—Ephesians 6:20
“When you decide what you want to do,” Zachary said, standing outside Gabrielle’s front door, “let me know. I don’t ever want you to feel like I forced you or guilted you into doing anything you didn’t want to do.”
They hadn’t said much on the ride home from the restaurant. Zachary was giving Gabrielle the space she wanted. Gabrielle wasn’t sure of the right thing to do. She’d already fallen in love with Zachary. But did love give her the right to be selfish and possibly mess things up in his life because of some of her earlier decisions?
Talking with Zachary’s mother, the housekeeper put-down wasn’t what had gotten to her. She was proud of what she was able to do, even if some people had the nerve to want to look down on it. She thought about the scripture in Colossians that said whatever you do, to do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. No one could ever, in good conscience, throw her performing that type of work in her face. But her earlier days, those dancing years, someone could use against Zachary were they inclined. She didn’t want to put him in a position of having to deal with or defend that segment of her life.
She turned to go inside the house without commenting. He touched her arm. She turned back around, and he kissed her softly on her cheek. “Bye,” he said.
“Bye,” she said back, feeling as though she’d just lost her best friend.
As soon as she stepped into her house, she couldn’t believe her eyes. The vase with silk flowers was missing. There were clothes on the stairway banister and on the floor in the foyer. She saw what looked like a perfectly made strawberry handprint on one of her walls. She walked over to get a better look. She was mistaken. It was actually strawberry preserves.
She briskly went in search of somebody . . . anybody. When she looked in the kitchen, there were empty bottles and cans everywhere. Four pots sat on the stove. She looked in them. They were practically empty with evidence of various foods like spaghetti noodles, spaghetti sauce, Alfredo sauce, and chili. Every plate she owned seemed to be either on the counter or on the kitchen table. The stainless-steel garbage can was overflowing with trash, and scraped-out food had hardened on the floor around it.
Hearing the television blasting, Gabrielle turned and marched to the den. She was clearly on a mission now. There she found Aunt Cee-Cee lying on one end of the couch with her feet propped up on a couch pillow, and her cousin Laura on the other end, half-asleep, both of them facing the television. Two of Angie’s children were with them, throwing popcorn at each other and eating the fallen kernels from off the floor. She didn’t know where Angie’s baby was.
“Aunt Cee-Cee!” Gabrielle said. “Aunt Cee-Cee!” Her aunt jumped as she awakened and turned in her direction. “Will you please turn that thing down?!”
Aunt Cee-Cee pointed the remote control at the television and turned it down. “You’re home,” she said as she struggled to sit up. “How was your evening?”
“My evening was fine. At least it was fine until I stepped back into my house. What is wrong with all of y’all?”
“What do you mean?” Laura said, stretching.
“Have you seen the kitchen and my foyer? I haven’t gone any farther than those two areas. There’s a strawberry handprint on my wall. The kitchen looks like a tornado swept through it. Is anybody familiar with the concept of cleaning up behind yourself or watching your children so they don’t feel it’s perfectly fine to throw popcorn everywhere?” Gabrielle directed the last part about the popcorn at the two children.
The children started crying.
“See, Gabrielle, you scared them,” Laura said. “Come here, you two.” Laura held out her arms. “Angie!” Laura yelled. “Angie!”
“What!” came a voice from near the stairs.
“Come and see about your children!”
Angie stepped into the room a minute later with the telephone stuck to her ear. “I’m on the phone,” Angie said as she walked over to her children and practically snatched them up off the floor.
“Don’t be so rough with them,” Aunt Cee-Cee said.
“Look at this mess they’re making,” Angie said to her mother.
“Well, then you need to clean it up,” Aunt Cee-Cee said.
“I’m busy.” Angie turned to Gabrielle. “Would you mind getting this up for me?”
Gabrielle gave Angie a look that clearly questioned her sanity. “I don’t think so,” she said.
“I’m trying to find a job,” Angie said in answer to Gabrielle’s look. “Hold on a second,” she said to the person on the line. She pressed the mute button. “Gabrielle, somebody called you a little after you left. She said to let you know she called, and that it was important.”
“Who was it?”
Angie shrugged as she walked the children over to her mother. “I don’t remember her name.”
“You didn’t write it down?” Gabrielle asked, annoyed.
“I was busy on the phone,” Angie said. “Besides, I couldn’t find a pen and paper. She also left a phone number.”
“Why did you even answer my phone? I didn’t tell anyone to answer my phone. I have an answering machine. At least that woman, whoever it was, could have left a message, and I would have been able to retrieve it,” Gabrielle said.
Angie put her hand on her hip. “I answered it because I was on it. The person beeped in, and I thought the least I could do was answer it for you. The next time, I just won’t bother.” She unmuted, put the phone back up to her ear, and resumed her conversation.
“Aunt Cee-Cee,” Gabrielle said. “You and I need to talk.”
“Sure. Fine,” Aunt Cee-Cee said. “But we’re out of milk, eggs, cereal—”
“And toilet paper,” Laura said. “Why don’t I just make a list of what you need to go buy.”
“What happened to all of the toilet paper? I had a brand-new nine-roll pack in the linen closet.”
