Loving Mr. Wright

by Brenda Barrett

  How unlucky could one girl be? An ex-con?

  She shuddered and like in a movie she could see, playing behind her mind's eye, everytime she was alone with him; all the days they were in the hills; all the times he came to the house. She could see the two of them laughing together. She could see them talking together.

  Then she saw the look of sheer frustration on Caleb's face when she locked the patio doors. Was she overreacting? She lay on the bed and curled into a fetus like position. She felt as if she had lost her best friend.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Erica changed four different outfits before she left for church that morning. She had been in the mood to wear black, but all her black clothes were too big for her now, so she settled on a navy blue outfit that she bought two weeks earlier—she felt as if she was in mourning. All week her mind had tormented her with the last conversation she had with Caleb.

  He seemed so innocent, she thought over and over. He was handsome intelligent and he was Christian. How on earth could a handsome intelligent Christian man be an ex-convict?

  What had he done?

  She didn't want to stay home by herself that Sabbath so she reluctantly hauled herself to church. Despite the news that Caleb was an ex-con, a part of her was longing to see him and she wished that she could see him at church. Maybe then she could calmly listen to his story, but finding out that the man you love was an ex-con and not knowing what he was in for was hard to take.

  So maybe she had overreacted. Caleb hadn't done anything to show that he was a criminal, had he? But the innocent looking ones were the worst. She could remember watching horror tales of serial killers having wives and girlfriends who thought they were normal.

  She shuddered. Caleb often spoke of his wife as an ex. Was she an 'alive ex,' or a 'dead ex'? She had pictured it in her mind all week: the wife had an affair; he was devastated and in a fit of rage killed her.

  Did he kill her as a crime of passion? The thoughts were so terrible that when Erica stepped out of her car and saw Phoebe waiting for her with a concerned look on her face, she hadn't even registered that she was there.

  "Stop ignoring me," Phoebe said, exasperated. "I am standing here in my gorgeous lavender dress. I know I am hard to ignore."

  "Oh, sorry, Phoebe," Erica said absently. "I have things on my mind."

  "You should," Phoebe said sternly. "Before you enter church, let me tell you what I heard."

  "Huh?" Erica looked at her. "What you heard?"

  "Well," Phoebe looked at her nails, "Tanya said she heard from Sister Hewitt, who heard from Sister Ficoms, who just got back from Kingston, that Caleb was in prison for first degree murder."

  Erica slumped on her car. "What? So I was right."

  "Yup," Phoebe nodded.

  Tanya who had been looking out for Erica came to stand before her in the parking lot. "You poor dear, I am so sorry about your new guy."

  "Are you guys serious?" Erica asked, tears in her eyes. "He murdered somebody?"

  Tanya gulped. "Murder? No, I heard from Sister Ficoms just a minute ago that it was arson. He burned down some building or the other."

  "Oh." Erica put her hand on her heart, the fear she felt that her inner musings were indeed true, melted slightly under her pragmatism. "Isn’t arson better than murder?"

  Phoebe and Tanya looked at each other.

  Then Phoebe shrugged. "Maybe it was murder then arson."

  "No," Tanya shook her head, "he would have gotten a longer prison sentence."

  Erica could barely put one foot before the other as she entered the church foyer. Her two friends were patting her hand and encouraging her but she hardly heard them.

  When she entered the foyer, her mother was in a crowd of women, her stricken expression very telling.

  "Oh thank God," she looked up when she saw Erica. "Are you all right?"

  "Yes," Erica said, frowning.

  "I just heard the most awful news." Lola took Erica's hand. "Your boyfriend is a bank robber."

  "What?" Erica's head was spinning. "He couldn't have been a murderer, arsonist, and bank robber all at once."

  "It's possible," Phoebe said beside her. "He could have murdered the security guard, robbed the bank, and set it afire."

  "Nah," Tanya said adamantly. "He would have gotten more than five years."

  The lobby was full of chatter and Erica was surrounded by several theories when the place suddenly fell silent. Caleb had entered. He clutched his Bible to the front of his jacket and was standing at the entrance. The greeting committee, who was usually eager to greet him, was absent and when he stepped into the foyer it became quiet. He looked around. There were groups of women looking at him with wide-eyed fear. He recognized that look from Erica when she had retreated from him earlier in the week.

  His eyes searched for her in the crowd of women standing around and then he found her. There she was in the midst of the group, her eyes wet with tears and looking miserable, she couldn't wait to spread the story to everyone.

  He sighed and then spun around and headed out. He walked through the parking lot and then down the hill. He didn't stop until he reached home.

  A woman betrayed him once more.

  He wouldn't even think about it this time, he clenched and unclenched his fists. He sat on his verandah and just stared. He thought that today he could explain everything to her at church in a quiet place. He hoped that she would listen and not go running off as she did on Tuesday, but she couldn't even wait for an explanation, she had stood there in the middle of those cackling hens and judged him.

  There was a pain in the region of his heart. He had no idea that Erica had been like that. This was the woman that he had given his heart to, this was the woman that had even made him love again with a depth he didn't even known he had.

