by Gary Sapp
reminded of the confrontation down in Macon nearly a year ago, while the FBI waited outside for her to leave with them. “Your test wasn’t to see if you would sleep with another man, Angel. Your test revolved around you allowing yourself to be put in yet another bad situation that could compromise our marriage that would compromise me.”
“Seth,” Angel couldn’t find any more words…but she did find more tears though. “Seth, I didn’t realize—“
“But you should have,” The Gray Man found his fury at long last and it was liberating in its intensity. “Angel, I nearly died a thousand times in the streets of Atlanta trying to reach you when I found out that Roxanne Sanchez wanted you dead. I have to live the rest of my life every night seeing that reign of terror that Quincy Morgan and his Peacekeeper’s let loose after dark. Right now I’m struggling to remember moments of my past after bleeding out from a madman named Joseph Champion that you took as a lover, Angel. I can’t remember my friend’s names sometimes that have moved on to eternity, Angel, but I will never forget these things, ever.” Seth paused both for breath and a vain attempt to collect himself. “After all of this, after this abomination that was our marriage you expect me to come back to you. I promised myself that I would stay by yours side to allow this Grand Jury thing to play itself out…but no further. If there was any chance of us saving our marriage it went out the window the moment when stepped into that hotel room with Brad.”
“Please, Seth,” She grasped at his bicep, but just like their marriage, it was all slipping away from her grasp. He pulled away and walked off. “I will do better, Seth. Don’t leave me alone. I’m begging you not to leave me alone. Serena told me that I would suffer from loneliness. It would be my personal Whirlwind.”
Seth spun around one final time to face his wife—who he still loved dearly, but could no longer live with.
“I guess that you can’t go home again, Angel.” He said again without cruelty and left her there crying and alone.
And in that one moment in time, Dr. Seth Dupree realized, yet again, that all his life it was if he’d been holding his breath…waiting.
He hoped to mend his broken heart.
He hoped to breathe again.
He hoped.
Epilogue: Another Dying Man
Thomas Pepper was dying.
He knew that it was inevitable. He knew that there is no way he could continue to cheat his destiny. So he spends his final days like he does today, seated in his wheelchair with just enough strength in his arms to wheel himself around his room. And it amazes him that a man who was once as big and as strong as a bull just one year ago could be eaten up with disease at such a rapid pace.
Thomas’ long awaited book 411 was published last Tuesday and debuted in the number one slot in the New York Times, USA Today and dozens of national and international periodicals.
He smiled at the memory. Pride was one of the many sins that Thomas had prepared himself to answer for during the Judgement. 411 was his finest work. And to his surprise, the critics have been offering up positive review after positive review for his final piece that he would ever write.
He’d been watching the television all morning when he hadn’t been watching the children playing. He’d seen a brief caption flash across the bottom of the screen stating that Dr. Angel Hicks Dupree had been proven guilty by a Grand Jury but would not serve jail time for her crimes. Thomas knew that many in his former profession would consider that proclamation as light sentence indeed.
Thomas Pepper knew better.
He knows that the Director of the FBI, Nicholas Sheridan, has bought more than the doctor’s silence with his influence on her sentence. He had bought Agent Tabitha Blue and her people more time to find the renegade offspring of Pandora and bring them to justice before the world learned of their genocidal plans. Even recognition of Joseph Champion’s harrowing plot alone may be enough to set the country off on deep, dark journey that it may not be able to pull back from. And when Champion sent him a evidence of what these renegades from Pandora had done: Thomas realized that the poisoning of President Adolphus Sweet and Mayor Ernestine Johnson was just the start of a mass murder of people of color.
Champion also gambled that the more people knew about what truly happened to these public figures the more likely the world would learn the truth. That is why I burned the CD that he sent me. That’s why I read the information thoroughly but didn’t use the information in the final edit of my book. He would take the truth to his coming grave with him.
