The Other Side of Goodness

by Vanessa Davis Griggs

  “You can stop now.” Paris went to the drawer with the menus in it. “I’m ordering us something for dinner. See,” she said, holding up a menu.

  Andrew continued until the eggs were 99 percent done. Only after he turned the heat off did he sprinkle salt and pepper on it. “Waiting until it’s done to put the salt in keeps your eggs from being tough,” he said.

  Paris picked up the phone. Andrew poured the cooked eggs into a bowl. He went and took down two plates, raking half of the cooked eggs onto each. Handing Paris one of the plates, he pulled two forks out of the drawer, put one on the plate Paris held and the other on his, sat down at the table in the kitchen, said a quick prayer, and began to eat.

  “You have got to be kidding me!” Paris said, standing there holding her plate.

  “You’d better eat it before it gets cold.”

  “I’m not eating eggs for dinner!” Paris set the plate down.

  “Suit yourself. But it’s good, if I say so myself.”

  Paris stood over him with her fists thrust into her sides. “What is your problem?”

  Andrew looked up at her. “I’m not like you. I’m good. You live in pleasure, but it’s like you’re dead inside or something. I don’t understand why you can’t see that. God has blessed you so much, Paris. But for some reason, it looks like it’s never enough for you.”

  “This is about the baby you want, isn’t it? Isn’t it, Andrew?”

  Andrew shook his head. “You made it clear, early on, that you really didn’t want a baby. You say you want one now. But honestly, Paris, I don’t know what to believe anymore when it comes to you.” He put the last of his eggs in his mouth and stood up. “Cedric warned me about you. He said everything was all about you and what you wanted. Maybe I should have listened to him.” He took his empty dish and fork to the sink, washed them, then laid them on a paper towel to dry.

  “So you want to bring up Cedric, huh? You want to bring up my ex? Well, I’ll have you know that he was a real loser. He didn’t have anything, and he wasn’t trying to be anything, other than a scrub.”

  Andrew turned to look in her face. “Is that the real reason you came after me? Because you thought I had something? Well, surprise! I didn’t have anything to offer you much, either, Paris. I grew up poor, and I’ve had to work hard for everything I’ve ever gotten. So I didn’t have anything substantial to offer you when you came after me.”

  “Except your heart,” Paris said.

  He looked at her and his heart couldn’t help but to soften now.

  Paris was starting to cry. “You have had to work hard for everything you’ve ever gotten. I, on the other hand, grew up somewhat privileged.” She stepped closer to Andrew. “Still, through all of my pretending, you saw past my façade . . . you saw the real me. The girl that everybody always said was pretty, but no one ever saw I was also pretty smart.” She touched Andrew’s arm. “You, Andrew Holyfield, saw that, underneath my layers of nastiness and pettiness, that I have a heart.”

  “Of course, you have a heart, Paris.” He touched her face. “You just get caught up in what’s going on around you and forget that what you say and do can sometimes hurt others, even though you might not think that it does.”

  “I know. And you’re right; I want to be a better person. But I need you, Andrew. I need someone in my life that can show me how to be better and to love me unconditionally. And you’ve always done that. Whether I cook or not, whether I clean or not, whether I’m nice or not . . . you seem to still love me.”

  “I do love you, Paris. I do.”

  “And I love you. I’m sorry for the way I’ve acted lately. So will you forgive me?”

  Andrew smiled. “Of course.”

  “Hold up a second.” Paris went over to the kitchen counter and came back holding her plate of eggs out to him.

  He looked at the plate. “Why are you bringing this to me? If you don’t want to eat it, just scrape it into the garbage disposal.”

  She grinned and began flipping her hair back. “I was hoping I might be able to entice you to serve me breakfast in bed.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, okay.”

  “I’m serious,” she said. “I was thinking we could get an early start on that baby project we’re working on, if you know what I mean.”

  He grinned. “Serious? Well, now, you know . . . I think I can accommodate that request. I mean: A man’s gotta do, what a man’s gotta do.” He took the plate, set it down on the table, and scooped her up into his arms.

  Paris let out a loud yelp. “What are you doing?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? I’m sweeping my baby’s mama off her feet. If we’re going to get this started, then I want to start it off right. You say I’m slightly a perfectionist. Well, practice makes perfect.”

  Paris giggled like a teenager as he carried her up the stairs to their bedroom.

  Chapter 28

  My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

  —1 John 3:18

  It was early when the phone rang, awakening Paris. Paris quickly looked at the caller ID; it was her parent’s home number. Andrew rolled over. She slid her feet into her light blue silk slippers, slipped on her silk robe, and dashed out of the bedroom into the hallway so not to wake Andrew completely.

  Paris pressed the TALK button. “Hello,” she whispered.

  “Did you happen to see the news this morning?” Deidra asked before saying hello back or asking Paris how she was.

  “No. We happen to still be asleep.”

  “Still asleep? At nine o’clock in the morning?”

  “It’s Saturday, Mother. People tend to sleep late on the weekends, especially when they don’t have to get up and go to work,” Paris said.

