How Did I Get Here: A Novella Read online

  Lord, I am so tired and please give me the energy and strength to keep going on while my dear husband is gone. I pray that you use him in the manner according to your will and to use the gifts that you have given him only to glorify your kingdom! I am carrying another child and I pray that you make this pregnancy as successful as the previous two and to keep a close eye on this one as it is the first within our marriage. I pray that the days go by fast and that they are productive so just keep a guiding hand over me and fill me up with your mission statement every waking day. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

  Delight always believed that prayer was always the best medicine and that the devil was always a liar. Whenever she felt like she was overwhelmed she would read her way out of it, pray her way out of it, and learn her way out of it. There was nothing that anyone could say or do to separate her from her faith in Christ Jesus. Her prayers may not have always manifested itself immediately, but from past experience she was sure that there was nothing impossible when God was at the front!

  XV

  It was four thirty in the morning and Preston had already called Delight and it was off to PT to start off another Army day. Since he was working independently on his tour he worked out by himself until he had to report to the Main Post Chapel at 0900 hours. Preston loved to work out on a consistent basis whenever he could, because it gave him some sort of sculpture to his life physically. Whenever he trained, it caused him to eat healthier, stay awake during the early morning hours of the civilian world and ultimately he felt like he was glorifying God by keeping a perfect body active. He was always a firm believer that working out was a form of worship, because he did not feel like God called human beings just to sit around and be couch potatoes!

  “This sure does feel good to get my sweat on and feel human all over again”, Preston exhaled wiping the sweat from his head at the bench press station. He never felt the day ever went completely right without devoting some time to the Lord and getting his PT in at some point during the day. Then the vague picture of Lustray popped up in his head……………... “Why can’t I get that girl’s frame out of my head?” He didn’t know her, had a brief conversation with her, and nothing more. “I think when I get done working today I’m going to give her a call just to convince myself that she’s nothing to keep daydreaming about.”

  Preston flipped the phone around nervously as he flicked through channels trying to figure out when would be the best time to call. “Maybe around seven,” he thought. He figured by then if she was cooking he would know that she actually cooked and if she worked she would be home by then. So either way, it was a win, win! The time difference was going to be a killer though and then again; what did he have to lose?

  Nine o’clock Eastern Time finally rolled around, so he called with great anticipation and all he could do was think about that sweet, soft, seductive voice that played around in his head like a hit song on the radio 24/7. The phone rang and that sweet voice danced through the receiver as he expected.

  “Well, hello there Mr. Brown the man with the plan.”

  “Hey, Lustray, I told you that I would give you a call and all I had to do was try to find the right time to call so that I could try and hear your voice a little bit.” He knew he shouldn’t have said that. That statement was maybe a little too forward and that would be a sure way to get shut down in the first quarter. The deepest parts of your heart will come out of your mouth when the test of time comes.

  Quite the contrary to what Preston expected, she giggled and retorted, “Well I love the sound of your voice too. It isn’t the typical black man voice that I always hear so weeded out and sounding like nothing is going on upstairs. I saw you in the club, you look like you keep yourself in pretty good shape. So what do you do in the military?.”

  Now if Preston said he was a Chaplain that would just totally discharge him from the fact that he was worth being a Chaplain at all. How would that sound? Sitting in the club getting tipsy. It would sound straight stupid so you best cut the conversation short and find yourself in better graces.

  The conversation went on for hours. They found out they were both in the high school band, loved classical music, loved to read, and even sat in the same class together in college and didn’t even know it. Preston felt like this was all too good to be true. Now he had this girl thinking that he was military intelligence and living in a single family home by himself with no children! He heard her sound so elated so he had no choice, but to let the story keep going and hoped he could remember every lie that he told her, because he was actually on the phone until he almost saw the sun come up. Being on the phone late that night he forgot to call Delight and speak with her before she went to bed! Well, it was alright, because if she were that concerned she would have called a hundred times like she usually did. But, wow this girl had her stuff together except for a couple of issues.

  For one, she was still legally married even though her husband has been estranged for a about five months and two, she had kids of her own. Preston felt, if he did anything it would be real easy to just move in and move out with no strings attached. “Okay it’s wrong, but hey Bill Clinton did it, Martin Luther King did it, and even Thomas Jefferson did it! None of them seemed to be taken away from their purpose in life. But who knows, nothing might come out of this after all.” Now you know that you are just lying to yourself and that being on the phone almost until dawn is just like some old high school stuff that is just waiting to blow up. Preston felt that she might just be down with the creeping and not really into that tie down stuff since she was already married. But, she did have her run- ins with men that have done nothing but broke her heart so Preston had to keep a story that would not tarnish that. For some reason he began to feel a sense of obligation to her since he was the “perfect guy” that had so much going on for himself and was not just someone that played sports and videogames, but actually used his mind! Lustray’s acknowledgements of his qualities had done nothing but boost Preston’s ego and made him feel more than secure. It was so much better than hearing all of that complaining from Delight back at home and how every time he did something there was something wrong with it. What was he thinking marrying her? How could he get so involved with someone that would tell him about his child when he was five months and give him the last name of the oldest one’s father! “I was just too young to be getting married? I passed up all of these intelligent women to be with someone who does not appreciate me as a man and always feels like that I actually owe her something, because she had my child,” Preston moped. This is how it all starts Preston, the devil begins to work in tiny small steps and you won’t even recognize it.

