A Million Blessings

by Angela Benson

  “Come with me to meet Cassius,” Dara told Zebulon.

  “For a minute. Then I need to get out of here,” he said.

  Dara wasn’t the kind to be starstruck to the point of being dumbfounded around celebrities, and working with Cassius she’d been around her share. Still, most people showed a hint of excitement being around someone who most people in the world considered a celebrity, especially if he was a popular athlete.

  But not Zebulon. If he was the least bit impressed with Cassius, he didn’t show it.

  “What’s up, man?” Cassius said when they were introduced.

  “’Sup,” Zebulon said.

  They pounded fists, but their conversation didn’t extend beyond the brotherly exchange of respect. Yet when Cassius turned to speak to Dara, his entire demeanor changed.

  “Whaddya say we grab something to eat when we finish here?” he said, scribbling his autograph on a picture and flashing a million-dollar endorsement smile for a photo.

  “I can’t do it today,” she said. “We’ll talk after you finish here. I have something I want to show you that you might be interested in.”

  “All you have to do is say the word,” Cassius said. “And I’m all yours. You don’t ever have to worry about that.”

  Dara felt her face flush when the Kingdom Knights and volunteers who were helping to man Cassius’s table looked her way. Dara walked around and decided to see if anyone needed prayer or another type of assistance. She bent down to tie the shoes of a little girl since the girl’s mother’s hands were full from carrying a plate of food and her daughter’s new backpack.

  Standing back up she saw Magnum, leaning against a stop sign, its white letters blacked out by spray paint. As always, he had something hanging out of his mouth, and even though he didn’t say anything to Dara, he looked like the wheels in his head were spinning, coming up with something evil to plot.

  Nothing but trouble, Dara said. But his time was short lived. Light and darkness couldn’t inhabit the same place, and it was her plan to bring as much light to the community as possible.

  Chapter 20

  India had said she couldn’t resist buying the gold leaf charger plates that she’d put on the table to replace her former table place settings. Evidently she hadn’t been able to deny the voice of the hand-painted wall plates calling her name, either.

  “You need to do something for yourself,” India said.

  “This is for me. It makes me feel good. You saw how it was out there today.”

  “No, I mean buy something for yourself that you’re not going to give away.”

  “It’s more fun to leave surprise gifts for people,” Dara said.

  After the outreach, Dara went home and bathed, changed clothes, and waited until dusk to purchase and secretly deliver Ms. Bettye’s two window air conditioning units to the front porch. She’d also bought enough gift cards to bless the residents on the street she’d chosen, but she was going to mail them when she had time to write a word of encouragement and a scripture in the note cards she’d also bought to mail them in.

  Despite Dara’s plans to collapse in her bed after her clandestine errands, Aunt Latrice had insisted that she come over to India’s for dinner. After eating, Aunt Latrice had challenged them to a game of Scrabble that was going on forever. Tired of arguing about India’s questionable words, her aunt had gone into India’s office to find the unabridged dictionary.

  India rearranged her letter tiles. “It’s like you’re their knight in shining armor,” she told Dara. “No…their knight in pink armor.”

  “Oh, I like that,” Dara said.

  Aunt Latrice walked back into the room. “Did I tell you how prosperous you’re looking today?”

  “Thank you,” Dara said. She kicked India’s leg under the table.

  “Mama, you’re always talking about somebody looking prosperous,” India said, letting Dara know that was her mother’s usual comment and hadn’t come from India letting their secret slip.

  “God’s children should always look prosperous. If you were an heir to the throne, wouldn’t you walk around acting like it?” She shook the bag of unused letter tiles. “My baby has me looking like a queen these days, doesn’t she, Dara? I know that much. Did you see the stuff she bought me? I told her that she needs to earn commissions like that all the time because if it means I’ll be treated like this, then I’ll be back every week. And I’ll convince your mama to come with me,” she told Dara. “You let me get on her when I get back. She’ll be here before you can blink.”

  Chapter 21

  It had taken longer than a blink. Getting her sister to leave Augusta had taken Latrice a month. And as thrilled as Dara was to have her mother’s company, it couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time.

  They’d finally finalized the contracts, gotten the required permits, had environmental tests completed, and received the long list of approvals from the city. With Zebulon and India’s assistance, they’d ripped through all of the red tape with fierceness. Ground breaking was this week, and Thelma had decided to visit.

  But that wasn’t Dara’s biggest concern and the only reason why she wanted her mother to leave. No, needed her to leave.

  It was eating Dara up inside. What kind of person could continue to act as if she was still bound by the limits of her normal paycheck when she knew she was a millionaire?

  When Dara’s confession bubbled to the surface, she called India. As soon as it was time for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Eagles Pointe, she’d let her parents know. She’d let them see the “good” being done with her riches.

  But it still wasn’t time….

  Thelma held the stems of the bundled spring flowers under the running waters in Dara’s kitchen sink. She diagonally cut each tip and placed them in a crystal vase on the countertop, arranging each flower with the skill of an expert florist. Thelma was a believer in fresh flowers in the kitchen. Dara believed it was because she was used to the smell from the floral wreaths at the funeral home.

