The Atonement (55 page)

“Thankfully, Tim got a lawyer already working
on the motion,” said Vernon.

“I pray God keeps things working in our
favor,” said Lena.

“I know He will,” said Allen.

Fifty-five

“Hello, mother dear,” said Allyson beaming
brightly as she sat down to join her for lunch at an upscale
midtown eatery.

“So you avoid my calls until I threaten you,
and you have the nerve to saunter in so casually.”

Eleanor wouldn’t look at her, but kept
staring at her menu, her face like stone. Allyson could tell a
storm was brewing in her mother’s heart, but she wasn’t the least
bit worried.

“I was busy working, trying to get you as
much information as I could. That is what you wanted, isn’t
it?”

“With the way you’ve left me hanging, this
better be more than the school girl gossip you’ve been bringing me.
We need to get Tim back with us ASAP,” she said tossing the menu
down on the table.

“Thankfully, she has delivered,” said Tim
walked up to their table.

“Tim! How – What are you – I mean, this is
such a nice surprise. I wasn’t expecting you to join us.”

“Allyson invited me,” he said taking a
seat.

“What?” asked Eleanor.

“I was thinking, ‘why hear things second hand
from me when you can get all your information from the source,”
said Allyson.

Eleanor looked at them both curiously as if
she was wondering if they were playing some kind of a joke on
her.

“Allyson said you’ve been missing me. Is that
right?” said Tim.

“Yes – uh, since we came back from Baltimore
– you seemed so upset about what happened. Allyson and I were under
the impression that you were avoiding us.”

“You mean you were under the impression that
he was avoiding us,” said Allyson.

“What would give you that idea?” asked
Tim.

“Maybe the way you banished us from your
bedside at the hospital, and the way you sent away the private
nurse I hired for you…”

“No one banished you anywhere. All I did was
ask for my phone back and request that you wait outside while my
friends were visiting with me – and I told you from the beginning I
didn’t need a nurse. No where in any of that did I ever say I never
wanted to see you anymore.”

“Though he would have been justified,” said
Allyson under her breath.

“Still, you rarely call anymore,” whined
Eleanor.

“I left a message on your service three
months ago that you still haven’t returned,” said Tim.

“Okay, so maybe there were some issues of
miscommunication on both our parts, but regardless, we have to
remember what’s most important. You remember what Poppa used to
say: Family must stick together.”

“I agree.”

“So does this mean you will be spending more
time with us?”

“I’m always open to spending time with
you.”

“Excellent!” said Eleanor beaming, “In fact,
I was hoping that you would be able to attend a luncheon this
Sunday coming. I wanted to introduce you to the congressman and
there’s a young lady I’ve been dying for you to meet…”

“Wait a minute, hold the phone. Look, when I
said I was open to spending time with you, I meant one on one
family time. I’m not doing any business related stuff – and you
know Sundays are off the table because I go to church.”

“You’re still going to that, that…”

“It’s a church, mom - a plain homely little
church. It’s really not a big deal. Lot’s of people go to church,”
said Allyson.

“Don’t tell me they’ve got to you, too.”

“Please. I’m not even a member there. I
hardly think I’ve been gotten to.”

“Then how can you condone your brother’s
involvement with that place and with those people?”

“Honestly, they’re not bad people. Why don’t
you go down there sometime and meet them? I’m sure they’d love to
meet you,” said Allyson with a smirk.

“Or my pocketbook,” she snarled to her
daughter before returning her attention to her son. “Timothy, that
is not the kind of place where you belong. You need to be around
people of means and position. People that can help launch your
career, not a bunch of cotton-headed dreamers looking for mansions
up yonder.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. There’s only One
with the power to launch anything, and that’s God. Wherever He is,
is where I belong.”

“You sound like a child.”

“Despite what you think I sound like, at the
end of the day I’m a grown man. That means I am entitled to live my
life as I see fit. Now I am willing to share that life with you,
but the key word is share. You can have some of me, but you can’t
have all of me, and I’m sorry, but I can’t allow you to run my
life. That’s my final offer. Take it or leave it.”

