Silver Lining

by Wanda B. Campbell

  “’Lissa, we need to talk.” Releasing his grip, Kevin stepped back, picked up his briefcase, and placed it on the counter.

  Marlissa could have sworn her stomach had just done a somersault with a triple-toe loop. This was the moment she’d been waiting for, she just knew it. Kevin was ready to discuss the divorce. Talk about the power of confession. She grinned. Marlissa thought she would explode with anticipation watching Kevin open the briefcase.

  “We need to discuss this,” he said, then handed her the envelope.

  Marlissa opened the envelope and at the same time wondered what type of divorce papers came in a gold square envelope. Her heart sank along with her hopes. It was an invitation to the Sutter Foundation’s Annual Gala.

  Marlissa cleared her throat, mostly to calm her emotions. She met Kevin’s excited gaze. “What’s there to discuss?”

  Kevin was oblivious to her discontentment. “I think I should attend since I am being honored.”

  “I agree, you should go.” Marlissa set the envelope on the counter, then searched the cabinets for nothing in particular.

  Kevin reached for her hands. “I want us to attend as a couple.”

  “Really? You want me to accompany you?” Marlissa’s optimism returned; she’d never been to a hospital function.

  “Of course, I want the woman in my life right beside me. I must warn you, though, my mother will probably attend.”

  “That’s fine.” Marlissa still hadn’t told him about her last confrontation with Pastor Jennings. It didn’t matter ; she wasn’t afraid of her anymore.

  “I hope that means you’ll join me, because I picked up a little somethin’-somethin’ for you.”

  Happy again, Marlissa giggled. “What?”

  “Wait here.”

  Kevin returned from the garage carrying two boxes. “I thought you could wear this to the gala.”

  Marlissa tore the wrapping off the smaller box. “Um, honey, I thought you didn’t want your business hanging out in the streets.” Marlissa grinned and held up the skimpy piece of plum-colored lace and satin.

  “That’s for me,” Kevin answered, then playfully snatched the lingerie from her. “This is for the gala.”

  She eagerly accepted the larger box from him and ripped it open with more vigor. “It’s beautiful, I love it!” Marlissa screamed, and raised the double V-neck beaded black dress. “It’s the right size, too.”

  “Is that all I get?” Kevin asked after the peck on his cheek.

  “For now it is.” While returning the dress to the box, Marlissa recalled a training session she’d had with Starla. “Why don’t you set the table while I put these away?”

  “You didn’t answer me, will you join me?”

  Marlissa cocked her head to the side and smacked her lips. “Dr. Jennings, you’re crazy if you think I’m going allow you to leave this house without me.” She grabbed the boxes. “I am not going to sit at home while women gnaw at my husband all night.”

  Kevin’s laughter permeated the room as he watched her storm away, fussing at the air. He almost choked on a cherry tomato when she rejoined him. Marlissa had traded in her shirt and blouse for the plum-colored lingerie he’d purchased.

  Mentally, Kevin wanted to join Marlissa in the shower, but physically he was totally exhausted. He leaned against the headboard with a Kool-Aid grin and reflected on how he’d spent dinnertime.

  “Woman, you are wild!” he yelled in the direction of the bathroom. He didn’t think Marlissa would hear him over the shower, but she did.

  “You made me this way,” she yelled back.

  Mentally counting the months since his and Marlissa’s reunion, Kevin knew his time of testing and procrastinating was running short. Despite knowing that he needed to come clean with his intentions, fear prevented him from telling Marlissa the truth.

  Their current relationship was everything he wanted. Without much effort, he’d allowed himself to become one with Marlissa to the point where he couldn’t sleep at night unless he felt her body heat and inhaled her scent. His primary desire, aside from pleasing God, was to please Marlissa in every possible way. Kevin needed her like he needed oxygen and water. The fear of her leaving him again frightened him more than dying. It wasn’t fair to drag her along, but she’d broken his heart once before. His heart couldn’t stand another jolt. He loved her too much, but didn’t trust her with that information.

  “Now are you ready to eat dinner?”

