by Dynah Zale
“Do you remember the day of Imani’s recital?” God reminded him. “The day you stormed out of my house angry at me for not doing what you wanted. You said you didn’t need my help. You felt like I had deceived you. Like I had done you wrong. You couldn’t even worship Me because there was so much anger inside of you that day.”
Garrett was suddenly embarrassed by his behavior. “I remember, but Father I wasn’t mad at you. I was mad at the situation.”
“May I remind you that lying to God on judgment day may not be advisable?” Kiel sarcastically suggested.
Garrett forgot that he couldn’t hide anything from God.
“I take that back. I was mad at you. But I couldn’t see any progress so I panicked.”
“It wasn’t meant for you to see any results. I knew what I was doing. So you took it upon yourself to have this boy institutionalized.”
“I was just trying to do right.” Garrett explained. “I know how much you hate homosexuality. I was just trying to save my son from enduring the consequences of your wrath.”
God laughed heartily. This was the first time Garrett had ever heard the Lord laugh. “How do you know I hate homosexuality? Have I ever told you that I hate homosexuals? I know you didn’t read it because you’ve barely pick up My Word.”
Garrett couldn’t argue that point. “Well, I’ve heard lots of people say that you hate homosexuality.”
“Have they ever told you that in the book of Proverbs Chapter 6 verses 16-19, I declare that I also hate a lying tongue, a proud look and a heart that devises wicked schemes?”
“No sir.” Garrett replied.
“Of course they wouldn’t because then they would be talking about themselves.” God said. “It’s funny how Christians are my biggest advocates when wanting to rid the world of homosexuality, but no one stands up for my honor and declares my word when a priest or pastor is caught having inappropriate sex with innocent children. Then the Christians are silent.”
“I’ve never asked Christians to take up arms for me in regards to sin. I’ve never needed their help before and I still don’t now. All I’ve asked of you is to love one another. It shouldn’t matter if that person is gay or straight; black or white; man or woman; just love your fellow man.”
“There is a reason each one of your skeleton bones is the exact same size as the other, because no one sin is greater than the other. A sin is a sin. It doesn’t matter if it’s homosexuality, lying, adultery or murder. Everyone will be held accountable.”
“You made this boy endure this kind of treatment off of assumptions you made about his behavior. No one ever told you that Blair was gay. I never told you and he never told you. You came to that conclusion all on your own.”
Chapter 46
Garrett lay in bed. Listening. In any moment Mecca’s alarm would sound off. She would get out of bed; go to the bathroom, then go to wake the children. Except Blair wouldn’t be in his bed. He counted on Mecca behaving hysterically. It was expected for an over protective mother to act that way.
He heard her going through her normal routine of checking in on Imani, then the baby and lastly she went to Blair’s bedroom. She opened his bedroom door. Then Garrett braced himself for Mecca’s reaction. She raced back to their bedroom. In the distance, he could hear the sound of her feet slapping hard against their cherry wood floors.
She nudged Garrett. “Blair's not in his room?" She was alarmed.
"I know." Garrett sat up, hanging his legs off the edge of the bed. "I forgot to tell you I sent him down south for a couple weeks.” Garrett got up and put on his bathrobe.
“Huh?” Mecca was confused.
“Some of Reneé’s relatives from down south wanted to take him back with them so I told them he could go. It’s not fair to keep him from spending time with Renee’s side of the family. They are his family too.”
“I’ve never heard him talk about any relatives from down south.” Mecca was suspicious. “Why would you allow him to leave without discussing it with me first? Do you even know who these people are? According to you, Renee had no other family, now she has relatives? Where exactly in the south is he? Atlanta? The Carolinas? Do you even know? Do you even care?”
“Look!” Garrett screamed loudly in her face. “I told you he’d be gone for a couple weeks. Now drop it.”
“What about his ballet classes?” Mecca pushed the issue because she wanted answers. “Mademoiselle Deveraux will be expecting him later today.”
“Cancel them! Because he won’t be coming back home any time soon.” Garrett made a quick escape to the bathroom to avoid any more questions.
Mecca pounded on the door. "Garrett Dunn you tell me right now where our son is?” Garrett locked the door behind him. She tried turning the doorknob, but she couldn't get in.
Angrily, she pounded even more. Then she heard him turn the showerhead on. Garrett’s explanation sounded shady. He couldn’t fool her with his lies. His erratic behavior combined with Blair’s sudden disappearance wasn’t adding up to anything good. Bad vibes threw up red flags in her mind. She was scared for not only herself, but also the safety of her children. If Garrett could make Blair disappear then that meant he was capable of anything.
Mecca wanted to believe that Garrett hadn’t harmed Blair, but it was hard to put trust in him when he wasn’t being honest. She marched out of their bedroom determined to do her own investigation into Blair’s disappearance.
An hour later, Garrett emerged downstairs. The entire family was at the kitchen table eating breakfast. Garrett avoided eye contact with Mecca and went straight to the coffee pot for a cup of coffee.
“Daddy, where’s Blair?” Imani asked. “Mommy said I had to ask you.”
