Despair was not alone. He shared the atmosphere clouding this situation with Anger, Pride, and Self-Righteousness, three demons that had followed Leon Scott for a very long time.
Since being on his own, away from his family in South Carolina, Leon had allowed these three felons from Heaven free reign in his life. Handsome and with the gift of gab in his arsenal, Leon manipulated others to do his bidding with much self-confidence and no remorse. Pride urged him to go the extra mile to get whatever he wanted from whomever he wanted it. Leon willingly complied.
Anna was an easy mark for Leon. He skillfully used his charm to get precisely what he wanted from her. From the moment they met on the D train to Coney Island, Leon knew she would be an easy conquest for him. His instincts had paid off.
Now that he had, though, the thrill of victory had dulled. He was finished with her. He was now ready to move on to his next conquest. With the help of his mother, Beulah, who had flown all the way from Georgia, Leon knew he would be able to start another chapter in his life.
Self-Righteousness deftly influenced Leon and his mother, causing them to believe they were better than young Anna. Looking around the apartment the young woman occupied with her children, Self-Righteousness made sure that Beulah could clearly see that her granddaughter was too good to live in such a hovel. He eagerly persuaded Beulah to not allow that to happen.
And then there was Anger. This demonic presence forged a foothold over the entire situation in the midst of these three emotionally charged adults. Anger called on his associates Antagonism and Resentment to help in the confrontation so he could maintain his position of strength.
Brooklyn, New York: May 21, 1959
“Leon,” Anna shouted. “How could you do this to me? Why are you taking my baby, our daughter, away from me?” she asked, tears flowing down her cheeks.
“He’s not doing anything to you, girl,” said Mrs. Beulah Scott. She was ready to take her new granddaughter out of this filthy dwelling and away from New York. She had already seen enough.
“Child, you have already given him the baby. And you’re doing the best thing by giving the baby to her father’s family. My son will not be able to care for her. His father and I are better able to take care of her. Just think. She will have a better chance in life in South Carolina,” Beulah said convincingly to Anna while thinking in her heart, Away from you.
Anna contemplated for a moment. She knew what this meant. Although she had planned to get a divorce so she could marry Leon, she knew in her heart of hearts that Leon had no intention of marrying her. Mother Scott had just confirmed this notion.
“You already have two other children and are married to someone else. I will not allow any grandchild of mine to live under your roof in these conditions,” Beulah replied arrogantly to the sobbing young woman.
Beulah, Beuly to most, had had just about enough out of her eldest son, Leon Heyward Scott. Already married and divorced by age twenty-seven. Now here he is having babies out of wedlock, she disgustedly thought to herself, with a married woman, if that didn’t beat all!
She already had one granddaughter whom she seldom saw because of the bad blood between Leon and his ex-wife. This child would not be lost to her, too. She would take this baby back to South Carolina and raise her as her own if she had to.
When he had called her and his daddy, Otis, to tell them he had messed around with a girl and gotten her pregnant, Beulah shook her head. What was that boy thinking? she wondered. She didn’t know why he had to go away from South Carolina and live in New York anyway. There was nothing but fast women from the South up there. She didn’t want him bringing just anything into the family.
Beulah felt sorry for this young woman she was meeting for the first time that day. Nice enough and pretty enough even though she was dark-skinned, she needed to get her act together. No man wanted to take care of somebody else’s children. Beulah was not going to allow her son to be a scapegoat-father for Anna’s other two children.
Baby Beverley was gorgeous. She had the prettiest light skin and jet-black curly hair on her tiny head. Beuly was going to go ahead and take this baby with her to South Carolina. She couldn’t see leaving her here with this young woman. She classified Anna as hot and fast, having baby after baby by her husband and with other men.
“Come on, June-bug,” she decisively called her son’s nickname as she turned to leave the dingy rooms Anna called home. Beulah glared pityingly at the crying young woman, tears streaming down her face as she reached for her child.
“Honey,” Beulah said to Anna as she turned away. “Get your life together. My son’s not going to marry you because of a baby. I will not allow it. He’s not going to raise your other two children just to raise his own, either. I will see to that,” she said flatly, haughtily exiting the apartment.
Beulah quickly left with only the baby. As nasty as that place was, she didn’t want to take anything with her from the apartment except the baby. But she had to admit—as filthy as the apartment appeared, the baby was clean and smelled like a baby should.
She wondered what ran through her son’s mind as he went about with these fast young women. Lord knows he had been brought up better than that! She did not raise her children to be fast or slick. They had done a good job of picking that up by themselves.
Pleading with Leon, Anna let out a loud, forlorn wail. She never imagined she would allow this man to talk her into giving up her child after she had worked so hard to get him. Life was so unfair! She knew God was angry with her. What was she going to do?
“No, Leon, please! Don’t let your mama take our baby! Please! I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” Anna begged desperately, running behind them out of the apartment to the second floor landing.
Leon looked at this woman in disgust. He wondered to himself why he had stayed with her for so long. How could he tell her she was just a fling to him? That he had only spent time with her to break up the monotony of life here in New York? A fling only long enough until he found the woman he really wanted to be with.