“Timothy, I’m just trying to look out for
your interests. That’s what a mother does. The last thing I want is
to be forced to have a front row seat to watch you
self-destruct.”

“I said take it or leave it. What’s it going
to be?”

“Remember, this is going to be your decision,
mom. Tim is holding out the white flag,” said Allyson.

“Alright, have it your way, Tim. I just hope
that when you finally wake up from the dream world you’re living
in, it won’t be too late to fix things.”

“Thank you for respecting my decision, even
if it is grudgingly.”

“I just don’t know what has happened to you,
Tim. You’ve changed so much in the past couple of years, I hardly
recognize you.”

“I agree, mother. But I think that actually
might be a good thing,” said Allyson taking her brother’s hand.

Fifty-Six

It was a lovely late fall day. The sun shone
brightly and the winds gently blew the bare branches making the
trees look as if they were waving to a beat. Davis found himself
whistling as he approached the Bynum homestead dragging his tools
in the rollaway bag behind him. He rapped gently on the door to
alert the residents to his arrival. He had no apprehensions because
he knew that Mother Bynum was at the church hosting a prayer
meeting that had started well over an hour ago. After a moment, the
door opened.

“Hey,” said Riley. She always looked at him
as if she was sizing him up.

“Hey,” he said, feeling a little
unsettled.

“Miko’s not here. She went food
shopping.”

“S’aiight. I’m not here for a visit. The
Pastor asked me if I could take a look at the garbage
disposal.”

“Oh,” she said still looking a little
uncertain.

She backed up so that he could enter and led
him to the kitchen. Davis parked his tool bag near the table, and
then got to work on the disposal. He had already inspected it
before dinner the last Sunday and knew that it only needed a new
gasket. He decided to get started right away. As he began to work,
he noticed that Riley had planted herself in a chair and was
watching him silently like a cat in a shop corner and he wondered
if it was out of mistrust or simple curiosity. But considering what
he believed was her moody disposition, he was wary of trying to
start a conversation with her.

“So what is it with you?” She asked him out
of nowhere. “You don’t talk much, or you just don’t like talking to
me?”

“Depends. I don’t mind talking to people that
can be chill, but if you’re gonna bite my head off for no reason,
then I think its best if we…just kept things civil,” said
Davis.

“I know I can be a bit direct sometimes, but
I don’t usually bite unless there’s a reason,”

“If you say so,” sighed Davis who was trying
to keep his mind on what he was doing. He would keep it brief. The
last thing he wanted was to get into an argument with her. But then
somehow he sensed there was something different in her manner with
him.

“So I guess we’re not going to be friends
then.”

“Not sayin’ that,” he said as he stopped his
work to look at her. She seemed to be a little nervous. “Do you
want us to be friends?”

“If you don’t want to be…”

“I never said I didn’t. Okay, I know we
didn’t get a chance to start things off right. How ‘bout we start
over, right here, right now?”

“Are you for real?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“How does that work?”

“Like this. Hi,” he said as he wiped his hand
before extending it to her, “Name’s Davis Martinez, and you?”

“Riley Sharpe,” she said taking his hand.

“Nice to meet you, Riley.”

“Nice to meet you, too, bra.”

“Now was that so bad?”

“I guess not,” she said.

Then she smiled in spite of herself and Davis
couldn’t help but notice the way it made her whole face light up.
Her radiance was absolutely stunning. So much so that Davis almost
forgot about the work he had to do.

“Sorry about what happened earlier. Miko and
Al always say that I’m abrasive or whatever. Not tryin’ to be
though.”

“S’aiight. But just so you
know, the Word says the best way to make friends is to be
friendly.”
¹

“I try,” she said shrugging her
shoulders.

“You don’t mind if I work while we talk?”

“Not at all.”

“How you likin’ it up here?”

“Not bad. Nice to have the stores in walking
distance when you want something. I’m from Lewiston, and that’s
like in the middle of nowhere.”

