Practicing What You Preach

by Vanessa Davis Griggs

  “Well, I’m not as sure about this as you are. Marcus tells me all the time I need to be careful. That if something sounds too good to be true, I need to check it out before I just dive into it.” Sasha was now wringing her hands.

  “Well, I’m sure about this. And you know I wouldn’t steer you wrong,” Stella said.

  “Except when you encouraged and pushed me to leave Marcus, and then to divorce him. You told me I would be rolling in dough without having to put up with him. You said I could find another man easily, and he would be even better than Marcus.” Sasha shook her head. “You were wrong about all of that.”

  Stella shrugged. “I’m only human.” She began to pat the ball of her chignon.

  “But this was my life you were playing with, Mother. And now it looks like Marcus has moved on. And me? I’m stuck with a bunch of losers. Marcus is being blessed, and I feel like everything I touch these days is being cursed.”

  Stella waved her hand at Sasha to dismiss what she was saying. “Child, please. You are and always were such a drama queen. Men come and go. Trust me, they really do come a dime a dozen. You’ll find one to take the place of Marcus one day. Meanwhile, he faithfully takes care of that child of his. Thanks to me, you ended up getting the house. You were able to hang out with that guy you were sort of sneaking around with and talking to on the side while you were married. I don’t care how much you deny that to Marcus, I know the real deal. Too bad things didn’t work out between the two of you in the end and he cut out on you.” Stella crossed her legs. “You’ve got to get over it and keep moving. You say Marcus has moved on? Then do what you were doing right after you left him and move on. Now can we get back to more important things, namely this money?”

  “I’m not asking Marcus for any money.”

  “Then do you have it or do you have another guy in your back pocket with cash you can ask?”

  “No, Mother,” Sasha said exasperated. “I don’t have any money, and I don’t know anyone who has that kind of money, either. In fact, I’m having a hard time trying to pay my bills. My gas bill was so high I missed paying my light bill last month. The power company already sent me a disconnect notice. I have to pay it by next week. Fortunately, I get paid next week so I’ll have it. But it’s not so easy being single out here. I’m sure you know this since Daddy died. It’s no cakewalk trying to pay all of these stupid bills.”

  “And why exactly can’t you ask Marcus to loan you the money if he has it?” Stella uncrossed her legs and turned toward Sasha. “Tell him you need it for something for Aaliyah. You know that man will go through fire for his daughter. He’ll find money for her if he has to, just like your daddy always seemed to find the money for you.”

  Sasha released a hard sigh. “I can’t. I just asked him for money for something for her. He’s buying her a piano. He’s already given me the money for it, in fact.”

  Stella stood and paced for a second. “Did he give you all the money for it?” Stella asked.

  “Yes. In fact, I had just logged on to see about buying the piano when I opened this e-mail and happened to read it. I’ve received similar types of e-mails before, but for some reason this one caught my eye.”

  “It was God, I’m telling you. That’s how God works.” She sat down next to Sasha. “All counterfeit things are based on the real thing. I believe this e-mail is the real deal.” Stella nodded as she leaned back in her seat. “You say Marcus gave you money for a piano but you haven’t spent the money yet?”

  Sasha nodded at her mother’s first question, then shook her head in response to the second. “He gave me eight thousand dollars.” She didn’t tell her mother the piano would only cost five.

  Stella began to smile as she crossed her arms. “It’s too bad I had to practically give your piano away when I sold it after your daddy died or I could have sold it to you for that price.”

  “Or you could have given it to me like I asked you to since it was my piano. Daddy bought that piano for me for my tenth birthday.”

  Stella didn’t address Sasha’s last comment. “Well, well, if this isn’t a Holy Ghost setup,” she said thinking about the money Sasha just said Marcus had given her. “Let’s see now. I have two thousand dollars in my account. It’s for my bills this month, but we’re about to get millions so I believe I can spare this for now. One thing I learned from your father: When it comes to investing, you have to give something to get something in return.”

  “I don’t know about this, Mother.” Sasha continued to shake her head. “I don’t feel good about this, none of this.”

  “All right. Let this pass you by then. That’s the problem with you, Sasha. You never listen and you always seem to make the wrong choice. Here God is practically dropping all of this money in our laps, and what are you doing? Balking about it.”

  Stella leaned in to Sasha. “Do you really believe it was sheer coincidence that you would have eight thousand dollars and I would have two thousand at the same time you get this e-mail? You need twelve thousand to move things along. You get paid next week. You can use your paycheck to come up with the rest next week. That way, all of us would have contributed—me, you, and Marcus indirectly. Look, it’s not like you have to send these people a check. Barrister Chong is going to send you a check to deposit in your bank account. When you deposit it, you give them permission to take the twelve thousand from your account.”

  Sasha pursed her lips. “After taxes and all that other junk, I don’t have that much left. I only bring home about a thousand dollars after everything.”

  Stella shrugged. “Okay, that’s a thousand more. We just need to come up with one more thousand. I believe that between the two of us, we can come up with one thousand more. Surely you must have some money in the bank right now.”

