If Memory Serves

by Vanessa Davis Griggs

  Lena leaned down and kissed Sarah on the cheek. “I hear you.”

  Sarah grabbed Lena’s wrist and held her before she could stand back up straight. “Do more than just hear me. I want the two of you to resolve whatever is going on between you. If you can’t do it for yourselves, then please, can you do it for me?” She released her grip.

  Lena stood up and straightened her top by pulling it down. She nodded.

  “Oh, and Lena? Just in case you’re wondering, I had this same conversation with Memory a little while ago. Sometimes you have to wash off all the junk to see the true treasures in life. I don’t know what happened, but I know you need to put whatever it is out there and get to the bottom of it so you can experience all God has for you. Deal with it before it ferments that much more.”

  Lena leaned down and kissed her again. “For you, Grandmother, I’ll do it.”

  “Not just for me; do it for yourself as well. Do it for your own child and for her children.” Sarah nodded, then looked back toward the sunlight that streamed like a beam through her window. “What a beautiful day, Lord. You’ve given me one more day. This is the day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it. I will! Thank You, Lord. I thank You for one more day.”

  Chapter 32

  Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

  Isaiah 60:20

  “All right, Lena. Let’s talk,” Memory said as soon as Lena entered the kitchen.

  “I need to tell Monica—”

  “That Sarah wants to have lunch out on the terrace,” Memory said, completing the sentence for her. “I’ve already told her. So . . .” She held her hand out toward the terrace. “Shall we go talk?”

  “Sure,” Lena said with an attitude that showed in her body language.

  Lena stepped out the door first and sat down at the patio table. Memory sat directly across from her.

  “So tell me—what did I do?” Memory asked.

  Lena let out a small huff. “Like you don’t know.”

  “Lena, I don’t know. We seemed to have been making progress that evening we were talking in your room. We pulled together to take care of Sarah while she was in the hospital. When Sarah came home, you were fine. Then, in the last twenty-four hours or so, it’s like someone left the freezer door wide open, and it’s causing a deep freeze to go throughout the entire house.”

  Lena shook her head. “Just stop. Why don’t you just stop?” She looked at Memory, her eyes visibly sad.

  “Stop what?” Memory asked, clearly annoyed. “Stop trying to make up for my past mistakes? Stop trying to do the right thing by you and by Sarah and Theresa if I get the chance? Stop what?”

  “Stop lying. Stop pretending that you care about other people when you don’t,” Lena said in a controlled but stern voice. “The only one you really care about is yourself.”

  “Lena, what are you talking about? Why don’t you just come out and say what you have to say and quit leaving breadcrumb trails, expecting me to follow you? Just say it and get it over with.”

  Lena sat back in the chair and made a long sucking sound with her teeth, then buttoned up her lips before relaxing them. “Okay. Let’s play another game. Let’s play Tell the Truth No Matter What for a change.”

  “Fine. If it will help you get past whatever this is you’re going through at the moment, then bring it on,” Memory said.

  Lena sat forward. “This is how we’re going to do this. We’ll tell the truth no matter what the truth really is, and no matter whose feelings may get hurt in the process. It’s just you and me. All right?”

  “Go ahead. Ask away,” Memory said as she leaned in toward Lena.

  “Did you or did you not take the Wings of Grace box?” Lena asked.

  Memory began to laugh. “Oh, so it’s that again. Yes, Lena. I took it. You know I took it.”

  Lena looked a little shocked. “You took it, and you’re admitting it?”

  “Yes, I took it,” Memory said. “That’s old news. So you’re telling me that you’ve been walking around mad all day yesterday because of something I took back when you were young? Something you didn’t even know existed until you were older?”

  Lena sat back against the chair. “Okay.” She nodded her head swiftly. “Okay. Okay, so now you’re back to playing games again.”

  “You asked me if I took that box. I’m telling you the truth. Yes, I took it.”

