The Pledge

by Chandra Sparks Taylor

  I nodded, relieved. It would give me time to figure out what was going on with my aunt.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” he said.

  I nodded, and he gathered his things. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow. Maybe we can go then and pick out something.”

  I sat for hours thinking about my conversation with Miles, but none of it made sense. I was heading into the kitchen to get something to eat when the phone rang.

  “Hey, Corky,” Aunt Dani said.

  “Hey,” I said dryly.

  “Why you sounding all sad?”

  “I’ve just got a lot on my mind,” I said.

  “What’s up?”

  I thought about telling her about the picture I had seen on Miles’s phone and what he had told me, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it without accusing her of stealing. “Nothing. I’m fine, really,” I said.

  “Miles and I are about to go to Griffith Park, so while I was waiting on him, I thought I’d check on you.”

  “Really?” I said. “You talked to Miles today?”

  “Yeah. I just got off the phone with him. Why?”

  I didn’t know what to say as I sat staring at Miles’s cell phone, which he had left on our dining room table. “You called him on his cell?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  I was getting more and more confused. Miles’s phone hadn’t rung since he had gotten the call from his boss hours earlier.

  “Uh, Aunt Dani, I’ve got to go.”

  I hung up and was still staring at his phone when the doorbell rang. I opened it without even bothering to see who it was.

  “Did I leave my phone?” Miles asked.

  I pointed toward the table and he walked over to pick it up. He was on his way out when he finally looked at me. “You feeling better?” he asked. “You look kind of funny.”

  “Yeah. So what time are you meeting Aunt Dani at Griffith Park?”

  He looked at me in confusion. “I’m not meeting your aunt.”

  “So you haven’t talked to her today?” I asked.

  He held up the phone. “How could I when I didn’t have this?”

  “You guys still here?” Momma asked as she and Cory walked through the door.

  “I had to meet with my boss,” Miles said. “We can go now if you’d like.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “I have something to do.”

  Miles looked at me strangely. “Have you talked to Loretta?” he asked.

  I opened my mouth, wanting with everything in me to lie, but instead I found myself saying, “Yes.”

  “What did she want?” he asked.

  “She had to go before she could say.” I rushed the words out, then looked at the ground. I felt Miles staring at me and glanced at him, then quickly looked at the ground again.

  “Okay, well, if you talk to her again, tell her to call me,” he said.

  I just nodded. “See you later, Donna,” he said to Momma.

  “What was that all about?” Momma asked before he could get the door closed.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  She shook her head. “I need to get ready for Bible study tomorrow night. I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

  “Momma, can I go out for a while?” I asked.

  She looked like she was about to say no. “I’ll only be gone for a little while,” I said. “I just need to go check on something real quick.”

  “Something like what?”

  My mind raced as I tried to come up with a plausible excuse. “The Worth the Wait members and I want to do something for Andrea, and I promised them I would check into it. I just need to run to the mall.”

  “If you wait, I’ll take you,” she said.

  “Momma, I can drive myself. What’s the point of having my own car if you never let me drive?” I said. “Please.”

  She sighed. “Fine,” she said. “Take your sister with you.”

  “Momma,” I whined. Normally I didn’t mind having Cory with me, but since I was going to track down my aunt, I didn’t know what I would find.

  “Either you take your sister or you don’t go,” she said.

  I had stomped up two stairs before Momma called up to me. “Keep it up, and you won’t be going anywhere.”

  I got to Cory’s room, and she was lying across her bed, sleeping. I didn’t even try and wake her. Instead, I ran back downstairs.

  “She’s asleep,” I said.

  Momma sighed. “Girl, get out of here before I change my mind.”

  “Thanks, Momma,” I said, giving her a kiss.

  “Be back here before it’s dark,” she said.

  I glanced at my watch, realizing I had about two hours. “Yes, ma’am,” I said.

  “Do you have your cell phone?”

  I checked my purse and realized it wasn’t there, so I ran back up to my room and grabbed it. On the way back downstairs, I peeked in Cory’s room and saw she wasn’t on her bed anymore. I groaned, knowing Momma was going to make me take her.

  I ran downstairs and was relieved when I didn’t see her. Figuring she was in the bathroom, I kissed Momma again and jumped in the car, and as much as I wanted to rev the engine and tear out the driveway, I didn’t since I knew Momma was watching. I put on my seat belt, adjusted the mirrors, then waved at Momma, who waved back from the front window. I had barely made it around the corner before I was flying to Griffith Park where Aunt Dani had said she was going.

  She was already there when I arrived, sitting on a swing. I parked at the far end of the lot and snuck back to her. My eyes widened in surprise when I saw Miles walking up.

  Aunt Dani must have sensed his presence, because she looked up. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” he said, looking angry.

  “How’d you know I was here?”

  “Your niece slipped up and told me,” he said, and my eyes got big. I wondered if he knew I was there.

  Aunt Dani looked around, and when she glanced in my direction, I ducked behind a bush so she wouldn’t see me.

  “Corky’s here?”

  Miles shrugged and looked around. “I don’t think so.” He looked in my direction, but I wasn’t sure he saw me. I had never seen him look so hurt.

