Sister Betty Says I Do (14 page)

“Something's not right,” Sharvon muttered. And then it occurred to her that whatever the reason Leotis had been avoiding her cousin, it must have something to do with Freddie. She was disappointed, because she'd already blamed it on Ima keeping Leotis occupied. “This is ridiculous!”

Sharvon didn't bother to take the pail filled with herbs back inside. She left it right where she dropped it in the garden and headed straight for Leotis's house. She didn't care that she trespassed through the neighbor's yard that separated the two homes. The determined look upon her face even cut short the barking from the neighbor's dog, Felony. The normally aggressive mutt sped away, whimpering.

A
fter Sasha had blurted out the bad news about Sister Betty calling off the wedding, Freddie seemed to deteriorate physically and mentally right before Leotis's eyes. Leotis had a hard time convincing Freddie to stay with him. “Now the whole church will know,” Freddie explained, hanging his head.

“Just lie down and relax,” Leotis told Freddie after leading him directly from the car inside the house and into a spare bedroom. “You need to get back your strength.” Leotis threw back the bedcover while Freddie waited, slumped in a recliner off in the corner. “I've got the prescription the doctor gave for your blood pressure. He also wants your pressure taken when you wake in the mornings, and to make sure you take the Thalomid about the same time every night.”

Leotis went over to Freddie and led him to the bed. “This room is smaller than my others, but it has the best sunlight.” He pointed toward a door off to the left of the bedroom. “You've got a bathroom with a shower. I'll pick up a shower seat to put inside when I pick up your prescription.”

Freddie's weakness had traveled throughout his body, and even his tongue felt too weak to speak. His strength that day seemed to have come and gone with the least exertion. He nodded at Leotis and mouthed, “Thank you.”

“Go ahead and lie down,” Leotis told him. “Later you can change into some pajamas or whatever you wear.” He walked over to one of the dressers and opened the top drawer. He pulled out a small Bible. Placing the Bible on the nightstand, he looked at Freddie, expecting him to protest about what he was certain must've seemed like treating him like a baby.

“Thank you, Pastor. Thank you.” Freddie had caught Leotis by surprise when he spoke.

“God is able,” Leotis replied. “You'll get through this.”

“If you say so,” Freddie replied before shifting his body so that Leotis couldn't see his face. “Not sure I want to.”

Leotis saw in real time Freddie's depression settling in. At that moment, as he closed the door to the bedroom, he could've truly laid his hands upon Sasha and wired her big mouth shut.

Leotis decided that while Freddie rested, he would run to the nearby drugstore. He'd fill the prescription and pick up the shower seat. He grabbed his car keys and house keys to leave, opened the door, and came face-to-face with Sharvon. She had her hand out, reaching for the doorbell.

“I hope you weren't going anywhere, because we need to talk, and I mean right now!” She came across as harsh. At that moment she cared less if he was a pastor or not, especially since, to her way of thinking, he hadn't acted like one. “I need to come inside, unless you want me to speak my mind right here at your front door.”

“You've got the wrong idea, as well as a lot of nerve.” Leotis's eyes seemed to turn darker with anger, but he didn't budge. He stood there as if he were an immovable object facing down another immovable object, one that he objected to, as it was up in his face in a disrespectful manner. “This is not the time,” he snapped as thoughts of Bea and Sasha's shenanigans came to mind. “Trust me when I say this.” He leaned in with his brow furrowed, his lips clenched tight. “It's been one of those days, so I know for certain the Devil is testing me. You need to back down, because I'm not certain I'd pass that test.”

 

While Leotis and Sharvon went toe-to-toe at his front door, Sister Betty got up to wash her tear-streaked face. She was passing by the window in the hallway when she saw Sharvon standing in Leotis's doorway. She then remembered that she still hadn't heard from him since Sharvon left a message several days ago. It wasn't like him to stay away, and she became angry.

Lately, anger had become an emotion that seemed readily available. She concluded that somehow he'd abandoned her. Even though she had protested and hadn't wanted Sharvon to call him, since Sharvon had, he should've come running. After all, it was her running to help him that'd caused so much strife between her and Freddie.

