“We only have one mode of transportation. Don’t worry about it—I’m here. I enjoyed myself. Pastor Landris gave me a Word about God’s strength in our weakness. And I intend to keep coming here to get stronger and more in the Word. I’m looking forward to the series he said he’d begin teaching in January on Strongholds and breaking them from our lives. I know I’m supposed to be here. I know this from my heart. I’m sorry I’ve wasted all this time when I could have been here being taught the Word. I was blessed today.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m glad to know you were so blessed.”
“I was, and I’m on my way to find the prayer room they were talking about earlier. I can certainly use all the help I can get. I do know what God can do, and I truly believe in the power of touching and agreeing. I just haven’t had anyone to touch and agree with me lately.”
“Would you like me to go in and pray with you, too?”
“Oh, I would love that!”
Charity and Johnnie Mae went to the room dedicated and anointed for prayer. And the prayers of the righteous that day availed much.
“Something is happening,” Charity said as she cried uncontrollably on Johnnie Mae’s shoulder. “I feel so light and so happy. I haven’t felt like this in a long time. What is this?”
“It’s the power of the Holy Spirit working in you right now,” the other person who had prayed with her said. “It’s the anointing that breaks the yoke. Just release yourself totally, and allow God to do His work. Yeah, I feel it. I feel something is shaking loose right now, in the mighty name of Jesus. You’re being set free. Oh, hallelujah. I feel it.” She started shaking her one hand fast, as though she’d touched something that burned.
“Just let go of every weight that so easily besets you. You’ve been carrying this weight for so long. I hear the Spirit of the Lord saying for you to release this burden over to Him. He’s the potter. He says He’s going to take your broken pieces and put you back together again and anew. I hear the Lord saying, ‘Again’ and ‘anew.’ He’s putting the broken pieces of your life back together again and making you anew. I don’t know what this means, but God says you shall be whole again. How long, Lord? He says, ‘Not long.’ I hear Him saying as He has inspired the words of First Corinthians 15:58: ‘Therefore, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord…’ Oh thank You, Jesus. ‘…forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.’”
Charity cried hard and praised God as she kneeled down and worshipped God, bowing to Him with her face to the floor.
For the first time in decades, Charity felt free.
Chapter 48
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
(1 John 5:7)
Sapphire was making her rounds to check on Mrs. Gates. Charity was really good with her, and she was responding wonderfully. Charity and Mrs. Gates had the record player blasting. It wasn’t a church song like Mrs. Gates usually wanted to hear. It was a song by Otis Redding.
Mrs. Gates was really into it. “Sitting on the dock of the bay,” she sang.
But Charity was in a chair, balled up like a fetus and rocking back and forth.
“Mrs. Gates, you okay?” Sapphire asked her, although she was watching Charity.
“I’m fine. Call me Countess. I said I was going to marry Jericho when I’m older, but I might change my mind, so I don’t want you playing like he and I are married yet, just in case I don’t end up marrying him after all.”
“Jericho? Was that…is that your husband?”
“He will be. He is so cute. Have you seen him around? He’s been hiding from me, and that’s why I might not marry him after all. If he acts this way now, you know what he’ll be like after we get married. He’ll probably up and leave without telling me, and I’ll be mad at him. But I do love him. He’s the most handsome little sweet talker, though.”
Sapphire hugged her. “Okay, Countess. Do you know what’s wrong with Charity? Can you tell me what happened to her?”
“I don’t know what happened with that girl. I think somebody left her, too, without saying good-bye. Go on and tend to her. I’m fine. I have to find another record that Jericho likes. If he hears his favorite record, he’ll come out of hiding,” Mrs. Gates said. “Go on and see about that other girl over there. She’s a little too old to be acting like a baby, though, if you ask me. But nobody asked me.” Mrs. Gates went over to the stack of records and albums and started shuffling through them as she sang.
“Charity, what’s wrong?” Sapphire spoke softly into her ear.
