Backroom Confessions

by Rose Jackson-Beavers

  “You know they were having sex, with their funky asses. They ain’t seen an ounce of water. You could tell what they had been doing. They had that look. Patches’ pants were pulled up to his waist and his breast nipples were pronounced,” laughed Megan.

  They both were laughing so hard and finally Phoenix said, “You are too crazy, girl. Only you would notice some shit like that. Precious was looking like she hit the jackpot or something. She was so glad that she was seen with Patches.”

  Megan countered, “You are right. One of these days Patches gonna put that penis in somebody and all their shit gone explode.”

  “Boom! Boom!” Megan said loudly as if she was a firecracker in a Fourth of July fireworks display.

  “Girl, shut up! Just shut up! Who ain’t that boy fucking?” Phoenix said laughing intensely.

  “He ain’t doing me, though sometimes I wondered about his bedroom tactics. The boy must have some skills.” Megan said as she visualized Patches naked.

  “Girl, if you got hold of that boy you would kill him,” Phoenix laughed.

  “You are right. He wouldn’t know what hit his ass. Girl, I have to go. I have another call coming in,” Megan said. “I’ll see you at work.”

  “Bye, girl.” Phoenix said as she hung the phone up.

  Chapter 27

  The banquet was beautiful. Megan and her committee had decorated the Shrine of Our Lady Restaurant banquet room in red and white. The tables were covered in white sheer and lacy material. There were a total of twenty-five tables with ten chairs and silverware sets at each one. The tables had crystal bowl centerpieces, filled one quarter with water so that the lighted candles would float without the water overtaking them. The tables were lined in processional order, with a slight slant toward the front where the podium stood.

  At the head table sat the keynote speaker Jerickca, along with Megan, two parents, and two federal reviewers from Washington, D. C. They had been invited after they finished reviewing the program to ensure that compliance goals had been met. They wanted to participate in the banquet to show their support. There were two organizations from the community and two business vendors who had donated furniture and clothing to the families.

  Megan had again demonstrated to everyone that she had great organizing skills. Everyone was in his or her appropriate place, dressed as sharp as stainless steel knives. Megan had pulled the troops together and, as always, they were smiling as if they had just hit the Illinois lottery jackpot. That’s how it always happened. Everyone would be furious with Megan because she worked and pushed too hard. Then the night of the activity, they would be standing around shaking the guests’ hands and graciously accepting all the compliments about how professional and elegant everything looked. During these times, they truly loved Megan. They would stand around smiling and catering to Megan’s needs because they were so proud of her. Megan would just float around greeting everybody, smiling, and looking pretty.

  She was good with this kind of stuff and watching the people’s faces made her feel like she was the executive director. Jerickca wasn’t flashy. She mingled with others but had such a quiet persona. She didn’t need to be in the front. She didn’t seek awards because she had been so fortunate in her life that she felt she had already received her glory on Earth. She was only seeking another kind of glory, and that was one that surely wasn’t earthly. This gave Megan the floor to be brassy yet polite, pretty but not conceited. Jerickca stood back, proud. She really did have an extraordinary staff. They really excelled when they collaborated, organized, and worked together to have successful activities.

  One thing that did not surprise Jerickca was that Megan handed out the most awards for her families. Her families received awards for most successful, hardest worker, most achieved, highest paid, and most professionally dressed. Patches, Phoenix, and Denver had one parent each who received awards for most responsible, most respectful, and most reliable. All the other participants received awards for successfully completing six months of the program. The staff stood proudly as the families approached the head table to accept their awards and to shake the extended hands of the prominent guest.

  The highlight of the evening was the keynote speaker. Jerickca Parker was great. She had written a speech that was powerful, inspirational, and encouraging. Her speech entitled “Knocked Down but Not Out” emphasized that we all have struggles, but it’s how you handle your life that makes you a champion. She talked about stepping out into the darkness with God as your lantern. She told them that the only failures in life were those who stopped trying. She spoke with such elegance and strength that several times during her speech she received loud applause.