  Before Preston finished his tour of duty he came out of there changed man; not only physically but mentally. He would leave work early, not PT every morning and not even get his time in with the Lord. Instead of spending time with the Lord, he would talk to Lustray in place of his devotion.

  He was getting off the phone in hurried conversations with Delight, saying he was working or had to counsel a family immediately and even managed to have Lustray call him every morning to wake him up.

  The minister knew this had to stop, but how? How do I break her heart gently? Am I letting the love of my life go? What’s really going on?

  XVI

  Preston woke up tired after yet, another long night of dialoguing with Lustray. He felt like he was on top of the world and it’s the best he has felt in all of his life. In fact, speaking of the devil, it was Lustray buzzing in as turned over to reach his phone to call Delight.

  “Good morning, sir.” It turned her on that he was actually an officer in the military and that seductive tone just sent shockwaves through his system.

  “Well, good morning to you too”, Preston moaned as he played with his hands in his boxer shorts, as if she were right next to him.

  “It’s only two more days and I will have to pick you up from the airport to chill with me. You are going to have such a good time, but you will have t
o stay trapped inside my room, because I don’t want my daughters to see me with another man that I am not married too. So how long are you going to stay?”

  Wow. Prestonwas caught off guard with this one, but he had to come up with an answer quick. He really intended on coming by just for a couple hours then roll out in a cab to get his car from the airport. Thinking incoherently he blurted out, “two days.” Ouch. Now that he said that he would now have to try to explain to Delight why he was going to be home two days later. This player card thing isn’t as easy as it use to be in high school, but Preston was more than intrigued by the challenge. All he wanted to do was see if he could pull it off and then drop her like a bad habit.

  “Yay,” Lustray rejoiced. “That will give me enough time to cook you up a good meal once you get here and a good time for you to sit down and relax. I already told my family about you and they are interested in meeting with you sometime soon. I mean, just when I started to give up on men, when my husband use to beat on me and all the other ones that use to cheat on me in some form or another; it is really good to see that God made a man like you.”

  “Darn”, Preston stammered. Just when he felt he was ready to instill the cold shoulder role; he now felt more obligated to the role he established by Lustray’s affirming words. Now what was he going to do? He never really felt like he had the heart to just dump someone like a stone cold player, but there was no way he was going to succumb to meeting the parents of some chick he barely even knew (even if the intent was to have an improper relationship right away). Hesitantly Preston responded, “Well, I don’t think that it would be right to meet your people if I didn’t meet your daughters first, so let’s just take it slow to solidify the relationship first.”

  “See, that’s why I like you. You are so thoughtful and intelligent, because I would have never thought of that, but it makes a whole lot of sense.”

  Preston fell on the couch and wiped the sweat off his head. “Okay well in two days it will be a date and maybe we can catch a movie or something while we’re at it!” Now why did you just have to throw that wrinkle in there, now you are just trying to get caught and embarrass the Father even further.

  “Well, hold up let me get my babysitters Brandon and Michelle a head’s up so that I can let them know I will be finally be going out somewhere. So what I will do is pay them to keep them the entire weekend and we won’t have to be too quiet if you know what I mean.”

  “Ok, cool. Well I will give you a call once I am en route to you.” Preston felt a little stressed and excited at the same time. However, he did think that he has heard of the name Brandon before, but that couldn’t possibly be the one Delight’s friend Vashti had a son with. Besides, Prestonwasn’t a native of Columbus and who would know him from a can of paint? Anyway, he just had to call Longs and let him know what will be happening as soon as he touched down back in the Buckeye state! But, first he had to call Delight and come up with a plan.

  XVII

  Delight could not wait for Preston to get home so that she could just give him a hug and have someone to keep her warm at night. She was steadily gaining weight and could not take chasing after the kids all by herself much longer. The calendar was looking really nice as she was counting down the days for Preston’s return back to the home front. Preston has been working so hard over there, she recited to herself as she began to think of plans of what to do once he returned. “Maybe we could go out to eat, watch a movie, and maybe even just sit down and talk. That’s something we haven’t been able to do in a long time, just sit down and have a conversation together. We can talk about the new doctor appointments I have scheduled and he could come along with me and hear how our baby is growing.”

  As the phone rang, she began to perk with “glee” as she saw her husband’s number pop up on the caller ID. “Hello, honey. Are you ready to come home already?”

