The Other Side of Divine (18 page)

“That's the only thing you really care about, isn't it, Tiffany? You're just looking for a paycheck. Well, you know what: I'm going to make sure you get money to take care of the children. And I'm going to file those papers for a divorce. Are you happy now? Now that you know you're going to get a paycheck for the kids.”

She shook her head as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “It costs money to take care of children. You know this. Our children are not a ‘paycheck' to me. But I'm not going to allow them to suffer, to be here without food, a roof over their heads, or the threat of being without utilities to prove anything to you. I'm not. So say what you want, but I love my children.”

“Yeah, okay. Listen: I'll hit you up the next time I want to get them.” He started toward the door, then turned around. “Oh, and I did check on a divorce. And the lawyer I spoke with says they have an economy special that would save us money. If you and I agree on how everything will be divided upfront without having a long, drawn-out court battle, we can use the thrift plan. I know you used to clip coupons; I assume you still do. I know how much you love a good bargain. So I say we go for the economy deal. What say you?”

Tiffany slowly shook her head and as she frowned at him, one tear made its way down her face. “You truly
are
a despicable person. I can't believe I never saw just how much you were before now. I'm going to pray for you,” Tiffany said.

He laughed as he opened the front door. “Oh, please do. You know I can use all the prayers I can get.” He winked, then left, gently closing the door behind him.

—Genesis 24:23

 

 

 

T
he Saturday following the children's visit with their father, Tiffany allowed Jade to go to Jasmine's house to play. As was now their custom, the two girls hugged at the door, giggled, then ran up to Jasmine's bedroom.

Miss Crowe and Jasmine had just finished putting a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies with pecans in the oven. When they were ready, she decided to carry some up to them.

Gabrielle met Miss Crowe on her way toward the stairway. Grabbing one of the cookies off the plate, she took the plate. “You're carrying these to the girls? I'll do it for you.”

“Okay, Gabrielle. Just make sure that plate, along with at least most of the cookies on it, makes its way up to them.” Miss Crowe smiled. “I know you.”

“You know how much I love your chocolate chip cookies hot out of the oven,” she said. “And you put pecans in these. I hope you have some more you're putting in the oven now.”

“I do. So give the girls those and you can come in the kitchen and have all you want.”

Gabrielle loved smelling the cookies as she walked with them up the stairs toward Jasmine's room. The door was slightly opened, but Gabrielle didn't want to barge in without knocking first. She felt she owed Jasmine that level of respect. About to knock, she could hear that Jasmine and Jade were in deep conversation. She wasn't really trying to eavesdrop, not on purpose. But she overheard Jade say something to Jasmine that made her stop and listen in.

“I had such an awesome time with my father last weekend,” Jade said. “I went all set to not like it and to let him know just how much I didn't like how he'd left us like he did.”

“Why do you say he left y'all? Your mom and dad are separated. He didn't leave y'all,” Jasmine said.

“Yes, he did leave
us
. You can't just leave our home without leaving us too,” Jade said. “So my sister, brother, and I made a pact when our mother told us he was coming to get us to spend the weekend with him that we would make the weekend miserable for him.”

“That doesn't make sense,” Jasmine said. “That seems like it would make him not want to get y'all again
or
come back home.”

“No, you don't understand. We were going to do that so he would feel really crappy about having left us. You know—he would have felt guilty. And maybe that would make him think about what he was doing, then he would come back home and work things out with our mother,” Jade said. “My mother has been praying so hard for him. I hear her; she really loves him and she does want him back. When I said something to her about it one day after he first left, she said she wanted him to come home, but she wanted him back like God intends for him to be.”

“That sounds like grown folk speak to me,” Jasmine said with a short laugh. “You know how when they don't really know the answer, they put everything in God's hands and on Him. My mother says we're to pray about things, but God is also looking for us to do our part.”

“So what are you trying to say?” Jade said. “That my mother's not doing her part?”

