How Did I Get Here: A Novella Read online

  “Wow, that would be great, just give me a ring whenever you get done doing whatever you’re doing and good luck.”

  “Alright, cool I will do just that,” Preston ignited in jubilee. “I have a feeling that we have lots to talk about.”

  “I am sure we do, Mr. Brown and by the way, the name is Lustray”, she replied in a rather seductive tone.

  Preston felt the way that she sounded; she could have the ability to ruin his whole life. Well, maybe not his whole life; but definitely the potential to do some significant damage. If he was going to perpetrate like he actually had a “legal player card”, his game would have to be tight. So the only logical thing to do would be to add himself to her list of many men that probably jacked up her self-esteem already. Preston never knew why that was always the case, but throughout his counseling in ministry many women would always blame their self-esteem issues on a man that didn’t want to be with them any longer. If anything, Preston felt it was the responsibility of any one self to keep their self-esteem abreast. It was just puzzling to him that people always had to have themselves validated by someone else other than God and themselves. But, he bagged the number, had the initial conversation and now it was time to board his plane. California love here comes Mr. Preston Brown!

  XII

  Back in Ohio, Delight knew that Preston was supposed to call once he was ready to board his flight and when she checked online to see if his flight were delayed or not; it read that it was on time. She just could not believe how childish he was acting over an argument that happened days ago. She called his phone and it went straight to voicemail, so it must have meant that he was in route to his destination. She just had to figure out what she was going to do with the boys for the next couple of weeks while she was pregnant and steadily growing tired and gaining weight.

  Delight did as much as she could to keep herself busy the rest of the morning until she heard from Preston on her phone. So she decided to do his laundry and get that funky smell out of his clothes from the club that night. It felt good to finally have a washer and dryer in their new townhome. They have been through so much since they came from Jersey with almost nothing. She was reminiscing about the days they use to pack up the only car that they had with laundry, get the boys in there and haul off to the Laundromat every week. “God sure has brought us a long way”, she exhaled. She could never forget sleeping on an air mattress for all of those months, until they got their student loan money to purchase a queen bed from Original Mattress Factory. As she began to make the boys their favorite morning breakfast of pancakes and maple sausage she saw her cell phone light up with Preston’s face on it.

  “Hello, Mr. Can’t call nobody when they are flying across the country.”

  “Yeah, hello to you too. Just calling to let you know that I am at my brief layover in Denver and everything is still on time. So I will call you once I have my bags in Cali, alright.”

  “Mmm. Hmmm. And please tell those skanks out there that they can only look at my husband and not touch him.”

  “I’ll try, but they don’t always listen,” Preston said giggling. “But I gotta go so I’ll call you later okay.”

  “Alright and I’m not playing about those skanks in the airport and around those military bases either. I love you.”

  “Peace.”

  Delight could never understand why Preston could never say I love you first. It was always her that had to say it and to get him to say it. She had to pry it out of him, which made it unauthentic once he did muster up the gumption to say it. Now that her nerves were calmed down just a little bit it was easier for her to sit down and relax without anything weighing on her mind. Although the money was good, she could not stand it when Preston was gone on those long tours of duty throughout the years at thirty to ninety days a pop. It was bad enough that he was already gone for school trips to get credit and now the military had to come and interfere with her marriage. “Well, they do say that once you marry a soldier you are having a threesome with the government.”

  It pained her to see the kids crying over their dad being gone for long periods of time, but she always reassured them that Preston was doing it to take care of the family and that he was out helping change the world.

  She figured, part of the payoff was that since he became an officer they were able to afford a better apartment and didn’t have to worry about saving quarters every two weeks for laundry. For some reason she had an uneasy feeling about this tour of duty he was on, but she could not figure out what it was. Maybe, she was just concerned about how things went down the last week Preston was at home before he left. In consolation, she decided to call her friend Vashti, who she went to school with for the past few years at Ohio Dominican. She dialed Vashti’s number and studied the scenery outside the patio window.

  “Delight, what’s up girl, what you doing calling me on a Wednesday morning?”

  “Preston left and you know how that is, good money and no lovin’.”

  “Shoot, last time he came back you had a new wedding ring and a new car. If I had a man like that he could stay away as long as he wants as long the check was going into our account. All I get is child support, live with my mom, and wait for Tony’s dad to come pick him up every other weekend.”

  “Girl, you are crazy so how is Tony’s dad doing, despite the fact that you two work at the same building practically.”

  “Brandon is doing pretty good and I must say he takes care of all of his kids no matter what the situation is.”

  “Well, that’s the main thing, because I can tell you with these two here I can’t believe the affect that Preston has on them every time he steps out the door. Preston makes sure that the boys have everything that they need and he even treats my son better than our biological son sometimes. I guess that’s the way he was raised, because his dad had thirteen kids and I had no problem meeting all of them. His dad made sure that they all knew each other and he has videotapes for days of all of them. Girl, he must have been slick, because I don’t know any man that has thirteen kids, four mommas and does not pay one dime in child support.”

