A Family Reunion Read online

  An old man’s grandchildren are his crowning glory.

  A child’s glory is his father.

  —PROVERBS 17:6, THE LIVING BIBLE

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Reading Group Guide

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me…

  Ethan Allen Bennett had lived a very long life, and today he felt every bit of his eighty-nine years. Each time he closed his eyes seeking a peaceful moment, he heard the sweet sound of his late wife, Idella, softly singing the lyrics of her favorite church song.

  Since he was blessed not to have Alzheimer’s, it must be his imagination, he concluded ruefully, closing his eyes once more to enjoy the spiritual melody. He was sitting in his favorite chair in a room that was kept warm by the huge old-fashioned heater. It was a heater that had been in his home pretty close to sixty years. After Idella’s death ten years ago his six children, worried about his solitary state, had wanted to come in and modernize the place. For starters, they had wanted to remove his heater and replace it with central heat and air.

  “That heater’s no longer any good. It’s dangerous,” his eldest son, Ethan Junior, had declared louder than a Baptist preacher on a first Sunday morning. And as usual the other five siblings had agreed.

  “That heater warmed all of your backsides at one time or another,” Ethan Senior had forcefully reminded them. “It stays and so does everything else. Everything stays just like your mama left it.”

  And that had settled that.

  They had not understood that when a man had been married to a woman for over sixty years, like he had been married to his Idella, and the other half departed to meet their Maker, the one left behind needed something of her to remember, to hold on to, and to cherish, even if it was the one picture on the wall that absolutely rattled his grands and great-grands during their visits. It was the huge picture of the blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus that had been hanging in that very spot on the wall for over forty-five years.

  Jesus, as Idella had visualized him to be, was flanked by a portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr., on one side and one of John F. Kennedy, Sr., on the other. A picture of Robert Kennedy—not as large as the others but just as visible—had been added years later and hung underneath Jesus. Until the end Jesus had been Idella’s Savior, the Almighty, the calm in the wake of a storm, the Prince of Peace. Martin, John, and Bobby had been her boys, her heroes who could do no wrong. She would defend their honor to her dying days. In fact, she had.

  Ethan heard the singing once again.

  It was at times like these, when he was all alone, that he missed his Idella more than at other times. It would probably be somewhat different if he was still allowed to drive; then he could spend more time at the Masonic Lodge every day. Right now he had to depend on his children to take him wherever he wanted to go. Although he knew they didn’t mind, he didn’t like being a burden to anyone.

  He hated that he’d let them talk him into giving up his driver’s license but had understood their reasoning. He would be the first to admit that his eyesight wasn’t as good as it used to be. Besides, it was either giving up his license or agreeing to their suggestion of installing one of those devices to have some emergency service monitor his house every evening, since he lived alone. He definitely hadn’t wanted that. Nor had he wanted to follow their other suggestion of letting his oldest great-grand, sixteen-year-old Jerrell, live with him. He loved his first great-grand to death, but the boy played his music too loud to suit him. Although Ethan’s eyesight wasn’t what it used to be, so far he didn’t have any problem with his hearing and wanted to keep it that way. Living with Jerrell would damage his eardrums for sure.

  He heard the singing once more.

  I sang because I’m happy. I sang because I’m free. His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me.

  He wondered just how happy Idella would be in knowing the sorrowful state of the family she had left behind. How would she feel to know that her baby boy, Victor Senior, was now on his third wife and had so many outside children it had become a joke to everyone.

  But not to Ethan.

  Outside or inside, they were still his grandchildren, grandchildren he would claim although he didn’t even know half of them.

  And what about his grands that he did know about? Last count there were fifteen. Two by way of Ethan Junior, three from Joe, three by way of Emery, one from Prentice, one by way of Colleen—his deceased daughter—and the rest from his youngest son, Victor Senior. Ethan Senior had seen his fifteen grandchildren off and on over the years but never together and never at the same time. At least not since the last family reunion, fifteen years ago. Everyone had enjoyed themselves and had had a good time, not knowing that in less than five years the matriarch of the Bennett family, his Idella, would pass away peacefully in her sleep. Since then there hadn’t been any more reunions. There were seldom any visits. Everyone was busy doing their own thing. Last he’d heard, his grandson Victor Junior was busy making babies, outside babies, just like his father had done. Lord knows the boy got it honest.

  Then there was his granddaughter Rae’jean, the one the family had boasted as being the “pretty” one, with her high yella coloring and white folks’ hair. He was proud of her, the only doctor in the family. He’d heard through the family grapevine, the all-knowing, all-gossiping Cuzin Sophie, that Rae’jean was dating a white boy, another doctor.

