His First Lady (24 page)

She had been aware that Greg was heading up the refurbishing of the health and learning centers, so she sought him out. Finding him alone, Evan stood for a minute unbeknownst to him trying to gather the courage to speak to him.

“Pastor Greg, you got a minute?” Evan called out to him.

Greg stopped at the sound of Evan’s voice and turned toward her. Greg nodded and removed his thick gray work gloves then patted his dirty jeans.

“If you don’t mind the dust then I can spare a minute.”

Feeling a huge lump in her throat, Evan watched as Greg walked toward her meeting her half way. Standing before Greg caused her unnerving anxiety; she took an unassuming step back to maintain a safe respectable distance. She felt like a nervous child preparing for reprimand.

“Hello,” She said looking around the area intentionally avoiding eye contact with him. “I hope this isn’t too bad of a time.”

“No,” Greg replied. “It’s fine.”

“I heard what you did for Sam. I think that’s great.” She smiled.

“I didn’t do much,” Greg responded.

Looking around at all that Greg was doing was impressive to her and his humility was more so.

“Where’s your help?” She asked seeing that he was alone and it all seemed like such a large undertaking.

“There are a lot of us working to make this happen for Sam and his family.” Greg looked around the space. “They’re on break.”

Greg seemed short with her and she couldn’t blame him. He had every reason to not want to listen to her but this was something that she felt compelled to say.

“I guess you know why I’m here,” Evan said.

“First lady…” Greg said.

Evan interrupted him. “Please, I just want to get this over with.”

He obliged and clasped his hands behind his back preparing himself to listen.

Evan took a deep breath. “I’m deeply sorry and embarrassed for my actions the other night. I made a huge mistake coming to your home.”

Greg said nothing as he fumbled with his gloves. She watched him for some sort of sign that she didn’t have to continue to feel mortified by the incident but he was hard to read.

“Greg,” She said softly.

He didn’t look convinced. “Was that some sort of game to you?”

Evan looked surprised. “A game to me? I hope you know that I would never intentionally put you in such an inappropriate position to hurt you or your ministry,” She said. “Please believe that,” Evan pleaded, “I’m embarrassed enough.”

“Did you tell Leon?” He asked.

Evan shook her head. “Of course not.”

“First lady, I want to be honest with you because I don’t know what that was all about but I’m not a man that you can run to with your marital problems.”

His words shocked her. “I never meant for you to feel that I saw you that way,” She answered.

“I just wanted us to be clear,” Greg said. “Cara and I had some tough times, some that I thought we couldn’t come back from but even then….”

Evan put her hand up. “I do love my husband,” Evan said.

“Do you do that if you love someone?”

“Ministry can be tough,” Evan said. “But we always work through it. As a matter of fact we’re in the process of adopting a baby.”

Greg’s brown eyes widened upon Evan’s disclosure before he managed a smile. Evan almost thought that not only did it take a moment for him to digest the news but also a moment for him to force the smile.

“Wow,” Greg said. “That’s really…something. I’m happy for you.”

Evan nodded. “We appreciate that.”

“I guess I better get back to work,” Greg said walking back toward the chairs he was moving.

Watching him walk off from her only caused her to have more questions. Why did she feel so close to a man that she didn’t even know very well? And why in the world did she even think that she had to explain anything to him? More importantly, why was he able to make her feel a way that Leon never had.

Aaron walked out of the church throwing the keys up in the air to his new maroon Mercedes big body 350. It was used but it was new to him; only five and a half years old, brand new paint job sitting on chrome 20’s.
Sweet
. He remembered being behind bars and seeing a Mercedes commercial one day. He went back to his cell that day and made a note for the future to not only own one but have a pretty lady to match.

After flashing a stack of cold hard cash, a dealer located the Mercedes in a nearby city and had it delivered to him; he was moving up. Now with someone as fine as Mimi on his arm, he was able to cross a few more items off his list. The things still on the list would be gotten once he made that consistent paper. But it would all be coming.