  Finally, Jerickca told the audience about herself: how difficult math had been for her and how she would sit at the table and cry with her mother right by her side, rubbing her hand because she didn’t have the education to help her, but she wanted her daughter to know that she would stand by her, even in the most difficult times in her life. Jerickca finally said that it was those who had your interest at heart that would not lead you astray, and that people should pick their friends wisely. Her last words were, “Just the way my mother sat with me at the table when I thought I was in my darkest hour and showed me that she would be there even during the rough times, that is what we, this agency, want you to know: when you feel at your lowest, like giving up, pick up your phone and call us, because we are here for the long haul. For those who may not have access to a phone, stop by our office. We welcome you.” Megan had tears running down her face, and Phoenix laid her head on Patches’ shoulders, too emotional to move. Jerickca saw tissues being passed around and people wiping their faces. The clapping was so loud that it sounded like thunder, and people were leaping to their feet, smiling. As Jerickca walked back to her seat, everyone at the head table grabbed and hugged her and said how inspirational her words had been to everyone.

  After the awards had been given to the parents and all the remarks and presentations made, the families who rode on the bus were loaded and taken to their destinations. The staff stayed around to congratulate Jerickca on her speech and to thank each other for such a wonderful banquet. That night, everyone went to bed happy and feeling proud to be a part of Jerickca Parker’s staff.

  Chapter 28

  Denver kissed Lathan on his nose, his eyelid, and finally those supple, sweet lips. “Lathan,” she whispered. “Wake up, sweetheart, I want to talk.” Lathan turned over and kissed her gently. “What’s on your mind, girl?”

  “Do you think I dress too casual for work?”

  This was not a conversation he wanted to discuss with her. All his life, he had stayed away from questions that women asked him about their clothes and their weight. “How do I look, Lathan?” “Do I look fat, Lathan?” Over and over, these were the questions that if you answered wrong you would be in the doghouse forever. He wasn’t about to get trapped tonight, not now when he wanted to push Denver’s legs over her head and give her the best loving she ever had.

  “Do you hear me, Lathan?”

  “I heard you, but I’m not on your job and I certainly don’t know what you wear, but it doesn’t stop me from wishing I could see your sweet ass every day.”

  “Megan said that people were talking about me and how I wear stretch pants and big shirts and that it wasn’t professional. She told me that if I wanted to move up and make more money, I should dress the part.”

  “Why do you all let Megan stress ya’ll out? Why is she so powerful?” Lathan asked.

  “I don’t know, but she is something else. She just gets to me and everyone else there.”

  “She’s only as powerful as you all allow her to be. Ignore her ass and she will go away. People like her are powerful because you let her say anything and do anything.”

  “Maybe, you’re right. But she made me feel so insecure because she said everyone was talking about me. I like my peers and don’t want to feel uncomfortable around them,” Denver whined.

  Latha
n grabbed Denver and kissed her hard and passionately. “Does Megan have someone who can make her feel like this?” he asked.

  Lathan pulled Denver under him and kissed her aroused nipples. Then he allowed his tongue to slither down to her navel, then back up to her lips again. Denver gently rubbed his nipples and licked his left ear. Lathan was so aroused that he grabbed Denver’s butt and squeezed her lovingly. Then he whispered how much he wanted her. At that, she arched her back and raised her hips to receive him. Denver rocked her hips hard and used her kegel muscles to grip Lathan as tight as she could. He moaned out loudly.

  “I love you baby,” Denver screamed as her body began to weaken. Just as she was about to say something else, Lathan hit the spot and Denver felt tingling all over, and as she gripped Lathan’s taut love tool, stuff started happening to her body that felt so good, she cried, smiled, and screamed as her heart felt like it was having spasms that were shutting out the intense beating. Oh Lord, please don’t let me die, she thought as a single tear rolled down her right cheek.

