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  She didn’t want to go through another tumultuous storm. She was tired. The thought made her yawn.

  Vanessa set off for the kitchen to scrounge around for something to eat. She picked a few grapes from the fruit bowl to help freshen her mouth from the bag of Doritos she had demolished earlier bedside. She had not thawed anything that could be an entrée for the night’s meal. Willie would be home soon and not having something prepped and underway was a cardinal sin in their household, especially since she was home all day.

  She wasn’t a great cook, but she had gotten a lot better at it with the help of her sister, Keisha, and television cooking shows. She had to take up the art of cooking after marrying Willie last year and deciding she didn’t want the women of the congregation cooking for her husband like they did when he was a single man. Call it a peeve, but it is what motivated her from being Pastor Carry-out Queen to Co-Pastor Domestic Diva-in-training. One of her worst fears was that a sexy siren like the Italian celebrity chef, Giada Laurentiis, would steal her man away with her robustly flavorful meals. So she frequently turned on The Food Network for ideas and recipes to sample.

  Most times Vanessa’s dishes didn’t even remotely resemble the ones seen on those cooking shows, but she could garnish a plate to look nice. That was her specialty, garnish and ground beef dishes. She had perfected spaghetti meat sauce, meatballs, meatloaf, and hamburgers. She thanked God that Willie wasn’t a picky man.

  The thought of ground beef sparked her desire for chili, and just like that, dinner plans were made. She unwrapped a block of frozen ground round in the center of a skillet and waited for it to start to sizzle before prying the meat away from the frozen pack as it browned.

  From a distance, Vanessa noticed the light blinking on their answering machine that was sitting at the far counter. She remembered from the night before that Willie was too eager to check messages on his office line downstairs after their return. Vanessa had been eager to hit the sack, leaving their personal messages on hold. Figuring that she couldn’t escape the present any longer, Vanessa pushed the button to replay her messages after adding water to her pan to speed up her meat’s thawing process.

  The first message was from Keisha. At first her sister’s playful scorn admonishing her for leaving town as if she were the big sister, was misleading. But there was something else in her voice. It was a sadness that Vanessa detected as Keisha ended the message with, “Call me as soon as you get back.”

  Something is wrong, Vanessa thought. She had done more than her share of rescuing her sister in the past and could tell. She hesitated before dialing her sister’s work number. Her greeting was chipper enough, but just like a baby who takes a tumble and cries only after realizing that Mommy was there to witness it, Keisha poured on the emotion.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Vanessa said, taking the phone into the adjoining dining room to take a seat.

  “It’s Paul,” Keisha said. “Hold on a minute.”

  Vanessa’s thoughts entertained everything from Paul being gravely ill to the unthinkable. “What’s wrong with Paul? Did he have a change of heart?” Vanessa asked as soon as Keisha came back.

  “No, Vanessa, why would you ask something like that?” Keisha whined. “Wait, have you talked to him?”

  “I’ve been on vacation. Of course, I haven’t spoken to him. It’s just that you’re so upset. Girl, I could hear the sadness in your voice even on the message. What’s wrong?”

  “Paul is highly allergic to everything; grass, ragweed, tree pollen, not to mention all his food allergies.”

  “So?” Vanessa said in a tone that demanded she serve up the bad news soon. She rubbed her temple and braced herself.

  “I can’t get married outside. Paul said his allergies are so bad that he’d be miserable the whole time-- even into late fall. Now, I am miserable. I always wanted to get married at the Garden Gazebo.” Again she whined.

  Vanessa swallowed relief before getting flustered all over again. “Wait a minute, why aren’t you planning on getting married in your daddy’s church?”

  “You didn’t even get married there,” Keisha was quick to point out.

  “That was different. Willie had his own church at the time, and I was honoring my husband by getting married at Harvest.”

  “Yeah right, Vanessa,” Keisha said doubtful.

  “I surely would like to know why you’d think I’d lie about something like this.”