“Blair had to go away for a little while.” He decided against coffee and poured it down the drain. “He’ll be back in time for the start of school.”
Imani seemed satisfied with that answer because she went back to eating her cereal. Garrett kissed both children on the forehead before walking out the door.
Garrett was the first person at the office that morning.
Visions of Blair being strapped down to that gurney kept replaying in his mind and the screams resounded in his ears. After he had left the hospital, he stopped at the first bar he saw, sat in the corner and drank until the place closed.
Garrett logged into his computer, checked e-mail, and then glanced at a stack of files left by Joye Anne. He reached for one and laid it wide open on his desk, but he couldn't concentrate on work. Garrett placed his head down on his desk and groaned.
"Rough night?" He lifted his head. It was Joye Anne.
"I had no idea you were here." He straightened out his tie. “Sorry, about yesterday. I had some family business to attend to.” Yesterday was the first time in a long time Garrett had taken off from work. It was unlike him to not call or check in with the office at least once throughout the day, but nobody heard from him. They even called him, but he turned his Blackberry off.
Joye Anne sashayed over to his desk and crossed her legs in the chair across from him. “Are Mecca and the kids all right?”
“Yes, they’re fine.”
“What about Blair?” Garrett gave her a strange look, as if she knew what he had done. “Your son, Blair. Not your nephew, but your son.” Joye Anne threw the morning edition of the newspaper on his desk.
There, he saw a huge front-page photo of Raquel standing in front of microphones and cameras with a doo rag on her head, pointing her multi-colored sculpted fingernails. "Garrett Dunn's nephew is really his son."
His first thought was “How did she get out of jail?” Garrett closed his eyes in regret. “It’s true. The boy is my son. I should've said something sooner, but I was scared. I planned on coming out with the truth after the election.”
“Why would you lie about something like this? You should have come clean from the beginning. You could have at least told me the truth. I have no idea how I’m going to be able to spin this in your fav
or.”
She strutted around his office. "Is this the boy's mother?" she pointed to the newspaper.
"No. That's his crazy aunt. Blair's mother passed away a few months ago of ovarian cancer. That’s when I found out I had another son.”
“Well, it really doesn’t matter because this girl says that you and a Detective Brock Hart set her up to go to jail so you could steal custody of the boy.”
"Joye, it was Blair's mother's dying wish that I take my son. I couldn’t turn away my flesh and blood."
"You just wouldn't acknowledge him.” Joye Anne threw her hands up in the air. “Where's the boy, now? With your wife?"
"No, he's away with relatives down south.”
“That’s a good thing. That way he'll be sheltered from the media.”
Garrett’s secretary stuck her head in the office, “Excuse me, I hate to interrupt, but Lady Lanier called. She said she expects to see you in her office within the hour and not to keep her waiting.”
Garrett knew he was in trouble.
Chapter 47
Laid out on his back, Blair stared straight up at the ceiling lights. The small room they placed him in was bare. No table. No television.
The only other objects situated in the room were two cameras pointed directly at him from opposite corners of the room. He knew they were watching him.
To keep warm he pulled the only blanket he had tightly around him. Tears gradually fell from his eyes. He was frightened that he may never get out of there.
The screams from patients in the rooms frightened Blair. He had a hard time stopping the tears from falling from his eyes.
“God, where are you?” Blair was in anguish. “I’ve been calling out for you all night long. Why aren’t you here with me?” He wiped away at his tears. “I wish you would come save me. I need to get out of here.”
***
Blair’s soft mellow voice traveled through millions of light years up the celestial stairwell to heaven and landed securely in the eardrum of the Lord.
God was in the middle of passing out blessings throughout the earth. He provided a homeless man with a meal and warm place to sleep for the night, a woman with a positive medical report and an orphaned child with the gift of parents, but when he heard Blair’s cries, he listened intently to every word.
Well aware of the pain stricken state that Blair was in, He expected to hear from him. This was the part of being a father that God disliked. He wished he could intervene and take away the boy’s pain, but he couldn’t. Blair was a part of a much bigger plan. God couldn’t interfere, for if he did, certain things wouldn’t come to pass and it would surely upset the balance of life on earth.
With pain in his heart God went back to delivering blessings upon the Earth, but he was also assured that no harm would beset Blair.
***
Blair pleaded with God to have mercy on him until he realized that God wasn’t listening because no one came to rescue him.
“God’s probably mad at me, too. “ Blair blamed himself. He began to think he would never have been there if he didn’t like ballet or sewing. “I wish I acted more like a regular kid.”
After endless hours of lying on his back, Blair was finally starting to regain his energy after that exhausting therapy treatment. Those electrical currents had zapped every nerve cell in his body and siphoned all power from his body.
Blair’s eyes shifted to the huge metal door that kept him locked away. Still sluggish, he sat up when he heard the rattling of keys, and his face lit up when he saw two orderlies standing in the entranceway. He immediately thought he was going home.
“Hello.” An orderly with bright red hair and freckles greeted him warmly. “We’re here to assist you in getting dressed.”
