9781631050183CrossingBoundariesValiereNC

by Rona Valiere

  Todd drove back to his house and poured them each a drink. It was twenty of five by now, and they remembered the advice to have dinner early rather than later if they wanted not to have to wait for a table at The Magic Carpet.

  “Am I dressed okay, do you think, or do I need to run home and change clothes?” Cassie asked.

  She was wearing a fuzzy turtleneck sweater and a pair of nice pants. “I think you’re fine the way you are,” Todd said. “It’s certainly not an elegant restaurant.”

  They got the last table at The Magic Carpet and perused the dinner offerings. They agreed to share two appetizers and ordered the clam-topped bruschetta and some duck liver pâté. “It certainly is an eclectic menu,” Cassie said. She ordered the Moroccan-style lamb for her main course, while Todd ordered cassoulet.

  They had finished their appetizers and were waiting for their main courses when Todd said, “How about next weekend we invite my mother over for dinner so you can meet her? She’s not well and doesn’t go out much, but this is a special occasion. I want her to meet the woman I love.”

  Cassie said, “Let me do the cooking, then.”

  “I’d rather have her at my place.”

  “So I’ll cook at your place. Is that a problem?”

  “No, not if you don’t mind.”

  “We’ll have your tree up by then,” Cassie mused. “Good thing we’re doing that tomorrow.”

  They spent the whole day Sunday on the two trees. First they bought a tree for Cassie’s place, popcorn and cranberries, and silver tinsel. She already had needles and thread, of course. They popped the popcorn and strung the kernels mixed alternatingly with the cranberries, then festooned the tree with these garlands and with tinsel, and placed the angel at the top.

  After that it was on to Todd’s place by way of the tree lot, where they bought another tree to decorate. The day before he had taken his ornaments down from the closet shelf where they had reposed since last Christmas, and now they set about gracing the tree with colorful balls, miniature reindeer, bells, six jolly Santas, and more tinsel. Again there was an angel for the top of the tree. It was very late in the afternoon when they finished.

  “Our first Christmas together,” he said, kissing her even though they hadn’t bought any mistletoe. “The first of many, I hope.”

  “My hope too,” she murmured.

  Cassie worried all week about meeting Todd’s mother. What if the two of them didn’t get along for some reason? What if Cassie was too talkative, too forthright, too independent, too something else for his mother’s taste?

  She never pictured what turned out to be the reality.

  She was too black.

  She knew something was wrong the minute Rosalia Corwyn walked in the door. Cassie could feel the woman’s shock. Her repugnance was evident in the way she greeted Cassie. She made no attempt to hide her dismay.

  Cassie was dismayed too.

  Since she had said nothing but “Pleased to meet you,” and she knew she was dressed demurely, she could only assume it was her color that Todd’s mother found offensive.

  “I’m not sure I can stay for dinner,” Todd’s mother said, her eyes sweeping up and down Cassie’s frame. “I’m really not feeling at all well.”

  “This morning on the phone you said you were having a good day today,” Todd said.

  “I was,” she answered pointedly.

  She sat down gingerly and directed her conversation to Todd, totally ignoring Cassie, till Todd spoke up and said, “Mother, I wanted you to meet the woman I love, and you’ve barely said two words to her.”

  “Cassie is the woman you love?” Rosalia asked frostily, making no attempt to hide her displeasure. “Really, I think it would be better if I went home now.”

  “But you just got here!” Todd protested.

  “And now I’m leaving,” his mother said, getting up with a curt nod at Cassie. As she headed to the door she said to Todd, “Call me one of these days when you come to your senses.”

  Cassie got up too. She couldn’t sit still. As she paced, the tears flowed. “I’ve alienated your mother from you!” she sobbed.

  “You’ve done no such thing. She did it herself. I’ve heard her make disparaging remarks about blacks before, but I never in my wildest imaginings thought she would react this way to you. I am so sorry!”

  “No. I’m the one who’s sorry,” Cassie insisted. “If it weren’t for me—”

  “Can the nonsense! I love you. Whether or not my mother approves, I love you. She can accept that, or she can drum me out of her life, but I love you, and you’ve done nothing wrong. She’s a bigoted old fool.”

  “But she’s sick. She needs you.”

  “I’m not her only son. I told you I have two brothers. Let her lean on them.”

  “Are they as responsible as you?”