  “Girl, all I can say is he must have had nothing but the good stuff to keep all of them quiet, because I know if I didn’t have a ring on my finger, I sure enough was going to get a cut of a check!”

  “Alright, girl well I’m going to get back to a nap so I can get my pregnant behind up to get some work done.” Delight began to yawn into the phone as she stretched out on the living room couch.

  “Y’all pregnant, I knew you were coming to school a little too happy. That was the problem, you were getting too much sex! At least somebody around here is. Before you know it you and Preston might end up with thirteen.”

  “ Don’t put that curse on me I am okay with just three after this one, I am A okay. Anyway, the boys will be bored while Preston is gone and if Tony is looking for a place to hang out, he can come over her for a bit if he wishes too. I would invite your daughter, but there’s just too much testosterone around here to enjoy anything besides watching television and playing videogames.”

  “Oh okay. Well he is looking for some playmates during the daytime so we will hookup later in the week.”

  Delight felt good that she had at least one person to call a friend while she was still recently new to the Midwest. Almost everything she did just comprised of her Preston, and the kids. It was kind of like they were the “Goodfellas”. All parties, trips, and special events just consisted of the four of them. No outsiders, no outside friends. The birthday parties were just not the same as when they were on the East Coast. There were so many more family members that lived within blocks of each other and everyone from her former job at the state school would all pitch in and drop their kids off to add to the fun. Those days were over and she just felt it was God’s way of already prepping her for the military life that Preston was indebted to serving for at least the next six years. But, she figured that if they could make it through their three year long distance
relationship while Preston was in his early years of college, there was nothing that they couldn’t make it through.

  XIII

  Preston finally landed in California and just needed to catch a cab to get to Ft. Irwin. He was supposed to be taking part in some Chaplain training with a few infantry and Calvary units, so he could get some good marks to qualify for a Clinical Pastoral Education slot next year.

  “Man, if I get a CPE spot next year the Army has no choice, but to put me on Active Duty and that would mean big money and a retirement all for serving the Lord. What better job in the world could there be?” He didn’t want to ride in a cab, but his orders prohibited him from renting a car, so for the next couple of weeks he would have to rely on public transportation. Preston felt he needed to lose a couple of pounds anyway since it’s been a couple of months since he has had some consistent physical training. Studying full-time at odd hours of the night and working two jobs just did not always fit workouts into the equation. This was a time for opportunity and development. Besides, it was always tradition for Preston to go back home and impress his wife with a better physique than he had originally left home with.

  There were a line of cabs waiting for passengers along the curbside and all of the military personnel in uniform were being greeted by family and friends. Preston jumped in the first cab that he spotted and instructed the black African driver with a cigar in his mouth to drive to Ft. Irwin Main Post Chapel. The driver had a thick Nigerian accent and could not get over the fact that Preston use to be Muslim then turned into a Christian minister.

  “Well, you see I was part of the Moorish Science Temple of America, which had more of an ethnic purpose and was founded by Prophet Noble Drew Ali in 1913 A.D. There was no such thing as black and white, in the Moslem faith we referred to them as Asiatics and Europeans, you know what I’m saying. So we really knew about everything that was in the both the Bible and Quran since all religions have a little bit of each of them intertwined in each other.”

  The cab driver scratched his head with his ebony colored finger nails, “So, what you are saying is, is that this Prophet Noble Drew Ali is almost the same as Jesus in your current religion?’

  “Not exactly, because Jesus in Christianity is not a prophet, but both fully God and fully man. Jesus was sent here in a man form so that God could show that he could humble himself even unto the point of death and reveal to the world that only God could overcome a physical death; as he shown after three days; subsequent to His burial. That’s why we celebrate Easter every year.” Preston loved to get into theological discussions about the Trinity, because that was the only thing that kept him from the Christian faith growing up. No one could ever explain to him what the triune God was until he had a conversation with Delight’s pastor back in Vineland right before they got married. Ever since he studied it more fluently in seminary he just about became fascinated with the fact that he was a newbie in the faith and was really the only one that could articulate the “tri-union” with a logical tongue and ear.

  “Brother, I think all of you Christians got it messed up with your three Gods and this human that you worship as God. Who ever heard of such a thing? Worshipping a man that people claim to have seen rise after three days…for all you know it could’ve been an inside job!”

  They were getting ready to approach Ft. Irwin so Preston knew he had to wrap up the conversation on a high note. “That may be true, but as far as all of the studies and centuries of archaeological studies that have been done, there has never been a corpse found. And if one were going to believe in something, wouldn’t be magnificent to know that you serve a God who could actually conquer death itself?” Preston’s eyes widened as they approached the gate and he pulled out his military identification card for the MP. The cab driver passed through to the Army Lodging building and pulled over to the curb to let Preston out.

