The Best-Kept Secret

by Kimberla Lawson Roby

  “So tell me,” Charlotte said. “What was it like dating Frank?”

  “What you really mean is, what was it like dating a white man.”

  “Well . . . yeah. I’ve been wanting to ask you that for the longest, but I was trying to mind my own business,” Charlotte said, slowing for a stoplight.

  “It was the best feeling in the world. But I’m not sure that the way he treated me was based on the fact that he was white. I just think it was because he was such a wonderful person and the fact that we fell in love with each other. He was extremely romantic and he gave me so much attention. He would do things for me that I didn’t even know I wanted to have done.”

  “Did he have money?”

  “You’re a trip.”

  “I know. But did he?”

  “As a matter of fact, he did. His parents own the Lexus dealership out near the mall, and his grandparents left him a large trust fund.”

  “What? You never told me that.”

  “Because it wasn’t important.”

  “Hmmph. Maybe not to you.”

  Anise looked over at Charlotte.

  “What? I’m just sayin’. There’s no way I would have let someone like Frank get away. Not someone who loved me and who had money.”

  “Well, for me, it’s about trust and being happy with a person.”

  Charlotte didn’t respond because at this point, it was better to agree at disagreeing. Still, it was funny how she and Anise were so different when it came to men and what they needed from them. They were as different as Goodman, Mississippi, and Times Square. Charlotte, of course, symbolized the latter.

  Chapter 4

  CURTIS REVIEWED THE AGENDA AND WAITED FOR LANA, HIS FIFTY-year-old administrative assistant to pass out copies to everyone else. The elder board consisted of twelve members: Curtis; Charlotte; her cousin, Anise; his good friend, Aaron; and eight others whom the four of them had chosen very carefully. The elder board was something new for Curtis and not at all like the deacon boards he’d been forced to deal with at his other churches. This board was more or less a governing committee, similar to a board of directors at certain corporations and nonprofit agencies. But the noticeable difference was that Curtis could not be vetoed on any issue. The members were free to discuss and vote on various topics, but in the end, Curtis had the final say. He and Charlotte had made sure to include that particular stipulation in the bylaws when they’d founded the church.

  When Lana took her seat adjacent to Curtis, Curtis asked Brother Bailey, the newest member, to say a word of prayer. Then, Curtis called the meeting to order.

  “So, how is everyone this evening?” Curtis asked.

  Everyone was “fine,” “well,” or “just blessed.”

  “Good. Now, for the most part, we’re going to stick right with the agenda that you have in front of you,” he continued. “So, Sister Mason, if you would, please give us an update on the day-care program.”

  “So far, everything is running pretty smoothly. The state is currently doing a license study, but I don’t foresee us having any problems. Our permit is good for six months, and I definitely think we’ll have our license before it expires. And once we have it, it’ll be in effect for three years.”

  “Are you okay with the number of employees you have?” Anise asked. “Because I remember you saying you might need to add another worker.”

  “Right now we’re fine with the five we’ve hired, but if we want to take on any more than twenty children, we’ll need to bring in a sixth person.”

  “But I thought I read somewhere that you could have one worker for every eight children,” Brother Dixon commented.

  “Yes, but that’s only if all eight children are two years old,” Sister Mason explained. “It drops to five if the children are toddlers and four when they are infants. Then, if you have a mixed-age group like we do, you have to use the ratio standard for the youngest child in the group, which is why we have to have one worker for every four children we take in.”

  “Sister Mason went over that at one of our other meetings, Brother Dixon, but I think you were out recovering from your knee surgery,” Curtis added.

  “Oh, okay. I was just wondering.”

  “Not a problem,” Sister Mason said, smiling. It was common knowledge that Brother Dixon and Sister Mason had a thing for each other. They would never admit it to anyone, but the chemistry between them was as warm as Miami.