“They’re mad at me.”
“Who’s mad at you?”
“Faith and Hope. Not so much Hope, but she always does what Faith tells her, and Faith is really, really mad now. So Hope is not talking, either.”
“What’s Faith mad about?”
“She didn’t want me to go to church Sunday. She still got to go to the church she wanted, but she doesn’t want me to go to a place unless she says it’s okay for me to go.”
“But you’re an adult. Faith can’t make you do something, or not, unless you agree to it.” Sapphire put her arms around Charity to stop her from rocking. “Sit up and talk to me, okay? Come on. Sit up.”
Charity stopped rocking, but she wouldn’t show her face.
“Come on, Charity. Sit up and talk to me. I’m a great listener.”
“Faith told me I can’t talk to anyone anymore,” Charity said. “She says I’ve messed up already. I shouldn’t have taken this job. But I did. I shouldn’t have gone to church on Sunday. But I did. I shouldn’t have gone into the prayer room and let people pray for me. But I did. Now she’s really mad because I almost told Johnnie Mae a secret about her and her husband-to-be.”
“Faith is about to get married?”
“Yes, and I told her she’s not. She wants me to go away so I can’t stop her. But I’m not going away. And Otis Redding is dead, and Motherphelia loved that song. She and I would listen to it for hours and hours. Then I didn’t hear it anymore because she died, and everybody says it was my fault. But I don’t remember. I just remember this man who thought I was cute, and Motherphelia told him he’d better not ever mess with me again. But he did, and she came inside the house. Secrets. Secrets. ‘This will be our little secret.’”
“Did the man hurt you?”
“Everybody wants to keep everything a secret. Motherphelia said it was our secret until she could figure out what to do. She died, and left the secret with me. Faith and Hope showed up and said they would take care of things until I was better and stronger. Faith said she wouldn’t let anyone hurt me ever again.”
“Charity, what do you mean, Faith and Hope showed up?”
Charity sat all the way up and looked at Sapphire. “Faith has your man now.”
“What? Charity, I’m not following you. I want to help you, but you’re not making sense.”
“That’s what Hope said. That if I tell, and believe people will understand or do what they say, I was setting myself up for a lot of disappointments. Hope is good at handling things that might hurt if they don’t turn out right. That’s Hope’s specialty—not getting her hopes up.” She giggled, then quickly stopped.
“Charity, tell me about Faith and my man.”
“See, that’s what Faith said. People don’t really care about anyone else. All they care about is what’s best for themselves. They pretend like they care, but they won’t be there for you if there’s nothing in it for them. You don’t care about me, do you? You just want to know about your man now.”
“Of course I care about you. I’m trying to help you, but I need you to help me.”
“You really want to know if Faith has your man.”
“I don’t have a man, Charity.”
“Thomas.”
“What about Thomas?”
“Faith is going to marry Thomas.”
“Charity, honey, I think your
mind is playing tricks on you. Sit right here. I’m going to call Johnnie Mae. Then you and I are going to see if we can’t get some help for you.” Sapphire went to the phone and hurriedly dialed Johnnie Mae.
“I need you to get over to your mother’s right away,” Sapphire said.
“What’s the matter? Is Mama all right?”
“Your mother is having an episode right now, but she’s okay. It’s Charity. Something awful is happening.”
“Is she sick?”
“Just get over here as soon as you can.” She hung up and went back to Charity.
“I’m sure you think Faith is getting married to Thomas, but that’s not possible.”
Charity looked at her. “Thomas goes to Divine Conquerors Church. He’s really good friends with Reverend Walker. Faith is upset with Pastor Landris, so she left your church and started going over there. She and Thomas started seeing more of each other. Secrets. Everybody has secrets.” Charity grabbed her head and started holding it. “My head hurts so bad.”
Sapphire slowly sat down on the floor. Charity was accurate about too much concerning Thomas, but she knew she had to remain calm as she spoke. She was a professional, and no matter how personal this was, she had to maintain her cool. “Thomas and Faith are dating?”