  Lathan tried hard to keep up with his young lover but she was whipping his butt with her slender hips. He tried to hold out by trying to control his stroke, but this girl was like a wild animal chasing him with her goodness. He tried to pull out so that he could slow the rhythm, but it was hard. His pores had become liberated and out spurted a plethora of sweat that flowed from him and dripped onto her velvety skin. He couldn’t control his groans. “D- D- Den- Denver,” he stuttered. Just as he said her name, he released his love juices inside her. Denver grabbed his butt and held on as his organ increased and decreased in size.

  Lathan kissed her again and rolled over. He had so much on his mind. He was beginning to really care about this young, beautiful girl. She always seemed so needy to him, unlike his woman at home who seemed to have the strength of Sampson. He had started to think about Denver incessantly. When he was with his woman sexually, he was really with Denver. He wanted her desperately. But he was scared. He wasn’t going to be falling all in love with someone so young. He didn’t want to hurt this woman, because he truly did love her. This had to be the last time he would see her. He couldn’t risk his feelings overpowering his common sense. Tonight was goodbye.

  Chapter 29

  Patches had finally contacted Jessica. Ever since that night at Club Illusion, she had made like a magician and disappeared. Not being able to mesmerize her as he had so many others made him want her with a great intensity. She had played him the way Jordan had played the NBA. Finally, after practically begging her for a date, she conceded. He took her to the Royal Dumpe, a well-known restaurant and dinner theater in the city of St. Louis. They really enjoyed themselves. Jessica was a classy lawyer with an enormous amount of self-confidence, and she wasn’t desperate for a man. Her career was her bed warmer. After their first date, he took her back to her house and kissed her. She kissed him back and slowly walked backwards toward her front door. As she walked back, he grabbed her fingers and kissed them. Jessica thanked him for a nice evening, walked in the house, and closed the door.

  Since the first date, he had seen her every other week and he was nowhere near sleeping with her. Once he told her he wanted her and she said she wasn’t a one night- stand. She didn’t have to tell him that. He already knew that after the first date. He had never allowed any woman to walk away from him before he’d sampled her goods unless it was he who did the walking. But this attorney was nailing him. He wanted to see her so much that he was spending less time with his hood rats. Usually, they were all that he needed to make him realize that he didn’t want to be tied down to one woman. But when he took Jessica to the family barbeque and saw how easily his family members talked to her and how gracious she was under pressure, not only was he impressed, but he was beginning to fall in love with her. The worst thing for him that day was when his mother Sinclair told him that she liked his date and was glad he had finally met someone who didn’t have a child. She didn’t think anything was wrong with a lady having a child, but every time she met anyone that he brought home, she either had a child or was from the projects. She would get attached to the child and then suddenly he would dump the woman, and she would be the one feeling the pain. So she wanted Patches to find someone who he could start a family with so that she could have a grandchild of her own. She wanted him to settle down with a smart, independent woman, and Jessica had it all—the looks, body, smarts, and manners.

  Patches had been spending a lot of time with Jerickca and was lusting after her. She was smart and independent, just like Jessica. These were two women whom he admired, and neither was letting him taste their goodness. He found himself telling her about his life, his problems, and how he wanted to change and stop seeing so many women. He wasn’t bragging, but he was downright tired. He trusted Jerickca. He wanted to confide in her about his desire for her but didn’t want to risk getting fired. So he would bring her lunch and volunteer for special projects. He even offered to train with her because she had expressed a desire to lose weight. He could tell that Jerickca wouldn’t mind cuddling up to him, because he made sure that she knew that he was experienced and preferred older women. He told her how he selected whom he was going to sleep with. “I just open my black book and look up who I haven’t been with in a period of time and call them,” he said.

  Jerickca was amazed, “Just like that and they sleep with you?”

  He knew he had her going. “Just like that, because I have skills,” Patches said as he held her eyes intensely.

  He could have kept her going if Megan hadn’t walked into the room.

