Up at the College

by Michele Andrea Bowen

  Curtis had sat down and was gripping his chair, so convicted he thought he’d explode. But he’d have to deal with that conviction because he was hardheaded and wasn’t going down to that altar—not today.

  SEVEN

  Curtis, Maurice, Trina, and Yvonne took their time walking to their cars. They were silent because nobody knew what to say about this evening’s service. Memorable came to mind but even that word was just a tad bit too tame for what had transpired in the sanctuary of New Jerusalem Gospel United Church. The four of them had belonged to the Gospel United Church all their lives, and they had either seen or heard about some wild and crazy stuff happening behind the scenes in the denomination over the years. But they couldn’t recollect witnessing a showdown with the pastor’s wannabe boos that had brought the man to his knees with a truly repentant and contrite heart before the Lord. It was something to see.

  Maurice grabbed Trina’s hand in his. He needed to feel the comfort of her touch. What a blessing it was to have the privilege of touching Trina’s hand. What a blessing it was to be so in love with his babies’ mama. So many men had wonderful children who were being raised by good women. But those women were not bone of their bones and flesh of their flesh.

  Now, Maurice wasn’t blaming anybody for anything. He knew that things didn’t always work out. He also knew that far too many folk entered into holy matrimony without ever giving a single thought to asking God, the one who created such a holy union, for His opinion on their choice of a spouse. If they did, the divorce rate would plummet. But when folks fancied themselves in love, they didn’t want to hear from God; they wanted things to be the way they wanted them to be, and that was that.

  Unfortunately, that was not that. Because good people like Veronica Washington were entering marriages that had not been sanctioned by God, only to wake up one day and discover that they had erred seriously in their judgment. He remembered Trina telling him that when she asked Veronica what happened, and how did she miss so many red flags in Robert, all Veronica said was, “I never asked God. If I had asked God, I would have known to wait for God to reveal to me all the reasons why I should have given Robert Washington his walking papers before there were any papers drawn up to give.”

  Maurice thought that Veronica was right. If she had gone to God, He would have blessed her with a peace that would have enabled her to be patient and wait for Him to reveal qualities about Robert that would have sent her running as fast and as far from him as possible. But folks didn’t always know how to do that. Sometimes, it was only after going through that a righteous person got it and learned the true value and blessing of trusting and obeying the Lord.

  To obey God was a privilege, and far too many Christians missed that point. They always acted as if obedience were an imposition to be endured, rather than a way for God to keep them safe and able to receive the many blessings He had set aside for them. They didn’t understand that God’s call for obedience was a tremendous act of love on His part.

  Maurice glanced over at Curtis trying to act like he wasn’t absolutely delighted to have Yvonne walking next to him on this beautiful fall night. The boy was just happy and content, and too dumb and stupid to figure that out. He wondered how much Curtis had been touched by what had transpired this evening. How much longer was Curtis going to be bound and determined to keep running from the Lord?

  Curtis saw Maurice watching him intently in the soft lighting of the church’s parking lot. He knew from the solemn expression on his friend’s face that he was thinking about him and why he’d remained in that pulpit rather than join Denzelle at the altar. It certainly would have been easier to stand next to a brother whose business had been put all in the streets, rather than to be down there by yourself, having folks thinking long and hard about why you were so distraught coming back home to the Lord. That could be embarrassing.

  Curtis smiled and chuckled softly to himself. He could just hear Maurice’s response to what he would have considered jibble-jabble about being embarrassed to come home to Jesus. He knew as well as he knew his name that Maurice would have said something like, “Well, don’t you think it would be more embarrassing to be standing there when Jesus returns, and you’re one of the few among your friends and family who were unable to get up off the ground? I say that would be a cause for embarrassment.”

  Yvonne looked up at Curtis, curious as to what made him laugh like that to himself. When Curtis saw her watching him with a raised eyebrow, he pulled the checks out of his breast pocket and then thumped them hard before saying, “Now this is something to praise the Lord about.”

