Finding Mrs. Wright Page 5

  Cassandra sauntered her fine self back to the table, black streaks gone, her eyes bright and that pretty smile on her face.

  It was women like her who made it impossible for me to get right. I would plan to leave them alone but then there was always one. Beautiful, feminine, sexy, and, in Cassandra’s case, hilarious and sassy. And next thing I knew, I was in bed again. And then next thing I knew, I’d be accused of breaking someone’s heart.

  She plopped back into her seat beside me. “So, you never answered my question, playa. Why are you alone on a Friday night?”

  I leaned up close to her. “Am I alone? I thought I was here with you.”

  She leaned so close to me that I knew she had taken the time to chew a mint while she was in the bathroom. “Don’t play with me, boy.”

  I spoke into her ear. “Don’t start none, won’t be none.”

  She laughed low and sexy and then leaned away from me. “Yeah.” She said the words slower, nodding. “Don’t start none, won’t be none.”

  She sat back in her chair and looked me up and down, like she was trying to figure out which box to put me in. “So what church you go to?”

  “Hayes Memorial.” I named my parents’ church. That’s when I knew I was in trouble. Why was I lying, knowing good and well it had been years since I’d been to anybody’s church?

  She scrunched up her nose. “Never heard of it. Who’s the pastor?”

  Dang. What was that man’s name? There was no way I could know. “Pastor Hayes. It’s a family church. My parents go there, but I’m actually looking for something new.” Dude, what are you doing? If Chuckie was paying me the least bit of attention, he could have saved me from myself and, better yet, save Cassandra from me.

  “You should check out my and Tisha’s church some time. Get Chuckie to bring you.”

  I almost spit out a swig of Coke. “Chuckie goes to your church?”

  She frowned. “Yeah. New Life.”

  I wiped the surprise off my face. I didn’t want to bust up whatever game my boy was playing. Chuckie was going to church?

  “You’ve never visited with him?”

  “No.” I leaned toward her again. “Don’t you think you would have remembered me if you’d seen me there before?” Stop it, Devon.

  “You think you got it like that, playa?” She smirked. “First of all, it’s a big church. Second of all, I work in children’s church every other Sunday. So you could easily come and I wouldn’t see you.”

  “Children’s church? I should come and bring my daughter some time.” I always liked to work Brianna into the conversation early—put it out there like that and see how a woman reacted. Some women had a “no children” policy and it was best to know that right up front.

  She didn’t flinch. “You have a daughter? How old is she?”

  “Six going on thirty.” I had to resist the urge to pull out Brianna’s picture. While some women wouldn’t date a man with kids, others were attracted to a man devoted to his children. I definitely won in that category.

  “What—no pictures? What kind of dad are you?”

  I whipped out my iPhone and flipped through a few pics of Brianna. In most she was animated, striking silly poses and making crazy faces.

  Cassandra smiled at each one. “She’s quite a character. Does she act?”

  “She’s an only child so she’s always play-acting a bunch of characters in her room. It’s funny to hear her switching to all different voices, making up some crazy stories.”

  Cassandra studied my face. I knew I had that goofy daddy look on. Brianna was my heart and everyone always said I got all soft when I talked about her.

  I could tell Cassandra wanted to ask about Brianna’s mother and to press further into why I was single rather than home with the wife and kids. Her lips parted like she was about to ask a question, but then it was like she drew a line in her mind and told herself not to cross it. She closed her mouth.

  She looked at a few more of Brianna’s pictures. “She’s a cutie. We have this program at the church on Saturdays where we teach the arts—music, acting, dancing, and all that stuff. You should bring her by sometime.”

  I ran a finger across Brianna’s smiling face, then closed the picture album on my iPhone. “I might do that.”

  Cassandra smiled sweetly, but all her flirtiness was gone—like all of a sudden she wasn’t feeling me anymore. I had to wonder if she was a “no kids” kind of woman.

