“This way people will know not to make plans for that day because they’ll be getting an official invitation for it in the future,” Jasmine had said.
It was ingenious! Miss Crowe knew etiquette, and that invitations generally have a specific timeline to be sent out. The problem was with people having so much going on these days; there were times when people would miss a wedding because they didn’t know an invitation was on the way. This way they’d know.
Still, Miss Crowe didn’t quite trust everything, so she’d written down the toll-free number of the company where the invitations were being shipped from just to make sure the notice they’d received the day before stating the invitations were en route was accurate. After pressing one for this and two for that, Miss Crowe was thoroughly frustrated in the lack of another human on the other end.
But she got a lot done before Jasmine came home from school so she was happy.
“Miss C! Miss C!” Jasmine said as she burst through the front door. “The ice-cream man is coming! I saw him. He’s just down the block. May I please have some Popsicle money? Please, please!” She used her prayer hands and melting smile.
Miss Crowe chuckled. “Of course, you can. Let me get my purse real quick.”
“Hurry, hurry! I don’t want him to leave before I get back out there.”
Miss Crowe laughed to herself. “It’s not like we don’t have ice-cream goodies and Popsicles in the freezer here,” she yelled back as she went into the den and found her purse where she’d left it yesterday after she’d put the twenty dollars she’d gotten Gabrielle to bring her the day before from the bank. She took out her wallet, wishing she had a five-dollar bill so she wouldn’t have to send Jasmine out there with her only twenty. But a twenty was all she had so she would have to emphasize to Jasmine to bring her back her change.
She opened the part where she put her paper bills. It wasn’t there. She looked again as though by magic it would somehow appear. Empty. She then looked in other places, wondering if her mind might be slipping and she’d not remembered her normal routine and stuck it somewhere else. It wasn’t anywhere in her wallet. She distinctly remembered: she had asked Gabrielle to cash a check for twenty dollars and bring her the cash. Gabrielle had cashed it and given her the money yesterday before she left for work, having forgotten to give it to her when she came home the night before. She had taken the twenty and promptly walked into the den, where she’d left her purse the night before when she and Jasmine had placed an online order.
“Miss C! He’s here! We’re going to miss him!” Jasmine yelled, obviously half inside and half outside the door.
Not wanting Jasmine to miss out, Miss Crowe looked in her change pocket and counted out three dollars’ worth of change, hoping that would be enough for something on the ice-cream truck. Back in her day, a quarter was plenty, but definitely not these days.
“Here! Here!” Miss Crowe said walking to the front door. “Run!” She stood at the door and watched as Jasmine jumped up and down to get his attention as he had just driven by. Thankfully, he backed up and Jasmine came back in the house with a chocolate candy-covered vanilla ice-cream bar.
“Thank you, Miss C! You’re the best!” Jasmine said.
“Yeah, well, we can’t be doing this every day now. I’m sure your mother won’t appreciate you having too many sweets like this.”
“I told you she doesn’t care. She wants me to be happy.” Jasmine grinned. “So, you didn’t want anything?”
“No, darling. We have plenty of ice cream in the freezer. In fact, I think we have a whole box of what you just bought from him. And they’re a lot cheaper than you most likely paid for that one.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jasmine said. “I almost forgot.” She held out her hand that had a small trace of vanilla ice-cream on it now. “Here’s your change.”
Miss Crowe looked at the coin in her hand. “A quarter? So that one little thing was two dollars and seventy-five cents?”
“Yep,” Jasmine said, popping her p.
“You can buy a whole box of those things for two dollars and seventy-five cents. And if you buy the store brand, it’s even cheaper than that.”
“Yeah, but there’s just something different about getting one from the ice-cream man.” Jasmine bit into her ice-cream bar.
Miss Crowe nodded. “Yes, there is. And as long as you enjoy it and don’t drip it on everything, we’ll all be fine. Now go on in the kitchen and finish it at the table.”
Jasmine went in the kitchen and finished her ice-cream bar as she was told. She went in the half-bathroom and washed the stickiness off her hands. “Can I watch Finding Nemo before I do my homework?”
Miss Crowe tilted her head slightly and cracked a little smile. “Can you?”
“Okay. I know. Yes, I can. May I watch Finding Nemo before I do my homework?”
“You watched that DVD yesterday. How many times can a person watch something before you get tired of it?”
“I don’t know. But when I discover the number, I’ll let you know.”
Miss Crowe put her hand on her hip. “You’re a little smart one, aren’t you?”
“That’s what everybody keeps telling me. I’m just trying to live up to the words spoken over my life. That’s what Pastor Landris said. He told parents and other folks that they need to be careful of the words they speak over others, especially their children. Because people are speaking blessings or curses according to what comes out of their mouth. Everybody keeps saying how smart I am, therefore I am.”
Miss Crowe shook her head. “Well, since you’ve been such a huge help to me and we both know you’re going to get your homework done, then you may watch your little DVD. But after it goes off, I want you to do your homework. Okay?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jasmine said with a giggle. “It’s not a lot of homework anyway. I’ll be through in less than thirty minutes.”
“That’s good.” Miss Crowe smiled.