  Kevin was so absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard the shower stop running. Marlissa stood next to the bed, wearing his robe.

  “You do remember what food is, don’t you?” Marlissa mused when he offered her that blank stare for an answer once again.

  Suddenly, he blinked, and then smiled. “Of course I do. Can you hand me my shorts?”

  “Sure.” Marlissa leaned against the doorframe and watched him secure his shorts. Kevin rubbed his fade. Something was bothering him. Before she could inquire, Kevin opened up.

  “’Lissa, are you happy with our progress?”

  She plopped down next to him and giggled. “Didn’t you hear a few minutes ago how happy I am?”

  He didn’t respond in kind to her humor. Somehow, he had to make her understand how vital the answer to that question was for him. “Marlissa, I am serious. I need to know if you’re really happy with me, not just with the sex.”

  The heat from his intense gaze caused her laughter to cease. Kevin was attempting to open up, maybe share his feelings with her. Marlissa took advantage of the opportunity. “Honey, I’ve never been happier. The only time I feel complete is when I am with you.” Marlissa fanned his cheeks with her fingertips. “Kevin, are you happy? I too need to know if this is really working for you.”

  Kevin nodded and covered her hands with his. “Yes. I love the way we are now.” Marlissa allowed herself to exhale. “You make this house feel like a home. I can’t begin to tell you what you do for me.” Kevin drew her face so close to his, their noses touched. “You are so beautiful.” The deep passion he tried his best to keep reserved seeped through with every kiss he planted on her face.

  “I love you, Kevin.”

  He tightened his caress. “’Lissa, I—” The sudden piercing and blaring sound of the burglar alarm caused them both to fall backward onto the bed. In the seconds it took for Kevin to get his bearings, Marlissa had jumped up and run out of the room.

  “Marlissa, get back here!” Kevin yelled after her. This time she didn’t listen to him, or maybe she couldn’t hear him over the noise. Kevin maneuvered into his prosthesis and prayed for her safety.

  The lights were off and Kevin couldn’t see anything or any movement in the living room or dining room. “Marlissa!” he called, but the sound from the alarm drowned his voice. He first saw the shadows in his peripheral vision. Kevin abruptly turned toward the sliding glass door and gripped with both hands the Louisville Slugger he kept underneath his bed. He didn’t want to mistakenly hit Marlissa; he turned on the den light before launching his counterattack.

  “Oh my God,” he gasped. Marlissa was literally beating the life out of the intruder. She swung left and right combinations like a championship prize fighter. “Marlissa!” Kevin yelled just as she went into motion for a karate kick that sent the intruder flying across the room and landing face first into the thirty-gallon fish tank.

  Kevin quickly raced into the kitchen to quiet the alarm before Marlissa committed murder.

  “Marlissa!” he yelled, returning to the den just as she was about to ram the intruder’s head into the sliding glass door.

  Marlissa must have been in her fight zone, because she didn’t notice that the lights were on or that the high-pitched siren had ceased. She definitely didn’t hear the squealing coming from her wet victim.

  “Marlissa, let her go!” Kevin pried the badly beaten and wet Reyna away from Marlissa, and sat her on the couch.

  “Reyna?” Marlissa still hadn’t come out of the zone yet. The na
me sounded familiar to her, but it didn’t fully register in her memory bank.

  “Is anything broken?” Kevin quickly assessed Reyna as she sang a chorus of “ouch oh ouch.”

  “I don’t know.” Reyna whimpered, then cried, “Oh, my face.”

  “The swelling will eventually go down and your face will be discolored for a while, but you’ll live. Now would you like to tell me what you’re doing here?”

  “Reyna?” Marlissa’s thinking faculties returned, and, upon realizing it was Reyna she had beaten, Marlissa smirked, then quickly repented for being happy about it.

  With the one eye she could still see out of, Reyna scanned the room for a stall tactic to keep from explaining her unannounced presence. It was then that she noticed that Marlissa was wearing Kevin’s robe and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. The thunderbolts running through Reyna’s head grew fiercer at the realization of what she’d interrupted.