  “That’s beside the point.”

  “You’re ducking the question. I know you go to see her at least once a week and call her every day. I don’t want to get in between that. She’s your mother. As awful as I find her attitude, she’s your mother. And I don’t want it to be on my head that I came between you and her.”

  “You didn’t come between us. You did nothing.”

  “DWWB. Dating Whites While Black. Listen, I’m going home. I need to process this. I need to think it through.”

  “But what about dinner?”

  “It’s ready. You eat it. I have no appetite. Goodbye.” She kissed him on the chin, put her coat on, and left.

  That night, he called to see if she was all right. But she wasn’t—and what’s more, she had decided to end the relationship, she told him.

  “You can’t! I love you! I was already planning a future for us. I was hoping for the kind of future that starts with a white dress and a veil, an aisle, and a minister.”

  “I had those same dreams,” Cassie said, sniffling. “But it won’t work. I won’t marry into a family where I’m not welcome, and I won’t come between you and your mother.”

  “Cassie, sweets, please listen to me—”

  “No. You listen to me. This is the way it has to be. I’ll see you at work on Monday.”

  “I’m going to see if I can trade shifts with one of the other engineers. It’s gonna hurt too much to see you there and know I can’t have you.”

  “It’s going to hurt me too, honey—I mean Todd—but we’re both professionals.”

  “Oh, my god, this is terrible. This is awful. Think about it. Sleep on it. You can’t just walk away from me because of my mother.”

  “I would feel as welcome in your family as a rat in a kitchen.”

  “You’re not a rat!”

  “Tell that to your mother.”

  “I love you!”

  “And I love you. But it’s not going to work. Now goodbye.”

  She hung up and went to bed. It was early, but she was in no condition to accomplish any of the tasks she needed to do—housecleaning, laundry, balancing her checkbook—and she certainly didn’t feel inspired to create any of her artworks. That night sleep eluded her.

  The next morning—Sunday—Todd called again. “I was hoping you’d changed your mind after a night’s sleep.”

  “I barely slept.”

  “Me neither.”

  “And I haven’t changed my mind.”

  “Shit! Damn!”

  Cassie dragged herself through the day on Sunday, going to bed early that night only to fall into a troubled, nightmare-plagued sleep. When she awoke on Monday morning, she felt as if she had been running all night. Her red-rimmed eyes in the mirror stared at her tousled hair, and she gave it only the most perfunctory combing. She really didn’t care.

  She called in sick to the real estate office but called Ginger’s cell to give her the lowdown. Unfortunately Ginger was out showing houses to a client and really couldn’t talk. Cassie gave her the “Campbell’s condensed” version: “I met his mother. She’s a bigot. I can’t come between him and his mother. I broke up wit
h him.”

  “Oh, no! Are you sure you did the right thing?” Ginger asked.

  “Yes,” said Cassie dully.

  “I’ll call you when I get clear,” Ginger said, but as it turned out, her clients kept her later than she expected and she barely got to the station in time for the broadcast.

  What a mess! Cassie was barely able to hold up her end of the chatter on the show. Ginger had to carry the bulk of it. Todd, in the booth, averted his eyes from Cassie and stuck strictly to business: “Four minutes to go,” “Coming up on commercial,” and such.

  By Tuesday she had pulled herself together sufficiently to co-host the show without having to lean heavily on Ginger, but she still found herself weepy before and after the show and unable to face Todd—who seemed to be having just as much trouble facing her.

  Wednesday was more of the same.

  On Thursday Cassie arrived at the radio station early, determined to be on top of her game and not fall apart in the studio. Yet almost inevitably she began to leak tears as she caught a glimpse of Todd walking down a hallway. He didn’t see her, but she saw his back retreating as she came out of the ladies’ room. She knew he was trying to switch shifts with one of the other engineers, but so far he had apparently been unsuccessful. It would certainly be easier for him to make a change than for her. She couldn’t really request that the station air their show in the evening instead of the afternoon, nor would that work for Ginger. No, she would have to suck it up till Todd was able to get his schedule changed—but oh, it hurt to see him there every day.

  The station manager came down the hall as she headed back to the studio. He stopped and greeted her. “You seem upset lately. Can we talk in my office? I’ll be there in five minutes or less. I just have to drop off these papers to Wendy in Accounting. Go in and have a seat.”