  “It feels good to be away from home,” her mother said. “Usually I’m the one taking care of everybody else, but this has been my kind of weekend.”

  “You deserve it, Mama.” Dara took two of the flowers out of her mother’s hand and stuck them in the vase. “Consider it my gift to you for finally leaving the city limits of Augusta.”

  “When your daddy sees that fondue set and those fancy baking dishes you bought me, I bet he’ll drop me off more often. I can’t wait to get home and try some recipes. You know I watch Paula Deen all the time. She’s got this baked French toast casserole that James printed off her Web site for me. I’ll probably try that this week.”

  “Now that sounds good,” Dara said.

  She’d tried to buy her mother more than cooking tools for her kitchen, but Thelma had refused, saying Dara needed to save her money so she’d have enough to pay the bills and then put some away for a rainy day. She didn’t know Dara had enough put away for a whole line of storms. The accountant, Charles, had advised both Dara and India on how to shelter and invest their money.

  “Do you think you’ll be able to make it for me and your daddy’s anniversary? James had talked about getting a dinner catered for us.”

  “I actually talked to James about that,” Dara said. “We’re going to work out the entire family coming to Atlanta because I have a gift here that I want to present to you.”

  “What kind of gift? You can just bring it to Augusta.”

  “If I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise,” Dara said. “And no matter how hard I try, I can’t bring it to Augusta.”

  If everything went according to schedule, Dara hoped to be celebrating her parents’ anniversary and the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Eagles Pointe in two months. She’d already had a corner stone engraved in her parents’ honor that would sit at the subdivision entrance as a testament to her family’s legacy. That was her gift to her parents. She hadn’t taken on the family business, yet she’d still been a
ble to serve others. She didn’t know whether they’d ever come to terms with her lottery win, but in this case maybe it wasn’t where the money came from, maybe it was more about what Dara was doing with it.

  “Who’s going to run the funeral home if we’re all here?” Thelma asked, starting to worry already.

  “We’ll worry about that later. Mark it on your calendar, and we’ll both work on getting Daddy to come. I promise you won’t be disappointed,” Dara said. Or at least she prayed not.

  Thelma pulled back the glass door in the living room and walked out onto the balcony. For the past week, Dara noticed that her mother had been enjoying the area just as much as she did. Almost every morning, Dara found her sitting outside with her Bible and a cup of coffee

  “I can’t believe India and Latrice are taking off to Africa,” her mother said. “I’ve never known India to go anywhere she couldn’t drive to. How long is the flight going to be?”

  “I’m not sure, Ma. But India still has a few months to realize what she’s done,” Dara said. She’d ridden with India before on a three-hour flight to Los Angeles. It wasn’t pretty. “It might not hit her until it’s time to board the plane.”

  “I’ll tell you one thing. She’s making some good money selling houses. One minute she was complaining about the slow housing market, and the next she’s booked a trip to fly to the other side of the world. God is good. There’s a special favor you walk in when you serve the Lord,” she said.

  “I’ll be back, Ma,” Dara said. She went into her bedroom and closed the door. Dara flung herself across her bed, buried her head in her pillow, and screamed at the top of her lungs. “How am I going to last another two months?” she said to herself. She stood up and walked over to the full-length mirror hanging on her closet door. “I’m a liar. A big, fat liar.”

  Dara picked up the phone on her nightstand and called India. She could hear trucks rumbling in the background and a voice that sounded like Zebulon’s yelling over them.

  “I can’t do it anymore,” Dara said.

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  “This is too stressful. I’ve got millions in the bank, I’m trying to rebuild a community, and I don’t have the courage to be an adult with my own parents.”

  “Hold on,” India said. “Let me go to my car so I can hear you.”

  “Dara?”

  She heard her mother’s voice ring out. Dara opened her bedroom door and stuck her head out. “Let me finish taking this phone call. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  India was evidently in her car, because the construction bustle outside had been closed out. “All right. Now what’s going on?”

  “I can’t do it anymore,” Dara whispered. “I’m about to bust.”

  “Tell her.” India said it so easily. “What can they do? Make you give the money back?”

  Dara sighed deeply. It was more complicated than that. She wanted to make sure they saw what she could accomplish first. She couldn’t risk their being disappointed in her again.

  “Never mind. I’ll be okay,” Dara said. “I think I just had to get it off my chest.” Dara blew out a stream of air. “How are things going today?”

  “The construction is moving along as planned. Zebulon runs a tight ship. But you’ve got some of your gangsta friends out here who’ve decided to bring their party to the sidewalk across from the construction. I’m the only one they try to verbally hassle, but you know I’m the queen at ignoring ignorance.”

  “How long have they been there?”

  “All week.”

  “All week? And you’re just now telling me.”

  “I didn’t want you to get all hysterical. Aunt Thelma never comes in town, and I wanted you to focus on her while she was here.”

  “Maybe we should call the police.”

  “Legally, they’re not doing anything. They’re not on the property, they’re across from the property. If you make a ruckus you’ll give them what they want. Attention.”

