Dupree furiously jumped to her feet, stamping them loudly as she marched with her head held high to her bedroom, slamming the door shut. Gone were the tears. Dupree was just plain mad. She woke up mad, spent the day mad, and went to bed mad. Lying crossway on her bed, with her bare feet hanging over the edge, her chin resting in her open palms, Dupree contemplated her future. I need to go far away from them. Somewhere they can’t call me or stop by to try to see me. I really need a break from those two.
“Dupree, Tony is on the phone for you,” Jas hollered from outside the door. “I told him you weren’t taking any calls, but he insists on speaking with you.”
“I don’t want to speak to Tony. He’s a traitor,” Dupree screamed, curling up on the bed in a fetal position. “I wish they could all just leave me alone,” she muttered, fighting against that awful pain that was buried deep inside her. Truth be told, she really missed her best friend.
“He said you both are going to talk one way or the other real soon,” Jas yelled. “We have heard from all your nemeses for today, at least for now, so you can stop hiding.”
Dupree shook her head at Jas’s antics. “Come in, big mouth.”
Jas entered with a smirk on her face. “You know I’m going to start charging you for my operator services, right?” She went and lay down beside Dupree on the bed, nudging her in the side with her elbow. “You can’t avoid them forever, girlfriend.”
“I know, but I’m going to run as far away as possible,” Dupree replied in a cold voice as she tried to visualize herself in New York.
After Tony had found out that Dupree was his sister, he demanded that his parents pay for her to attend New York University with him, without yet revealing to Dupree that Officer Gregg was her father. He convinced Dupree to accept the generous, life-changing opportunity and to apply to NYU. Finally with Aunt Madge’s blessings, Dupree did. Dupree started the fall semester at UTech in September of 1995. She wanted to attend NYU in the fall of 1996 but was instead accepted for next spring, which would begin late January of 1997.
“That’s why I made an appointment to go to the embassy for my student visa on Monday.” Dupree looked at Jas apologetically. “I need the break from them, Jas.”
Jas was silent for a moment as she stared at her friend. “It’s okay. I’m going to miss you, but this is such a great opportunity for you.”
“He paid the tuition for the first semester,” Dupree said in reference to Officer Gregg. “I hate to take his money, but I need it to get away from him. Does that make sense? Do you think I should tell him to take back his money and just stay here?”
“Oh, no, you won’t.” Jas rolled over and sat up on the bed, tucking her legs under her body. Dupree did the same. “He owes you this, Dupree. After all these years and everything he has done, you deserve this and so much more.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. Go and get what’s yours. Don’t worry about me. I know I will have to move from here, but I’ll manage. I can work full-time at the bank and go to school at night. With full employment I’ll be able to get an apartment with a roommate in a nice neighborhood.”
“We’ll look for an apartment for you before I leave so I can help you move.” Dupree reached over and hugged her friend. “I thank God for you every day, Miss Operator.”
Jas laughed and gave her a squeeze before letting go. “I thank Him every day for the excitement that you and your folks are giving me.” She ducked, allowing the pillow that Dupree threw at her to bounce off her back.
“I got it, Aunt Madge.” Dupree sat down beside her grandaunt on the couch. “I got a five-year student visa. See?” She opened her passport to show Aunt Madge the visa stamped there. Dupree had applied for her student visa the day before. She just came home from the U.S. Embassy where she went to pick it up that afternoon.
“I am happy for you, baby.” Aunt Madge took the passport from Dupree’s hand and looked down at it with a smile. “You are going to study abroad, huh? What an awesome God.”
“I’m going to call you every day, and I’ll be home to see you every holiday. It’s just you and me as always, Aunt Madge.”
Aunt Madge closed the passport and reached for Dupree’s hand. “But it’s not just us anymore, sweetheart.”
Dupree tried to pull her hand away, but Aunt Madge held it firmly. “Look at me, Dupree.” She waited until Dupree made eye contact with her. “You have a mother who we thought was lost, but she is alive and well. You also have a father and a half brother.”
