Praise Him Anyhow - Volume 1 Page 10

  “Apparently, having everyone know that he’s living with his girlfriend without the benefit of a divorce from his wife is a big problem for his career goals,” Deidre said.

  “Okay, well thanks for letting me know.”

  “You don’t seem happy,” Joy said with a worried expression on her face.

  “I doubt if anyone is happy when their marriage comes to an end. And I had been married to your father for twenty-five years.” A tear flowed down her face as they pulled into the driveway. “I’ll be all right,” she told Joy as they got out of the car.

  Carmella went to her bedroom, took a shower, threw on a pair of pajamas and then climbed into bed. She turned on the radio next to her bed. Let the Church Say Amen by Marvin Winans was playing and Carmella thought the sound was fitting for that evening. God had indeed spoken, her marriage was over and all she could do was say, “Amen”.

  Joy ran into her room. “Mom, turn on the news.”

  She turned the television on. Joy hurriedly put it on the news channel and Carmella saw Nelson being interviewed by a reporter, and he had the nerve to say, “Look, what could I do? My wife hired a lawyer and made all types of demands for a divorce. We’d been married for twenty-five years, but since she seemed ready to divorce me, I had no choice but to move on… and just for the record, I do not have a pregnant girlfriend.”

  “Can you believe him? He’s putting the divorce on you, as if it was your idea.”

  “He’s trying to save face. But it doesn’t bother me. Now let me make a quick call and then get some sleep, okay?”

  “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  Carmella nodded.

  Joy left the room.

  Carmella picked up the phone and dialed the number she’d wanted to dial from the moment she heard that she was a free woman. Life had thrown her for a loop, but thank God she was confident that she would be landing on her feet.

  Ramsey answered the phone and said, “I’m so glad you called. My fingers were itching to call you, but I wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to do or not.”

  “Well, did you pray about it?” she asked, holding her breath, waiting for the answer.

  “I’ve been praying about us for a few weeks now. I’ve already gotten my answer; I’m just waiting on you to get on board.”

  “Nelson signed the divorce papers, Ramsey.” She was a bit breathless as she made this declaration. Carmella could hardly believe the excitement growing in her at the thought of beginning again… with Ramsey.

  “So, how about dinner,” Ramsey said.

  She could hear the smile in his voice again. This time she wasn’t about to do anything to remove that smile. “I’d love to go to dinner with you.”

  “Okay, let me make the reservation and I’ll let you know where we’ll be eating. Is tomorrow night okay with you?”

  “Tomorrow is perfect.”

  Carmella put the telephone back on the receiver and turned up her radio. They were playing Take Me to the King by Tamela Mann. Carmella pulled the cover over her body, exhaled as she laid everything at the feet of her King and then went to sleep, excited to see what tomorrow would bring.

  Epilogue

  After only three dates, Ramsey asked Carmella to marry him. But she said no. Perplexed by the matter, Ramsey took Carmella’s hands in his and said, “But we love each other. I can see it in your eyes, Carmella. You never stopped loving me.”

  “I do love you so very dearly, Ramsey. You are the man of my dreams, but I’m on a journey with God right now, and I don’t want to stop until it’s finished.”

  “You and I have so much in common, especially our love for God… Let me go on this journey with you.”

  She pulled her hands away from Ramsey’s, and lightly touched his beautiful face. Carmella wanted to marry this man like she wanted to get up every morning and sing praises to the Lord. But she loved Ramsey too much to accept his offer at this moment in her life. “I can’t ask you to fix what another man has broken. I need to spend this time with God to heal myself and my children; can you understand that?”

  Reluctantly, he nodded, leaned his forehead against hers and asked, “So what do we do now?”

  She was tired of crying, but tears formed in her eyes anyway. “I have no right to ask you to stick around, or to wait on me to resolve my issues, but I sure wish you would.”

  He kissed her, and then held her in his arms, not wanting to let her go. “I’m not going anywhere,” he told her.

  Carmella was comforted by Ramsey’s words, but there was another man on her mind who she very much wanted to go somewhere, but it appeared as if his life had stalled on him. Dontae had received his acceptance letter from Princeton. Then a rejection letter came from Yale, but most importantly he then received an acceptance from Harvard, his father’s alma mater. But neither the acceptance nor the rejection moved him. Dontae seemed stuck. Carmella kept praying, but she was at her wits’ end as to how to get him to move forward with his life.

  But one day while she and Joy were working on a pastry order at her prep table, Dontae came running into the kitchen, full of smiles and all bubbly as if he’d just been put in the running for the Heisman trophy. “Mom, you won’t believe,” he told Carmella as he grabbed her arms and swung her around.

  Carmella grabbed a towel and wiped her hands off. “Boy, what in the world has you in such a state?”

  He had to catch his breath, but when he did, he said, “A scout for the University of Alabama came to my football practice today. They want me to play, Mom. They’re going to give me a scholarship!”

  Joy started jumping around the kitchen now. “Oh my God, Dontae, I’m so happy for you.”

  But Carmella was puzzled. “We never discussed Alabama. I thought you were going to pick between Harvard and Princeton. Both those schools want you. Even if you don’t want to go to your daddy’s old school, why not go to Princeton? Do you know how many kids spend their lives wishing and praying for this opportunity?”