“Do you have any idea how many people are living here now?” Laura said. “I used a roll all by myself. And I hope you know that they make the rolls smaller than they used to. These companies are doing anything they can to make money these days.”
“Aunt Cee-Cee, we need to talk now,” Gabrielle said through clenched teeth.
“I’ll go write out the grocery list,” Laura said as she stood up and left.
“Okay. What do you want to talk about?”
“I’ve tried to be understanding. I’ve tried to put myself in your shoes. I’ve tried to do what a good Christian ought to do. But as Christians, God has not called us to be tramped on the way you and your family are doing here with me. I’d like all of you to leave my house.”
“And we plan on leaving. Just as soon as we get back on our feet,” Aunt Cee-Cee said.
“No. I’d like for you to leave before the weekend is over.”
Aunt Cee-Cee chuckled. “You mean by this coming Sunday?”
“Yes, I mean by Sunday.”
Aunt Cee-Cee bent down her head and looked up. “This Sunday coming up? This Sunday?”
“This Sunday coming up,” Gabrielle said.
“If we leave this Sunday, then how are we all going to go to church with you? You see, I figured out why things are going so much better for you than us. The only thing I can see you do differently from us is that you go to church on a regular basis. So, I told everybody here that we’re going down to the same church where you go, and we’re going to get whatever it is you’ve gotten from being there. I figure if we go this Sunday, God will turn things around in our lives before the next Sunday. We could likely be back on our feet in a few weeks, and in a few weeks be out of here.” Aunt Cee-Cee scooped up a handful of popcorn out of the bag and popped it in her mouth. “Do you think your church might give us a donation or something to help us get into a home?”
Gabrielle threw up her hands and stomped out of the room. She couldn’t take any more. She went up to her room. Both Jesse and Luke were in there wallowing on her bed as Jesse ate spaghetti and they both watche
d television. “Please get out of my room,” she said so calmly it almost scared her.
“The show is not off yet,” Luke said. “And all the other TVs are taken.”
“And I’m not finished with my food yet,” Jesse said, picking his teeth.
“I said, get out of my room.”
“You are so selfish,” Luke said after clicking off the television with the remote control. He threw the remote back onto the bed as he walked past her and glared.
Jesse picked up his plate off the bed and followed his older brother. “We’re out of drinks,” he said to Gabrielle as he walked past her. “Mama said we don’t have any money to buy anything, so we needed to tell you whatever we were out of so you can get it.”
Gabrielle didn’t say a word. As soon as Jesse cleared the doorway, she closed her bedroom door. She went and got her Bible, turned to Ephesians chapter six, and began reading at verse ten. When she sat down on the bed, she saw spaghetti sauce all over her just-cleaned bedspread. Tears started making their way down her face.
“Lord, I know you told me to be strong in You and in the power of Your might. I’m trying, Lord. I have put on the whole armor of God. I’m trying so hard to stand against the wiles of the devil. I know that we’re not wrestling against flesh and blood. All that’s going on right now in my life is merely the devil going to and fro seeing who he can devour. We’re wrestling against principalities and the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Lord, it’s getting hard.... You see how hard it’s been for me just these past few days. But you have instructed us to stand.
“To stand with our loins girdled with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. But above all, Lord, we have been told to take the shield of faith so that we’re able to quench all of the fiery darts hurled at us from the wicked one. To take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and to use it. I’m praying, Lord . . . praying without ceasing. I know You see what I’m dealing with today. Please direct me in what is the right thing to do and what is Your divine will. In Jesus’ precious name I pray. Amen.”
Chapter 51
Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
—Matthew 12:29
After Gabrielle finished praying, her phone rang. Before she could pick it up, it stopped ringing. At first she thought whoever had called had changed their mind and hung up. Then she felt a pull to go check her phone anyway. When she looked, she saw the phone was registering that it was in use. She picked it up and pressed the talk button.
“I need you to get off the phone,” Gabrielle said in a quiet, calm voice.
“But I’m on it,” Angie said.
“I know that you’re on it. And I need you to get off . . . my phone.”
“You are so stingy with your stuff,” Angie said to Gabrielle. “Listen, Trey,” Angie said to the person on the other end, “I’ll hit you back later. My cousin is tripping.”
Gabrielle stayed on the line to ensure Angie had hung up. After she was sure, she clicked the phone off. The phone immediately started to ring. The caller ID didn’t register a name or a phone number. Thinking it was most likely Trey calling right back, Gabrielle promptly answered it.
“Hello,” Gabrielle said at the same time the person on the other end was also saying hello. “Hello,” she said again. “Who are you calling to speak with?”
“You were the one who called here,” a male voice replied.
“Clarence? Is that you?” Gabrielle asked.
“Gabrielle?” Clarence said.
“Yes.”
“I just hung up from calling you,” Clarence said. “Some woman answered and said you were busy and you weren’t able to come to the phone. She didn’t ask who I was or anything. She just clicked me off without even saying good-bye.”
