In Times of Trouble Read online

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1: A Minor Issue

  Chapter 2: The Perfect Match

  Chapter 3: Serves Her Right

  Chapter 4: A Flying Firecracker

  Chapter 5: Who ’Dis?

  Chapter 6: A Different Perspective

  Chapter 7: A Whole ’Nother Story

  Chapter 8: Super Holy

  Chapter 9: W.W.O.D.?

  Chapter 10: A Step Further

  Chapter 11: Something’s Not Quite Right

  Chapter 12: Nothing, Honey

  Chapter 13: With All Due Respect

  Chapter 14: A Living Legend

  Chapter 15: Already Been Tested

  Chapter 16: As Luck Would Have It

  Chapter 17: Quite the Charmer

  Chapter 18: So Dramatic

  Chapter 19: Temporary Insanity

  Chapter 20: High-Maintenance

  Chapter 21: Familiar Territory

  Chapter 22: A Bit On Edge

  Chapter 23: Bottom Dollar

  Chapter 24: True Colors

  Chapter 25: Down Right Ignorance

  Chapter 26: Water Under the Bridge

  Chapter 27: Just Stuff

  Chapter 28: Conflict of Interest

  Chapter 29: Malicious Intent

  Chapter 30: Section 105.13A

  Chapter 31: Church Issues

  Chapter 32: A Permanent Fixture

  Chapter 33: Woulddas, Shoulddas, Coulddas

  Chapter 34: No Further Questions

  Chapter 35: All Too Familiar

  Chapter 36: A Few Choice Words

  Chapter 37: Any Given Day

  Chapter 38: Knight in Shining Armor

  Chapter 39: Under the Rug

  Epilogue

  Discussion Questions

  About the Author

  This book is dedicated to my cousin, Tyrell Jones.

  I love you more than you could ever know.

  Acknowledgments

  First, I want to thank Jesus for loving, molding, stretching, challenging, correcting, and forgiving me. No matter how close I came to giving up or how many times I failed You, You never let me go. May my life bring glory to Your Name!

  David, I could use all the pages in this book and more to express my love and appreciation for you. I’m grateful for both the good and the bad times we’ve endured. All has worked together to shape us! I love you, baby!

  To Tre and Tia, my heart is open to many children, but no one comes close to matching the love I have for each of you and the joy I have from being your mother.

  To my parents, Wilene and Eddie, in addition to David and the kids, you are my biggest supporters. Thank you for believing in me and cheering me on.

  To Carla Laskey, Teresa Lewis, LaKesha Raynor, and Janice Sanders who took the time to proofread this story before it ever reached the desk of an agent or publisher. Your feedback was invaluable and I appreciate and love you ladies very much.

  To Dan Schofield, I have never forgotten your kindness!

  To my family (both biological and in Christ), friends, book clubs, stores, and members of Yo Notes who have supported me over the years, I thank you all very much!

  To Torry Cornett, Tiffany Croom, Mata Elliott, Kim Hahn, Selvy Hall, Kayla Hollins, Tyree Ayers, Michelle (Graham) Jones, Yolanda Knox, Cheryle Lewis (wife of Joe Lewis in Cincinnati, OH ), Shinerr Parker, Donald Schwind, Jennifer Scwhind, Leslie J. Sherrod, MaRita Teague, Robin Thornton, Suzy Tobin, and Clarke Tobin, I sincerely thank each of you for the assistance you provided. No matter how “big” or “small” a part you feel you played, your role was important to my completing this story.

  A HUGE thank you goes to Tifani Kendrick for reminding me that I have a voice!

  To Megan Yenni, I kept my promise to name a character in this book after you.

  Tyra, you may be fully grown, but you will always be my “baby!” I love you!

  To my longest friend, Vicki Wismer, I know you’ll always be there.

  To Rell, I dedicated this book to you because I believe in God’s sovereignty over genetic health conditions. May you find comfort in His word.

  To Sara (and Stephen), THANK YOU for believing in me! May this be the beginning of a long, happy, and prosperous partnership.