  “What’s going on, Loretta?”

  “Baby, what are you talking about?” she said. She reached out to touch his arm and he turned to look at her.

  “There’s a bunch of stuff that isn’t adding up with you,” he said.

  Aunt Dani looked at him curiously. “What are you talking about?”

  “Are you seeing someone else?” he asked.

  Aunt Dani laughed. “Why would you ask me something like that?” she said.

  “Like I said, something’s not adding up. In all the time I’ve known you, I’ve never been to your place. As far as I know, you don’t work, yet you have all this expensive stuff, and I know it’s not because I’m buying it for you.”

  Aunt Dani popped him on the arm. “Boy, stop being so paranoid. The reason I’ve never invited you to my house is because it’s never clean. I didn’t want you to know how horrible I was at housekeeping until after we got married.” She looped her arm through his. “As far as the expensive stuff goes, I’m still getting money from some of the modeling gigs I did when I was in L.A.” She sniffed like she was about to cry. “I can’t believe you don’t trust me.”

  Miles hugged her. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  They kissed, and I turned away, embarrassed I had witnessed their argument.

  When Miles said, “I hadn’t planned on doing this now….” I looked up.

  Miles was down on one knee holding Aunt Dani’s hand. “Loretta Danielle Dennis, since the moment I first laid eyes on you, I’ve known there is no other woman for me. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”

  Aunt Dani stood there, her mouth open in shock. When she didn’t say anything, Miles stood and gathered her to him.

  “I know I don’t have a r
ing,” he said. “I was going to take Courtland to look at one today. We can go and pick out whatever you want…. Well, maybe I should say whatever I can afford.” He gave a nervous laugh.

  “Miles,” Aunt Dani said, “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say yes,” he said.

  Aunt Dani nodded and Miles squeezed her tight and looked at her. “I have something to tell you,” she whispered. Before he could respond she said, “I’m pregnant.”

  Miles’s face lit up. My mouth dropped open and I started backing away. Aunt Dani was only twenty-one, and while I wasn’t stupid enough to think she was a virgin, I thought she would at least have sense enough to protect herself.

  I realized I had intruded enough and headed back to the car, tossing Cory’s Game Boy into the backseat when I accidentally sat on it.

  I couldn’t believe Aunt Dani was pregnant, and she was getting married.

  fourteen

  I didn’t feel like heading home, so I called Momma to ask if I could stay out a little longer. When she told me Andrea had called and wanted to talk to me, it was just the distraction I needed. I had been wanting to talk to her for a while anyway, and this was the perfect chance.

  I had only been to her house once before when the members of Worth the Wait had had a sleepover.

  “Hey, Courtland,” she said, giving me a hug. I smiled afterward, knowing I would never forget the lesson I had learned the last time she hugged me. “It’s good to see you.”

  “You, too,” I said, making my way to her kitchen.

  “You hungry?” she asked. “My boyfriend is coming over later, and I was just about to make some spaghetti.”

  “I didn’t know you were seeing someone,” I said.

  She smiled. “His name is Justin Clarke. He’s an associate minister over at Evergreen Baptist Church.”

  I nodded, really happy for her.

  “I’m cooking dinner for him tonight. You want to help?”

  “Sure.” I went to wash my hands, then made my way over to the counter.

  “Can you cut up those vegetables for the salad?” she asked.

  I grabbed a knife and started slicing a cucumber while she added a whole head of garlic to a pot of spaghetti sauce. We normally used the jarred sauce, so I wasn’t sure if she was supposed to add that much. I thought at most it should be one or two cloves, but since I wasn’t sure, I didn’t say anything.

  “So you’ve had a lot going on lately,” she finally said.

  “Yeah, the last few months have been crazy,” I said.

  “How are you feeling about everything that’s going on with Allen?”

  “I was kind of hurt,” I said honestly, “but I’m glad that the charges have been dropped.”

  “Do you think he raped that girl?”

  “Yes,” I said before I could stop myself.

  She looked at me curiously. “What makes you so sure?”

  Like a dam, everything that had happened between me and Allen came bursting forth, and Andrea listened in silence. When I was done, she looked at me. “That’s a lot for one person to carry around,” she said softly.

  I felt drained after sharing the story with her, like all the energy had been zapped out of me. Bree was the only other person who knew everything, but Andrea was the only adult who knew.

  “Why would he use me like that, Andrea?” I said as I angrily chopped a cucumber. “I thought he really cared for me. I was looking at condoms….” I glanced at her to see her reaction, but she was busy stirring the sauce. “He only bet ten dollars. Is that all I’m worth?”

  Andrea stilled my hand, then pulled me into a hug. “You tell me. Is that all you’re worth?”

  “No,” I said. “Why would you ask me that? Of course I’m worth more than that.”

  “It seems to me like you’ve let Allen be the one to determine your worth,” she said. “From what I’m hearing, you’ve allowed him to say horrible things to you and get away with it. He keeps track of you wherever you go, he tells you what to wear, he wanted you to sleep with him even though you told him that’s not what you wanted, he’s put his hands on you several times and he tried to rape you.”