  She looked down at her watch. “It’s getting late. Let me get my girl out of here.” She slid her foot under the table and nudged Tisha. She held up her watch and tapped it. Chuckie looked up and wrapped his arms around Tisha, all playful, like he was refusing to let her go. He kissed her on the cheek and then stood. Tisha stood with him. I wondered why it seemed like Cassandra was running their date, and thought back to what she said about keeping Chuckie out of trouble.

  When we all got out to the parking lot, before we went to our separate cars, Cassandra held out her hand. Her handshake was softer this time. “It was nice to meet you, Devon Wright. Hope to see you at church some time.”

  “Nice to meet you, too. You’ll see me soon.” I held her hand a few seconds longer than I should have.

  She smiled as she pulled it away. “Don’t start none, won’t be none.”

  “Yeah.” I enjoyed the view until she got to her car. She gave me a last smile and waved as she drove away. I looked at Tisha and Chuckie hugged up and talking against her car. I shook my head. I could see why my boy was sprung. I had to be careful I didn’t end up that way myself.

  On the way home, I thought about Cassandra and her pretty eyes and happy smile. I thought about her laughing and almost falling out of the chair. I picked up my iPhone and put it back down at least ten times. I remembered the feel of her hand in mine. It had to be that thing—that female energy thing that made me lose good sense—that finally made me pick up my phone. I knew I wouldn’t get an answer so I let it ring until it went to voice mail.

  I left a message. “Shauntae, I wanted to ask if I could pick Brianna up on Sunday morning. I want to take her to church.”

  Five

  The more I interacted with Shauntae, the more I realized how crazy she was and the more we fought. I tried hard to make sure we hardly ever had to see or talk to each other for long. We usually exchanged Brianna at school to keep our dealings at a minimum. I dropped Brianna off at school every day except Monday and Shauntae picked her up from school on Friday evenings. She kept her for the weekend and dropped her off at school on Monday mornings and thus began the week again. Brianna had school uniforms and play clothes at both houses so the only thing that had to be transferred back and forth was her school book bag.

  Fortunately, the only time me and Shauntae had to see each other was when she caught one of her “emergencies” and needed to drop Brianna off so she could do God knows what. Which unfortunately happened more often than I would have liked. Since it was usually Shauntae dropping Brianna off, I rarely had occasion to go to Shauntae’s apartment. Which was a good thing because I didn’t like the neighborhood she lived in. Every time I had to go to that particular part of Candler Road, it reminded me of the bad environment my child was being exposed to on a weekly basis.

  There were always too many dudes hanging out on the corner. For peace of mind’s sake, I tried to convince myself that they weren’t dealing drugs. Hopefully, they were just regular dudes without jobs or dreams, who hung out talking trash and drinking beer because they didn’t have anything better to do. And you could tell everybody was either renting or on Section 8 because nobody took pride in how anything looked. There was trash everywhere, nothing was painted or landscaped, and it always felt tired and desolate.

  When I knocked on Shauntae’s apartment door on Sunday morning, Brianna opened it. She was dressed in an orange tank top and a pair of green pants. Her braids were going every which way and she still had crust around her eyes and dried drool at one corner of her mouth. Her boo
k bag was slung over her shoulder. She jumped into my arms. “Ready, Daddy.”

  I hugged her real tight. “Hey, sweetie. Did you get yourself dressed?” I put her down and turned her around. “Cute outfit. But I was thinking we could wear something a little special since we’re going to church.” I was glad I had come early. Something had told me Shauntae wouldn’t have Brianna ready. “Where’s your mama?”

  “’Sleep.”

  I looked around the apartment. Thank God Shauntae wasn’t a slob. The place was kinda small with a combined living room/dining room. The kitchen was small and cluttered but functional. Not that Shauntae cooked that much. Brianna’s room was directly across the hall from Shauntae’s bedroom, with a tiny bathroom at the end of the corridor.

  “Did you eat any breakfast, baby girl?”