  Was he simply being kind or was she in trouble for being unprofessional? Cassie didn’t know, but she supposed she was about to find out. They went off in different directions, and she looked at her watch as she reluctantly walked down the hallway, but she saw it was still twenty minutes till air time.

  When she got to Chaz’s office, the door was closed, so she let herself in and shut the door again behind herself. Taking a seat, she nervously waited for his return. After sitting there for a few minutes, she began to notice an odd smell, but she was wrapped up in thoughts of Todd and of how she was going to get through day after day of seeing him here at work. Soon the smell grew stronger and she could no longer ignore it. It smelled like smoke. She was still distracted by thoughts of Todd but wondered if the building next door was on fire. She hadn’t heard any sirens.

  Where was Chaz? It was getting late. She’d need to get back to the studio soon. She was on the air in less than ten minutes. She and Chaz hardly had time for a conversation now. She wondered if she should just get up and go to the studio. She hated to be impolite—especially to her boss—but surely he would understand.

  She got up from her chair, thinking she would look down the hallway and see if she saw Chaz coming. But when she opened the door of his office, smoke billowed in. She realized with panic that the fire was not next door but right there in the WAAA offices. A wall of flame outside the door prevented her from going anywhere. And since Chaz’s office was an interior one, there was no window through which she could escape.

  “Help! Help! Help! Help!” she yelled into the smoke-filled, flame-filled hallway, totally panicking as she thought of being consumed by the flames. What could she do? If she stayed in Chaz’s office, she would perish from smoke inhalation even if the flames didn’t get her. But she could hardly make a run for it through the flames at both ends of the hallway. “Help!”

  “Cassie?” It was Todd’s voice.

  “Help me!”

  “Where are you?”

  “Chaz’s office.”

  “Hang on!”

  She closed the door against the flames and prayed.

  Then suddenly the door burst open, and there was Todd wrapped in wet bunting and carrying another large piece of it, which he wrapped Cassie in. She recognized the material as the decorative banner the station had hung outside the building when they’d celebrated their thirtieth anniversary on the air. He covered her mouth and nose with the wet material, then pulled her out into the hallway and through the flames. She felt her eyebrows get singed and smelled burned hair, but he pulled her along and she followed blindly, stumbling within the enfolding wet material till she saw daylight and realized he had guided her safely out the side exit.

  He said something she couldn’t understand as his voice was muffled by the wet material covering his own mouth. She pulled the bunting away from her mouth. “What?”

  He pulled the material clear of his mouth and asked, “Are you okay?”

  “You saved my life—and risked your own.”

  “I love you. You’re my world. I couldn’t leave you to the smoke and flames.”

  “Oh, my god. Todd!” She fell against him. He struggled to get free of the material that wrapped all but one hand, so he could put his arms around her.

  “I don’t ever want to lose you. I love you!” he said.

  “And I love you too. Oh, my god. You risked your life for me,” she exclaimed again.

  “You’re worth it. Please, sweets, please say we can get back together. Life isn’t shit without you.”

  “But what about your mother?”

  “Either she’ll eventually accept you or she won’t. But I can’t accept living without you. You’re my world. You’re my everything. These last four days have been pure hell. Tell me we can get back together.”

  “My love!” She kissed him deeply. “Yes! Of course!”

  Then suddenly she yelped, “Ginger! Did Ginger get out safely?”

  They shrugged off the wet bunting and hurried around to the front of the building, where they found Ginger and the station’s other staffers huddled across the street watching the firefighters try to bring the blaze under control. Everyone was safe and accounted for, although it certainly looked like the building was going to be a total loss.

  That was when Todd noticed that Cassie hadn’t escaped totally unscathed. “You’re missing some of your hair and your eyebrows, and your face is burned too. Are you sure you’re all right?” Todd asked.

  “I’ve got you. That’s all that matters,” Cassie answered, as he once again folded his arms around her. Ginger, seeing the embrace, flashed Cassie a thumbs-up. Cassie returned the signal. Then she snuggled into the strong embrace of her beloved. Her singed hair and burned face didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Neither did his mother. All that could be worked out—or not. She and Todd were together again. Really that was all that counted.

  *The End*

  About the Author

  Rona Valiere writes in many different genres under several different names. She has crossed a few boundaries herself in her private life and has encountered prejudice along the way.

  Secret Cravings Publishing

  www.secretcravingspublishing.com