Glaring in Leotis's direction, she mumbled, “I hope Sharvon is letting him have it!” Sister Betty quickly dropped her head, clasping her hands. “Oh, Lord, please forgive me. Anger is overtaking me, and I'm still so brokenhearted.”

Sister Betty turned away from the window and continued down the hallway toward her living room. She sat on the sofa, whispering, “I need a word, Lord.” She reached for her Bible and began thumbing through it.

Finally arriving at what she believed God had intended just for her, she began reading. “Psalm twenty-seven, fourteen,” she whispered. “Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.”

Sister Betty reread the passage several times before allowing her head and her mind to rest against the back of her sofa. “Thank you, Jesus,” she kept repeating. “Lord, I've been with you long enough to have known better. I'm to come to your Word whenever I become weak.” She sighed as she smoothed her housecoat. “You did say this was a journey from the cradle to the grave.”

This time she decided to rest totally upon God's Word and His promises. She didn't know if what she'd read meant Freddie would return to her, but she believed that no matter how it turned out, she'd wait. And if she waited, God would strengthen her broken heart. With the Bible still in her lap, she unconsciously began turning the engagement ring on her finger. In no time the sleep that'd evaded her last night and the nights before overtook her. She began snoring softly, and a smile appeared upon her face.

 

Inside Leotis's spare bedroom Freddie had finally found the strength to sit up. He was used to his own bed and bedroom, so even in his tired state he couldn't find rest at Leotis's home. As he sat there, he listened for a while but didn't hear a sound throughout the house. He also called out Leotis's name but got no response. Freddie then remembered Leotis mentioning he was going to get the prescription filled, and so he figured perhaps that was where he'd gone.

With nothing to do and unable to sleep, Freddie reached for the television remote on the nightstand. Instead, his hand landed upon the Bible Leotis had placed there earlier. He hadn't meant to trade the remote for the Bible. He was too angry with himself, Sister Betty, and yes, even with God at that moment. Yet he picked up the Bible, and without resisting, he began turning the pages.

As he turned the pages, he began complaining. “I'm mad, Lord. You want me to love you, but you don't wanna let me have nobody to love me.”

Freddie began turning the pages faster.

“I can rest in your Word, but I'm still a man. At my age, I'm not trying to be a lover, but I do wanna rest in my Betty's bed.” Freddie's eyes began to water.

He began turning the pages fast enough to rip them, but they didn't tear.

“Why must I wait? Ain't it enough I got this cancer riding my body? This multiple myeloma ain't curable,” Freddie said bitterly. “I'm accepting I gotta leave here someday.” And then he added, pleading, “But, Lord, can't I have Betty? I don't care if she never fixes me a meal or stays put in everybody's business. Lord, I'm tired, but I still wanna love her.”

Freddie's tears began blurring his vision. He didn't realize he'd stopped turning the pages of the Bible until he began wiping away his tears with the sleeve of his shirt. The Bible passage became sharper with each swipe.

He began reading aloud. “Isaiah forty, the thirty-first verse. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint.”

Freddie reread the passage before laying the Bible beside him on the bed. As was his habit, he reached for the sprig of hair, which was gone. His baldness didn't bother him now. It occurred to him that it must not bother Betty, either. “Perhaps that's why she's not said anything.”

He looked toward the bedroom window. From the window he could see past the house next door and through her living room and hallway window curtains. He then lay back against the pillow and began rereading the passage of scripture again. He did not finish the third reading before sleep overtook him.

 

Leotis couldn't keep Sharvon from trying to wake the neighborhood. Her mouth was in overdrive, and she made loud accusations about his character and his abandoning Sister Betty for the trustee. He finally closed his front door and headed for his car to escape any possible embarrassment. There was no escaping. Sharvon rushed around the car and jumped in on the passenger side to continue blasting him.

Before he had buckled his seat belt, Sharvon started in on him. “Ever since I came to Pelzer, my cousin has been at your beck and call,” she said as he tried to steer the car out of his driveway without having an accident. “Where is your loyalty? She's been like a mama to you, so what's Freddie to you? Oh, don't tell me,” she hissed, almost spitting from anger. “Is he now the father you didn't have?”

