The Makeover (57 page)

  “But
Mãe—
”

“Stop!  You didn’t
come here to criticize my church or my home.  What’s on your mind?” 
Her Portuguese was a bright song playing in the dreary apartment.

“I just wanted to spend
time with you,
Mãe
” Paulo said, forcing a thin smile.

“What’s her
name?”
Uiara
eyed her son knowingly.

Paulo looked at
his mother.  “How do you know?”

“My son, I had
you in the womb for nine whole months, raised you for eighteen years, and still
continue to care for you in my own way.  You think your
mãe
doesn’t know her son?  Did she break
your heart?”

“Yes,” Paulo said,
lowering his head to the table.  “But I guess God didn’t intend for her to
be mine.  He brought her into my life for me to help her and I did. 
I found out this morning that she returned to her ex-fiance.  What hurts
the most is that she doesn’t even really want to be with him.  She just
wants...she just has trouble letting go of the past,” Paulo finished carefully,
still unwilling to shed a negative light on his beloved.

“Are you sure God didn’t
bring her into your life to be your wife?”

“I guess not,” Paulo
sighed, heavily.  “That’s why I haven’t introduced her to you.  I
wanted to be sure she was the one He has for me.”

“Then God will bring you
the one He meant for you to have.”

When he groaned, she
placed a warm palm on his cheek.  “Anyway, you are a handsome Brazilian
man.  Even when you were overweight, you knew how to win a woman
over.  Your
pai
taught you and your brother that from a young
age!  If he had still been alive, I would be right by his side.”

Paulo laughed. 

“So why are you giving up
so easily?  If you feel God sent this woman for you, fight for her.”

Paulo shook his
head.  “That is all I’ve been doing, believe me.  Anyway, I asked God
this morning in prayer and He showed me—”

“Are you
sure
He
showed you?”  Paulo’s mother stood to get herself and her son strong cups
of coffee.  When she returned, she asked, “Are you sure, Paulo?  You
may be the one who goes to that fancy church and knows more about the Bible
than I do, but a mother knows her son.  You always did have a tendency to
jump to conclusions.   You are a Brazilian man!  You have quick
tempers and take-charge personalities because you must have things your way. 
You always were in a rush and you tend to rush ahead of God.  You said,
after Liz, that you would be working on that.  Have you?  Doesn’t the
Bible say that God answers in His timing?  Even
I
know that.”

Paulo was
speechless.  His mother was a woman he had always pitied and felt the need
to teach about the scriptures and the truth about salvation.  He had spent
years trying to turn her away from a religion that he felt did not share true
biblical truths in favor of doctine and rituals.

Yet, through her, God had
spoken a fundamental truth.

Be that as it may, Phoenix
was
standing at the stoop, hugging her ex-fiance, who was holding an
overnight bag in his hand.

“I don’t know for sure if
He did
say
it, but I know what I saw this morning, 
Mãe. 
I
saw them together hugging.  I guess I have my answer.  She’s not for
me.”

Uiara’s face fell. 
“I am sorry for your pain, my son.  Okay, if not her, then the one will be
revealed soon.  I never told you this, but I have been praying for your
new wife since Elizabeth died almost ten years ago.  You suffered so much
in that marriage and I asked God to find you your perfect match.  I do
hope it’s soon, because you will be forty before we know it.  I even asked
that she remind you of me a little bit...at least in some way!” 

She does have my
mother’s skin color and her round frame...at least she did. 

Paulo’s eyes filled with
tears as he pictured Phoenix hugging Cedric on her stoop.

“Ahhh, my son,” Uiara got
up to bury her son’s face in her ample busom.  “God will provide, my
son. 
Deus proverá.
”
  
She repeated the words over
and over as she rocked him in her arms.

And he agreed with his
mãe
. 

Still, he cried that the
Lord had not provided
Phoenix. 

