He pulled up in front of his house and jumped out of the car. Lilly was putting a box in her car. She turned to go back in the house and Shawn followed her. “What are you doing, Lilly? Why are you letting some female come between us?”
She went into the house, grabbed another box that was in the entryway and turned to go back outside.
Shawn took the box out of her hands. “So, you’re just going to ignore me?” He blocked the exit. “You’re just going to leave me?”
“Get out of my way, Shawn.”
Noticing that his sons weren’t pulling on his leg, he looked around the entryway; he set the box back down and asked, “Where are my boys, Lilly? What did you do with them?”
“They’re at my mother’s. That’s where we live now.”
“No,” Shawn declared. “You and my sons live with me. We are a family.”
A tear rolled down Lilly’s face. She shook her head. “You don’t want us.”
“What do you mean, I don’t want you? I moved you into my house. I’ve stuck by your side and took care of my kids. How does that say I don’t want you?”
“I’m tired, Shawn. This is the third time some other woman has accused you of fathering her child.”
“Exactly!” he exclaimed. “And if you remember correctly, I was proven not to be the father those other two times, so what makes you jump to the conclusion that I fathered this new baby.”
Lilly pounded her fists in his chest as tears of regret and pain streamed down her face. “You don’t get it, do you? You were involved with those women, Shawn. That’s why you had to be tested. You cheated on me.”
He grabbed her hands to stop the assault and said, “I know, and I’m sorry for that.”
She snatched her hands away from him. “Tell that to your next woman. I don’t care anymore.”
“Okay, okay. Where is the letter? Tell me the name of this woman I’m supposed to have impregnated.”
Lilly glared at him with eyes full of hatred, and then she walked over to the table in the entryway, picked up a stack of mail and threw it at Shawn. The envelopes hit him in the face and then landed on the floor. When he bent down to pick the court papers off the floor, he noticed an envelope from his father, but couldn’t be bothered to open it at the moment. He grabbed the court papers and read the name Mimi St. Anon. Reading the name did nothing for him. This Mimi was supposed to be the mother of his child, and her name didn’t even ring a bell to him.
He looked up and saw Lilly standing in front of him with her arms crossed, tapping her foot. “Well, who is she?”
He raised his right hand as if he were giving testimony in court. “I swear I don’t remember this woman, Lilly. Now that’s got to mean something.”
“Mmph,” she agreed. “It means my mother was right. I never should have gotten involved with you.” She walked past him, picked up her box and kept walking out of his life.
Chapter Three
Sealing the envelope of the first Dear John letter Elaine Morrison had ever written brought tears to her eyes. The whole situation felt wrong. Like God was telling a joke… her life was the punch line, and everyone else was laughing but her.
Elaine had dedicated her life to serving others. She had traveled the mission field with her father since she was a kid. After graduating from nursing school, she’d gone to Africa to help with the medical needs of the people there. When Katrina hit, Elaine had traveled back to the States to help with the cleanup efforts. That’s how she had met John Myers. He was strong and athletic, with a heart to serve God’s people. Elaine had called her father after her first date with John and told him, “You won’t believe this, Dad. I met someone who reminds me of you and Isaiah.”
“Is that good or bad?” Joel had joked.
“Oh, Daddy, you know it’s good. His name is John Myers, and he loves God and is a humanitarian.”
Tears spilled onto the envelope as she remembered her dad saying that he couldn’t wait to meet John. She looked at her left hand, adoring the princess-cut ring. How she wished that fairy tales did come true.
Wiping the tears from her face even as the waterfall continued, she made up her mind. The ring had to go back. John might want to give this lovely ring to the woman he eventually married. She took the ring off her finger and quickly put it in a padded envelope. She then put the smaller envelope which contained her Dear John letter inside the padded envelope as well and sealed it.