“Oh, no. That wasn't what I was saying at all. You have an awesome mother. I love coming to your house. I just wish there wasn't always so much fighting going on with grownups. You know grown folks fuss at us about getting along, but they don't always set great examples. Again, I'm not talking about your mother at all. That was just a general observation.”

Jade laughed. “You're going to be a professor or a scientist or something smart like that when you grow up, aren't you? I mean you're not like normal people your age.”

“Let's not go there,” Jasmine said. “Finish telling me about your visit with your father. Did your plan work? Did he end up feeling bad about being gone? Are your parents getting back together now?”

“It was only one visit. In fact, we've barely seen him since he left last year around September. He came to the house back in January acting like he was ready to come home for good. He didn't look so hot that time. He looked like a homeless man. You know the ones you see staggering around and sometimes begging on the streets?”

“Really? He was that bad?”

“Yeah. He was pretty bad. He wanted to stay the night, but I heard Mama tell him he couldn't. I think she should have let him stay. That might have helped bring them back together. When I told her what I thought the next day, she said I don't know all the facts and that I should stay—”

“Out of grown folks' business!” Jasmine chimed in with Jade. They both laughed. “Grown folks' speak.”

“They do all say that, don't they?” Jade said. “It's like they don't think we children have an opinion about anything. But we see stuff. We hurt just like they do.”

“I know. There are some things I don't tell my mother because I know she won't really hear me. She wants to protect me, and she thinks she's doing what's best for me. So to cause her less stress, I just keep a lot of things to myself,” Jasmine said in a solemn voice.

“Like what?”

“Like I know I was adopted. I know the Nobles were my adopted family. I now know, although I would have much preferred hearing the news in a different way, that Gabrielle was actually my birth mother, the mother who gave me up for adoption. But . . .” Jasmine's voice trailed off.

Gabrielle moved closer to the door, afraid whatever Jasmine had just said had been missed completely because it had been spoken so quietly.

“But what?” Jade said.

“But now I want to know who my real father is. I want to know whose daughter I am.”

“It won't be long now before Dr. Z will be your father. I'm so excited about the wedding. I'm glad I'm going to be in it. We're going to be junior bridesmaids!”

“Yeah, I'm excited about Dr. Z and all. But he's not my
real
father. I want to know where I came from.”

“Then why don't you just ask your mother?”

“Because she has to know already that I want to know. If she's not voluntarily offering to tell me then that means, in her head, she thinks she's protecting me.”

“But if you tell her that you really want to know, that will free her to know you're interested. What is she going to say if you want to know?” Jade said.

Jasmine sighed. “There's one other problem my asking could bring up. What if she doesn't know who my father is? What if she doesn't know whose daughter I am?”

“Do you think that's the case?”

“I don't know,” Jasmine said. “But you know Mindy at church?”

“You're talking about Drawing Mindy that likes to draw all the time?”

“Yeah. Well, I heard her telling another girl that her mother didn't have a clue who her daddy was. She said her mother needed to go on that show where they bring on possible fathers to see which one, if any, is the father. She said she would be embarrassed if her mother brought like three men on and none of them turned out to be her father. That would mean her mother was something she called her that's not a word I'm allowed to say.”

“I know what word that is. I'm not allowed to say it, either. But it's not a very nice word to say or be,” Jade said. “So are you thinking Miss Gabrielle might not know who your father is and that's why she hasn't said anything to you about him?”

“I don't know. I just know right now it's safer if I don't say anything,” Jasmine said. “I've learned that sometimes the answer is worse than the question. And with all I've been through, I'm not sure I'm up to being hurt much more. Imagine if I learn that my birth mother can't tell me my birth father's name.”

“If she
does
know and
can
tell you, would you want to meet him?” Jade asked with a touch of enthusiasm in her voice. “I mean if he's still alive, of course.”

“I would so
love
to meet him. I'd love to find out if I have any sisters and brothers. I'm like an only child right now, which has been okay. I mean, I have you, and you're like a sister.”

“Believe me, having a sister and a brother is not all it's cracked up to be,” Jade said.

