Church Folk

by Michele Andrea Bowen

  "Johnnie, this is Thayline's little brother and my good buddy, Theophilus Simmons. And this little lady . . ." Eddie stopped talking, grabbed both of Essie's hands and pulled her away from Theophilus, saying, "Hey, hey, baby girl. You looking good tonight. Your hair—baby! And that dress! The dress is talking to me—talk-ing to me. Lawd, ha mercy!"

  Johnnie stopped smiling and ran her tongue over her gold tooth a couple of times. Picking up on her mood—and realizing that he had made a second mistake—Eddie said, "Aww, Johnnie, don't look so sore. This is my buddy's wife. It's just that this dress is so fine, I couldn't help myself."

  He let go of Essie's hands and went over and planted a kiss on Johnnie's cheek. "Believe me, Johnnie, as fine as Essie is, she is like my sister. Plus, you see that big Negro standing next to her? Well, he is her husband. And believe me, he'd kick my behind if I thought of her in any other way."

  "That's right," Theophilus said. "This Negro is my best friend, but I would definitely put a hurtin' on him if he looked at my baby wrong."

  Theophilus now grabbed a kitchen chair, sat down, and pulled Essie on his lap. She adjusted her dress around her knees and straightened the scarf of her dress, which kept slipping off her neck. Theophilus watched Essie fiddle with that bothersome scarf, and then picked up the edge of it and pulled it slowly off her shoulders. He rubbed it across his nostrils, inhaling her perfume, and draped it around his neck, while staring deeply into her eyes. There was no mistaking his desire.

  Johnnie picked up on what had just transpired between them and recognized that this woman wasn't the least bit interested in competing with her for Eddie's attention. What woman would be, with her man looking at her like that? Feeling more friendly toward Essie, she said, "Girl, you should take off those pretty shoes and rest your tiny feets. I'll get you and your husband something cold to drink out of the icebox."

  "Just get one Pepsi and two glasses, Johnnie," Theophilus said.

  Johnnie went to the icebox and got a bottle of Pepsi. She got two glasses off the sink, placed the soda on the table in front of Essie and Theophilus, and poured some for each of them.

  Theophilus heard the doorbell ring, along with the voices of his parents, the Thomases, and Essie's folks. Then Uncle Booker appeared in the kitchen doorway. "Why y'all back in the kitchen when the party up front? Theophilus, you and Eddie know doggone well you need to be enjoying yourselves. Tomorrow morning you gone have to go right back to being preachers. Ain't many chances for you to hang loose and not offend or mislead anybody."

  They all followed Booker back to the living room, where Thayline was standing by the hi-fi. She put two fingers in her mouth and gave a loud whistle to get everybody's attention.

  "Willis and I am so glad you good folk made it to this party we're throwing for our baby brother and his wife. Now, some of you know that my brother is a pastor out in Memphis. And before your tongues get to wagging, just let me say this. My brother is a good pastor. But sometimes he needs some space just to be. And since I'm his big sister, I'm giving him this space to just be himself without any pressure to act like you all might think a preacher is supposed to act."

  She looked at Theophilus and said, "Where, baby doll?"

  "Here I am, Thay."

  "What song do you two want to hear?"

  "Put on 'Green Onions' by Booker T. and the MG's, Thayline," Theophilus said. "My baby loves her some 'Green Onions.' "

  Thay looked through the stack of albums.

  "Honey, it's in the 45 stack," Willis said.

  She found the record and put it on. Theophilus grabbed Essie's hand and pulled her into the middle of the floor as soon as the first beats of that Hammond organ sounded out around the living room. He was smiling and snapping his fingers while Essie stood there looking embarrassed.

  Thay said, "You ain't shy, baby doll. Show these folks what you can do."

  "You're right, Thayline," Lee Allie said. "Essie Lee ain't shy about dancing. Don't know why she trying to start being like that now. Ain't that right, Booker?" When Uncle Booker didn't answer her, she said, "Booker Webb. Didn't you hear me?"

  "Yeah, Booker," Mrs. Neese said. "Why ain't you answering your sister?"

