“Girl, well, let me run and meet up with the girls. You know li’l Risha Coleman from church charging me by the hour now for keeping my kids.” with the “no she ain’t” expression on Stoney’s face, Vicky knew she couldn’t believe it either. “Yeah, girl. I know. Okay. Well, I’m out of here. I’ll see you at church on Sunday if I don’t see you tomorrow.”
“Cool. See ya.” Stoney gave her friend a quick hug and waved her out of the office. Glad that she was finally close to someone who was more like a big sister than just a friend, Stoney allowed her smile to linger longer than usual.
Not used to having any female friends back home, Stoney thought about what Grandma Susie would say if she’d known that Stoney had let someone in her personal life. That was just something people shouldn’t do, as Grandma Susie always said. “People just nosey and want to be in your business.”
“Aw, Grandma Susie.” Stoney snickered to herself upon reminiscing on her grandmother’s words. “Vicky is different. I finally got a friend.”
When she first moved to Dallas, Stoney became one of the smartest female students at the most expensive private university in town. That’s where she met Vicky, who had given her the heads-up about an open position at the optometrist’s office. Their initial meeting at a scholarship banquet ignited a quick friendship.
A student herself, Vicky had defied odds like no other, getting a two-year degree and fighting tooth and nail to get accepted into the prestigious school. She had set out to prove that having three kids out of wedlock didn’t automatically label her doomed. “Just don’t try it,” was always her retort, once she tooted her horn about breaking the odds of statistics. Finishing up her interning at the doctor’s office, it wouldn’t be long before Vicky had her own white jacket with her name embroidered on it.
Along with providing a job, Vicky befriended Stoney even more when she invited her to church. Since then, a year earlier, Stoney had been attending Bethel and had even joined the choir. No sooner than that, she had been voted the choir’s assistant director, right under Brother Mike.
Now at the age of twenty-one and two years after her grandmother passed away, Grandma Susie’s death had left Stoney alone in a town where their family came in the form of her grandmother’s friends. Being alone until she moved to Dallas, Stoney had to grow up quickly and make decisions for herself. She hadn’t even thought about packing and moving in with friends, who she knew could turn into foes overnight. She just kept her job as a cashier at the Brookshires in Greenville, Texas, and paid bills as they came in. With the small planked house long since paid off, Stoney didn’t have to worry about the roof over her head. If it weren’t for her move to Dallas, no doubt she’d have resided in the house she grew up in.
Raised under her grandmother’s lax care, Stoney learned at a young age to pay bills, cook, and clean a house, along with saving for a rainy day. On top of that, her grandmother inadvertently instilled in her the importance of an education, and drilled in even more how important it was to plan for the future. The only thing she didn’t teach her was how to heal from the past.
Over the years growing up in her grandmother’s care, it was a rare occasion when Stoney could bring up her biological mother or ask questions pertaining to why she wasn’t being raised by this mystery woman. On one of those good days, Stoney could hear Grandma Susie say, “Your mama loved you, but I guess the timing wasn’t right. She was angry about lots of stuff.” But if she caught her grandma on a hot, fan-in-the-window type of day, the conversation was always, “She just selfish. Always was and always will be.” and for asking, Grandma Susie would lay into Stoney, telling her, “Stop being so disrespectful. You act like you ungrateful I took ya in or something.” with all of that, Stoney never knew when she would get the truth. But it was all too late now. Passing away in her sleep at age eighty, her grandmother didn’t have a chance to give her history to go on so that her future wouldn’t be repeated. That was her main reason for the move to Dallas: to find her own past.
Being born and raised in Greenville, Texas, for most folk, meant that all roads led to the closest big city. That was only one of the reasons Stoney followed suit. With the leftover money from the insurance policy, Stoney found herself an efficiency right smack dab in the middle of Dallas and called it home. Her other reason for moving to Dallas was that she planned to scout out her birth mother. Being that she only had a picture to go on, she had to go back to the drawing board on more than one occasion. Nevertheless, the one thing she wasn’t going to do was give up hope.
Finished earlier than she thought she would be, Stoney scribbled something on a prescription pad and rushed out of the office. Standing in the hallway, waiting for the elevator to arrive, Stoney wished it would arrive sooner than later. One of the young doctors always made it his duty to try to escort her out of the building to her car. Besides being embarrassed about driving her grandmother’s older-than-thou Ford escort, Stoney hated that Dr. Connor flirted with her every chance he could.
The chime of the elevator’s arrival sounded off. As soon as her heels touched the glossed wood of the compact room, Stoney repeatedly pushed the “close” button.
“Hold the elevator, please,” Dr. Connor yelled.
“Dang it,” Stoney grunted. Sweeping her bangs off of her rectangular eyeglasses and giving them their signature push up off of her nose, Stoney stood up straight and tried to look as serious as possible. Vicky had told her that to get someone out of her face, someone she was not at all interested in, looking serious would always do the trick. But to Stoney, Dr. Connor was in a league all his own.
“Hi there, Stoney,” a lean and toffee-colored Dr. Connor spoke as he entered the elevator. With his white jacket draped across his arm, he stood not too far away from Stoney.
“Hi, Dr. Connor.” Stoney kept it short while trying to keep the sweet out of it. Seeing him, she suddenly regretted taking her khaki jacket off so soon. Her new off-white camisole she had chosen to wear under her jacket left her cleavage screaming for cover. When Dr. Connor pushed the button for the first floor, Stoney was relieved. Exhaling, she then pushed “G” for the garage, and silently thanked God she wouldn’t have to be bothered with his advances today.
Right as the elevator started to move downward and Stoney thought she was home free, Dr. Connor, being the overachiever he was, the good doctor, changed his mind.
“Oh, you’re parked in the garage today? I’ll just ride down with you,” he offered without question.
“No!” Stoney yelled before she knew the venom that had come out of her mouth. She lowered her voice. “I mean, you don’t have to do that.”
“Nonsense. I can just take the stairs back up,” he suggested.
It wasn’t that he was a bad-looking man, or that he came off as a stalker. It was just the mere thought of what Grandma Susie had told her about his kind.
“Folks who got it easy will see a young gal like you and think they can do what they want to. If ya smart, you’d getcha all the education you can and then take a pick of the man you want. Don’t be no man’s flunkie.”
With those words embedded in her heart, Stoney only knew what her grandma had told her. As far as she knew, it was the truth. Some may have continued to call her country, and that was all right by her. One thing she didn’t want to be called was dumb. Better safe than sorry was all she knew to be.
“Got any plans for the weekend?” he asked as the doors opened. Single with no children, the twenty-nine-year-old Dr. Connor had taken a liking to the well-developed and smart (now twenty-one-year-old)
