God Has Spoken (24 page)

Dwight opened the car door and Eleanor stepped out of the Mercedes-Benz. She glanced at the strange car parked in front of the girls' apartment and shrugged. It probably belonged to a neighbor or someone visiting who parked in the wrong spot. But Eleanor should have paid more attention to that car because it belonged to Mrs. Scott.

Blissfully, Eleanor walked to the door with Dwight and rang the doorbell. After introducing a mesmerized Dwight to Dupree, they followed Dupree into the apartment where Eleanor got the shock of her life.

“Hello,” Jas, Mrs. Scott, and Miss Angie said in sync. Aunt Madge was resting in Dupree's bedroom, exhausted from the trip to Kingston.

“What's going on?” Eleanor croaked. “I . . . I . . . I didn't know you had visitors.” She looked at Dupree in panic.

“I wanted to surprise you.” Dupree was confused.

“I'll be right back.” Eleanor sprinted down the hall. She grabbed the handle of the first door she came to and rushed inside Dupree's bedroom. Slamming the door shut, she pressed her back firmly against it, taking deep breaths.

Suddenly Eleanor sensed another presence in the room and realized she wasn't alone. Her body began to tremble uncontrollably as she slowly opened her eyes and stared into the other all-too-familiar ones.

“Aunt Madge,” Eleanor whispered as she crumbled to the floor in distress.

“Tiny?” Aunt Madge asked in surprise. “Tiny, is that you?”

“Yes, Aunt Madge,” Eleanor answered. “It's me.” She curled up on the floor, shivering, as deep sobs rocked her body.

Aunt Madge lay on her side staring at the crumpled figure on the floor, her tears seeping into the pillow under the head. While Eleanor cried tears of despair and shame, Aunt Madge cried tears of joy. The niece she had lost was now found. “Tiny. Come here, baby,” Aunt Madge said in between sobs. “Get up off that floor and come to me.”

Eleanor staggered to her feet and wobbled over to the bed. Tears and mucus ran down her face as she looked into the sorrowful eyes of the woman who had raised her. “Oh, Aunt Madge. I'm so sorry,” Eleanor wept. “Please, please forgive me.”

Aunt Madge opened her arms and Eleanor fell on the bed beside her and tightly hugged the aged, fragile body. It was at that moment all the secrets began peeling away, layer after layer, like a Vidalia onion.

Dupree, still perplexed by her boss's behavior, decided to check on Aunt Madge. As she approached her bedroom she heard muffled voices through the door. With a smile on her face, she gently opened the door and stepped inside. Shocked, she looked at Aunt Madge and Mrs. Humphrey huddled on the bed, crying.

“It's going to be all right, Tiny,” Aunt Madge said. “The Lord knows best.”

“Tiny?” Dupree asked in bewilderment. “Did you say Tiny?”

Eleanor jumped off the bed and stood facing her daughter, trembling. The tears were still flowing down her face as her red, puffy eyes met Dupree's horrified ones.

“No no no. It can't be,” Dupree muttered repeatedly, shaking her head from side to side. Her trembling hand covered her mouth as the truth from Eleanor's expression slammed into her gut. It felt like a right uppercut. “Please, God. This can't be happening.”

Dupree turned and staggered out of the bedroom as if drunk. She walked across the hall and grabbed the door handle of Jas's bedroom door and pushed it open.

“Dupree,” Eleanor shouted as she frantically grabbed Dupree's left arm, preventing her from entering the room. “Please let me explain,” she begged pleadingly.

“Take your hands off me!” Dupree snarled and shook off the offensive hand. With her pounding head held straight, Dupree stepped into the bedroom, slamming the door shut in her mother's face.

Dupree's anger and hurt smacked Eleanor hard in the heart. Everything became too overwhelming for her. She knew this day would come, but not like this. It was more than Eleanor could handle at the time.

Dwight, seeing his wife falling apart, promised Aunt Madge that they would be back the next day, and he quickly took Eleanor home.

Once they got home, in tears, Eleanor came clean with her husband, telling him everything about Officer “Rude Boy” Bailey and the kidnapping.

“That's who ‘mugged' you that day.” Dwight was livid. “Why did it take all this time for you to tell me this, Eleanor? That man was going to kill you!” Dwight paced the bedroom floor angrily.