“When you get back I’ll bet you’ll ‘preciate
the quiet, though.”

“You city people call it quiet. I call it
boring.”

“I wouldn’t mind trading places with you for
a while. Sometimes I think the city can be a little too
exciting.”

“If you’re talking about all the so called
dangers here, I think that stuff can happen anywhere.”

“I guess you’re right about that. So what do
you do for a living?”

“Hair, mostly – sometimes make up.”

“You like it?”

“Yeah. I like working with my hands. There’s
no way I could sit at a desk all day.”

“Me either. You get a lot of customers?”

“I got some regulars in the neighborhood
where I’m from. Don’t get hit with any complaints or lawsuits, so I
guess I do a pretty decent job.”

“My sister’s kinda like you. She don’t do
hair, but she does makeup, facials, manicures, and stuff like that.
She works at a spa in Queens.”

“I studied that, too, but I just prefer
working with hair. More interesting to me – ya know?”

“So how come you don’t like – make your own
hair fancy?”

“Excuse, you?”

“No, I mean, like you always got your hair –
uh – uh.”

“It’s called an afro – or a natural, not
nappy or a bad hair day. And let me tell you something, you have a
lot of nerve to assume that just because I wear an afro, that I’m
not doing anything with my hair.”

“Chill, girl. I wasn’t tryin’ to say you
don’t do nothin’ to it, I only meant like you don’t change it up
that much…”

“Don’t try to clean it up, I get what you
were trying to say. For your information, it takes as much time, if
not more, to care for an afro than a straight style – that’s right,
straight hair is just a style, it is not the default for perfection
as you wanna make it out to be. And for your information, sometimes
I do straighten my hair if and when I feel like it, not because
people like you think I should.”

“Okay, fine. I stand corrected. That’s how
you roll, it’s fine with me.”

“I don’t really care if its fine with you or
not. It’s my hair and I think natural hair is just as beautiful, as
straightened hair. After all, it is the hair God gave me.”

“How about we talk about something else?”

“No, I got one better; how about we not talk
anymore at all,” she said before she sprung up from her chair and
stormed out of the room. “I can’t believe I was actually starting
to think you were chill.”

She left just as Pastor Bynum walked in.

“Hey, Riley. How’s…” said the Pastor, who was
unable to finish his address before she left. Then he sent a very
confused look toward Davis. “What’s with her?”

“She was watching me fix the disposal and
then we started talking about her hair…”

The Pastor began to chuckle. “Son, Allen or
Tamiko should’ve told you – you don’t ever talk to Riley about her
hair.”

“Lesson learned.”

Riley was definitely not like Tamiko at all.
Whereas Tamiko was like a tomato, Riley was more like an artichoke.
He found himself hoping that Riley would extend her stay with the
Sharpes for a while. He was curious to discover what lay beneath
all the layers of her prickly personality.

Fifty-Seven

“Dinner’s Ready!” called Lena from the dining
room. Vernon, Allen, Jim, and Chris were watching a football game
in the living room, while Mother Rose, and Tamiko were setting the
food on the sideboard and tables, and the Pastor was beginning to
carve the turkey.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” said Allen
who got up from his seat on the couch and headed to the dining
room.

“That is a huge turkey,” said Chris.

“I thought we’d have more people over, but
Tim and Allyson are with their mom, and Davis is with his family,”
said Lena.

“Don’t you worry, there’s still a lot of
people here. I don’t think we’ll have much left over after
tonight,” said Jim.

“I am actually glad to have a smaller party
this year. Reminds me of when all the children were younger before
all the interlopers arrived,” said Mother Rose as she brought in a
casserole of sliced rutabagas. “No offense, Christopher, dear.”

“None taken – and you can call me Chris,
ma’am.”

“Of course, dear.”

“Are you alright, Miko?” asked Allen, “You
haven’t seemed like yourself in the past couple of weeks.”

“I’m fine. I guess I’ve been a little
preoccupied with what’s been going on with Darius and
everything.”