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  “Just like that, she was forgiven?” Ebony asked in amazement.

  “Just like that,” Nina said with a snap of her finger.

  Shortly after Nina and Ebony’s conversation ended, Isaac and Donavan walked in the kitchen and the four of them sat down to dinner. Once the kids were in bed and Isaac and Nina had also gone to bed, Isaac informed his wife that Ebony’s mom would be there the next day to get her.

  “But I thought she wouldn’t be able to make it here until next week?”

  “She called,” Isaac replied. “Her sister is going to keep her other children so she can fly in and pick Ebony up tomorrow.”

  Nina turned away from her husband and pulled the covers tight against her. Isaac leaned into his wife and moved her closer to him. He stroked her back and planted a kiss on her neck. “I promise it will be okay.”

  Nina sniffled. “I know it’s the right thing to do, but I’m not ready to let her go. I was just getting to know her and she’s a wonderful kid.”

  Isaac reminded her, “But she’s not our kid.”

  Nina turned to face her husband and tears fell onto her pillow. “I know she’s not ours, but I want one just like her.”

  ***

  Keith and his crew had to pull a double to put the finishing touches on that building. So it was a little past eleven when he arrived home. Iona was on the couch asleep. The child looked precious and innocent with her eyes shut tight against all the evil of the world. This was Isaac’s child. Keith was sure of it as he gazed down on her. What he wasn’t sure of was why Cynda had never said anything. And he definitely wasn’t sure what Isaac’s reaction would be when he talked with him tomorrow.

  Keith went into his throne room. Kneeling down on his knees he prayed, “Show me Your will in all this mess, Lord.”

  He bowed before the throne and determined to seek God in earnest. He needed the Holy Spirit to direct him. When he’d finished praying and God was still speaking into his heart about marrying Cynda, Keith rebelled.

  “I don’t understand why You want me to do this. I want to be in love with the woman I marry. And besides, Lord, you know that I have been down this road before. I’ve seen what drugs and prostitution can do to a person; how it can destroy – how it can kill.” He ran his hands through his hair and shook his head. “I don’t know how I can love a woman like her.”

  As I have loved you.

  Pacing the floor. “What about Isaac, Lord? Cynda was his woman. I don’t want my best friend’s leftovers.” Without a word from God, Keith continued. “She’s got his child. How can I be with a woman who would deny a man the knowledge of his own child?” Shaking his head, he said, “I can’t do it. Ask anything else of me, but not this.”

  Keith left his throne room and wandered around the house in search of Cynda. He wanted to get some answers concerning Iona. Cynda had put him in a bad position. What was he supposed to do when he picked Isaac up tomorrow afternoon? Give his best friend a cigar and tell him it’s a girl?

  But Keith couldn’t get the answers he sought because Cynda was not in the guest bedroom, nor in the bathroom. She was nowhere in the house at all. Keith went back to the living room. He was about to wake Iona and ask if she knew where her mother was, but she was sleeping so peacefully he didn’t have the heart to disturb the child. He went back to his bedroom, took off his work clothes, and jumped in the shower.

  The hot water relaxed and soothed him. As he came out of the bathroom he listened for movement in the front of the house, but there was complete silence.

  He put on his PJs, turned on the TBN channel and stretched across the bed with the intentions of waiting on Cynda. His eyelids were heavy and his sleep-deprived body didn’t much care where Cynda was at that moment, so Keith fell off to sleep.

  He woke at six in the morning, just as Cynda opened and closed his front door. He jumped out of bed and angrily strutted into the living room to confront her.

  Cynda put her finger to her lip as she pointed at Iona’s sleeping form. Unzipping her jacket she walked to the guest bedroom that was right next door to Keith’s room. Keith followed and closed the door.

  “Where have you been?” Keith demanded.

  Pursing her lips, eyebrows jutting upward, Cynda glared at him. He returned her stare, daring her not to answer him.

  Cynda finally shrugged and told him, “Out earning my money. I got to eat, don’t I?” Keith stood in the middle of the guest room, too stunned to move or speak.