“We’re more than dating, Miss Sapphire. Thomas and I are getting married on December 4 of this year.”
“Charity?”
“No. Charity talks too much. I’ve always told her that. She just had to go play that stupid record. I told her not to let that woman ever play Otis Redding’s Dock of the Bay. I specifically told her. Now I have to clean up her mess—once again.”
“Who are you if you’re not Charity?”
“Like you don’t know. Faith…Miss Sapphire. I am Faith. Not Hope. Not Charity. But you can make it easy on yourself by calling me Trinity. Just know, I’m the one who won’t let you make me think you’re smarter than me because you have a degree in something you apparently can’t use to help yourself.” Faith stood and looked down at the dress she was wearing, then found a mirror. “Ahhh, this is hideous! How does she wear these ugly, unflattering things? And what does she keep doing to my hair? Charity would end up an old maid, but I’m about to fix all that real soon.”
Sapphire stood up. “How are you going to fix it, Faith?”
“Thomas wants to marry me. Question—how long were you and he together?”
“That’s really none of your business,” Sapphire said.
“Oh yeah, that’s right. You’re all up in our business, but your business is off limits to us. If you want me to answer your questions, I’d suggest you answer mine. Do we understand each other, Miss Sapphire?”
Sapphire nodded.
“See, you might have been able to bully sweet little Charity, but Faith don’t play that. I’ll walk out of here in a minute. So let’s try this one more time. How long were you and Thomas together?”
Sapphire took her dreadlocks and swung them around to her back. She moistened her lips by pursing them together. “I met him a few years ago, and we pretty much started hanging out from the first day we met at church in Atlanta.”
“That is so sweet. You and he met at church; he and I met at church. I should write a book. I could call it 1,001 Places to Meet Your New Mate. What do you think? Think it will sell? Don’t answer that one. So you and Thomas had been technically dating for a couple of years. It’s now about seven weeks until the end of this year. If we subtract the time he dumped you this year, what’s that been now…about seven…eight months? I think he kicked you to the curb around April, maybe? Oh well, that’s neither here nor there.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is, he and I started dating in early September…on the twelfth, the day after we had that marriage seminar celebration or whatever y’all were calling it.”
“Oh, you mean the event you showed up for to show off your dress and then did the disappearing act?” Sapphire said. She glanced at Mrs. Gates, who was sitting in her favorite chair, taking a nap. She must have fallen asleep when the record stopped.
“FYI, not that this is any of your business, and I sure wouldn’t want to be labeled a talebearer or gossiper—,” Faith said.
“Well then, maybe you shouldn’t say it,” Sapphire said, finding it harder not to lose it with Faith.
“Or maybe you shouldn’t listen when I say it. How about that? I’ll say it, and if you really don’t want to hear it, stop up your ears. Pastor Landris and I had a few words, and he must have thought I was coming on to him. All I really was doing was volunteering to help him out by carrying his baby. But he’s so sanctimonious and self-righteous, he didn’t even want to discuss it. He acted like I said we should skip the middleman and get a room. I merely offered to be a surrogate if they needed one.”
“You’re kidding. You talked about that with him in a place like that and neither he nor his wife had said publicly or privately that they were even looking for a surrogate? And you wonder why he’d take that the wrong way?” Sapphire said, aghast.
“I can see your point, but he could have spoken to me in a kinder tone than he did. He made me feel like a child who’d done something wrong and deserved to be punished. I’m a grown woman. I don’t have to stand for anybody talking to me that way.”
“So you decided to get back at him by leaving Johnnie Mae in a bind and not doing what you’d volunteered to do? Then, on the following day, you visit another church, but not just any church—the church Pastor Landris’s brother left him for,” Sapphire said, nodding her head. “Yeah, I can see the logic in all of this. But what I’m missing is, why marry Thomas?”
