“Chanel,” Miss Pearl said to the closed door. “She knows better than to be talking like that in my house.”

  “I think that’s why she went outside, Grandma,” Sheba said and sat down in the living room.

  “Who is she talking to, cussin’ like that?”

  “I think she’s talking to James.”

  “I don’t know what to say about that boy.” Miss Pearl shook her head. “Up in the hospital last night, drunk as Cooter Brown.”

  “You knew he was drinking?”

  “Child, please. Of course I knew. He was making a fool of himself, thinking nobody notices him stumbling and that he can’t complete a sentence.”

  “She said that she’s tired of carrying him.”

  “It’s about time. She’s been propping him up, trying to make something out of him that just ain’t there. He was no good when she met him, you know that, and he ain’t got no better. Worse now because he drinks and can’t handle his liquor,” she said as they heard the back door slam. Chanel came into the living room.

  “I’ll be back,” Chanel said as she passed through the living room.

  “Where you going?” Sheba asked.

  “To get my kids from school,” Chanel said on her way out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

  Both Sheba and Miss Pearl looked at their watches. It was just after one in the afternoon. Miss Pearl looked at Sheba.

  “She’s leaving him, and she’s going to get the kids before he does,” Sheba said.

  “And she’s gonna bring those bad children over here.” Miss Pearl shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong. I love my great-grandbabies.”

  “I know, Grandma. You just don’t need them here right now.”

  “Running around, whooping and hollering in my house.”

  “I understand, and I’ll take care of it,” Sheba said, knowing that circumstances had made her decision clear. “Is it all right if Jody and Floyd come by for a little while this afternoon? There’s something I need to give them.”

  Miss Pearl patted Sheba’s thigh, and then she stood. “Yes, Sheba, it’s okay if my boys come by,” she said. “I’m going upstairs to rest for a minute, and then I’ll get dinner ready.”

  Sheba watched Miss Pearl go up the stairs and waited until her door was closed before she got out her phone and called Jody. He and Floyd came over right away, and Sheba gave them the other three kilos.

  “You know, Granddaddy told me that this day would come,” Jody said.

  “What did Grandpops say?” Floyd asked.

  “He said one day it’s gonna fall on you and Sheba to make decisions about what’s best for our family, and that I should listen to you,” Jody said, and Sheba laughed. “What’s funny?”

  “He told me the same thing, but then he said that I needed to trust you.”

  “That’s because Grandpops knew that both of you think you know everything,” Floyd said and laughed.

  “I trust you, both of you. Now go on and get that stuff outta here before Grandma comes down or Chanel gets back with the kids.”

  “We gone,” Jody said, and Floyd followed him out of the house just before Miss Pearl came downstairs.

  “Was that my boys?” she asked on her way down.

  “Yes, Grandma.”

  “Why didn’t they come up and say hello?”

  “I told them that you were resting, Grandma, and they didn’t want to disturb you.”

  “I see,” she said as the doorbell rang.

  Sheba started for the door. “You expecting somebody?”

  “I asked Dante to stop by.”

  Sheba stopped and frowned. “Grandma?”

  “Get the door, child,” Miss Pearl said and sat down to receive her guest.

  “Hey, Sheba.”

  “How are you doing, Dante?” Sheba asked and let him in, upset with her grandmother for playing matchmaker, but not upset that he was there.

  “Doing fine. Mrs. Harrison asked me to stop by this afternoon to check on her.” He held up his medical bag. “I hope it’s all right.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “Hello, Dante,” Miss Pearl said.

  “How are you feeling today, Mrs. Harrison?”

  “I’m doing fine,” she said and looked at Sheba. “I asked Dante if he wouldn’t mind coming by from time to time to check my pressure and my heart rate.”

  Dante reached in his bag. “And I’ll be checking her lung capacity as well. I brought this. It’s a spirometer.” He showed it to Sheba. “You can check her breathing with this.”

  “Then I will get out of your way,” Sheba said and went to sit down.

  Once Dante had finished, he was about to tell Sheba that he was going to leave. He was happy to do this for Miss Pearl, but at the same time, he didn’t want Sheba to think he was forcing himself on her. Just then, the door burst open, and Chanel’s children came running into the house, whooping and hollering. As for Chanel, she stomped in a few seconds later, still on the phone arguing with James.

  “Keep talking and you’ll never see these children again!” she shouted.

  “Oh, but no,” Sheba said. “Okay, everybody stop!” And everybody did. “We are not gonna have all this noise in this house.” She looked at Chanel and then at Dante. “We need to find you someplace to stay.” She turned to Dante. “And I need a big favor from you.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Could you take the children someplace for a while?”

  “No problem. You go ahead and get Chanel situated and call me when you’re done.”

  Dante thought that this was what being a friend meant. Although this wasn’t how he had seen his evening going, he agreed to take them to get something to eat and to a movie while Sheba and Chanel got someplace for her and the children to stay until other arrangements could be made.

  Chapter 15

  As weeks passed, things began to settle for the once-chaotic family. Sheba’s decision had the desired effect. Jody and Floyd believed in the concept of making money on volume. Therefore, they didn’t put a lot of cut on it. Once the word got around that they were rolling with quantity and very high quality, the money rolled in.

