Gospel According to Prissy

by Barbara Casey

  “You bitch!”

  Dazed, Lara tried to clear her eyes and stand up.

  “Jake, what do you want?”

  He grabbed her and shoved her against the wall. “You couldn’t be satisfied with just ruining our marriage, could you?”

  Lara saw the vein protruding from his temple and continuing down his neck. His eyes were wild with hate and liquor. Lara tried to think where Doc was with Prissy. He was probably on the second floor by now emptying the trash. Out of harm’s way.

  Jake grabbed Lara and swung her against a desk causing her to again fall to the floor. She got up as quickly as she could. She knew if she stayed down he would kick her. She was feeling dazed from her head slamming against the wall. She tried to breath deeply. She must remain calm and not show any fear. The muscles in her hands and arms started to get taut. She tried to will them to relax. She had to stay in control if she was going to survive.

  “I’m not sure what you are talking about, Jake,” she said calmly, “but I am sure we can work it out.”

  “I’m not sure what you are talking about,” Jake mimicked. He balled up his fist and struck her in the face.

  Lara staggered back and was vaguely aware of the whirring noise of Doc’s wheelchair. A moment later he wheeled into the reception area with Prissy riding on his lap. Jimmy, no doubt, was close by.

  “Doc, take Prissy upstairs. Everything is all right.” Lara prayed that Doc could understand what she was saying. Her mouth was bleeding, and she could barely force the words out. “You need to take the baby upstairs, Doc, and look after her.” No matter what happened, Prissy must not be harmed. Lara forced herself to smile at Doc even though she could feel blood running down her face. “It’s all right, Doc,” she repeated. “Look after Prissy.”

  Slowly Doc backed the wheelchair through the door from where he had come.

  “Who the hell was that?” Jake asked.

  “Just one of the cleaning crew,” answered Lara. “Why don’t we sit down and you can tell me what’s wrong.” Lara knew she couldn’t keep standing much longer. If she didn’t sit down, she would collapse.

  “What’s wrong?” Jake yelled the words at Lara. “What’s wrong, you goddamn bitch?” He began sobbing and making choking sounds. “Leona has filed for divorce. She also has me up on charges for attempted murder. I have spent the last six days in jail because no one would loan me the bail money to get out. Not even the Caldwells. Mark told me the Caldwells wouldn’t be needing my services any longer. Wouldn’t be needing my services any longer! Like I am some kind of fucking field hand. I don’t even have a home any more. And it’s all because of you. I loved you, dammit. And you did this to me.”

  He raised his arm to swing at Lara. Lara closed her eyes, too shaken to react, knowing it was no use. Jake was too drunk, too insane, and too out of control. The demons trying to possess him in his relentless drive to escape his past and better himself had won; everything he had touched was now destroyed. She braced for the blow, but it didn’t come. Instead she heard a loud crashing noise. When she opened her eyes, Jake was laying crumpled on the floor with Jimmy standing over him, a broken piece of the chair he had hit Jake with still in his hand.

  Tyree and Randall came running from the direction of the elevators. Randall got some wet paper towels from the bathroom when he saw Lara’s face. Just then Mark came through the front door followed by two police officers.

  “My god, Lara. I am so sorry. I was afraid this would happen. When I found out Jake had been released, I wanted to warn you, but it took me a while to find out where you were. I finally got hold of Carole Parker and she told me.” Mark eased Lara into the nearest chair and gently wiped her face with the paper towels Randall offered him.

  Lara waited for the shaking to start, but it didn’t. In fact, she felt wonderfully alive. She knew she had faced her worst fear, and she had survived it. She was no longer afraid of Jake.

  Beth, on the other hand, completely unaware of what had happened, came into the room laughing at a cartoon someone had taped on the wall by the duplicating machine. When she saw Lara, she began to scream. And somewhere from another room came the hoarse, gravelly voice of Doc singing off-key to Prissy her favorite song about a rooster under an apple tree being watched over by Santa. He was carrying out Lara’s order to take care of the baby.