  “Every time I look up, you are all up under Jerickca. What’s up with that? You know she married and don’t want your broke ass.”

  “Get out of my face, Megan. You talk too much.” As he stormed out of the office, he looked back at Jerickca and saw the way Jerickca looked at his backside. I want you too, he thought.

  Whenever he got too tense and angry, he would just intercom Precious and ask her to do him a favor. “I’m stressed. Can you do a brother a favor?”

  “I’m going to ask if I can leave early because I’m sick. Where do you want me to meet you?” Precious was so excited. She really liked this man.

  Precious asked Patches, “Could we go to your place?”

  “No!” he said angrily.

  He wasn’t about to spend one dime on her going to a hotel, either, for all he cared. She could do what he wanted her to do in the parking lot, in his car.

  Later that evening, Patches called Jessica to ask her out, but she refused stating she had an early appointment with a client. Patches found himself begging her for just a little time.

  “McNary, I really can’t see you for a while. You want too much of my time, and I’m not ready for that.”

  “Well, I thought you liked me as much as I do you,” he said feeling hurt.

  “I do like you, but it’s bad timing. I have too much on my plate. Maybe we can get together some other time.”

  “Are you saying that you don’t want to see me?” Patches was so disappointed.

  “No, that is not what I’m saying. I just think we should cool it.”

  Patches slammed the phone down and said loudly, “No bitch rejects me!”

  Chapter 30

  Jerickca was packing her clothes to go to the conference when Daphnie walked in to talk. “How’s my baby girl doing?”

  “Fine. When are you coming back from Chicago?”

  “I will be back in five days.”

  “Why do you have to go?”

  “I’m going to a conference and to see Spencer.”

  “Why can’t I go?” Daphnie wanted to know.

  “I can’t take you out of school! Maybe this summer I will take you to Chicago to visit your relatives. Okay? You know that we paid a lot of money for you to attend the Summer Institute. You only have two weeks left to attend and then I will take you to Chicago.”

  “Well, bring me something back.”

  “Yo
u know I will.” Jerickca said as she bent down and kissed her lips.

  “Jerickca!” Anthony screamed, “You have a telephone call.”

  “I got it,” she said. “Hello, this is Jerickca.”

  “Hey Jerickca,” Deborah said. “I got your messages and I’m ready to talk.”

  “Where can we meet?”

  “I’ll be leaving the house around 6:00 p.m. I can meet you halfway so neither of us has to drive so far,” Deborah said.

  “Let’s meet at Cristo’s off Riverview Drive at 6:30 p.m. then.” Deborah hung up the phone and thought about what she was going to say to her friend. They hadn’t talked in weeks, even though Jerickca continued to call her. Jerickca had decided that she would keep calling Deborah and sending her “I miss you cards” so that her friend would realize that she had people who cared about her.

  The one thing that Jerickca knew for sure because she was a social worker was that domestic violence was a series of syndromes that abused women went through. For instance, when she first started trying to help Deborah, she was unsuccessful because she was in the Honeymoon Syndrome, which was also known as the Hearts and Flowers because the abuser did everything they could to bribe the person to get them to stay or return. All of this could have been avoided because Jerickca tried to warn Deborah when she was in the pre-battering state, which was when the abuse first started with the throwing, breaking things, verbal abuse, and making threats to her.

  She watched her dear friend go through the beginning level of abuse, like when Danny first grabbed Deborah around her neck and pushed her into the wall while restraining her to keep her from getting away from him. Now Jerickca needed to talk to her friend to help her get out of the situation.

  Jerickca walked downstairs to the living room and told Anthony that she needed to leave. “I finally have Deborah wanting to see me,” she said happily.

  “Well, don’t push her too much or she’ll just retreat back into her shell. I know you want to help her, but if people want to accept bad stuff then there is nothing you can do. You be careful. You are not God and you can’t help everybody,” Anthony reminded Jerickca.