The Atonement (27 page)

“I’m starting to feel like I’m dating a
vampire,” she said “The only time we’re together is at night.
During the daytime hours, you make yourself scarce.”

“Don’t start with the griping. I’m stretching
myself thin as it is to make time for this relationship. If you’re
going to start laying guilt trips on me…”

“I was just joking, Jayce. Lighten up.”

“Oh…sorry. Didn’t mean to bite your head off.
I’m under a lot of pressure this week.”

“I can help you with your paper if you
want.”

“Thanks. You’re better at the lit classes
anyway. I’ll send you the file and you can finish it,” he said. By
now he had his shoes on and was grabbing his keys from the
dresser.

“I’ll see you next week?” said Allyson who
had now put on her robe and was walking over with him to the door.
She was hoping that he would remember that her birthday was the
Wednesday. Allyson made sure to mention it every time they were
together last week.

“We’ll see. I’ll call you,” said Jason giving
her a peck on the lips before hurrying away.

That was not what Allyson wanted to hear.
“Maybe he’s going to surprise me,” Allyson thought hopefully to
herself trying to subdue the fears that loomed in her subconscious.
She had no pretensions about them being in love or anything, but
she thought they had a common understanding about what was expected
between them. Even if he didn’t love her, he was supposed to
respect her and help her keep up the appearance of a happy couple.
But so far he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

Allyson decided to go into the kitchen of
their suite to grab a bagel and some juice. When she entered into
the living space who was there but Trish and Courtney who had just
come in from an evening of partying. Trish was wearing a strapless
black lace cocktail dress, and Courtney was wearing a silk
turquoise sleeveless shell and matching pleated mini skirt with
open-toed flesh-colored boots. She could tell they were half drunk
or hung over by the way they were staggering in.

“Hello, ladies,” said Allyson blithely as she
walked to the cupboard to grab a package of bagels.

“Hey, Ally!” said Courtney snickering. “We
saw Jason sneaking out as we were coming in. Hot date last
night?”

“Court, please. I am not some sixteen year
old who feels the need to share every detail of her relationship
with her friends,” she said as she cut into her bagel.

“
That’s what you call a
relationship?” asked Trish.

Allyson made sure their eyes met when she
gave Trish a dirty look. She would have liked to slice her like the
bagel she was dressing.

“
I know it’s all confusing
to you, Trish, since you’ve never really been in one before.
Remember, Johns don’t count.”

“
Sorry. It’s just that I
thought relationships only involved two people.”

“
Trish!” said Courtney
snickering before she nudged her with an elbow. Allyson knew
something was up.

“
What are you getting at
Trish?”

“
You should go to Fabian’s.
It’s a little seafood restaurant in the Village.”

“
Trish, shut up!” said
Courtney who was falling down laughing.

“
Really! You have to try it.
I think you’ll be surprised by what you find there.”

“
You wanna tell me what you
think is so funny, Court?”

“
I’m not laughing!” she said
as she rolled around on the floor hysterically.

“You know what? Both of you can go to hell”
said Allyson as she took her food and stormed back into her
room.

When she got inside she put the food down on
her desk and put her head down. She wasn’t even in the mood to eat
her bagel anymore. She knew what Trish and Courtney were implying,
but then again they may have been trying to play mind games with
her. As far as she knew, Jason had dumped the bohemian princess. In
any event, she didn’t care if Jason was seeing someone else as long
as she was his primary girlfriend or ‘the trophy’. She just wished
she’d known about it before they did – that is, if their
insinuation was even true. If there were competition, she’d have to
check it out to make sure she had the advantage. Now on top of
snooping in Tim’s business, she had to do some investigating into
Jason’s dealings. Her life just couldn’t get any more
complicated.

“zzzzzzz” went the sound of Allyson’s
vibrating smart phone. It was right next to where she had laid her
head on the desk and when she heard it, she was startled. Then she
checked to see who was calling her. Just when she thought things
couldn’t get any worse, they did.

“Hello, mother.”

“Allyson, darling, how are you? I hope I
haven’t caught you too early.”

“No, I was just…”

“So how are things getting on between you and
Tim?”

