Jezebel
Thump! Ba-ba-baboom!
There was a thudding noise again, traveling through the paper-thin walls of the bright orange home on Shadow Grove. It sounded like something toppling to the floor.
Naomi’s mother, Jezebel, rushed down the hall to her bedroom on the left. Jezebel’s commands often went ignored when telling her daughter to have some decency, not to play so rough, or to stop jumping on her bed; it was a place for resting. She ran in then stopped, admiring Naomi’s four long, parted pigtails, which momentarily distracted her from the noise she had hurried here intending to investigate. She was simply relieved to see her child in one piece.
“What’s all the racket in here, child?”
A caramel-butter pecan beauty stared back at her, with wide, almond-shaped, mocha-colored eyes. “Wait until Daddy sees what I’ve made,” she said, avoiding the question.
“Oh, yeah?”
Jezebel noticed a pair of earrings in Naomi’s vintage wooden jewelry box, which had once belonged to her grandmother. She scooped them into her hand, put them in her ears and wrestled her rebellious hair into a ponytail. “What’d you make, dear? And get down from that bed!”
Naomi giggled. “Just a gift for Daddy. I want to surprise him with it.”
There was an endearing eagerness rooted in her face, as she thought about the special, handcrafted gift she just couldn’t put down. It was the best she could afford by saving the allowance she often asked her mother for, to buy a decent gift from the store or their favorite flea market. Jezebel gave her a brief once-over, looking for clues as to what the gift might be.
“I’m sure that, whatever it is, he’ll love it, sweet child. Turn the noise down a notch or two in here for me, okay?”
“Alright, Mama.”
Jezebel watched the excitement the twelve-year-old couldn’t suppress, that her father – Sterling Thomas, a well-known prosecutor of Caplewoods, Tennessee – would be stopping by to spend time with her. She rarely saw him, so it was a big deal.
He had made a name for himself around the small, old-fashioned town which held virtually no attraction, forty-five minutes from the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee. Though the town was small, it was pleasing to the eye. People always took sight of its enormous, beautiful, historic garden sculpture when driving through.
Jezebel lived in a rough, low-income part of the town with Naomi, where the scenery always seemed dull and boring. As a single mother, she took on several jobs to support them and rarely asked Sterling for money. Sometimes these roles were temporary, or odd jobs to make up for the hours she lost at the One Stop Market, down on Lane Street. The secrets she hid to protect his professional reputation from the community, and the love that she had for him, kept her from seeking out the support she truly needed for Naomi.
Jezebel took the house phone back to her bedroom. She dialed Sterling’s number, and it wasn’t until the fourth ring that he picked up.
“What the hell are you doing calling my phone at this hour, woman?”
“Calm your grumpiness when you’re talking to me. You don’t answer the phone like that when your rich friends and business partners call, so don’t do me like that!”
Of all people, he didn’t seem pleased to hear from Jezebel. She could sense him seething at the sassiness in her voice.
“You know what I’ve told you. You’re breaking the rules.”
“I know and I’m sorry. I just wanted to confirm that you were still coming over.” Jezebel nervously ran her fingers along her neck to her ear; she knew that Sterling wasn’t good at holding up his end of the bargain. “Our daughter’s really looking forward to seeing you; I need you to stick to your word this time.” She hated the desperation in her voice.
Surprisingly, he agreed to come over. He visited on occasion, when Jezebel begged him enough, when she desperately needed money or when it benefited him in some way.
“What are you going to do for me when I get there?”
“This isn’t about me and you,” she told him, reluctantly. “I’ve got to go.”
Sterling avoided most of his responsibilities outside of work, and he refused to be in Naomi’s life on a consistent basis. He was more involved in the life of a child he had conceived with another woman, than with Naomi – the one he was currently married to.
Jezebel’s “friend”, Maria, often insinuated the sordid situation around town, and it was embarrassing. Whenever anyone confronted her about her role as his mistress, Jezebel always denied the story, stating that the rumor was a lie. Who knew why she was still friends with someone who nitpicked at her and spread her business?
In Caplewoods, your life story somehow became everyone’s business. It was best to move in silence. Small towns often have big mouths, bigger rumors and the biggest secrets.
Jezebel’s phone rang right back. “Look, Sterling, I’ll talk to you when you get here—”
“Where’s my grandbaby?” said Mama Kay, breathing heavily into the phone.”
“She’s in her room, Mother. I’ll have her talk to you later. I’m on my way to work, and trying to make sure she has everything in place before her daddy gets here.”
“You’re still talking to that man? If you needed someone to keep her you should’ve asked me first.”
“Well, I asked him because she needs to bond with him.”
“He doesn’t want a relationship with her! Goodness, you’re going to drive yourself and that child straight into a lake of fire.”
Disappointed, Jezebel squeezed the phone tightly and hung up.
She peeked through the blinds and saw the headlights of a car drifting toward the window; a 1994 Cadillac Brougham. The sound of the car’s horn traveled in from the driveway, and a lithe figure with broad shoulders emerged when it parked.
Naomi shrieked and darted from her bedroom to the front door. “He’s here, Mama!”
“Alright. Now, I want you to be on your best behavior while I’m away,” said Jezebel, taking her work jacket in her hand. “You hear me?”
“Yes, Mama.”
Jezebel opened the door. She caught an eyeful of Sterling’s well-groomed appearance underneath the leather jacket he wore – dressed professionally, like his lawyer friends.
“It’s about time you opened the door,” he said, as he stepped inside.
“Well, you didn’t give me enough time to come to the door, now, did you?”
“Don’t start, woman. I came over to do you this favor when you knew that I couldn’t. You know my situation.”
They talked alone in the kitchen for a while, as Naomi sat in the living room. After they finished, Jezebel came over, kissed her goodbye and left for work.
“I’ve been wanting to show you something, Daddy,” she held out her hand: “look at what I have for you.”
“That’s nice; I’ll look at whatever you have to show me in a minute. Will you do your daddy a favor, sweetheart?”
The words rolled off his tongue, as smooth as the leather jacket he wore. He hadn’t acknowledged what she was holding, nor even greeted her, yet he was already asking for favors.
“Yes, sir?
“If you promise to stay in your room until I tell you to come out, this will all be yours.” He removed a crisp five-dollar bill from his wallet, before she had a chance to give him her gift. “It’ll only be for a little while, I promise. I’ll even take you to the store and let you pick out anything you want, when I come back to see you.”
She was confused. What about her gift? There were so many things she wanted to share with him, including the new friend she had made: a boy who lived the next street over, on Milford Cove, with his parents and older sibling.
“Alright, I promise.”