  Uncle Booker looked a little sheepish. He gave Rose a grin and said in a low, sexy voice, "I ain't answering that girl 'cause I got somethin' so good and sweet right here in front of me, I can't hardly think straight."

  Mrs. Neese lowered her eyes down to the floor. Booker pulled her close and her eyes filled up with tears. Uncle Booker pulled out a handkerchief and slipped it into Rose's hand. "You got it bad for me, don't you, Rose?" She nodded her head, and he said, "Well I got it even worse for you. I been lovin' you a long time now, baby." He lifted her hand to his mouth, kissing it gently.

  Lee Allie gave her brother a big smile. It was high time that those two lovebirds let the rest of them in on their big secret—not that anyone had ever been fooled.

  Theophilus, meanwhile, was pretending to be impatient with Essie, dancing all smooth and cool in front of her. He said, "Girl, quit stalling and show your man what you know how to do."

  Grinning up at her husband, Essie finally started snapping her fingers to the grinding beat of the song, then stretched her arms out to the sides and caught the beat with her hips. Theophilus picked up on Essie's rhythm and swiveled his own hips in a masculine version of her movements. Then the power of the beat gripped Essie and, pulling at the bottom of her dress, she just swiggled her hips on down to the floor.

  Theophilus laughed. "Yeah, I like that. Do it again, baby."

  Essie worked her way back up and then went back down to the floor.

  Thay said, "Go on, baby doll. You show that boy how to move, girl."

  Willis grabbed Thay's hand. "Come on, honey. Dance with me."

  Thay put her arms around Willis's neck and they moved to the beat together, smiling love and friendship into each other's eyes.

  When the record stopped, Willis said, with his arms still around Thayline, "Baybro, you pick us another? What you want to hear?"

  "How about 'Sweet Sixteen' by B.B. King? Just play me a little B.B. and I'm all right."

  Johnnie, who was leaning against Eddie, heard the words "Sweet Sixteen" and said, "Yes! Please play that song. That's my song, too. Ooohh chile! 'Sweet Sixteen' tells my story."

  She pulled at Eddie's arm and dragged him out on the floor, throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her hips close to his.

  With Johnnie swaying all over him, Eddie looked over her shoulder at Theophilus and just grinned.

  Theophilus pulled Essie close, resting his chin on top of her head, enjoying the spongy feel of her thick, natural hair. Essie wrapped her arms around Theophilus's neck and let her body sink into his. She could smell his cologne mingled with sweat from all of that dancing. Even damp and sweaty, she liked the way her sweet husband smelled.

  He moved his chin from the top of her head and put his cheek next to hers. He kissed the tip of her ear and whispered, "I want to go to bed" so softly she thought she had missed what he said. She looked up at his face questioningly.

  "You heard me right," he said and started dancing Essie over to the hallway leading to their room. By the time the song ended, they had reached the bedroom door and kept moving to the rhythm. Theophilus pressed Essie against the door and kissed her deeply on the mouth.

  "Theophilus, we need to stop carrying on like this out in this hall."

  "I kind of like what's going on out in this hall," he said, slipping his hand under her dress and grabbing himself a handful of her thigh. "You know there ought to be a law against something this good."

  Essie tried to move his hand but he wouldn't let her. Just held on tighter, every time she tried to push it away. When he slid his hand up higher, she said, "Theophilus, open this door and quit this carrying on."

  "If I stop carrying on in the hall, can you guarantee there is something better waiting for me in that room?"

  Essie giggled. "What do you thi
nk?"

  He nibbled at her collarbone, just below the hollow of her throat. "I think I want to find out."

  They moved into the bedroom, and Theophilus drew Essie to him, kissing her deeply and pulling at the zipper of her dress.

  Essie reached around his waist, unhooked his cummerbund, and dropped it on the floor.

  He said, "You can work on this shirt if you like."

  She smiled at him as she unbuttoned the button at the top of his shirt and worked her way down to the waist of his tuxedo pants.

  "And what about these?" she asked in a sultry voice.

  He raised his arms up and held them out to the side. "Baby, you the clothes expert. Do what you think is best."

