When Solomon Sings (12 page)

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Authors: Kendra Norman-Bellamy

BOOK: When Solomon Sings
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Ella's house smelled of everything delicious when Neil, Shaylynn, and Chase entered. They'd driven two separate vehicles to church; therefore, they drove separately to Ella's house too, but they arrived at the same time. Chase chose to ride with Neil in his SUV, and Shaylynn followed them in her Chrysler New Yorker.
“Welcome, welcome.” Ella's voice was chipper as she held open the door.
“Ho ho ho ... Merry Christmas!” Neil's Santa impression left much to be desired.
“Merry Christmas to y'all too. What's all this?”
“We come bearing gifts.” He set his armload on the floor by his mother's tree, and then proceeded to relieve Shaylynn of hers.
“Me too.” Chase handed Ella the single box he was holding. “This is for you.”
Accepting the neatly wrapped present, Ella said, “Well, I sure do thank you. Is it from you?”
Chase nodded. “Me and Mama.”
“Well, I can't wait to see what it is.”
“That's too bad, because you're gonna have to.” Neil eased the box from his mother's hand and placed it under the tree with the others. “We'll open gifts later. I'm about to starve, and this whole house smells edible. If I don't get a plate soon, I'm gonna just start gnawing on the walls.”
Shaylynn giggled and slapped his arm playfully. “You want me to fix his plate, Ms. Ella Mae? I took a lot of care in redecorating your house. The last thing I need to see on your walls is a grown man's teeth marks.”
Laughing, Ella said, “No, chile; I don't want you fixing nothing. I want you, Sol, and Chase to wash up and sit at the table.” While Shaylynn was the only one who referred to Neil by his full middle name, the short-cut “Sol” was occasionally used by several of his immediate family members. Ella nudged Shaylynn in the direction of the hallway. “While y'all doing that, I'll fill the serving dishes and set them on the table.”
While Shaylynn obediently headed for the restroom to wash her hands, Neil kissed his mother's cheek. “Ms. Ella Mae, you did more than enough by cooking it all. Why don't you take a load off? You and Shay can sit down, and let the men serve you. How's that? Me and Chase will fill the serving dishes and set them on the table.” He looked down at Chase. “Won't we?”
Chase's eyes grew with excitement. “Cool!”
“Fine by me.” Limping slightly without the help of her cane, Ella headed for the table that was already decorated with her best china.
Neil bent down slightly and raised his hand. He remembered a time when he used to have to stoop much lower. Chase was growing. “Let's do it.”
“Yes, sir!” Chase said, slapping his palm against Neil's.
The men used the kitchen sink to wash their hands, and they were hard at work when Shaylynn joined Ella.
“We're fixing the table, Mama,” Chase announced as he set the bowl of macaroni and cheese on the table beside the bowl of collard greens and the plate of corn-bread that Neil had placed there just moments earlier.
Shaylynn kissed his cheek. “Well, aren't you two just full of surprises?”
Neil smiled to himself.
You don't know the half of it, suga.
He almost wished all his siblings had traveled to Atlanta to share the holiday with their mom. Not only would Ella have liked that, but it would have opened the door for the people closest to him to be witnesses to his moment of happiness. Neil's smile widened at the thought of his brothers poking fun at him well into the evening for doing the one thing he'd said he would never do again.
From the kitchen counter where he stood, carving the turkey into slices, he turned and looked across the room into the adjoining dining area and winked at Shaylynn. Then he looked at his mother, who sat beside her. “Speaking of surprises, I think Chase has something to tell you.” When Chase threw him a confused look, Neil said, “Tell Ms. Ella Mae what you did today.”
“Oh.” Chase turned to face Ella. “I got Jesus today.”
“You got Jesus?” It was clear from the expression on her face that she didn't understand.
Chase bobbed his head, grinning from ear to ear. “Yes, ma'am. I went up to the front of the church, Pastor Loather prayed for me, and I got Jesus.”