  In those few short weeks, all of Miss Pearl’s outstanding bills had been paid. The mortgage was current, the back taxes had been paid, and she once again had insurance. Although you couldn’t tell by looking at her, her emphysema was very severe. Therefore, there were days when Miss Pearl didn’t feel well and it slowed her down, but she was determined not to let it hold her down. Some days were better than others, and each day came with its own challenges. But if Miss Pearl was nothing else, she was a fighter, and she was up to the challenge.

  “You need to stay healthy, eat a well-balanced diet, and get moderate exercise. With the aid of medications and therapies, you can live a long, healthy life with emphysema,” Dr. Kulkarni explained.

  “I’m just lucky to have the support of an amazing family,” Miss Pearl replied during their last visit.

  The influx of capital also allowed Sheba to pay Lakeside the balance of Demi’s rehabilitation costs. Part of the treatment and recovery process was structured around developing new, healthy habits intended to become routine in post-discharge life. Demi was engaged and participating in the program, getting up early in the morning to enjoy a healthy breakfast. That was followed by morning classes in yoga and meditation to help her begin each day in a relaxed state of mind. It was working for her until the night Sheba got a call from Lakeside that Demi had broken curfew and left the center.

  Everybody feared the worst.

  Demi had escaped as Floyd said she would and would surely find a way to get high. As it turned out, their fears were unwarranted. She was immediately tested upon her return to the center at five in the morning, and there was no trace of drugs in her system. Later that morning, when Sheba arrived at Lakeside and was allowed to visit with Demi, she told her what happened that night.

  “I was horny.”

  “What?”

  “I needed some dick, Sheba, and I am not interested in anybody here, male or female.”

  “So you escaped?”

  “With Floyd’s help.”

  “What?”

  “I called Floyd, and I told him what I was thinking about doing.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Once I promised to be a good girl and keep my nose clean,” Demi chuckled, “he came and got me and took me to the dick.”

  “I guess that’s not so bad,” Sheba said and was about to move on when she noticed the look on Demi’s face. She’d seen that look before and knew that there was more to the story. “Tell me the rest.”

  Demi was silent, and then she looked away from Sheba. “After we did it, the guy fell asleep.”

  Sheba smiled. “You must have put it on him.”

  “I was really horny. But while he was asleep, I took his car and left, and the only reason I didn’t get high was that I didn’t have any money and the person I knew who would let me smoke free wasn’t home.”

  Sheba shook her head. “Oh, Demi.”

  “But then I felt guilty. I got Floyd to trust me. After the foul shit I did to him, he still trusted me. Then I thought about all that everybody was doing for me. So I brought the car back and called Floyd to come get me, and he brought me back here. But I wanted to, Sheba. I just wasn’t going to sell myself to get it.”

  From that, Sheba knew that Demi getting and staying sober was going to be a long process if she could do it at all. The way that she sounded was as if Demi was in rehabilitation trying to get clean for everybody but herself. Other than agreeing with Sheba that she needed to get help, Demi never said that she wanted to stop getting high. She drove away from Lakeside knowing it was something that Demi had to want, and her thoughts turned to Chanel.

  After staying a couple of nights at a motel, Chanel moved her family into a three-bedroom long-term vacation rental for a week until they found a house to rent. What she didn’t tell Sheba at the time was that James had been cheating on her.

  While they were talking after Chanel left the hospital, James put Chanel on hold to take a call. When he came back on the line, he received another call and once again put Chanel on hold, or so he thought.

  “Look, Shay, let me get my wife off the phone, and I’ll call you back.”

  “Who is Shay?” Chanel asked, and James said nothing. “Hello.”

  “I’m here,” James said, wondering how he could have made such a stupid mistake.

  “Who is Shay?” Chanel calmly asked again, and James paused for a few seconds before he answered.

  “She’s a friend of mine.”

  “You need to tell me something more than that,” Chanel demanded. “Who is Shay?”

  “I was out with Vic one night, and he introduced me to her,” James admitted, and they went round and round about that and the definition of a friend. Chanel was relentless, asking question after question until James broke. “Okay, Chanel. I’ve been having an affair with her.”

  It took a second or two before his words settled in, and they were first met by anger and rage. The usual screaming questions followed.

  “How long has this been going on?”

  “How could you do this to us?”

  “Why aren’t I enough for you?”

  “Do you love her?”

  All were good questions that James could but didn’t really answer. By then, the anger and rage had subsided and were replaced by the hurt and pain of his betrayal.

  “That’s probably why we don’t make love anymore. You’ve been having sex with her.”

  “I’m sorry, Chanel,” was all that James could manage. “How can I make this right between us?”

  “You can’t.” Tears cascaded down her cheeks. “If you want her that bad, you need to go on and be with her,” Chanel said and ended the call. She went to see a lawyer the next day, and she began divorce proceedings.

  “You sure you’re doing the right thing?” Miss Pearl asked, not knowing the whole story. “I mean, I never thought that he was good enough for you—”

  “Nobody did, Grandma, and you all were right,” Chanel added.

  “But he is the father of your children.”