  She sat down on the edge of the dark-chocolate queen-size bed and began pulling off her stockings. Looking up, she noticed him staring at her legs. She patted the bed, lifted her chest to give him a good view of her breasts, then licked her lips. “You wanna get something going?” she winked.

  Keith looked to heaven. Do you see her, Lord? This can’t be the woman you asked me to marry. Not me, Lord, I’ve been faithful to You.”

  The gentle voice of the Lord told him, “My love covers all her sins.”

  Keith took a deep breath and looked to Cynda. “No, what I wanted was to help you.”

  “You’ve helped us. Thanks for the place to crash.”

  Rolling his eyes he told her, “What if I wanted to do more than give you a place to crash?” Where did that come from? He threw his hands up. “Just forget it.” Keith opened the bedroom door to walk out.

  Cynda yelled, “What’s the matter? Look, I was going to give you some for free. I mean you are letting us crash here, right?”

  “I’m going to fix breakfast,” he said, tight lipped. No way, Lord. No way!

  Cynda rubbed her empty stomach. “Good, I’m famished.”

  “I bet you are,” he mumbled under his breath – but not so low that the Lord didn’t hear him. While he was in the kitchen snatching food out of the refrigerator and throwing the skillet on the stove, he kept mumbling to himself about not having to take this mess.

  It was when he was flipping the eggs over in the skillet when he remembered that Cynda had left her child home alone to go out and make her ‘eating money.’ He went back to her room to confront her. He didn’t even realize that the spatula was still in his hand until he was shaking it in Cynda’s face and the egg juice fell onto the bedroom floor. “How could you leave your child alone in the middle of the night like that?”

  Cynda obviously had rummaged through the dresser in his guest room and located his old lounging clothes after she got out of the shower. She had put on one of Keith’s t-shirts, a pair of his jogging pants and was putting on a pair of his socks when he walked into the room. Even in his anger, he still noticed how cute she looked in his lounging clothes.

  “What’s up your butt now?” she asked as she finished putting on his socks.

  “What’s up my butt? Cynda, you left your child home alone, at night.”

  She shrugged. “Iona can take care of herself.”

  “She’s not supposed to take care of herself. That’s why God gave her parents.” Cynda didn’t respond. “And speaking of parents, who is Iona’s father?”

  Sniffing the air, she asked, “Is something burning?”

  “Oh, so you think you’re going to ignore me?” He went back to the kitchen, turned off the stove, took the bacon out of the skillet, and put the pieces on a plate. He then went back to his bedroom and made sure to keep his voice low as he said, “I already know who her daddy is. And how do you think he’s going to feel once he finds out you never told him that he has a daughter?”

  With remote in hand, Cynda channel surfed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Keith. How is a whore supposed to know who her baby’s daddy is?”

  “How old is Iona?”

  She put the remote down. “You need to get cable.”

  “How old is she, Cynda?”

  “She just turned ten. Why are you so interested? You want to be her sugar daddy? Get her a present or something?”

  She was taunting him. The marks on her face told him that she was used to getting knocked upside her head. M
aybe she’d grown to like stuff like that. But he refused to mess up his godly witness by putting his hands on a woman – no matter how much she was begging him to beat her down.

  “Isaac stopped dealing with you ten years ago. And Iona looks just like him. Explain that,” Keith demanded.

  Cynda got off the bed and strolled past Keith. She checked on Iona and then went into the kitchen and leaned against the stove, eating the bacon Keith had cooked.

  Keith followed her. “Explain,” he said with folded arms.

  Cynda held up a piece of bacon and popped it into her mouth. “First of all, I didn’t stop dealing with Isaac. He got rid of me, remember?”

  “No, I wasn’t around ten years ago when you and Isaac broke up. I was paying my debt to society at that time.”

  Snapping her fingers, Cynda said, “That’s right. Well, you missed Isaac’s finest hour. You should ask him about it sometime.”

  Keith sat down at the table across from the stove. “Why do you hate Isaac so much, Cynda?”

