2-in-1 Yada Yada
Page 59
Suddenly I realized what Denny wanted to do and why. Jesus gave us the way to break the legacy of sin . . .
Denny let go of my hand and knelt down beside MaDear’s wheelchair. I knelt down with him, kneeling low so that she was looking down on us. “Mrs. . . .” Denny looked up at Adele, searching for MaDear’s real name.
“Skuggs,” said Adele. “Sally Skuggs.”
“Mrs. Skuggs,” Denny continued, his voice husky, “what I did was wrong and evil. You have every right to be angry. But I have come to ask if you could forgive me. I . . . I can’t bring your brother back, but I ask you to forgive me for how we white folks wronged your people, and your family in particular.”
The room was hushed. No one spoke. Somewhere I could hear the melodic words to “What Child Is This?” softening the electricity in the air. And then MaDear reached out and patted Denny on the head, tears streaming down her face.
My own eyes blurred, and I groped for a tissue in my skirt pocket.
“I knew yo’ mama,” MaDear said, stroking Denny’s hair. “My mama took care o’ you when you was no bigger’n a sucklin’ pig, she did. But after Larry was dragged off, found hangin’ the nex’ day, yo’ mama couldn’t look my mama or me in th’ eye. She done knew it was you and yo’ daddy and yo’ uncle. But ta look us in th’ eye an’ admit it . . . she couldn’t do that. Couldn’t do that.” MaDear shook her head sorrowfully. “Went to her grave, she did, not knowing we woulda forgiven her for what her menfolk did if she’d asked us to.”
Denny’s shoulders were shaking, and I handed him a wrinkled tissue. MaDear just kept stroking his head. “Now the son comes,” she mused, almost to herself. “Yes, sonny, I forgive you. Big load off my mind.”
Suddenly I felt her thin, bony hand reach for mine. “This yo’ woman, sonny?” She took my hand in her own and peered closely at it. “What? These hands like chicken claws! Nails a mess, all dry . . . Adele!” She looked up at Adele, who was standing speechless, leaning against the refrigerator as if she needed something to hold her up. “Adele!” MaDear screeched again. “Take this child and do somethin’ with these hands. You be ashamed to let her walk outta here with hands like that.”
She let go of my “claw” and flapped her hands at me. “Go on—shoo! Soak those nails. Get some paint on ’em.” MaDear wagged a maternal finger at Adele. “An’ don’t you go chargin’ this child nothin’ either.” She mumbled, “All the years I put food on yo’ table an’ clothes on yo’ back, yo’ can do one lil’ favor for me. Huh.” And MaDear started picking through the curlers and rollers in her lap.
Denny blew his nose, and we stood up. Adele and Denny and I just stared at each other. None of us knew what to say, but I had a lightness in my spirit I had never felt before and thought I might just float away.
Adele broke the silence. “Well, come on. If MaDear says you need your nails done, Jodi Baxter, we better do ’em. She’s the boss—right, MaDear?”
“You got that right!” MaDear yelled then fell back to studying her lap.
Adele started moving things around at one of the nail chairs in the back room. “Adele, it’s really all right,” I whispered. “I know you close at seven and weren’t expecting us.”
“Sit.” Adele lowered her bulk onto the stool in front of the little table and poured liquid into a bowl. “Soak.”
So I sat, lowering my fingers into the soothing liquid. Denny blew his nose again and took a seat in the corner, resting his elbows on the chair arms and making a tent with his fingers. Watching.
“Takeisha!” Adele yelled toward the front, finally taking my hand from the liquid and starting in on my cuticles. “Turn that music up!—stop jerking, Jodi, or I’m gonna jab you.”
I closed my eyes and smiled as “Go Tell It on the Mountain!” in rich gospel beat suddenly took over any need to talk. In my mind I began composing an e-mail to a bunch of crazy, praying sisters. They were never going to believe what God had done today!
On the other hand . . . sure they would.
Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down
Reading Group Guide
1. The theme of The Yada Yada Prayer Group (Yada Yada #1) was grace —discovering what it means to be “just a sinner . . . saved by grace.”What do you think is the main theme of The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down? Why?
2. With whom did you empathize more in the incident at Adele’s beauty shop: MaDear or Denny? Why?
3. The Yada Yada prayer group was traumatized by a crime. Have you or someone close to you ever been the victim of a crime? If so, how do you feel toward the perpetrator? If you had a chance for a face-to-face meeting, what do you think would happen? What would you want to happen?
4. How did Yada Yada’s decision to visit Becky Wallace in prison affect the different sisters in the prayer group? How did it impact Becky Wallace?
5. If you were the mother of Jamal Wilkins—the boy who Jodi Baxter killed in her car accident in Yada Yada #1—how would you feel to discover her relationship to your other child? How does this discovery affect (1) Jodi? (2) the mother? (3) the child?
6. Jamal’s mother can’t forgive Jodi, even though Jodi asked for forgiveness at the end of Yada Yada #1. How does this affect Jodi? If the person she has wronged won’t forgive, how can she ever be free of the guilt? However, if Jamal’s mother does choose to forgive Jodi, what would that forgiveness look like?
7. What prompted Denny’s response to MaDear in the final chapter? Why do you think his response was so healing? What questions does his encounter with MaDear raise for you about “repenting for the sins of others”?
8. Examine your own attitudes that may hinder fellowship with other groups of Christians. What is the most difficult or challenging area for you? What would it mean to repent of this attitude?
9. How might we “repent of ” or “take responsibility for” past sins of our nation or people group? No matter what your race or ethnicity, what could you do to help bring about racial healing among God’s people? How can we help each other?
10. Are there relationships in your own life—of any nature— that need healing through repentance or forgiveness? Whether you have “sinned” or “been sinned against,” do you have the courage to take the first step?
The Yadas thought they had a handle on forgiveness, but it seems God has them on a crash-course to an even deeper level in this third novel of the series.
The Yadas have grown close in the past year, but they’re about to learn the real meaning of togetherness in this fourth novel of the series.
For the Yadas, gettin’ caught up in troubles isn’t the problem; it’s how to get free in this fifth novel of the series.
A devastating fire wakes up the Yadas to a new reality. God is on the move in this sixth novel of the series.
The Yadas are saying goodbye to some and hello to others in this last installment of the series.