  Mark drove Lara to the hospital “just to be safe” and it was there where she gave her statement so the police could finish their reports. Beth went along to give Lara moral support “the way you supported me when I was in that stinking jail,” she repeated several times. With Leona’s report, and now Lara’s, and with Mark’s assistance, hopefully no one would ever have to fear Jake again.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  IT WAS THE day before Prissy’s sixth birthday. She must have sensed Lara’s nervousness because she had been quoting scripture all morning long. “Santa’s love for us removes all fear. We can resolve our fears by focusing on Santa’s immeasurable love for us.”

  “You can say that again, Prissy.” For the past couple of weeks, Lara had been in touch with the Sheridan family. She felt that if there was ever to be any good to come out of Burt Sheridan’s death, it would come as the result of knowing the truth. At first, Mrs. Sheridan wouldn’t have anything to do with her. After all, she was a friend of the young woman who killed her husband that night at Schlage Lock Company. But Lara wouldn’t give up. Gradually and persistently, Lara kept trying. Eventually, she got Cynthia Sheridan to listen and understand.

  Burt was a good man. After all, he was a member of the First Methodist Church and a volunteer fireman. But he had made mistakes like everyone else does from time to time. One of those mistakes had been to father a child out of wedlock when he was already married with three children. What Darnell did was wrong. But in her heart, she thought she was doing the right thing for her sister, Tanya, and for Prissy. She just wanted to ask Burt to help with his own daughter, Prissy, since her sister was so sick. It just didn’t work out like Darnell had hoped it would.

  Lara didn’t want or expect anything from Cynthia Sheridan. She only wanted Prissy to know that she had two half-brothers and one half-sister, and that her father had been a good man. On this day before her sixth birthday, Prissy was going to meet her “other” family for the first time. Lara was a bundle of nerves.

  “Love makes our actions and gifts useful and love is available to all,” Prissy reminded Lara. Her barrettes bounced in her hair, and her doll, Mary Magdalene, though a little worn from all the love Prissy had given it, looked rather spiffy in its new dress as Prissy clutched it tightly in her arms.

  Lara hadn’t told Prissy everything – the details didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was that Prissy meet the family she didn’t yet know, and they meet her. After all, she had promised Darnell. Thank goodness Cynthia had invited them to her home. The children would be home in the afternoon, after their morning swimming lessons which they had been taking for the last two summers at the community club house. “Does Prissy like chocolate ice cream?” Cynthia had asked. “It was Burt’s favorite.”

  “It’s Prissy’s favorite, too,” Lara had told her when they talked on the phone.

  Lara found the house easily from Cynthia’s directions. It was located in a new development not too far from Schlage Lock Company where Burt had been employed. The houses were small, but nice, with landscaped yards, wide sidewalks, and children playing everywhere. Lara helped Prissy and Mary Magdalene out of the car and reached for the bouquet of sweet-smelling roses Miriam had brought over as soon as Lara told her where she was taking Prissy that afternoon. “These have always grown in my family’s garden,” she told Lara. “I think they must bring good luck. Maybe Cynthia Sheridan would like some.”

  Holding Prissy’s hand she walked up to the front door. Before she could ring the doorbell, the door opened. An attractive woman with blond hair pulled back with barrettes, wearing cream-colored slacks and a light blue sweater greeted her, smiling.
Only the fine lines around her mouth and eyes indicated she might be feeling the tension of the situation. Three small children using various parts of their mother to hide behind were also smiling. They had obviously been watching for their guests’ arrival. The little girl started to giggle. Prissy also giggled. She held out her doll. “This is Mary Magdalene. I am Prissy.” And she stepped inside the house. “Come on, LaLa.”

  So that was it. The hurdle had been jumped. Within minutes, the four children – Burt, Jr., Rob, Johnny, and Prissy – were playing together as though they had always known each other. It was heart-warming to see how well they actually did get along together. At one point Burt, Jr., told Prissy, “You talk funny.” But Lara noticed that he was the one who paid the most attention to what Prissy had to say.

  Watching the children interacting with each other and visiting with Cynthia removed any doubts Lara might have had in trying to bring the two families together. It had been the right thing to do.