  “Ask him.” Cynda began to open the kitchen cabinets and moved some of the can goods around. “You got any coffee?”

  Keith opened the cabinet above the sink and pulled out a can of decaf. He put a couple scoops of the coffee grinds in the coffee maker as he told her, “You’re going to have to discuss this with Isaac sooner or later.”

  Cynda opened the cabinet that held the dishes and pulled down an acrylic mug.

  “And since Isaac will be here this afternoon, I would say today is as good a time as any to tell him what’s going on.”

  The mug in Cynda’s hand fell to the floor. Keith smirked as he witnessed the blood drain from Cynda’s face. “I know you’re not scared? Not as bad as you act,” he taunted with a snicker.

  “Look, Keith, I don’t want anything to do with Isaac. Okay? Just call him and let him know that he can’t come over here.”

  Keith leaned against the counter. “I can’t do that, Cynda. I already told Isaac he could stay here.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “So you are just going to have to ‘fess up. I know that little girl in there belongs to Isaac. It’s time for you to handle your business.”

  Undaunted Cynda said, “Didn’t you just tell me that you wanted to help me? Isaac don’t need no help. So you need to be more concerned about what I want than what Isaac wants right now.”

  “I can’t do that, Cynda. I promised him, he could stay here tonight.”

  Rolling her eyes she asked, “When you gon’ stop being his boy and become a man anyway?”

  7

  “Have a seat, Isaac, we need to discuss some things before we go to my house,” Keith said.

  Isaac put his suitcase on the floor and sat down. People were passing by them at neck breaking speeds, either trying to get to their airplane or to a cab so they could get to that all important meeting.

  “What’s up?” Isaac asked.

  Tapping his fingers on the table, Keith tried to figure the best way to break the news. He wasn’t worried that Isaac still had feelings for Cynda – Isaac hardly had any feelings for her when he was seeing her over ten years ago. But still, something seemed wrong with thinking about his best friend’s ex-woman.

  Isaac hunched his broad shoulders. “You got something to say or not.”

  “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about something.” Swallowing his nervousness, Keith told his friend, “Remember when Cynda showed up at your wedding reception?”

  Isaac’s lip curled with disgust. “Yeah, I remember when she came in there and told me that she was the one who called the police on me and made it possible for me to spend several years behind bars. How could I forget that?”

  “Well, you have to admit, it wasn’t her fault that you were dealing drugs.” Keith held up friendly hands as Isaac was about to react to his comment. “And, in a way, she saved your life. If you hadn’t gone to prison, you probably never would have gotten saved in the first place.”

  “So you think I should thank that tack head?” Isaac shook his head and then inhaled deeply. “Look, this is the second time in the space of a week that you’ve had that woman’s name in your mouth. Why is she so heavy on your mind lately?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. See, I was in prayer a couple of weeks ago when God showed me who He wanted me to marry.”

  “You for real?” Isaac stood up and did the cabbage patch. “My boy is getting married.”

  “Sit back down, Isaac. There’s more to it.”

  Isaac took his seat, but couldn’t stop smiling. “I don’t believe you, man. You ain’t said nothing. Who is she?” He snapped his finger. “It’s Janet isn’t it? I knew that woman had a thing for you.” Isaac nudged Keith. “She’ll make a great wife.”

  The mentioning of the woman Keith wanted but hadn’t been allowed to have brought a frown to his face. “Here’s the thing, I think God wants me to marry Cynda,” Keith finally said.

  The smile left Isaac’s face with the quickness. “What?”

  “I know, man. I can’t believe it either. But this thing keeps coming back to me. I don’t know whether to ignore God or go on and do His will.”

  “What you smoking? Cynda is a whore. Now why would you want to marry a woman like that?”

  Keith had no defense as he thought about Cynda walking into the house this morning announcing that she had been out making her eating money. “I don’t. But the thing is – I don’t want to disobey God either.”