As it all became clear to her, Ella gasped, and her hands fluttered to her chest. “Oh, baby,” she said as tears filled her eyes. Ella didn't cry that often, but Neil knew that one would get her. It had gotten him too. “Come give Ms. Ella Mae a hug.” Chase ran around the table and obliged. “You just made the best decision of your life. You know that?”
“Yes, ma'am.” He was wrapped so tight in Ella's arms that his voice was muffled.
Ella pulled him away from her and looked him in the eyes. “You done made Ms. Ella Mae so happy.” She picked up a napkin and dabbed at her eyes. Neil noticed Shaylynn wiping hers too. “If you hadn't bought me nothing for Christmas, this would be my Christmas gift right here.”
“Dr. Taylor said when I got Jesus, they started having a party up in heaven,” Chase said.
Ella clapped her hands and laughed. “That's right, sweetie, they sure did. That's what Jesus said. He said that the angels in heaven rejoice over one soul coming to Christ.” She held up her index finger when she said the word “one,” and Chase's eyes followed her gesture. “That means they threw a party today, just for you. The angels were up there rejoicing,” Ella concluded.
Shaylynn sat forward in her chair. “That means your daddy was rejoicing too, Chase.”
Neil gasped and stifled an “Ouch” as he snatched his hand back from the blade of the knife that had just nicked the index finger on his right hand. The excruciating pain from the cut made him bite down hard on the inside of his bottom lip. Not the cut of the knife, but the one caused by Shaylynn's words.
“Your daddy is happier than all the other angels combined.” She was bordering on giddy now, and her chipper tone was like grinding broken pieces of glass into Neil's flesh. “You know, Christmas was Daddy's favorite holiday,” Shaylynn continued. “I wish he were alive and there in the church to see you get ... Jesus today.”
I wish he were alive.
Those words rendered the deepest stab of all. She was still talking, but Neil tuned her out. He had to in order to contain his fury. He snatched off a sheet of paper towel and wrapped his finger with it before picking up the tray of turkey and delivering it to the table. When he placed it down, he dropped it harder than necessary. The resulting thud got everyone's attention.
“Be careful, Sol,” Ella said, probably thinking the tray had slipped from his grasp. Then she took note of his hand. “What's the matter? What happened?”
“I'm fine,” Neil lied. His finger may have been fine, but he certainly wasn't. “I cut myself a little bit while I was carving the turkey.”
Shaylynn stood. “You want me to—”
“No.” Neil tried not to sound snappish, but he didn't know if he succeeded. “No, thank you,” he added. “I'm gonna go to the bathroom and put something on this. I'll be back. Don't wait. You all just go ahead and bless the food and eat.” He was already halfway down the hall when he completed the sentence.
“There's some peroxide in the medicine cabinet,” Ella called after him, “and some Band-Aids in the first aid kit on the floor of the linen closet.”
Neil closed himself in the bathroom, taking special care not to slam the door ... even though he really,
really
wanted to. What did she mean she wished he were alive? If Emmett was alive, then Neil and Shaylynn wouldn't be together. To Neil's ears, what she had said was as good as saying she didn't want to be with him; she was just with him because she couldn't have the man she really wanted. He ripped the makeshift dressing from his finger and discarded it in the trash can. There were only a few specs of blood on it. The wound was almost superficial.
In frustration, Neil shoved his hands in his pockets. That's when he felt the ring. He had taken it from the box of his glove compartment and hidden it there ... waiting for just the right moment. Every day since he made the purchase, he'd taken the ring out of its casing and admired it with a smile; sometimes even rehearsing his lines in preparation for today. Looking at it now brought him no joy, and he knew that every time he looked at it from here on out, it would remind him all over again of the ill-timing of Shaylynn's little salute to the great Emmett Ford.
Melancholy began to replace his anger. Why did she have to do this today? Not only was she refusing to let Emmett die, but it was like she was on some kind of mission to keep him alive in Chase's mind too. How could Neil propose to her? Not only was she not willing to allow him to be her husband, she also wasn't willing to allow him to be Chase's father.
