Fifteen Years (16 page)

Josiah laughed along with the rest of the family, and then said, “Of course not. But you were my family, and that’s way better than having a dog or a cat.” He sobered and paused before adding, “No mean lil’ bully was gonna get away with picking on neither one of y’all. Not if I could help it anyway. You were the only family I ever had, and that was worth fighting for.” Josiah wasn’t prepared for the sudden breaking of his voice or the trembling of his lips. Embarrassed by the emotions that sneaked up on him, he stopped talking and began drinking lemonade from his glass.

The table fell quiet for a moment, like no one quite knew what to say. The conversation had been flowing so well. Josiah was regretful that he’d somehow put a damper on things. He tried to think of something to say to lighten the mood, but his brain wasn’t cooperating.

All of a sudden, Sammy slammed his closed right fist into his open left palm and at the same time declared, “Pow! Dat’s right. Mess wit’ m-m-me, and my b-b-big brudda beat yo’ t-t-t-t-tail.” His eyes batted heavily the whole time, but he managed to get it all out and to sound authoritative while doing it.

Arielle was the first to break into a full-bellied laugh, but the rest of the family wasn’t far behind. Josiah reached over and placed his hand on Sammy’s shoulder and gave him a quick squeeze. Josiah didn’t think it was possible that Sammy really remembered any of the childhood scuffles he had gotten in because of his foster siblings,
but he appreciated the much-needed comic relief. Sammy’s outburst had been just what they needed to get beyond the melancholy.

“It’s so good to have all of you here,” Joanne said. “God is a prayer answerer.”

“I’m just so surprised that Sammy is still here after all these years,” Josiah said. “I guess I never considered that you all would still have him after the age of eighteen.”

“They adopted him,” Patrice said. “Smith is Sam’s legal last name.”

Josiah’s movements became painful under the stab of jealousy that he felt. How could they adopt one and not the other? He never meant to ask the question out loud, but it was one that his mind wouldn’t allow him to keep imprisoned. “Why did you choose to adopt him and not me or Peaches?” Josiah really only threw in Patrice’s name so that he wouldn’t sound totally self-serving. But in reality, he couldn’t care less as to why they didn’t adopt Patrice. He just wanted to know why he’d been rejected.

Thomas and Joanne looked at each other from across the table, and Josiah was surprised that Joanne took the lead and answered.

“It wasn’t preplanned or anything. We just got tired of being hurt.”

“Hurt?” Josiah didn’t understand.

Nodding, Joanne said, “First Patrice left, then you.” She took her eyes off of Josiah just long enough to glance at Thomas again. Looking back at Josiah, she continued. “A piece of us died every time we had to say good-bye to you all. So we wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t have to lose Sam too.” Joanne repositioned herself in her chair and added, “Besides, JT, you weren’t up for adoption. Your mother was going through rehab, and it was always the state’s plan to return you to her. We didn’t have the choice to adopt you. But we hope that we loved you to the point that you felt like you
were legally ours. It felt that way to us.”

“Yes. It certainly did.” Thomas had finally broken his silence.

Josiah nodded and smiled. Getting that one question answered had put to rest many years of pondering. It made all the sense in the world. Why hadn’t Reeva Mae just relinquished her maternal rights? It was clear that she would never be a fully fit mother.

After taking a sip of his lemonade, Josiah said, “I can say with all honesty that I have never felt so loved in my life as when I lived here with you all. I don’t know where I would be today if I didn’t spend those years with you all. It was the only time in my life that I felt loved every single day.”

“Even on the days you got whippings?” Patrice asked, grinning from ear to ear.

“Even on the days I got whippings.” Josiah shared her smile.

“Oh, you got your share too, Miss Lady.” Joanne pointed her fork at Patrice.

“Only when Daddy wasn’t around, and I couldn’t run to him to be rescued.” She gave her father a little-girl smile and reached over and rubbed his arm.

“That was my job.” Thomas sounded proud of himself.

“Speaking of which,” Josiah looked at Joanne, “I’ve learned over the years that the state doesn’t allow foster parents to spank the kids that are placed in their care. Did they forget to pass that tidbit of info to you?”

