by Janice Sims
Cherisse smiled at him. Could it be that David Pedersen had found their adversarial relationship stimulating and would miss her when she was gone? If it were true he would never admit it. “No, I haven’t been recruited by another hospital,” she told him. “I’m getting married.”
“Lots of nurses get married and continue working. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll give you a month’s leave. How is that?” His smile was warm, even solicitous.
“That won’t be acceptable. I’m going to be working with my husband in his business. So I won’t have the time to continue working here.”
David frowned. “It’s true then? I heard rumors that you were seeing Harry Payne. I figured they were lies. Well, this is a fine mess, Cherisse! It’s going to take a hell of a person to take your place. You’re leaving me high and dry. How can you do this to me?”
Cherisse laughed. “I’m giving you six weeks’ notice, David. That’s not leaving you high and dry. What’s more, if you’re going to be hiring within, I suggest Sonia Lopez for the job. She has more than ten years’ experience…”
“She doesn’t have a master’s degree,” David pointed out.
“She’s working on it,” said Cherisse. “She’s been going to night school for two years. She graduates in June. I don’t see why you can’t consider her for the job! You know it would be more cost effective instead of having to bring someone in from the outside. Of all the nurses in pediatrics, she’s the one the others look up to. They would accept her as their leader.”
“You think you’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?” said David peevishly. He bit into his ham-and-cheese sandwich almost viciously, chewed, swallowed and took a swig of apple juice. “If I had known you were going to marry a millionaire and leave me three years from the date I hired you, I wouldn’t have hired you!”
Cherisse was shocked by his reaction. “I thought you would be happy to see me go!”
David sighed. “I rode you so hard because I knew you had potential, Cherisse. I will not be happy to see you go. You have yet to achieve your full potential.”
“You mean I haven’t yet bowed to management,” Cherisse said. “I’m not sorry to disappoint you, David. This is one nurse who is going out unbowed and with her dignity intact.”
“Let me leave the position open for six months,” David suggested. “Sonia can do the job for that long. You may change your mind. Rich men often change their minds about the women they marry. What if he kicked you out? You would have nothing to fall back on.”
“I’m touched by your concern,” Cherisse said sarcastically. “But the answer is no.”
“Then my answer to the Sonia Lopez question is no,” David stubbornly told her.
“Go ahead, David, bite off your nose to spite your face. But you’re going to lose many more good people unless you start showing some compassion, a shred of interest in your staff as human beings and not just as bodies to perform tasks around this hospital.”
She rose and collected her tray. “My written resignation will be on your desk by the end of the day.”
David threw his head back in laughter.
Cherisse looked down at him. “Have you gone crazy from lack of sleep or something? You came in here looking like death warmed over and now you’re acting peculiar.”
David gestured to her empty chair. “Sit, sit.” His eyes danced with amusement.
Cherisse sat back down and glared at him.
“Didn’t it feel good to have one last knock-down-drag-out, Cherisse?” he asked smugly. “Of course I accept your resignation. Yes, I’ll be sorry to see you go, but I’m happy for you. You deserve happiness, and if Harry Payne makes you happy, then, wonderful!”
Cherisse looked around them suspiciously. “Are we on some kind of hidden camera TV show? Am I being punked?”
Still laughing softly, David explained, “Nothing of the sort. I’m just tired of being a tight-ass, Cherisse. I spent most of my life, both as a civilian and in the military, being the one who never let his standards fall below excellent. My wife left me three weeks ago. She said she and I had nothing left. I was my job, and she didn’t want to be married to a job. I haven’t been able to sleep well without her beside me. I didn’t realize how much I depended on hearing her reassuring soft snores next to me in order to get a good night’s rest. Not that her snoring is the only thing I miss about her. It’s just an example of one of the things I never appreciated about her.”
“Oh, my God, David, you’ve just shared something personal with a colleague. Will you now keel over and die?”
David laughed anew. “You’re not going to give me a break?”
“Why should I give you a break? It’s obvious you drove the poor woman away. I would have left you much sooner. How long have you been married?”