“Oh, you know you love yours,” Jasmine said, giggling.

“I do,” Jade said with a hint of resolve. “But sometimes they get on my
last
nerve! Like last weekend when we went to our father's new place who, by the way, lives in a mansion with the prettiest woman I've ever seen in my life.”

“Prettier than your own mother?” Jasmine asked.

“You know what I mean,” Jade said, deflecting the question. “Her name is Dee . . . Vine but she goes by Divine, like it's one word instead of two. Well, when I saw her, I was determined I was going to make her regret the day she ever came between my parents getting back together. I mean—I truly believe had he not met her and ended up at her place, he and Mom would be back together already. I heard my mother tell someone on the phone the following day after he asked to stay at the house back in January that she could tell he was at his breaking point and ready to do right. She said it was just a matter of time. But I guess after that, he must have gotten with Miss Divine and he's not studying
any
of us now, especially my mother.”

“So you like this Divine woman?”

“I didn't want to,” Jade said. “But she's a pretty nice lady. She had rooms decorated as though she knew us personally. She said the rooms would be ours whenever we came over. Of course, she put me in the room with Dana, which I hated. I'd prefer my own room all by myself. Miss Divine has some more rooms in that mansion. So who knows? Maybe I'll ask for a room of my own the next time I'm there. That's if she and Daddy stay together. My mother told someone on the phone that Daddy has commitment issues. Whoever she was talking to must have called him a dog because my mother quickly came back saying he wasn't a dog; he was just confused.”

“You sure do overhear a lot around your place,” Jasmine said.

“Oh, if you learn to be quiet and sit perfectly still when you're in the room with adults while they're talking, you'll find that they forget all about you being there, and you can learn a lot you otherwise would never know. But I think people who sneak up and listen in on closed doors aren't people with integrity. That's just being sneaky and deceptive, and I don't do that.” Jade laughed.

Gabrielle glanced down at the plate of cookies, tiptoed back to the top of the stairs, then made a lot of noise as she came back to Jasmine's bedroom.

“Knock, knock!” Gabrielle said. “Sorry to interrupt, but Miss Crowe made—”

“Cookies!” both girls shouted in unison and sprinted toward Gabrielle.

Jasmine grabbed the edge of the plate. “Are all of these ours?”

“Yes, ma'am,” Gabrielle said releasing the plate to Jasmine. “They're all yours. Miss Crowe has probably pulled out a fresh batch by now.” Gabrielle tilted her head slightly. “So, what are you two girls up here talking about with the door pretty much closed?”

Jade looked at Jasmine, who quickly eyed her.

“I was telling Jasmine about my visit last weekend with my father,” Jade said.

“Oh, yes. Your mother told me the three of you went to stay the weekend with him,” Gabrielle said. “So how was it?”

“It turned out nice. As much as I'm mad at my father on one hand, what I learned in being with him last weekend is how much a father really means, especially when you're his little girl. I'm just glad I, at least, know who
my
father is.”

Jasmine kicked Jade on the sly, obviously telling her to cool it. “Thanks for the cookies, Mama.” Jasmine smiled and cocked her head to the side.

Gabrielle grinned. “Okay, I can take a hint. I suppose that's my cue to stay out of your business and that I can leave now and go take care of my own.”

“Not trying to hurt your feelings,” Jasmine said. “But we don't have a lot of time together before Jade has to go home.”

“And you'd prefer not having me waste any of that time talking about stuff you don't want to talk about.” Gabrielle raised her hands as a sign of surrender. “I got it.” She started toward the door, then turned around. “Oh, if you want milk, you'll have to go to the kitchen and get it yourself.” Gabrielle stopped at the door. “You want the door open or closed?”

“Open is fine,” Jasmine said.

Gabrielle left the door open and walked out. She had a real decision to make at this point. Zachary had just said something about it, and now she'd heard it from her own daughter's mouth: Jasmine wanted to know her birth father. She wanted to know whose daughter she was.