“I went to that church or what have you.
Tim’s one of their musicians. He’s also in some type of Bible class
they have there. I guess that’s some kind of indoctrination seminar
or whatever.”

“But what kind of message is this guru
sending to those people? Is he a faith healer of some sort or one
of those prosperity preachers? Or is he like that Dwyer character
with all that power of the mind jazz.”

“I didn’t hear the sermon. I fell
asleep.”

“Allyson, this is important! We have to find
out why Tim is attracted to these people!?”

“Alright, alright. I’ll take notes next time.
Anyway, then he invited me to dinner with them and…”

“You were able to have dinner with them? So
soon? You didn’t eat or drink anything from them, did you?”

“No, I didn’t…”

“Because they often drug people you know. But
what did you find? That had to be very interesting, indeed. Is he
rich like that televangelist in Atlanta? Does he have
connections?”

“We ate dinner at Allen’s house, so I don’t
know what the guru’s house looks like. He doesn’t dress like he’s
rich or anything.”

“How large is the congregation? Does he have
one church or are there other chapters?”

“I’m guessing it’s just the one church. It
doesn’t seem like a huge outfit, but they fill all the seats. The
guru’s wife said something about they added fifty members, but they
were mostly young people in their twenties, like Tim.”

“Preying on impressionable young people. I
should’ve known.”

“I don’t know about that. The old lady said
the young people don’t tend to stay very long. She’d rather have
older members.”

“In that case, they may be looking for people
who can give more money. What else did they talk about?”

“Not much after that. All they talked about
was Allen’s health issues and God. In fact they tried to convince
me to join them but…”

“But is Tim giving them any money? And what
about the girl, is he involved with her?”

“I don’t know yet. I only went there once.
This is going to take some time, not to mention an appropriate
church wardrobe.”

“I thought I gave you $4,000.00 the other
day?”

“That was for my AKA luncheon and homecoming.
Most of my suits and dresses are much too short to wear to
church.”

“Oh, fine, but I want to impress upon you the
importance of your job. I’m not looking for schoolgirl gossip. I
need you to use your reporting skills to get access to information
that we can use to gain leverage. Find out what kind of church this
is and what that guru’s intentions are. See if you can find some
skeletons that are hidden in their closets – something that would
get Tim to see these people for the phonies that they are.”

Allyson thought it was ironic that her
mother, of all people, would call them phonies. So far, Allyson
wasn’t getting that vibe from any of them at all. She couldn’t help
remembering how patient the pastor was when Allen’s girlfriend
jumped down his throat. She recalled how warm and caring Allen’s
mother had been towards her and how real her hug felt. Finally, she
remembered Mr. Sharpe, who reminded her so much of Poppa.

“What if they’re not phonies?”

“Allyson, my dear, I’ve been around a long
time. Trust me when I say your average Christian is nothing but a
hypocrite.”

Still Allyson wasn’t sure that these people
Tim was hanging with were your average Christians. At least
something inside her hoped they weren’t.

Twenty-Six

Jim flipped from channel to channel looking
for something interesting to watch as he sat propped up on the
couch where Riley had left him. He usually watched the preachers on
the Word network, but at this time of day, the charlatans were on,
namely some dude named E.Z. Monie who was about nothing but money
blessings. Jim knew he wouldn’t be interested in anything this guy
had to say after he saw him doing a praise dance in a pile of money
the parishioners had thrown into the isles. There was a cooking
show on one channel, but they were making some fancy gourmet dish
that looked pretty disgusting. Jim didn’t think crayfish would
taste good with peanut butter. Then there was an old black and
white movie on another channel, and an old episode of his favorite
kids show on another. He decided to give the remote a rest for a
while, now that he had found something to distract him from the
black hole that was his life.