“Twenty-five years.”
“She’s a saint! I would’ve killed you in your sleep two years into the marriage.”
David had tears in his eyes, he was laughing so hard. And Cherisse knew why. He was finally releasing some of the pent-up stress he’d been carrying around since his wife had left him.
“I would tell you that you have a good chance of winning her back if you cleaned up your act, but I have too much sympathy for the poor woman. She’s suffered enough.”
David wiped his eyes with a paper napkin and regarded Cherisse. “Thanks, I needed that.”
Cherisse smiled. “You needed me to insult you?”
“I needed somebody to be brutally honest.” He sighed. “I’ll seriously consider Sonia Lopez for the job. I can’t promise to stop being a tight-ass. It’s too ingrained in me. But I will definitely try to get my wife to come back to me. I love her and I believe she loves me. I can leave the job here from now on, and actually start to have a life outside of work.”
“Just my luck,” Cherisse quipped. “You’re turning into a human being just as I’m leaving this place.”
“You could stay.”
“Not on your life,” said Cherisse. “And another thing, I’m going to need ten days off starting on January first.”
“You’re busting my balls!” David cried.
“A girl has to have a honeymoon, David,” Cherisse said, rising. She picked up her tray. “And if you have got your wife talking to you again by January first, I’d like you to bring her to my wedding in Vail.”
“You’re inviting me to your wedding?” David asked, genuinely moved.
“I’m inviting all of my friends, David.”
Charlie liked his job. He went to area high schools and community colleges to recruit students into the sports medicine program at the University of Colorado at Denver. He had so much fun talking to the students that he often felt let down when it was time to go home after work. But then he figured the reason he didn’t want to return to the Patterson home at the end of the day was because he felt guilty. He had found a nice house not too far from campus but he hadn’t told anyone about it yet. He wanted to be around the Patterson home for a while longer.
His big plan to win Cherisse back, to get Danielle on his side and therefore work on Cherisse’s sympathies as a mother, had failed miserably because Danielle saw through his ruse in about a minute and called him on it. Cherisse had raised a very astute young lady. Basically, Charlie was now out of ammunition when it came to the big guns he was supposed to have brought to bear in the war to win Cherisse back.
Harry Payne was winning big-time. Charlie suspected that Cherisse had slept with Payne even though he hadn’t overheard her talking about it with her mother or anything. Cherisse was notoriously closemouthed about that sort of thing.
Still, she looked exceptionally happy to him. She glowed. He hoped she wasn’t pregnant!
What’s more, lately, she was being very polite to him. She no longer avoided him and when she looked at him he saw a softening in her gaze as if she could finally stand the sight of him without rolling her eyes or cursing under her breath. He didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad sign. It
could be a bad sign if she were so gone on Harry Payne that his presence was no longer a blip on the radar. It could be a good sign if she were genuinely beginning to consider Charlie as a rival for Payne.
Charlie wasn’t going to hold his breath.
It was two days before Christmas and Charlie had gone shopping on his lunch break and gotten Danielle that new cell phone she had been dropping hints about, Cherisse a gold bracelet and Miss Jo a pair of pearl earrings. He’d had the bracelet engraved with the words I’ll Always Love You.
When he got home in the afternoon, Miss Jo and Danielle were in the kitchen cooking. They had started cooking two days ago for the Christmas Eve bash. The freezer on the back porch was full of goodies that only had to be thawed and reheated.
Charlie had even been put into service last night when they had baked cakes and pies for the party. His right arm was sore from whipping cake batter. He didn’t mind, though. This was the first time in years he was going to spend Christmas with people he loved.
Danielle looked up from chopping celery and went to him and kissed him on the cheek. “Hey, Dad, how was your day?”
“It was fine, baby, how was yours?”
“Hectic, as usual,” said Danielle. “Grandma’s trying to work me to death.”
Charlie went and kissed Miss Jo on the cheek. “Miss Jo,” he acknowledged with a smile.