  Dara had to do something about it. She knew it had to be Magnum who was the ring leader. If there was one thing she’d learned as a country girl, it was that the only way to kill a snake was to go destroy the head first. If not, it could regenerate another body. Magnum was the head, and without him, the others wouldn’t survive.

  “How’s everybody else in the community?”

  “Quite a few people came out to watch the workers. But again, that group of guys ran them back into the house after too long.”

  “It’s ridiculous. Can you get the police over there?”

  India huffed. “Dara, I’ve been here so much this week only to make sure things move forward. I’m not the security for the neighborhood watch program.”

  “All right, all right.”

  Thelma called out again from the living room. “Dara, how do you get this thing to come on? I want to watch Judge Joe Brown.”

  Technology was not her mother’s friend.

  “I need to go,” Dara told India. “But do me a favor. If I get a box of books to you, can you take them out to the site tomorrow? Have one of the workers drop them by the community center. I heard they didn’t even have anything for the kids to read in the after-school program.”

  “Whatever you want, Dara. You’re the knight in pink armor and I’m your trusty sidekick,” she said. “But let me warn you, you can’t save all the dames and damsels in distress.”

  “No. But I can do my part.” Dara hung up the phone. All she could do was what God asked of her. She only had to run and not get weary. She only had to mount up on eagles’ wings.

  Chapter 22

  God answers prayers. It was the only reason Dara could think of why it had been four weeks and Magnum and his groupies seemed to have crawled back into their hole in the ground. Ms. Bettye let her grandchildren and foster children play in the front yard, and today Dara had gotten her first smile out of the woman with the three small boys. She’d even found out her name was Chantrelle.

  Dara walked around with Zebulon to chart the progress.

  “I hope the investor is pleased with everything,” Zebulon said, kicking clay off the tip of his steel-toe boots. “I know I have to send you the photo updates, but there’s nothing like seeing it with your own eyes.”

  “Trust me. The investor knows everything that’s going on.”

  Dara had taken Zebulon’s digital camera from him and was taking shots of the first four homes that had been completed. Other than the front yard landscaping, the homes were move-in ready. She’d pushed the builders to complete the first four houses on the new block, and she’d called in painters, electricians, and other contractors in the community to put on the finishing touches. Everyone in the neighborhood was pitching in, especially after they heard that Ms. Bettye had received a letter stating that the first house was being built for her. Nobody knew what it was going to take to be a recipient of one of the new abodes, but that didn’t stop them from being elated about the peace and feeling of renewal that had swept through the streets.

  This Monday was one of the best in Dara’s life. First came Cassius’s ten o’clock call that he was donating twenty thousand dollars to build a playground and recreation field in the area. Dara zoomed the camera in on Ms. Bettye’s house. Now this.

  Zebulon walked Dara to the back of one of the worker’s pickup trucks where there was a cooler of water. He flipped the spout and the water flowed into the cone-shaped paper cup.

  “You always talk about how you’re a trustworthy woman. So it’s only fair that I be a trustworthy man,” Zebulon said, handing her a cup.

  Dara was puzzled. As thirsty as she was, she couldn’t put the cup to her lips until she knew what Zebulon had to say.

  “I know that you put the money up for Eagles Pointe,” he said. “My curiosity got the best of me, and I did a little digging around, and used my knowledge and city contacts.”

  Dara shrugged. What else could she do now that the secret was out?

  “It’s safe wi
th me,” Zebulon hurried to say. “Even Tyler won’t know. But I thought I should tell you.”

  “Thank you for being honest, and thank you even more for keeping your mouth shut,” she stressed, praying that he’d actually do what he said. She turned the cup up and let the water wash her dry throat.

  So Zebulon knew. Her parents still didn’t. If that was the worse that had happened in a day, she still considered this Monday one of the best ones in her life.

  Chapter 23

  Dara wasn’t watching the ten o’clock evening news. Although her television was turned on, she had the volume on mute. She was still trying to gather her senses around the call from Zebulon that two of her finished properties had been vandalized. Right after nightfall, he’d gotten word from Ms. Bettye that there was some suspicious activity going on in the area. She wouldn’t say who’d told her, but whoever it was must’ve known that Ms. Bettye—of all people—would be able to contact someone who was in charge. That person was Zebulon.

  Dara was both disappointed and furious. She let Zebulon and Tyler go back to the properties to secure the door and board up the windows. Now she wished she hadn’t called India, because she wasn’t helping the situation.

  “Just because you change a person’s environment doesn’t mean you’ve changed their mindset,” India said. “Money has power, but it doesn’t have that much power.”

  Zebulon beeped in on the other line. Dara had talked to him an hour ago so she knew the properties had already been secured. He probably wanted to call her again to make sure she felt better. Whey they’d last talked, she was still shaken up.

  “It’s Zeb,” she told India. “I’ll call you in the morning. Try not to go to bed angry.” It was what Dara had been telling herself for the last two hours. “We have to pray our way through this one. Zebulon said it’s nothing that can’t be repaired or replaced.”

  “I’ll do my best,” India said. “As long as you’re okay, I’m okay.”