  “Reyna, you better tell me what you’re doing here before the police arrive,” Kevin warned.

  Reyna attempted to smack her lips, but winced from the pain. Marlissa had busted her lip.

  “You better talk before I let Marlissa loose again.” To give validity to his threat, Marlissa stood next to Kevin and pounded her fist into her palm.

  “Okay! I was coming over to pay you a surprise visit, but the key your mother gave me didn’t fit the front door. So I went around back and climbed onto the deck in hopes of gaining access through the patio door. I took a chance that it was unlocked. I guess I tripped the alarm when I opened the door.”

  “Reyna, you broke into my house? Are you crazy?” Kevin thought about the question for a quick second. “Don’t answer that.”

  “Kevin,” Reyna whined. “I wanted to see you. I was worried about you.”

  “Then why didn’t you ring the doorbell?” Marlissa jumped in.

  Reyna didn’t have an answer. She couldn’t tell Kevin in front of Marlissa that she had planned to seduce him.

  The doorbell sounded.

  “Reyna, I have warned you over and over about showing up uninvited. I have asked you to leave me alone, but you don’t seem to understand English. Maybe a night in jail will help.” Kevin went to let the police in.

  “Kevin!” Reyna tried to yell, but her jaw hurt too badly. The sound came out more like a squeal.

  “Officers, this young lady climbed onto the deck out back and broke into our home. Luckily my wife was able to apprehend her before she stole anything.”

  The first officer yanked Reyna up by the arm. “Come on, young lady, let’s go.”

  Every attempted scream and protest increased Reyna’s pain. She couldn’t even jerk away from the officers without wincing. “Kevin, how can you do this to me? You can’t let them take me to jail!”

  The second officer nodded to Kevin on his way out. “Dr. Jennings, you can come down to the station tomorrow and make a statement.”

  The second he locked the door, Kevin bent over with laughter. Marlissa leaned against the archway and joined in.

  “Woman, remind me never to make you mad. Miss Tyson Ali Frazier De La Hoya.”

  “Leave me alone.” She playfully hit his arm and he picked her up. “I had to learn how to fight after what happened to me.”

  He nodded his understanding. “Don’t get me wrong, I like a woman who knows how to handle herself, but around here it’s my job to protect you, not the other way around.”

  Marlissa cocked her head. “Dr. Jennings, are you reprimanding me?”

  “Yes, I am,” he answered bluntly. “The next time I tell you to stay put, you stay put.”

  Marlissa wanted to rebut, but decided against it. “You should punish me for being disobedient.”

  “Trust me, I will.” He flicked off the lights and started down the hall.

  They passed by the laundry room and Marlissa recalled another conversation with Starla. “Honey, stop. I have an idea.”

  Chapter 24

  As Kevin reclined, he studied the old brown couch and wondered when it had transformed into its present condition. He remembered the day his mother added the once regal leather piece to her office. In the early days, Pastor Jennings protected the leather almost to the point of worshipping it. When parishioners came for counseling sessions, Pastor Jennings would provide them a folding chair to sit on. “I’m just being a good steward over what God has blessed me with,” she said when responding to complaints about her lack of hospitality. That was years ago; now the leather sofa had been used and abused many times over. Permanent stains decorated the sofa and there was a rip across the left arm.

  Kevin visually inspected his mother’s entire office under critical scrutiny, and for the first time found the experience enlightening. Everything in there was old, worn, and outdated. The traditional depiction of the olive-complexioned, long-wavy-haired, light-eyed Jesus even looked old and tired. The wooden frames that housed Pastor Jennings’s self-declarations of qualifications and self-appointed promotions appeared to be off-centered and dusty. The once vibrant rose-colored carpet was now covered with patchwork plastic runner pieces. The wooden desk could have used a good polishing. The high wingback chair was in excellent shape for its age. Rosalie had the factory cover it in plastic before the delivery at least ten years ago. Kevin sniffed. The office smelled old and stale.