  “If that’s all regarding the day-care program, the next order of business is the expansion project. Sister Miller,” Curtis said, referring to Anise, “Brother Malone and I met with another architect last week, and this one had even better ideas than the last two. He’s very excited about what we want to do, and I have to say, we were pretty happy with his personality and reputation as a whole. What we want is for him to attend the next elder board meeting so that he can present his plans to all of us. But I think you’ll be pretty satisfied.”

  “Yes, I think so, too,” Anise said. “He’s very good at what he does, and he seems extremely knowledgeable. He’s also very well organized and that’s another major benefit. And he’s worked with a number of top builders in the area, too. I also did some reference checking and found nothing but favorable news about him. He comes highly, highly recommended.”

  Curtis was always so impressed with Anise, and while he loved Charlotte from the bottom of his heart, he wished Charlotte could be more like her cousin when it came to church business. He wished she would find the same sort of enthusiasm and spend more time working with them on their various projects. There was something to be said about women who were intelligent—but there was much more to be said about women who were smart, beautiful, and well educated, which is why he couldn’t fathom Anise not being in a serious relationship. From where he was sitting, she should have been able to get just about any man she wanted. But according to her, it wasn’t that easy.

  “I agree,” Aaron said. “I liked this one, too. He really had his stuff together, and I think we’ll get everything we expect from him and then some. He had some great contemporary designs. Not like any others I’ve seen.”

  “So does it look like we’ll still be able to break ground next year?” Brother Dixon wanted to know.

  “Lord willing,” Curtis answered. “Anise has been working with our accountant to finish up the financial plan, and we’ll be presenting it to the bank fairly soon. We shouldn’t have a problem with getting the bank loan, though, and by next year, we’ll have a nice down payment in our own account that we can add to it.”

  “The entire congregation has been giving pretty generously toward the expansion project, and that’s all while they’re still paying their regular tithes and offerings,” Charlotte said, and Curtis was glad she finally had something to say. It always looked bad when the first lady of the church acted as though she didn’t care or didn’t want to be there.

  “We truly do have some dedicated members,” Sister Mason said.

  “Amen,” another female member agreed.

  “To be honest, it can’t happen soon enough with all the new members we keep getting every week,” Curtis said. “Our ministry is growing faster and stronger every day.”

  “What if we outgrow this church before the new one is complete?” Brother Bailey asked.

  “Anise?” Curtis said.

  “Actually, we’ve already been speaking with the school district about possibly renting one of their high school auditoriums. Specifically, Mitchell High, since it can accommodate the most people,” Anise said, glancing at the agenda and looking at Curtis. “Which sort of brings us to our new business for the month.”

  Curtis motioned his hand, giving her the okay to continue.

  “We were thinking that maybe it might be a good idea to draw up a contract with the district now, because the last thing we want is for someone else to rent out the space right when we need it. But, of course, that would probably mean paying at least a portion of the normal rent before we actually sta
rt utilizing the facility.”

  “Hmmm,” Brother Bailey stressed his concern. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not, because basically we’d be paying for something we’re not using and that money could go toward the new building.”

  “But we don’t want to take the chance of it being leased to someone else either,” Brother Dixon argued.

  “I agree with Brother Dixon and Sister Miller,” Sister Mason said. “I don’t think we should take any chances. Because if we can’t get the high school when we need it, where will we go?”

  “There must be other places besides Mitchell High School, so maybe we need to take a vote,” Brother Bailey said.

  Anise and Charlotte looked at each other. Curtis wondered why Brother Bailey always had to have an opinion. In the beginning, he’d been nice and quiet like everyone else, but over the last six months, Curtis had noticed how much more vocal he’d become and how he tended to make comments about everything. It was to the point where he thrived on disagreeing with anything the majority wanted to do.

  “You’re right, Brother Bailey,” Curtis finally said. “There are other places, but Mitchell High School is where we want to be. It’s practically brand-new, and it has comfortable seating.”

  “I understand that, but I still think we need to take a vote.”