Dupree sucked her teeth loudly, pushed out her lips, then shook her feet impatiently. “They don’t matter to me,” she mumbled.
“I am going to ignore that suck teeth business because you are hurting right now.” Aunt Madge gave Dupree an earnest look. “Baby, I’m not asking you to forget everything that has happened. Nor am I telling you to just forgive your parents. I know it’s going to take time. All I’m asking is that you give them a chance to tell you their side of the story, especially your mother. She has . . .” Aunt Madge closed her eyes, shaking her head from side to side, holding in the tears. “She has suffered too, Dupree. Please talk to her. I know it will make a difference toward both of you finding your way to each other.” Her eyes opened and silently pled with Dupree. “Promise me you will at least think about it.”
Dupree searched Aunt Madge’s face and noticed the unshed tears in her eyes. Eleanor had been visiting Aunt Madge regularly, and they have talked for hours on end. Obviously, she had told Aunt Madge something that was pretty upsetting. What could that be? Dupree wondered. Maybe I should hear what she has to say. But just as quickly as the thought came, so did the memories of the hell she went through growing up while her mother was alive and well. No, Tiny can stay dead for all I care. I don’t want to hear the lies she took eighteen years to make up. “I’ll think about it,” Dupree replied with a nonchalant attitude. “It will probably take a lifetime before I’m done thinking, but at least you know I am.”
Aunt Madge opened her arms, smiling. “Come here, my dear.” She wrapped her small arms around Dupree as she would when she was a child. “God is hammering away at the ice around your heart, piece by piece. You have a right to be angry, but I’m praying that you will forgive them soon. Not just for their sake but yours. I want you to move on from the past so you can enjoy the present and embrace the wonderful future ahead of you. I want you to be happy, baby.”
The tears came and wet Aunt Madge’s shoulder where Dupree’s head lay. “I want to be happy too, Aunt Madge. But it just seems as if I can’t be for long. Something or someone always comes along and takes it from me.”
Aunt Madge whispered. “John 16:20 says, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.’ Your time is coming, sweetheart. It’s coming very soon.”
But Dupree had many rivers to cross before she could find that happiness that she so deserved.
Chapter Forty-eight
“What is he doing here?” Dupree slammed the door shut, then marched angrily over to Aunt Madge and Jas sitting on the couch. “Didn’t I say I don’t want to talk to him?” her finger moved accusingly back and forth between both women, “So why on earth do you think I want to see him?” Hands folded across her chest, Dupree stared down at them with eyes blazing.
“Kindly sit down right here.” Aunt Madge patted the space on the couch to her right. “And you watch that tone with me, young lady.”
Dupree sat on the edge of the couch, rapidly shaking her legs, her face twisted up like she was drinking Verjuice. “I can’t wait to get away from all of them,” she mumbled under her breath and pursed her lips disgustedly.
“Hello, Pree.” Tony leaned forward on the couch across from her. “I told you we need to talk. That’s why I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere until we do.”
Dupree sucked her teeth and quickly glanced over at Aunt Madge who gave her a stern lo
ok.
“I never wanted to hurt you, Pree,” Tony continued, his voice fortified with grief. “You know I love you, first as my best friend, then as my sister. I did what I thought was best at the time.”
“You love me, huh? Is that why you and your father watched me struggle after Aunt Madge got sick and neither one of you helped me?” Dupree bent forward, her eyes pinning Tony to the couch. “You introduced yourself to me like you never knew me, and all this time you knew I was your father’s bastard child!”
“Dupree,” Aunt Madge said loudly. “Look at me, baby. You are no one’s bastard, you hear me? You are a child of the Most High God. He loves you, and I love you too.”
“I love you too, Pree.” Tony eyes were swimming with tears. “I love you so much that I moved out of my parents’ house when I found out you were my sister.”
Dupree looked at him. “So that’s why you went to stay with your grandparents?”
