“No, it’s quite the contrary, actually. Skyler was falling behind last term, so his counselor suggested that he take time out to catch up on his reading. Then it was discovered that his inability to retain the assignments was directly linked to his poor reading skills.”
“Skyler couldn’t read?” Grace asked apprehensively, as if he were her own son.
“It wasn’t that severe, but he was a very slow reader. Once André noticed it was taking Skyler twice as long to read the same newspaper articles from the sports page that he had, he came to me. We had a closed-door Read Aloud.”
“What’s that, this Read Aloud?” Grace asked. Wallace saw that she was locked in on this conversation, unlike the one that took place over the phone.
“That’s a mechanism I’ve found extremely beneficial in rating how well students read and comprehend. Of course, those who don’t do well, hate it, and the students who’ve mastered the written word make the best of it. It’s my hope that before the semester ends, each of my students gets a chance to see what that feels like, a chance to shine among their peers.”
Grace was taken aback. First she’d learned that André had offered his savings to help Miss Pearl, and now this. “Well, I’ll be. André brought Skyler’s reading deficiency to you.”
“Yes, he’s a serious young man for his age, but I wouldn’t categorize Skyler’s problem as a deficiency. He, like so many inner-city kids, received social promotions without being prepared to move ahead. Typically, my students are as intelligent as you’d find on the other side of the tracks, but they’ve logged far more hours with a TV, DVD, VCR, iPod or video idiot box than with an open book. In that regard, André certainly stands out.”
Grace blushed over the compliment, eased out of CorporateGrace mode, and downshifted into Mama Grace. “How do you mean?” she prodded shamelessly, fishing for additionalpraise.
“My hat’s off to you,” Wallace obliged. He recognized where she was taking him, and he didn’t mind the ride. “Miss Hilliard—” he continued before being cut off again.
“Grace,” she insisted. “Please call me Grace. I think we’ve moved past the parent-teacher formalities.”
“I agree, Grace.” When Wallace smiled for the first time since she’d arrived, his perfectly aligned teeth, set between two adorable dimples, had Grace seeing double. As she returnedhis smile with a reasonable facsimile, he began searching for words that wouldn’t come easily. “Oh, uh, yes, I was saying that it’s obvious to me that André has parents who’ve shown they care a great deal about his academics.”
If there was a good time for Grace to solidify her availablestatus, this was it. She pondered awhile. What the heck, she figured. Wallace was nice, charming, and well heeled, but younger she thought, and a teacher to boot. Maybe he could introduce some of his older, more accomplished friends to her. There was an outside chance to get a Grade A hookup by referral. “I’ve always made sure that my son made appropriatetime to study, and I’ve stayed on top of his schoolwork.He’ll be a black man some day; you know better than anyone that his work has to be exceedingly good in order to get in the door. Corporations looking for the best and the brightest generally don’t hold it open for our men unless they see a can’t-miss rainmaker who’ll increase their stock options.”When Grace realized that her grandiose explanation of corporate scouting might have slighted Wallace’s decision to choose teaching as a profession, she cringed. “Sorry, Wallace,I didn’t mean to make light of your trade. I think it’s an honorable profession.”
Chuckling, Wallace flashed another grin across the table. “No offense taken. Teaching allows me to give back to the community while molding young minds in the process. I’ve done it for two years, and I must say the rewards have been numerous. Also, I needed to take a break from the hustle and bustle of a nine to five.”
“I see,” was all that Grace could say. She wondered if Wallace was truly happy molding those young minds, as he aptly put it. Not that it wasn’t a noble vocation, it just appearedthat there was more to him than he allowed her to see.
“Just think, if I weren’t on staff at André’s school, I wouldn’t have met you or have had the honor of sharing a worthwhile conversation over warm beverages.” Wallace’s attempt to lighten the mood failed miserably, although it wasn’t due to a lack of trying.