“Look, Anna. Let me go take Mama back to my place. I promise,” he said, knowing he was lying. “I promise I’ll talk her into changing her mind. She just wants what’s best for our daughter,” Leon explained, looking over her head into the dingy apartment Anna called home.
His skin crawled from just being here. Leon decided to say whatever it took to make her believe him and to get her to let go of his arm. Slowly, she let go of his arm. She knew Leon was fibbing to her, he always had. But she had to have some hope. She couldn’t just lose her baby and him. She couldn’t.
Silently hanging her head, she forced herself to act as though she believed him. “OK. Call me, hear?” she called as he went down the steps to his mother and their child.
Anna wondered if she would ever again see the beautiful little girl she had birthed. Her heart ached as she longed to feel that baby back in her arms. Why had this happened to her? Was God so angry with her that He would allow such a horrible thing to happen in her life? God must really hate me, she thought, wiping the tears from her eyes.
Leon didn’t know it but she had already had one child taken from her—her oldest son Willis. She’d had five-year-old Willis with a guy from North Carolina she was going steady with when she left Virginia.
Edward Mullins had come to New York and gotten him about five months ago. Eddie said he wanted to take Willis for a visit with his family. When they arrived in Reedsville, Eddie sent word back to Anna that he was keeping his son and not bringing him back. Now it was just her and three-year-old Gwen. What was she going to do?
Returning to her dingy one-bedroom apartment, Anna peered into the bedroom to check on her toddler. She discovered that Gwen had slept through all the shouting and crying.
“Thank God for small favors,” she muttered halfheartedly as she locked the door and left the apartment.
Quickly running outside to the pay phone, Anna saw Leon’s car just as it turned the corner away fr
om her street. Needing someone to talk to, Anna rushed to call her sister Evelyn who lived in Flushing. Though younger, Evelyn was so much wiser. She would know exactly what to do.
Anna’s tears returned as she fumbled to place the nickel into the slot of the payphone. Closing the door of the booth behind her, Anna considered her situation. Here she was, twenty-four years old in Brooklyn with three babies … well, one now. Three years ago, she had married Horace Horton, Gwen’s dad, when he moved to New York briefly to find work. Almost as soon as little Gwen was born, Horace went back to Virginia. He said he couldn’t stand living in New York with Anna and he didn’t want a baby in the first place. Heartbroken, Anna went on a campaign to find her one true love. She thought it was Leon.
Anna knew she hadn’t been raised this way, no! But real life sure is different from being sheltered while growing up. She couldn’t wait to leave Virginia six years ago when she turned eighteen. Riding the Greyhound bus out of Richmond, Anna had told herself she would never return to Virginia. She was going to have fun. Her plan was to go to nursing school and then marry a doctor. She knew she could do that in New York. The city was so open and free, with none of the prejudices of Virginia and the South. She was going to have a blast! But all that was ruined.
When she arrived in New York, she discovered she was pregnant with Willis. Not wanting to get an abortion, she called the baby’s father and discovered he had already moved on in the two months she had been gone. And now …
The phone rang twice before Evelyn picked up, stopping Anna’s reverie.
“Hello,” Evelyn answered gaily as she picked up the receiver.
“Evvie,” Anna sobbed into the phone, allowing the built-up sadness to overtake her once again as she thought of her dilemma.
“Mae? Mae? Mae!” shouted Evelyn into the phone, realizing it was her sister.
She pitied her sister raising three, now two, kids alone. She had tried to warn Anna Mae to leave that Leon alone—he was no good. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to learn by our own mistakes.
“They took her,” Anna sobbed dejectedly. “They took my baby.”
“What do you mean?” asked Evelyn, becoming more upset as her sister poured out her story.
“Leon’s mother came from South Carolina and took Beverley,” Anna sobbed.
“Mae,” Evelyn said frantically. “Go home. I will be there shortly.” Evelyn hung up quickly. She turned to the man calmly sitting waiting for her to get off the phone. When she looked into his face, she saw something there she hadn’t noticed before. What was it? Pride? Self-confidence? She couldn’t put her finger on it.
“Richard, you didn’t tell me your mother was here in New York,” she said calmly to Leon’s younger brother.
They had started seeing each other at the same time as their older siblings. She liked Richard well enough, she just didn’t trust him. He was a shyster. She could see through the façade he had built around himself. She wished her older sister could see the same thing about Leon.
“Oh, yea,” he replied, off-handedly. “She came up to see the baby, that’s all,” he said, shifting his eyes.
Evelyn had watched Richard for almost two years now. She knew when he was lying or evading the truth. The only reason she hung out with him was because he was always up for a good time and he was handsome. But now …
“Oh, really. Just to see? Not to take?” she asked sweetly, knowing he was playing a game with her. She wasn’t having any of it.
“Well, I don’t know what she and Leon had planned …” he started, a sly smile forming on his lips.
“You’re telling a story,” Evelyn accused. “I can see it written all over your face. What has your brother done?” she asked, sitting heavily on the chair behind her, incredulous at the deceit going on behind her and her sister’s backs.