  “And I have every intention of him having a relationship with his children, but that’s up to him.”

  Sheba sat quietly and listened as Chanel explained her rationale to their grandmother. Chanel was listing all the reasons that friends and family had told her about James not being right for her and saying them with a conviction that she’d never displayed before.

  There’s more to this story than she’s telling, Sheba thought. But knowing Chanel the way she did, Sheba knew that it would be pointless to ask. Chanel would keep her reasoning to herself and would only share it if she had to.

  “Maybe if he were to quit drinking and you two got some counseling—” Miss Pearl began.

  “No, Grandma,” Chanel said, speaking more sternly to her grandmother than she ever had. It raised an eyebrow or two. “There’s not gonna be any counseling for the two of us. He can quit drinking and get some help for himself.” Chanel paused, thinking that she could make James quitting drinking and getting into a program a condition of visitation. “But it is over between us, Grandma, and that’s that.”

  “You need to watch your tone, young lady.”

  “Sorry, Grandma,” she dropped her head to say. “I didn’t mean you no disrespect, but I mean what I say.”

  “I know you do,” Miss Pearl said.

  “There is nothing left between me and James. Right now, I’m not even sure that there ever was anything between us,” she said, and a tear rolled down her cheek. Then she smiled. “You never liked him anyway, Grandma.” Chanel wiped away her tear.

  “I know. I’m just an old lady who still believes in the sanctity of marriage. You and James made vows before God, for better, for worse, until death do you part. It may be a quaint and outdated idea, but I believe in it.”

  “I believed in my vows,” Chanel said, dropping her head and thinking that one of those vows was to forsake all others. “But I was the only one.”

  Miss Pearl and Sheba looked at one another, and then they looked at Chanel. Her eyes were closed, and her chin was resting on her chest. Knowing that she needed to change the mood in the room, Sheba bounced up.

  “Who’s hungry?” She raised her hand. “I know I am.”

  Chanel looked up. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and that was just a cold sausage biscuit.” She giggled. “I ate half of it.”

  “You gonna cook, Sheba?” Miss Pearl asked because she was feeling a little tired and didn’t feel like cooking.

  “No, it’s too hot to cook, and besides, I’m hungry. Let’s go to Golden Corral on Lawrenceville Highway.”

  Chanel got up. “I’m for that,” she said, glad not to be talking about James. “Come on, Grandma.”

  “All right, all right. Let me get my purse,” Miss Pearl said, and they left the house and the discussion of Chanel’s divorce behind.

  Chapter 16

  And then there was Dante.

  As the weeks passed and things began to settle for the once-chaotic family, Sheba began spending more time with Dante. It started simply, as things often do. Dante had been coming to the house in the evening after he got off from work to check Miss Pearl’s vitals and to walk her through her breathing exercises every few days. Once he was done, he’d leave, until the night Miss Pearl asked, “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving. I was going to grab something on my way home.”

  “Sheba cooked meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Would you like some?”

  “No, thank you,” Dante said but didn’t mean it. He was hungry and more than ready to eat.

  “You sure?” Sheba asked. “There’s plenty.”

  “Okay,” Dante said, smiling. “I didn’t know you could cook,” he said as Sheba got up and went into the kitchen.

  “She couldn’t grow up in this house and not know how to cook.”

  “Apologies.” He bowed toward Miss Pearl and got up. “So I am dying to taste your cooking,” Dante said, following Sheba into the kitchen.

  That night, the three talked while he ate, and then Sheba walked him to the door. The next time, he stayed longer, and on his next visit, after he ate and Miss Pearl said she was going up to bed, which was usually his cue to leave, something different happened.

  “Good night, Mrs. Harrison,” Dante said, and he stood up as she left the kitchen. “I’m gonna head out too.”

  “What’s your rush?” Sheba asked.

  “No rush at all.”

  Sheba stood up. “Let’s talk outside,” she said and led him outside.

  That was how it began.

  Now that her life wasn’t as chaotic as it once was, Sheba relaxed. She appreciated that Dante had been there for her during that time as she had asked him to be. But more importantly, Dante had been there for her family. As the weeks passed, they began to spend more time together, and the hurt that she’d held on to for so many years faded. That allowed her to remember that they were friends, best friends, before they became lovers, and that gave them the space to become friends again.

  On that particular evening, Dante had invited Sheba to the Atlanta Jazz Festival in Piedmont Park. Sheba thought that she would make it romantic and planned a candlelight picnic for their evening.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Dante said when he arrived to pick her up.

  “What happened?”

  “I was supposed to be meeting with my Realtor at three. But she called and rescheduled the meeting at the last minute to five.”

  “No worries. How’s house hunting going?”

  “We’ve looked at a few places, but I haven’t seen anything that’s stood out and spoken to me.”

  “I like a man who knows what he wants.” Sheba picked up the picnic basket and walked toward the door. “I’m ready,” Sheba said on her way out. “Piedmont Park awaits.”

  When they got to the park, Sheba and Dante decided to leave the basket in the car and walk around for a while first. As they walked around the park listening to the music, it was hard, but Dante fought the urge to hold Sheba’s hand.