  “Man, she’s a crack head too. Why do you want to bring drama like that into your life?” Isaac stood up again, but this time he wasn’t doing the cabbage patch. He was angrily huffing over Keith. “Why’d you have to tell me this before we go to your house? Is she there right now or something? Are y’all smoking crack together? Over there on the pipe, hearing voices, and thinking God is talking to you.”

  “Shut up, Isaac,” Keith said. “I’m not on crack, but, yes, Cynda is at the house.”

  “You sleeping with her?”

  “No, it’s not what you think--”

  “Why do you want Cynda? Just tell me that? There are so many other women in this world that you could have. Why can’t you stay off of the women that belonged to me?” Keith just looked at his friend. “You thought I didn’t know that you had a thing for Nina? I knew it. But I also knew you would never stab me in the back.” Isaac lifted his hands to the heavens and shook his head. “At least I can understand your wanting to be with Nina – she’s good and kind. But this whore--”

  Keith got out of his seat. “That’s enough, Isaac. I’m just mulling things over. It’s not as if I’m jumping at the chance to marry her. But whether I do it or not, you don’t have to disrespect her like this.”

  “Cynda has to earn my respect, and she’s never earned anything but a two dollar tip from a john.”

  Isaac regularly rescued drug addicts, drug dealers and prostitutes from their horrid lives and introduced them to a better life; a life with Jesus Christ. So Keith knew that Isaac didn’t have a problem with Keith attempting to rescue a prostitute, especially if he was being directed by God. Isaac had a problem with Cynda and the wrong he felt she had done to him. How, Keith wondered, would Isaac react when Keith told him the rest of the story?

  Isaac shook his head and then put his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault, man.”

  Puzzled, Keith asked, “What wasn’t my fault?”

  “You did everything you could for your mother. It wasn’t your fault that she died. You can’t keep punishing yourself for not being there for her. And believe me; marrying Cynda is too high a price to pay for something that happened twenty years ago.”

  Keith sharply brushed Isaac’s hand off his shoulder. “That’s not what this is about.”

  “Who are you kidding, Keith. I was there. I saw what your mother’s death did to you. But it wasn’t your fault that she became a prostitute. Her heroine addiction put her on those streets, not you.”

  “I heard God, Isaac,” Keit
h reaffirmed.

  “Don’t do it, Keith. Cynda’s just going to bring you down.”

  “Let me worry about that.”

  Isaac threw his hands up. “More power to you. I’m out.” He turned in the direction of the cabs that lined the street.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’ll catch a cab to Spoony’s then I’ll get a hotel. I’m not trying to put you out.”

  Keith grabbed Isaac’s suitcase. “Man, let me take you where you’re going. And then if you don’t want to stay at the house, I’ll drop you at a hotel.” Keith couldn’t just sit there and let Isaac catch a cab. Besides, there was one other thing Keith needed to tell his friend.

  ***

  “Get up, Iona. Come on, honey, we’ve got to go,” Cynda said as she stood over her daughter who was still laying on the couch she’d fallen to sleep on the night before.

  Iona stretched and yawned.

  Cynda nudged her shoulder. “Get up, girl.”

  Turning over, Iona rubbed her eyes then stretched again. “What’s wrong, Mama?”

  “Nothing’s wrong.” She handed Iona her shoes. “Here, put your shoes on. We can’t stay here.”

  Iona took the shoes from Cynda and started putting them on. “But I thought you said Uncle Keith wanted us to stay with him.” She crinkled her pert nose. “I don’t want to go back to Uncle Spoony’s, I like it here.”

  Cynda folded the queen bed back inside Keith’s bulky, green-grey sofa and put the mammoth seat cushions in place. “Things change, baby-girl. That’s one thing you have to understand about life. Now come on, we need to be out of here before Keith brings Isaac home,” Cynda said.

  “Isaac, my daddy?” Iona questioned.

  Cynda stopped in her tracks and turned to face her child. “What did you say?”

  “I know his name, Mommy. Uncle Spoony told me all about him. So if my daddy’s coming here, why can’t I stay and meet him?”

  “Because he don’t want you. Remember how I told you that your daddy was real mean to Mommy?” Iona nodded.