  “I’m talking about the box that was in my room the other day. You remember . . . the one Grace left in her will for me and you to open together. We were in my room when Gayle came in, and I left it on the bed. That Wings of Grace box.”

  Memory folded her hands together. “I didn’t take that box, Lena.”

  Lena began to smile a phony smile. “Of course you didn’t.”

  “Lena.” Memory leaned in closer. “I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t take that box. Look into my eyes, Lena. I promise you, I didn’t take it.”

  Lena looked at her. “What about the Alexandrite necklace? It just so happens to be missing as well. I suppose you’re telling me you didn’t take it back, either?”

  Memory reached over and grabbed both of Lena’s hands. “Lena, why would I give that necklace back to you, then turn around and take it? That makes no sense.”

  Lena removed her hands from Memory’s. “I don’t know. That’s what frustrates me about you. I never know why you do anything. All I know is it hurts like you’ll never, ever understand.” Lena stood and walked to the limestone banister. “I want you to really love me. I’ve always wanted you to want me.” She turned and looked at Memory as tears ran down her face. “But you never seemed able to. And every time I decide to give you one more chance, it’s obvious you don’t really care. Because you manage to stomp on my heart all over again like it’s some kind of a sport to you.”

  Memory stood up and went to her daughter. “Lena, I am sorry for all the hurt I’ve caused you. I sincerely am. I thought giving you back that necklace would make up things to you . . . that it would let you know how much I really do love you . . . how sincere I really am about us being closer.”

  Lena began to cry. “Then why take it back like that? I said you could keep it.”

  Memory pulled her close and held her tight. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry you don’t feel you can trust me. But Lena, I’ve been on the up-and-up with you since I’ve been here. I didn’t take them. I’m trying to make amends here. Lord knows, I’m trying. I really am.”

  “And why is that?” Lena asked, pulling away from her mother’s embrace. “Why now? Is it because you see a bigger payday with Sarah? Are you just biding your time, trying to pretend to be a changed woman who loves the Lord now, all of a sudden?”

  “Don’t discount my love for God. He changed me, Lena. Whether you believe that or not, that’s the truth. The old Memory would definitely be looking at all of this trying to see how she could score big and get out fast. But God took out that old, stony heart”—she put her hand over her heart area—“and gave me a brand-new, clean heart. And now, I just want to serve Him and do right by people.”

  Lena walked back over to the table and stood by the chair she had just occupied. “Memory, if you’ve changed, then what about that phone conversation you had the other night?”

  “What phone conversation?” Memory walked over toward the table. “Oh, you heard me talking on the phone? So what are you doing? Spying on me now?”

  Lena sat down and folded her arms across her chest. “I heard you the other night on the phone, but I wasn’t spying on you. I was coming to ask if you might have put the Wings of Grace box up along with the necklace. I was looking for them, thinking originally that Richard had put them up during all the commotion with Grandmother going to the hospital. Night before last, I asked him. He didn’t move them, so we thought you might have put them up . . . you know, for safekeeping.”<
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  “So you came to my room and heard me on the phone?” Memory asked as she sat down.

  “Yes.” Lena started rocking her body a little. “You were talking to someone named Sam.”

  Memory tilted her head slightly. “So, what all did you hear me say to Sam?”

  “Why don’t you tell me what you said? That way I can see how truthful, how much on the up-and-up, you really are these days,” Lena said.

  “Okay, Lena. I’m going to tell you everything. I’m going to tell you about Sam and about Montgomery Powell the Second—”

  “Montgomery Powell the Second? You know Montgomery?”

  “Yes. I met him that Saturday when I told you I was going out to visit Asheville. You remember, the night I came home and gave you back the Alexandrite necklace.”

  Monica came outside with a tray. “I thought you two might like some fresh lemonade,” she said, setting the tray with a glass pitcher and two glasses filled with crushed ice on the table.

  After Monica left, Lena poured Memory a glass of lemonade, then herself. Taking a sip, Lena set her glass down. “All right. I’m all ears,” Lena said as she sat back, relaxed.