She slowly walked to her Jeep and rode through Uganda without noticing her surroundings. Nothing mattered to Elaine anymore. Not after the news her doctor had just given her. She needed to pray, but she just didn’t believe it would make a difference. Elaine had trusted God with her life, but that hadn’t stopped her world from caving in. No, she couldn’t rush into prayer, because she was still trying to figure out how to trust God again.
She pulled up in front of the post office and sat there; her hands tightly gripped the steering wheel as she watched people walking aimlessly by. They had no clue that life could be peaceful in one moment and chaotic the next. Hopefully they would never discover just how cruel life could be, Elaine thought, as she opened her car door and went inside the post office.
She stood in line behind a woman and her three children. Two girls and a boy. The kids were running around the post office, knocking over everything in their way. The mother was young and frustrated. She gave Elaine an apologetic smile after failing to rein in her children, and said, “They don’t normally act like this. My next door neighbor gave them candy.”
“I think they are wonderful,” Elaine told the woman. “You should cherish every moment you have with them.”
The woman smiled, touched Elaine’s shoulder, and said, “Thank you.”
When Elaine was at the counter, she purchased stamps for her envelope and tried not to cry as she handed over the envelope to be mailed. Before leaving the post office, she opened her post office box, and a current of emotions filled her heart as she viewed her father’s specially engraved envelope. She leaned against the boxes and whispered. “How did you know that I needed you right now, Daddy?” She closed her eyes and wondered if God had anything to do with her father writing to her on the very day that she needed him the most.
But then she convinced herself that God had nothing to do with this coincidence, because God didn’t care what happened to her.
***
“Are you sure about this?”
Joel sat in his home office with his friend and attorney, Gary Dobson. “I’m sure, old friend. God’s got a blessing in store for my children. I just need to get out of the way, so He can get it to them.”
“I don’t know, Joel. I think your kids are going to have you committed for even suggesting such a thing.” Gary laughed, and then added, “Shucks, I’m tempted to have you evaluated myself.”
Joel laughed. “You go ahead and try it. I’m in my right mind. I’m just a man who has trusted God all my life, and I see no reason to stop now.”
“If you say so,” Gary said as he took the new will that Joel had requested out of his briefcase. He handed it to Joel. “Take some time to look over your new will, and if everything is as you wish, drop by my office so you can sign it.”
“Okay, I’ll take care of it right after my prayer time.”
“When do you leave for the Bahamas?” Gary asked.
“Next weekend. I’m going to get there a few days before the kids, so I can make sure that everything is in order. I really want everyone to enjoy themselves. Maybe if they relax enough, they’ll be just as excited about my plan as I am.”
“You really believe that?” Gary asked with doubt in his voice.
Joel told him, “Think about it, Gary. My children are successful; they have money and they all believe that they are going to have a whole lot more when I die. But are they happy? Do they enjoy life? No, their lives are a mess. They think I don’t know, but I’m no fool. As much as I’ve prayed for them, my children still need Jesus.”
; “Isaiah and Elaine serve the Lord.”
“Yes, they do. I’m thankful for that, but something is going on with them, also. I just hope that they will open up and tell me what’s going on while we’re in the Bahamas.”
Gary lifted his water glass and said, “May God be with you, old friend.”
“And may I live to see the day all my children allow God to be with them.”
CHAPTER 4
The politician, the preacher and the playboy relaxed on lawn chairs underneath the covered veranda at their father’s beachfront house on Paradise Island. Eric and Isaiah’s wives had taken the children to the beach. Shawn, the playboy, traveled alone. His children were still in New Orleans with Lilly, his ex-girlfriend. Their dad and Elaine had been the first to arrive at the house. The trip had exhausted them, so they had decided to take a nap before dinner. Dee Dee and Drake hadn’t arrived yet.
“So when do you think the queen will make her royal entrance?” Shawn asked his brothers.
Eric laughed as he slid off his sandals, put his feet up on his lawn chair and leaned back. “Dee Dee will stroll in at dinner time, when we are all together in one room, so that each of us can sufficiently admire her all at once.”