Joann smiled back. “Hello, Charlie. Refresh yourself then wash up and join in the fun. There are still potatoes to be peeled for the potato salad.”
“I’m a pro at peeling potatoes,” Charlie said gamely.
Joann winked at Danielle. “Isn’t that something? If he stays here long enough we’ll have him cooking entire meals.”
Charlie suddenly decided it was time to come clean. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you, Miss Jo,” he said regretfully. “But I’ve found a house. I’ll be moving at the first of the year. I found an owner who’s agreed to rent it to me before I decide to buy.”
“Well, that’s nice,” said Joann. She was wearing an apron over a smart gray A-line dress that nicely fit her plump body and a pair of black flats as she stood at the counter cutting carrots into three-inch-long sticks for appetizers. “I’m going to miss you around here.”
“I will, too,” said Danielle. She wore jeans and a red sweater with a pair of white sneakers. Her thick hair was braided and held back by a brown leather tie.
She smiled at her father. “But all good things come to an end. Things stay in flux. I learned that in physics. Even though we’re not aware of it, the earth, everything is continually changing. Change can be good.”
Charlie looked into her eyes. Was she trying to tell him something? Perhaps prepare him for some shocking news.
Danielle seemingly spoke to his fears when she said, “Dad, I got a letter from Yale today. I’ve been accepted. I start the fall semester of next year. And since Mom put me in that young achievers program when I was eight, my tuition will be paid for the first four years.”
Charlie couldn’t believe his ears. Yale. His little girl had gotten into Yale. On a scholarship!
He went and picked Danielle up and spun her around in the middle of the kitchen.
Danielle squealed like a little girl. “Daddy, let me down!”
Charlie put her feet back on the floor and squeezed her tightly. “I’m so proud of you, baby girl, so proud! And your mother, she must have grinned from ear to ear when you told her.”
“I haven’t told her yet,” Danielle said. “I’m waiting until she gets home so I can see her face when I tell her.”
“I’ve got to have my camera ready,” said Charlie. He glanced up at the kitchen clock.
Cherisse wouldn’t be home for two and a half hours. He had plenty of time to get the digital camera prepared.
Then something troubling occurred to him. He frowned at Danielle. “Wait a minute. Didn’t you tell me Echo was going to Yale?”
Danielle smiled widely. “I wondered when you’d remember that.”
“You mean you and he are going to be alone hundreds of miles from here?”
“Daddy, I’m nearly eighteen. Don’t you trust me to do the right thing?”
“I trust you, but I don’t trust him!” Charlie almost yelled.
Joann was laughing softly. Danielle was just like her mother. She hadn’t been able to talk Cherisse out of marrying Charlie twenty years ago, either. Well, the chickens had come home to roost now. Charlie and Cherisse would get a taste of how frustrating it was being the parent of an obstinate child. Or should she say, in Danielle’s case, a child who knows her own mind. Joann had complete faith in Danielle’s ability to attend Yale without difficulty and to handle any advances from Echo.
Joann also believed that Echo was a fine boy. A little flaky, but then geniuses were often flaky. He and Danielle made a good couple. Danielle was so grounded she would be able to pull Echo back down to earth when he began to float into the stratosphere.
“Now, now, Charlie,” Joann said in placating tones. “You said you liked the boy when he came for dinner.”
“I do like the boy,” Charlie said. “I’m just against his and Danielle’s going to the same college.” He regarded Danielle. “Haven’t you applied to other colleges?”
“Yes,” Danielle said. “But Yale is my first choice. I’m not giving up my first choice, Daddy.”
Charlie went to the refrigerator to pour himself a glass of water. He suddenly felt warm. After drinking half the glass, he said, “All right, go to Yale. Go to Yale with Echo. I guess I was overreacting because I’ve just got you back in my life and now you’re talking about leaving. But I have to get used to the notion of letting you go sometime. All fathers have to face that at one time or another, right?”
“I’m not leaving for months, Daddy,” Danielle said.
Charlie cheered up somewhat. A lot could happen between now and next fall. Echo could decide that the love he felt for Danielle was only infatuation. Danielle could decide that she liked the kid from D.C. better. What was his name? Dante, Dante Winters.
