Practicing What You Preach

by Vanessa Davis Griggs

  Pearl’s husband tried to help rein her in. But Arletha had fought back, accusing her mother of being a hypocrite. Apparently, Pearl had had Arletha out of wedlock, which meant she’d had sex before she married. So how could she say anything to Arletha about what she was doing in her life? Pearl wrote of her regrets that her daughter had been able to use that argument against her. Pearl had also written of her regrets about the way she had handled things with her oldest child. She should have listened to her daughter more, talked with her more and found out the source of her rebellion. But instead, she had gotten frustrated and lost patience.

  When Arletha got pregnant, she managed to keep her pregnancy a secret, even from her midwife of a mother. An easy feat when you refuse to have much to do with your family and the baby grows sideways instead of out. Even more so if the mother is not nourishing herself properly. According to Angela, Pearl delivered the baby, a beautiful little girl named Rebecca. The same little girl she would have to bring up as her own.

  Having been a midwife for decades, Pearl wrote of untold truths from the common to the unusual—truths withheld from many. She’d written about delivering a baby that would be called Memory. How they had kept the truth behind that birth a secret for more than sixty years. How two babies (a girl and a boy), born to separate mothers (Sarah Fleming and Mamie Patterson), had been recorded by her as a twin birth for Mamie Patterson. How, in actuality, the baby girl had been Sarah Fleming’s—a secret that most assuredly had kept that child alive since Sarah’s half brother had ordered Pearl to let the baby die. It was as though Pearl had written this as a place of her last confessions.

  She’d written of old friends like a guy named Ransom, and a few of the new ones. Angela had smiled at how excited she’d been to have met “a real live author,” as she had put it. It was indeed a thrill for her, someone of such “humble beginnings.” She was an old woman who hadn’t had enough money for a proper education, and there at her door and sitting in her home had been a famous author named Johnnie Mae Taylor. She’d eaten a slice of Pearl’s famous homemade German chocolate cake and had loved it.

  And before Pearl had died, she’d learned that her old friend, Sarah Fleming, after all of these years, was still alive. Sadly, Pearl died before Pearl got to see Sarah again.

  Angela had read to me a passage her great-grandmother had written that had touched her heart.

  From some of my greatest pains have come some of my greatest joys. Had it not been for the little girl that Arletha Jane gave birth to, Rebecca, and Rebecca having had our sweet little Angel, I would have been even more alone in my life. The joy all of my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have brought me—I honestly never would have known real love without them.

  The sum of my life, the greatest gift from God above, has truly been the gift of love and the heritage of children. I thank you, God. For in truth, I did not choose You, but it was You who chose me.

  Chapter 33

  For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?

  —Proverbs 24:22

  Sasha had gone online and found a piano. She told Marcus she’d found one without telling him where. The cost was five thousand dollars; she told him it was eight. He’d then asked her for the information so he could check it out. She told him she had already bought it, charged it to her brand-new American Express card. The piano was on its way.

  Sasha had stopped by Marcus’s house without prior warning. “I need you to give me the money so I can pay my bill. You said you were going to buy the piano,” Sasha said, talking rather fast. “I asked what you were willing to spend, and you said no more than eight thousand. Well, it was hard, but I did find one for eight. I bought it before someone else did. So don’t even think about giving me any grief or drama since you were going to buy the piano anyway.”

  “How do you know I wasn’t going to charge it to my credit card?” Marcus asked.

  “If that’s what you were going to do, then just write a check to me from your credit account. I don’t care where you get the money. I just need you to give it to me so I can pay my bill. Unlike yours, my American Express is the kind that requires that the balance be paid in full every month. I just got this account and I don’t want to mess it up.”

  “Then why would you charge it to that card?” Marcus asked with a touch of frustration in his voice as he quickly glanced at his watch.

  “Because,” Sasha said, taking note he had just sneaked a peek at his watch, “you normally pay for everything you buy with cash. I figured you would buy this piano and pay cash for it.” She put her hand on her hip. “So, am I wrong?”

  “That’s beside the point.” Marcus shook his head. “You used to always do this when we were married.”

  “Do what?”

  “Spend my money, then expect it to be all right.”

  She shrugged. “I thought it was supposed to be our money. And that was the problem. You thought you should be the one to make all the financial decisions just because you’re so great with math.”

  “Sasha, now that’s not fair. I always got your input, and you know that.”

  Sasha nodded. “True. But you were still the one who would say whether or not we could afford a thing. Saying we should wait, or save up so we wouldn’t have to charge it.” She threw her hands in the air. “You drove me crazy when it came to what we could and couldn’t do. Now, I don’t have to ask. I just buy what I want when I want. And frankly, I love the freedom.”

  “Is that right?” Marcus said. He hunched his shoulders and smirked. “So tell me, Sasha. How is that working for you?”

  “It’s working fine for me. Just fine. How are things working for you?”

  “Okay,” Marcus said with a grin.

  “Now, can you please write me a check for the piano?” She held out her hand.

  “When does the piano arrive?”

  “What?” Sasha said.

  “The piano, when will it get here?”

