A Treasure of Gold

by Piper Huguley

  “My point exactly.” Jay took his daughter’s hand and led her back to the kitchen.

  Her eyes had been opened by him. Here was a man who did things that even her brothers-in-law did not do. He braided his daughter’s hair (they were not straight, but he did it). He insisted on helping her fry eggs and slice ham for the sandwiches. He helped pull off this gathering, one she thought was impossible.

  Without a doubt, this morning was the happiest she had felt in a long time. Where she was closest to her purpose. This city, with all of the noise and brownstones and lights, made things noisy. Today, in a little storefront with over sixty parents, family members and children, there was a church.

  She liked the thought of having her own space. Would it be possible to own one herself? Besides the pickiness of the congregants, the large, impersonal space of Freedom Christian was too cold and it overwhelmed her.

  Could she find a way to maintain her special connection in a smaller place like this one?

  She stood between Jay and Goldie and washed cups as Goldie dried. She was reluctant about asking, but if she didn’t, this chance would never come again.

  “Is the storefront empty every Sunday?” She asked him.

  He looked down at her, laughing. “Where did that question come from?”

  “I was wondering if it’s available every Sunday.”

  “It’s empty every Sunday. Can’t play the game on Sundays. No bank business transacted, no way of getting the number.”

  “Is it possible…I wonder if can I buy some chairs to keep here and have a service here every week?”

  Goldie moved to look at her. “Who would be the pastor, Miss Nettie?”

  “She would,” Jay informed his daughter, just as naturally as he might tell her it was raining outside.

  “Yes. I mean, I wouldn’t be a minister, but I would conduct the service.”

  “Which is what a minister does,” he informed her.

  “A minister does other things, but seeing how things went today, I wonder if there are others who feel as I do—lost in the big space of churches like Freedom Christian. If there are, then I could have a small service here on Sundays.”

  “Wow, a lady minister,” Goldie said with her little face lit up.

  “A wonderful idea.”

  “I could pay rent. A seventh of what you pay each week.”

  Jay held up a soapy hand. “No, it would be a tithe. Think of it that way.”

  She acquiesced. He was catching on. “It could be.”

  “You mean we could do this every week! Yippee!” Goldie was clearly excited.

  So was Nettie. Plans swirled about in her head. She thought of the chairs, food and fellowship, music, getting the piano tuned—so many things to do before next week.

  She turned to Jay, and he was watching her.

  “I’ll help if you need me.” He put the last cup down.

  “You have helped a great deal, Mr. Evans.” She did not know what else to say. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you.” His voice was low and quiet. “If you did that, I would feel comfortable in such a place.”

  “Because it’s your space. If having weekly service here would bring you to the fold, I’ll do it, no matter what others may say.”

  “What would they say?”

  “To get a man to be in charge. Like Brother Carver. He was in charge. And he was, pretty much, until he died. There was a great deal that I learned from him, however, and I could put it to use. Thank you for the opportunity.”

  Jay moved close to stand by her. “Even if it’s just me and Goldie, we’ll be here.”

  “There has to be more than us, Daddy. You can tell your runners to tell people again.”

  A shadow crossed his handsome features. “I don’t know if that will work this time, Gold. It may have to happen another way. Let me think about it. Do you think your family will come?”

  She lowered her head. “I don’t know.”

  Jay gripped her hand in the cold, soapy water. She could feel him sliding his fingers between hers and linking with her, the same way they had when they’d prayed Goldie through her illness.

  “We’ll be here. Hopefully, your sisters will have enough sense to come.”

  “That all seems a little premature.”

  “Will you tell them when you go to the Caldwells’ this afternoon?”

  “I guess. I can say it there. But…”

  “But?”

  “I wouldn’t go there without you.” She could scarcely believe what she was saying. “Not without you and Goldie.”

  “You were invited, Miss Nettie. Not us.”

  “You know Mrs. Caldwell; she wouldn’t keep you away.”

  “Easter dinner is different, I think. Especially since I have been the cause of your ruin.”

  “That’s why you should come. And I won’t let people make up lies to talk about me. Now that you have said it, I think having a pulpit would be a perfect way to talk about these things with others who have been outcast at folks’ judgments. No, I insist. You must come. If they turn us out, then that is what happens.”

  “Gold and I will go back home and eat cold ham sandwiches. That will be our Easter.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with going home and eating cold ham sandwiches,” She quickly insisted and then was ashamed, yet again. “I mean, going to your home, Mr. Evans.”

  “Won’t you call me Jay?”

  “It’s not your Christian name, and…”

  “Daddy’s Christian name is Jabez, Miss Nettie. He’s like you; he has a different name.” Goldie set down the cup that she was drying and put her hands on her hips. “Are we done here?”

  She felt his hand slip out of hers as Jay turned to his daughter, very slowly, and splashed her with soapy water, making her laugh. “Gold, you have a big mouth.”

  “Why, Daddy? I just told the truth.”

  She watched as he sprinkled his daughter with droplets of water from the sink and she squealed ducking his spray. She let the stopper out of the sink. “It’s a biblical name.”

  “It’s not a name people go around saying all of the time.”