  “You know it,” Maurice added, so thankful that his prayers had been answered about their budgetary needs. He had not known how they were going to make it if Gilead cut their funding any more than he already had. He had told the Lord that He was their Source, and they needed their Source to bless them with some resources. God had come through big time and made sure that Maurice knew the money was from Him. Only God could have led Denzelle Flowers to raise that money for them, and move Charles Robinson to give like that at a church service. In fact, it was only the Lord who could have moved both Charles and his boy, Pierre, to come to church on a Friday night. Everybody knew that Friday night was a top moneymaker for a business like Rumpshakers Hip-Hop Gentlemen’s Club.

  “We also need to be praising God about Reverend Flowers rededicating his life to Jesus like that,” Trina added. “I had been worried about him and his reputation with the women. Denzelle is a good preacher. I couldn’t bear to watch him flounder over some triflin’ tail like those skoochies I saw prancing and flouncing in his face this evening. I hope that after tonight, old boy will figure out that he needs a helpmeet to help him in the ministry God has placed in him.”

  Trina shook her head. “What is so terrifying about falling in love with a decent woman? That is crazy to me.”

  “It’s not crazy, Trina,” Curtis told her. “It’s about being selfish, self-centered, dumb, and arrogant enough to believe that you can have your cake and eat it, too. A brother like Denzelle wants a good woman at his side. But he knows that with a good woman, you have to submit to God’s direction concerning her, you have to commit to her, you have to do right by her, and you have to let her inside of your heart. That’s a lot for a brother dealing with fear of love and commitment, and a selfish desire to do everything his way, while at the same time having all of his needs met.”

  Everybody stopped walking and just stared at Curtis.

  “Negro,” Maurice said, “I think that is about the most profound thing your commitment-phobic behind has said in a long time. Maybe something in tonight’s service did touch you.”

  Curtis bristled and then calmed down. It was beginning to unnerve him that every time the Lord spoke to his heart, he with his dumb self blurted it out, letting the whole world know that he was listening to God, and capable of heeding the direction of the Lord for his life. He snapped at the checks to draw attention away from him.

  “You bet not put that in your coach account, Curtis,” Yvonne said.

  “Why not?”

  “Gilead will know it’s there and then he’ll cut your budget down even further and you all will be right back where you started.”

  Everybody was quiet again. Trina stared at Yvonne and said, “Girl, who are you? That kind of insight could have only come from the Holy Ghost.”

  Yvonne started laughing. Whenever Trina said “Who are you?” it meant that you had said something that really needed to be said.

  “You talking good now, baby,” Curtis said. “But where should I put the money? Can’t put it in my personal account—will make it look like I’m earning money I don’t have. And that might not sit too well with the IRS around tax time.”

  “Talk to L. C. Smith, here at New Jerusalem. He does all of the life insurance and investments and stuff like that for both New Jerusalem and Fayetteville Street. He’ll know how to help you set up that account and keep Gilead out of your business.”<
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  Curtis smiled at Yvonne and tweaked her ear. He said, “I need to keep you around, baby girl. You have been a big help to me and my team.”

  Yvonne blushed and said, “Awww, Curtis, it wasn’t nothing.”

  Curtis laughed. Yvonne was so goofy at times. But that was all right. He secretly liked goofy. All goofy said to him was that a person was genuine enough to let you see the real deal, even if the real deal was sorely lacking in cool points when you saw it. He got closer to her to smell her cologne.

  “Stella?”

  “Huh?”

  “Stella McCartney cologne, right?”

  “How did you know what kind of cologne I was wearing?”

  “Baby, I just know. I know what smells good on a woman. And you, Miss Yvonne, smell scrumptious in Stella.”

  Maurice and Trina nudged each other. Maurice sniffed up under his arms and said, “I wonder what I smell like.”

  “Like bodunkadunk,” Trina said, knowing she was being so wrong.

  “Girl, I took a shower before I left for church, and I know I don’t smell like booty.”