  He kissed his teeth, threw off his jacket, and tried to blank his mind.

  *****

  To say that the day had been trying was an understatement. Everyone in church had been sympathetic to her, until one little girl from kindergarten had given her a hug and asked her if she was dying.

  It certainly had seemed that way with all the outpouring of support she was getting.

  Pastor Brick had even given her a long lecture after church about the sinful nature of man. "All have sinned, Sister Erica," he said to her sternly. "If a man did his time in prison and is seeking the Lord you should give him a chance. Some men have learned their lessons while in lockup. They need love too."

  Erica had looked at pastor Brick as if he was missing a screw. Why the lecture? As far as she was concerned prison meant that you had done something wrong and she wasn't going to live her life wondering if she was going to be the next victim of a murderer or arsonist.

  She refused to think that Caleb could change. Can a leper change his spots? Wasn’t he, deep down, the same creature that he was when he went to prison.

  She knew it was something terrible that he did because he refused to tell her what it was. It must have been really bad.

  She drove behind her parent's vehicle slowly as she headed from church. Her mother had insisted, in a panicked tone, that she not go back home without security. "Who knows what he is capable of, Erica?"

  Her father had been surprisingly calm. If he hadn't done anything in the past months what was he going to do now?

  Erica had decided to have lunch with them. She didn't want to be alone with her thoughts of Caleb. She was angry at him. So angry she didn't have much room for a broken heart. Why couldn't he have told her about his past? He had gotten the opportunity to do so many times. They worked together, talked together, laughed together and it took him months to tell her about his ex-wife and now the big news that he was in prison.

  She slumped in the settee in her parent's den, throwing down her church bag and sighing.

  "I can't believe you didn’t tell me about this from you heard," Lola said. "You knew from Tuesday that this man was an ex-con and you kept it to yourself? Suppose he decided
that once you found out he was going to kill you? I would have lost you to a murderer that you were harboring in your own home."

  Fred rolled his eyes and then sat in his reclining chair. "Have a seat, Lola, and mind you burst a blood vessel."

  "No," Lola glared at him. "Erica was going to this guy's house day after day and was alone with him. She even claims to love him," she shuddered. "He even came here for lunch; maybe he took stock of our possessions and will come back at a later date with his evil cronies and kill us."

  Fred laughed. "I heard he was in for drug trafficking. Not murder."

  Lola sat down abruptly. "Do you hear that Erica—drugs! I don't know how I can stand this. I had a drug lord sitting at my table, pretending to be a Christian."

  Erica stared at her frantic mother through her fingers, "Caleb is not a drug trafficker. He doesn't drink, smoke, or take drugs."

  "They never usually do—they sell the substance, not use it," Lola said, exasperated. "How can you be defending him? Have you gone crazy?"

  "I think you are the crazy one," Fred said calmly. "Did it ever occur to you that Sister Hewitt could have exaggerated her claims about the man. Besides, whatever he did in the past, he is now going to church, making an effort to change. Have you not heard of redemption?"

  Lola sighed. "He's an ex-con. I do not want my daughter to get involved with an ex-con. I think you should cut him off all together." She turned to Erica who is staring at the two of them silently.

  Fred got up. "If God treated us that way, we would never have a chance. In the 70's we smoked marijuana, in the 80's we had wild orgies. Remember Lola? If God had said, I can't tolerate those two sinners—Fred and Lola—where would we be now?"

  Erica sat up straighter and looked at her father. "You know Dad, you have a point. I have never really thought about it that way. "

  "Stop it right there," Lola glared at Fred. "You cannot dispute the fact that this young man has lied to our Erica about his past, and with good reason, it's terrible. Whatever it is, it was terrible enough for him to have gone to prison. I tell you the truth, when people dabble with evil they usually get burnt. And this man thinks that he can come to church and court one of the finest women there and corrupt her."

  "Mom," Erica shook her head, "Caleb is not like that. He has a genuine relationship with God."

  "Stay far away from him," Lola said exasperatedly, "or you and I are through!"

  "You can't be through with me," Erica gasped at her mother, "and why are you so strongly against Caleb. You don't even know him! Dad! Talk to her."

  Fred shrugged. "I sleep with her, Erica, and she usually allows me to play golf without much fuss."

  Erica got up. "I am out of here."

  Lola looked at her with a wounded look on her face. "If you speak to that prisoner guy I'm not talking to you."

  "This is not kindergarten, Mom. You can't just cut me off and threaten me with emotional blackmail."

  "If you don't stay far away from this guy, you will get hurt. You'll never be able to trust him. His past habits, whatever they are, will come back to haunt you. Maybe one day he'll get up and hack you to death, and then what, Erica? All because you didn’t listen to your mother."

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Caleb went to Villa Rose Monday morning with bittersweet emotions. He had not slept since he had high-tailed it from the church. Today he would be meeting the other kitchen staff and Chris Donahue would brief them on the operations of the villa. He felt a lot more sluggish than he should and more downcast than he should be especially since he had long anticipated starting this job.