Aaron twirled the shiny Mercedes emblem key chain on his index finger and looked around the parking lot loving to hear the
be beep
sound when he clicked the unlock button on it. Hearing her and seeing the flash of her front lights indicated where she was waiting for him, protected away from those who would park too close to her near the church’s Maple tree.

Approaching his ride with a strut in his step, he ran his finger over the hood only to find it covered with thick dust from the construction site and some other mess from that tree.
He should have known not to park under that tree.

He swore realizing that he was going to have to take it in for another hand wash and tomorrow he was going to have to find another parking spot. Sliding in the driver’s side leather seats, he touched the console screen and Tupac came on. Putting the windows down slightly and turning up the volume with the bass thumping, he pulled out of the church parking lot rapping along with the lyrics of
‘Picture me rolling’
. Yeah, that’s right.

Aaron’s head bopped as he hit the gas making his baby purr like a kitten through the neighborhood. He knew that people were looking at him wondering who this dude was driving that shiny Maroon Mercedes. He loved when cats like that underestimated him. He rapped every lyric in sync with Tupac needing the music to drown out all those doggone questions Greg was asking him like he was filling out some kind of application.

He looked at that old cat differently now; he was a crippled pig. Yeah, he had seen that limp. It looked like he tried to hide it but he could spot a weakness. The respect that he had before for Pastor Greg because he seemed more genuine than Leon was gone. Knowing now that he was a former pig made him smell and he hated the stench of pig because they were all the same.

In his thoughts and not aware of the approaching red traffic light, Aaron screeched to a halt when he realized that he was on the brink of running it and crashing into someone. He pressed the brakes so hard that he caused smoke to rise from his tires. Whew! That was close. He looked over to his right and a white bald headed dude was looking right over at him from inside a sweet Camaro. He wanted to flip him off but turned away deciding to put his windows down and blast Tupac in the guy’s ear. He knew that’d cause him to turn his head.

When the light turned green, Aaron took off roaring past the car seeing only that bald headed man in his rear view mirror. He laughed, began to rap again before seeing the reflection in his rearview mirror of red and blue lights suddenly illuminating from that same car speeding up behind him. He swore then hit the steering wheel with his palm.
A pig!

Ben drove extremely close to the maroon Mercedes. In an unmarked silver Camaro, he was ready for anything and down for a good chase in the city if that was what Aaron wanted. He needed a little excitement in his life. Since seeing Aaron’s priors and an admitted murderer according to the recordings, he knew to expect anything. The Mercedes still had dealer tags on it but Aaron had it so flashy that he drew too much attention to himself.

Ben had been sitting and watching the car all day, waiting for Aaron. Parked across the street from the church’s property, he came to attention when he saw that stupid joker pull out of the parking lot, thumping his music without enough sense to wait until he was clearly off the church’s property before turning it up. Even Ben knew better than that.

Ben was more than happy to put the siren on Aaron especially when he almost ran the traffic light; being an idiot was his first offense, reckless driving his second. Opening the car door and placing his hand on the piece on his side just in case, Ben approached the car slowly. Aaron let down his window and had his license, insurance, and purchase papers in his hand even before Ben could see his face.

“How are you today?” Ben bent down looking at Aaron in the driver side window.

“Fine,” Aaron cut his eyes over at Ben quickly refusing to hold the gaze, “how are you today, officer?”

Ben took the driver’s license and the documentation and scanned over it. “Do you know why I stopped you, Mr. Middleton?”

“Yeah,” Aaron laughed, “cause I’m a young black man in a shiny Mercedes.”

Ben remained expressionless. “No sir; it’s not that. You almost ran the red light and you were going 40 in a 35.”

Aaron looked over at Ben and smiled. “40 in a 35? Man, please.”

“Have you had anything to drink, Mr. Middleton?”

That caused Aaron to shift in his seat and become visibly upset. “Yeah, apple juice.” Aaron sucked his teeth. “Man, I been at church all day!” Aaron raised his voice. “Don’t come at me like that.”

“Step outside of the car, Mr. Middleton,” Ben said standing back from the car.

Aaron snickered. “Man, show me some ID.”