  “It’s very dignified. A nice man’s name.”

  “Yes, well, it was best to shorten it for business purposes, Garnet.”

  “A semiprecious stone.”

  “A stone with fire.”

  She liked that Jay was looking at her because it was a distraction. Those warm and melty feelings would not help Nettie get her service ready next week. She folded her apron and dried her hands.

  “We’ll get Miss Goldie a pretty dress to wear to dinner today.”

  “Too bad that you cannot change out of your suit, Miss Nettie. For Easter. Everyone wears new clothes then.”

  “I may have something to wear that would be appropriate. We’ll take you home to get you ready first. Then you come and get me for dinner.”

  “Great! I can’t wait to see what you’ll wear.”

  Nettie walked out of the storefront, holding Goldie’s hand while they stood on the street watching Jay close up the storefront.

  Looking from the outside in, a world of increasing possibilities appeared before her.

  Everything was new. Because of Jay. Jabez Evans

  Chapter Sixteen

  When Nettie entered the Caldwell house it was more crowded than it had been before. Her family, her entire family, was here. Oh, her sisters knew her well. They brought forward threat of her mother and father to get her to relent.

  It wouldn’t work.

  When she went into the room, she stood strong, and was not nervous. She faced her mother and father, who appraised her sternly as they sat in her overstuffed chairs. Her heart gladdened to see her little sisters, but they didn’t rush forward to embrace her. They seemed to be afraid for her as th
ey bit their lips nervously, giving her shy looks. Almost as if they didn’t know her. She smiled at them, not wanting them to be afraid. Ruby seemed as stern as her parents but Mags, who smiled nervously in her direction, strengthened her. No she was not afraid.

  “He is risen,” Nettie greeted her family.

  No one responded.

  “Come in,” she said to Jay and opened the Caldwells’ front door wider for him and Goldie to enter the parlor with her.

  He was not afraid either. He stood there, tall, imposing and broad. This was a good man, in his heart, and she knew he was open to new possibilities. She believed in him.

  “Good afternoon, everyone.” His deep voice, earnest and true, resonated throughout the room and suddenly Nettie’s knees were like butterscotch pudding.

  “Jay,” Adam spoke, “I would like to introduce you to the Bledsoes, my in-laws. Lona Bledsoe, John Bledsoe. Standing over there are Emerald Bledsoe and Delie, the youngest.”

  “But the best,” Delie quipped.

  There was silence. Nettie wanted to laugh. Her youngest sister, even though she was now thirteen, always was inappropriate.

  Jay nodded. “Lovely to meet you all.”

  “I wish we could say the same for you,” Lona said. Her mother had always smothered her younger sister, but now she could see so clearly where Delie got her inappropriateness.

  “Wonderful to see you all here.”

  Nettie went to hug her mother and father. She gave Em a squeeze. Delie was the only one who hugged her full-on. Everyone else was reserved and patted her, distantly, as if she had done something wrong. But she had not. Was it wrong to love a man with a good heart?

  “How did you get off of the farm?”

  Her father, who was usually quiet, spoke, “I got Cousin Ned to watch things for a few weeks. High time we made a visit up here to Pittsburgh to see what is going on.”

  “So good to see you here.” She greeted them.

  She stepped back and stood next to Jay, determined not to abandon him to the judging crowd of Bledsoe relatives.

  Lona pursed her lips. “We hear you behaving as if you’re out of school, child. What’s the matter with you?”

  “I… Nothing, Mama. It was hard up here at first, but I’m finding my way. I’m starting a ministry and I want to invite you all to come.”

  Ruby slapped her own thigh, in shock, Nettie supposed. “What woman has a ministry? I’ve never heard of such a thing. I told you she was out of her head.”

  Her mother’s eyes were wide with fright. “How will you do that?”

  “She’s going to use the storefront, where I operate from, on Sundays when I don’t use it. Your daughters might not have told you about the successful program Nettie had.”

  “I told them.” Ruby’s voice was terse.

  “Did you?” Jay straightened his pocket square. “Did you say there was standing room only? Did you say that people felt comfortable in worship with Nettie? Did you tell them everything, Mrs. Morson?”

  Adam stepped forward. “I’ll not have you maligning my wife, Jay.”

  “I was merely asking her if she gave a full report. No offense was intended.” Jay’s voice stayed smooth.

  “I don’t see how he has the right to be calling her Nettie. That’s our name for her.” Ruby pouted.

  “I know. I much prefer her given name—Garnet.”

  Ruby coiled back as if she had been struck.

  Everyone turned to them and there was more silence. She opened her mouth to speak. It was not fair that Mr. Evans had to put up with her questioning family—he had not made any promises to her and she had not asked him for anything. Before the words could issue forth from her throat—something that was never a problem—Jay’s deep bass came again.

  Jay gave a smooth bow to her. “If you don’t mind, I would like to call you that from now on.”

  She wanted to laugh. Very few people got away with getting one up on her big sister. She tipped her head to him, “Of course.”

  Em gasped. “How could you, Nettie?”

  “Let me get right to the point.” Lona folded her hands in her lap. “Does this man know about your sickness, Nettie?” Her mother emphasized her name, almost overloudly, to show ownership of her.