  “After my bill is due,” Sasha said. “The piano is being shipped by freight. They say it will take four to six weeks to arrive. Now quit playing and go write me a check so I can handle my business. Goodness, Marcus! Must you always make everything so difficult?”

  Marcus had told her he would pay no more than eight thousand for a piano. He hadn’t expected her to run out and buy one two days later before he had a chance to check around himself. Still, she had bought one and there was nothing he could do about that. Besides, it wasn’t that big a deal. Sasha had asked him to buy Aaliyah a piano, he had agreed to do it, Sasha had found one, and now it was on its way. He went and got a check and wrote it out to her. “I need the receipt so we can insure it,” he said.

  “I’m already on that. You really are the best daddy out there,” Sasha said as she looked at the check to make sure it was addressed to her and written for the entire eight thousand before placing it in her wallet. “You just wait until you see and hear your baby playing her first song on it. You’re going to be so proud of her.”

  “I’m already proud of her,” Marcus said. He glanced at his watch again.

  “Are you late to be somewhere or expecting someone?” Sasha asked when she noticed that was the second time he had checked his watch. “I realize I just dropped in. I didn’t ask if you were on your way out or busy.”

  Marcus smiled. He wasn’t about to tell Sasha anything at this point. He started walking toward his front door.

  Sasha threw her Louis Vuitton purse across her shoulder and smiled. “Okay, so I guess that’s your polite way of saying it’s time for me to leave.” She caught up with him. When she reached the door, she turned to him. “Thank you, Marc. You have no idea what this means to us. I can’t wait to see the look on Aaliyah’s face when that piano arrives.” She rose up on the tips of her toes and gave Marcus a quick peck on his cheek. “Thank you.”

  Marcus had been caught slightly off guard by that kiss. He didn’t know what to think. He couldn’t help but w
onder what was really going on with Sasha. He did know he was getting an uneasy feeling in his stomach lately when Sasha was around. He wasn’t sure exactly what that feeling was trying to tell him.

  Sasha left. He hurried out to his car with only twenty minutes to pick Melissa up for their date and get to the movie theater. He and Melissa hated missing the start of a movie. And she was looking forward to seeing Tyler Perry’s new one. He would have to hustle to make up the time.

  Chapter 34

  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

  —Luke 18:16

  It had been a week since Marcus had given Sasha that money. She had deposited the money into her account, having gone to Marcus’s bank to cash it. Her bank was planning on placing a one-week hold on it even though it was a local check. She hated that checks written for more than five thousand dollars were automatically held for a minimum of five working days. Sasha felt it was a racket for them to have her money without her having access to it. They could use it, possibly making money off it while she, the owner, had to wait to be able to.

  A friend who worked for a bank told her a lot of the tricks they use to get over on customers. One: charging a monthly fee, unless you maintain a minimum balance of $500, just so you can have the pleasure of keeping your money in a checking account. The bank charging you if you happen to deposit a check from someone whose check bounces. Charging customers for not being smart enough to know that the check someone else had written them wasn’t good. Sasha couldn’t believe how ridiculous that was. It wasn’t enough that they charge you for writing a check that bounces. And it was nothing for them to charge thirty-five dollars the first time the check bounced, then put it through again a few days later and it bounces again, generating another thirty-five-dollar charge.

  Sasha had been so mad the time she had written a check that caused some other checks to bounce. What really got her was how they charged her for five bouncing checks when on the day the check bounced, she had enough money to cover those five. If they had bounced the one big check, it would have been the only one to have bounced. Instead, that night, they just happened to process the one big check first, thus depleting her balance, then they processed the other five and charged her thirty-five dollars for each of them.

  When she went to the bank to complain, the manager explained that their system processes them as they come through. It just so happened that the large check was put through first and the other five checks were processed after it, through no design of theirs, on that same night.

  “It’s just the way the computer processed them. We don’t have any control over that,” the woman at the bank had said.

  Sasha was getting tired of computers and machine errors. She often heard her mother talk about life BC (Before Computers).

  “Back in the old days, when people actually ran the show,” Stella Bradford had said, “a person would have seen those checks come through, and a person would have looked out for the customer. Any decent person would have processed the five checks using the money you had in the account. And they would have stamped the one big one as insufficient. It’s happening with everything these days. Personally, I hate machines, and I hate all this technological stuff. I don’t want to press one for yes or two for no. I don’t want to have to keep pressing zero trying to get a live person to assist me.”

  Sasha had bought a few things since depositing the money in her account. She hadn’t purchased the piano yet, but she was going to. In fact, she was in the process of going online to buy that piano she’d found for five thousand dollars when she noticed an e-mail in her inbox like ones she normally ignored. Only this one was different. It read:

  I am Barrister Lim Chong

  A legal practitioner with Limchong Chambers

  Law Firm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

  Attention: Sasha Peeples

  I saw your contact and profile I then decided you could cooperate with me in this proposition. I have a client who was deceased in November, 2001, as result of Tsunami Disaster in Indonesia.