  “Hey babe, we had a little thing happen over here, so the base is going to be on lockdown for a couple of days and I won’t be able to get into town until a couple of days after we originally had planned.” Preston projected his voice to sound saddened so that he would not give away his conscience while on the phone. He felt terrible that he was going through such measures to meet this other woman, but he had already dug such a hole that he didn’t know how to get out of it. If he told Lustray that he couldn’t go ahead with the plans, he would have let her down and would kill all of her hopes about her perspective of men and a damaging to his “good” reputation.

  “What is going on? Are you going to be okay? I got the kids all excited and everything, and I have something planned for you.”

  “Trust me, I am more than sure that you would have something planned for me so I am sure that there is no way that I would miss another one of your surprises if I didn’t have to. It’s just a precaution they are taking, you know with the whole terrorism thing no one is taking any chances out here,” he lied.

  “Okay well just be careful and stay out of trouble.”

  “Alright, I love you and I will talk to you all later.”

  At that point she knew something wasn’t right when he said “I love you” first and then a quick hang up. It all seemed uncharacteristic of him, but she just felt like she was being paranoid. Of course, she has been wrong before so it was no big deal. All she had to do was hang on for a couple more days and just do what she needed to do in order to make it through the next couple of days. At this point, it was back to business as usual so everything had to be done just like normal and maintain her composure. As she washed the dishes she dropped a glass and it shattered all over the white tile floor. She couldn’t help but to cry as she labored over head first to try and clean up the inconvenient mess.

  “He better hurry up and get home!!!!!!!”

  XVIII

  For once in a long time Longs has not had any drama going on in his life. It looked like Lisa was giving the love and attention that he has always yearned for in a relationship. His mother and father were the classical example of what marriage was to him. Travelling buddies, business partners, and drama free! They were both retired and just cruising through life together without a worry in the world and that is just what Longs has always yearned for.

  The past few relationships for Longs were beyond belief and almost a soap opera to some extents. Preston could not count how many times he had to leave his house with his wife and kids, because Longs was ready to throw whoever she was out. For some reason this Lisa, made the cut to continuously make him a priority in her life. As Lisa and Longs began to make their way back home from a good day of running errands all over the East Side of Columbus Preston’s ring tone came through to his phone.

  “Wassup, black man?”

  “Hey bro, did you kick Lisa out yet? I know she’s gone past her quota of two months in the “crib”. Oh, my bad is the line secure?” Having the line secure was their way of speaking to see if it were alright to have a real “man to man” talk and to “chop up” the latest “beef” that has been going on in their lives.

  Giggling, Longs signaled to Lisa that he would be outside on the phone to get better reception, which was really not the case. “Yeah, black man the line is now secure, what’s cracking?”

  “Well this broad I met at the club I met a few weeks ago at the club is “banging” and she is picking me up from the airport tonight,” Preston sounded so excited that he thought he was beginning to sound like own of those groupies that got back stage passes to a 50 Cent concert.

  “Hold on, hold on black man. You sure you want to run that route? Because, you know if Mrs. Brown finds out it will be over for you. I mean you coming over here, because she already thinks I have too many women that come through for my own good.”

  “Well, the way that I got around that big brother, is that I told her we were having some sort of training exercise that put the base on lock down for a couple of days”.

  Longs couldn’t help but laugh, because it was something he probably would have thought o
f back in his younger days of playing “the game”. After regaining his composure he thought and said, “Now since you are playing such a dangerous game at this stage in your life, do you have a cut off plan?”

  “What the heck is a cut off plan”, Preston questioned.

  “Look, young head, if you are not going to be in a long and committed relationship your young behind needs to have a cut off plan to get rid of her. So please tell me you have one so that I don’t have to school you on that one too.”

  Preston felt real young at this point, because until Longs said something about a cut off plan, he really never planned it out. “Here’s the curveball that I threw at ole girl. She doesn’t know where I live and all I have to tell her is that I am deploying someplace across the globe and it will be all good.”

  “But you are still not listening to what I am telling you black man. You need to have a serious plan to cut her off or you will get caught up and there will be no return if you jack up your marriage. You have kids, a pregnant wife and there aren’t too many brothers in Columbus that can say they have a Master’s degree in their twenties and a career lined up as soon as they graduate. Look if you gonna get it, get it! Because, I know you’re not going to listen to me anyway. So do what you’re going to do and make sure you get rid of her forever,” Longs yelled a little louder than he anticipated. A long really loved Preston and was always able to brag about him every chance he got. In some ways Longs felt that if he could do it all over it again he may have made some cleaner turns around the curb, but he was more than satisfied to be able to tell someone else the way it should be.

  “Well, uh I thought you might be hyped up to hear a little bit, but now you make me want to not do anything with her,” Preston said kind of disappointed at his exploitations.