  A little bit of light went out of Dontae’s eyes as he turned back to his mother. He shook his head. “I don’t want either of those opportunities, Mom—at least not for my undergrad. I want to play for the Crimson Tide, and they want me. This is the best news I’ve received all year long. Can’t you just be happy for me?”

  What was she doing? Hadn’t she asked God for a miracle for her son? How had she been so boneheaded as to think that the miracle had been when Dontae received acceptance letters to two colleges that he didn’t want to go to in the first place? The miracle was standing right before her, his excitement about being able to play football for his favorite college team. Carmella would not be a foolish woman and continue arguing her point. She was just going to say Amen and get out of the way. “Well, I guess I’ll have to sell a ton of cakes and pies so I can fly to all of these Alabama games.”

  At hearing those words, Dontae and Joy began jumping around the kitchen, again, giving each other high fives and doing dances that Carmella didn’t recognize. She stepped back and watched her children. Nelson had left them, but God would never leave. This was why happy moments like the one they were having now were still possible.

  “One down and one more to go,” Carmella silently said to God as she lovingly glanced at her beautiful, big hearted, but bitter daughter.

  Later that night as Carmella and Joy sat in front of the television watching the Cooking Channel, Carmella noticed that Joy wasn’t as interested as she in what the chefs were doing and she made a decision. Carmella turned to her daughter and said, “I want to thank you for helping me get my business started.”

  “It’s been fun; don’t worry about it.”

  “You’re fired,” was all Carmella said next.

  Joy had been slouching on the sofa. She shot up. “I’m what? How can you fire your own daughter? And on what grounds? I have been a model employee… and if I haven’t been, you never told me anything was wrong.”

  “Listen at you… arguing your case. Don’
t you see, Joy? You weren’t meant to follow my dreams. You have to follow your own, and I know that you love the law. You’d be an excellent lawyer.”

  Joy shook her head. “That was Daddy’s dream for me.”

  “No, baby. Your father might be good at a lot of things, but he can’t put something in your heart that’s not already there.”

  Joy’s fists curled as she punched the sofa, bitterness ruling her life. “I can’t do it. Daddy gets everything he wants. He won the election, even after I told the media how horrible he has been to you. If I finish law school, he’s won, and I don’t want that.”

  Carmella wagged a finger in her daughter’s face. “Now you listen to me, Joy Lynn, you let the good Lord handle your daddy, because you can’t live with all this bitterness pumping through your veins.”

  Joy shrugged, not caring how childish she appeared.

  “And contrary to what you believe, your not finishing law school does not make you the winner… you’re the one losing out, because it’s the thing you want more than anything.”

  They sat in silence for a while, Joy rolled her eyes and harrumphed a few times, but in the midst of it she must have been mulling things over, because when she finally spoke to Carmella again she said, “If I did go back to law school, maybe I could practice family law and help women like you when men like my father try to do them wrong, the same way Deidre helped you.”

  Carmella nodded. “You could do that, if that is truly where your heart is.” She stood up and handed her daughter the remote. “I’m going to bed.”

  “You mean, you’re going to call Ramsey,” Joy said as if her mother was a teenager and she was the parent.

  “I’m going to mind my own business and I suggest you do the same,” Carmella told her as she headed upstairs to do exactly what Joy had said. She missed hearing Ramsey’s voice and had to know that he was still there for her. As she picked up the phone, Carmella realized that she had had three love affairs in her lifetime.

  She’d loved Nelson for over twenty years, but now that love affair had come to an end. Ramsey had been her first love, and he was back in her life to stay this time, she hoped. But the third love affair had turned out to be the most important of all; it would be an enduring one, forever after. She didn’t have to wonder or guess about this love, because it was the love she shared with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ… all else would be secondary from here on out in the Marshall household.

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  Joy Comes in the Morning

  THE PRAISE HIM ANYHOW SERIES

  1

  Psalm 137: 1-4

  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

  How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

  Joy Marshall strutted into the Municipal Courthouse at 8:55 am, just minutes before the judge would be seated. She was wearing the Michelle Obama sleeveless dress look. And since she was a P90X workout girl—with the t-shirt to prove it—Joy had the arms to carry off such a look. Her hair was pulled up on top of her head, giving her face an exotic look that caused the law breakers and the law makers in the courthouse to stop and stare. But Joy didn’t even notice. She had one thing on her mind that morning… revenge. As far as Joy was concerned, revenge was best when served cold and she was about to serve up a heaping pile of it.

  She hadn’t spoken to her father in five years. He’d shown up at her law school graduation four years before, and Joy had turned her back to him when he tried to congratulate her. Her father had sent roses to her office when she had accepted an Assistant District Attorney position a year and a half ago, but Joy had sent the roses back. She’d also sent him a very unflattering picture of herself hugging a toilet and puking up her guts. She’d told her father that the picture represented the girl he had created… but he could never lay claim on the woman she would become.

