. Maybe Collin’s dad had come back. Maybe someone couldn’t sleep. I just didn’t know. I got up and found Collin fixing coffee.

“Hey, man. Are you okay? I know you’re not as hard a sleeper as Lance but five in the morning? Talk to me. I know what happened. The confrontation with your dad threw you off, I know. We can talk about anything.”

“No, Perry. I’m really okay. I’m just trying to have some quiet time with the Lord. I’m not stressed. I’m not falling apart. I’m not upset. I’m following Him now. He’s making it okay now.”

“The thing with your dad is over. We’re boys; we can talk.”

“Yeah, I know we are. I’m not trying to act tough. I just turn that over to God so it can work out. I can’t fix everybody in the world. I can’t even fix my pops. He hurt me so much in growing up, and he can’t hurt me anymore so I’m rejoicing now, so I can get even stronger, you know. Don’t think I’m cruel or that I’ve written my dad off like he said he wrote me off, but God wants us to be equally yoked. How can I stay on the straight and narrow if I allow my dad’s negativity toward Him to be in my way? You know what I’m saying? I’m falling in love with Jesus.”

I sat there and listened to him. And I went over to the cupboard to get myself a mug. I needed to have myself some quiet time too. I needed to know more about Collin’s faith so I could fall more in love with Him myself. Collin had just accepted the Lord weeks before this, but yet he was excited and had a passion that was contagious. Not even his dad wrapping his bare hands around his neck, choking him, could set him back. I needed to be set on fire like that! So we sat down, opened up God’s word together, prayed, drank our coffee, and felt renewed. I was determined to have more days start like that. God had given me so much. I wasn’t going to be able to save the world. I wasn’t going to be able to fix everybody. I was certainly excited that He could fix me. How good it felt to rejoice.

I had to head down to Augusta to sit with my folks as we awaited the results of my dad’s cancer treatment. And as I drove up there I had more time to think about my relationship with God. I prayed,
Lord, I know I let You down so many times before and I ask for so much. Sometimes You say no and sometimes You say yes. Help me to be excited about Your plan for my life. Help me to see that path You have set for me. I’m not naïve, Lord. As a young black man I now see it’s hard as a college athlete, trying to live up to expectations. As a guy in love it’s not going to be easy doing the right things, so I just need You in my life to help me stay strong.

I listened to a CD and it helped me to praise God. It wasn’t about me wanting something from Him. It wasn’t even about thanking Him. It was simply about praising Him. God was bigger than all my problems. He even knew how many hairs were on my head. I wanted to eventually dwell with Him and in order for that to happen I had to live right here. It wasn’t a question anymore about could I. Daggone it! I
was
.

Arriving in just enough time to meet my folks and my sister at the hospital, I knocked on the door and said, “Alright. We’re ready for the good news.”

My dad bit his lip and nodded his head in agreement. I mean it was good news. If he wasn’t going to be with us any longer, he would be with God. And was that bad? If God decided to take him, He’d make us strong enough to be okay with it.

“Well, young man,” the doctor said, “you must have been reading my notes and doing some heavy praying ’cause your dad’s going to be just fine. He’s going to have to take it easy and get more treatments for a while longer but everything looks good. We see no traces of any new tumors.”

I went over and hugged my father. “God knew I needed you a while longer.”

“No, son. You got the key to this world. He’s giving me some more days here so I can be proud of what you have become. You’re going to do good things, big things and I’m proud of you.”

The two of us welled up with tears. We’d found our purpose and that was to have no purpose other than what God had laid out for us.

It was the weekend of the big ACC track championship. Savoy was on course to set records and be able to compete in some national track and field summer Olympic Games. My girl was bad when it came to the hurdles and 100-meter dash. And though she was the second fastest, a couple months ago she just started smoking everybody. I couldn’t believe that my cousin Pillar and Saxon were still hanging in there as a couple. I didn’t know how long they would last and I wasn’t trying to be in their business, but I hoped that they would stiff it out for a while. They were both in the stands to support my girl.

There was actually a large crowd there. Mr. and Mrs. Lee were there. My folks were there, since they would be helping me move back home for a few weeks until summer classes started. Deuce and Lance were there as well. They were all talking to me at different times and my head was moving from one conversation to the other when I happened to notice Savoy sitting down. Not with the rest of her team, but like she was frustrated. I remembered when I had been at a meet earlier that year and mentally she had messed it up for herself. I needed to give her confidence. I knew what it was like as an athlete to second-guess yourself. But she was a conqueror and she was fierce. She needed to know she was not in this race alone.

When the second event was up and everyone was paying attention to the discus side of the field I jogged down from the stands and said, “Hey! Come here, girl.”

“Not right now, Perry. I need to concentrate.”

“Come here.” Finally she came down the bleachers to where I was.

“I don’t think I can do it,” she said, looking at me. “This is where it all counts and I’m too nervous to set foot out there.”

“You know what? You’re speaking negatively, girl.” I took my index finger and pointed it to my heart. “I believe in you. God believes in you, too, right in there. Nobody loves this sport like you do. And nobody knows that you haven’t even reached the fastest speed you are capable of. So what, you might be hearing negative things. So what, the pressure might be on to do it. Block all that out and go for it. Enjoy this.”

“But you don’t understand. It’s hard.”

“Of course I understand. I got sixty- and seventy thousand fans yelling at me during the fall.”

“How do you get through it?”

“I block it out. It’s just me and God playing. Yeah, I gotta hear what the coaches are saying but whatever. It’s like playing the game of life. It’s like being in this relationship with you. If it’s something you want really bad to work out, you gotta stay focused on this and don’t give up. And that’s in everything. Your parents are here—they want the best for their daughter. You brother is here and he wants the best for his sister.”

“Come on, Perry. Saxon? Can you give me a better example?”

“No, really. He’s your biggest fan.” I pulled her close and kissed her lips.

“You really think I can do this?”

“Savoy Lee. Woman, as beautiful as you are you can do anything you set your mind to do. You helped me to know that even in my shortcomings I could rise above and do big things. If I can come through you better believe your own words and do the same.”

“I just don’t want to let everyone down.”

“If you fall flat on your face and try your best you won’t let any of us down.”

“So now you’re saying I’m going to fall on my face?” she said in a panicked tone.

“Savoy, calm down! Girl, you know what I mean. Get out there and show off.”

“Can you give me another kiss for luck?”

“I’ll give you another kiss for love.” I kissed her and she jogged back onto the field just in time for her race to begin. She ran the 100-meter dash and before I could blink she was crossing the finish line. The girl might’ve smoked me, she was just that fast. When she did the hurdles she was phenomenal. A chance to compete for the Olympics track spot would certainly be hers.

Rod, one of the brothers announcing the meet, called out, “Perry Skky Jr. I hear you’re in the house. This is the end of the athletic season for Tech. We can’t wait for football season. Are you in the house?”