Defeated once again, Neil dropped the ring back into his pocket and washed his hands with soap and water. Peroxide wasn't necessary. Instead, once he dried his hands, he proceeded to hunt through the first aid kit for a Band-Aid that was the right size for his minor wound. Neil was so dejected that he'd lost his appetite. He didn't know how he was going to manage to put on a brave face and pretend to enjoy the rest of Christmas Day, but one thing he knew for sure: the only piece of jewelry that would get presented today was the birthstone cuff watch that Shaylynn and Chase had purchased for Ella Mae.
ELEVEN
“I still can't believe you didn't propose.” The disappointment was written all over Theresa's face, not to mention how obviously detectable it was in her voice. She had been in the kitchen preparing dinner when Neil first arrived at the Loather home. Now she was stretched out across the sofa, getting pampered, like preparing a meal for two had been a chore and a half.
Neil wanted to laugh. He sat on the loveseat directly across the room and watched as Theresa lay with her bare feet in CJ's lap while he massaged them. Ella Mae had given birth to ten children and never had an ounce of painkillers while doing so. As a matter of fact, most of the Taylor children weren't birthed in a hospital or by doctors. Ella had midwives, and she had pushed out most of her babies while lying on the same bed she'd gotten impregnated in, in their country home. And as much as Pop loved her, Neil never saw him rub his mother's feet. No doubt, childbearing was an assignment for which he definitely wouldn't volunteer ... even if he could. But he still often wondered what modern women would do if they lived in yesteryear.
Neil bit down on the remains of the dissolving peppermint he had been nursing for the past few minutes, and between crunches, he replied, “Well, I can't believe you can't believe I didn't propose. I think I did just what any man would have done if he were in my shoes.”
“You're gonna mess around and let her get away if you don't learn how to deal with your male ego.”
“What male ego?” Neil swallowed the last of the candy. “This has nothing to do with ego.”
Theresa sucked her teeth. “Are you kidding me? Of course it does. It has everything to do with male ego, and yours is so inflated that everything's gotta be your way or no way at all.”
Neil couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth. “This isn't about having everything my way, this is about having one thing my way.”
“Yeah, one
humongous
thing,” Theresa said. “Your one thing is like a hundred regular-sized things.”
“You make it sound like I'm being unreasonable.” Neil looked to his best friend for support. “Am I being unreasonable, CJ?”
“That all depends upon what your expectations are, bruh. I've told you that already. You know how I feel on this matter. It's not gonna go away. You're either going to have to learn to deal with it, or not. But if you choose not to, then I'm afraid you've taken this relationship with Shay about as far as it's gonna go.”
“Man, don't say that,” Neil said in reply.
“I'm just stating the facts as I see them.”
“In other words, yes, you're being unreasonable,” Theresa inserted.
Neil sighed and crossed his right foot over his left knee. He felt like he was in some crazy sort of courtroom and not a single member of the jury believed his testimony. The only person who seemed to be able to understand his pain at all was Deacon Burgess, and as senile as he'd been lately, Neil knew better than to verbally cite that. Calling Homer Burgess's name as his sole witness wasn't going to make his case any stronger. “Come on, Theresa. Are you telling me that you'd be cool with sharing my boy's heart with some other female, dead or alive?”
Theresa propped herself up on her elbows. “You see this?” She pointed her eyes toward her stomach. With only a few weeks to go, it stuck out like the fully expanded top of one of those old-school Jiffy Pop stovetop pans that people have to continuously shake while the popcorn pops. “If this turns out to be a girl, I may never get any love from
your boy
again, because he'll be giving it all to her.”
CJ squeezed his wife's foot. “Oh come on, baby. You know that's not true.”
“Of course it's not,” Neil said. “There's a big difference between the love a man has for his kid and the love he has for his woman. You won't lose any of CJ's love, 'cause those two loves actually come from two entirely different aortas of the heart.”
