Live And Learn. Niobia Bryant

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СКАЧАТЬ parents, my two preteen sisters, Reverend Luke DeMark, and I—Latoya Shavonne James—all clasped hands and bowed our heads around the dinner table. My father said grace.

      The Reverend DeMark was the minister of our family church, The Greater Temple of Jesus Christ. He ate dinner with my family every single Thursday night after prayer meeting. He wasn’t married, and my mama, a doting soul, felt it was her Christian duty to make sure he got a good home-cooked meal at least once a week.

      Not that Reverend DeMark was starving. The rest of the days he either ate with another family, or one of the single-and-looking ladies from the congregation fixed a meal to take to the one-family house where he lived alone. The fact that these women considered the thirty-four-year-old minister an eligible bachelor was quite obvious.

      My parents were his most devout and loyal members. Sister Lou Mae and Deacon Saint James (he tried hard to live up to his name) never missed worship services, prayer meetings, church conventions, or Bible studies. They tithed both their incomes, participated in fund-raising, and lived for the Word of the Almighty. They crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s when it came to being good Christian soldiers for the Lord.

      And they expected nothing less from their children.

      “Sister James, this roasted turkey is di-vine,” the Reverend exclaimed. The gold and diamonds from his pinky ring sparkled under the glare of the ceiling light. He wiped his lips with a linen napkin. “You are truly blessed with your cooking skills.”

      “Why, thank you, Reverend DeMark,” my mother answered, her southern Alabama accent still prominent even after living in Jersey for thirty years.

      My mother looked the role of a good Christian wife in her prim white button-up blouse and knee-length navy skirt. Her hair, which she refused to cut, flowed to the middle of her back when she let it down. Even though she tried to hide how pretty she was, she couldn’t. At sixty, without one drop of makeup on, she was naturally beautiful. And so she demanded the same of us, telling her daughters to remain unpretentious as well…just the way God meant us to be.

      Tonight my chin-length hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail—Cristal swore my edges were going to fall out. My unflattering spectacles were in place on my slender face. My ears aren’t pierced. No makeup. No jewelry. Nothing.

      God must have also meant for women not to wear pants, skirts above the knee, or anything remotely fitted. My closet at home was filled with plenty of my respectful garments. Not a pair of jeans or slacks. No shorts to save my life.

      At twenty and a senior at Seton Hall U., I had a curfew of ten o’clock because my father thought “no decent woman would be caught on the street alone that time of night.” The only reason it was even ten o’clock was because of a mandatory class I had to take that didn’t end until 9:15 P.M. I couldn’t wait to graduate with my degree in Elementary and Special Education this May. I was going to get me a full-time teaching J-O-B so that I could be O-U-T my parents’ house.

      With the strict rules we lived by, I felt like a sect of Black Quakers living in the city. Any deviations from the rule meant a thorough guilt trip on the sins of the Lord, a three-hour prayer session, and fasting so that the Lord could forgive his wayward child. I learned that lesson when I was twelve and got caught wearing strawberry-tinted lip balm from Avon that a classmate had given me.

      To my parents I am the perfect child. Demure. Loyal. Respectful. Trustworthy.

      If only they knew.

      Dinner continued in silence until the shrill and alarming ring of the lone telephone in the house jarred us from our serenity. We all jumped at the sound of it and then laughed nervously.

      “I’ll get it,” I said, keeping neutrality in my tone as I set my fork down on my plate slowly. Sudden movements made my father suspicious. The last thing I wanted was to draw his attention to me, because that would only mean being judged or scolded. That was all the attention I ever got from him.

      The look on his stern face was immediately disapproving. “Latoya, you know we don’t take calls during dinner.”

      Yes, I knew that, but it was worth a try.

      The shrill ringing continued, persistent just like a hungry baby seeking a bottle.

      I watched as Reverend DeMark eyed the phone in the next room. “Deacon James, perhaps Sister Latoya should answer it. I don’t think whoever it is will quit until someone does.”

      As soon as he spoke I pushed my chair. I knew before my father even uttered the words that I could now answer the phone.

      “James residence.” I stepped out of my father’s line of piercing vision.

      “Whaddup, girl? What the hell took so long answering the phone. Y’all praying or sum’n?”

      I smiled at the sound of Dom’s raspy voice. My parents would clutch their hearts at her use of slang and profanity. “We’re eating supper, so I can’t talk long.”

      “Supper!” Dom shrieked. “Girl, y’all cracks me the fuck up.”

      “Dom.”

      “A’ight. I’ll holla at you real quick,” she said around a piece of gum that she was popping like firecrackers on the Fourth of July. “I got your perfume for you.”

      “The Freedom by Hilfiger?”

      Dom sighed heavily into the phone. “No, the Timeless from Avon,” she said sarcastically. “Of course the Freedom. That’s all your ass wear, ain’t it?”

      It’s all I wore, and it was all I wanted. “Thanks, Dom.”

      “Guess who’s diggin’ you?”

      I edged around the corner some more, lowering my voice to a whisper. “Who?”

      “Lex’s partner Rayvaun’s cousin’s baby father—”

      “Dom,” I whispered shortly. “Get to the point.”

      She sighed again. “A’ight. ’Member Tsari?”

      Oh, I remembered Tsari all right. The man put Morris Chestnut to shame with his deep chocolate appeal, but he had more women than a dirty dog had fleas. “Please,” I whispered, rolling my eyes in dismissal.

      “He wanted your number.”

      My eyes widened like saucers. “To my house?” I whispered in horror, my heart nearly jumping out of my chest. “You didn’t give it to him, did you?”

      “Hell no. I know your wardens be trippin’ and shit.”

      “Thank you, Jesus.” Relief filled me in waves.

      “How you live in a house and can’t even have men call you?”

      “I got my cell phone, Dom.”

      “Your Mama ain’t snooped up on it yet?” Dom asked, completely aware of my parents’ strict ways.

      “No. It’s in my book bag. She doesn’t go in it.”

      “Yet,” Dom snapped. “Look, your ass better be careful. If they СКАЧАТЬ