  Sasha pressed her hand against her throat. “I have one hundred dollars to my name right now. That’s it.”

  “Okay. Then I’ll just have to get someone to loan me nine hundred dollars for the week and a half to two weeks we’ll need until that check for millions clears.” She stood up and looked at Sasha. “Do you hear that, Sasha? We’re talking millions here. Millions.”

  “I just don’t know, Mother. Something just doesn’t feel right about any of this.”

  Stella reached down, grabbed her daughter by the shoulders, and looked her squarely in the eyes. “Banks have ways of verifying checks. When you put that check from the barrister in the bank, they can tell if it’s legit. Let’s say the worse-case scenario is these people are not legitimate and the bank has transferred the twelve thousand from your account. The bank can easily transfer that money back. This is the electronic age. They have ways of tracking money. You need to think about this. I’m willing to put up my money, and you know how dire things are for me these days. In fact, if I had the whole twelve thousand, I would do this without you having to contribute anything.”

  Stella released her grip on Sasha and began to pat her shoulders. “It’s been so hard since we lost your father. I’ve been really struggling here.”

  Sasha stood up and put her arm around her mother’s shoulders. “I know, Mother. It’s been hard on everybody.”

  “Well, then you need to look at this for what it could be. If this is from God, then we could be missing the cloud. We need to move with the cloud,” Stella said, referring to the time God led Moses and the children of Israel toward the Promised Land with a cloud.

  “But if this isn’t from God, then what does that mean? Marcus has always told me that when I didn’t know what to do, I needed to stop and pray about it. I haven’t prayed about this. I hear what you’re saying, but I haven’t prayed about this.”

  “What’s to pray about? You’ve been praying for God to move in your life, right?”

  “Yes. Just as you say that you have,” Sasha said.

  “Now God is moving. And what are you doing? You’re talking about praying some more. You’ve prayed, I’ve prayed, now God has given us an answer to our prayers. But this is on
you now. You were the one who got the e-mail. You have the last name Peeples. Just don’t come crying to me about it when you find out you took too long to move and the cloud has moved on without you.”

  Sasha didn’t know what to do. Her mother was probably right. After all, she did love her and she did have her best interests at heart.

  “Okay, Mother. Write a check to me so I can deposit it, or get me the cash. If you write a check, they may put a hold on it, so I’ll need a check today and deposit it tomorrow. So either write me a check now or get me the cash this week, and we’ll do this.”

  Stella began to smile as she hugged her daughter. “Oh, I love you so much! I know you don’t think that sometimes, but I truly do,” she said to Sasha.

  Stella looked up and waved her hand. “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. We’re about to finally step into our blessing!” She did a short dance of praise.

  Chapter 35

  Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathered by labor shall increase.

  —Proverbs 13:11

  Sasha couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Sure, she had expected as much after she’d done all that Barrister Chong had instructed. She understood that with millions on the line, there would be a hold on the money. Even more so with this being an overseas transaction. Then came the returned check. Sasha looked at her statement. She was starting to hate computers. This had to be another computer error. Her bank statement showed a negative balance, and she knew there was no way that could be right.

  No such account. Funds unavailable. The money Marcus had given her, gone.

  She had gone down to the bank and spoke to the highest-level officer she could. She was told that there were lots of these types of scams. That people should know this was a scam. She had countered with the argument that if they knew this was going on in the year 2006, why weren’t they doing more to protect their customers? How much did they get out of these transactions? And maybe that was why they weren’t doing more to protect people like her from being scammed.

  The manager had taken offense at that accusation. They were just becoming aware of it on a larger scale, just as their customers were. It was hurting their business as well because most people who get caught up in this stuff ended up having to close their accounts and they didn’t have sufficient funds to open another account as they straightened out the mess, as well as their credit ratings. “This hurts everybody,” he had said.

  Sasha told him that the bank needed to warn customers more about these scams. If people chose to go forward after being informed, then that was a different matter. But Sasha maintained that not enough was being done to protect the vulnerable.

  “There are elderly people out there, and you know that they are being taken in by what’s all over the Internet. They don’t know. Look at me. I’m a young woman, and I got caught up in a scam,” Sasha said.

  The manager admitted that what she said was true. There were plenty of bogus e-mails targeting people with online bank accounts, online credit accounts, and other types of accounts like PayPal and eBay.

  “People from all over are sending out e-mails requesting that people click on bogus links. They think they’re protecting their interests, their credit and bank accounts that they’re being told falsely may have been compromised. The e-mails appear legitimate, with official logos and the like. When you click the link they provide in these e-mails, it takes you to a fake Web site where they ask for your login, password, and other sensitive information like your social security number. It’s called phishing.” He leaned in.

  “People should never give out information like that over the Internet—or the phone, for that matter—when you’ve not initiated the contact,” he said. “I advise people not to click on a link included in an e-mail from a bank or business. I don’t care how official it looks. Not when it comes to your money or your identity. If you think the e-mail could be legitimate, type in the Web site’s URL yourself and log in to your account that way. If there’s a problem, it will be there. Most times, there never is. It’s all just a scam.”