  Chapter 33

  Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

  Psalms 85:11

  “First off, when you came to my room the other night and heard me on the phone, I was indeed talking to Sam,” Memory said.

  “And I suppose Sam is another one of your con-artist buddies like that phony lawyer friend you had come to Theresa’s house that day,” Lena said with a slight smirk.

  “Sam is my closest and dearest friend. Her name is Samantha McCoy, and she really has been the only person who’s tried to show me the error of my ways.” Memory took a drink of her lemonade. She held the glass up in the air and looked at it. “Ahhhh! Now that’s real lemonade,” she said, then set the glass back down.

  “So I guess I’m supposed to believe Sam is a woman?”

  Memory hunched her shoulders. “I’m not trying to make you believe anything. You say you want the whole truth. I said I’d tell you the truth. You’ll either believe what I’m saying or you won’t, but it’s not going to be on me. Anyway, Sam was like me at one time—always trying to find a way to get over on somebody. Actually, we viewed it more like trying to figure out a way to get ahead.”

  “Okay, let’s say Sam really is a woman named Samantha. What were you talking about the other night?”

  Memory looked down, then backup. “I was telling Sam that I’d managed to get the Alexandrite necklace back.”

  Lena started nodding her head and smiling in a sarcastic way. “Exactly. At least you’re telling the truth about that.”

  Memory leaned in. “I was telling her I’d gotten the necklace back from the person who had ended up with it . . . after I took it out of the safe-deposit box and turned it over to Christopher Harris, a.k.a. Christopher Phelps of Phelps & Phelps.”

  “So you’re admitting you did steal the necklace?”

  “Lena, you already know that. I was wrong, and right after I did it and found myself sitting there waiting for Christopher to pick me up, I wanted so badly to turn around and somehow put everything back the way it was. But I couldn’t,” Memory said. “I’d already deceived Theresa, and she was on her way to the hospital to have my great-granddaughter. Christopher picked me up shortly after Richard dropped me off at the bus stop.”

  “You still could have taken the necklace back and returned it to the safe-deposit box,” Lena said as she exchanged looks with her mother. “We could have gotten past all of this.”

  “Oh, yeah. I can see that working out. Anyway, it was too late to turn back. Christopher took the necklace and put it up for safekeeping while he made arrangements to get the reward money for it.” She took another swallow of lemonade. “We were supposed to split the million dollars sixty-forty, my favor. Instead, that snake decided to double-cross me.” She looked up and smiled. “I suppose you can say the con got conned.”

  “So you’re telling me you didn’t get anything from the necklace?”

  “Oh, Christopher was not heartless. He came by and left twenty thousand dollars for me with Samantha. That’s how she and I ended up close. Sam is diabetic, and she’s lost both her legs because of it. She was living in a ground-level apartment. Christopher and I had an apartment two floors above hers. We would see Sam on occasion and speak. After Christopher turned in the necklace, he told me we would have to wait a few days for them to verify that the necklace was genuine and not just some fake.”

  “And you believed him,” Lena said.

  “Why wouldn’t I? That was a million dollars they were giving up. Everybody knows they weren’t going to give up that much money without checking out the merchandise first. Christopher was the one who knew the guy who was paying the reward.” Memory let out a hard sigh.

  “Anyway, Christopher left and never came back. I was worried something bad had happened to him. One day I was on my way out a few weeks after not hearing from him. Sam stopped me. She didn’t know my phone number, and she couldn’t get up the stairs to come find me. That’s when she gave me a package she said Christopher had left with her to give to me. She didn’t understand why he didn’t just bring it up to me himself. I opened it, and there was cash money inside with a note thanking me for everything.”

  “Wow,” Lena said.

