Something Old, Something New (4 page)

They were led through a covered brick archway that opened out onto a large outdoor room facing the ocean.

“Oh, my goodness,” Lily said, blown away. “Would you look at the view!”

The water was as blue as a jewel, and the white sails of ships could be seen off in the distance. It was so quiet you could hear the breeze.

“Main reason I purchased this land,” Tina confessed. “Told the architect, if she couldn't build me a house on this bluff, then find me someone who could.” Tina then went silent for a few moments before adding, “Lots of peace here.”

“It is beautiful,” Bernadine replied.

Lily agreed. She imagined standing arm in arm with Trent and looking out at the view while surrounded by the beauty and silence. If Bernadine could find a place like this for the honeymoon, Lily would gladly let her foot the bill.

When Lily came back to the present, Tina was directing Bernadine over to a table that held a full-scale model of a sprawling, Vegas-style hotel and apartment complex. Curious, she strolled over to join them.

“This is nice,” Bernadine declared, slowly walking around the rendering to get a full view. “Very nice. How much are we throwing in apiece?”

Tina quoted a number that made Lily's eyes roll back in her head, but Bernadine didn't even blink.

“The city has already purchased the property,” Tina told her. “Soon as all the legal beagles are done barking at each other, we just have to sign the contract and transfer our funds to the developer's account.”

Bernadine looked up from the model and asked quietly, “So why do I get the impression that something's not quite right?”

“You are good, B,” Tina declared, smiling.

Bernadine inclined her head as if acknowledging the fact. “So what's up?”

Before answering, Tina gestured them to take seats and then poured three glasses of ice-cold sangria from a chilled glass pitcher sitting on top of a tea cart. She passed them their drinks and sat down with her own. “Everybody knows that profit is my middle name. Always has been.”

“True,” Bernadine replied.

“But the older I get, the more I wonder if maybe pursuing profit with a lowercase
p
instead of a capital
P
is better for my soul.” She looked Bernadine's way and asked, “Do you know what I mean?”

“I do. It's sort of what I'm doing with Henry Adams.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“So what is it about this development that has you second-guessing yourself?”

“One of the places the city will be demolishing is an old church. Can't be good karma in that,” she noted sagely before taking a sip from her glass.

“Is the church closed or occupied?” Lily asked.

“Services every Sunday.”

Bernadine looked to Lily, who simply shrugged in reply, but Lily had to agree with Tina. Bulldozing a church so that a bunch of developers could put up a luxury hotel just didn't seem right.

“Have you talked to whoever the pastor is?” Bernadine wanted to know.

“No, but I did talk to the head bishop.”

“He going to fight the city over the plan?”

Tina shook her head. “No. He said the diocese, I think he called it, thought they were given a fair price for the land, and that they looked forward to doing good things with the payment.”

“Sounds reasonable, but I understand what you're feeling. I'm willing to let you make the call on this. If you want to take our money elsewhere, that's fine with me.”

“That's what the other members said, too.”

“Then take some time and think it over. All this peace here—you'll make the right choice.”

“Thanks, Bernadine.”

“No problem. Maybe I'll have our driver take us by the church so I can get a look at it, too.”

“It was probably gorgeous in its prime, but time hasn't been kind. You'll see why the bishop was so willing to sell.”

They spent a few more minutes talking about the model's potential and catching each other up on some of the organization's doings and gossip, and then it was time for Lily and Bernadine to leave.

Tina shared a long tight hug with Bernadine and gave Lily a hug as well.

“I hear you're getting married, Lily.”

Lily shot Bernadine a questioning look.

“Guilty as charged.”

Tina said, “Congratulations.”

“Thank you. He's a very special man.”

“You've been a godsend to Bernadine, so if there is anything I can do to help make your wedding-day dreams come true, just let me know.”

All Lily could think was now she had two got-rocks women wanting to help, but aloud, she said genuinely, “I will, Tina. Thank you.”