“Wallace, can I be candid?” Grace asked hurriedly. “Oh My Goodness Fine” aside, she felt it necessary to keep things in proper perspective, mostly for his sake. “Look, I’m very thankful that you’re working to shape your students’ futuresbecause our children can use as much of that as possible.They should be thankful for what you bring to the table, and according to the long line of young mothers outside your door on parent-teacher night, their parents are too. I can’t speak for you, but I think you’re getting close to speakingout of turn and sending this conversation down a very uncomfortable path.”
“May I be allowed to try my hand at that being-candid thing, as well?” Wallace asked. Grace raised her brow and nodded in a deliberate, guarded manner. “I’d like to stay on the same page, if at all possible. And, while I appreciate your assessment of my interest in you, I’ll remind you that the greatest fall one can take is the short trip over one’s ego.” Wallace continued staring at Grace and her wide-eyed you-didn’t-just-read-mesneer. “You can quote me on that,” he told her with a sly wink.
“Okay, you ... you took it there. This is where I get off,” Grace smacked, after feeling that Wallace had sufficiently tugged at her super cape.
“Before you do get off,” he stated, “please keep in mind that I haven’t asked you for a single thing, yet.”
Grace collected her things and placed the sunshades back on her face. “And I strongly suggest that you don’t get any ideas to do so. However, I’ll check with some of my eligible, slightly junior girlfriends and inquire about their availability for a young educated man such as yourself. Good day, Mr. Peters.”
Grace presumed that Wallace was quite a bit younger than she was but he was merely a few months younger than her. At the time it didn’t much matter, so he decided not to take issue at the risk of stifling her steam. Besides, he thought that her feisty disposition was sexy as all get-out.
“Afternoon, Miss Hilliard,” Wallace bid her reluctantly as she walked away.
There was something different about Grace compared to all the countless other women who had made it a point to put their faces up in Wallace’s. Of course, Grace was polished, attractive, smart as a whip, fun, and feisty. He liked those qualities almost as much as he enjoyed observing the way she’d drawn attention from a host of other men in the coffee bar when she broke out in a slow, wickedly manufactured Caribbean saunter as she exited the small coffee shop. Of course he was looking, Grace knew it. She wanted to see him again, he was sure of that. The long conversation over warm beverages had begun with a great deal of uncertainty on both their parts and had ended with even more as a result of it. Wallace was resolved to get another shot at making a lasting first impression. He’d see to it.
Having her first free afternoon since the last Friday she had spent with Tyson, next to the noisy ice machine, Grace stopped by Miss Pearl’s to see how her latest project was panning out. When she drove up to the old house, she saw two enormous utility trucks rested against the curb. Constructionworkers ripped and plastered, while an assortment of handymen primed and painted. Progress was a good thing. The speed in which Ms. Pearl’s home had come alive overnight was simply beautiful.
Grace stood on the sidewalk, marveling at how quickly half a dozen handymen revitalized a house that probably should have been demolished years ago. “No, no,” Grace instructeda man with two hands full of rosebushes. “They belongon the other side. The shrubs are supposed to be planted over here, near the porch.” After hearing recommendations from the woman paying the bill, a seasoned supervisor climbed down from his rusty pickup to appease her.
“Yes, yes. We will do it to your liking, ma’am,” the man in charge
promised. “This will be muy bonita when we finish,maybe as pretty as Señora Graciela. Don’t worry.”
“I won’t, Franco. Your crew does a wonderful job with the office building, so I know it’s in good hands, but this project is for a very special friend, so please take care of it.” Grace had no doubt that the facelift would ultimately transform the home into a showplace befitting a Better Homes and Gardenslayout. “Why don’t I get out of your way and let you do what you do best?” She shook his hand and stepped through the wrought-iron gate that had been erected the day before.
“Miss Pearl,” Grace called out from the porch. “Miss Pearl, are you in there?”
“Hold on!” the old woman shouted back. “Where else would I be with all these foreigners climbing up and down my house?” Miss Pearl unlatched the new screen door and waved her visitor inside. “Hey, chile. That Mr. Franco you sent down here is pleasant as punch, but I can’t understand what the rest of them are saying half the time.”