  “You know, Burt’s grandmother used to quote scripture a lot,” Cynthia said after a while. Prissy was telling the story of the Easter Bunny and his many-colored coat to her new friends. “Of course, she followed the text as it is written in the Bible a little more closely than Prissy does, but still…. Isn’t it interesting?” Cynthia continued to watch Prissy in amazement.

  Lara was content to sit back and enjoy the scene, answering any questions that she could, but mainly just letting Cynthia and her children get used to Prissy and her gospel. Later, Cynthia brought out an album filled with photographs taken of themselves and other family members, and in particular, Burt. The exact relationship Burt was to Prissy would be explained as time went on and as Prissy could understand. For now, it was enough that she know his name and recognize his photograph, and understand that he was someone important in her life. “Santa’s kind of love is directed outwardly toward others…not ourselves. It must be unselfish – giving love expecting nothing in return… This is Santa’s kind of love. The closer we get to Santa, the more unselfish we become in loving others…,” was Prissy’s take on what she was told. When they all ate chocolate ice cream, Prissy told them about Santa feeding all the people with a single fish and one loaf of bread. The children seemed to enjoy Prissy’s stories and didn’t make fun of her as Lara had feared. Again, she breathed a sigh of relief. It had been the right thing to do.

  When it was time to go, plans were made for another visit. School would be starting in a few weeks, but there were always the weekends, and maybe a picnic would be fun before it started to turn cold.

  When Lara got home later that afternoon, Randall, along with Jimmy, Doc, Tyree, and Beth, were waiting for her. As she had promised Darnell, she waited to tell anyone about Burt’s relationship to Prissy until she had been able to tell Prissy. And when she did, they, too, had been concerned over how well Prissy would be received by the Sheridan family. They needn’t have worried. Prissy would never have to question that part of her life.

  * * *

  Later that night Lara reached another decision. She loved the Maids; they were like family to her. But she knew there were things she needed to do now other than clean houses and offices. Miriam had been right. Now that things had settled down and emotions weren’t running so high, things did make more sense. She could logically consider her options and make better judgments. She would always be involved with the Maids, but not in their day-to-day schedule.

  She called Miriam after the others left and told her about the visit she and Prissy had with Cynthia Sheridan and her three children. “I needn’t have been so worried,” Lara told Miriam. “We are planning a picnic for this weekend. Do you want to come along? It should be a lot of fun.”

  “I would love to, Lara, and thanks for inviting me. I make a real mean bean salad I can bring, and I’ll pick up some fresh tomatoes tomorrow when I go by the Johnson produce stand.”

  Then Lara asked Miriam to tell her what she had in mind for the new work program at Braden. The two women talked late into the night as Miriam explained her vision of what the work program could provide for the inmates and Lara’s involvement in it if she decided to accept the job of overseeing it.

  “The other thing I want to do before I get too old is make some sort of memory or meditation sanctuary on part of that land that the Johnsons donated. Prissy knows the place I am talking about. It is Prissy who first discovered it, in fact. There is this huge oak tree there and, well, I can’t exactly explain it, but you really do get a sense of peace and well-being there. I think it would be good for the girls to have a place like that where they could go and meditate and sort things through.

  “I might know someone who can make a donation toward Prissy’s special place,” said Lara. Mark had told her he wanted to help her any way that he could. By funding a meditation garden at Braden, perhaps it could even be named after the Caldwell sisters. Considering how many other community projects they had been involved in over the years, they would probably like that.

  And so it was decided. Lara would be the director of the new work program at Braden Women’s Correctional Facility. In the afternoons when Prissy wasn’t in school, she could play with the other children at Braden and visit all her friends there. After all, that was home to her; it was where she had been born.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  MIRIAM PARKED IN front of the school and rolled down the windows. She knew she would be too early, but decided to come on anyway. She had called Alice before leaving the house to tell her she would be a little late for work.

  A soft autumn breeze stirred making it comfortable sitting in the car. With so many things happening the past few weeks, she hadn’t had much time to just sit quietly and collect her thoughts. “Wool gathering,” her father had called it.