Tina walked them to the car and waved until they were out of sight.

Bernadine gave the driver the church's address and said to Lily, “Let's do that first, and we'll tackle Mission Zoey next.”

Lily agreed, but she didn't hold out much hope for getting answers on Zoey. On the flight down, they'd talked to Roni in New York, and she was sending them lots of luck and love. Lily promised her she'd call right away if anything turned up.

They settled in for the ride, and Bernadine glanced her way. “Tina meant what she said about the wedding.”

“I know, and I'm not sure who scares me most, her or you.”

When the driver pulled up in front of the church, Lily looked out at the crumbling old building and the desolate neighborhood its weathered spires rose above. She agreed with Tina that it probably had been grand in its heyday, but now the Gothic carved doors looked to welcome only the tired and poor.

“It is in pretty bad shape,” Bernadine remarked solemnly.

“Yes, it is. What do you want to do?”

“Not sure, but let's go in and see if we can find somebody to talk to about the sale.” She asked the driver, “Is there a parking lot?”

“Yep.”

“Pull in, then. We're going to run in.”

“Not the best neighborhood.”

“No, it isn't,” Bernadine agreed.

They could see young men lounging in doorways. They and everyone else moving along the trash-cluttered street were eyeing the big fine car.

Lily asked the driver. “Will you be okay?”

“Ladies, I am armed and dangerous. You two go on in. I'll be fine here until you get back.”

With those words of assurance, Lily and Bernadine left the car and walked across the lot to the nearest door. Due to the questionable neighborhood, Lily expected to find the steel door locked, but it opened easily.

Inside they were met by an echoing silence that seemed to resonate to the soul. To their left lay the sanctuary with its dark wood pews, but instead of rows of pews leading to the altar and the pulpit, there were only five pews, and none were near any of the others.

“Look at the cross, Lily.”

Bernadine's soft voice drew her eyes up to the large cross hanging on the wall high above the simple altar. It appeared to be made from two old pieces of wood that might have come from an alley or from someone's garage. “Found wood” is what Trent would have probably called it. The sight of it was both moving and heartbreaking.

“Whoever is in charge here has been making a way out of no way, Bernadine.”

“Amen.”

From somewhere within the building came the sound of a woman's voice singing Yolanda Adams's “I'm Gonna Be Ready.”

“Nice voice. Alto.”

Bernadine nodded with agreement before calling out, “Hello!”

The singing stopped, followed by, “Hold on. I'll be right there.”

While they waited, Lily looked around the sanctuary again and took in the peeling plaster, the three boarded-up windows, and the two intact ones guarded by security bars. Tina said there was a service held every Sunday, but Lily couldn't help but wonder how many people attended.

Around the corner came a fast-walking, short, thin, brown-skinned woman. She was wearing a ball cap, a black short-sleeved shirt topped by a white clerical collar, dust-covered jeans, and red cowboy boots. She appeared to be in her forties, but women of color aged so gracefully that it was hard to determine if the estimate was true or not.

The woman glanced curiously between Lily and Bernadine. “Good afternoon. Can I help you?”

“Are you the pastor?” Bernadine asked.

“Yes. I'm Reverend Paula Grant.”

Bernadine introduced herself and then Lily. “Would it be okay if Lily and I talked to you about the sale of the church?”

The women studied Bernadine for a long moment. “May I ask why?”

“I'm one of the potential investors in the development going up, and I want to make sure my friends and I are doing the right thing.”

The priest seemed to evaluate them and the request. She finally gestured. “This way. We'll talk in my office.”

It was a tiny, cramped space filled with old furniture and a large number of open, half-packed boxes. Dark wood that matched the wood of the pews in the sanctuary made up the office's built-in bookcases. From the open spaces on the shelves and what Lily could see of the contents in the boxes, the books were being packed away.

The reverend moved some of the boxes to reveal the chairs hidden beneath. Bernadine and Lily took seats, and she went behind her desk to an old leather recliner. “So what would you like to know?”