***

Several hours later,
Phoenix was frantic.  She had called Paulo a total of eighteen times and
left eight messages and five texts.  He still wasn’t answering her
calls.  She had gone by his building and rang the bell but he had not
answered.  Since the hole in the glass had been repaired, she could not
peek around the flaps of the cardboard.  Frustrated, she almost used a
payphone just to see if he would answer a call from a strange number, but
decided she would be crushed if he did pick up a stranger’s call before her
own. 

She just didn’t want him
to miss church.  Especially since she had the surprises she wanted to
share with him. 

At least Cara and James
would be a witness.

She returned to her
apartment with a pounding heart, afraid that she had lost Paulo forever. 
She never got to tell him how much she loved him and he would never know that
all his efforts had borne fruit. 

After freaking out, she
decided the best things she could do was pray and spend time with God. 
They had renewed their relationship and she needed to be with Him more than
ever.

Just as Paulo had done on
numerous occasions, she asked the Holy Spirit to lead her in  prayer and
reading the scriptures.  She thought she would be praying about Paulo, but
she found herself praying for God to protect her, guide her, and to grow in the
Word of God.  She asked God to give her a hunger and thirst for Himself
and His scriptures so that she would mature in her walk with Jesus, unlike the
first time.  She prayed for restoration of her family relationships and
friendships and that God would use her experiences to bring more people to
Jesus.  After she prayed as God led her to pray, she asked God to lead her
to pray for Paulo.

“God, please let Paulo be
at church this evening.  I want to see him and I want him to be there when
I go forward with what you put on my heart to do.  I ask that You lead us
to where You want us to go.  Please, God, if it is Your will, lead us to
marriage.  I love him so much.  Teach me to be a good wife to him,
but teach both of us to always put you first in our individual lives and in our
marriage so we can survive.  Thank You, God, in Jesus’s Name, I
pray.  Amen, Lord.”

And the Spirit put His
peace around His daughter.  Knowing there was more she needed to pray, He
touched her. 

And Phoenix, much to her
surprise, began to pray in strange tongues.  With wide eyes, and a rapidly
moving mouth that worked with a mind of its own, she began uttering strange
sounds and groanings that came from her core.  She did not know what she
was praying.  All she knew was that she was fighting for Paulo, this time,
as he had done for her so many times in the past several months.

When she was done, she did
not mock the sounds of the Holy Spirit, but wept because He had given her such
a precious gift.

***

At
five-fifteen, Phoenix sat next to the car seat as James and Cara argued up
front in Spanish.  Phoenix was surprised, assuming James was Black
American, but discovered he was, in fact, Panamanian.  Phoenix wished she
knew what they were discussing.

Cara knew it
was rude to speak a foreign language in front of someone who did not speak it,
but she was trying to get James to help her arrange a meeting at church between
Phoenix and Paulo.  Yes, she had learned a lesson in meddling, but this
was too much!  She wanted to tell Phoenix that Paulo was going to be at
the church.  She wanted to blurt it out every time Phoenix checked her
phone for messages or dialed and hung up with a frustrated sigh. 

“
Mira,
James—”
Cara began.

James shook his
head and responded in Spanish as gently as his booming voice would allow. 
“Enough, Baby.  As your husband, I have to ask you to submit.  Me and
you are staying out of their business.  God doesn’t need your help. 
Let Him do this His way.  And, Baby, I love you.  But we’re done with
this, okay?”

Cara turned
from him in a huff, crossing her arms, and turning toward the window.  Of
course James would be loving and kind as he used his authority as her husband
to stop her.  The nerve of him!  He didn’t even afford her the right
to get mad. 

Why did God
demand wives submit to their husbands? Cara wondered about this for the
millionth time in her marriage. 

An image of a
woman handing a man an apple filled her mind.

“Fine,” Cara
sighed, “I get it, Lord.”

James chuckled
and asked in English.  “He showed you Genesis again, didn’t He?”

“Shut up!” Cara
said, playfully slapping her husband in the arm.