“Nope.” Joanne said it as if she had no regrets. “I knew that from day one. As a matter of fact, that part might’ve been highlighted in yellow on the contract. But the Word of God instructed me to train you up in the way you should go so that when you got grown you wouldn’t depart from it.”

“Proverbs 22:6,” Thomas announced. “It’s all about balance. When talking to you all was enough, that’s all we did. But if your
heads got particularly tough and your behinds needed a little tenderizing, you got that too.”

“Not really,” Patrice said. “JT, do you ever remember getting an actual
behind
whipping when you lived with us?”

Josiah thought for a short while, then burst into a fit of laughter when the memories came flooding back. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten so many colorful things about his life with the Smiths.

“Laugh all you want, but it worked,” Joanne cut in. “Those social workers would come by here all the time, and they would arbitrarily strip y’all naked, checking your stomachs, arms, backs, butts, everything… trying to find any welts that might be the result of corporal punishment.”

“Yes, indeed,” Thomas said. From the look in his eyes, it was safe to assume that he was reminiscing. “They’d pop in on us without notice in hopes of catching us in the act, I suppose. Y’all were some good kids for the most part, and it was like they thought the only way you all could be that respectful was if we had put the fear of God in you by beating the devil out of you. I don’t know why so many educated folks think you can’t spank a kid without abusing him.” He stopped and shook his head. “Schools are in a mess, jails are running over, graveyards are full, and a lot of it is due to the wayward thinking of mankind.”

“Preach, Daddy!” Patrice teased.

“Preach, Granddaddy,” her daughter echoed.

Josiah laughed. Arielle was almost too adorable for words, and her speech carried the hint of an accent that Josiah couldn’t determine.

“And God had called us to open our home and heart to children just like y’all.” Joanne didn’t so much as miss a beat. It was as though Thomas had handed her a baton and told her to keep the sermon going. “And we weren’t about to let a single one of you end
up contributing to none of those statistics; so contract or not, we had to do what we had to do. Speaking for myself, I had way more fear of what God might do to me for not raising y’all to know Him and His ways than I was scared of what the government might do.”

“Those social workers were some smart cookies, but wasn’t a single one of them smarter than your mama.” Thomas’s stomach bounced when he chuckled. “They checked every nook and cranny of y’all bodies.”

“But they never checked the bottoms of your feet!” Joanne exclaimed.

Josiah laughed so hard that water ran from his eyes. He could hear Patrice laughing too … and for good reason. The two of them had gotten their share of foot-whippings from Joanne. Slideshow images of Joanne standing over him with an afro comb in her hand, demanding that he take off his shoes in preparation for his whipping cascaded through Josiah’s mind. They were no laughing matter at the time, but in hindsight, Josiah couldn’t think of anything funnier.

“And that junk used to hurt too,” Patrice was saying. “I think I would rather have gotten a regular whipping with a belt or a switch. That foot-whipping was a whole different kind of pain.” She paused to laugh some more, then said, “When I heard the words, ‘Get in your room, and take off your socks and shoes,’ I would just go ahead and start crying right then.”

“I believe
tarrying
is more like the right word for what you used to do, Peaches,” Josiah managed to say when he finally caught his breath. Then in his best little girl voice, he mimicked, “‘Ooooo, Ma. I’m sorry. I ain’t gonna do it no more. I promise. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus … ooooo, Ma. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Above the howling that roared around the table, Josiah added, “And then by the time the comb started making contact with the bottom
of your bare feet, you’d not only dropped Ma’s name all together, but you had stopped pronouncing Jesus’ name right too. By then it was just ‘Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je … ooooo, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je!’”

Hurling her cloth napkin across the table at Josiah, Patrice said, “Shut up, JT. You act like you didn’t get your feet beat.”

“Oh, my,” Thomas said, using his napkin to wipe moisture from his eyes. “You kids are something else.”

“I know one thing,” Joanne interjected, “a major point those foot-whippings proved was that just because a parent uses corporal punishment when disciplining a child doesn’t mean he’ll grow to become some violent and aggressive menace to society. A proper spanking ain’t never hurt nobody. Not emotionally and psychologically, anyway. I don’t care what all these educated fools say; I don’t even care what Dr. Phil or Oprah says. The Bible advocates it, and this right here was a Bible-believing home.”