“Are you okay with the sale?”

“No, but my bishop made a strong case for why he wouldn't be opposing it, so I'm packing up. Not much else I can do.”

“How long before you have to leave?”

“Officially, the church will be padlocked in less than thirty days.”

Lily could tell that she was deeply saddened by the news. “Where do you go from here?”

She shrugged. “Honestly, I don't know. The bishop has no other church for me, so I'll have to wait and see where the Spirit leads me next.” She studied Bernadine for a moment before adding, “I don't think I've ever heard of a Black woman having the cash to invest at the level the city is asking from the developers.”

“There are a few of us out here. I'm with a group of female investors made up of women of all races and creeds.”

“The fact that you stopped by says a lot to me about your group's moral values.”

“We try to do no harm.”

The reverend nodded understandingly.

“I have one more request,” Bernadine said to her. “And then we'll leave you in peace.”

“Sure. What is it?”

Bernadine fished around in her tote for the picture of Zoey and handed it to the priest.

The reverend's eyes widened. “Where'd you get this?”

Lily and Bernadine sat straight up, and Bernadine said warily, “Please, tell us that you know her.”

“I do,” she responded softly. “Is she alive?”

“Alive and well.”

There were tears standing in the reverend's eyes. “Oh, my goodness. Zoey. I was so worried when she and Bonnie stopped coming around. Where're they living?”

“How well did you know them?”

“I knew them very well. Bonnie played the organ here on Sundays, with Zoey sitting right beside her.” She met their eyes and came to her own conclusion. “Bonnie's dead, isn't she?”

They nodded.

She solemnly crossed herself and finally looked up from Zoey's smiling face. “Bonnie had a gift. She made our decrepit old organ sound like Carnegie Hall. Even when she showed up here some Sunday mornings so cracked out she couldn't walk straight, she'd sit down on the bench, put her hands on the keys, and you'd swear it was the angels playing. How'd she pass away?”

Bernadine and Lily related all that they knew. When they described how and where Zoey was found, the lady priest cried softly. Finally gathering herself, she said, “I used to run a soup kitchen here, and one morning, a few years back, a young woman came in with her pale-as-chalk, big-eyed daughter. Bonnie wasn't high that day, but I could tell by the rotted teeth that she was on crack. It didn't matter—she and her child were hungry, and I was there to feed them.”

She paused a moment, as if the memories were taking her back to that time. “She said she wanted to pay me back for the meal. I knew she didn't have any money, but when she asked if she could play the organ on Sunday as a way to say thanks, I said sure. I didn't think for a minute that she'd actually show up, but she did, and her skill blew us away.”

“Was Zoey mute when you knew her?”

“Mute? That chatterbox? Of course not.”

Lily said, “She is now. Hasn't spoken a word in the two years she's been with us.”

She looked puzzled. “Was it the trauma of the rats?”

Bernadine shrugged. “The doctors think so. They can't find anything physically wrong.”

“So where is she living?”

They gave her a thumbnail sketch of Henry Adams and Bernadine's foster program.

The priest asked with wonder, “You own a town?” She turned to Lily. “How rich is this woman, Lily?”

“If I told you, you wouldn't believe me.”

Paula shook her head in amazement.

“Tell me a bit about your background, if I'm not being too nosy,” Bernadine asked.

They learned that Paula was a native Oklahoman. When she mentioned her degrees in child psychology and that she'd run her own practice, Lily's heart began to beat with excitement. A quick look Bernadine's way showed her that the Boss Lady was experiencing the same rush.

“So you've no immediate job prospects?”

“None. Your town wouldn't need a woman of the cloth, would it?”

Lily and Bernadine shared a knowing smile.

Bernadine finally replied, “Presently, we don't have a church, but I can get one built. How big do you want it to be?”

Paula waved off the remark. “I'm just kidding.”

“I'm not.”

Paula's smile faded. “Excuse me?”

“You just said you're unemployed, right?”