  Essie unhooked his pants, unzipped them slowly, and slid them down to the floor. Then, she pushed his shirt off his shoulders. As Theophilus pulled his undershirt over his head, Essie looked him up and down, giggling. He grabbed the back of her head, planting a hot kiss on the corner of her mouth, and said, "What you laughing at?"

  "You," she said in between his kisses. "I'm laughing at you in your white shorts, black socks, and shiny black shoes."

  He took off his socks and expensive slip-on dress shoes. "Do I look better now?"

  "No. But you will if you take off those shorts."

  Theophilus gave Essie a sexy grin and ran his tongue slowly across his top lip, which had a layer of sweat on the rim of it. He pulled at the waist of those starched white boxers, glistening against his chocolate skin, and pushed them down. He was simply irresistible with those long muscular legs, that high and well-shaped backside, strong arms with the biceps bulging with the slightest movement, flat and hard stomach rippling with muscles and manhood, hard, deep dark chocolate—and with a bold look on his face.

  Now Theophilus reached for Essie's hand, stripped off her dress, unhooking her bra as she placed soft kisses between the muscles on his chest, where his heart was rapidly beating, whispering, "I love you so much," right to his heart.

  Breathing heavily, Theophilus slipped his hands inside her silk and lace panties, wrapped them around her bottom and pushed them along with that fancy slip down on the floor. He stood in her embrace, savoring the feel of her bare skin next to his.

  His wife felt so good, it made him stumble a bit as he breathed a low "Oooooohhhhhhmmmmmm" into her ear and walked her back and onto the bed.

  Essie moaned softly as she felt the full impact of his weight on her, and kissed the spot where his neck met his shoulder. She pulled him closer, breathing heavily, and softly whispered, "Baby . . ." each time he moved, setting off those tiny ripples that washed over her from head to toe. And just as Theophilus had once told her, she could no longer tell where one of them began and the other one ended.

  Theophilus looked into Essie's eyes, trying to find words to express what was flowing through his heart. "Ummm . . . baby," he whispered in a deep, mellow rumble of a voice. "Baby, when God created you from my side, He reached in and took the very best of me, along with the jewels from the deepest, darkest, richest valleys of the Nile to form you, my precious, precious wife."

  Chapter Twenty-one

  THAYLINE AND WILLIS STOOD AT THE KITCHEN counter, counting out silverware sets. They anticipated a full house—their family, Essie's folks, Baybro's friends, the Jameses, and the Jenningses. The party had been so much fun, and now they were fixing a big breakfast for people they loved. The doorbell rang and Willis went to answer it—walking back into the kitchen with his mother-in-law, Larnetta, following close behind him.

  "Where's Baybro and Baby Doll, Thayline?"

  "They back there asleep, Mother."

  "Asleep?"

  Thayline nodded her head yes.

  "It's almost 8:30, folks will be here shortly. What time did they go to bed?"

  "I don't know. They kind of slipped off sometime during the party."

  Larnetta laughed. That boy reminded her so much of his father.

  "Well, I'm going back there to get those two lovebirds up out of that bed," she said. She walked down the hall and knocked on the bedroom door. "Baybro, Essie! Get up before everybody gets here."

  Essie peeked under the cover at Theophilus's naked body and pushed him, making him wake up fast.

  "Get up. It's your mother."

  Larnetta knocked on the door again.

  Essie said, "We'll be right there."

  Theophilus groaned. "Give us another hour, Mother."

  "Baybro, you get your butt up and get dressed," Larnetta said. "Unless you plan on greeting your bishop naked like you are right now."

  Essie was up and dressed in twenty minutes, but it was another half an hour before Theophilus made it into the kitchen, dressed in chocolate-colored pants and a white cotton short-sleeve shirt, looking happy and refreshed. He walked up behind Essie, who was helping Thayline set out the food, and pulled at her shirt, then gave her a fresh pat on her bottom.

  She slapped his hand away and said, "Stop."

  He turned her toward him, gave her a big smack on the lips, and mouthed the words, "Girl, what did you do to me last night?"

  "You two keep going at it like that and you're gonna work up on a baby."

  "Aw, come on, Thayline," Theophilus said, and winked at Essie.