  Yvonne and Curtis were cracking up. Maurice and Trina were a trip.

  “Naw … I have to take that back because that bodunkadunk back at church was gigantic,” Trina said.

  “I know,” Yvonne added. “She had the biggest booty I have ever seen in my entire life.”

  “Amen,” Curtis said, thinking that was too much booty, even for a brother who liked big booties.

  “Hey,” Maurice said, not wanting to end this interesting yet delightful evening. “Why don’t we go and get something to eat? I’m hungry.”

  “Me, too,” Trina said.

  “Me three,” Yvonne said.

  “Don’t the three of y’all have some little chirrens to get to?” Curtis asked, hoping they did because he was tired. He was hungry, he was enjoying this evening, but he was so tired he could barely see straight.

  “Those chirrens are all at Yvonne’s house with Rochelle,” Maurice said. “They didn’t want to go to church on a Friday night. They are over there playing that new Wii that Darrell sent Yvonne’s girls. They are not trying to have us come home early.”

  Curtis yawned. “I want to go but I’m tired, man. I mean it, I’m really tired.”

  “You need to eat, too, Curtis,” Trina told him. “That might be why you are so tired. Come on, we can find someplace fun to eat and we’ll get you home. Both you and Yvonne need some downtime.”

  Curtis thought about it and then said, “All right. Let’s go.”

  Yvonne went to her car, trying hard not to skip. She was so glad she had agreed to come to church with Trina and Maurice when Trina called and said, “You need to come with us tonight. You need to get out, and you’ll be blessed.”

  Curtis was about to pull off right behind Maurice and Trina but waited and gave Yvonne enough space to pull in between his and Maurice’s car. She waved at him, smiling so sweetly it pulled right at his heartstrings. Curtis’s mother smiled like that whenever anybody talked about him or his dad, who had died six years ago. He missed his father. Lee Parker was a good guy, and had treated his mother as a woman deserved to be treated. Sometimes he felt guilty that he was not married and treating a woman as his father had raised him to treat a woman.

  His father always told Curtis that if he would just drop to his knees and recognize from Whom all his blessings flowed, all would be well and things in his life would work out. He also told Curtis that he would never find his true bride, the woman the Lord had picked out for him from the beginning of time, without prayer, obedience to the Word of God, faith, and God’s help. Lee Parker had given his only child, Curtis Lee Parker, this Word from the Lord five hours before he left to go home to be with the Lord. Curtis had forgotten those words until Yvonne had flashed that incredible smile at him.

  Curtis didn’t understand it, but he could not resist this girl. He had been with Regina for almost a year. He’d been sleeping with Regina and tapping that very high-end tail for eleven months, three weeks, and six days. And he had never felt anything remotely close to what he was feeling for this woman in all of that time. He thought back to when his boy Lamont Green kept trying to act as if he wasn’t falling in love with his frat’s sister Theresa Hopson. Lawd, if that thing didn’t drag out ad nauseam between those two. Lamont was determined not to get caught. And Theresa was determined to make sure he knew that if he didn’t want her, she didn’t care.

  Maurice, Trina, and the boys had missed all of that excitement because they had been in Trinidad almost the entire time the courtship had been going on. Maurice had been granted a special leave of absence to work with Eva T.’s sister institution in Trinidad, coaching their newly established basketball team. They had so much fun over there, folks barely heard from them until they arrived back in Durham and needed somebody to come and pick them up at the airport.

  Driving behind Yvonne, Curtis thought about Maurice and Lamont telling him how and when they figured out that their wives were the one. It occurred to him that what he was feeling for Yvonne was very much like what he’d been told you felt when you found the one. That was a terrifying revelation. The woman in the sea-blue Infiniti was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Curtis started sweating. He rolled down all the windows when he felt as if he were getting ready to start hyperventilating.

  The main reason Curtis was with Regina Young was that he knew that she was not the one. Second, he could drop her in a heartbeat when he got tired of her. Anybody with half a brain would understand when he and Regina stopped seeing each other.