  Sasha told him it was fine he was saying all of this now after she had been bilked. She challenged him, asking what the bank was doing to inform the public of these scams before people get roped in, after he reemphasized there was nothing more they could do.

  “What are you doing to protect your patrons?” she asked. “You don’t care because it isn’t your money. Nobody cares about people anymore. Everything is for the love of money.” She snatched up her purse and stormed out.

  Sasha had to file a police report. There was so much involved now. She went home and cried after she left the police station, where they had told her recovering her money under these circumstances was next to impossible. She told her mother that everything was lost. Her mother was livid that she had been drawn into this deceit. She was upset that the money she had put up was supposed to cover her bills.

  “How am I going to pay my bills now?” Stella asked. “Dog!”

  Sasha cried even more. She was hurting as well, but no one seemed to care about her.

  Marcus would be expecting to see Aaliyah’s piano soon. How would she tell him what she’d done?

  Aaliyah came into her bedroom and saw her lying on the bed crying. “What’s wrong, Mommy? What’s the matter?”

  Sasha sat up and hugged her daughter. “Nothing, baby.”

  “Then why are you crying?”

  Sasha held Aaliyah. “Mommy made a mistake, and she’s not sure how to fix it.”

  “God can fix it,” Aaliyah said. “God can do anything. Daddy says so. Daddy says there’s nothing too hard for our God. And Daddy always tells me the truth.”

  Sasha rubbed Aaliyah’s hair. “Is that right? There’s nothing too hard for God?”

  Aaliyah shook her head as she smiled. “Nothing! Daddy says so. So don’t cry, Mommy, all right? Just tell God about it. He will fix it.”

  “I wish I could believe that, Aaliyah. But I’m not sure God can fix this.”

  “You need to talk to Daddy. Daddy hates when you cry. I’m sure Daddy can make you feel better.”

  “You think?” Sasha said, managing a laugh.

  Aaliyah shrugged. “Daddy always makes me feel better.” Aaliyah hugged her.

  “Daddy will be here to pick you up soon. I need to get your things ready.”

  “Are you going to be all right here by yourself while I’m gone?” Aaliyah asked. “’Cause if you aren’t, I can stay here with you instead. I’m sure Daddy will understand.”

  Sasha put on an extra effort for Aaliyah. “I’m going to be fine. You go on with your daddy. And don’t tell him I was crying, all right?”

  “All right. But God can still fix it.” Aaliyah stood up. “You want to pray?”

  “What?”

  Aaliyah knelt down by the bed and put her hands together. “Let’s pray for God to fix it.”

  Sasha knelt down. She looked over at her daughter, who had already closed her eyes. Sasha couldn’t do anything after that except smile and shake her head. She couldn’t help but think of the words of Isaiah 11:6—“And a little child shall lead them.”

  Chapter 36

  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

  —Jeremiah 17:7

  When Marcus went to pick up Aaliyah, he noticed that Sasha looked like she had been crying.

  “You all right?” he asked.

  She forced a smile. “Yeah. Sure. I’m fine. You two have fun this weekend,” she said.

  But Marcus couldn’t stop thinking about Sasha. Most of the time when he picked up Aaliyah, he would have to wait while Sasha got her things together, even though she knew it was his weekend to get her. This wasn’t even his weekend. Sasha had called at the last minute and asked if he could get Aaliyah. She offered no excuses, didn’t claim any emergencies. She just asked if he could possibly get her this weekend.

  In the past, Sasha would find something to talk with him about
or fuss about when he arrived, usually about folks on her job. She was always finding some angle to discuss having to do with money. Not this time. He thought she may not have been feeling well. It was wintertime. Flu and colds were hitting folks hard. Her eyes were puffy, and she’d held a wad of tissue in her hand. He didn’t know, and she wasn’t saying much to give him a clue.

  After he and Aaliyah reached his house and he’d gotten her settled in, they talked about what fun thing they wanted to do tonight. Aaliyah enjoyed playing board games and older hands-on games like Connect Four and Candy Land. Marcus fixed French fries, chicken nuggets, pork and beans, and corn on the cob.

  “Is Mommy not feeling well?” Marcus asked, turning Aaliyah’s plate around so she could reach her chicken nuggets better.

  “She’s fine. But she was crying before you came.”

  “Mommy was crying?”

  Aaliyah bit into a chicken nugget. “Yes, but I’m not supposed to tell you.”

  “Oh, you’re not.”

  “Nope.” She shook her head. “Mommy said not to tell you.”

  “Now, why would Mommy tell you not to tell me?”

  Aaliyah dipped her nugget into the sweet and sour sauce and bit again. “Because she was saying…she was crying because she couldn’t fix something. And I told her God could fix it, and she said she didn’t think God could fix it. Then I said she should tell you because you said nothing was too hard for God.”