Phoenix, of
course, had no idea what was going on.

At five-forty,
James dropped off the family car in the parking garage the church provided for
its congregation.  After handing the attendant the keys, his cell phone
rang.  “That’s him.”   He picked up the phone.  “Yeah,
Buddy, we’re about to leave the garage now.  Be there in a minute.”

Cara giggled
and entwined her arm around Phoenix.  “Did I tell you, you look beautiful
today?  You even did your makeup just right.”

“I’ve been
practicing,” Phoenix answered, pausing to hug her friend.

They walked
behind James and Junior as they headed to the entrance.

“Look who’s
here,” Cara words came out in a song.

Phoenix looked
and saw Paulo standing at the entrance of the church with a stoic look on his
face.

James and the
baby reached him first.  “Hey, Man!” he boomed.

“Hey!” Paulo
shook his hand, and smiled as he reached to kiss the baby’s forehead. 
“Where’s—”

His smile died
away, however, when he saw Phoenix standing next to Cara.

Phoenix’s heart
pounded when she saw his smile drop.

“Hey, Big
brother” Cara said, reaching out to him for a hug. 

“Hey yourself,”
he said, eyeing Phoenix, as he bent to give Cara an awkward hug.

“Hi, Paulo,”
Phoenix said, shyly.

“Phoenix,”
Paulo nodded, feeling a pulse in his temple begin to throb. 
Father, I
am right in front of Your house.  I cannot go off on a woman in the middle
of Times Square, in front of Your house, and still be a good Christian. 
Help me.  I can’t do this.  You know how I can get.  My spirit
is willing, but my flesh is weak.

“How are you?”
Phoenix asked, willing her arms to stay at her side and not reach out to cling
to his neck.  “I’ve been calling you all day.  Did you get my calls?”

“I saw you were
calling,” Paulo said through clenched teeth.  “I didn’t listen to the
messages.” 

Cara and James
stood awkwardly to the side.

Phoenix nodded,
afraid.  She had never seen this side to Paulo before.  Sure they’d
had bad arguments before but she had never seen him so distant, so cold. 
She would rather see the Paulo who smashed windows and threw over desks than
this cold, despondent man. 

Phoenix had to
take a step back when she saw his eyes harden and turn flat gray, as they
looked her over from head to toe. 

No, I can’t
do it.  I
can not
let her get away with this
foolishness.  How dare she look at me with those eyes and act like nothing
is wrong? 
“So where’s Cedric?” Paulo asked, purposefully looking up
and down the street.  “I don’t see him here.  Did he go home?”

“Cedric?”
Phoenix asked, blinking. 
How did he know?

“Yeah, Cedric!
 Your
fiancé
.   I saw you both coming out of your
building,
early
this morning, when I came to surprise you.  Looked
like you guys were really chummy.  I noticed he had a bag, so I hope you
both had a wonderful night.  Well, halleluiah!  Guess you got what
you wanted!”

Cara’s eyes
widened as she looked at James, then Phoenix, then Paulo.  She thought
Paulo was beyond mollifying, because he was always the type to air differences
with someone in private, and certainly not in the middle of a crowded
street.  And when she noticed the familiar red hue stain Paulo’s cheeks,
and heard his accent wrap tightly around his words,
and
watched his eyes
turn from his angry-gray eyes to his rarely-seen raging-black eyes, she knew
that church or not, Paulo was about to lose his religion.  Cara looked
quickly to James.

James nodded and
cleared his throat.  He made a show of looking at his watch and touched
Paulo’s arm.  “Uh, it’s ten to six.  Let’s head in and get seats.”

Phoenix and
Paulo were trapped in a staring contest.  Phoenix was quivering, dismayed
at the misunderstanding.  The psychologist in her recognized the signs of
a person who had shut down.  No amount of careful reasoning, explanation,
or clarification would ease Paulo’s pain regarding seeing her ex come out of
her building, in the early morning, holding an overnight bag.