Jasmine ran over and hugged her. “Miss C, I love you! I’m so glad you’re here with us. I hope you decide to stay after Dr. Z and my mom get married.”
“I don’t know about all of that. But I’m here for now. So we’ll just make the best of our time together. That way if for whatever reason I’m ever not in your life, we’ll always have our memories. That’s what happened with your mom and me. I got hurt really bad and couldn’t get back to her. But she always had the memories we created together. And ironically, I had the memories of her with me. When I did see her again, everything clicked. I got well, and here I am—down here planning the biggest day this town may ever see.”
“Dr. Z says we’re being too dramatic about everything,” Jasmine said. “He and Mama say we’re going way over the top with this wedding and Mama keeps saying she’s getting nervous.”
Miss Crowe laughed, throwing her head back. “Isn’t it grand when you have your own money and you can do something for another, going as far over the top as your heart desires, and no one can really stop you.”
“I suppose,” Jasmine said. “I don’t get over-the-top money. I only get lunch money and five dollars a week for an allowance, a dollar of which I always take out and put in church.”
“I’m sure the Lord appreciates your heart. I know some grown folks that don’t put a dollar a week in church. But the Lord does love a cheerful giver.” Miss Crowe became somewhat solemn as she thought about her missing twenty dollars. “Miss Jazz, by any chance did you see a twenty-dollar bill lying around in the den anywhere?”
“No, ma’am,” Jasmine said wobbling her head back and forth. “Mama, I’m talking about my first mother this time . . . the one who got cancer and died before Miss G came along and became my mother. Mama always said we don’t find money in the house. If we see it, it doesn’t belong to us, and we need to find the true owner.”
“That’s right.” Miss Crowe nodded. “Well, you go on in and watch your movie while I finish up supper. We’re having meatloaf, mashed potatoes, spinach, and candied yams
.”
“I used to not like spinach. But the way you cook it, it’s one of my favorite things now,” Jasmine said.
“Is that right?” Miss Crowe said. “Well, it’s likely because I use fresh spinach, not that canned kind which has a completely different taste from fresh. And”—Miss Crowe leaned down to whisper it as though someone might overhear her, even though she and Jasmine were the only two people in the house—“I put real butter in mine.” She winked.
Jasmine smiled.
“Okay, go on. Your mother will be home soon. This is her day to get off early.”
Jasmine skipped into the den. Not even a minute later, Jasmine called out to Miss Crowe who rushed into the den.
“What’s the matter? Why are you hollering for me like that?” Miss Crowe asked with a frown, her hand holding her heart.
“The DVD player is gone,” Jasmine said.
“What do you mean gone?”
“I mean it’s not here. It grew legs and walked away,” Jasmine said.
“I doubt that it grew legs and walked anywhere. Maybe your mother moved it upstairs to her room for some reason.”
“I doubt it. She has one in her room.”
“Well, maybe something happened to the one she has in her room so she unplugged the one down here and took it upstairs,” Miss Crowe said.
“But my Finding Nemo DVD was still in it. The DVD holder is right here.” Jasmine picked up the empty case. “One thing I can tell you about my mother is that she hates when folks take a DVD out and don’t put it back in its proper holder. She thinks it will get scratched if it’s unprotected.”
“Yeah, that’s what used to happen with our forty-fives,” Miss Crowe said.
“Forty-five what?” Jasmine said.
Miss Crowe chuckled. “Sorry. I keep forgetting that I’m antique around here. A forty-five was a record. They call them vinyls now, I think. We had records with record players that required a needle and sometimes the needle would scratch the record or if you laid it down, it might get scratched up. When a record is scratched, it doesn’t play right and tends to get stuck and repeats itself in one spot until you move the needle.”
“That’s what some DJs do to records on purpose. They call it scratching,” Jasmine said.
“Yeah, okay. I think my head is starting to hurt now.” Jasmine giggled. “You always say that when we start talking about the difference in what was and what is now.”
“Yes, I do because it makes me dizzy hearing all this stuff.”
“I’m going to check in Mama’s room to see if the DVD player is in there.”
“Okay.”
Jasmine ran up the stairs. She came back five minutes later and stood in the kitchen.
Miss Crowe looked up. “Did you find it like I told you you would?”
“Nope,” Jasmine said.
“What do you mean, nope?”
“I mean no, ma’am, it wasn’t up there. Her player is there though.”
“Well, I know it’s not in my room. If I want to watch something I just go in the den and get you to turn it on for me,” Miss Crowe said.
“Maybe Granddaddy took it,” Jasmine said.
“I doubt it. He’s just about as inept when it comes to these electronic gadgets as I am. It took him forever to learn how to answer and dial out using the cell phone your mother gave him so he’d have a sure way for a potential employer to reach him should one call.”
“He might have taken it and put it in his room,” Jasmine said. “You never know. I can run and check.”
“No. You don’t need to be going in his room when he’s not here. That’s not polite.”
“I’m sure he won’t mind. He and I have bonded. We’re buddies. He calls me his BLB: brilliant little buddy.”
