When All Is Said and Prayed

by E. N. Joy

  “They wouldn’t let you off the bus, either?” Paige asked Adele. Adele was in first grade, so it wasn’t against the school district’s policy to allow her off the bus without an adult at the bus stop to meet her.

  “Yeah, they would,” Adele said. “But I wasn’t about to leave my sister on that bus. Puh-lease.” She snapped her neck and rolled her eyes.

  Paige looked in the rearview mirror and smiled at her mini me. Full of attitude, Adele had gotten it honest.

  “That’s right, girlfriend,” Paige said, giving Adele a high five over the seat. “You make sure you stick with your sister.”

  “I’m my sister’s keeper,” the girls said in unison, knowing that was exactly what their mother was going to say next. That was something Paige quoted frequently and explained to her daughters. She’d drilled it into them never to let anything separate them or come between them, not friends and definitely not boys.

  “That’s right,” Paige said to them, proud that they’d been paying attention.

  She got the girls back home, she did their homework with them, she cooked and fed them dinner, and then they watched some television and she got them all bathed and tucked into bed. She even read them each a bedtime story. It was at story time that Paige gave them individual attention. She visited each of their rooms, tucking them in and allowing them to pick out the book they wanted to read.

  After showering and getting on her nightclothes, Paige climbed in bed, ready to dive into a book of her own. It wasn’t The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss, or The Secret Olivia Told Me, by N. Joy, which were the books she’d read to the girls. It was a Brenda Jackson romance novel.

  She grabbed her book off of the white Victorian nightstand, bumping the phone. That reminded her that she wanted to give her brother a call. She picked up the phone and dialed her brother. Having watched Adele and Norma today had drummed up thoughts of her and her brother when they were younger. She smiled just thinking about how close they had once been. But then, as they got older, she had felt that he was the golden boy, and she had distanced herself due to jealousy. Even though they weren’t close, she loved him to death.

  “Hey, little sis,” her brother said into the phone receiver after the second ring. “I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I looked at the caller ID,” he joked.

  “Boy, quit playing. What’s up? How have you been?”

  Even though it had been months since Paige had talked to her brother, the two picked up where they’d left off the last time, as if it had just been yesterday. An hour later and after making plans for their families to get together for an outing, Paige ended the call.

  Paige was sure some siblings talked to one another every day, every other day, or at least once a week. Good for them, she thought, but that wasn’t the relationship she had with her brother. But one thing she knew for certain was that if she called on him, her brother would be there for her in a minute, and vice versa.

  Paige sat back on her king-size bed with a Victorian headboard and footboard that matched the nightstand, dresser, and chest. She looked down at her book. It had gotten late, but she couldn’t imagine closing her eyes without first escaping into a fairy-tale romance that girls only dreamed of. After about twenty pages of reading, Paige’s eyelids were fluttering. She was forcing them to stay open. She did not want to stop reading her book. But she had to be up and ready to function in the morning in order to do it all over again. She closed the book and placed it back on the nightstand.

  “Tomorrow it’s me and you.” She patted the book and blew a kiss at the hunk of a cover model. She then pulled the comforter up to her neck while nestling into her pillow. She closed her eyes with a smile on her face. Reading a Brenda Jackson book at bedtime could do that to a chick. Now, if only her real life could read like a romance novel. Only time would tell.

  “Ugh!” Paige jumped out of bed. Her heart was beating faster than it ever had in her life. She’d gotten so caught up in her reading last night that she’d forgotten to set her alarm. This wasn’t the first time one of her favorite author’s books had done this to her. This author had been responsible for making her late to work at least three times back when she worked at the theater. Countless meals had burned and had to be placed in the trash, and many pizzas had been ordered as a replacement, because she’d been so caught up in the great reads. If it was possible for a reader to sue an author for time missed at work, food wasted, and pizzas ordered, she absolutely would. But at the end of the day any avid reader would confess that it was all worth it!

  “Come on, girls. Let’s go. Let’s go!” Paige shouted as she walked out into the hallway. “Rise and shine. Wakey, wakey.”