  “Hey, brother I enjoyed our conversation and unfortunately, we have to cut our conversation a little short, but if there’s ever a time you want to talk to a Jesus Freak like me, you know where to find me. I got it from here. And oh yeah, since I feel like blessing someone in the name of Jesus today here’s a little something for you.” Preston gave the cab driver a fifty dollar bill and told him to keep the change and have a blessed day! The cab driver looked at him in great gratitude and said, “You just might make me a believer yet.”

  He finally checked into his room, got situated, and turned on the air conditioner the first chance he got. The rooms there were a lot bigger than any other post he has ever been on. The suites were basically one bedroom apartments, but cleaner and well maintained. That’s what Preston loved about being an officer; he would be put in the best hotels the army had to offer. He could remember his days as an enlisted private when he would stay in billets for training and scrubbing floors with a toothbrush, just so that the NCOIC would find some soldiers to trample it just so Preston could do it again. How he wished that he could track down some of those NCO’s now and just ask them if they remembered his name and rank from way back. But no, there would be no progress in it and after all his focus needed to be on the Lord and serving soldiers and their families. “Oh snap,” Preston said to himself as he began to lie down on the perfectly made bed. He looked at his phone and saw that he had three new voice mails from Delight all within the hour he was supposed to get off of the plane until now. He knew that he was going to hear some type of hate mail so he just deleted the messages before he even heard them all of the way through and called Delight as soon as he cleared his voice box. Preston took deep breaths as the phone rang.

  “Hey, Delight I saw that you called and my phone was still on silent, because I did not turn it off on the plane and then me and this cab driver got into it about my faith journey and the whole thing blew up and I had to do the check in thing and the unload thing, you know how it is” Preston huffed, trying to getting every meaningful word out before she could break in and tell him off.

  “So, you’re okay.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Bye.” Without saying a word Delight hung up the phone on him and left Preston dumbfounded.

  To Preston, it was a paradox of relief and shame. On the other hand he could not forget the pleasant conversation that he had with Lustray and the attitude he was getting from Delight was not helping him at all. So he made himself a hotdog in the microwave Delight packed for him, turned on the cable television set, hooked up the Ethernet cord to his notebook, and began to nibble on his hotdog in his bed and politic with himself about calling Lustray.

  XIV

  Preston’s first day away from home continued to drag on as she continued to clean throughout the afternoon and doze on and off. She was pretty much under control until she continued to think about the extra responsibilities she would have to endure. All of the football practices in the evening, calling all of the companies for bills to get paid, and the list just went on and on. She thought to herself, “it’s only a few weeks and everything will be back to normal; this isn’t the first time he’s had to leave and he is helping to take care of the family.” “Well let me call Momma Brown and see if she’s heard from Preston since he left this morning.” She paused from dusting and dialed the 8-5-6 area code.

  “Hello, mom? Yeah, it’s Delight, listen…. Have you heard anything from Preston since he left this morning? He’s wasn’t acting like himself this morning and it seemed like something was on his mind since Rafiki came into town. I didn’t want to bother him anymore and I was wondering if everything was alright with the family at home?” She knew she threw a lot in there, but for some reason she could not control her anxieties, even if she did try to calm herself down.

  “Oh, yeah he texted me about an hour ago, but I haven’t heard from him so I’ll try to give him a call later. But, everything here back at home is okay. How are the kids doing?”

  “Well, obviously they are not thrilled their dad is gone, but this is nothing we never dealt with before and I don’t know if he told
you yet, but we are expecting another little Brown within the next seven months.”

  “Uh, huh. Well, y’all just keep on doing it and you gonna have baby number four, five, and six. And don’t bring any of them to me I got my two teenagers right here. But, anyway just pray and make sure the kids are eating and I’ll try to give him a call and make sure everything is alright. We’re on our way to choir rehearsal and I have to go all the way to Bridgeton so let me pony up. Bye.”

  “OK. Thanks mom I’ll talk to you guys later.” Delight loved talking to mom even though they clashed heads in the beginning of her and Preston’s relationship. Mama Brown had a really hard time learning about her grandson when he was five months old, especially when her and Delight worked on the same campus! But, once Mama Brown accepted the fact that Preston was getting married; with no intentions of him coming back to Jersey to raise his family she really has opened her heart to love Delight.

  But now, it was really easy for Delight to talk to Mama Brown about anything that went on. Since Delight’s mother passed away when she was five and no father figure in her life, except a grandfather; she more than appreciated the fact that she married into a family that was tight knit and had so much care for each other. She always felt Mama Brown could calm her down when her son was acting a fool and never could seem to get his act together in a gentleman’s type of way. After all, she dealt with his father!

  Now that the day was almost over, it was time to go to cook dinner, let the dog out, take out the trash, dishes, and laundry. “Lord, does it have to be this way every time,” Delight thought to herself. Preston leaving was always toughest the first few days and all she could do was get down on her knees and pray in the midst of the boys playing the Playstation upstairs.