“Yeah, okay. But still, we respect other people’s space and property, and for now, that room is his and you shouldn’t be just going in there without his permission. So we’ll wait. And I suppose that means you can do your homework now since the DVD is no longer on the agenda.”
Jasmine stomped away.
“I know you’d better not be walking away like that,” Miss Crowe said. “We don’t walk away with attitudes when an adult tells us something to do that we disagree with. Understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now, where’s my beautiful little Jazzy smile?”
Jasmine looked at Miss Crowe, smiled, then burst out laughing when Miss Crowe came over and hugged and tickled her.
Chapter 24
Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.
—Psalm 55:11
Gabrielle came in the house, glad to be home. She could smell the food cooking in the kitchen and allowed her nose to lead her.
“This smells so good!” Gabrielle said to Miss Crowe.
“Thank you,” Miss Crowe said. “And your timing could not have been better. Everything is ready and you know how I love for folks to eat while it’s hot.”
“I’m starving and truly ready to eat. I skipped lunch today to make up for the time I cut short yesterday when I came home earlier than planned,” Gabrielle said.
“Sorry about that,” Miss Crowe said as she turned off the eye with the candied yams. The cinnamon and nutmeg truly made the house smell like a home. “I guess I kind of jumped the gun yesterday evening.”
“No, you didn’t. You were right to call me like you did. Who knows what really would have happened had I not come in and interrupted? I know my father said he wasn’t falling for any of it, but I’m not totally convinced. It’s possible he said what he did to me and Zachary because he wanted to throw us off the trail. Where is he, by the way?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Miss Crowe took the yeast rolls out of the oven and rolled butter on top of them.
“Is he here at all?” Gabrielle asked as she picked up one of the rolls and, realizing just how hot they were, just as quickly dropped it back onto the pan.
Miss Crowe ripped loose a paper towel and picked up the roll Gabrielle had tried picking up. She placed it on a saucer and handed the saucer and paper towel to Gabrielle. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Gabrielle smiled like a little girl. “So is my father here in the house?”
“He left right after you did this morning. I haven’t seen nor heard from him since.”
“Hmmm, that’s kind of odd. Usually he tells me when he has someplace to go and even then, most times, he’s back before I get home, for sure.” Gabrielle pulled a piece of the roll off—the steam rising into the air as though a spirit had been freed.
“I didn’t ask him where he was going. He’s grown and can come and go as he pleases as far as I’m concerned.”
“If I know you, you were just happy he was gone,” Gabrielle said, then put the cooled-down piece of her roll in her mouth.
“You know me: I live and let live. If you don’t bother me and mine, I won’t bother you and yours. But if you’re foolish enough to mess with me or mine, you need to sleep with one eye open and one eye closed because I’m coming for you.”
Gabrielle chuckled. “Miss Crowe, you know good and well you’re not going to hurt anybody. You just be trying to talk like you’re big and bad.”
“Ask your aunt Cee-Cee how much I just be talking,” Miss Crowe said as she walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. “I’m tired. But I got a lot done today.”
“Speaking of Aunt Cee-Cee, you think maybe that’s where my father went? I mean, I was a bit hard in telling him I didn’t want her over here again. Maybe he went to see her. I do know he seemed really concerned about Jesse.”
“That young man is definitely on something, and whatever it is, is not good. And I’m going to tell you, if he rings the doorbell and you’re not here, he won’t be stepping foot in this house,” Miss Crowe said. “Not with me and Jasmine here.”
“Well, I suppose Daddy will be back when he gets back.” Gabrielle pulled another piece of the roll off, able to ho
ld it in her hand now that it had cooled. “So is Jasmine in her room? No, wait! Let me guess. She’s in the den watching her newest favorite DVD, Finding Nemo.”
“She would be if the DVD player was in there and the DVD wasn’t missing,” Miss Crowe said.
“What do you mean ‘if the DVD player was in there and the DVD wasn’t missing’?” Gabrielle sat down at the table next to Miss Crowe.
“The DVD player is missing. At first I thought you might have taken it to your room, but Jasmine checked—”
“I didn’t take it,” Gabrielle said.
“That’s what I was about to say. And you know I don’t have it,” Miss Crowe said.
“So where do you think it is?” Gabrielle asked.
“I don’t have a clue. Jasmine thinks maybe your father has it in his room—”
“I doubt that. He would have asked—at least I would think he would,” Gabrielle said.
“My sentiments exactly.” Miss Crowe rubbed her leg.
Gabrielle looked down as she did it. “Is your leg bothering you?”
“Not really. I guess it’s a habit I have when there’s something I have to say and it pains me to have to say it,” Miss Crowe said.
“Okay. Let’s have it.”
“You remember that twenty dollars I asked you to get for me the other day?”
“Yeah. I ended up forgetting to give it to you that night and gave it to you yesterday morning before I left for work,” Gabrielle said.
“Right. And then I took it in the den and put it in my wallet in my purse. Well, it’s not there. And before you ask, I’m certain I put it in my wallet in the place where I always put all my dollar bills. I’m not crazy. I’m not getting senile. I’m sure I put it in my wallet in my purse that was in the den.”
The Other Side of Divine Page 16