  She entered Adele’s room first. “Hey, little one. It’s time to get up and get ready for school,” Paige said, walking over to her oldest daughter’s full-size bed. Paige had allowed Adele to pick out the paint color of her bedroom walls. The little girl said that the soft pink walls reminded her of her favorite cotton candy.

  Adele snuggled deeper under her covers. “Mommy, I don’t want to get up. Can I stay home today?”

  “You know you have to go to school and become the smartest girl in the world.” Paige sat down on the bed next to her child, who was cocooned in her princess comforter. “Besides, this evening is your first day of dance class. If you don’t go to school, then you can’t go to dance class, either.”

  Adele snapped that comforter off her head with the quickness. “Yippee! Dance class. I’m gonna be a ballerina.” Her hair was a pretty mess atop her head.

  Paige patted her daughter’s hair down. “Yes, you are.” Paige kissed her on the forehead. “Now, go on into the bathroom and get your teeth brushed. I’m going to go get your sister started, and then I’ll be back to make sure you wash your face and get all that toothpaste from around your mouth.”

  Adele jumped out of bed and headed into the Jack and Jill bathroom that connected her bedroom to Norma’s. The entire time she sang, “I’m going to be a ballerina. I’m going to be a ballerina.”

  Paige shook her head and smiled. She got up off of Adele’s bed and headed into Norma’s room. Norma started her whining before Paige could even get a word out.

  “I’m staying home with you today. I don’t like my teacher. She’s mean,” Norma complained.

  “Mean?” Paige asked. “You think Miss Walton is mean? Why? What does she do that is so mean?” Paige sat on Norma’s bed, joining her on the Care Bears comforter that matched the window dressings.

  “She makes us do work,” Norma answered, throwing her arms across her chest in a pout.

  Paige chuckled and kissed her on the forehead. “That’s because she wants to make you smart.”

  “I’m already smart.”

  “She wants to make you smarter.”

  Norma thought for a minute. “Smarter than Adele?” That sibling rivalry showed in her eyes.

  “Yep, smarter than Adele.”

  That perked little Norma up. She sat up in the bed, as if whatever it was she had dreamed about had finally come true. “Adele is already older than me, bigger than me, and prettier than me. But I’m going to be smarter than her.” Norma stood up in her bed and began wiggling her bottom.

  “Get down here before you hurt yourself.” Paige laughed and grabbed Norma by her waist, then pulled her down into a hug. “Yes, Adele is bigger and older, but nobody is prettier. Everybody is just . . .” She looked at Norma to finish the sentence.

  “Pretty.” Norma spread her arms wide. “Everybody in the world is pretty.”

  “Yep. Now get up and head into the bathroom. Adele should be finishing up.”

  Paige helped the girls finish getting ready for school. She packed their lunches while they ate breakfast and then put them on the bus . . . on time. After sending the girls off to school, Paige went back inside her house. Closing the door behind her, she sighed while looking around the room. “A woman’s work is never done,” she declared.

  Her day was just getting started
. She had housework to do, laundry to do, and there was some yard work she needed to do out back. The guy whom she paid to cut her grass had used a substitute lawn mower last time. The one he usually used had been in the shop. His backup didn’t have a bag to catch the grass. It had started to rain before he could finish raking and bagging the grass clippings in the backyard, and Paige had told him he didn’t need to finish the task. He’d offered to come back and do it, but Paige had told him that she didn’t mind getting her hands dirty. He’d given her a discount on this month’s service. More rain was in the forecast in a couple days, so she wanted to get the grass clippings up before then.

  Four hours later, Paige had put a huge dent in her daily tasks. She had tackled getting all the grass clippings up and toting the lawn bag full of clippings to the curb. She still had laundry to do: she was going to wash all their bedding, in addition to what was in their hampers. Feeling grubby from being outside, the next thing she wanted to do was take a nice, hot shower. Paige went into the laundry room and stripped down naked. She placed all her dirty clothes in the hamper there. She wanted to avoid transporting to her bedroom any insects that might have gotten on her while she was doing the outdoor chores. Besides, Paige was the only one home. She loved those moments when she could walk through the house, naked as the day she was born. She felt so free in all her thickness. Whatever jiggled and shook, she loved it!