  “You didn’t press Willie to get married at Mt. Pleasant because just like me you have an issue with our church not having a center aisle.”

  Vanessa wanted to end the call right then and there. She never thought the construction of the church would be a deal breaker. She knew trying to convince her sister otherwise was futile.

  “Here I am thinking you’re having a real issue. As far as I’m concerned you’ve got three options. You can rent a foreign church with money that could be better served elsewhere so you can have your precious center aisle, or shoot your groom up with so much Benedryl that he can’t stand straight so you can get married outside anyway. Option three is get married at Pleasant Harvest if you want your big sister to officiate the wedding.”

  There was silence. The babe was back. Vanessa could imagine her sister’s pouty mouth and eyes ready to spout tears. This was a big deal to her. Even before the prospect of planning her own wedding, Keisha took over orchestrating Vanessa and Willie’s wedding for them. Vanessa wondered how many more months she would have to take of this melodrama.

  “When is the wedding?”

  “That’s just it, Vanessa,” Keisha snipped, “I can’t decide whether it should be sooner, like the end of this year, or later. Since an outside wedding is not an option, I was leaning toward—”

  Vanessa heard the key in the front door and looked at her watch as her sister droned on about the endless variables that prevented her from picking a wedding date. She pointed to the phone when Willie appeared in the door frame as if he would immediately know who it was. He backed away and began poking around the kitchen.

  “Do you love Paul?” Vanessa asked once given a chance.

  “Of course I do,” Keisha assured. “What kind of question is that? You sure you haven’t spoken to him? Willie either?”

  “I know this might sound crazy, but why don’t you ask your fiancée where and when he wants to get married,” Vanessa said, hoping not to germinate the seed of doubt she already rooted in her sister’s mind. “Listen to me. I bet if I had talked to him he’d say he’d get married anytime and anywhere as long as he was marrying you.”

  “Awwww,” Keisha said. Her smile beamed through the phone.

  “Well, look; Willie’s here, so I’m going to go finish dinner. I’ll talk to you later this week,” Vanessa said, hoping her sister would not call her with daily wedding planning updates.

  Willie lifted the lid on the ground beef before asking, “Hamburger Helper again?”

  “Hello to you too,” Vanessa answered before taking the lid from her husband in one hand. With the other, she began breaking apart the tender meat that had begun to brown for the second time after the half a cup of water boiled out.

  Willie stepped behind her and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Spaghetti?”

  “Chili,” she said to the tune of yummy.

  “What else are we eating with that?”

  “Why are you so concerned? Didn’t you eat lunch?” Vanessa said, searching for their colander to drain the fat. “Chili is a stand alone meal. It’s got kidney beans in it, but if that’s not good enough for you, then I’m sure we got some salad in there or something. Now get out of my kitchen. It’ll be about another half an hour. I’ll call you when I’m done.”

  Willie did as he was told. “I invited someone over,” he threw over his shoulder as he departed.

  “Wait,” she shouted. “Come again; someone?”

  “A young lady,” he added, noticing her eyebrows forming question marks. His smile was as big and as devious a
s a Cheshire cat’s when he returned. “Well, I’ve been following that polygamy case on the news, and I figure since I am a man of the cloth, and it wasn’t unheard of to have multiple wives in biblical days, that I’d invite Alexis over and see if the two of you get along before I ask her to join our family.”

  “Don’t play with me, Willie Green,” Vanessa said, realizing that his sense of humor was what she loved about him, but also what had come to frustrate her about him lately. She was not in the mood for wisecracks or guests.

  “For real, why are you so tense lately?” Willie rubbed her shoulders. “You rested today, right?”

  Instead of shrugging his hands off her shoulders like she wanted to, she moved out of his grasp to open the can of beans with the electric can opener. Was she tense? Did it show that much? “Is someone coming over or not?”