Pop Vernon said that he should be taking this
time to seek the Lord’s guidance on how to move forward with his
life, but so far it seemed as if God was keeping quiet. Jim had
been reading the Bible and praying, but he still hadn’t gotten any
kind of revelation about where to begin in order to start his life
over. From his perspective things seemed bleak. The only job
experience he had since college was working for the MTA, and with
everything that happened, there was no way he could go back there.
He didn’t know what else he could do with a B.A. in political
science. He had no money to go to graduate school. The last time he
tried to get a job, he couldn’t even land a position at a fast food
restaurant. Jim felt helpless, and he wondered why God was not
intervening on his behalf now to give him some direction. He knew
that it had to be God that kept him from being killed in that
warehouse. “Why would He deliver me from death only to abandon me
now?” Jim pondered. Then he briefly thought about the secrets he’d
been keeping. Jim couldn’t help but entertain the possibility that
the multitude of sins he was hiding was standing in his way.

“This isn’t working,” Jim thought to himself
as he changed the channel again. He didn’t want his mind to go
there again. There was nothing he could do about those things.
Thinking about them only made him depressed and fearful. He was
getting tired of these feelings. He was tired of not being able to
feel good anymore. He wanted to lose himself in something. So he
changed the channel and happened upon another cooking show. This
time the lady was cooking soul food: oxtail stew and collard
greens. Now this was more suitable. Jim just kept his focus on the
oxtails the woman was braising in the pan. He envisioned himself
pulling the meat off the bones with a fork and tasting them.

“Let’s go out for lunch today” said Riley as
she stormed into the room. Jim’s attention was still on the TV and
what she said barely registered with him. He didn’t even notice
that she had her coat on and was holding his open to help him put
it on.

“What?” he said.

“I said, let’s go out. I know you’ve got to
be tired of being cooped up in here by now,” she said almost
sounding as if she were demanding him. The last thing Jim wanted to
do was go outside. He only had one good arm so using the crutch
they gave him at the hospital was near impossible.

“I can barely get around in here and you want
to go out?”

“We can use the wheelchair that Aunt Lena got
you.”

“I’m not using that thing. I feel worthless
enough as it is.”

“Using a wheelchair doesn’t make you
worthless. Just be glad this is only temporary and not
permanent.”

“I don’t want to go out anyway.”

“Well, I do. I don’t want to waste my visit
to the city sitting around here all day.”

“You can always go by yourself.”

“But I don’t know the city that well. I was
hoping you could make yourself useful and be my tour guide.”

“Do I really look like I’m ready to do battle
with all those tourists at Empire State Building?”

“You should know I wasn’t planning on going
all the way out there. I was hoping you could show me that place
where we got pizza the last time I was in town. Now, they had some
good pizza.”

“You mean Leo’s Harlem Hand-Tossed?”

“That’s the one with them swirl dudes that
know how to rock pizza, right?”

“Yeah. I guess I wouldn’t mind going there,”
said Jim relenting. He was beginning to think that maybe the fresh
air might do him some good and he was certain that Riley would be
less inclined to ask him about his personal business in public. In
any event, it had been a while since he’d had some decent
pizza.

“Alright then,” she said helping him into his
jacket, “the chair’s waiting out by the door.”

“Riley!”

“Now, Jimmy, you know I can’t hold you up on
them crutches like Al and them can. You gotta weigh like 180
pounds!”

“I’ve seen you take down a brother that was
200 pounds.”

“That was my adrenaline at work and I was
armed with an aluminum baseball bat.”

“But that thing is gonna be such a
hassle.”

“That pizza shop can’t be more than a few
blocks away from here.”

“Aiight. I’ll take the chair, if it makes it
easier for you.”

“It will. Now let’s go.”

*****

It seemed like ages since he’d been in Leo’s.
After he had ended his friendship with Allen, Jim would avoid the
place because he was afraid of running into Allen here. Allen loved
pizza and Leo’s was his favorite. They’d been regular customers
since high school. Jim liked the fact that it was one of the few
black-owned businesses left in Harlem that hadn’t been pushed out
by the gentrification, which had occurred during the last several
years. There was a marriage of Italian and African-American culture
that could be seen throughout the place. Maps of Italy and Africa,
as well as pictures of Leo’s Italian grandfather with the likes of
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Percy Sutton, and David Dinkins decorated
the place. Leo and his brother Tony were some really good dudes,
too. They always supported the community, especially the high
school that Jim and the others had attended. If it weren’t for Leo
and Tony, there wouldn’t be a Chess Club at the New Visions Magnet
School. It was nice to patronize a place where he was welcomed and
respected.