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I was a very sensual man of service. There was no doubt in my mind Shalom would enjoy life with me. I only hoped when we got the truth from our parents that their actions wouldn’t cause a new rift between our families.
The last eight days had been emotionally taxing. I loved my time with Mecca. Even when we had the slight issue because of Carter calling… I was glad it happened because it opened the door for a necessary conversation that made me feel even closer to him. Things with my family, well, my parents, had been strained. I had a feeling my parents were in on the ruse with Mecca’s parents. We considered just one of them being behind it, but the more we talked about it, the more it made sense for them all to be in on it.
Both sets of parents felt like we were moving too fast. Both sets of parents wanted us to break up. Both sets of parents wanted me to have an abortion. Both sets of parents gave us the letter. Both sets of parents timed our departures from Memphis to make sure we wouldn’t be able to talk when we received the letters. Now those would have been a hell of a lot of coincidences.
I hadn’t seen my parents in person all week, but I did FaceTime Mama and Heaven when they were at the hospital with Daddy. He was home now. He’d stopped taking his water pills, which was why he had fluid on his lungs, feet, and hands. The fluid was making it hard for him to breathe and making him lethargic, but they were right about him having something going on with his heart. He needed a new prescription because the one he had was no longer effective. As long as he took the new prescription and his water pills, he’d be okay.
I could understand his frustration with not wanting to take so many pills, but unfortunately, that’s where he was with his life. Poor dieting and a lack of exercise had done a number on him. He was more willing to exercise and eat even better to start the process of limiting his pills, and I was proud of him for that. It showed his desire to not just live but have a good quality of life.
Our plan was for Mecca to bring his parents to my dad’s home since that’s where I was with my mother. We wanted to talk to them all together. I wanted to keep things peaceful since my dad was fresh out of the hospital, but I also couldn’t wait any longer to have this conversation. When Mecca pulled up, he let me know they were outside. I didn’t want his parents to see me and know something was going on, so I unlocked the door and waited behind it instead of opening it.
At the sight of me, Martin’s mouth dropped, and Karen’s steps faltered. Had Mecca not been prepared to catch her, she would have tripped over the step in front of her. I smiled and pulled my mouth to the side to keep from laughing. Their reaction to me was worse than my parents’ reaction to Mecca. Mama stared at him, and Daddy laughed hysterically before giving him a handshake, but he wouldn’t tell me why that was his reaction to a man I knew he wanted me to have nothing to do with.
“What’s going on, Mecca?” Karen asked, straightening upright.
“We’ll talk about that once you’re comfortably inside.”
Hesitantly, she stepped inside behind her son and husband. Mecca and I shared a quick, tender kiss before I led them all to the living room. Though we insisted Daddy rest, he wasn’t ready to get back in bed, so he was sitting up on the recliner watching TV. I paid close attention to how our parents responded to each other. They were cordial, addressing each other by name.
When his parents made themselves comfortable on the opposite end of the sofa as mine, Mecca and I stood in the center of the living room.
“We’re going to keep this short,” Mecca started. “Clearly Shalom and I reconnected and are back in each other’s lives. We’ve talked and learned someone close to us was practicing deception and betrayal fifteen years ago, leading to the ending of our relationship.”
Karen shifted in her seat slightly, closing her suede blazer.
“I received a letter that was supposed to be from Mecca telling me he used me for my virginity, no longer wanted to be with me, and wanted me to get an abortion with payment to do so included.”
“And I received a letter that was supposed to be from Shalom telling me she didn’t want to be with me and was going to get the abortion to make sure nothing tied us together for life.”
“We didn’t write each other those letters… so we want to know who did.”
No one spoke up immediately, causing Mecca to add, “It was one or all of you. You’re the only ones who knew about the baby besides Grandma Rose and we know she wouldn’t have done something so unscrupulous. So who was it?”
As calm as he was trying to be, his voice raised and fists balled. I took his hand into mine, trying to keep him calm and grounded. Mecca used to have a temper out of this world, and it was quick too. I didn’t need him getting so upset that he said or did something he would regret.
My father sat up slightly with a slow shake of his head. “It was all of us,” he admitted, causing everyone else to speak up at once. “Now I don’t want to hear none of y’all’s bullshit. I know we agreed we’d never tell them, but I just got out of the hospital and nearly lost my life. I want to do better with the rest of the time I have left, and they deserve to know the truth.”
“You’re right,” Martin agreed. “It was all of us. We agreed that it was best for both of you if you parted ways, so we came up with the idea to break you up with letters. We sent Shalom’s while Mecca was away and gave him hers when he came back and she had left for school.”
“Whose idea was it to write the letters?”
“Now we won’t share that,” Karen said, making me think it was her.
“Yes, you won’t be more upset with one of us than the others,” Mama added. “Hold us all accountable in the same way.”
Mecca chuckled as he ran his fingers down the corners of his mouth. “What gave y’all the right to make such a monumental decision for us?”
“Being your parents,” Martin answered.
“We were eighteen and fully capable of taking care of our baby and each other.”
“No, you weren’t,” Mama replied. “You both had great, sheltered childhoods. You may have worked a couple of hours in the library to make some extra money, but you were nowhere near ready to be an independent adult with a newborn baby while still going to college and learning yourself as a man. And I for damn sure wasn’t going to allow you to take my baby from the comfort of her parents’ covering to make her struggle and suffer with you.”
“But that’s what I wanted,” I said. “I wanted to be with him. I wanted my baby. I didn’t care about money. We would have made it work. But you robbed us of that, and from the sound of it, none of you feel guilty about it… do you?”
They looked at each other and remained silent.
“Wow,” Mecca said, rubbing my hand with his thumb.