“That doesn’t matter as long as you’re happy about the results,”Grace told her, well aware that a storm had been brewing since the team of workers showed up at dawn, unannounced,two days ago. Miss Pearl hadn’t called to complain,but Grace knew it was merely the quiet before the storm. “So, how do you think your home improvements are turning out?” Grace queried, bracing herself.
“Humph, I can’t rightly say. Ain’t been outside since the hammering started on Wednesday,” she answered, her head hanging low.
“Is there a problem, Miss Pearl? I could have more men here tomorrow to get it done faster if that’s your concern.”
Miss Pearl shook her head while refusing to make eye contact. “Naw, Gracie, the only problem is me taking advantageof you. I ain’t ever taken a handout from nobody, and it hurts me to my heart to do such a thing now.”
“Oh, I get it,” Grace said, reaching into her purse. She whipped out a long list, including costs of materials, labor, and additional charges to have the items Franco’s crew had replaced hauled away. Grace snapped the paper out and held the list up for the lady of the house to see.
After Miss Pearl understood that it was something important,she patted down her housecoat until she found her readingglasses. “What’s that?” she asked, stretching her neck to get a better look.
“This is your bill for the work I ordered,” Grace informed her, straight faced and confident.
“The which?”
“The bill. Remember that misunderstanding you had with the electric company? It seems that we’re having the same kind of misunderstanding now.” Grace could sense that Miss Pearl was stunned, so she let her in on a little secret she’d kept under wraps. “You weren’t ready to give up on this house, and I’m not ready to give up on you.” Still lost in Grace’s implications,Ms. Pearl scratched her head and frowned.
“Let me get this right. You took it on yourself to call all these fellas over here to fix what you thought needed fixing, without even asking me what I thought, and now you’re ready to hand me the bill?”
“Uh-huh,” Grace answered without hesitation.
Ms. Pearl’s eyes narrowed into thin slits. “Yeah, we sho do have us one heck of a predicament,” she contended. “Gracie,I can see that you care for Skyler and me, but you sho have a funny way of showing it. I’d like nothing better than to pay you back every cent, but they done cut back again on my hours. I can’t eat, can’t sleep, and done lost ten pounds in the meantime.” When Grace burst out laughing, the woman jerked her head back. “The whole world done gone crazy, and you’re leading the pack.”
“Please forgive me, Miss Pearl. I haven’t filled you in completely. I asked you to let me take care of things, and I meant everything. Hold on, my cell phone is ringing,” Grace said when the call she’d been waiting for came through.
“You ask me, your head is ringing too,” smarted one very perplexed homeowner.
Rambling out into the backyard to escape the noise, and itching ears, Grace was glad that Ted returned her call when he did. It was the perfect chance to have that high-priority special circumstances meeting she’d been anxious about facilitatingwith the so-called powers-that-be. “Yes, Ted, the message I sent you was correct,” she confirmed calmly.
“I thought I was hearing things, Grace. You’re asking me to sign off on company-sponsored home improvements on a home neither of us owns, you’ve hired an additional employeewe don’t need, and the company is supposed to take one hundred dollars from each of her paychecks to reimburseus for the work you’re having done on her house?”
“That’s exactly what I’m asking you to do, Ted. Just think of it as a company-sponsored neighborhood revitalization program.”Again, Grace braced herself for an unfavorable outcome.
“You must think I’m insane to present me with such a ridiculous business deal,” Ted replied, and then paused to collecthis thoughts. “And I’d have to be insane to pass on such a good idea. I hope it works out like you want it to.”
“Oh, thank you, Ted. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Graced danced around in the backyard as Miss Pearl peeped at her from the kitchen curtains.
“That chile really done lost her mind,” the old lady reasoned.
“I owe you, Ted,” Grace cooed into her cell phone. “You’re no crazier than I am, but this deal isn’t business, it’s personal.”
“I’ll tell you about personal. Tell me why I have three of my wife’s cousins on the payroll, and neither of them have a clue what we actually do for our clients.”
