D.S. the Messenger

by Raymond McClary

  “Wow.”

  “You take care of yourself.”

  “You do the same Sage! Good bye!”

  “Good bye.” He pulled out of the garage and headed towards the highway. Sage pulls over to the side of the road to see where he has to travel to next. “I have to go to North Carolina. Her name is Skye Roles.”

  He found a hotel just past the border and checked in for the night. He called his wife. “I’m in North Carolina. I have to take care of some business here. And then I need a break from this.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes I’m fine.”

  “Sage, a police officer came by looking for you today after we talked earlier.”

  Sage thought for a moment and asked, “A female officer?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did the officer give a reason for the visit?”

  “No. It just seemed as though the officer was wondering where you were. The odd thing about it is that officer was in plain clothes and indicated that it was personal and reflected that possibly you had some information for her. Do you have an idea what this officer could be talking about?”

  “Baby, I don’t have a clue. But I will contact her once I return.”

  “I’m going to get some sleep. I have to get up extra early in the morning for a meeting in Pittsburgh. Sage, I love you.”

  “Love you too. Drive carefully tomorrow…Good night.”

  “Okay, Good night.” Sage takes off his clothes and falls off to sleep. His evening was very quiet. He slept sound for close to ten hours. Once he awakened, he noticed that he did not have a dream, which would give details about Skye. He washed, dressed and stopped at a convenient store to get a bite to eat. He dialed Skye’s telephone number to make sure that the woman was there. The number was disconnected. Thinking, Okay, There’s nothing special about how she should be approached indicated in Perry’s book. After contemplating about this, he decided to just drive to the woman’s home and just hope that was the right thing to do.

  He arrived at the address two hours later. It appeared to be a small open-gated community. This house looks abandoned, Sage thought to himself as he stepped out of the car. He walked up the path that led to the house when he heard a voice from a distance away. “Excuse me sir? Are you looking for someone?” Sage turned around to see a young lady who was holding a baby. “Why yes ma’am I am. I was hoping that I could catch up with Skye and her family, but by the looks of things, I missed them. Oh well, back to Philadelphia.”

  “You drove all the way down from Philadelphia?”

  “Yes I did. I just thought the number was disconnected because they may have had a new number.”

  “Well sir, I do…”

  “Please, call me Sage.”

  “Okay, Sage I do have her forwarding address. But Skye moved to Florida.”

  “Wow! All the way down there? I’m not sure if I’m up for that trip. I may have to just write her.” They laugh.

  “Follow me Sage. I’ll get you the address.”

  “Thank you so much ma’am.”

  “Please, call me Faye. I’m not that old.”

  “Yes Faye.”

  He follows Faye over to her house and waits outside while Faye went to get the information. Faye returned and says, “I’m sorry I don’t have a telephone number.”

  “Faye, this is just as good as a number. I need to get ready for my journey.”

  “Do you need anything Sage? Perhaps, you would like something to drink or eat?”

  “No thank you Faye, you are too kind. Oh how I love the southern hospitality. Take care Faye and once again, thank you.”

  “Bye Sage! It was nice talking with you.”

  Sage waves at her as he gets into his car and again as he drives off. He says to himself, “I’m off to Florida.”

  D.S. The Light

  ϕϕϕ

  Sage stopped at a gas station to have the oil changed and a full tank of gas. He contacted Deva on her cell phone. “Hi Baby!”

  “Hello, how are you?”

  “I feel like a million plus, Sage. And you?”

  “I’m fine, listen I need you to do a favor for me.”

  “Okay, I’m listening.”

  “If I give you a name and address, would you be able to locate a telephone number for me?”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem. What’s the name and address?” Sage gives her the information.

  “Hold on baby while I look it up.”

  “Okay.” Deva made a few calls, found the information and read it to him as he programmed the number into his phone.

  “Baby, are you on your way to Florida?”

  “Yeah, it seems as though I don’t have a choice.”

  “You always have a choice.”

  “You are right, but I started this and I have to complete it or else I would never rest.”

  “Certainly, we don’t want that.”

  “Do I detect a little sarcasm?”

  “Of course not darling.”

  “I will give you a call once I arrive, and thank you. I owe you.”

  “I can’t wait for the moment to cash in on that. I love you Sage.”

  “I love you too.” They hang up.

  ɸ

  Deva felt the urge to do some shopping. Her secretary was notified about her plans of leaving for the day and to contact her if there were any problems. Deva stopped in the shoe store and noticed Officer Mendez.

  “Why hello, officer?”

  “Hello Mrs. Mecan. Listen, I want to apologize if I may have been a little edgy or disrespectful when I came to your home.”

  “Girl, don’t even worry about that.”

  “Did your husband return from his trip?”

  “No, he is still out of town…. To be honest, it may be a few days before he’s back home.”

  “Are you comfortable with that?

  “Am I comfortable with what?”

  “Your husband’s traveling out of town for such a long time?”

  “Yes. I also trust that God is looking over him and protecting him from everything…Including temptation, if that is what you are speaking of.”

  “I can see that your faith is strong, because your husband is quite handsome.”