Leotis didn't say a word as he drove. In his present state of mind, he knew whatever came out, he couldn't easily take back. His hands clenched the steering wheel tightly until he felt either his wrists or the steering wheel would break. He had a sermon to preach tomorrow, and all he'd done that day was transport home a delusional and crotchety church mother who smelled like an outhouse and deliver a very sick but cranky old trustee to his house. He still hadn't done what he really wanted to do. He glanced over at Sharvon, whose mouth was still in gear, and wished he had delivered a punch to Sasha's rabid mouth. And he was also ready to add Sharvon to that mix.

“And now because of you and your selfishness,” Sharvon told him, “because you can't handle a skank named Ima that's trying to get you to the altar or the bed, or vice versa, you've caused Freddie to break off the wedding to my cousin. You'd better be glad I'm almost saved, or I'd really tell you what I think!”

Leotis quickly hung a mental RESERVE sign at the altar, along with removing his invisible turned-around collar, before he slammed on the car's brakes. “What does Ima have to do with any of this?”

“I say she does.” Sharvon turned around in her seat to face him, ignoring the blasting car horns from the other cars, which finally drove around them, but not without calling out a few unkind words as they did.

“Well, you've been wrong about things since you showed up on my doorstep,” he said loudly. “She doesn't play any part in my life.” Yet even as the lie leapt from his tongue, images of the fiery, long-legged, and worldly woman crossed his mind. It didn't matter that he'd not seen or heard from her in the days since she tried brazenly to seduce him in his pastor's study with kisses.

However, Ima and Sharvon had something in common. Each knew how to quickly work his nerves, while at the same time making him want to hold and kiss them, making him feel more deeply than he'd ever felt about a woman before.

He quickly dismissed the thoughts of the flesh and then turned to face Sharvon, who was still lambasting him. “Just so you know,” he argued, “I've been busy, too. And if I've befriended Trustee Noel, it's because he's—” Leotis stopped and exhaled. He'd almost betrayed Freddie by telling Sharvon the truth. Yet he knew he'd better say something, because she'd already shown she wasn't backing down. “He's been in the hospital for the last couple of days. And before you ask why he was there, I can't tell you, because it's his business. But I can tell you that he's now heartbroken that Sister Betty just called off the wedding without telling him.”

“What are you talking about?” Sharvon leaned over the armrest. “
He
broke up with her.” She paused, taking a breath before adding, “I told you that he didn't actually say the wedding was off, but he hasn't reached out since they argued, so she believes he's changed his mind.”

“Well, that's not how it went down according to Mother Pray Onn.”

Sharvon looked at Leotis. She leaned back with her arms folded, asking, “What's she got to do with it?”

Leotis became so heated again, he could've activated the car's air-conditioning. “She's got everything to do with it. She's the one who ran her big mouth to Bea, and that's how the trustee first heard the news.”

Sharvon turned back around in her seat, unfolding her arms and placing a hand across her heart. She fell back against the car seat. “Oh, damn.”

As they continued driving, Sharvon confided to Leotis what she'd told Sasha earlier that day. “It just flew out of my mouth,” she said. “I am too ashamed to tell Cousin Betty.”

“Wow,” he said slowly. “That's what happened.”

A short time later they returned from the drugstore, and Leotis asked Sharvon if she'd like to come inside and perhaps talk to Freddie. “Perhaps if you told him it was a misunderstanding about what Sasha said, it would help him.”

“Maybe later, but not at this moment,” she told Leotis. “I need to get inside and check up on Cousin Betty. Whether I set it off with Mother Pray Onn or not,” Sharvon confided, “there was already trouble brewing in paradise with the two of them.”

“Well, nevertheless, I'm praying things will get better,” Leotis replied. And as an afterthought, he added, “I know as far as Mother Pray Onn and Blister are concerned, they intend on giving Sister Betty and Trustee Freddie a wedding reception, whether they're together or not, and whether they want them to or not.”

Sharvon had already put her hand on the car's latch to open her door. Yanking her hand back, she tilted her head and asked, “What are you talking about?”