Pill cleared her throat to make her announcement official. “I need, no, let me restate that. I want us to go into business together.”
Chapter 37
Pastor and First Lady Rawls invited the Taylors over to their home for their last session. The first family lived in a beautiful lakefront community in New Kent County. Pill thought about what brought her to this point, how much she had grown, and how much she stood to gain with Corey beside her. She was so excited to share with the first lady what had transpired in just one week.
They were greeted by a surprisingly casual first lady in a pair of jeans and a starched white blouse. She led them to a step-down family room off the kitchen, where she offered them some snacks already set up on the coffee table and took their coats.
“Aw, you arrived together. That’s a great sign,” First Lady said, sitting on the soft, off-white-colored couch to face Corey. “So, you’re back in the home. Ain’t nothing like your own bed.”
“Yeah,” Corey said with a broad smile.
“Uh-huh,” First Lady winked.
Corey let his eyes wander, trying to figure out what First Lady was getting at. “Yeah, it’s nice.”
“Yeah?” First Lady asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes, Lord,” Corey answered, catching her drift.
She clapped her hands together loudly. “All right now, I thought I was gonna have to pull out a pen and a pad and draw you some diagrams this session.”
“No, First Lady, no diagrams needed here,” Pill said, tapping her husband’s thigh from their spot on the love seat. Their loving had been sweet and as close to perfect as it comes, and she didn’t mind who knew it.
“Ben,” First Lady yelled, “come and greet my babies.”
They could hear a mumbled response, and then the heavy footfall of their pastor as he entered the room and descended the stairs with his hand extended.
“Have we adopted more children?” their pastor said, adjusting his belt around his waistline.
Corey and Pill both stood in reverence to their pastor until after the hugs and handshakes.
“Yeah, that’s Mama Rawls, all right,” Corey said. “We’ve got bumps and bruises to prove it.”
“I must admit I am a little unconventional,” First Lady admitted to her husband, as if he didn’t already know. “Do you remember marrying these two, the Taylors?”
“Yes, sure, I do. This was the couple I married on the beach.”
“Wait! This is them?” First Lady questioned, although Pill didn’t remember her being in attendance. First Lady elbowed her husband. “I remember you telling me about it, and how nice it was. I was mad you didn’t take me along after all the dull and ghettofabulous weddings you’ve taken me to. Wow, right out the gate you bore no expense—a beachside wedding. Where was the reception?”
Pill let Corey answer. He was real candid in his admission about the hang-ups he felt toward his cousin and his dad, Rico Sr.
“Believe it or not, we downsized the cost by having the wedding at the beach. Then we sort of had corporate sponsorship for the reception,” Corey admitted. “It was on Pop Proctor’s estate. That’s my uncle.”
“You don’t say?” Pastor Rawls said, genuinely impressed. “Big-time basketball player, Richmond native.”
Corey nodded his head and smiled. Pill knew from their conversations that Corey was beginning to realize his own blessings. After sharing Ms. Mabel’s gift, she left it in Corey’s hand. She gave him the option of selling the business as repayment for bailing her out of debt or fixing it up and managing the start-up and operations if the payday loan claim ruled in their favor. He told her that they’d pay the back taxes and make the business work regardless of the outcome of their claim, even if he had to ask his Uncle Rico for a loan.
“So you can cooperate financially. Planning a wedding, for many couples, is the first collective financial venture. Remember that cooperation, that planning and the compromising.”
Pill and Corey both nodded their heads. Pill watched Corey stand and walk over to the coatrack as if he had forgotten something. He came back with a picture.
“Actually, the wedding photo is what I brought for our assignment,” Corey said, passing the five-by-eight glossy around until it circled back to him.
It was the freestyle photo where Corey hitched Pill, wedding gown and all, on his back. It was an awkward pose yet endearing. Pill looked at her face nestled toward his ear as if she were telling him a secret.
“Nice,” Pastor Rawls commented.
First Lady called with an assignment when she arranged their last session. She asked them to bring a photo that represented their love and their bond. Pill loved that picture almost as much as the one she brought. Now she was wondering if she should have brought a more formal photo.
“Miss Thang?” First Lady questioned. “Show us what you got.”
Pill went inside her handbag to pull out a picture of them on the beach in a regular-sized print. They had played in the sand, and Corey got a stranger to snap a picture of them with a disposable camera. He had her in his arms and was carrying her into the water. Pill always thought it would make a nice photo in a magazine spread. The sky was clear, and the ocean was sprawled before them in a panoramic view.
Pill passed the picture around, starting with her husband. First Lady practically had to pry the picture from Corey’s hand to get a peek. Then she picked up the wedding photo in the other hand.
“Hmm, see that?” First Lady said, showing her husband.
“What?” Pill wondered, knowing there was no way to imagine what First Lady was thinking.
“Hers and his, both practically attesting to the same thing. She likes being carried, feeling safe and secure, and buddy boy likes carrying her, feeling her vulnerability and trust,” First Lady said, showing her husband again to see if he saw what she saw. “Here, I thought I was going to have to get all deep.”
Her husband chuckled, picking up a few chips from the bowl. “She always goes deep.”
“Talking about going deep, let’s get back to this nickname,” First Lady said as if they had been on the subject already. “I didn’t forget.”