Ben stood staring at Aaron wanting to reach inside the driver side window and pull him out of it by his big ears; instead, he placed his hand firmly on his side. “I’ll tell you again sir to step out of your vehicle.”

“I know my rights; show me some identification, officer,” Aaron insisted.

Ben wanted this to be by the book so he pulled out his badge. Aaron glanced at it then turned his head. “Now, step outside of your vehicle, Mr. Middleton.”

An angry Aaron shook his head. “Why? I don’t understand why I have to get out of my vehicle.”

Aaron looked at Ben and something in Ben’s eyes must have been an alert to Aaron that this was not up for debate because he unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door, and got out. Aaron raised his hands in his air.

“This is bogus, man!”

“Turn around and lean on the car, please.”

“Man, what!” Aaron yelled turning toward his car and looking back at Ben. “You trippin!”

Ben kicked Aaron’s legs apart as he leaned against the car. “Do you have anything on you like weapons or needles that I should know about?”

“Naw man! What’s this about?” Aaron shouted.

Ben patted him down then grabbed his arms and yanked them behind Aaron’s back causing him to yell out in pain.

“What you doing? This is crazy!”

“Mr. Middleton, you’re under arrest.” Ben began reading a stunned Aaron his Miranda rights.

“What! What!” Aaron screamed looking around in horror as the cuffs wrapped around his wrists. “Man, this got to be a joke!”

“No joke.”

“What am I being arrested for? Doing a 40 in a 35? Man, what!!”

“Parole violation,” Ben said taking him to the patrol car by his arm.

“Parole violation? Man, I didn’t violate no parole! You crazy!!” Aaron protested walking toward the Camaro.

“Relax and cooperate and you’ll be fine.” Ben opened the car door. “Watch your head.”

Aaron reluctantly got in. “Relax? This is illegal! What about my car? Can I at least have someone come get my car? I can’t leave it on the street with all these thugs around here.”

As Aaron spoke, a tow truck pulled up behind them. He turned around then cursed. “What’s going on here?”

Ben closed the car door then started the Camaro and fastened his seatbelt. He pulled off allowing the tow truck to pull directly in front of Aaron’s Mercedes.

“Relax buddy, we’re going to the station and I’ll answer all your questions there.”

Evan smiled when she walked into the quiet house and smelled Rosalie’s cooking. Rosalie was just like a mother to her and could sense when she needed a hug and con-con was Evan’s hug, grease and all. The day had been long and tiresome. She only assumed that Leon was at the church late again since he was never home and always claimed that’s where he was.

After a long steamy shower, Evan turned on the television before throwing on her favorite pink pajama set and bringing her dinner in her room to sit on the floor and eat alone. As much as she had anticipated eating everything that Rosalie prepared for her, Evan didn’t have much of an appetite.

Evan sat the plate on the floor beside her. She picked up the remote and began flipping through the stations when she thought about the gift that she still had yet to open. That’s just how busy she was, she hadn’t even opened a gift. Now, that never happens. She got up and walked over to the closet where she placed it with one section untapped remembering that she had at least started unwrapping.

She sat back down on the floor and turned the television volume down. She turned the small package over to continue opening the side where she started to undo the tape until she just ripped the paper off of it; nobody was looking. She found a pretty pink journal covered with rhinestones and sequins. She smiled. It was cute; girly and quite thoughtful.

Evan opened the journal then scrunched her forehead realizing that the pages were filled with someone’s writing. She looked inside the binder and saw Sundi’s name. An eerie feeling came over her and she closed it quickly. She took a deep breath wondering why in the world anyone would give her Sundi’s diary. Evan’s stomach felt strange as she opened it again and began reading it.

In typical nine year old fashion, Sundi’s handwriting was a little messy as she wrote day after day about her kitten and how much she loved him which caused Evan to smile. Sundi had one best friend at school named Sharon who she trusted and sat with at lunch. But then there was Amanda who always made her feel awkward, always calling Sundi names. She read of Sundi’s emotions and reactions but it was all too strange to comprehend. Evan wanted to stop since it felt so intrusive and wrong but she didn’t.