“Of course you would ask that. You’re the one spreading those vicious lies about him being mentally ill,” Faith said, strolling around the room, lifting whatnots up to examine them and placing them back down with disinterest.
“Thomas is bipolar, Faith. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s an illness. There are lots of people with this condition. Many of them have no idea that what feels like crazy has a name and, there’s a way to, many times, successfully manage it and live a normal life.”
“Well, I think Thomas is fine. He thinks I’m fine. So to get all of you off our backs, we’re going to get married. Besides, we’ve laid the truth about ourselves on the table. We know what we’re getting into, so why waste time looking for that perfect someone else? Thomas found out what wasting time can do when he was with you. When he needed you to defend him, you badgered him until he did what any red-blooded man would do in the same situation: got rid of you.”
“You’re a tough one, huh? No wonder Charity is scared of you. Hope, too.”
“They’re not scared of me. They respect me.” Faith surveyed the room. “I’ve really got to get out of this place. I’m sure Charity will want to come back and finish the job she agreed to do, but to be honest, Miss Sapphire, I have my own plans. I don’t have time for this sitting-around-taking-care-of-people stuff. I want to live life, not just exist.”
“Don’t leave,” Sapphire said.
“Why not? Because you called Johnnie Mae, and you think you’re going to trick me into going to the hospital like you were trying to trick Thomas? Not going to happen. Not with me. If you can ever catch Charity again, which I seriously doubt, she might be willing to listen to you. But I promised to take care of things for her, and I mean to keep my promise.”
Sapphire looked in at Mrs. Gates, who was still sleeping. She tried to calm Faith down.
“Faith, what happened with Charity and her grandmother? Do you know the secret?”
“Of course I know it. But I also know how to keep secrets, even from Charity.”
“If you love Charity, you’ll get her some help. I can help her, but you’re going to have to help me. And Thomas, if you want to marry him. I don’t have a problem with that, but Thomas was in a bad way when I last saw him. He needs help as well. You’re in a position to help two people you say you care about: Charit
y and Thomas. Please, help them before it’s too late.”
Faith looked at Sapphire and picked her purse up off the floor. “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime,” Faith said and walked out the door.
She was gone ten minutes when Johnnie Mae arrived.
“Sapphire, what’s going on? Where’s Charity?”
“Charity,” Mrs. Gates said, having awakened from a nap. “It’s teatime!” She walked in where they were. “Well, hi there, Johnnie Mae…Sapphire. Where’s Charity? It’s time for our daily tea. We make eyebright tea. So where is she?”
Johnnie Mae looked over at Sapphire for an answer. “Faith came and took her away,” Sapphire said to Johnnie Mae.
“What? Was Charity sick?” Johnnie Mae asked.
“She’s got some serious…issues,” Sapphire said, choosing her words. “Mrs. Gates, I’ll be happy to make your tea for you. Johnnie Mae, will you come help me in the kitchen?”
“I don’t want you to make my tea. I want Charity to do it,” Mrs. Gates said. “She knows how to make it just right. Most folks steep tea too long or too short. That child has tea-brewing down to a science.”
“Mama, let me and Sapphire make your tea. Don’t hurt our feelings, okay?”
“Sure, baby. I’ll go work a couple of my seek-and-finds while you and Sapphire ‘make my tea.’ I just hope you two aren’t talking about me behind my back.”
“Mama, behave,” Johnnie Mae said, trying to make things lighter. She kissed her mother on the cheek.
Johnnie Mae and Sapphire talked while they were making the tea. Sapphire told Johnnie Mae every detail of what had just happened.
Johnnie Mae was shocked, angry, hurt, disappointed, and crushed—all at the same time.
“She called herself, or the three of them, Trinity?” Johnnie Mae said. “Faith, Hope, and Charity—they’re three persons in one?” Johnnie Mae found a chair and sat down. “They’re Trinity?”
Chapter 49
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Blessed Trinity Page 26