And Cherisse could break up with Harry Payne and when it came time to drive Danielle to college, she and Charlie would do it as a couple. Just a couple making sure their darling daughter was settled in at school. The way their lives were supposed to have turned out.
Charlie set his glass of water on the counter and went to start whittling down the pile of potatoes Miss Jo had earlier suggested he might enjoy peeling.
Things might work out his way.
On Christmas Eve cars lined the street where the Patterson house stood. Joann had gotten permission from her neighbors for the cars to park in their driveway and in front of their houses. They were amenable to the request because most of them would be attending the party, as well.
The early birds started arriving at seven. Jo knew how to handle people who came an hour too soon—she put them to work.
She, Danielle, Echo, Cherisse and Charlie were all dressed by seven and downstairs putting food on the tables. Dinner would be served buffet style and consisted of all the traditional Christmas fare that the African-American community in Five Points had come to expect from the Patterson Christmas Eve party—glazed ham, roasted turkey, roast beef, with various sides like collard greens, fresh acre peas, fried okra, butter beans, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, candied yams, corn bread, dinner rolls, fresh garden salad and, for dessert, ice-cream pound cake made with frozen vanilla ice cream instead of milk in the batter, sweet potato pies, egg custard pies and pecan pies. The potables were provided by guests who knew it was a “bring your own brown paper bag” affair. They generously provided cases of beer, liters of vodka, gin, brandy and whiskey. No one left with a clear head unless they were teetotalers. And Cherisse made sure that there were designated drivers aplenty. What’s more, she had the local cab company on speed-dial.
The party was in full-swing when Harry arrived with his mother, Mildred, his sister, Susanne, her husband, Kendall and th
eir four children: Kendall, Jr., sixteen; Kara, fourteen; Sandrene, thirteen; and Sage, ten.
Cherisse had already met them, having had dinner with them the night before. She met them at the door and invited them in, receiving hugs from Mildred and Susanne as they entered. The large foyer was as always elegant, but the rails on the stairs were now strung with holly vines and poinsettias lined the entrance. The hardwood floors gleamed and the air was redolent with good food smells. Christmas carols sung by soul singers like Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls, Marvin Gaye and other Motown artists were on the CD player, which could be heard throughout the house thanks to the sound system Echo had hooked up.
When Harry and his family walked through the door, Otis Redding’s rendition of “White Christmas” was playing. Tonight Cherisse was wearing a sleeveless, scoop-neck royal blue dress with a hem that fell two inches above her knees. She looked sophisticated with her hair in an upswept style that framed her heart-shaped face nicely and made her neck look long and graceful.
Mildred thought she looked like a young Dorothy Dandridge. Mildred was fond of old movies, especially those with Dorothy Dandridge and Sidney Poitier in them. She pictured Cherisse as Dorothy tonight in her pretty frock and Harry as Sidney Poitier in his dark blue suit.
Mildred herself was in a tailored black pantsuit. Susanne also wore basic black, but hers was a simple black dress that had a square neckline and a low-cut back, but not too low. Her husband Kendall wore a blue suit similar to Harry’s. The boys were in dress shirts and slacks and the girls wore dresses, although Cherisse noticed that the youngest girl, Sage, looked very uncomfortable in her frilly dress. She guessed she was like Danielle had been at that age, a tomboy.
Cherisse made the introductions in the foyer. Jo, Danielle, Echo and Charlie were introduced in turn: Joann wearing a beautiful bronze-colored dress with bronze accessories that accentuated her gray hair. Danielle in a multicolored, diamond-design short shift trimmed in black with a pair of chunky-heeled black leather sandals. She looked both young and trendy. At her side, Echo was wearing his usual geeky dress-up ensemble of a white long-sleeve shirt, black dress slacks and black Adidas. But from the adoring expression in fourteen-year-old Kara’s eyes, he was quite handsome. Danielle smiled when she saw the way the girl was looking at Echo. She didn’t blame her one bit.