“Yes, our grandparents, by the way. I found out the same night you were attacked by Deacon Livingston.” Tony proceeded to tell them of getting home late that night after leaving the hospital and hearing his parents arguing. “I was curious because they rarely fought, so I went and listened by their bedroom door. My mother was telling my father that they were going to hell for what they did to you, Dupree, his daughter. My father was shocked because he never knew that my mother had known all this time of his betrayal and the child that resulted from it.” As the story unfolded, Dupree, Aunt Madge, and Jas didn’t say a word. “She knew that he impregnated a teenager, and she covered it up.” Tony’s voice grew louder. “Can you see now why I couldn’t stay in the same house with them? They betrayed you.” Tony stood to his feet and began pacing the floor. “They denied you so they could keep their secret hidden.”
Aunt Madge groaned deep in her throat.
“Instead of helping your mother when she told him she was pregnant, my father threatened to kill her and Aunt Madge if she ever revealed that he fathered her child. Did you know that?” Tony stopped in front of Dupree, looking down at her with compassion.
Tears leaked down Dupree’s face.
“I hated them for it, Pree.” Tony knelt down in front of his sister, taking her trembling hands in his own. Both were crying. “It took many family counseling sessions with Bishop Chude in Clarendon before I was able to even speak civilly to them again.”
“That’s where you always disappeared to? With them?” Dupree said in a low voice.
Tony nodded, got up, and squeezed in beside Dupree on the couch, his leg squashed against hers. “Yes. I gave them some ultimatums as well.”
“Uh-huh, such as paying the tuition for me to attend NYU.” Dupree used her fingers to wipe the tears from her face. “I wondered why they were doing that for me, you know. Why would these perfect strangers do something so generous for their son’s best friend? All this time they were trying to appease their guilt.”
“For what it’s worth, Pree, they are really torn up over what they’ve done. I know it’s going to take some time for you to forgive them, but I know you will one day. It takes time, just like it did for me.”
“Yeah, it will take some time.” Dupree looked sadly at Tony. “Like a lifetime.”
“No, it won’t. You are just mad right now.” Tony gave her a small smile. “I didn’t tell you because you were badly hurt and had a long road to recovery. We thought it was best to wait.”
“We?” Dupree looked at Tony with raised eyebrows.
“Yes, my parents and I discussed it. Dad wanted to tell you when everything came out after your attack, but it would have been too much for you. I did it for you, Pree, and I would do it all over again to protect you.”
The siblings stared at each other. He is as much a victim in this whole mess as I am, Dupree contemplated, her anger toward Tony sidling away. “Maybe I should ease up on you a little.” She gently elbowed him in his side, a smile flirting at the corners of her mouth. “Although you could have told me after I started college.”
“I eventually would at the right time, little sister.”
“Please, you and I are the same age, little brother.”
Tony reached over and hugged Dupree, who clung to him. “I’m sorry about everything, Pree. I hate that you are hurting so much, but I know you will come out of this a stronger and better person. I’m always here for you.”
“Thanks, Tony. I’m so confused,” Dupree confessed. “I don’t know what to do, where to turn, or who to talk to.”
“For now, why don’t you focus on talking to God? He’ll lead you down the right path for you to follow.”
In silent acquiescence, Dupree pulled back and looked at her brother. Over the last few days she had spent so much time being mad and so little time seeking God. Maybe it was time to get back on track.
Chapter Forty-nine
“Hi, Aunt Madge, how are you feeling today?” Eleanor walked over to the opened window in her living room, the telephone pressed to her ear.
“I’m doing all right, baby. But your daughter is another matter.”
“I know she’s hurting. But she refuses to see or talk to me, Aunt Madge. I don’t know what else to do.”
“It’s going to take time but don’t give up on her. Her brother is here. They have talked and are mending the gap in their relationship.”
“I’m glad to hear that because he has nothing to do with all this.” Eleanor gazed down the hill at the beautiful Jamaica landscape, the bright sun reflecting off the leaves of the tall trees swaying softly in the wind, sprinkling the green, luscious grass with its yellow rays.