  I am contacting you because you have the same surname with my deceased client and I felt that you could help me in the distribution of funding that were left in my deceased client’s bank account. This funding is closing to be declared UN-serviceable by the bank as there were no indicated next of kin or next of beneficiary of the funding in the bank account.

  The total amount of cash in the bank account of my deceased client is US $8.7 Million (Eight Million, Seven Hundred Thousand USA dollars) only. The bank had issued to me a notification letter to contact the next of kin of my deceased client for either to re-activate the bank account or to make claim of beneficiary of the funding in the bank account to avoid the indefinite closure of the bank account.

  My proposition to you is to seek your consent, and to present your kind self as the next-of-kin and beneficiary of my deceased client. Hence you have the same last name with him. This means that the proceeds of his bank account would be paid to you as his next of kin or the legitimate beneficiary.

  So that when the proceeds in this bank account are paid to you, we would share the proceeds on a mutually agreed term upon percentage 50% for me and 40% to your kind self and remaining 10% for sundry expense in cure during the procession.

  All the legal documents to back up your claim as my client’s next-of-kin would be provided by me. The most important thing I would need is your honest cooperation in this proposition. This would be done under a legitimate arrangement that would protect you from any breach of the law.

  If this business proposition offends your moral and ethic values, do accept my sincere apology. Please contact me immediately.

  Best regards,

  Barrister Lim Chong (ESQ)

  Phone: +60172495317

  Sasha normally didn’t pay attention to these types of e-mails. But this one seemed legitimate. First, it addressed her by name, and Peeples wasn’t a common name. This e-mail had a phone number to call. She showed it to her mother to see what she thought about it.

  “Praise the Lord,” Stella Bradford said. “This is an answer from the Lord. It’s a gift from heaven.”

  “But what if it’s just a scam? I don’t know if you know this, but there are lots of scam e-mails floating around in cyberspace,” Sasha argued.

  “I saw something on television about those, but they are mostly from Nigeria,” Stella said. “This one isn’t from Nigeria. They have your name on it and there’s a phone number at the bottom. I tell you what: let’s just call this number and see. You get on the other extension. We can determine real quick whether or not this e-mail is on the up-and-up.”

  Stella called the number and a woman answered who sounded quite pleasant and sincere. She said the number was indeed Barrister Chong’s. The woman put Barrister Chong on the phone. He was more than happy to stop what he was doing to take the call. Barrister Chong explained to Stella and Sasha rather clearly in broken English what was needed to make this happen. They were talking millions of dollars here. There needed to be trust on both sides since they could be out of money if Sasha turned out to be a scammer and not who they thought she was.

  After talking to him, Stella was ecstatic. “Daughter, you’re about to be rich,” she said. “I know this is God. Can’t be nobody but God. Do you have any idea what all we can do with this much money?”

  “We,” Sasha said, laughing.

  “Yes, we. Now don’t be trying to act funny with me. You know had your father left me any money, I was going to share it with you. I just know you plan to share whatever you get with me.” Stella clapped her hands. “Glory to God! All of our troubles are over. Our prayers have been answered. God is so good!” She turned back to Sasha. “But you need to hurry up and move on this. The good barrister said he’s going to send you a check for millions. All you have to do is pay part of the processing fee. His office is paying the rest. How much did he say that would b
e again? Twelve thousand?”

  “Yeah, he said twelve thousand.”

  “So, do you have twelve thousand?” Stella asked.

  “No, you know I don’t have that kind of money,” Sasha said.

  “Then can you borrow it from your ex? You and I both know that Marcus has plenty of money. That boy knows he knows how to invest. I believe he may be better at it that even your daddy was. Marcus took that thing to another level. He’s not just working for a company; he’s investing his own money in businesses they turn down that he believes in. Like that doctor you said he was investing his own money in, that OB/GYN. Now that’s a sound investment because women are going to always need one of those.” Stella chuckled. She grabbed her daughter’s hand and squeezed it. “I bet you Marcus has the money. Ask him to loan it to you. After we finish this, in a week or two and you’ve gotten those millions, you can easily give Marcus back that chump change. The barrister says you’re getting forty percent of eight point seven million dollars.”

  Sasha took her hand out of her mother’s. “I can’t ask Marcus to loan me twelve thousand dollars. Marcus might have money, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have money like that,” Sasha said.

  “How do you know what he has? Since your divorce, does he tell you much of anything?” Stella asked.

  “No, but I know he doesn’t have that kind of money. At least, not the way you apparently think he does. Just like Daddy didn’t have it the way you thought he did when he was alive.”

  Stella pursed her lips as she shook her head. “Don’t go bringing your father into this, God rest his soul. Your daddy just had secrets I didn’t realize he had. I can assure you, had I known he was in that much debt and was going to let his life insurance lapse, we would have paid that insurance premium. I could have forgone a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes for one month to ensure that bill was paid. He just didn’t tell me stuff, and I didn’t ask. That was my mistake.” Stella clapped her hands. “But now God has heard our prayers. It looks like your having been married to a Peeples is about to pay off after all, big time. God is so good! So good. We don’t need to question this blessing from God. We just need to figure out how to act on it, and quickly, like Barrister Chong just said.”