Thomas leaned forward and carefully placed his elbows on the table, on either side of his plate. “And although I wasn’t the major disciplinarian in the household, I fully support that. And each one of you is a billboard to prove that a lot of good comes from it. Look how you turned out.” He looked at Patrice. “You finished college and now you’re teaching, and—”

“Teaching?” Josiah’s eyebrows rose. “As in school?”

Patrice’s head bobbed. “Elementary level. The earlier you catch it and begin treating it, the better.”

“Catch and treat what? I thought you said you graduated from LaSalle’s School of Nursing.” Josiah suddenly snapped his fingers. “Oh, I get it. You work in the infirmary at the school.”

“No no no.” She shook her head. “I’m a speech therapist. I majored in speech pathology, and it falls under LaSalle’s Nursing and Health Sciences program.”

“Ahhh.” It all made sense to Josiah now. “Now that’s what I call giving back. Good for you, Peaches. That’s great. My best friend is a teacher as well. He teaches physical education on the high school level.”

“The world can sure use more good male teachers,” Joanne said.

A sudden thought invaded Josiah’s mind. “Do you do private tutoring? I mean, if a person wanted you to help with their child’s speech, but it wasn’t a service or a class being offered in the school, would you take them on as a private client?”

Patrice crinkled her face. “Sure. Why not? As long as I could fit it into my schedule. Why? You have somebody in mind?”

Josiah wiped his hands on his napkin and reached in his pocket for his wallet. “As a matter of fact, yes.” He gave a business card to Sammy, and he immediately passed it to Patrice’s awaiting hand.

“Danielle Brown, Guidance Counselor.” Patrice read the words on the card. “Who is this?”

“A friend of mine.”

“Friend?” Patrice gave him a curious look.

Josiah knew what she was thinking, and he quickly cleared it up. “Yes. She’s my best friend’s fiancée, and she has a thirteen-year-old niece who suffered head trauma in a car accident she was involved in last year. She had to have brain surgery as a result of it, and now she’s learning to do a lot of stuff all over again, including talk. I don’t know what kind of help you can do with her being in North Carolina and you being in Georgia, but even if you can suggest a good pathologist to her it would help.”

“Sure. If I can help, I certainly will.”

Josiah smiled. “Thanks. She’ll appreciate it.”

“While we’re on the subject of professions, what is it that you do, JT?” Thomas asked while he put another dinner roll on
Sammy’s plate. “Whatever it is, it must be pretty lucrative to afford you a car like the one sitting in the yard out there.”

“I saw that when I drove up,” Patrice said. “I didn’t even want to park my little Solara next to it.”

Josiah looked at her. “Toyota is an excellent carmaker. I guarantee that if you take care of your Solara, it’ll be around just as long as my R8.”

“So what is it that you do, JT?” Joanne asked between bites of food.

“I work in computer software.”

“We should have figured that,” Patrice said. “Remember how much he used to like to play on your computer, Daddy?”

“Yep. Sure do.” Thomas nodded his head. “Do you build computers?”

Josiah loved talking about his job. He leaned back in his chair. “Not exactly. I guess you can say I enhance them. I’m a computer analyst. Just got promoted to senior analyst a few weeks ago.”

“Well, congratulations!” Pride was written all over Joanne’s face. “I have to bake you a cake or something so we can celebrate properly.”

The more they talked, the more Josiah realized how much he’d missed his family. How much he missed having someone be proud of him. “I work for MacGyver Technologies, and they pay me well. The Audi has been my only splurge though. I’d wanted one for a long time, and when I was able to purchase one, I did.”

“MacGyver Technologies?” Thomas followed his question with a low, extended whistle. “That’s a big-time company. Fortune 500, right?”

Josiah smiled. His father had always kept current on business issues. When he lived in the Smiths’ home, Thomas subscribed to
Forbes
magazine, and it seemed that he never threw away a single
issue. “Yes, it’s Fortune 500. I’m one of only two black senior execs that they have on staff in the headquarters office.”

“Look at my baby!” Joanne’s words caused JT’s neck to become heated. He was sure he was blushing.

Thomas scratched his chin and looked up at the ceiling. “Their headquarters is in North Carolina, right? So you live in North Carolina?”

They had been chatting so much that Josiah hadn’t even noticed that he hadn’t filled in his family on any of what had gone on in his life for the past fifteen years.