  “I know,” I said. It sounded horrible when she said everything out loud.

  She led me to the kitchen table, and we sat down. “Did you see any red flags from the beginning?” she asked.

  I thought about a few things Allen had said and done that had really bothered me, but I had brushed them off as signs that he really loved me. “Yeah, I saw them,” I admitted.

  “Why didn’t you listen to them?”

  “Because I thought he was just doing them because he loved me.”

  “Maybe he was doing them because you didn’t love you,” she said.

  “I love myself,” I protested.

  “Really?”

  I thought about it. “I do,” I said, but I wasn’t so sure I believed it.

  “If you loved yourself, you would never compromise your beliefs for anyone. Those little red flags are God’s way of telling you something is wrong. You have to learn to listen to them. God is trying to teach you something, and he’s going to keep repeating it until you listen. I don’t want you to be somewhere clinging to life before you finally learn your lesson.”

  I thought about my conversation with Andrea all the way home. After dinner, I headed to my room, still thinking about Andrea and Aunt Dani. They weren’t that far apart in age, but they were so different. After I had gotten over the shock of Andrea being HIV positive and Aunt Dani being pregnant, I had started thinking about my conversation with Miles earlier. I thought of the picture I had seen of Aunt Dani wearing my purity necklace, and I wondered how she’d gotten it.

  I took a nap and was just headed downstairs to get a load of laundry out of the dryer when the phone rang, scaring me so bad I jumped. It wasn’t that late, but Momma and Daddy had gone out on a date and they’d dropped Cory at her friend Destini’s house, so the phone sounded louder in the empty house.

  “Hello,” I said as I heard my mother pick up the other extension. I didn’t realize she was back home.

  Someone said something, but they were on a cell phone and the call started breaking up.

  “Hello,” I said again.

  The first part of the call was muffled, but I heard the word Dani before the call dropped.

  I frowned in confusion and headed upstairs, but Momma was already walking toward me. “Who was that?” we asked at the same time.

  I shrugged, then it occurred to me to look at the caller ID. The number didn’t show up, so I tried *69 and got a busy signal. I was about to try again when the phone started ringing and Momma snatched it from me before I could answer.

  “Hello,” she said, then she stopped and listened. “I’m her sister.” The blood drained from her face. “Are you sure? I’ll be right there.”

  She hung up the phone and ran upstairs, and I ran after her. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  Momma didn’t say a word as she ran into the room and threw on some clothes. “Momma, what’s wrong?”

  “Dani’s hurt,” she said.

  “What?” I said.

  “She’s been hurt. She’s at the hospital. Go get your sister.”

  “Isn’t she at Destini’s house?” I asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” she said absently.

  “I’m going with you,” I said. Luckily, I was dressed ready to roll as Momma called it. I had on sweats and a T-shirt, so I just had to throw on some shoes.

  “Call your daddy and your grandparents,” Momma said as she focused on driving.

  I reached for my phone and realized I didn’t know how to get in touch with Daddy, since I hadn’t called him in a long time. “What’s his number?” I asked.

  “What?” Momma said, sounding distracted as she took her eyes off the road for a brief second.

  I glanced up just in time to see us veering into the other lane. “Momma,” I yelled.

  She looked at the road and jerked the
steering wheel as the sound of a horn filled the car.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  I nodded, my heart beating so fast I thought she could hear it.

  I decided to let Momma focus on the road. I grabbed her cell phone and scrolled through until I found Daddy’s work number, then called him. The dispatcher patched me through and I briefly told him about Aunt Dani being in the hospital.

  “I’ll be right there,” he said.

  As he promised, he was waiting on us when we arrived at University Hospital.

  “Corwin,” Momma said, rushing to him.

  He held her close and whispered in her ear, and she nodded as she tried to fight back tears. “Do you know what happened?”

  Daddy shook his head. “One of my co-workers was patrolling Griffith Park when he found her in the parking lot. It looks like an attempted robbery. He found our number in Dani’s purse and had someone call you. When someone from the office realized she was my sister-in-law, they called me,” he said and took a deep breath. “It doesn’t look too good. She was hurt pretty bad. She was barely breathing when they got to her.”

  Momma started crying, and Daddy rubbed her back. Cory and I just stood there in shock. I kept waiting for some sign that this was just a bad dream, like the one I had had on the first day of school when I dreamed I had fallen in front of Allen, only a thousand times worse. But when the doctor came out a few hours later, I knew it was real.

  “Are you related to Loretta Dennis?” the doctor asked.

  Momma nodded and sniffed. “I’m her sister,” she said quietly. “Is she all right?”

  “We don’t know yet,” the doctor said honestly. “She has head trauma, and both her arms are broken.” He repeated a lot of what Daddy had said. “We’ll know more over the next few hours.”

  “Can we see her?” Momma asked.

  “Only for a few minutes,” the doctor said. “She’s heavily sedated, so she probably won’t know you’re there.”

  Daddy thanked the doctor, and Momma turned to head toward Aunt Dani’s room.

  “Momma, I want to go, too,” I said. She held out her hand, and I grasped it, and together we walked down the hall.