  To everyone who works for or with Simon & Schuster and Strebor, thank you for your part in putting together the complete package.

  If I have neglected to mention anyone, I must be having a brain fart at the time. Please forgive me!

  To you, the reader, thank you for your support. I pray that this story is a blessing to you. Trust that God’s power is not limited by life’s circumstances.

  Much Love & Many Blessings,

  Yolonda

  www.yoproductions.net

  www.facebook.com/yoproductions

  I can also be found on Twitter @ytsanders

  CHAPTER 1

  A Minor Issue

  It took Lisa a few minutes to fully regain consciousness when she woke up and found herself in the living room. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep. Tucked away in an eastern suburb of Columbus, the Hampton household had been relatively quiet last night. With her mother and daughter out, Lisa took advantage of the solitary Saturday evening and just relaxed. Considering the many late nights she’d worked the previous week, she needed the break. Lisa spent the evening in her blue satin pajamas curled up on her cream plush sofa where she had apparently fallen asleep.

  The sound of snow humming on her flat television screen was irritating and she quickly used the remote to turn it off. Noticing the time was 12:49 a.m., Lisa leapt up and ran through the kitchen to see if her car was in the garage. Nope, just her mother’s car, which meant that Chanelle, her seventeen-year-old daughter, had missed her midnight curfew!

  “Don’t jump to conclusions,” Lisa said to herself as she reached for the phone, flipping through the caller ID. She hoped Chanelle had tried to call when she was asleep, but was disheartened to find no evidence supporting her theory. She quickly dialed Chanelle’s cell phone, hearing the hip-hop music selection that preceded her daughter’s voice mail. She didn’t bother leaving a message.

  Dashing up the stairs, Lisa knocked on her mother’s bedroom door as a courtesy, but didn’t wait for a response. “Mama?” She peeked inside.

  Hattie lay like Sleeping Beauty underneath a tan comforter that blended in perfectly with her light skin tone. She looked so peaceful that Lisa really didn’t want to disturb her. She stood for a split second, admiring her mother’s beauty. Though she was in her mid-sixties, Lisa’s mother looked great—still-mostly-black hair, a shapely size ten figure and no wrinkles. Lisa hoped she’d inherited her mother’s genes and would also age gracefully. So far so good, but if Chanelle kept working her nerves, she’d surely look old and gray within a few years.

  “Mama!” Lisa spoke with more force.

  “Huh?”

  “Sorry to wake you. . .I want to know if you’ve heard from Chanelle.”

  “No, why? She’s not home yet?”

  “No, but don’t worry. I’ll find her.”

  Her mother quickly sat up. “Did you call Jareeka? Maybe Chanelle accidentally dozed off over there.”

  The girl’s name was actually Gericka, like Erika, but Lisa didn’t bother correcting her mother, who was notorious for renaming people. “Calling there is my next step. I wanted to check with you first.”

  Lisa ran back down to the kitchen where Chanelle’s best friend’s telephone number was posted on the small magnetic bulletin board attached to the refrigerator. By now it was a few minutes shy of one.

  The phone rang several times before Marlon Young, Gericka’s father, answered.

  “Hi! I’m sorry
to call your house so late. This is Lisa.”

  “Yes, what can I do for you?”

  “Is Chanelle there?”

  “No, why do you ask?”

  Lisa’s throat tightened. “She’s not here yet. Do you know what time she brought Gericka home from the movies?”

  “I don’t know what Chanelle told you, but she didn’t go to the movies with Gericka,” Marlon firmly stated. “Gericka and Karen went to Louisville on Friday to spend the weekend with my mother-in-law.”

  “I’m sorry. . .I thought. Never mind. I’m sorry I woke you.”

  “It’s okay. I’m sure you’re concerned about your daughter. I pray she gets home safely,” he said, before hanging up.

  With no other options, Lisa reluctantly dialed RJ’s number, which she had unfortunately memorized by now. She hated calling her ex-husband, but figured the situation warranted such an action. It was a waste of time because he hadn’t seen or heard from Chanelle either. As if his presence would calm Lisa’s nerves, RJ had offered to come over and wait with her until Chanelle arrived.