  In the shower Paige scrubbed the outdoor residue off herself with her body sponge. Afterward, she pampered herself with Ghanaian Brown Sugar & Honey Sugar Scrub from Soul Purpose, which she’d purchased from a representative named Trina Davies, whom she’d found on Facebook. Her skin felt so soft and renewed. She put on some khakis and a button-down blouse. She had two hours left before the girls would be home, so she put on some thick house socks to lounge around in, instead of her Anne Klein baby doll flats, which she liked to wear with her khakis.

  Paige had signed up to be a parent assistant at the girls’ school, which meant she did little things here and there to help the teachers out, such as going into the school to help copy papers or to assist with lunch or playground duty. Adele’s teacher had asked Paige to help with some cutouts she wanted to decorate the room with. She was basically turning their classroom into a spring garden made out of construction paper. Paige had about sixty tulips and stems she needed to get cut out. She’d already cut out about fifteen. She had forty-five to go, and they needed to be done in a week. So she opted to cut out a few more before the girls got home. But first the grumbling of her belly reminded her that she hadn’t eaten all day.

  Paige headed to the kitchen, deciding on the way there that she’d make a turkey sandwich on wheat, with some sliced cucumbers marinated in apple cider vinegar and with salt and pepper. She had her diabetes under control—no more insulin shots—and she was going to keep it that way by eating healthy. She did splurge on those pizzas every now and then.

  As Paige maneuvered from the refrigerator to the counter, making her lunch, a piece of paper sitting by one of the canisters caught her eye. “Ryan,” she said softly. She didn’t realize until five seconds in that she was smiling the same way Miss Nettie smiled whenever she said Stuart’s name. Could it be that the book she’d read last night was still playing with her imagination, or did Paige really think she still had a shot at a happy ending with Ryan?

  Paige picked up the piece of paper that she’d written Ryan’s work number on. She recalled having removed it from her pocket and having set it there the day she’d written his number down. She fingered the piece of paper and stared at it for a moment. Everyone around her was in love. Miss Nettie was in love. The Vanderdales were in love. She thought about the renewal of vows ceremony she’d sung at not too long ago for her friend Lorain and her husband, Nicholas. It had been so beautiful. God just seemed to be in the blessing business when it came to love these days. And if He’d done it for all of them, then He certainly could do it for her.

  Paige dropped the knife she was about to use to spread a light layer of fat-free mayo on one side of her sandwich. She then walked over to the kitchen phone. Without hesitating or second-guessing herself, she immediately picked up the phone and began dialing the number.

  After two rings, a male voice finally picked up. “H2J Photography Hilliard. This is Ryan. How can I help you?”

  Click!

  What Paige had not expected was for Ryan to actually answer the phone. “He answered the frickin’ phone!” she shouted, her hands up and her fingers spread. She was the walking epitome of shock. That caught her off guard too. Her Billy Bad act had been tested, and she’d failed miserably, as she’d hung up that phone like a big chicken.

  “And I hung up in his ear!” She was horrified. She wanted so badly to pick up the phone and call him right back, but what was she supposed to say? “Hi, Ryan. It’s me, Paige, the one who just hung up on you.”

  Of course, if she called right back, he’d know it was she who had hung up. She covered her face with her hands, as if hiding. She knew she had to call that man back. But should she do it now or later? Later she might chicken out.

  The phone rang and tore Paige’s mind away from her dilemma. She looked down at the caller ID. She now had a brand-new dilemma. The call was from H2J Photography.

  Should she answer it or not?

  Chapter 11

  “Paige?”

  It was Ryan’s voice that Paige heard after picking up the phone on the third ring.

  “Ryan,” she replied. “Hello? Hello?” she added, faking phone trouble. That would be her excuse as to why she’d hung up in his ear.

  “Yes, it’s Ryan. Paige—”

  She talked over top of him. “Ryan, can you hear me?”

  “I can hear you, but you can’t hear me,” he said loudly, as if that was going to change things.