“What’s her nickname?” Pastor Rawls asked.
“Pill, is that right?” First Lady asked. “Everyone calls her that, honey. So why shouldn’t her husband?”
“I imagine you are going to tell her,” Pastor Rawls said.
Pill tipped forward to help herself to something to snack on, fearing being read like a book in front of their pastor. She remembered First Lady’s reaction the first time she heard her nickname. Pill had to admit it was odd, but she had grown accustomed to it.
“Seems to me like that nickname has given sister girl here license to be selfish and maybe even a little nasty toward others all her life. Names are very important. Before God changed Saul’s name to Paul, he was a violent man, persecuting the church, until he met Jesus on that Damascus Road and changed his life. Don’t you feel like you’ve been changed?” First Lady asked, and Pill wondered if she was going to preach on the topic.
“I am changed. I told my husband the day he walked out the door was the day all that stuff stopped bringing me pleasure—the shoes, the handbags, everything. It suddenly wasn’t my whole world anymore.”
“Maybe I need to walk out on First Lady,” Pastor Rawls said with a sly smile.
“Miss Thang knows, and you also know, Ben Rawls, that I’m working on my spending too,” First Lady said with a playful punch to her husband’s arm. “Bottom line is we want our husbands more than the stuff.”
Pill nodded her head, not sure she could trust her voice. Corey tapped her arm appreciatively, reassuringly.
“Your wife’s God-given name is Pamela or Pam, and I don’t care who else calls her Pill; I think you, as her husband, should see and refer to her as Pam. That means, Missy-Poo, that your license to be mean, insensitive, and financially irresponsible in this marriage is revoked.” First Lady pointed from Corey to Pam
.
“Can you do that? Can you accept that you are no longer that same person?” First Lady asked.
Pam thought about the nickname her mom called her as a child. That had been her identity. She began to tear up. “I can’t believe this is our last session,” Pam said. Although everything was going well, she wondered who they would rely on if they got off course.
“You always have Marriage Maintenance,” First Lady said.
“Yeah, but why only five sessions, First Lady?” Corey asked.
“Yeah,” Pam cosigned.
“Indefinite sessions make for dependent Christians that shouldn’t be relying on me, but God. Your pastor here decided that. We felt anything past five sessions makes you start believing it’s me, gassing my head up and stalking me.”
They all laughed until it quieted to a murmur.
Corey was the first to speak. “Your wife is da bomb,” he said to his pastor.
“Trust me, I know,” Pastor Rawls said, sitting back in his seat and extending his hand behind his wife’s back. He nudged her to get a kiss, and she obliged him with a peck.
Pam felt the first lady staring at both of them as if she had birthed them.
“You are perfect for each another,” First Lady said.
Corey looked at Pam, and she at him. She didn’t know whether that was true. She had caused him so much unnecessary heartache.
“One of the modern self-help theorists says you’re drawn to marry someone who will help you heal. I believe that, but you all know with me, theory must meet theology. I know God doesn’t make mistakes. He knows we will marry for the wrong reasons. Heck, marry the wrong person altogether, but both have to be willing to yield themselves to God’s transforming power for it to work. You did not marry the wrong person. I don’t even believe you married at the wrong time. She was tailor-made for you, Mister Man, and he was tailor-made for you, Miss Thang. With God’s help, you can make your marriage what it is meant to be.
“Trust God with your union. Trust your husband with your heart,” she continued looking at Pam. “Tell her that she is tailor-made for you, Mister Man.”
Corey was silent for a moment, and Pam could tell he was overcome with emotion as she suddenly was. “Pamela Jones Taylor, you are tailor-made for me.”
“Perfect,” First Lady cheered. “Hit the mantra, Miss Thang.”
Pam felt as if she were renewing her vows. Her past was finally receding behind her, and her future loomed magnificently before her. “Divorce is not an option.”
Reader’s Guide Questions
1. How was Pill undermining Corey’s godly authority in their household with her constant spending?
2. First Lady Rawls had a unique gift to quickly read Corey and Pill during their sessions. Why was Pill so mistrusting? What was Corey compensating for?
3. Discuss the power struggles Corey and Pill had in and out of the bedroom.
4. Discuss the “work wife” relationship between Corey and Crystal. Could their relationship be considered cheating?
5. What did First Lady mean when she told Pill divadom has a cost?
6. How was Pill’s relationship with her mother affecting her relationship with Corey?
7. How was Corey’s relationship with his mother affecting his relationship with Pill?
8. Discuss the conversation Pill had with the woman outside the Lend It store about the homeless man, Martin, and the patrons of the lending institution. Do you believe the circumstances of the unfortunate are meant to teach us a lesson or prompt us to action?
9. How did Corey’s leaving Pill and their home reinforce her earlier ill conceived notions about men and relationships?
10. Pill’s mother said her therapist explained that risk taking and thrill seeking were actually addictions. How did Pill exhibit some of the same behaviors in her own life?
11. First Lady points out to Pill at their last session that names are very important. Think of nicknames you’ve been called or the nicknames of people you know. How can those nicknames help carve your identity?
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Taylor Made Copyright © 2011 Sherryle Kiser Jackson
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