Sweet Tea: A Novel (16 page)

M
ama woke up with a vengeance. “I’m not going with you. I’m staying here ’til Luke comes back.”

“Mama, Luke will be going home,” I said. “To
our
home in Georgia. If we’re not there, he’ll worry. If we’re not there, Uncle Bradley will take him back to Florida,” I added, hoping to get through to her.

Mama gazed around the room as if she hadn’t a clue where she was. Silently she examined each one of us as if she were searching for something.

Without warning, she raced to the front door, flung it open, and bolted for the street. The brakes of a white station wagon screeched but couldn’t stop before it hit her. Her body didn’t fly, but
transcended
to the other side of the road.

I took off first. CeCe followed. Minta lagged behind, yelling, “Oh, no! Oh, no!”

Mama lay limp on the side of the street. I lifted her arm and felt her pulse. She was breathing, but blood trickled down the side of her face.

“Mama! Mama, can you hear me?” I called out.

She moaned. Strangers from the neighborhood surrounded us.

“Please, someone call an ambulance,” CeCe shouted.

Within minutes, an ambulance arrived. EMT workers lifted Mama onto a gurney. She was awake now but didn’t fight them or squirm to get loose. I think somewhere in her right mind, she knew she needed to go. A female EMT worker tried talking to her but Mama seemed catatonic.

CeCe and I jumped in the back and waved to Great-Grandma and Minta as they stood like fragile relics on the brown patch of grass.

“Tell Westin,” I shouted to her, then couldn’t help thinking,
if he comes back
.

The EMT waved at me to hurry. I pulled my head back inside and she slammed the door. We drove away into the crowded streets of Brooklyn. I watched Great-Grandma and Minta stumble back toward the house.

The ambulance weaved in and out of traffic as anger filled my thoughts. We had been so close to going home, and Mama screwed everything up again.
Why?
I asked God. He didn’t answer.

We followed the EMTs inside the hospital. Complete chaos enveloped the emergency room. Nurses ran back and forth directing people. I prayed that Westin would appear and make everything okay. Hours passed and people came and people went, but Westin never showed.

Finally a room became available for Mama and a doctor walked over and spoke to CeCe and me in a thick foreign accent. “Your mother has a concussion, a broken leg, and some bruises. She will be fine. She’s very lucky. However, her mental state is not so good. She is on a strong sedative.”

“When can she get out of here?” CeCe asked. “We need to get back home—to Georgia.”

The doctor glanced at Mama’s chart. “I am sorry, but I cannot answer that yet. It depends on how she responds to the medication.”

Here we go again,
I thought. I’d grown as dependent on Westin as I had on CeCe. I wished I hadn’t. It was easier not to expect anything than to expect it and lose it.

“Where could he be?” CeCe said. “I’m sure Great-Grandma told him what happened.”

Once again, the two of us hadn’t eaten, and we slept on and off through the night on uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room. With no money, no car, and no idea what Great-Grandma’s phone number was, we were completely lost in a whirlwind of confusion.

*  *  *

“They’re over there,” a woman’s voice said, and a muffled voice answered her.

I lifted my head from CeCe’s shoulder and rubbed my eyes, but I couldn’t see anyone.

“Right here,” she said, this time her voice was closer. I could see it was a nurse speaking.

I glanced up. Westin stood in front of me, next to the nurse. With a smile, he held out a bag of doughnuts.

              “I . . . I didn’t think you were coming back,” I said.

              “You should know me better than that.” He reached down and gave my cheek a gentle pinch.

              CeCe woke up and rubbed her eyes. “Thank you,” she said as she stood and hugged him.

              “You must be hungry. Have a doughnut and let me see what’s going on.”

CeCe and I stared at each other and closed our eyes, and then looked up toward Heaven.

Westin returned a few minutes later. “The doctor gave her a different medicine, and he’s hopeful she will respond quickly. She needs to stay here for a while before she can go home. Y’all can fly back. I’ll get the plane tickets and your Uncle Bradley and Luke will meet you at the airport in Atlanta.”

CeCe and I both gasped. “Uncle Bradley found him!” I squealed.

Westin nodded, grinning. “Bradley found him,
and
your brother’s ready to come home. I’ll stay here in New York until your mama’s— as soon as she’s well enough, I’ll bring her back.”