  “Fine,” Curtis said, since voting ultimately wouldn’t matter one way or the other. “How many are in favor of entering in a contract with the school district as soon as possible?”

  Everyone raised their hand except Brother Bailey and two other members, one male and one female. Curtis was somewhat shocked because the latter two never said very much and mostly went along with everyone else. He wondered if Brother Bailey had privately influenced them to do otherwise.

  “That’s nine to three, so I guess we’ll be going forward with securing the auditorium,” Curtis announced.

  Brother Bailey laughed out loud. “It’s not like it would have mattered anyway, even if eleven of us had voted not to.”

  Suddenly, one could hear a pin drop onto the floor if there had been one rolling from the table. And the floor was carpeted. Within seconds, Curtis thought some of his old thoughts and felt some of his ugly ways rearing inside of him. He prayed silently, begging God to keep him from saying something he would regret or have to apologize for.

  “Look, Brother Bailey. I’m sorry that you don’t agree with our decision, but we voted, just like you wanted, and this is the outcome.”

  “Whatever.”

  Curtis prayed some more. He asked God to suppress the words he knew he had no business saying. He knew this whole scenario was something Satan had concocted, testing him the same as always. Curtis was faithfully living his life right, and Satan wasn’t happy about it. Curtis would never let him win, though.

  “And since we’re on the subject of money, there’s something else I want us to discuss,” Brother Bailey said. “We’re collecting an average of fourteen thousand dollars every Sunday, but a nice chunk of it seems to be going toward salaries for the clerical staff, the musicians, and the pastor. So what I want to know is how those salaries were determined?”

  “Those salaries were decided when the church was founded and until now, not one member of this board has had a problem with it,” Charlotte told him. Curtis knew his wife would have something to say about this. It was the one subject she did in fact care about.

  “Really?” Brother Bailey said. “Well, who decided that the pastor should receive fifteen percent of whatever is collected? I mean, I’ve been asking around, and no other churches seem to be operating like that. Every other church I know of pays the pastor a set sala—”

  “Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re not every other church,” Curtis interrupted. “This is Deliverance Outreach, and we do things here the way we choose to.”

  “No, we do things the way you and your wife want them to be done.”

  “Brother Bailey, what has gotten into you?” Brother Dixon asked. “Because this ain’t nothin’ but a bunch of foolishness you talkin’ in here tonight.”

  “Ya’ll are just mad because I’m not a yes-man like the rest of you.”

  “You know what,” Aaron said, “I think you should step outside and cool off before this goes too far.”

  “Uh-uh. I’m a member of this board just like everyone else, and I’m not leaving until I get ready.”

  “Whether you realize this or not,” Anise said, “Pastor and Sister Black started this church with hardly any members at all and now we have over five hundred. So I don’t need to tell you how much of their own money they sacrificed or how much money they borrowed, which I might add is all paid back. And let’s not talk about this great ministry and how many souls have been saved because of it.”

  Curtis was proud to have Anise defending him and Charlotte, but he didn’t like the way she was making him feel. He’d known her for two whole years, but suddenly he felt a certain attraction for her. The wrong kind of attraction. The kind he didn’t want to feel for anyone other than his wife and especially not his wife’s first cousin. He wondered why Satan was trying to trip him up like this. He felt nervous, and it wasn’t because of what the board was discussing.

  “Please!” Brother Bailey spat at Anise. “You’re part of Sister Black’s family, so of course you’re going to say whatever will make them look good.”

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Aaron said. “Pastor, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to move that we adjourn.”

  “Dismissed,” Curtis said and was beside himself. He was so angry he could burst wide open. Who did Bailey think he was anyway, questioning Curtis’s authority and, of all things, his money? Curtis didn’t know what this Negro’s problem was, but the one thing he did know was that Bailey had to be removed from the board. Not in a few days and not next week, but immediately.

  Curtis pulled Aaron aside. “We need to take care of this right now, so that we won’t ever have to deal with this madness again.”