“Okay. I get what likely happened. It’s happened before where I’ve answered an incoming call while I was already on the phone. If you don’t hang up just right, it’s like both numbers are still connected, and they ring back at both places simultaneously when you finally hang up from the other call. It doesn’t happen every time, but it does happen.”
“Who answered your phone a few minutes ago?” Clarence asked.
“One of my houseguests.”
“Visiting?”
“Nope. Crashers, actually. They have nowhere else to go, so they decided to come and live with me,” Gabrielle said. “I’m sorry, Lord. I’m sorry. That was wrong of me.”
“No, you just told it like it is. But I thought you were a lot smarter than that. You do know that after they take root, it’s going to be almost impossible to uproot them from your place, don’t you? Well, all I can say is: you’re a better person than me.”
“It wasn’t like anyone asked me. It’s my aunt and her family. And I’m talking about the whole family, including three grandchildren.”
“Wait a minute, you mean they didn’t ask you? They just showed up at your door?”
“You got it.”
“Oh, girl, don’t let anybody just do that to you. No one has a right to disrespect you in that way. And if you think this is something a Christian is supposed to lay down and take, you must not have read or paid attention to the scripture where Jesus turned over a few moneychangers’ tables. Because they were pretty much taking advantage of the people. Thieves, that’s what Jesus basically called them. And I don’t think anybody can be more Christian than Christ. Sure, we are told to love, we’re told to forgive, but we’re not told to become doormats. Now, that’s my interpretation of the scriptures I’ve read.”
“I was trying to talk to Aunt Cee-Cee, and she was telling me they plan to go to church with me on Sunday. And then they’ll likely be out of here in a few weeks,” Gabrielle said.
“I understand you want people to go to church. But please tell me you didn’t fall for that line. Please tell me you didn’t.”
“Of course I didn’t fall for it. It’s just hard knowing you have somewhere to live and they don’t, and you won’t open your door up for them,” Gabrielle said. “It’s hard.”
“Let me see if I can’t break this down for you. Earlier this year, you were about to lose your house the same way they have lost theirs. I’m not saying to do unto others as they have done unto you, but based on what you told me when you and I first met: they put you out with nowhere to go when you were eighteen. Eighteen. Am I right?”
“Yes, but—”
“Just a minute. Stay with me, now. Had you been put out of your house, as it were, could you have gone over there to live with them the way they have now done to you?”
“But, Clarence, as a Christian—”
“But Clarence nothing. Just answer my question. Yes or no?”
“What is it with y’all and these yes or no questions?” Gabrielle said, thinking back to her earlier conversation with Zachary.
“Yes . . . or no?”
“No. But I want to do what God would have me to do.”
“Do you think they will be out of your house in two weeks?”
“No.”
“Three? Four? Six weeks?”
“Honestly?” Gabrielle said. “I believe a year from now they’ll likely all still be here unless something major happens.”
“Will that be okay with you?”
“No.” Her voice cracked.
“Then why put yourself through all of this?” Clarence asked.
Gabrielle heard the phone line open. “Are you still on here?” Angie asked, smacking on something. “How much longer are you going to be on the phone? I need to make a call.”
“Please hang up the phone,” Gabrielle said calmly. When Angie didn’t hang up, she said again, “Please . . . hang . . . up . . . my phone. Now.” She heard the line close.
“Again,” Clarence said. “Why would you put you
rself through this, knowing that it’s not going to end anytime soon?” Gabrielle didn’t answer him; she only sighed. “Gabrielle, when people are trying to get themselves together and do better, that’s one thing. When people are just trying to use you or get over on you, it’s up to you to draw a line. You can’t allow the devil to use others to stronghold you. I’m telling you now.”
“So you think I should put them out now,” Gabrielle said.
“I can’t tell you what you’re supposed to do. I can give you wisdom from my perspective. I can tell you what God is saying to me on the matter. But ultimately, you have to hear the Lord for yourself. You know what God has been telling you. You know, Gabrielle. Sometimes we think we’re helping people when it’s possible we’re merely getting in God’s way. Who’s to say that God isn’t using this situation to get your family’s attention so that they can hear Him?”
“You’re right, Clarence. But you called here, and I’m sure you didn’t call to talk to me about my family or my troubles.”
“Yeah, but it’s okay. That’s what friends are for. We’re told to bear one another’s burdens. I called to see if you’d like to rehearse tomorrow for my grandfather’s birthday celebration. We don’t have a lot of time to get together. After we see what we’re looking to do, you can practice at home on your own time.”
“Tomorrow? Yeah, sure.”
“Well, I was thinking about coming to your house, but now that I hear about what you’re dealing with, I think it would be great, for both of us, if you just come over here.”
“Yeah, we do need to get together. I can’t wait to see what song you’ve chosen.”
“Oh, I believe you’re going to love it. I’ll play it when you get here. I bought a copy of the song for you so you’ll have it for your own rehearsals,” Clarence said. “So, tomorrow, around what time?”
“Noonish is good for me.”
“Then noonish it is. I’ll see you then.”
As soon as Gabrielle hung up and placed the phone back in its base, it rang one time. When she looked at the number on the caller ID, she could tell by the name that it was for Angie.
The Truth Is the Light Page 22