“Such a drama queen,” Shawn proclaimed.
Isaiah shook his head, as he pulled his I’m-a-tourist Bahamas t-shirt over his head, exposing his well-chiseled abs as he prepared to jump in the pool. “You guys have Dee Dee all wrong. She was the third-born child, out of five. So, I don’t think that her issues stem from being a drama queen. I think she is dealing with middle-child syndrome.”
“So did you have to take psychology to get that divinity degree?” Eric scoffed.
“I don’t need psychology. I just take the time to try and understand people I care about,” Isaiah said, just before he jumped into the pool.
As Isaiah did his first lap in the pool, Shawn turned to Eric and asked, “Why do you always give him a hard time?”
“I’m not giving Isaiah a hard time. He just thinks he knows everything, and I was simply informing him that he doesn’t.”
“Don’t worry, big brother, we are all well aware of who the know-it-all of this family is,” Shawn said.
Eric smiled and put his hands behind his head as he said, “And don’t you forget it, little bro. I wasn’t valedictorian of my high school and college class because I only know a few things.”
“Whatever.”
“Don’t be jealous. You don’t have to be a brainiac, as long as you can throw that sheepskin and run those yards.”
Shawn stood up with his fists clenched, as he looked down on his brother. “Are you saying I’m stupid?”
“Relax, little bro,” Eric said with his hand held out to stop Shawn from advancing in closer. “You had to have at least a 2.0 GPA to stay on the football team, so you’re not stupid, just average.”
Shawn’s eyes blazed with fury at the insult. He turned away from his brother as he sat back down on his lawn chair and folded his arms.
Isaiah got out of the pool and immediately noticed the tension between his brothers. “What’s wrong? What happened?” Isaiah asked while drying himself off with one of the pool towels.
Shawn rolled his eyes and continued to pout, but said nothing.
Isaiah turned to Eric and asked, “Did you do something to Shawn?”
“Why don’t you tell me what I did, since you seem to know so much,” Eric said as he got up and marched away from the patio.
Isaiah flung his wet towel at Shawn. “What just happened here?”
Shawn unfolded his arms and sat up as he responded, “I don’t know what’s gotten into him. But if he tries to insinuate that I’m stupid again, I’m going to go upside his head.”
Isaiah was pensive as he plopped down in the lawn chair next to Shawn. “Well, something is wrong with Eric, I guarantee you that. He’s normally the first one to give an encouraging word to all of us.”
“Tell me about it,” Shawn said. “When I told everyone that I wanted a football career, Eric was the first one to assure me that I would make it to the pros. Now he’s telling me that I’m no better than average.”
“Would you help me pray for Eric?” Isaiah asked Shawn, while stretching his hands out, so that they could join hands in prayer.
Shawn shook his head and laughed awkwardly. “Prayer. That’s your answer to everything, isn’t?”
“The Bible tells us that men ought to always pray.”
Shawn stood up. “I hate to break it to you, Isaiah, but I haven’t exactly been on speaking terms with God in years. So I think you need to pray for me and Eric.” Shawn turned and walked away.
“I will,” Isaiah said quietly, as he dropped his outstretched hands back into his lap.
***
Joel sat at the head of the dinner table. It had been three years since he’d vacationed with all of his children. Right before his wife, Beth, had passed away, they had taken a trip to Italy with the kids. Joel glanced longingly at the chair at the other end of the table. Beth used to sit there. Her seat was empty now, and even surrounded by family and a table full of his favorites—pasta salad, shrimp, lobster, and mixed vegetables—the reality of Beth’s absence still pained Joel’s heart.
His eldest son, Eric, sat on his right side with his wife, Linda, seated next to him. Isaiah sat on his left side, his wife, Tanya, sat next to him. Elaine sat next to Tanya, and Shawn sat next to Elaine. Eric’s side of the table was half full, since Dee Dee and Drake hadn’t arrived yet.