“I’m going back to work next week. I hope to see Dupree.”
“Remember to take it slow with her, sweetheart. I was also planning on calling you later,” Aunt Madge added. “I have a message from Beverly Gregg for you to call her. She left her personal number and said it was urgent.”
Eleanor froze. The nerve of that . . . Lord, please hold my tongue. “What’s the number?” She wrote it down and waited anxiously for Dwight to get home from work.
“What does she want?” Eleanor asked her husband that evening as they sat around the dining table. “She lied and told me all was well with my daughter and aunt when she knew that Aunt Madge had a stroke.” Eleanor indignantly threw down her fork into the plate of food that she barely touched. “Now she wants me to call her? I’ll call her. Yup, I’ll definitely call her because I have a few things to say to her.”
Dwight rested his elbows on the table, his eyes fixed on his irate wife. “Did you really expect her to tell you the truth, knowing that you would probably come back to town?”
Eleanor looked at him without a response.
“After keeping her husband’s secret all these years, why would she help the person she thought could ruin her life?” Dwight held up a hand when Eleanor opened her mouth. “It wasn’t right, babe. But there were a lot of things that happened over the last few years that weren’t right.”
“You’re blaming me, aren’t you?” Eleanor blinked back the tears. “I should have gone and seen for myself that Dupree and Aunt Madge were okay. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing, Dwight.”
“I’m not blaming you, darling. You did what you thought was best. We can’t go back, so let’s try to move forward for Dupree’s sake.”
So against her better judgment, Eleanor called Beverly Gregg.
“I’m sorry for lying to you, Tiny, but what else could I have done?” Beverly’s voice broke as she struggled to speak. “The last eighteen years of my life have been one big lie; the secrets, the guilt, the inner rage at my husband. I did what I thought was best for my family.”
It was those words that touched something within Eleanor. For over eighteen years she too did what she thought was best for her daughter . . . but look at the way things had turned out.
“Anthony and I would like to come up there and meet with you and your husband if—”
“Meet?” Eleanor practically shouted
.
“Yes. I think it’s time we all get together and discuss where we go from here for Dupree’s sake. I know it will be a painful and uncomfortable situation for all of us, but it’s a start. The Lord will get us through it.”
Eleanor shook her head from side to side as if Beverly could see her. “I don’t think so. I know you mean well, but this is not a good idea. I will deal with my daughter my own way.”
“What about her father? You can’t pretend that he doesn’t exist anymore. I have a strong feeling Dupree won’t.”
“He is the problem. If my husband sees him, there is no telling what Dwight will do.” Eleanor’s grip tightened on the telephone. “I won’t let that happen. Sorry.”
“We could meet in a public place. Please discuss it with your husband and get back to me. It would mean a lot to Anthony and me to try to right our wrongs against you and Dupree.”
Eleanor ended the call, and then relayed Beverly’s suggestion to Dwight.
“Absolutely not!” Dwight looked at Eleanor as if she had lost her mind. “If I see that man I won’t be responsible for what happens, babe. I’m telling you right now.”
“Sweetheart, as much as I hate to admit it, I agree this is a move in the right direction. He is Dupree’s father.”
“He is a slimeball!”
“We might never be friends, but we have to coexist for Dupree’s sake,” Eleanor told him.
“Uh-uh, he shouldn’t exist any at all,” Dwight hissed under his breath.
Eleanor tapped him on the behind. “What do you say we give it a try, darling?” She draped her arms around Dwight’s narrow waist, giving him the puppy dog look that always lets her get her own way. “Please, for Dupree’s and my sake. I need some resolution about the past.”
Dwight playfully rolled his eyes, but knew there was very little he could deny his wife, especially in this situation. As much as he hated the thought of seeing Officer Gregg, he was anxious for him and Eleanor to put the past behind them and move on with their lives. “I’ll try to restrain myself, but I’m not promising anything.”
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