“Where’d you go, Westin?” I said and turned away feeling out of line for asking. After a minute, I forced myself to meet his eyes again.

“I had to take care of some business. And then I had to find someone to drive my car back for me.” He gave CeCe and me a nod of reassurance.

I believed the part about the car, but I had an inkling he needed some time to decide if he was in or out of this family. I tried, but I couldn’t think of any words big enough to describe how happy I was to know he was in.

C
eCe and I got back on a Friday. Uncle Bradley met us at the airport with Luke, and Minta’s son was waiting for her. Uncle Bradley drove the three of us home to Landon, and a week later Westin returned with Mama - a new and improved Mama, but sporting a cast on her leg and using a pair of wooden crutches to help her walk.

Meeting Great-Grandma had been awesome. And it was a relief to have Mama back. For me, I just wanted to get back to my life, or at least start working on one. Sure, Matt and I were over, and the same with Tuck and me, but I still had to focus on my future.

I’d missed the first week back at school after spring break. When I told Bessa and Jonzie all that had happened they were stunned.

“Sorry you didn’t get back in time for the SAT test,” Bessa told me.

“I can take it in the fall,” I said.

“Bessa says you’re gonna be a newswoman!” Jonzie blurted.

“I said
journalist
, Jonzie.”

“You’d make a fine newswoman.”

I smiled at them both and raised my chin. “Thank you.”

Matt sauntered by and I caught sight of the tattoo on his shoulder, peeking out from beneath the sleeve of his gray t-shirt. “Hey, wait up,” I said. “Haven’t seen you in a while. What you been up to?”

He shrugged. “Nothing much.”

“What ya got there?” I asked, and pointed to his upper arm. I wanted to see if he had indeed removed my name.

He pushed the sleeve up and I moved in closer. I could see the letter
O
- for Olivia - had been transformed into a rose. The same with the letter
A
at the end of my name, and the
I
was now an
E
. The heart was changed into a bouquet of roses, and now, the word
LIVE
written
inside.

“Wow, it came out nice,” I said, and ran my fingers across it. “Your cousin is certainly creative.”
Who would’ve thought
I’d
come up roses out of all of this?
  I smiled.

“We could still go out some time,” he said and winked.

A flush of heat ran across my face. I stood quiet for a moment, and a memory of our “almost” night flashed through my mind. As strong as my attraction was for Matt, I decided I had something stronger to hold onto. I smiled once again and said, “I’m pretty busy these days, but thanks for asking.” 

He shrugged off my rejection with his ever-cool attitude. 

“Well, I've got to get to class,” I said, not wanting another awkward moment to pass by. “See ya.”

“See ya,” he said back and strolled away.

I smiled to myself at the thought of his tattoo.
Live
. That’s exactly what I planned to do, and for
me
this time.

*  *  *

I heard the sound of Westin’s car outside and knew they were back from dinner. A few minutes later he and Mama strolled inside. She smiled a lot lately, but the grin plastered on her face was wider than usual.

“I have something to show you,” she said. “But first, I have to tell you how it happened.” Still grinning wide, she shook her head back and forth. “Y’all know this man and his unusual sense of humor, right?” She directed her eyes to Westin, and we all nodded.

“Well, we were sitting in the front seat of his car, and he was holding his pipe.” She deepened her voice like Westin’s. “He said, ‘Cassandra could you get my bag of tobacco?’ Now, I didn’t think anything odd about this. I do it for him all the time. But when I pulled the bag out of the glove compartment, I saw what I
thought
was a piece of glass inside. I said, ‘Oh my goodness, how the heck did that get in here?’ You can’t be smoking glass. So I gently dug inside the bag to pull it out, and wouldn’t you know . . . it wasn’t glass at all.”

“What was it, Mama?” Luke asked curiously.

We all waited to hear. But Mama didn’t say another word. Instead, she pulled the glove off her left hand and displayed a diamond ring the size of Atlanta.

When she held her hand out in front of us, I sniffled and wiped sudden tears from my eyes with my sleeve. That ring was pear-shaped sunshine sitting in a platinum setting.

The three of us stood up at the same time. CeCe and I coldn’t hold back our tears, this time they were tears of happiness. More than we’d experienced in a very long while. Luke’s eyes gleamed the way they did before Daddy died.