Joel leaned toward Eric and asked, “Do you think the children are okay with eating at the kitchen table?”
“Are you kidding?” Eric smiled while answering his father. “They’re delighted that they don’t have to sit with stuffy old adults.”
“All right then,” Joel said as he bowed his head. “Let’s say grace and then eat up.”
As the family bowed their heads, the doorbell rang. Mary, the housekeeper, hurried out of the kitchen and into the foyer to open the door, as Joel finished saying grace over the food. The house burst full of energy as Dee Dee walked her fabulous self into the dining room to greet her family.
Dee Dee slung her white Gucci purse on the chair next to Linda, and then walked over to her father, bent down and kissed him on the cheek. With pouting lips, she asked, “Do I mean so little to this family that you would start dinner without me, Father?”
Joel patted Dee Dee’s diamond-bedecked hand. “Of course not, dear. But your brothers and sister managed to get here on time, so I didn’t want to make them wait any longer for dinner.”
“Maybe your other children don’t have as busy a life as I have,” Dee Dee said, as if only she and Joel were in the room.
“Oh, we’re pretty busy,” Eric told her, and then added. “We just respect other people's time.”
Dee Dee rolled her eyes heavenward, straightened and brushed off her yellow and white sundress, as she said to her father, “Well, I didn’t mean to get here so late, Daddy. But the traffic from the airport was horrible with all the tourists, and Drake drives like an old lady.”
“Where is Drake?” Joel asked, after glancing around the room.
With a flip of her hand, Dee Dee said, “He’s parking the car. I had him drop me at the door.”
Elaine glanced under the table at her sister's shoes and said, “You sure wouldn’t have been able to walk on that rock pathway with those three-inch heels on.”
Dee Dee looked at Elaine and the rest of her family; then, as if it were an afterthought, she said, “Oh, hello everyone.”
The group all responded in kind. Then Dee Dee told Elaine, “My shoes are from Versace on Rodeo. So no, I wasn’t about to walk on that monstrosity of a walkway.”
At that moment Drake walked into the dining room, waved his hand in the air and yelled, “Hello, good people.”
The family jubilantly responded to Drake. Eric and Isaiah got out of their seats and shook his hand. Shawn hollered, “How ya’ be, Brother-in-la
w?" And Drake leaned down and hugged Elaine and Linda, as if they were some long, lost family members he was excited to see again.
Dee Dee put her hands on her hips to protest. “Why didn’t anyone greet me like that?” she complained.
“You get what you give, dear sister,” Shawn said while piling food onto his plate.
Isaiah walked back around the table and hugged his sister. “It’s good to see you, Dee Dee.”
When Isaiah released Dee Dee, then Elaine hugged her and said, “I’m glad to see you, girl. You’re looking very pretty. But I’ve always told you that you and Angela Bassett could be twins.”
“Thank you,” Dee Dee said, then as she backed away from Elaine’s embrace, she picked at the lint on her sister’s cotton shirt. Dee Dee turned up her nose and shook her head, as her eyes lowered on Elaine’s faded jeans. “You really need to come out to L.A. so I can take you shopping.”
Elaine looked down at her outfit and said, “It doesn’t look very nice, huh? I probably should have put on a dress or something.”
“It probably wouldn’t have mattered. Most of the dresses you have are just as bad,” Dee Dee told her as she walked away from her sister, heading back to her father.
“What Elaine has on is fine; you’re just so hateful you have to find something evil to say.” said Linda, who had been quiet ever since they sat down for dinner.
Dee Dee scoffed as she turned toward her sister-in-law. “I wouldn’t expect you to know anything about fashion, Linda. You’ve gained so much weight; I doubt you’ve been inside a boutique in years.”
“Hey,” Linda shouted as she shakily stood up and walked toward Dee Dee with her index finger extended. “Why do you always have to put us down?”
Tears Fall at Night-The Blessed One Box Set (Praise Him Anyhow and Blessed and Highly Favored Series) Page 13