  “Alexis Montgomery, she’s a reporter for Channel 7 news. She is the one who interviewed me that day of the fire. They want to do a follow-up story. I don’t know exactly, but I guess, the story will be like the history of Harvest.”

  Vanessa hurriedly added the rest of the ingredients to a small Dutch oven so that it could slow cook. She took a seat on a nearby barstool. She felt she needed a break. “Gosh, I’m so over Harvest. Every time we try to pull away from that place, someone or something draws you right back to it.”

  “It’s ironic, I know. They say irony is God’s intervention, and in some cases His comedy. I figure it can’t hurt to talk to the woman,” Willie said, still standing from when he had returned.

  Vanessa felt a chill that reminded her of stormy seas. She had to be the voice of reason. “This is not a good idea. Why are we memorializing a burnt building?”

  “How about it’s the place where I preached my initial sermon as pastor and saved a good many of souls. It’s also the place where we got married.” His voice was charged with emotion although he appeared to remain calm.

  “Well, it just seems like a tragic waste of time.”

  “That’s ’cause it wasn’t Mt. Pleasant that caught on fire,” Willie said so quickly that Vanessa almost missed it. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I’ve made up my mind. The woman is coming over and I’m going to talk to her.”

  He was dismissive, putting his foot down right on her ego.

  “Lord forbid, if I share my reservations with my husband. Reporters have been known to put a provocative spin on the most basic of stories. It’s what they do,” Vanessa said, preparing to grate cheese and chop onions to top off her chili. “But I’ll keep my comments to myself. Where should I serve you and your new wife? Will the dining room do, or would you prefer somewhere more intimate like the kitchen nook?”

  “Now, you know I was joking. I’m not even remotely interested in this woman,” Willie said with an incredulous look.

  “I’m joking also. Ha-ha,” Vanessa said in her blandest of tones.

  Vanessa ignored his questioning gaze. His look was asking everything she didn’t have an answer for. She bore down on the block of cheese with her right hand as she grated to take the edge off her frustration.

  “If I had of known we were having company, I would have made something else. Something more complete like Giada would have made.”

  “Who?”

  “The Italian chef,” She looked up to see his confused expression. “Oh, never mind.”

  “Is that what this is all about? Chili is fine and you will be fine too, after you freshen up. You’ve got a serious case of bed head.”

  “Thank you for the tip, but I’ve got to complete the meal first.” She used her forearm to wipe away fresh tears that began to well up catching her completely off guard. He was only playing, but his criticism of her meal and now her appearance was a little too much to bear. “If you tell me your guest will be here in the next ten minutes or so, I will absolutely kill you.”

  “My, aren’t we violent,” Willie chided. “She’ll be here at six. You have plenty of time.”

  Vanessa watched him exit the kitchen, giving her enough breathing space to hatch a counter argument.

  Chapter 3

  Like Doubting Thomas

  Vanessa wore her favorite lavender sweat suit and her hair hanging down past her shoulders, the way her husband liked it. Three helpings of chili were ready to be served in the two-handled soup bowls they received from William and Sonoma as a wedding gift. They were topped with a dollop of sour cream, cheddar cheese, chives, and onions in small ramekins.

  Vanessa sized up their dinner guest as she took the woman’s coat and led her into the dinning room. Alexis hugged both of them as if they were her parents and she had just come home from college. She was a slender woman of average height with a smooth youthful complexion that apparently had never been the battlefield for pimples in her youth. Her eyes told a different story. They were surprisingly mature. Vanessa wondered how old she really was and suspected she was closer to thirty than her counterparts at the TV station probably realized.

  Willie blessed the food from the head of the table, leaving Vanessa across from Alexis. She seemed to prefer the corn chips Vanessa had also put out. She was moving the kidney beans around to the opposite side of the bowl before taking bites of the chili. Vanessa was almost halfway through her portion, and was wondering, like Willie, what else there was to eat.