  Thayline moved her shoulders around a bit to shake off the shiver that was running up and down her back. She said, "Don't come on, Thay-line me, Baybro. You standing over there acting like you pumped up full with a baby."

  He dismissed that assessment and squeezed Essie's bottom a few times "for good measure," as he always liked to tell her.

  Thayline, who was putting the last bowl of food out on the table, told Essie, "You better listen to me, baby doll. Baybro got a baby in him just waiting to come out. And if you not careful, you gone slip up with one right at this conference."

  Thayline walked to the kitchen door and called everyone to come back and bless the food.

  As soon as she turned her back, Theophilus stood with his feet apart, rolling his hips around at Essie, and whispered, "Want some."

  Essie whispered back, "You are so nasty."

  He winked and murmured, "You like this old nasty boy."

  Thayline thought to herself, "They just working up on this baby like nobody's business."

  Rev. James leaned back in his folding chair and patted his stomach while twirling a bright yellow toothpick around in his mouth. With all the women back in the kitchen cleaning up, he thought it might be a good time to bring his concerns to the attention of Bishop Jennings. He didn't want to offend him. Percy Jennings was a completely different caliber of man from many who sat on the Board of Bishops, but he was still a bishop. And if there was one certainty about bishops, bishops were like cops—they always stuck together. It didn't matter how wrong another bishop was, the Board of Bishops was a tight fraternity that rarely if ever gave up one of its own.

  "Bishop James," Percy Jennings said with a big smile stretching across his face, delighting in calling Murcheson "Bishop." "Bishop James, you're sitting there after this fine, fine breakfast, looking like you have the weight of the whole world on your shoulders. Relax, you're going to have plenty of time for such contemplation when you join the ranks on Friday evening."

  Murcheson moved the toothpick around in his mouth and leveled his eyes on Percy Jennings. Despite his country ways, he was an unusually bright man and few things got past him. He usually figured things out long before most people. He had been seeing some things at this conference that troubled him—things that could not be ignored—and what he'd heard from Booker and Pompey this morning confirmed his suspicions. And he surmised that if he was to be worthy of those purple bishop stripes, he had better let his own bishop know what was going on.

  "Bishop—"

  "Percy, just plain Percy."

  "Percy, somethin's terribly wrong at this conference. I know it has something to do with that Bishop Caruthers."

  "You shouldn't be surprised about anything with Otis Caruthers. He's a stran
ge bird, was like that even before he became a bishop."

  "Caruthers may be a strange bird," Murcheson said, "but he's also involved in something wrong. You see, Percy, there are these women—"

  "Now, you and I both know that some of these churchwomen don't always act like they are in church when they are at a conference."

  "Percy," Murcheson said, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose. He didn't even know how to say it without sounding like a fool, but he had to try.

  "Percy, this is about more than some silly churchwomen gettin' all dressed up and chasin' down some preachers."

  Before Bishop Jennings could answer, Uncle Booker, who had been listening and looked ready to burst, jumped from his seat on the couch and came over to the two men.

  "Bishop Jennings, Murcheson is trying to tell you in as nice a way as he can that some of them preachers done got themselves a girl-service thing right here at the conference."

  Murcheson looked at Uncle Booker with pure relief all over his face, glad to be rescued from having to figure out the words to explain this whole mess.

  Theophilus and Eddie just looked at each other. They knew something had been bothering Rev. James all morning but wrote it off as having to do with the banquet. But a "girlservice thing"? That was something else.

  Percy Jennings was shocked. There had always been problems with women and preachers at conferences, but never something purposeful as what they were talking about.

  "Mr. Webb, are you telling me that there are working girls here at the conference?"'

  Uncle Booker sighed loudly. Sometimes these preachers, especially the well-educated and upstanding ones like Bishop Jennings, could be so dense.

  "Bishop Jennings, we ain't tryin' to tell you nothin'. What we is doing is telling you that Bishop Caruthers has a club where he pimp street women for the preachers."

  "Mr. Webb—"

  "Booker is just fine by me, Bishop Jennings."

  "Booker, how do you know that Bishop Caruthers is involved?"