  He kept remembering the fear that was in Erica's eyes when she heard that he had been in prison. He kept remembering the shock in the eyes of the women in the church lobby. He had vowed never to go back to that church; never to include a woman in his life and never to trust anyone. He had well and truly had it with women and people in general. A little pain in the region of his heart indicated that he wasn't all detached from the situation.

  Dislodging Erica from his head and heart would take a while, maybe longer than it had taken him to dislodge Julia. For some strange reason, it seemed as if Erica's betrayal went a lot deeper than Julia's. He sighed. Once more a woman had betrayed him.

  Could Erica not have waited for him to talk to her? She had to tell the whole church… and now he was once again on the outside looking in. Once more, he was all alone; a prisoner, even when he was on the outside.

  He didn't even get to tell his side of the story; they probably made up their minds about him by now. He would be branded and despised. More than anything in his whole five-year prison experience, he learnt the lesson that once your reputation was dragged through the mud, there was no getting it back—as that young guy had said to him so long ago, "Once a sinner always a sinner."

  He tried to shake himself from his doldrums—he would be leading a staff of ten. He had a responsibility once more and was doing what he had always loved. God had restored that part of his life and he was thankful.

  Dwelling on the loss of Erica and the new life he had been building in his head would cause him to be bitter again, but if it's one thing he had learnt, it's that being bitter was not what God wanted for him.

  He looked around at the luxuriously appointed kitchen; it was state-of-the-art. He could see that whoever designed it knew exactly what a chef would need and more.

  He ran his hand over the stainless steel appliances and was looking around at the pots and pans. Everything was bright and shiny. He would soon rectify that, anticipation built up in his heart.

  "I see you are looking around."

  Caleb spun around and saw Chris Donahue leaning against the door. Chris ran his fingers through his hair.

  "I haven't been down here since it was built. Is everything up to scratch?"

  "Oh yes," Caleb said. "It is even better laid out here than at the hotel I was before."

  Chris nodded. "The designer was one of the best." He had a far away look in his eyes and Caleb waited for him to focus on him once more. "She was truly the best."

  Caleb remembered vaguely Erica telling him that her sister had designed this place and had an affair with Chris. That was before she had dropped the prison question on him.

  "So, uh," Chris rubbed his neck, "would you like to come to the boardroom, I told the others to come in an hour from now. You and I need to go over some things before your support staff gets here."

  Caleb nodded and followed behind Chris as he took the stairs two by two.

  "We could take the elevator but we can always use the exercise." Caleb nodded.

  They reached the first floor reception area and Chris led him to a door, which looked the same as the wall.

  Chris pointed to another door that had the same design. "That's my office; this is the boardroom."

  Caleb followed him through. "Wow, very nice."

  Chris nodded. The space was painted in a mint green color and had a long desk and plush chairs in the same mint green shade with deeper green stripes. There were several plants occupying different corners of the room.

  "I had argued with Kelly about the color but I see that it works."

  "Kelly is Erica's sister," Caleb said, sitting down.

  "Oh yes," Chris sat across from him. "You are Erica's boyfriend. Dad had warned me about that. I have been involved with that family on a personal level recently and I was weighing whether or not I should hire you because of the connection."

  "I am not Erica's boyfriend anymore," Caleb shrugged. "Apparently my past is an issue."

  Chris leaned back in his chair. "Surely she is not holding that against you?"

  "She doesn't know the full story," Caleb said helplessly. "I went to church to tell her and when I went into the lobby they were all looking at me as if I was the big bad wolf who came to steal their little innocent sheep. I'm never going back to that church again."

  Chris laughed. "You know, Three Rivers folks are not so bad. I love them."


  "So why don't you go there anymore?" Caleb asked curiously. "Your father and your mother go there."

  Chris shrugged. "It's a long story. I visit other churches now but sometimes I go there on Wednesday nights for a spiritual pick me up. Maybe you can come with me when I go visiting. I'll pick you up. It's not good to avoid church just because of some crime you have allegedly committed. Besides, what happened to you can happen to any man. I don’t know how you survived that stint in prison and can still smile."

  Caleb looked at Chris; he seemed to Caleb like a nice enough person. He remembered his lecture to himself about not trusting people but decided that he would just let down his guard a teensy bit, just for now.

  "Well, I got baptized in my second year in prison. I did a lot of wrangling with God to change my heart…I was bitter. Before I accepted Jesus as my personal savior from sin I had a plan, and that plan was to find Julia when I got out of prison and kill her and Colleen, and burn the house down.

  "I didn’t care how they died, but I was sure that I was going to kill them personally. But God, who knows me best, sent this lady to the prison…she came to see me personally. She talked to me about the Bible and left one with me. After that it seemed as if church groups were always impressed to pray with me when they visit. The rest is history. Little by little, the bitterness went away. I think now I can probably see Julia in the street and not feel to tear her to pieces with my bare hands."

  Chris nodded. "So what is she doing now? Do you know?"

  "No," Caleb shook his head. "I lost touch with everybody from that very day I went to prison. I wouldn’t dare to go back there. People had already judged me and found me wanting, so I have completely severed ties with that section of my life. I think it's one of God's blessings that I got this job here."