  “I agree. Brother Bailey, can Pastor and I speak to you for a few minutes?” Aaron asked.

  “About what?” Bailey spoke loudly. Everyone stopped in their tracks, ceasing their conversations.

  “If you’ll just walk with us up to Pastor’s study, we can discuss everything in private,” Aaron told him.

  “No. Just say whatever you have to say to me right now—in front of everybody.”

  “Okay, fine; we’re removing you from the board, effective immediately.”

  “Why? Because I called you crooks on your mess?” he said, moving toward Aaron.

  “Look, I think you’d better step back and then get your behind out of here,” Aaron said, and the other men in the room walked toward them. “We don’t want you here and that’s that.”

  Bailey laughed, his tone sarcastic. “I don’t want to be here anyway, and the rest of you are fools if you keep going along with this money show Pastor Black has everyone caught up in. He’s so slick that all of you are too blind to see it. Or maybe everyone in here has forgotten about all those women he slept with over in Chicago. You’ve heard him talk about them during his own sermons. Yeah, he claims to be a changed man and all that, but where I come from, once a whoremonger, always a whoremonger.”

  Bailey turned and walked toward the doorway and sang, “Suckers!”

  Everyone was speechless.

  Chapter 5

  WELL, WE CERTAINLY CHOSE THE WRONG PERSON TO BE ON THE board, didn’t we?” Curtis said to Charlotte, while unbuttoning his shirt.

  “I guess we did. Which is strange because Brother Bailey would have been the last person I would have expected something like this from. All of it seems so out of character for him.”

  “Yeah, I have to agree, but it just goes to show that you really can’t trust anyone, and I’m just glad we have the right to remove anyone we’re not happy with.”

  “This is true.” Charlotte removed her suit and blouse and strolled inside the closet.

  Curtis
sat on the edge of the king-size bed and slipped off his socks. “It’s so amazing how quickly people will betray you, which makes me feel even worse about all the terrible things I did to people for so many years.”

  “But did is the key word,” Charlotte yelled out to the bedroom. “You are a completely changed man now and that’s all that matters. The past is exactly that. And what Brother Bailey pulled tonight was totally uncalled for.”

  Curtis met Charlotte as she walked out of the closet and pulled her into his arms. “I love you so much, you know that?”

  “I do, Curtis, and I love you, too.”

  “Having you and Matthew in my life is the reason days like today basically don’t mean a thing. The two of you give me so many reasons to be thankful about life in general.”

  Curtis kissed Charlotte, but she pulled away and said, “It’s getting pretty late, so you should probably go read Matthew his story before he falls off to sleep. And I need to jump in the shower.”

  Curtis didn’t like what he was sensing. She was so distant and unaffectionate. He’d been slowly but surely noticing a change in their relationship, but he’d told himself that it simply was his imagination. Charlotte had been working a lot of hours, and he’d been doing the same thing, so he’d decided that this was the reason things weren’t exactly the same between them. Maybe he wasn’t spending enough time with her. Tanya had complained about that very thing, and Mariah had constantly complained about all the time he spent away from her. So maybe that was what the problem was.

  He walked into Matthew’s room and Matthew smiled at him. He was already tucked under his covers.

  “Which book are you going to read from tonight, Dad?” he asked.

  Curtis sat down on Matthew’s bed. “Actually, I think I’m going to tell you a real story instead.”

  Ever since the day he and Matthew began living under the same roof, Curtis had started this nightly ritual of reading a story to him at bedtime. It was the one thing he’d envied about the children he saw on television back in the seventies. He’d wished a thousand times that his father could be as wonderful as the fathers on each of his favorite sitcoms, and even now, it was still a dream he’d never fulfilled. It was a dream that no one would have ever suspected from a strong, take-charge sort of man like him. But he’d promised himself that Matthew would get everything he hadn’t as a child, including a bedtime story.