“Look, Evvie,” Richard started to explain. “You’re a good girl. You have a nice apartment, a good job. I enjoy being with you, but look at your sister. She’s got three kids she can’t even take care of. All three are by different men. She lives in a pigsty. You know as well as I do that she tried to trap my brother with this baby,” he spoke to her rationally.
“But …” Evelyn began, wanting to come to the defense of her sister. She loved Anna dearly but knew Richard spoke the truth.
“Wait, Evvie, let me finish,” Richard said. “When Leon told Mama and Daddy about Mae, the baby, and the other two kids, they were fit to be tied. My brother had already messed up with his first wife. He had a kid with her and then got divorced. Mama barely sees his oldest daughter! He told Mama how bad Mae was living. Mama couldn’t let her grandchild come up like that. So, yes, Mama came to get the baby. But first, Mae gave the baby to Leon, Evelyn. She gave Beverley to him.”
While Richard explained, Evelyn cried softly. She felt sorry for her sister but also knew she couldn’t change things for her. Anna Mae had to want to change herself. Anna was very headstrong and thought she knew it all. She claimed to know what she was doing, which Evelyn doubted. All she could do was be there for her sister.
“Richard, I understand,” she told her friend calmly, wiping the tears from her face. “Could you take me over to my sister’s place, please?” she asked. Evelyn knew she would have to help her sister overcome this stage in her life.
TWENTY-EIGHT
LaGuardia Airport, New York
Son, you are going to have to do better than this,” Beulah advised her eldest son. “You can’t continue running around with fast women and expect God to bless you for it,” she scolded as they walked through the airport toward the boarding gate.
“I’ll do better, Mama. I promise,” Leon replied as though on cue.
He hadn’t meant for this to happen, Anna Mae getting pregnant. He just wanted to have a good time. After all, he had just gotten a divorce and wasn’t looking to settle down again yet. Anna Mae was just a distraction he had allowed to go too far.
Beulah didn’t know if any of what she said sunk in to Leon’s brain. Leon had left home at eighteen and enlisted in the Army for three years. When he came home, he met his now ex-wife Leona, married her, had a daughter, and divorced within four years. Beulah didn’t know why they hadn’t gotten along. Leona was a good girl from a good family in North Augusta, South Carolina.
Her family was Christian. They all had good jobs. She was a nice light-skinned girl with good hair, just the type of girl Beulah wanted her sons to marry. And her younger son Richard was no better.
Every time she looked around, one girl or another claimed to be pregnant by Richard. He probably thought she didn’t know his real reason for leaving South Carolina. It was rumored that Richard had at least three babies on the way. He didn’t want to take responsibility for any of them.
My goodness, Beulah thought. What was wrong with her children? Especially her sons? Boarding the plane with her pretty little granddaughter in her arms, she thought about the life this child would lead. Instinctively, she knew Beverley would be a smart child—she could see it in her sleeping face.
She might darken up a bit, Beulah pondered. But she hoped Beverley would never be as dark as her mother. What was June-bug thinking? Messing around with that dark-skinned young woman? And with two children already!
Lord, have mercy on my children, she prayed silently. She and Otis had not raised their children to act this way. They knew the facts of life—be good or you will suffer. It was just as pure and simple as that.
As the plane took off, Beulah settled back in her seat with the still-sleeping baby. After leaving that nasty little apartment in Brooklyn, she and Leon went to Sears and Roebuck and purchased everything she needed to take care of the baby between New York and Georgia—a couple changes of clothes, diapers, blankets, bottles, and powdered milk. She was set and very glad she hadn’t taken anything from that young woman’s place. She didn’t need to take anything with her from New York except the child.
Eternity
“Father, why have You decided to not pe
rmit Beverley to grow up with her biological mother?” the Son asked Almighty God. Watching the situation play out below Them on the Earth, He felt compassion for the woman Anna Mae.
“My Son, if We were to allow Beverley to grow up in New York with the rest of her siblings, she would not turn out the way We need for her to turn out,” Almighty God explained.
“I have ordained this one to be a mighty warrior for My Kingdom. She will go through many trials and tribulations on the Earth. These things are needed so she will be able to stand firm and do what I have called her to do.”
“Will she ever see her biological mother and siblings again?” Jesus wondered aloud.
“Yes, she will, My Son. However, it will be much later in her life. She will go to many places and do many things before she will meet them. At one point in her life, she will completely turn away from that side of her family. But she will turn back to them and bring salvation into their lives,” explained the Father.
As she slept in her grandmother’s arms, Almighty God and His Son continued to observe Beverley. Beulah Scott would learn to love and dislike this child before it was all over. But it would be this child who would be her salvation as well.
TWENTY-NINE
Bush Field Airport, Augusta, Georgia
Beulah stepped from the plane in an already sweltering Augusta, Georgia. She saw her husband Otis and their daughters Cassie, Barbara Anne, and Lila waving through the windows of the Bush Field Airport terminal. June-bug had called Otis the night before to let him know her arrival time with his four-month-old daughter.
Stepping into the baggage area with baby Beverley, the girls clambered around Beulah trying to get the first glance of the little bundle.
The Baby Chronicles Page 13