“Am I going home?” Blair was sure his dad was there to pick him up.
“Sorry kid. Once you take a shower and get dressed, Dr. French wants to see you for a therapy session with her.”
These guys looked nothing like the two goons from last night. They looked much friendlier and he felt a little bit more comfortable around them.
They escorted Blair down to the public bathrooms with shower stalls that were wide open with no privacy.
“There’s no shower curtain?” Blair asked.
“This is a twenty-four hour surveillance facility. That means someone must be watching you at all times. We have to monitor everything you do until we deliver you to Dr. French’s office.”
Blair couldn’t remember the last time somebody watched him take a shower.
“Don’t be scared.” The red-haired orderly said. “That’s the policy around here so that the patients don’t harm themselves.”
It was embarrassing being forced to take a shower in front of perfect strangers. They handed him a towel and a bar of soap and leaned against the far wall watching his every move.
Slowly Blair stepped out of his hospital gown and turned on the showerheads. The water stream was ice cold. He shivered and hugged his body to keep warm.
Although the water was intolerable Blair managed to wash up. He spun around to allow the water to wash suds off his back; when he did, he saw the lustful way the orderlies were looking at him. They both stared at his private parts and they looked as is if they were ready to feast on thanksgiving dinner. Blair snatched his towel from off the rack and quickly covered himself.
The orderlies laughed at him; then tossed him a clean hospital gown. It wasn’t long before he was sitting with Dr. French in her office at the hospital.
“How do you feel?” Was the first question she asked him.
“Dr. French, I want to go home?” Blair said. “Can you call my dad and have him come pick me up?”
Blair’s request made her heart ache. The way Garrett walked out the night before; it was very unlikely that he was going to come back for him anytime soon.
“Now that you mentioned you father.” Dr. French got up and walked over to her desk. She glanced down at the morning’s edition newspaper headline. A huge picture of Garrett and his family covered the front page along with the caption ‘Dunn Takes the Lead’, “Why don’t we talk about your father?”
Blair closed his eyes in regret for telling such a huge lie. He wasn’t sure if Garrett had finally admitted he was Blair’s father or if the doctor found out some other way.
“Councilman Dunn is your father.” Blair didn’t respond. “Why did you lie?” Blair still wouldn’t say anything.
The doctor softened her tone and placed her hand on his shoulder to try and reassure the child that everything was all right. “Why would your father tell me and the entire city of Camden that he was your uncle when he is really your father?”
Blair opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again. He was afraid to say too much.
“Blair, I can’t help you until you tell me everything.” Dr. French tried being direct with him. “I need you to be honest with me that’s the only way I can help you.”
“He thought that if people knew I was his son he would lose votes.” Blair whispered. “So we lied.”
Dr. French was furious. How could this man use this child as a pawn in mayoral campaign?
“Is it true that I have to stay here?” Blair whimpered.
“I’m afraid so.” Dr. French’s attention was no longer on Blair, but she couldn’t wait to get on the phone with Garrett later that day.
“When can I leave?”
“Once your therapy is finished.” Dr. French said.
“Do you think you can fix me?”
Dr. French gave him a sympathetic look of sincerity. She hated that she had ever suggested Reparative Therapy. “Do you think you need fixing?”
“My dad thinks I do.” Blair replied.
“What do you think?”
“I…I just want to be normal.” Blair sounded hopeful.
She grabbed Blair’s hand and rubbed it lightly. “I’m not so sure there’s anything wrong with you except maybe being a lost little boy who has
endured a lifetime of pain in such a short period of time.”
“I think God is punishing me.” Blair told her. “Last night I asked God why? Why would he make me like this? I must’ve been a mistake.”
“God is putting you through this for a reason. I can’t tell you why, but I can assure you that once it’s all over you’ll be better off on the other side.”
Blair and Dr. French hugged. “Thanks Dr. French.”
“No problem, but we still have to complete the therapy treatments so you can get out of here.”
“Okay.”
“But I promise. No more electro shock therapy treatments like last night.”
Chapter 48
Garrett walked into Lady Lanier’s office fully prepared to explain the recent revelation that Blair was his son. On the drive over to her office, lies kept filling his mind. He thought of different excuses that could justify his actions, but he knew Lady Lanier was smart enough not to believe anything except the truth.
Twenty minutes after his arrival, the two sat in her office with nothing but silence between them. He waited patiently for her to demand an explanation, but instead she sat quietly. Dressed in her Sunday best suit with matching hat, watching him through her bi-focal glasses..
“Lady Lanier,” Garrett couldn’t take the deafening silence any longer. He had to find out what it was she had to say. “I really—”
A knock at her office door interrupted him. Her secretary stepped in. “Your guest has arrived.” She announced.
“Good. Send him in.”
Garrett turned around in his seat to see who would be joining them. When Detective Hart strolled into the room Garrett clutched the arms of his chair tightly. Their eyes met and Garrett tried to play it cool, but he dreaded what was yet to come.
“Detective, please have a seat. I’ve been expecting you.” Lady Lanier offered the last empty chair in her office to him. “Have you two ever met?”