  “No, thanks!” Lisa quickly declined. He always seemed to be looking for an excuse to be near her, but the only man occupying her time was Minister Freeman, whom she had been out to dinner with on several occasions.

  “Please let me know the minute you hear from her,” RJ requested.

  “I will,” she assured.

  He had some nerve, acting like a concerned father when he was the reason why she and Chanelle had left Baltimore and come to Ohio in the first place. Had she known several summers ago when she moved here that he would follow, she would have accepted another job elsewhere.

  Feeling her blood pressure rise with each passing second, she went back into the living room and sat on the couch. She began fiddling with the charm on the necklace she never took off, which had become a habit whenever she became nervous or angry. The time was exactly 1:07 a.m. and that meant her daughter was now sixty-seven minutes past curfew. Lisa was fuming!

  Though the “God, please don’t let anything bad happen to her” prayer cycled through Lisa’s head a few times, she honestly didn’t feel a need to panic. For some reason, Lisa knew Chanelle was okay—wherever she was. Chanelle was okay now, but Lisa couldn’t promise that she’d be later when she finally brought her behind home and parental justice kicked in.

  She did not understand why Chanelle would intentionally lie and violate her curfew. She was fresh off of punishment for talking back earlier that week. Lisa had asked Chanelle to get off the computer so she could type some information for work, but Chanelle had defiantly replied, “No!”—as if Lisa had really given her an option. Already stressed because of her work challenges, Lisa controlled the urge to snatch Chanelle out of the chair by her ponytail and threatened that if she didn’t move of her own accord, she would be moved. Chanelle got up without further objection but her attitude had struck Lisa’s nerve, so Chanelle had been placed on punishment.

  Hearing the sound of her mother’s footsteps descending the hardwood stairs, Lisa leaned back on the sofa so as not to appear overly anxious.

  “Chanelle still hasn’t made it home?” Her mother’s wire-framed glasses rested at the tip of her nose while a large green robe concealed her body.

  “Nope. . .”

  “Did you call Jareeka’s?”

  “Yes, her father said that she and her mother are away for the weekend.” She felt herself tensing with every word.

  “What about RJ? Have you called him?”

  “He hasn’t seen her either.”

  “Well, don’t come down too hard on her. Maybe she didn’t know Jareeka was out of town and when she found out, she decided to hang with one of her other friends instead. Now she should’ve at least called and told you, but she was probably so happy to get out the house that she forgot. Poor thing; it seems like she’s always on punishment. Sometimes I think you’re too hard on that girl. I don’t want to meddle—”

  “Then please don’t,” the thirty-eight-year-old interjected in the most respectful tone that she could conjure up with a clenched jaw.

  “All right. I’ll keep my opinion to myself, but I was merely going to say that you may want to consider extending Chanelle’s curfew. She’s practically an adult and it’s time you start treating her like one. Maybe then you’d be less likely to run into this problem.”

  An electrifying jolt shot through Lisa’s body. The way she disciplined Chanelle had become a constant point of contention between her and her mother. Thank goodness Hattie would soon be moving into her own apartment! Lisa could not wait!

  “That makes absolutely no sense!” she fired back. “What she is, is irresponsible. Why should I reward her for not being able to honor her curfew? And anyhow, she wouldn’t have been on punishment recently had she not been so smart at the mouth.”

  “I wonder where she got it from. . .” her mother replied cynically, quickly disappearing into the kitchen and returning moments later. “Good night.”

  “The same to you,” Lisa replied, continuing to stew as the clock read 1:21 a.m. The only other noise she heard was the emptying of the automatic ice machine until ten minutes or so later when a car pulled into the driveway. Lisa’s heart began racing when she saw flashing blue and red lights from the window. It wasn’t her car as she had thought, but a police cruiser. A gut-wrenching fear fell over her. Had something horrible happened to Chanelle? She felt guilty about being so angry and the missed curfew was now a minor issue compared to the concern that her baby might be lying in the hospital somewhere. Lisa was horrified by the unlimited possibilities of things that could’ve happened to her daughter. The pit of her stomach knotted as she sprang from the couch and raced to the front door.