  Lara had stepped into the job of heading up the work program just as Miriam had hoped. The first thing she had accomplished was to lay out the plans for an “intern” program which would involve inmates training at businesses in the community and surrounding area in order to gain work experience and knowledge in a particular field. Word had spread throughout the state, and now she was getting calls from people outside the area offering to participate in the new program. It was an innovative idea that was already receiving some national attention, according to what Senator MacAlly had told her.

  The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation had delivered the first horses to be housed in the new stables built from money generously donated by the Johnson family. It was their way of “staying close to the land,” Ed had told Miriam when she went by the old Johnson farm house to personally thank them. The inmate, Lynda Croom, would help the other inmates who wanted to learn how to take care of the animals. There were already twenty-five of her girls who had signed up.

  Thanks to the Caldwell family, the meditation garden was in its final stages of completion. The ladies from the local chapter of the Historical Society had also taken an interest and were researching battles that had been fought in the area to determine what role, if any, the giant oak tree had played. If nothing else, perhaps it was where some famous general had spent the night and they would be able to put up one of those nice brass plaques.

  And Prissy’s daily visits with the inmates had once again put order and balance into the scheme of things at the prison. Morale was at an all-time high. The main problem now was making room for all the new inmates coming in. But that would be dealt with. They could always expand the facilities; in fact, Governor Rushing had mentioned the possibility recently in a news conference.

  Miriam knew that Lara had been concerned about leaving the Maids in order to accept the job at Braden. But that seemed to work out for the best as well. Randall had recruited several other veterans who lived at the YMCA to join the Maids. Counting Tyree, they were now ten strong, with more jobs than they had time for. Randall had confided in her that the whole idea of the Maids hadn’t come at a better time. It had given back some self-respect and motivation to his men that they had been without for quite
a long time.

  Beth, much to her parents’ delight, applied for admission at the University of North Carolina and was accepted. She was now officially a Tarheel. She was talking about majoring in psychology and eventually working in some capacity with Social Services once she graduated.

  Lara was as hardworking and energetic as she had always been. She still walked fast everywhere she went, as though the demons were chasing her. But there was no doubt that she was happy. Prissy had given her the joy and fulfillment of motherhood, and it was becoming to her. Mark Caldwell had made it a point to stay involved in her life. In time, perhaps Lara would find love, the kind of love that can withstand the tests of time. But for now at least, she was content. Her life was full.

  Darnell continued to struggle with the horrible disease. She had her good days and it was those times when Lara made every effort to visit her. Occasionally, when she felt like it, Bulah Tilden would go as well. It was difficult for the old woman to get dressed to go out, though. “The clothes they make these days are so binding,” she complained. Instead, she preferred to sit in her favorite rocker, dipping a little Copenhagen, and reflecting on her life. She was at peace. She had done what the good Lord wanted of her. Darnell’s trial had been delayed repeatedly, but at this point, it didn’t really matter. Darnell was getting the medical attention she needed, and she could rest knowing that she had done what was best for her sister, Tanya, and Prissy.

  Miriam, herself, had never felt happier. For once in her life she felt she was truly making a difference and not just fighting an up-hill battle. She was realizing professional goals that in the past she thought were impossible. There was also the realization of personal dreams that she had kept hidden deep inside her for so long, she had almost forgotten they were there. She had formed some loving friendships that would last her for a lifetime. The Maids, the Sheridans, Beth and her family, the Caldwells, Lara and little Prissy; but especially Lara, who had entered her life and filled a void that she hadn’t even known was there. As a young girl growing up, she remembered the fancy dinner parties and other happy occasions her parents frequently held at their home. Bright lights, music, laughter, friends talking with friends – there was a happy, positive energy in the home then that had been missing since Miriam had been living alone. Now she felt it again. She actually enjoyed having her friends over for impromptu visits and casual meals. Even Claudia, so used to being on her own, seemed to enjoy the extra attention. Prissy loved the large yellow cat, and was perfectly content to sit on the sofa and preach her gospel to the furry four-legged animal sprawled across her lap.