  She shook her head.

  My blood started to boil a little. I was giving Shauntae the day off. The least she could have done was had Brianna clean, dressed, and fed.

  “Shauntae!” I called out. Common sense said to let her sleep. I could bathe, clothe, and feed Brianna myself. In fact, I had time to run her back to our house, pick out a nice dress, and cook her a good breakfast. I still had to tell Shauntae we were leaving. It seemed crazy that I could come into her apartment and take Brianna without her mother ever knowing.

  I paced around a few minutes. “Shauntae!”

  She finally emerged from her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Her hair was all over her head and she was wearing a short teddy. I turned my head. Even though I hated her, Shauntae was still fine and I didn’t need to see her running around half naked.

  “What you come in here yelling for?”

  I pointed at Brianna. “Shauntae, I told you I was coming to get her to take her to church this morning. She looks like she just rolled out of bed and into yesterday’s play clothes. You couldn’t get her ready?”

  Shauntae looked nervously at me, then back at her bedroom door. “Devon, can you please keep your voice down?”

  “I’m not yelling, Shauntae, but I think it would have been . . .” I was a little slow but it finally dawned on me. “You have ... company?”

  She walked over to the couch and picked up a robe and wrapped it around herself, never meeting my eyes.

  “You have a man in the house with my daughter here?” I lowered my voice, not out of respect, but because I didn’t need my daughter seeing a confrontation between me and another man, should he decide to come out of the bedroom.

  “Devon, I . . .” Shauntae must have seen the murder in my eyes because she didn’t say anything else.

  I picked up Brianna’s book bag and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go, sweetie. We can go home and get you ready for church.”

  Shauntae followed me to the porch. “So are you bringing her back after church or keeping her until school tomorrow?”

  I glared at her to let her know what a dumb question that was. “You better hope I bring her back at all. We agreed from the start that we would never have . . . guests. . . .” I looked down at Brianna. “We’ll talk about this later, Shauntae.” I walked down the steps toward my car. I turned back around. “And no, I’m not bringing her back today.”

  I was glad Brianna was facing the car and didn’t see the smile on her mother’s face. She was probably happy to spend the rest of the day in bed with whatever poor dude she had trapped for the night.

  I stood over Brianna while she strapped herself into her booster seat, and then I got into the front seat. We drove in silence for a while as I tried to figure out how to ask the question I needed to ask without saying too much.

  “Did you sleep well, baby girl?”

  I looked into the rearview mirror in time to see Brianna shrug.

  “Are you hungry?” She must have shrugged again because my eyes were on the road and I didn’t hear a response.

  “Bree?”

  Silence. Was she always like this when she first left her mother’s house?

  I decided to be direct. “Brianna, did your mama have a friend for a sleepover last night?”

  I looked into the mirror and saw her nod.

  “Was he nice to you?”

  She shrugged again.

  “Bree, talk to Daddy, please.”

  She must have heard the desperation in my voice because she answered in her little girl voice. “I never see Mama’s friends. They always come in after she puts me to bed.”

  Always? Friends? I gripped the steering wheel and made myself focus on the road for a few minutes. The seedy part of Candler Road was giving way to the nicer part as it became Flat Shoals, near Wesley Chapel Road.

  “Have you met any of them?”

  She shook her head and then frowned as if she was remembering something. “I saw one leaving one morning. He was nice. He smiled at me and said he was gonna bring me a dolly. He never did though.” She pouted for a second at the broken promise.

  “What do Mama and her friends do when they come over?” It was a question I didn’t want to ask my six-year-old, but I had to know what she’d been exposed to.

  “They laugh a lot.” I looked into the rearview mirror and saw her frowning. “Mama plays her music really loud when they start fighting.”

  “Fighting?”