  “Hold on.” Paige took the phone away from her ear, placed it on her chest, and tried her hardest not to roar with laughter. She couldn’t believe she was a grown woman playing these kinds of games. But it was the only way for her to keep from telling the truth, which was, “I got butterflies when I heard your voice, and so I hung up the phone in your ear.”

  “Paige, are you still there?”

  Paige could hear the muffled voice of Ryan. She put the phone back to her ear.

  “I’m going to call you back to see if we get a better connection.” He hung up the phone.

  Paige hit the END button on her phone, placed the phone down on the countertop, and burst out laughing. “Oh, my goodness. I’m a hot mess!” she exclaimed. She finished preparing her lunch and went and sat down at the table, waiting for the phone to ring again. After she was halfway through her lunch and the phone hadn’t rung, she went and retrieved it from the counter. She checked to make sure that it still had battery life, that it hadn’t died. Her phone indicated that the battery was at 70 percent, so that certainly wasn’t why it hadn’t rung.

  She sat the phone down next to her sandwich. For the next five minutes she chewed, looked at the phone, swallowed, then looked at the phone again. This went on until her sandwich was gone. Why hadn’t Ryan called back? Paige’s ego started to deflate.

  “I knew I shouldn’t have called him,” Paige said as she carried her dirty dishes over to her stainless-steel double sink. She looked up at the round kitchen clock that was trimmed in a heavy stainless steel. Through the silence she could hear the faint ticking. She had some time before the girls were to return home from school. She decided to go upstairs and retrieve the book she’d fallen asleep reading last night.

  She returned to the living room with the book in hand, and twenty pages later Paige had not looked over at that phone one time. She was far too engaged in the book. It served as an excellent way to keep her mind off of the fact that Ryan had not called her back. After another ten pages, Paige placed the book on the coffee table and headed out the door to get the girls off the bus. By the time Paige made it to the end of the driveway, the big yellow school bus was clearing t
he corner, headed toward Paige. The bus’s yellow warning lights began flashing as it slowed. The lights changed to red and the stop signs flipped out as the bus came to a complete stop.

  “Afternoon,” Paige said, greeting the bus driver once the doors opened.

  “Good day to you, Ms. Vanderdale,” the bus driver said with a wave.

  Both Adele and Norma came tromping off the bus, chattering away. The bus driver pulled off and said a final good-bye in the form of a honk. Both Norma and Adele fought to tell their mother about their day at school.

  “Hold up. Hold up,” Paige said. “I can’t listen to you both at once.” One at a time she allowed the girls to rattle on about their day at school. They chattered all the way to the kitchen, where they knew they’d be able to pick out their desired after-school snack.

  “And Johnny ate a booger,” Norma said, hopping into a chair.

  “Ewww,” Adele said, scrunching up her face.

  “You sure you want to talk about that when you’re about to eat?” Paige asked, opening the refrigerator. She began to pull out Tupperware containers of sliced fruit, such as strawberries, pineapple, grapes, and melon.

  “Well, I don’t know if he ate it,” Norma said, recanting. “I saw him pull it out of his nose with a finger on the hand he writes with. He never wiped it on anything. He picked up his pencil to write, and there was no booger. So either he ate it or it’s stuck on his pencil.”

  “Gross!” Adele shouted.

  “Well,” Paige said, pulling a creamy whipped topping out of the freezer, “whatever you do, don’t ever borrow a pencil from Johnny.”

  “I won’t,” Norma said. “I have lots of pencils of my own.”

  “Good girl,” Paige said as she scooped the fruity treat into bowls and then poured each of the girls a glass of milk to go with it.

  She stood in the kitchen and talked with the girls while they ate. Afterward, she allowed them a forty-five-minute play break to unwind before they dived into any homework or reading. Even though Norma was only in kindergarten, her teacher sent home a book in her bag, and Paige had to read it with her, as well as work on a phonics sheet with her. After getting the girls situated, Paige snatched up her own book and her phone off the table. She was going to go put the book up until she could find the time to get back into it, which would hopefully be tonight.