  “Sam saw me break down. She opened up her door for me to come in. We talked, and I told her everything. I don’t know why it’s easier sometimes to tell a stranger things like that, but it was for me. That’s when Sam explained to me the truth regarding the law of sowing and reaping.” Memory primped her lips in a snooty way, then laughed.

  “Oh, I’m sure you wanted to hear that,” Lena said sarcastically. She drank the last of her lemonade. Reaching over and picking up the pitcher, she offered Memory a refill. Memory held her glass up as Lena poured.

  “Actually, Sam was just what I needed at the time,” Memory said as Lena filled her glass. “I didn’t need to stay in an apartment under my own name, so I took her up on her offer to move in with her. She needed someone there to help out, and I needed to keep a low profile until I was sure things had blown over.” Memory swirled the liquid in her glass slightly before putting the glass up to her lips and taking a sip. “To be honest, I was also hoping Christopher might have a change of heart and come back for me. I knew if he did, he would come to Sam’s apartment to see if she knew where I was.”

  “Did he ever come back?” Lena asked.

  “Nope. But a lot of other people started showing up asking for me,” Memory said. “Sam was great, never letting anyone know my whereabouts, even after I left her place. We’ve always kept in touch. She got saved and started telling me how she was praying for me. I’d go back and stay with her on occasion, but it seemed best for me to keep moving since I couldn’t seem to shake those private detectives that had nothing better to do, it seemed, than track me down.”

  “So how did you get the Alexandrite necklace back?” Lena asked.

  “I believe it was the summer of 2002 that I received a letter at Sam’s place. It was from some man in Asheville, North Carolina, who said he was sure he had something I’d like to have back. His name was Montgomery Powell the Second, which meant nothing to me except possibly some clever trick to smoke me out.”

  “Montgomery, the one you went to see the Saturday Grandmother got sick?”

  Memory nodded, using her whole body in a rocking motion. “Yes. Anyway, until Johnnie Mae Landris told me the truth about my real mother a few weeks ago, none of this had made sense or, truthfully, any difference. When Johnnie Mae told me everything, including the fact that Sarah was in Asheville, I started to call Sarah that night. But I just couldn’t manage to bring myself to hear the truth, at least not then.” Memory laughed. “It’s funny. It was like as long as I didn’t come face to face with it, it was merely a thought . . . a remote possibility . . . words spo
ken by some woman I barely knew, who could be wrong. I knew I had become a different person, but what if this knowledge sent me back to being the person I thought I’d buried when I gave my life to Christ?”

  “So you’re sincere about the Lord?” Lena asked with a quizzical look. “It’s not just a con you’re using to get over?”

  “Lena, it’s the most incredible feeling and experience I’ve ever had,” Memory said, touching Lena’s arm. “It’s hard to describe, but to actually put someone else first, instead of yourself, that’s just something I can’t honestly say I’d ever done before in my entire life. Not until Jesus came into my heart. He changed me.”

  “So you didn’t want to see Sarah that day Johnnie Mae told you everything because you were afraid you really hadn’t changed?”

  “I suppose I was afraid I might hurt her the way I had hurt you and Theresa,” Memory said, removing her hand from Lena’s arm. “I didn’t want to take the chance of finding out that maybe I really hadn’t changed. That the old Memory was just waiting for the chance to rise up . . . to be resurrected. My intentions had been to leave the Landrises’ house and disappear quietly into the night.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  “Sam did,” Memory said with a nod. “That’s what . . . or should we say who. I called Sam, and she prayed with me that night. She told me she’d seen a change in me, and that the right thing for me to do was go and meet my mother. Also, that if I ever got the chance to make things right with you and Theresa, I should do it . . . whatever I had to do to make it right. So I called the number Johnnie Mae gave me for Sarah, told the person who answered the phone that I had a special delivery for Sarah Fleming, but I couldn’t make out the address as written and needed to verify it. Whoever answered the phone gave me the address. I got on a bus, and here I am.”

  Lena stared deep into her eyes as Memory held her head up high. “You’re telling the truth,” Lena said.