  “But you don’t work,” Deidra said.

  “Yeah, but Andrew does. And he’s off today.” Paris sat down on the top step, wrapping her robe around her better to ward off the chill. “So what were you saying about the news? What happened?”

  “Your father . . . he’s all up in arms. He just learned that someone stole his bone marrow donor campaign idea,” Deidra said.

  “Stole his idea? How does someone steal an idea about becoming a donor?”

  “Apparently this pastor on our local NBC morning news is talking about his church spearheading a drive to bring awareness of a little girl in need of a bone marrow transplant,” Deidra said. “I believe it’s the same little girl your father was planning to highlight. So, of course, your father is livid. He claims this will undercut the impact of his plan before he can even get it out there.”

  “Why does Daddy care who spearheads this if the whole point was to bring awareness and possibly find a donor for her? You’d think Daddy would be happy.”

  “Because your father wants to tie this effort in with his reelection campaign. If someone else is doing it, it takes away from him appearing to be leading the charge.”

  “Well, he’ll make it work to his advantage,” Paris said. “He always does. And honestly, this absolutely works for me. Now I won’t have to feel bad about not standing with all of you had Daddy done this the way he was planning to.”

  “Oh, he’s still planning on doing it his way now. He just has to step up the timetable so he can take this narrative back from that church before it looks like it’s really their idea. He’s been on the phone with William and their PR person all morning setting things up. They’re trying to schedule a news event right now so he can make it on the evening news. He’s hoping the newsfeed will get him picked up on a larger scale after it airs here. You know how these things work.”

  “Great,” she said. “Well, I hope everything works out for him.”

  “He still wants to make a good showing at the news conference. He wants all of us standing together as a family, like what he was saying yesterday,” Deidra said.

  “Okay. Well, I’ll let Andrew know when he wakes up.”

  “Paris, I know what you said yesterday about not
wanting to take part. But I really think you should come and stand with us. If not for your father, do it for me.”

  “Mother, I hear you. I heard Dad. But I’m honestly not interested.”

  “Hold on a second, Paris. Your daddy wants to talk to you for a minute.”

  Paris didn’t want to talk to her father. Not after the wonderful time she and Andrew had together last night. She looked up at the ceiling and shook her head.

  “Paris, this is your father.”

  “I know, Daddy,” she said, standing up now. She went down the stairs to the den. Even though Andrew was likely still asleep, she didn’t want him hearing any of what she might say in response to her father and start the friction between them all over again. Not after last night.

  “I need you at the news conference so we can stand united as a family.”

  “Daddy, I already gave you my answer.”

  “I heard you,” Lawrence said. “And I was fully willing to allow you that. But things have changed overnight. Pastor Landris was on television this morning talking about doing the very thing I said we were going to do. Speciously, there’s a spy in my midst. How else would that preacher end up coming up with the very thing we’d discussed doing? This is definitely no coincidence, I’ll tell you.”

  “I don’t think this is anything that merits stealing. Just like you and William decided on it, I’m sure the way William found out about this child’s dilemma, so may have Pastor Landris. I personally think it’s great that this is being done for this little girl and her family and I don’t have to be involved.”

  “Where’s Andrew?”

  “Still asleep.”

  “Asleep? Then wake him up.”

  “Daddy, I’m not going to wake Andrew up. I’ll just have him call you when he wakes up.”

  “Listen, Paris Elizabeth, I don’t have time to play. I need all hands on deck. Andrew said he would stand with us on this, so I need him to know the plan.”

  “Then tell me and I’ll tell him.”

  “Why would I tell you? You’ve made it abundantly clear that you want nothing to do with any of this,” Lawrence said. “So wake up your husband and give him the phone. We need to be sure we come off as sincere and creditable in this as possible. We have to take hold of this before Pastor Landris and his church completely upstage us and get all the credit. We can’t just talk; we’re going to have to prove that we mean what we say. So put my son-in-law on the phone and hurry up about it! We’re wasting time, all right?”

  Paris pressed her mouth tight before forcing a smile. “Sure, Daddy. Just a minute.”

  She walked back upstairs to her bedroom. Andrew was just coming out of the bathroom. “Daddy wants to speak to you.” Defeated, she handed her husband the phone.

  Chapter 29

  These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

  —Jude 16

  Lawrence had called Gabrielle as soon as he saw the news, even before he phoned William. He wanted to find out from her what was going on. Had she decided not to pressure him to do all he could, now that he’d told her he’d been tested and learned he was a blood match but wasn’t a bone marrow match?

  Gabrielle had calmly explained to Lawrence that her pastor had been made aware of the little girl and wanted to do something to help. Pastor Landris announced it to the congregation. It just happens that lots of prominent people attend Followers of Jesus Faith Worship Center, many with connections to the media. One such person thought what they were doing as a local body, bringing awareness to this type of problem and volunteering to be tested, deserved a larger audience than merely their members. So that’s what was apparently happening now.

  “Then it sounds like I can scrap plans for my family to be tested,” Lawrence had said with relief.