  Deva looks at her awkwardly,

  “I don’t mean it in a way that I personally would try to tempt him. I’m just giving you a compliment.”

  “Oh, well thank you.” They smile but Deva displayed a fake one.

  “Mrs. Mecan is it all right that we go get something to drink and just chat?

  “Sure it is, and you can call me Deva.”

  “You can call me Tonia.”

  They walked across the street to a café. They sat down and ordered their drinks and after a few moments of silence. Both started to speak at the same time. Tonia said,

  “I’m sorry…You can go first.”

  “Ok…I believe there is something that you want to either tell me or find out from me. I want you to tell me which one it is because I got bad vibes when you appeared at my doorstep. Not to mention inquiring the whereabouts of my husband. So tell me Tonia, what is going on?”

  “Deva, your husband came to the police station with a DVD. On that DVD was his brother, best friend, whatever, saying that he had AIDS and that he had sex with many married women in attempts to spread the virus amongst them.”

  Deva kept her composure at this point by sipping on her coffee as Tonia continued to talk.

  “He wanted me to do something about it since he thought it was a crime. I told him that it wasn't and that the man on the DVD could be a prankster.”

  “Tonia, what made you knock on my door?”

  Tonia paused for a moment, took a deep breath and said,

  “I have a sister Sonia, who is married and has two beautiful children and is H.I.V. positive. At this moment my sister is in the hospital and it may be full blown AIDS.”

  Tonia's eyes began to water. “The man on that DVD may have given it to her.”
<
br />   Deva covered her mouth as her eyes began to fill with tears. “My sister lives in New York and has not said anything to me, but my brother- in-law said that he saw a man outside her job. He recognized how upset my sister was in a way he had never seen before, but made him leave and asked the man to stay.” Tonia says in a stern Hispanic accent while raising a hand pointing towards the ceiling. “I need to know if that was your husband talking to my sister!”

  Deva jumped up hysterically from the table.

  Tonia says, “You said that you know your husband. Well do you know if he was in New York?”

  Deva yells, “NO!” While running out of the cafe.

  Tonia followed behind her. “No, as in you don’t know? Or no, he was not there? I have to know Deva! I need to know!”

  Deva ran across the street to her car. Mya saw her as Deva was running to her car and yelled, “Hey girl!”

  Deva looked back at her, jumped in the car and sped off. Mya followed her. Mya tried reaching her on the cell phone. Deva wasn’t answering. After a few turns into the neighborhood, Mya recognized that Deva was heading home. Once they arrived at the house, Mya jumped out of the car and said to her, “What’s going on? Why did you ignore me? And why were you driving like a bat out of hell?”

  “Not now Red. Today is really becoming a troublesome one. A real trip!”

  “Girl, will you tell me what’s going on!” Deva is pacing back and forth along her driveway.

  “I can’t believe Sage is doing this. I know it’s what’s right, but why you baby?”

  Mya is standing there expressionless; trying to figure out what Deva is talking about. Mya grabs Deva and says, “Will you get a hold of yourself? You are making a scene.” They look around and notice that the neighbors are staring at them. “Let’s go inside.”

  They walked inside of the house and into the kitchen area. Deva looks inside the refrigerator and grabs a bottle of water. “I actually need something stronger than this to knock my spirit into place.”

  “Will you explain to me what is going on?”

  Deva looked at Mya and was about to tell her what was going on with Sage and decided not to say anything in detail.

  Deva looked down at the table while saying, “I have a marital problem and I just have to get my composure. I will explain everything to you after I sit down with Sage to get clarification because at this point, I’m puzzled.”

  “Okay, but if you need me girl, call me. You really had me scared. From my observation, the woman that was standing there watching you take off seemed pretty upset as well. Things just did not look too good.”

  “Well Mya, they say believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. Tonia is a police officer here in the area and was sharing some information with me about her family and I had to just get out of there.”

  Deva picks up her cell phone to contact Sage and before the signal was connected to him, Deva hung up. “I’ll wait until he safely arrives home. There’s no need to transmit negativity over the phone. I can hold my composure and wait for him to return. Now that I think about it, my initial reaction was similar to Sage’s when he stormed out of here the day after Perry’s funeral. Assuming that is what he was angry about. He had some items in his hand but I can barely remember what it was.”

  “Deva are you talking to me or mumbling to yourself? Clearly, I don’t understand anything that you are saying.” Mya left the kitchen area to watch television. Deva walks into his office and begins to look around. Mya walks in. “Deva, Are you snooping around? Okay, you have to tell me girl.”

  “Tell you what?”

  “Is he cheating on you? I know he appears to be a strong and focused man but like us women, they do have vulnerable points. Even though I would find that very hard to understand or believe, so tell me girl, is he?”

  “No, I don’t think he is cheating on me. I’m just looking for something, that’s all. I have to think like him to find what I’m looking for.”

  Deva walked back to the entrance doorway and turned around to face the office. “If he wanted to hide something he would hide it under my nose. But since we are the only ones here, he wouldn’t hide it but neatly place it. Unless he wanted to speculate that I would want to become curious.”