  He couldn’t think of Rae’jean without thinking of Taye and Alexia. Growing up while Idella was alive, those three granddaughters of theirs were always into something. As little ones, their weekend visits had been the highlight of his and Idella’s lives. Taye had been the smart one. She could add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers in her head in mere seconds. She had been the one the family just knew would go far. He remembered the day her ma, Otha Mae, had taken her to college, some prestigious school up north. She had left Taye on the dormitory steps with strict orders to keep her books open and her legs closed. Lo and behold, no sooner had Otha Mae rounded the corner to return back home to Georgia than the girl had gotten buck wild and had opened her legs as wide as they could go. By the end of the first semester she had returned home pregnant. Taye had finished school a year early and had been too young to go off somewhere to college. But her parents hadn’t listened to him and Idella. In the end they wished they had.

  Alexia, bless her heart, had been another matter altogether, he thought, smiling proudly. To him and Ide
lla, Alexia had been the most beautiful child anyone had ever seen. But he’d known a few of the Bennetts had thought otherwise, with her dark skin, unruly hair, weight problem, and crooked teeth. So Alexia was never showered with the same type of praise and compliments that had been bestowed upon Rae’jean and Taye. The only thing some family members thought Alexia had going for her was her voice. It was the beautiful voice of a songbird. It was a voice that she had inherited from her Gramma Idella, since everyone knew neither of Alexia’s parents could hold a decent note, although Prentice and Alma still insisted upon singing in the church choir every second Sunday morning.

  That’s why now, with Alexia being a successful singer who was a part of that popular singing group, and whose picture, just last month, was in an issue of People magazine claiming her as one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world, those who’d thought she hadn’t had anything going for her were walking around holding their heads down in shame.

  Just as well.

  Last but not least, his thoughts shifted to Michael, who was the grandson of his first cousin, Henry Bennett. Michael had gone through some tough times a few years back after learning he’d been adopted. It was something he hadn’t found out until he had left for the air force right after the last family reunion.

  The last family reunion.

  Since that time the family had begun dwindling away and so had the values Ethan and Idella had tried to instill. He wondered how he could make his children, his grands and great-grands, understand what a real family meant. It meant more than getting together occasionally for the holidays. It meant being there for one another, through thick and thin, the good times and the bad. It also meant that when friends deserted you, you could always depend on your family to be there.

  Ethan slowly stood and crossed the room to the phone. He would call his cousin Agnes. Even at the age of seventy she was still a mover and a shaker and was the one person he knew who could be counted on to get things done, especially the one thing he wanted. The one thing the family needed.

  The Bennetts needed to come together for another family reunion. The first one in fifteen years.

  Chapter 1

  Taye

  “Taye, are you going to the Firemen’s Ball or not?”

  Sharon Langley’s question unsettled Octavia Bennett to no end. She fought to suppress her aggravation so she could give a calm answer. But first she needed to finish getting all of the relaxer out of Mrs. Walker’s hair.

  “Taye, I asked you a question.”

  Nerves on edge, Taye glanced up from the washbowl and gave her best friend a leveled glare. It didn’t matter that Sharon owned the most exclusive beauty salon in Atlanta, where Taye worked as a stylist in the day while juggling the chore of raising two daughters and going to school at night. Nor did it matter that they had known each other since second grade. Taye would say her piece to Sharon…in private. “We’ll talk later, OK?”

  Sharon couldn’t do anything but nod, caught off guard by the curtness of Taye’s tone. Taye was known for her subtle wit and soft-spoken manner. You would have to push really hard to get a rise out of her. Sharon couldn’t help wondering what wrong button she had pushed.

  Once Taye had gotten Mrs. Walker’s hair rinsed and conditioned and had placed her under the dryer, she motioned for Sharon to meet her in the supply room.

  “OK, Taye, what’s wrong with you? All I asked was whether or not you’re attending the Firemen’s Ball. The look you gave me sent chills up my spine.”

  The look Taye now slanted Sharon was partly amused and partly apologetic. Taye had reacted rather badly but felt she had done so with good reason, although Sharon didn’t know that. She owed her an explanation. “Monica’s father is a fireman.”

  Sharon’s hand flew up to her mouth and her large bulging eyes told Taye she had literally shocked her speechless, which wasn’t easy to do, since Sharon could be counted on to always have something to say. The identity of Monica’s father was something Taye had never discussed with anyone, not even with Sharon. It had been bad enough that she had gotten pregnant in her first semester of college and had to return home and listen to her mother’s constant spiel of how she’d disappointed the family. Then as if that hadn’t been bad enough, she had screwed up again three years later by getting pregnant for a second time, this time from a man who conveniently forgot to tell her he was married. A second child out of wedlock had been a final blow to the already-strained relationship she’d had with her parents.