  “Lawrence, your children still need to see if any of them may be a match,” Gabrielle said. “Finding a perfect match is difficult; finding a good match is not that easy, either. It’s not like donating blood that would likely find matches needed in a number of folks. Your children still need to be tested to see if any of them match.”

  Lawrence had been disappointed by her answer. He was hoping this new development with the church stepping up would allow him to remove his children from the equation completely.

  Paris had already stated she wasn’t going to cooperate, not even with the staging of him revealing what he was planning to do. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to get her to change her mind. This church doing this now could have been a great out for sure, but Gabrielle wasn’t letting them off the hook. She was going all out to save this child and, in Lawrence’s opinion, she could care less about any possible debris left along the way.

  So Lawrence had to alter his plans since someone else had now preempted his planned announcement. William was the one who felt they had to hold a larger news conference in order to wrestle away any thunder Pastor Landris may have taken from them. William suggested one other thing they hadn’t planned to do originally.

  “I think we should get with the mother of this child and see if we can make the announcement from the actual hospital,” William said.

  “Do what?” Lawrence was totally not expecting this. “Are you out of your mind? You want me to tie myself to those people in that way?”

  “Follow me on this,” William said. “You get me the information on the mother. I’ll speak with her, let her know we heard about her little girl, and that we want to use your office to do what we can to help. Didn’t you say that Gabrielle hasn’t revealed who you are to this little girl to anyone other than her boyfriend?”

  “That’s what she told me. But who’s to say she’s telling the truth, and who’s to say her boyfriend hasn’t leaked anything?”

  “Well, from our side of things, nothing appears to have been revealed concerning you. Believe me: We’d be hearing some kind of rumbling if there had been. So I’m thinking you could call Gabrielle and ask her for the mother’s contact information. I could then contact the mother, tell her what we’d like to do for her daughter by way of a televised news conference that will certainly cover a greater area than ever before, and voila!”

  “So you want us to go to the hospital, if we get the clearance, and make the announcement of our intentions to be tested as a family from there?” Lawrence said.

  “Exactly! Picture the optics. And honestly, I believe this is a better way to sell it to everyone, including your family. It would appear really sincere, and if we get the mother on board, we would no longer be speaking generically, and it would be more than an abstract thought. We’d have a real live person who’s being affected by this need, placed before the people,” William said. “The media loves a feel-good story.”

  “All right. Let me see what I can do from my end. I’ll get back with you as soon as I hear back from Gabrielle and she hears back from the child’s mother, if we get that far.” Lawrence hung up.

  He called Gabrielle again and explained the plan. She told him she would get in touch with the mother and call him back. Lawrence stressed to Gabrielle the importance of the child’s mother believing he, as an Alabama representative, had heard of their plight and wanted to help. Gabrielle called him back within five minutes.

  “Okay. I spoke with the mother. Her name is Jessica Noble. She totally broke down and cried when I told her you were interested in bringing more attention to the search for a bone marrow donor,” Gabrielle said. “She said it would be fine for your people to contact her. She’ll be looking for the call. But now she did ask how I happened to have spoken to you about this. She wanted to know how you knew to call me in the first place.”

  Lawrence’s breath caught in his throat. He hadn’t even thought about that. “What did you tell her?”

  “I told her I had made great efforts in contacting your office, which is true. And that I was asking for whatever help anyone could give towar
d assistance. She already knew what my pastor and the church were doing. So this fell right in line.”

  “Wonderful,” Lawrence said with a smile. “Then if you’ll give me Jessica Noble’s phone number, I’ll get this ball rolling.”

  “What about your family? Is everyone on board?”

  “I spoke with everyone yesterday. Almost everyone is on board to be tested to see if they might be a candidate for further testing as a match.”

  “Almost every body?” Gabrielle said.

  “Yeah. Paris doesn’t want to participate.”

  “But what if—”

  “Listen, I need to get off the phone,” Lawrence said, deliberately interrupting her. “I need to let William and his team know that this is a go. We don’t have a lot of time to waste. I’ll talk with you should I need anything more, which I don’t think I will.”

  “Sure,” Gabrielle said, then gave him Jessica’s cell phone number. “Thanks, Lawrence. I really appreciate this.”

  “No problem,” Lawrence said. “Besides, what other option have you given me?” He hung up, then thought about whether that last sentence had truly been necessary. After all, she was only trying to save the life of a child she’d already saved once. Lawrence, on the other hand, was looking to save only what mattered most to him—his wife, family, and his political career.

  William pulled everything together. The optics of being at the hospital to make the announcement were perfect. Doctors explained the medical what and how. Lawrence’s family stood together, surprisingly including Paris. Lawrence wasn’t sure how Andrew had managed to pull that one off, but it appeared he’d been the one to convince her to be there with the family.

  When the cameras rolled, Deidra spoke from a mother’s point of view. It was very touching. But the star of the news conference turned out to be Imani. She brought home the point, emphasizing that they were talking about an eight-year-old little girl with her whole life ahead of her. And all she needed was a little marrow.