  But while his folks would welcome them breaking up, Regina wouldn’t be so amenable to this idea. It wasn’t because she was so in love with Curtis. Rather, it would be her ego plain and simple. Regina had an overrated opinion of herself. She would never understand a man wanting to leave her to be with someone else—especially an uncomplicated, feet-flat-on-the-ground type of woman like Yvonne Fountain. Regina hardly even spoke to women who didn’t wear designer shoes. So Curtis knew what she’d do when faced with a rival like Yvonne.

  EIGHT

  Curtis, Yvonne, Maurice, and Trina had a good time staying out late, laughing and talking to one another until the folks at the restaurant gave them each a complimentary bottle of champagne and told them it was time to go home so they could close up and get off work. Curtis had been wide awake and had not wanted to go home. If he went home, he couldn’t be with Yvonne.

  But that was then, and this was now. Because this morning Curtis was so tired and sleepy he could barely get out of bed to go to the bathroom and pee. He stood in front of the toilet, sleepy, wishing his body would hurry up and cooperate so that he could crawl back in bed and get at least thirty more minutes of sleep. His head was throbbing so badly he felt like he had when he used to go out drinking with his boys back in the day—talking about a real-life love hangover.

  Curtis finished his business, shook out the most essential thing, flushed the toilet, washed his hands, yawned, stretched, and got in bed, only to find out that he was unable to go back to sleep. He grabbed the clock off the nightstand—eight-thirty a.m. and two hours past the time he was usually up, out, and heading to Idea’s Coffee House out on Highway 55 before making his way to his office at the university.

  But he had not been able to pull those hours this morning because he was exhausted. He hadn’t gotten any rest last night. He tossed and turned, ground and gritted his teeth, heaved and sighed, and just about drove himself crazy—not to mention Regina Young, who was asleep in his bed when he got home.

  Now this was a fine mess to be in. Curtis had driven up to his house with joy flooding his heart for the first time in a long time. Up until these past couple of weeks, he had not even comprehended that his heart was so heavy. He smiled and then frowned when he saw Regina’s car in the garage. Here he was feeling on top of the world because of Yvonne Fountain, and now his heart dropped down to the soles of his feet at the mere thought of
having to see Regina lying in his bed. How was he going to fix this, this time?

  Curtis sat still in the car with the garage door up, his heart and spirit down for the count. He flipped the radio to the gospel radio station. The words He will … work it out, I tell you that He will … work it out … came on. Curtis gripped the steering wheel and then let it go. He made himself get out of the car and went inside his house, encouraged by the song and the Lord’s firm touch on his heart with these words: Love the Lord with all your mind, with all your heart, and with all your might, and I will make it work out.

  That peace was short-lived, though. All night Curtis tossed and turned, thinking about Yvonne. Fortunately, he always woke up before calling her name out loud. Unfortunately, the tossing and turning woke up Regina, too. Several times throughout the night he woke up to find himself staring right into Regina’s hard eyes. Curtis didn’t know what he was on the night he gave that mean and stuck-up girl the key and alarm code to his house. That had to be the dumbest thing he’d done in a very long time. Well actually, going out with Regina in the first place was the dumbest thing he’d done. Giving this heifer the key was sheer insanity.

  Curtis was having a hard time accepting the revelation that there really was a the one. It was simply unbelievable. And right now about the best thing he could do would be to keep this revelation to himself. Nobody else needed to know about this. It could remain a well-kept secret that only he and Jesus knew about. And this plan would work, too, if only Jesus would allow him to keep this business to himself. Past experiences had taught him that Jesus would put a brother’s business in the street if that business didn’t need to remain unknown.

  Curtis had lost count of the times when there was something he wanted to remain hidden in the shadows. And then BAM—the Holy Ghost would go snitch on him, putting all of his dirt out there for all to see. That “what you do in the dark will be revealed in the light” stuff was no joke. It could get a negro in some serious trouble if he wasn’t careful.