  He studied the desk photo of Pastor Rosalie Jennings in her white cassock with a Bible tucked underneath her arm, and realized for the first time that all the pictures he owned of his mother contained a Bible of some sort. Whatever the occasion, Pastor Jennings always posed with a Bible. In the picture taken at his graduation of the two of them, his mother held her Bible alongside Kevin’s degree. If she was sitting, the Bible rested in her lap. The majority of full body shots displayed the Bible tucked underneath her right hand. For headshots, Rosalie poised a pocket Bible against her cheek.

  His thoughts drifted back in time to arguments between his parents. Kevin’s father had constantly complained that Rosalie was too involved with God and the church. She was seldom at home, opting to spend most of her time down at the church or with church members. “That Bible don’t pay your bills, I do! You would do good to remember that and spend some time at home.” Kevin remembered his father barking those lines too many times to count. “That Bible is not the whole world.” Reminiscing helped Kevin discern for the first time that the church was Rosalie’s world. Aside from leading the church and trying to run Kevin’s life, Pastor Jennings didn’t have a life of her own.

  “That’s why she wants total control of everything,” he mumbled. “She doesn’t have any worth outside of the church.” Meditating on that reality made him feel sad for his mother. What would she do without the church? What kind of life would she live? Who would she be once she wasn’t identified as Pastor Rosalie Jennings? Kevin admitted right then and there that more than likely his mother would die without having a church of some kind to control.

  Over the past five years, the church membership had steadily declined, mainly because Pastor Jennings concentrated more on church traditions than on the Bible. She preached more against women wearing pants and makeup than she did about sin. The choir was only allowed to sing old, traditional songs, and she detested praise dancing with a passion. The one tradition she insisted was a misinterpretation of the Word was, of course, the belief that God didn’t call women to preach or pastor.

  Due to her misguided belief and teachings, 70 percent of the small congregation was over age fifty. The youth department consisted of the older members’ young grandchildren, and they were limited to holiday speeches and singing songs about Father Abraham. The longer Kevin dwelled on the realizations of his mother and the environment of the church she pastored, the more he understood that his reason for remaining a member didn’t go beyond the fact that Pastor Rosalie Jennings was his mother. Melancholy took over Kevin and he bowed his head in prayer. Kevin didn’t finish his prayer before Pastor Jennings flung the door open and launched her tantrum.
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br />   “Kevin Hezekiah Jennings, have you lost your mind? How dare you make Reyna spend the night in jail?”

  “Pastor Rosalie Jennings, have you lost your mind? How dare you give Reyna what you thought was a key to my house?” Kevin stood in front of her desk with his arms folded. “You should be ashamed of yourself, sending Reyna into the home of a married man.”

  “Why did you change the locks?” Pastor Jennings totally discarded the inappropriateness of her actions. “And where is my key?” She held out her hand in expectation.

  Kevin shook his head slowly from side to side, then returned to his seat and sighed. “Mother, I changed the locks because I didn’t want you coming by unannounced anymore. I am not going to give you another key.”

  Pastor Jennings was livid. “Kevin, I am your mother! I have a right to . . .” She abruptly stopped and glared at her son. “Does Marlissa have a key?”

  Kevin answered his mother without pretense or reservation. “Yes, and keys to my vehicles, as well.”

  Pastor Jennings’s nostrils flared and her breathing quickened. “Kevin, why can that woman have access to everything you have and I can’t? I am your mother. I gave birth to you and made you what you are today, not her!”

  Kevin kept his tone stern and forceful. “Mother, you’re forgetting an important fact. Marlissa is my wife and everything I have is hers. True, you gave me life, and I thank you for that, but that doesn’t afford you the right to run my life. You can’t force me to want Reyna. I don’t want Reyna.” Kevin paused to let those words sink in. “Reyna and I will never be a couple, so stop trying to make us one.”

  Pastor Jennings huffed and puffed until all the steam ran out. Deflated, she walked around to her high wing-back chair and plopped down. Her eyes roamed around her office as if seeing it for the first time. The desk, the couch, the pictures of herself all seemed foreign to her. And the man sitting in front of her had to be from a faraway country because he spoke a foreign language.