  Ramsey, her stepfather had taken that picture of Joy after one of her famous nights of drinking. The next morning he took her to breakfast at the same IHOP he’d taken her mother on their first, unofficial date. While Joy struggled to hold her head up, Ramsey slid the picture over to her. After taking a quick look at the picture, Joy’s head started pounding. She ran her hands down her face, as a look of embarrassment crept up. “Where’d you get this?”

  “I took it when you came home last night. I wanted you to see what a fine and upstanding woman you turned out to be.”

  She heard the sarcasm in his voice and didn’t like it one bit. “Marrying my mother doesn’t give you the right to get in my business. I’m a grown woman and prefer to be treated as one.”

  The waitress placed scrambled eggs and bacon in front of Ramsey and pancakes in front of Joy. When the waitress left their table, Ramsey said, “I’m not in the habit of treating people who live in my house like grown folk when they don’t pay bills, and do nothing with their lives.”

  “I finished law school. Isn’t that what my mother wanted? Okay, I did it, so stop harassing me.”

  Ramsey leaned back in his seat. He studied her for a moment and then let her have it, no holds barred. “Look Joy, I know that this adjustment has been hard on you… probably harder on you than anyone else, but you can’t self-destruct over it.”

  What did he know about the pain she was dealing with? As far as Joy was concerned, her father hadn’t just betrayed her mother when he cheated with Jasmine. He’d betrayed her as well, because she had looked up to her father and believed he could do no wrong. And then one day she discovered that he wasn’t just doing wrong, but he was doing it with Joy’s best friend. So in one crazy and heart-wrenching day, she’d lost not just her father and best friend… she’d lost her trust in mankind. And no matter how hard she tried, Joy just couldn’t figure out how to get it back.

  “Joy, I know that you’re angry with your father, and you’re trying to punish him for what he did to you. But you’re going about this the wrong way.”

  Her stomach was not in the mood for food, so she pushed her plate away. But she was finally ready to listen to Ramsey. “What do you mean?”

  “Success is the best revenge, Joy. Drinking yourself into an early grave is not going to hurt Nelson Marshall. You know what will stick in his gut, though? Show your father that you succeeded even though he chose to walk away.”

  Ramsey’s words had so encouraged her, that Joy stopped drinking and put an honest effort towards finding a job. Now she was an Assistant District Attorney and today was the day that she would finally exact her revenge on her father.

  The so-called Honorable Judge Nelson Marshall had been assigned to preside over her most recent case. When he saw her name, he should have recused himself on the spot, but since he chose not to do the right thing, as usual, Joy was about to do it for him.

  “Good morning, Ms. Marshall. You’re looking good today,” a big bellied security guard, who obviously needed Ramsey to give him a good talking to so he could lay off the beers, said to her as she walked over to the security area.

  “Thanks, Malcolm, how are you doing this morning?” Joy handed her Michael Kors handbag and briefcase to the security guard and prepared to go through the metal detectors.

  “I’m doing good. Getting married next week,” Malcolm told her as she walked through the metal detector.

  Joy almost offered her condolences. But she reminded herself that not everyone viewed marriage as an apocalyptic occurrence. But they knew just as well as she did that over half of all marriages end in divorce. That includes the ones that claim to be Christian marriages, like the one her mother and father had, until the day he decided to leave her for his girlfriend. After her father had done his dirt and divorced her mother, Joy hadn’t been able to look at marriage the same way. She’d even called off her own engagement to Troy Dan
iels and she’d been living happily single and not interested in mingling at all ever since. She didn’t have time to go over all of her woes with Malcolm, so she simply said, “Congratulations. I wish you the best.” Joy took her belongings and walked away from him as fast as she could.

  Joy got on the elevator heading to the third floor. She walked into courtroom A, where Lance Bryant and his repeat offender were already seated and waiting on Judge Do-Wrong to make his royal appearance.

  She caught Lance staring at her as she made her way to the prosecuting table. He was a fine brother with wavy hair and a beautiful smile, but she wasn’t interested. Joy put her briefcase down as Lance leaned her way and said, “Long time no see… how’ve you been?”

  Joy gave him a close lipped smile and then turned back to her paperwork. She had tried two other cases against Lance in the short time that she had been an Assistant DA. Lance seemed like a good guy, but he sure picked some loser clients. He handled everything from assault to robbery, and always seemed to believe that his clients were as innocent as new born babes.

  “Oh, so it’s like that, huh? You not speaking today? Guess you’re still upset about that whuppin’ you took the last time.”

  She’d won the first case, but Lance had, indeed, won the second case. Joy was actually thankful that Lance won that case, because as it turned out, his client had been falsely accused. But he wasn’t about to win this case, not even close, nor was she about to deal with her father the entire week that it would take to wrap this case up.

  “All rise,” the bailiff said as Judge Nelson took his seat behind the bench.

  Joy’s fists instantly clenched as she watch her father sit in a chair he didn’t deserve to be in. She had tried her best to get him out of that seat during the last two elections, but the people of North Carolina just kept voting the adulterer back in. A few years back, Joy had delighted in telling her father that she had been the one to provide the media with information about his girlfriend and his divorce. He’d tried to apologize to her for what he had done to their family, but she wasn’t interested in hearing it.