“What?” Theresa looked at him sideways. “The heart only has one aorta, boy. You're just making junk up.”
“I'm a PhD,” Neil said, “I'm licensed to make junk up.”
Theresa chuckled and lay back on the throw pillows that were positioned behind her head. After a moment of silence, she restated her stance. “You should have asked her, Neil.”
“Did you hear a single word of the story that I just told y'all about my Christmas Day fiasco?” Neil shook his head. “It literally blows me away that you're still saying I should have proposed.”
“She would have accepted.”
“No, she wouldn't have.” Neil's voice raised an octave. “I don't think Shay's ever gonna say ‘I do' again ... to me or anyone else, for that matter. That's the one positive in this whole mess. At least it ain't personal. She's not gonna marry me, but I won't have to stand by and watch her marry somebody else, either.” Neil tried to laugh it off, but the sting of his statement wouldn't let him. He was beginning to believe it more and more.
“Haven't you ever heard that saying about how you're only a failure when you don't try?” CJ grunted. “I can't believe you're giving up without even trying.”
“I'm not saying I'm giving up. I'm just saying ...” Neil rubbed his forehead, and then muttered, “I don't even know what I'm saying anymore.”
“She would have said yes,” Theresa reiterated in a sing-song tone.
Neil looked at her and frowned. “Will you stop saying that? What makes you so sure? You're some kind of prophetess now?”
“Maybe I am.”
“Yeah, right,” Neil said through a sigh.
“I refuse not to remain very optimistic about this. I like the thought of you and Shaylynn being a wedded couple,” Theresa said. “She did such an amazing job on the baby room.”
That was true. The room looked fantastic. Neil had come by on New Year's Eve, before Watch Night service, to help CJ set up all the furniture. “So what? You want her around so you can have a built-in designer who'll give you the family rate every time you want a room redecorated?”
Theresa twisted her lips. “Of course not. Well, yeah . . . I guess that would be a perk, but that's not the reason I like the idea of her being Mrs. Neil Taylor. I like Shaylynn for several reasons. For one, she's very mature. Maybe life forced her to become wise beyond her years, but whatever the reason, she's mature. When she's around, I don't feel like I'm talking to someone four years younger than me.” “How 'bout six,” Neil corrected.
“How ‘bout shut up,” Theresa warned, and then proceeded without missing a beat. “And Shaylynn is different than a lot of the sisters at KBCC. When she talks to me, it's just Shaylynn talking to Theresa. I mean, she respects me and everything, but she never gives me that stupid ‘Oh my God; I'm talking to the first lady' act that a lot of the members do. Around me, she's herself and she's comfortable. I like that. Plus anyone who knows me knows that I like to talk and discuss things in detail. Shaylynn is a great conversationalist. I know she didn't graduate from a four-year university like I and a lot of the other women at the church did, but she's smart and knowledgeable. When we're talking, I forget that she's someone who, when I was graduating
from
high school, was just getting
in
high school.”
“Middle school.”
“Shut. Up.” That time Theresa said it through clinched teeth, and it was accompanied by a look that told Neil that was his last warning. “The point is I like her, okay? She's like the ever-so-slightly younger sister I never had. I just happen to think she's right for you.”
CJ nodded in agreement. “I do too. Of all the girls I've known you to date since we met on the campus of Morehouse College—including Audrey, who I actually thought was pretty cool—I like Shay the best. Spiritually, mentally, physically ... I think she's your perfect fit. She supports you. She encourages your ministry. She loves your mother. You're crazy about her son. She gets along with your whole family and, let's face it, that's a heck of a lot of people to get along with.”
Although the things CJ and Theresa were saying were true, they only increased Neil's frustration. Where was he going to find another woman like Shaylynn? He loved her too much not to make this work, but he had to snatch her from under the spell Emmett had cast. Someway. Somehow. “You guys are talking like you have to sell me on her or something. I'm already sold. I know that we're another Ossie and Ruby Dee.”
“He was amazing, but he's dead,” Theresa injected.
“Another Bill and Camille Cosby.”