“I knew how you would react. You would gather the guys and off to Falmouth you would go looking for him.” Eleanor sat up straighter on the bed, her back braced against the headboard.

“You darn right about that, and that's exactly what we are going to do. You let this punk keep you away from your daughter and aunt all this time?
I'm
your
husband
. You should have trusted me enough to tell me what was going on.” Dwight was raging mad. “You told me about Officer Gregg but nothing about Officer Bailey. Why is that?”

“He would kill you!” Eleanor pleaded with her husband for his understanding. “You, Mama Pearl, the guys, my aunt, my daughter. He is a very bad man with thugs working for him here in Kingston, Falmouth, and all over Jamaica. Dwight, don't you see he gets away with everything? That man has been doing his dirt in Falmouth for years, and no one has stopped him.”

“Not yet. But I'm about to do just that.”

“Baby, please let it go. Dupree and Aunt Madge are here, so let's focus on that,” Eleanor begged Dwight. “I don't want to start up anything with this man. He will get his soon.”

“Yeah, I'm going to make sure that he does—sooner than later. Alwayne knows people who have contact with the police commissioner. Just wait until he hears about this. Officer Bailey is about to get a dose of his own medicine.”

Eleanor knew there was no use reasoning with Dwight at this point.

“So is there anything
else
I should know?” Dwight asked Eleanor in a tight voice. “Any more secrets you are keeping from me?”

“No, there isn't. I'm sorry I kept that from you, baby.” Eleanor's shoulders shook as she sobbed.

Dwight looked intently at the woman he loved, noticing her pain and heartache. Like a punctured tire, his anger leaked out. He walked over to the bed and lay down beside her. “Come here.” He drew her into his arms. “We are going to figure out this mess. But right now we need to focus on making things right with Dupree and Aunt Madge.”

It was almost twenty-four hours of crying, throwing up, sleeping on and off, and listening to her husband's encouraging words before Eleanor was able to pick herself up and go back to the apartment to see Aunt Madge and Dupree by herself. They had waited long enough.

However, as soon as Eleanor arrived at the apartment, Dupree locked herself in her bedroom, refusing to see or speak to her mother. Eleanor decided to speak to Aunt Madge first before trying to talk to her daughter again.

“I'm so sorry, Aunt Madge.” Eleanor sat beside the elderly woman on the couch, her aged hands held tightly in her own. “My gosh, you can't even walk, and I wasn't there to help. I wasn't there for you or Dupree. I am so sorry for everything.” Tears danced crazily down the women's faces as they tried to work their way through the maze of pain, reacquainting themselves with each other. “I had to leave, but I never knew it would be for so long.”

“Why did you feel you had to leave?” Aunt Madge was confused. “And why did you stay away for so many years? What did I do that you had to run away from me and your baby?”

“It wasn't you, Aunt Madge.” Eleanor reached over and kissed the weathered forehead. “You did everything right. But some things just went horribly wrong.” Eleanor began to tell Aunt Madge everything that had happened from the day she walked out of her house over eighteen years ago. It took longer than expected because Aunt Madge broke down every so often, moaning and groaning at the ordeals her niece had endured. One minute she would cry and the next her hands would be high in the air, thanking God for His protection and mercy toward Eleanor. It was a painful process for both women, but Eleanor knew it was the only way for her and her aunt to reconcile and move forward.

“I prayed every day.” Aunt Madge rocked from side to side, her eyes tightly closed, the tears still leaking down her face. “I asked God to send a guardian angel to be there for you. And He did. I thank Him from the bottom of my heart for sending you Mama Pearl and her family.”

“I knew you were praying for me. I had beaten the odds so many times; I knew it had to be you.” Eleanor wrapped her arms around her aunt's waist, resting Aunt Madge's head on her bosom. “There was not a day that went by that I didn't think about you and Dupree. Please believe me, Aunt Madge. I thought I was protecting you from Officer Gregg and then that devil, Officer Bailey. But had I known you had a stroke I . . . I . . .”

“Shhhh. We can't go back, baby. We now have to try to move forward, especially for your daughter's sake.” Aunt Madge lifted up her head and scanned Eleanor from head to toe. “Look at my little Tiny. What a beautiful woman you have become. Went to college, got a fancy job, and married to a handsome fellow.”