  “Yeah, sometimes they make Mama scream.” She scrunched her face up like she was trying to make sense of it. “It’s not yelling like when you and Mama fight. And I never hear hitting, but something makes her scream and make funny sounds. I get scared but then she laughs again so I figure maybe they’re just playing a scary pretend game like ‘Monsters in the Closet’ or something like that.”

  I turned left on Kelley Chapel. Good thing we were approaching my house because I could no longer see straight. I drove into our neighborhood and down our street and into my driveway. I parked the car and opened Brianna’s door without saying another word. My teeth were clenched as I opened the house and led Brianna back to her bathroom. “Did your mama give you a bath last night?”

  Brianna shook her head.

  “Okay, Daddy’s gonna run you a bubble bath. I want you to brush your teeth while the water gets ready. You want pancakes?”

  Brianna nodded. Thankfully, she liked the frozen kind that I could put in the microwave. I didn’t feel like cooking.

  After I heard Brianna splashing around in the bathtub, I went into my room, closed the door, and sat on the bed. I punched my fist into the mattress several times and cursed under my breath.

  What had I done to my child?

  We pulled up at the church about an hour later. I had almost decided not to go, but maybe church was exactly what Brianna needed to balance out life at her mother’s house. I thought about what my parents had said and knew I had really dropped the ball on raising my child the way she needed to be raised.

  Living in a stable home with two loving parents and good morals and even going to church—much as I had hated it—had shaped me into being a good man. Current female issues notwithstanding, I was a solid dude. My sister was a good woman—happily married with two kids of her own, raising them with good values in church. My parents had done well by us.

  I looked down at Brianna, now looking cute and clean in her pink dress my mother had bought her for her last birthday. I wanted her to grow up to be a good girl like my sister—not a crazy whore like her mother.

  We got there a little bit before church started. After getting directions to children’s church, I navigated Brianna down a long hall. We got to a large yellow room with a table in front. I had to sign her in and they put a nametag on her and put a little wristband on her arm. The lady explained that if there was any problem with Brianna, they would flash the number on the card they gave me at the bottom of the big screen at the front of the church and I would know that I needed to come get her. High tech stuff.

  “Well, look who’s here.” I turned to see Cassandra standing behind me. She had on a slim black dress that fit her nicely without showing off too much. “So you came.” She f
lashed me a smile and, for a second, I almost forgot the morning’s troubles. This time, I purposefully looked down at her shoes. They weren’t that high. She really was tall. I was used to looking down at a woman but Cassandra was right in my face.

  “And who is this cutie pie?” She bent down and placed a hand under Brianna’s chin. “Hi, sweetie. I’m Miss Cassandra. Can I be your teacher today?”

  Brianna looked up at me. I nodded. She smiled back at Cassandra and nodded.

  Cassandra took her by the hand and started toward the big yellow room with the Bible characters plastered on the walls. She turned back around to me. “What? You planning on coming to children’s church, too?” She gave me that mischievous smirk of hers. “You’re a big boy. Go to big people’s church.”

  I gave her a scowl-smile.

  “I’ll take good care of her.” She shooed me away. “Bye.”

  As I walked away, I heard Cassandra talking to Brianna. “We are gonna have lots of fun today. We’re going to tell stories and do some art and maybe even act in a play. Do you like to play pretend games?”

  Brianna must have nodded because I didn’t hear a response. I hoped she warmed up quickly because this mute act of hers was gonna have Cassandra thinking I was some kind of child abuser or something.

  By the time I made it to the sanctuary, it was too late to find Chuckie. The opening music was already starting. The place was too big anyway and finding him would have been like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The sanctuary had rows and rows of stadium seating with a large stage area at the front. The choir stand was filled with an army of red-robed singers. The pulpit had a long row of men and women, who I guessed were the leaders of the church. It looked like a well-oiled machine. I wasn’t into the whole mega church thing and would have preferred a small family church like my parents’. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t like I was signing the roll or anything. If I had to be honest, I was here because of a girl. If I thought about it too long, it seemed like a low thing to do—so I didn’t think about it too much.