  Mya interrupts. “You are crazy. You cannot analyze a man because half the time he does not know what he’s doing and why? Girl, you need help.”

  “Well help me then.”

  “No, I mean mentally.”

  Deva says, “Ha! I see it. I need help hunh?” Deva walked over to his stack of books on a shelf that looked a little out of place, moved the books and there was the box that Sage had that day when he hurried out of the house. Deva pulled the box down and placed it on the desk and stared at it for a moment.

  “What’s wrong Deva?”

  “This is his and I’m snooping around. I know that I am completely wrong for doing this.” Deva places her trembling hands on the box. Mya is looking with anxiousness. Deva slowly opened the box.

  Mya screams, “What’s in it!?”

  “Nothing. It’s completely empty. He has it with him whatever it is.” Deva placed the box back onto the shelf.

  “I guess nothing is good Deva.”

  “I guess it is, but I still have a lot of curiosity about this.”

  “I’m going back into the other room to watch television. So you need to wait until your hubby gets back.”

  “I guess you are right. I’ll be there in a minute.” Deva stood there and just looked around, while upset, scared and angry at the same time and could not gather herself.

  “Sage I want you home with me. My soul needs you.” Deva grabs one of his sweaters, puts it on, and walked into the living room to watch television with Mya.

  ϕ

  Sage arrived in Florida fourteen hours later. He checked into a hotel not too far from Mrs. Coles’ residence. He called Deva. “Hello Sage.”

  “How are you?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I arrived here about an hour ago. I got something to eat and I wanted to call and talk to you for a while before I go to bed. Baby I just want you to know that I really dread the fact that I have to drive from state to state. But I will be heading back home at the latest by noon.”

  Deva cries out, “I wish you were here right now!”

  “Baby, what’s wrong? Everything was fine earlier when we talked. What is the matter?”

  Sobbing, Deva says, “I just want you home. This should be our honeymoon and you are off in Florida! What’s wrong with this picture?”

  “I see your point. Listen, once I arrive back into Philly, we can go anywhere you want to go and do anything you want to do. Is that okay with you?”

  Sniffling Deva says, “Yes.”

  “Now, please stop crying. That makes me feel so bad when you do that and since I’m not there it’s making it so much worse and if you are not strong enough for me, well I’m just not strong at all. I need the strength of both of us to handle these situations alright?”

  “Alright Sage, I’m okay.”

  “Good. Did anything interesting happen today?”

  “Why would you ask that Sage?”

  “Well I guess with the traveling I’ve been doing, I never asked you about your day that much, so I’m asking now.”

  “Well I did see that officer today.”

  “That officer came by the house again?”

  “No, I sort of bumped into her at a store in town. We sat at the coffee shop and talked for a while.”

  Now Sage became very wary but he did not want to give her that impression. So in a cheerful tone he asks,

  “Deva, what did the two of you talk about?”

  “Well, the officer did most of the talking about her family and I just listened.”

  “Seems very nice.”

  Without drawing suspicion to himself he asks in a nonchalant way,

  “So, is that all the two of you talked about?”

  “Well, we had a brief
discussion about her attraction to you. The only one that I know who does not see you that way is Mya.”

  “Yeah, that’s my little sister. I don’t remember if Mya was even at the reception.”

  “I think I did see her but you know I only can remember one person being there with me, and that’s you.”

  “Deva you know how to make me feel when I need it. You have on one of my shirts?”

  “I sure do. I feel so good when I wear them.”

  “You look so good in them too and on that note, I’m going to get some sleep. I will see you in a few days.”

  “I love you Sage.”

  “Love you too. Goodnight.”

  Sage fell off to sleep after wondering if Deva was telling him everything about her new found friend, the police officer.

  Sage slept peacefully through the night. He was awakened around 9 am to the sounds of children playing outside his hotel room. He thought, “Here is something I haven’t heard in a while, the sound of children’s laughter. It sort of gives you a sense that your day is going to start out just fine. Even when you are aware of the outcome of your day as it draws to a close.” Sage gets dressed and checks out. He was walking to his car when a child dropped his open soda can on him by accident. Sage stood there in disbelief. The child’s mother ran towards them from the rental office. “Sir, I am so sorry! I saw what my child has done. The woman hurriedly grabs her son and says, “Apologize to the man.”

  “I’m sorry sir.”

  “Accidents happen young man, I’ll be fine. It’s not a problem. I just have to find a store to get a change of clothes.”

  “Well sir, there is a mall just behind the hotel.”

  Sage walked to the side of the building and saw the huge mall that was behind it. “Wow, I did not recognize it when I arrived here last night. Thank you.”

  “You are quite welcome and again I’m sorry. The woman yells at her child while dragging him and walking away.

  D.S. THE TRUTH

  ϕϕϕ

  Sage got into his car and drove into the mall parking area. He walked inside to a men’s store and started to look at suits when a woman approached him. “Excuse me, Sage is that you?” Sage looked at her and for a moment he could not recognize her. Suddenly he responds, “Lynda? Lynda Jordan?”