“So, is it okay with you?” Westin asked. “Can I be your step-daddy?”

The heaviness that lay upon my chest for so long rolled away like the rock in front of Jesus’ tomb. I grinned so wide I thought my cheeks would bust and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Yes Sir!”

* * *

Westin wanted Mama to fill the month of December with happiness so she would no longer dwell on Daddy’s passing. Mama agreed and the wedding was set for December 4th. Minta and her son would be attending as well as Great-Grandma and Uncle Bradley and Bony Belinda. Even Grandma and Grandpa Cleveland would be there. Uncle What’s-His-Name said he couldn’t make it, and CeCe announced she’d be bringing a date.

After the church ceremony, the reception would be in the new house Westin was building for us. When he showed us the plans for the house, I nearly fell off my chair. It was beautiful and tremendous in size. It sat up on a hill overlooking an entire neighborhood. Monica Bradshaw’s neighborhood. We planned to move in on the Saturday after Thanksgiving almost a year later.

I figured I might as well say goodbye to the only neighbors who’d ever given us the time of day, so I walked over to Miss Ruth and Bubbles Clayton’s trailer to wish them a happy Thanksgiving. I giggled to myself, realizing they’d need to seek new entertainment once we moved on. Miss Ruth sat in her rocking chair like usual. Only the brace that had supported her neck for so long was gone. She stood up and held her head high.

“Olivia. I heard the good news.”

How did she hear?
I instantly wondered. It’s not like we talked to anyone in Woodlane. Then again, since Mama was now on her way to marrying Westin, she practically shared it with the whole world.

Miss Ruth grabbed my hand. “I’m glad your mama’s okay. I didn’t want to be a nosy-body, but when I saw her last fall staggering toward the highway one night, I called the police. I’d seen her roaming around the park many nights, but this night, I was afraid if I didn’t call, she might get killed.”

“
You
were the one who called?” I said, surprised.

“I thought it was my Christian duty to help out.” She nodded as if God himself commanded her to do so.

“Thank you,” I said. “It’s good to have neighbors looking out for us.” I smiled inside and out and waved goodbye.

Back at home, I helped Mama get the food on the table and we all sat down to Thanksgiving dinner one last time. I couldn’t have been happier - I think everyone felt that way. Still, I knew that Mama had this awful disease and she would always need someone to watch over her. I pushed the thought out of my mind and gazed out the window to the spot where a turkey once lay sacrificed and buried. So much had happened in just one year. Our family and whole world had changed, but some things remained the same.

I finally took the SATs, but it didn’t matter anymore whether I got that scholarship. Westin said he’d pay for my education. Even so, I hoped for high enough scores to have my pick of colleges. I thought I might go to college in New York with CeCe. She changed her mind about Hollywood, and to my disbelief, Aunt Nadine invited us to visit her there. The question came in a card she sent asking about Mama, and when CeCe and I told her, Mama didn’t seem nearly as upset as we’d expected.

Everyone sat around the small kitchen table and I pulled up a seat.

“Olivia, will you say Grace?”

I tilted my head and gazed at Mama surprised by her request, but after a moment, I nodded. “Sure.”

I bowed my head. “Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful meal and the hands that prepared it. Thank you for our friends and family. Thank you for answered prayers and the new life that lies ahead. Amen.”

“That was real nice, Olivia,” Mama said.

“Let’s eat,” Luke added.

Forks clanked against our new china dishes and everyone gobbled up the good food. While I ate, I thought of the all the people who touched our lives this past year. People I never knew existed, people I’d never thought capable of helping, and people I feared were out to get us. I finally understood how God held the whole world in His hands.

I smothered gravy on a slice of turkey to make it more edible. I never did like turkey much.

“Pass the potatoes, please,” Luke said, and his voice cracked a little. Now thirteen, a small patch of whiskers caught the mashed potatoes he shoveled into his mouth. I decided to leave the lecture that he needed to start shaving to Westin.

“Olivia, I forgot the sweet tea,” Mama said. “Mind getting out the pitcher and pouring me a glass, please?”

“Sure, Mama,” I said, and got up from my seat and did what I’d done a thousand times that year - a year that rushed by like a crowded subway train flying through a dark tunnel. Lights on. Lights out. Lights on again.

And a glass of sweat tea.

END