  CHAPTER 2

  The Perfect Match

  Callie Jamison lay curled up in her waterbed. She’d barricaded herself in her room several days ago. Since the day she’d gotten the devastating news, she hadn’t eaten, slept or done much of anything except stare at the sky gray walls. She felt ashamed. But why? She hadn’t done anything. Still, she tried to bury her pain in the depth of her heart, but her anger was so overwhelming that it kept resurrecting and she found herself hating everything and everyone. . .including God.

  Her Bible lay next to the bed on the oak nightstand, secured in its black leather case. Until a few days ago, she used to read it regularly. Having read the Bible from the time she was a child until her late-forties, she figured she knew just about everything it said. She could name all the books in order, quote scripture verbatim and over the course of many years, she had written a synopsis of every book for her own personal benefit. Because she was so well-studied, Callie had been prepared to deal with everything life threw her way. . .or so she’d thought. Nothing she’d read between the pages of those sixty-six books had prepared her for this!

  “Mom,” Bryan called, gently tapping on her bedroom door.

  If it weren’t for him, Callie probably would’ve lost her mind or killed herself by now. Thankfully, Bryan had dropped everything at a moment’s notice and driven nearly six hours from L.A. to Sacramento to be by her side. She wondered what was going through his mind as he raced across the interstate. She realized that he was hurting in his own way. Both of them were still grieving the loss of his father, Marvin, who had committed suicide seven months ago, but Callie had been the only one in therapy over the situation. She had always felt guilty and negligent. As his wife, shouldn’t she have seen the warning signs? The suicide note Marvin had left behind offered no explanation. It simply read, “I’m so sorry.” Recently, new developments had surfaced, shedding more light on the incident.

  “Mom!” Bryan yelled again.

  “Come in,” she finally said.

  “I’m getting ready to go to bed. I wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything.” His voice was low and shaky—definitely not the sound of a prominent attorney who had recently made junior partner at his law firm. Even his appearance lacked confidence. Bryan’s b
ulky frame normally stood about six-one, like his father’s, but his slumped shoulders and drooping head made him seem shorter.

  Callie shook her head. “Unless you have a bag of miracles, I can’t think of anything else I need,” she said in an “I’m-trying-to-make-a-joke-but-I’m-really-not-in-a-laughing-mood” sort of way.

  Bryan walked over and sat next to her on the bed. “I wish I could perform miracles,” he whispered.

  His sincerity caused Callie’s eyes to well with tears. She didn’t think any had escaped until Bryan wiped her cheek.

  “I’m so sorry this happened to you. . .” He took her hand, squeezing it gently and staring at her, sadly. She could feel the energy of his love through his firm grip. Looking into his big brown eyes, she was reminded of the five-year-old who’d won her heart way before Marvin ever did. They had become the perfect match. He was the child she could never carry and she was the mother figure that he’d longed for.

  It was as if Marvin was the stepparent and not her. People who didn’t know the circumstances would sometimes comment on how much they looked alike. Besides their mocha-colored skin, Callie didn’t see the resemblance between Bryan and herself, but she definitely didn’t mind the comparison. They had an unbreakable bond with one another. If it weren’t for him, Callie would’ve wished the last twenty-four years of her life away.

  “This is a time when we must lean on God more than ever,” Bryan said, interrupting Callie’s nostalgic moment. “Lord knows, I don’t understand why this has happened to you. The only scripture that comes to mind right now is Proverbs 3:4-5. That’s what we have to stand on.”

  Callie quickly mulled the scripture over in her mind. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Callie was so angry with God that she wanted to severely admonish Bryan for his advice. How in the world could she trust God when He was the One who had let this happen?

  “What time are you leaving tomorrow?” She purposely changed the subject to avoid the possibility of further biblical instruction.

  “I’ll probably take off around ten or so. I’ll be back on Thursday.”