Eleanor blushed. “I owe it all to you.” She put a finger on Aunt Madge's lips when she opened her mouth to speak. “You raised me for the first fifteen years of my life. You taught me everything I needed to survive and to become the woman I am today. I am sorry for not always listening to you, and I have paid dearly for that. But everything I am today is because of you, Aunt Madge.”

Aunt Madge cried. “Thank you for saying that. All these years I wondered where I went wrong. What could I have done differently to change all that had happened? I worked very hard not to make the same mistake with Dupree.”

“You never made any mistakes with me, and I'm sure not with Dupree either. All you did was love me unconditionally. Can you ever forgive me, Aunt Madge?” Tears welled up in Eleanor's eyes. “Is it possible for you to let me try to make up for all the years we have lost?”

Aunt Madge reached up and slowly ran her hands over Eleanor's face as if she was reading Braille. “I already forgave you, baby. I'm so sorry for the hell you went through. Matthew 24:13 says, ‘But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.'”

Eleanor enfolded Aunt Madge in her arms. “Thank you. I love you, Aunt Madge.”

“I love you too, my dear. Now go and make things right with your daughter.”

“I will, Aunt Madge,” Eleanor vowed. “I'm going to do everything in my power to make it up to Dupree.”

Eleanor stood up and walked down the hall to Dupree's bedroom. She knocked and listened but didn't get a response. “I'm not leaving until we talk, Dupree,” Eleanor said through the door. “We are going to talk today.”

“Go away!” Dupree screamed. “
Now
you want to talk,
huh?
You are eighteen years too late!”

Shame and guilt filled Eleanor. “Baby, please let me come in and explain.” Eleanor's voice cracked as she struggled to hold the tears at bay.

“I'm not your baby!” Dupree yelled. “You never wanted me in the first place. Get lost!” She began to sob.

Eleanor heard Dupree crying and turned the doorknob. Stepping into the room, she walked over to her distraught daughter lying on the bed. “I'm so sorry, sweetheart,” Eleanor said as she gently ran her fingers through her daughter's hair. Dupree flinched and turned away. “I promise if it takes the rest of my life, I'll make it up to you.”

Eleanor sat on the edge of the bed, staring helplessly at Dupree's back. Finally she stood up and sighed deeply. Maybe today wasn't the right time to speak with her daughter after all. “Okay. I'm going to leave now, baby. But I'm ready to talk when you are. I promise I'll explain everything to you,” Eleanor said and walked toward the door.

“Wait,” Dupree said.

Eleanor stopped suddenly and turned around excitedly to her daughter. She was glad that perhaps Dupree had had a change of heart.

Dupree's crying had tapered off, and using the back of her hand, she wiped her wet face. Sluggishly pulling herself up into a sitting position on the bed, she faced her mother. “Tell me something,” Dupree said.

“Anything,” Eleanor replied quickly as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Who is he?” Dupree asked.

“Huh?” Eleanor's eyes bulged out of her head. “He?” She knew Dupree would ask this question one day but she still wasn't prepared for it.

“Please don't play any more games with me,” Dupree said. “You owe me that much. Who is my father?”

“Oh, sweetheart. It's so complicated,” Eleanor began nervously. “It was such a long time ago and—”

“Who is he?” Dupree snapped angrily.

Eleanor flinched at her daughter's tone of voice but knew her behavior was justified.

“His name is Anthony Gregg,” Eleanor whispered, her head hanging low. “Your father is Officer Anthony Gregg.”

Dupree felt as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice-cold water over her head. Instead of the familiar pain, she now felt numb. Her body began to shiver, the force of the deception freezing her from inside out.

“Dupree, please let—” Eleanor halted in midsentence when Dupree held up a hand for her to stop.

“Please leave now,” Dupree said in a very cold voice. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her body as she rocked from side to side.

Eleanor took one look at Dupree's face and knew there would be no more conversation that day. Reluctantly she stood up, her heart breaking at the misery her daughter was going through. “I'll be back,” she informed Dupree. “And I do love you.” Eleanor silently slipped out the door, pulling it closed behind her.