“Another good one, but he had an outside love child.”
Neil looked at CJ. “Can't you do anything to control your wife's mouth?”
CJ laughed. “I've only found one way to shut her up, and you'd have to leave before I could do that.”
Neil huffed and looked at his surroundings. “I can't believe I actually sit on y'all's furniture when I come over here. I'll bet all kinds of ungodliness takes place on this loveseat. I gotta remember to bathe when I get home. And to throw all my clothes in the washer.”
CJ laughed some more. “You're stupid, bruh.”
Neil got back on subject. “But for real. Can one of you call Shay and start your speeches all back over again? Maybe between the two of you, one of you will be able to make her see it too.”
“I think she already does,” Theresa said. “I still say she would have been glad to have you propose to her.”
Neil rolled his eyes and decided not to even respond to her repetitious psychosis. Instead, he turned his attention back to CJ. “When you hear people say stuff like, ‘A marriage takes three,' they're talking about the groom, the bride, and God, not the groom, the bride, and her ex.”
“But he's not her ex.” CJ explained further. “If Emmett was an ex-boyfriend, ex-fiance, ex-husband, ex-anything, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly about this. But he's not. He's her
former
husband. A man she was with until death parted them.”
“And even after that.” Neil dropped his head against the back of the loveseat.
“Have you spoken to her since Christmas?” CJ asked.
Neil stared up at the fan attached to his friends' ceiling. It would be at least two more months before they'd need to turn it on. “Sure, I have. It's not like we broke up. She doesn't even know how upset I was at the Christmas gathering, so we've talked every day as usual. I'm the one who drove them to the airport on Friday, so they could catch a flight to Milwaukee for Chase to spend the first few days of the New Year with his grandparents.” Neil hadn't been particularly happy when he first found out that Shaylynn and Chase wouldn't be with him when the old year made its exit, but taking Chase to Milwaukee to see the other side of his family was sort of tradition for them. Just as he'd done every year for as far back as he could remember, Neil brought in the New Year in church. Watch Night was a great worship experience, but it would have been even better had Shaylynn and Chase been there with him instead of on the other end of the country.
“How's the visit going?”
Neil knew why CJ was asking. Shaylynn wasn't exactly fond of Emmett's parents, and they weren't in her fan club either. “I spoke to Shay last night. She hasn't seen the ex ...
former
in-laws since she dropped off Chase at their house on Friday afternoon. He's staying with them, and she's staying with a couple who used to be her neighbors back in the day. She went to her old church home for Watch Night service, and she said it was good to see the lady who used to be her pastor.”
“They're coming back tomorrow, right?” Theresa asked.
“Yeah. They have to be back by then. That'll be the last day of the holiday break. School starts back on Wednesday.”
“Just so you know,” CJ said, “when I asked you if you'd spoken to Shaylynn since Christmas, I wasn't talking about your normal daily conversations. I was asking if you'd talked to her about the thing that upset you, but you've already answered my question.” CJ shook his head. “I guess if she doesn't even realize that you were put off by her mention of Emmett, it's a safe assumption that you're still avoiding the inevitable.”
Neil sighed.
Here we go again.
His pastor/best friend hadn't been all that subtle when letting Neil know that he was disappointed in his hesitation to be totally honest with Shaylynn on how he felt about her posthumous relationship with Emmett. “I haven't talked to her about it yet, but I plan to.”
CJ released his wife's foot long enough to fan a carefree hand at Neil. “Yeah, right. How many times have I heard that one? You wouldn't happen to be related to the boy who cried wolf, would you?”
Theresa laughed like it was the best joke ever, but Neil didn't see the humor. “I
am
going to talk to her,” he stressed. “I just ... didn't want to do it so soon after the other misunderstanding that had just happened a couple of weeks earlier, nor did I think our Christmas gathering with Ms. Ella Mae was the right time. I didn't want to ruin the holiday. What would I have looked like bringing up something like that on the day that celebrates Jesus' birth?”

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