And yet what will you do with your truth, Christopher Prince?
Joseph Champion told one very large lie amidst all of those truths that he’d revealed to the doctor before she killed him that night. He fabricated the idea that he’d sent the new leader of a House in Chains a disk containing the same valuable information that Thomas knew. Champion played Sheridan—he played all of us for fools even from his grave. Sheridan came to see Thomas days ago and told him in person that he’d left word with Chris to meet with him soon after the ceremony concluded that had honored the deaths of his fallen family. Chris didn’t know the reason why. He couldn’t have known otherwise. And yet, once the two men, who were no longer allies, had agreed to meet under adverse circumstances, Sheridan was forced to reveal his secret to his former agent.
On the other end of the deal, Thomas knew that while Angel would not serve any official time she would suffer in anguish for as long as she lived for the decisions that she made during the days before and during the crisis in Atlanta.
And yet, Thomas knew that she would face those days of tribulation alone. His time was now at an end. He could not help her any longer.
He wanted to get to the window and look out. He’d used most of his advance of 411 and even called in the last favors that he ever would to assure himself this spot with an unobstructed view of the neighborhood preschool’s playground below from the hospice center. Thomas loved to watch the children at play. And now, with all of that book business behind him, he can finally spend as many hours of the day as he wishes watching them.
He finds that he hasn’t the strength to push himself forward towards the window. He grew ever irritable. He cursed, but still can’t get it done to his liking. He found that he was too far away from his emergency button to call for help.
He heard his door bell chime.
He smiled immediately.
The nurses had access to his room at all times. He knew that the ringing on the bell only served as a courtesy call before they used voice authorization to let themselves in. Perhaps they’d come to change his linens or clean his bathroom as they did daily. He hoped so. Whoever was on the other side of that door could help him get to where he wanted to be. He hoped that they’d dispatched some of the ladies who were closer to his own age. They tended to be kinder to him and show more patients with all of his physical limitations than the younger women did.
He found himself staring at the older nurses sometimes, but not in any sexual manner that he may have just one year earlier. He felt ashamed for the way that he’d treated women before. He felt worse for the manner that he’d treated the sanctity of marriage. It is another in the long line of issues that I have to answer for. Thomas minister friend had counseled him and told him that God forgives all sins and the sinners who committed them—even sinners like him. All he had to do was believed in his heart and ask for His forgiveness.
The children would be out soon. He didn’t want to miss them. Who knew how long he had left before even this privilege would be denied to him.
He heard a female voice utter her authorization code and then the bolted lock disengaged from the locking mechanism behind him. Thomas looked over his shoulder and saw only one set of legs had joined him in his room this time.
In his mind’s eye Thomas sometimes saw Serena Tennyson walk through that door. Sometimes she’d come to kill him. Other times she’d come simply to stay with him and watch him die as he had watched her do so six months earlier.
Tho
mas knew that it wasn’t Serena Tennyson or one of his nurses that had come today.
It was his mother, Julia, who had come to sit with him this day.
He could feel his eyes light up with her entrance and he could see the twinkle in her eyes as well. It was so very different when she showed up at Christmas time. He resisted her. He resented her presence after being out of his life after so many years. They’d argued about the past—about how she’d left Thomas and his siblings to fend for themselves while her father lay dying of the same cancer that was eating at his life right now. They cried together. They argued some more. Yet, Thomas knew that his mother was an old woman now. And he knew that she’d come seeking forgiveness for her past sins like he was seeking forgiveness from a higher power for his.
He had neither the strength nor the time to judge anymore.
They’d spent the last few months together getting to know one another again s mother and son. She started taking him out to places where he wanted to go like the store, or to the library, or to the park—or to Christopher Prince’s ceremony for his fallen family as he so desired.
If Thomas had any chance of God forgiving his many sins during his last days, how could he decide not to forgive his mother’s?
And after all, it felt wonderful to have his mom with him now—even here in the last