  Willie covered the pleasantries while they ate, discussing with Alexis everything from the unusually warm spring weather they were experiencing to ride in Alexis’. Apparently she had gotten lost although their house was a direct shot from the Capitol beltway. Vanessa remained silent, with ample smiles to pass around the table at the mention of their recent trip. She didn’t dare breach the topic of the hour first.

  She was waiting for Alexis to sprout two heads even though she found the girl charmingly clumsy, not at all like her on-air persona. Halfway through dinner, Alexis scrounged through her purse to find a ringing cell phone, dropping her keys in the process. Both she and Willie watched as Alexis absentmindedly reached for the item with an open purse, losing even more of its contents. Willie tried to get up and help, and narrowly escaped bumping heads with Alexis who wasn’t so lucky with the edge of the table. She left the dining area to step into a nearby room while rubbing her head with her left hand and using the right to retrieve her phone’s call back list.

  Willie and Vanessa looked at one another with a mixture of amusement and amazement until his eyes warned her to contain herself before their guest came back. He took this opportunity to get more chili while Vanessa settled on more corn chips.

  Maybe there wasn’t a storm brewing after all, Vanessa thought. She thought about how she had jumped the gun earlier with Keisha. It was time to start taking people at face value. This girl needed more help than anything.

  “Are you all right?” Willie asked when Alexis reentered the room.

  “Yeah, that’s the hazard in this job. You’re always on the go and sometimes your body is moving before your mind has had a chance to think,” she said to a chorus of her own contagious chuckles. “I’ve had more spills and falls than I care to mention.”

  “So you got stuck with reporting on the old church fire, huh?” Willie said.

  “I chose this story actually,” Alexis said.

  “Why?” Vanessa couldn’t resist.

  Alexis cleared her throat. “Or shall I say it chose me. I did the initial story, and I don’t know really. There is something about Harvest that’s familiar.”

  Vanessa could detect a southern upbringing sprouting up in Alexis’s speech. It was an accent that Vanessa was sure Alexis tried to smooth over with either plenty of practice or formal voice training.

  “Familiar?” Vanessa questioned.

  Alexis volleyed glances between the two of them before settling on Vanessa. “I grew up in a small, tight-knit church much like Harvest Baptist Church.”

  “Well, Harvest is no more,” Vanessa pushed out through a yawn in an attempt to stop the train from traveling down memory la
ne with her husband aboard.

  “Yes, ma’am, but what about the people that were going there?” Alexis asked.

  They should have moved over to Pleasant Harvest with the rest of the church, she thought.

  “So, tell us more about home,” Willie jumped in, letting everyone know he was the conductor. He had pushed back his plate as if he were ready for a lengthy conversation. “And how were you drawn to this story?”

  “Like I said, I grew up in a small town in Kannapolis, North Carolina. My grandfather, C. Paul Montgomery, who raised me, was and still is the bishop and pastor of Greater Hope Baptist Church. It was the only African American Baptist church in the whole area for a long while. I graduated high school early and went on to North Carolina Central University. Worked at WAKN—the local station there—could have easily been an anchor by now, but home wasn’t where the big stories were,” Alexis said.

  Vanessa noticed she had elected to give them the bulleted version and wondered what fell in the gaps. “And this Harvest story is a big story?” She almost laughed.

  “The game is played differently here. DC is a major market. I’m not just handed air time because I am Bishop Montgomery’s granddaughter. If nepotism is alive, it’s apparent I don’t know the right people,” Alexis said, a drawl punctuating her sentences. “You work from the bottom and move up on merit. You have to prove yourself daily. Prove that you can sense a good story. When I arrived on that fire scene and witnessed the invincible spirit of the people there, dancing and praising God in front of that edifice, I knew there was more to the story. Growing up in church I learned that great praise comes from a great testimony. You carry on like that to express gratitude to God or to taunt the devil one; get him off your track. So, Reverend, which one was it? Why did you leave, and what made you come back that Sunday morning?”