  The wind in the room shifted, just a bit. Where Jay’s body language had been all smooth and loose, he was stiff all over now. Rigid. Unbending.

  “I’ve told him.”

  “Did you tell him everything? How you lost your hair? That the illness left you barren? That it could come back and you could die at any time? The miraculous cure that happened when you decided to give your life to the church? How about all of that?”

  Her mother had told every bit. And Nettie felt as naked to the world as the day she was born.

  The same way that Jay had shown up Ruby a minute ago, her mother used it to try and make her small somehow.

  “Yes,” she said, but the word was barely a whisper.

  More silence.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Bledsoe, Emerald and Delie. it has been a pleasure. I should leave to get my daughter to bed. Good night.” Jay made a slight bow, turned and left the room.

  He summoned Goldie with a sharp command. He did not even bring his wonderful child into the room to meet her parents. Which probably meant he didn’t care if Goldie met the rest of her family. So he did not want her. Just as they said.

  There, in the stillness of Mrs. Caldwell’s parlor, she closed her eyes as she listened to Jay’s footsteps die away outside. Oh, if she could do the same. Scalding-hot tears slipped out from under her eyelids.

  “Well. We’ve come a long way for that,” Lona said with some finality.

  When she opened her eyes, her mother and Ruby eyed one another with very critical looks, as if to say to Ruby she should have been able to accomplish what their mother had done.

  Delie ran over to Nettie and embraced her tightly around the waist. “I liked him,” she whispered into her ear.

  She gave Delie a squeeze. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, caught without Jay’s handkerchief.

  “I’m having my service next Sunday at 9:00 a.m. Everyone is invited.”

  Nettie let go of her sister, turned to leave and went outside.

  But she didn’t see them anywhere. She walked slowly, hoping not to run into the Evans family, but also hoping she would.

  She was a fool to have reached for what other women had, because she was not like other women. She had to resign herself to that. She didn’t want Goldie to be a casualty though. Now Nettie understood she should focus her energies on her ministry and find someone else to take care of the little girl.

  Maybe Em would stay and take the job. She nodded to herself. Yes, her dressmaker/hairdresser sister would be a better match to take care of little Goldie, who was always so concerned about appearances. Em would love her.

  And Nettie would do what she had to do.

  When Jay had to step into the room full of Bledsoes, he had never been so afraid in his life. It was as if a treasure and the tax man had come to take everything away from him. Some Easter. It had started out so promising. He could tell that all of the Bledsoes, with maybe the exceptions of Mags and Delie, were ready to line him up and eviscerate him, if need be.

  Everything was automatic in getting Goldie ready for bed. However, his sharp-eyed daughter always knew too much and was too smart for her own good.

  “Is Nettie coming back?”

  “What do you mean, Gold?”

  “You seemed so sad after we left. Maybe she’s not coming back anymore.”

  “Of course she will.” He was not convinced at all.

  “I’m going back to school tomorrow, but I’ll find her after school.”

  “Sure, honey. Although, be ready. Do you know how good she was last week?”r />
  Goldie nodded her head.

  “We may have to share her with others who need her.”

  “I told you what I wanted, Daddy.” Goldie’s little voice was even, but deadly serious.

  “I know. And that’s worked out so far. But…sometimes life works a little different, Gold. We can’t always direct what other people do. No matter what you want.” The words were hard to get past his lips. He ached from disappointing his daughter.

  Forgive me. He had been deceptive with his own child. Jay could see that now. Little Negro girls did not get what they wanted all of the time. Look at how ridiculous Nettie’s family were about her dream. They did not want her to have what she wanted.

  “Go to sleep.”

  Wandering out of his daughter’s room, He thought about what Mrs. Bledsoe had said. Nettie could die at any time? She had been as ill as Clara? That’s not what he’d imagined. He remembered all that he had been through with Clara, carrying her into that church, Nettie bestowing a blessing on her. She could guide Clara’s feet with firm steps to heaven because she had come so close herself. That made her different, unique and special. Too special for him.

  When she said that she couldn’t have children, that was one thing. He had a daughter already. With the way he had grown up in the Harlem streets, He didn’t feel any particular longing for a son, no matter what people said. He could deal with it. But to lose Nettie like he lost Clara?

  No. No more pain.

  Jay wanted to bend in two at the thought of losing Nettie. He couldn’t go through that horror again. He wouldn’t put Goldie through such loss and pain again, either. Yes, it was much better to cut it off now, to be away from her now, rather than later.

  He promised to do what he could to help Nettie with her ministry. But from now on, he would make it clear to her that he was the employer and she the employee. Just like Lem. Or Matt. Or Archie. Or K.C. and Don. He knew very little about their lives outside of what they told him, and it should be the same thing for Nettie. She had been right to be reluctant about a relationship with him. And now, it had to be the same for him. If not for his sake, then for Goldie’s.

  Going to bed, he was resolved. But lying in bed, tossing and turning, He knew it would be much, much harder to push Nettie away. He had kissed her, and sampled her lips. He had enjoyed it and wanted more.