  “Monica’s father was a fireman?”

  Taye nodded. “He still is.” Since Sharon had been away at college at the time, she had never met the man Taye had dated for nearly three months. There was no reason to tell her that not only was he a fireman, but now he was a captain in the Atlanta Fire Department. Back then, ten years ago when they’d dated, he’d been a rookie who’d just made the squad. She had been a lonely young woman of twenty, a single mother with a two-year-old who had fallen under his spell and had believed his story that he was a single man sharing an apartment with a buddy. Even now she cringed every time she thought about all the lies he’d told and how she had foolishly fallen for them.

  Sharon’s footsteps furiously clicking on the tiled floor reeled Taye’s thoughts out of the past and back to the present. Sharon was no longer speechless. She was angry and was pacing the room getting madder by the minute. Taye regretted that she had told Sharon anything. The main reason she’d never done so before was because Sharon was like a dog with a bone. Once she got ahold of something, she wouldn’t let go. Besides, when it came to Taye, Sharon was fiercely loyal and protective.

  “Octavia Louise Bennett! Here you’ve been working your butt off for ten years trying to make ends meet raising Sebrina and Monica, and Monica’s father has a good job, but you refuse to make the scumbag pay child support!”

  Taye sighed. She’d had this conversation about Monica’s father not paying child support with Sharon many times. “You know why I haven’t done that. In order to file for child support I’d have to reveal his identity, and I refuse to do that.”

  Sharon’s heated face told Taye just what she thought of that. “Girl, why are you still protecting him? Even after ten years you won’t tell anyone who he is, not even me, and I’m your best friend.”

  “You know why I won’t tell you, Sharon. You’d take actions into your own hands and do something stupid.”

  Sharon drew in a deep, ragged breath, fighting for control. “It’s not stupid to make a man take care of his child! Why are you protecting him?”

  “I’m not protecting him. Don’t you think I’ve thought about confronting him and demanding that he do what’s right by his child? But what would that do other than hurt his wife, who doesn’t know he’s a low-life? They even have a daughter who was born a day or so before Monica.”

  “Jeez! You mean he was sleeping with both you and his wife at the same time?”

  “Yes, but if anyone should have been sleeping with him it was her. She had all the rights to do so; I had none.”

  Sharon rolled her eyes. “But you didn’t know.”

  “Still, I was a fool to be taken in by him. You’ll never know how awful I felt when I found out I’d been sleeping with a married man. But it was my mistake and not his wife’s and I refuse to ruin his marriage.”

  “What kind of marriage is it if he screws around on her?”

  “That was ten years ago.”

  “And you think his penis has dropped off since then? Get real, Taye. Men like that don’t know how to keep their pants zipped. I bet Monica isn’t the only outside child he has. He’s probably no better than your uncle Victor or your cousin Victor Junior. I bet he has—”

  “I don’t care, Sharon. Monica is all I care about. She’s doing OK. She’s never even asked me about him.”

  “But she’s asked me!”

  Taye suddenly felt dizzy. She placed a steadying hand on one of the shelves for support. Had she heard Sharon right? “Monica has
asked you about her father?”

  “Yes, more than once. She didn’t feel comfortable coming to you and asking you about him, and since I’m her godmother she asked me.”

  A lump formed in Taye’s throat. “What did you tell her?”

  “Not what I wanted to, believe me. I told her that I honestly didn’t know a thing about him. The only thing I did know was that he must have been good-looking for her to be such a beautiful child.”

  Sharon paused for a moment as she considered Taye. “But don’t you see, Taye, she’s getting older. She wants the same thing Sebrina has. She sees Gary coming here every summer to get Sebrina and wonders why she doesn’t have a father coming for her.”

  Taye thought about the guy she’d gotten pregnant from while in her first semester at college, the one who had taken away her virginity, Gary Stevens. He was a senior who knew what he was doing when he targeted her. At seventeen, still wet behind the ears, she had played right into his hands and, in no time at all, his bed. “I can’t force a man to want his child.”

  “But you can force him to take care of her financially. It’s been ten years. Do you want to know what I think?”

  Taye raised her eyes to the ceiling. “No, not really.”

  Sharon ignored her and told her anyway. “I think you still feel something for this guy and that’s why you’re protecting him. Don’t hand me that cock-and-bull story about your protecting his wife. If he cared anything for his wife he wouldn’t have been unfaithful.”