“That’s not personal, Ted, that’s sad,” chuckled Grace.
“I gotta go, partner. I think one of my relatives just got his necktie caught in the paper shredder. Now I have another decisionto make. Whether to save him or not is going to be a toughie.”
As Graced closed her eyes to give thanks for the miracle she’d prayed for, Miss Pearl motored back to her recliner beforebeing discovered. Grace returned and sat down on the plastic-covered sofa with so much exuberance. She said, “Whew! That would have been hysterical if I’d fallen off.”
“Oh, I’d have laughed, too. I’d have dusted you off first, then I’d have laughed.”
“Okay, back to our predicament. I knew that you could use a pick-me-up but you were much too proud to let someonehelp you. So I’ve arranged a partnership like the boys have. It seems that a position has opened up within the custodialcrew that services my building. Here’s the deal.” The woman sat on the edge of her seat while Grace caught her breath. “We’ve offering you a job to work between ten and three o’clock so you can be here when Skyler gets home from school. We’re also offering to withhold one hundred dollars from each paycheck until the improvements on your house are paid for. In addition, you have to accept our employee-fitness package and spend at least one hour a day with our gym staff.”
“With Jim, is he good looking?” Miss Pearl whooped, hoping her new deal also included a man to help her pass the time.
“No, Miss Pearl, at the gym. That’s our workout facility. You’ve allowed your weight to get away from you and I’m not going to let hypertension or high blood pressure take you away from us before it’s your time to go.”
“I ain’t stud’n neither one of them,” the woman teased. “We’s old friends, they been with me for years.” She began to rock back and forth, mulling the proposition over in her head. “Hmm, all that sounds like a mess of blessings before God, and I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I do have one question of my own.”
“Okay, shoot,” Grace replied excitedly.
“Y’all got an elevator over at that office building?”
“Yes, ma’am, we got a whole bunch of elevators,” Grace answered her.
“Then you got a deal.”
Grace jumped off the slick plastic and onto the elderly woman’s lap. “Yea! Miss Pearl, you’ve made me so happy.”
“And you’ making my legs hurt! Grace, get off me!” Miss Pearl hollered, with a load of merriment mixed in. “You’re gonna fool around and
wreck my good knee, and my chances of keeping my new job.”
17
Shameless
On Thursday evening, Shelia called Grace from her car. She and Linda were on a shopping excursion on her side of town and were feeling a serious disconnect from the third part of their girlfriend triad. “Grace, are you going to be home for a minute?” Shelia hollered into the phone, over Linda’s cackling in the background.
“Tell her she’d better hide all of her nasty videos because we’re coming to loot ’em,” Linda bellowed. “We know you’ve been stocking up, Grace. Give up the goods.”
“You can tell Linda I’m holding on to my stash for cold and lonely nights, hot-and-bothered afternoons and wheneverI get more than five minutes alone.” Grace couldn’t believeshe was showing out right along with them, as if it hadn’t been a rough go on the virtuous side of life. “Yeah, girl, come on over. Dré is at a varsity basketball game, and won’t be home until around ten. I’ll break out some wine.”
Grace was still bubbling over when the ladies rang her doorbell like she’d answer it if they kept their fingers on it. “Move, I gotta pee,” Linda urged, as she darted through the door. “Don’t y’all start gossiping without me!” she shouted from the downstairs powder room.
“Shelia, I swear I smell rum,” Grace said, eying her suspiciously.“Have you two been back to that Jamaican spot on lower Greenville?”
Shelia tried to lie, but it didn’t hold up. When she shook her head no, the opposite rolled out of her mouth. “Yeah, but I wasn’t supposed to say, because that fine Rasta they call Delmar was asking about you and puffing on some ganja. We musta caught a contact high because we haven’t stopped giggling since.”
“Ooh, you do look lifted!” Grace noticed, leaning in closer to Shelia and sniffing like André had done to her when he smelled hotel soap on her skin. “Shelia, listen to me. Focus. What else weren’t you supposed to tell me?”
Down On My Knees Page 16