Mama B - A Time to Dance (Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

asking that question.
We’ll go dutch or not at all. And no
hanky-panky stuff, either.”
    Before ending
the call, we agreed to meet at the cinema at 5:45 to watch some kind of action
movie I ain’t never heard of, but since Dr. Wilson said Morgan Freeman was in
it, I agreed.
    Something about
that Mr. Freeman is alright with me.
    Derrick come
back in the house huffin’ and puffin’. “It’s fixed.”
    “Good! Thank
you, Derrick. I sure ‘preciate you.”
    He wiped the
sweat from his brow with his forearm. “Some woman came looking for you. I don’t
know why she came around to the side door. Her name was Glenda…Gloria?”
    “Gwen?”
    He nodded.
“Right, Gwen.”
    “I done told
her, I don’t know how many times, to come around to the front. Gwen don’t mean
no harm,” I told him.
    Derrick
questioned, “Something wrong with her, mentally?”
    “Yeah, Gwen been
put through a lot and she put herself through a lot. She didn’t come out quite
the same way she went in,” I explained all he needed to know. No sense in
giving the devil praise for all his terrible works.
    “Huh.” He stood
still with his eyes wandering off into space for a second. “Mama B, do you
think some people deserve to come out worse than they went in? You know,
depending on what they did?”
    “I believe, by
the grace of God, we rarely get what all kinda punishment we deserve. He’s
merciful. Otherwise, He wouldn’t have sent Jesus.”
    “Mmmm.”
    He walked back
to the garage, I guess to put the tools away. Then, without even looking toward
me on the couch, he sped past me mumbling, “Night.”
    “Goodnight,
Derrick.”
    He drug himself
down the hallway like a ten-ton brick sittin’ on his heart.
    Lord, help
him.
     

Chapter 8
     
    Soon as I
informed Libby about my upcoming non-date with Dr. Wilson, she started asking
way too many questions. What was I gonna to wear? Where was we gonna to eat?
What movie did we plan to watch? “Libby, if you askin’ me all these questions
and we ain’t even went nowhere yet, I can’t imagine how you gon’ act
afterwards. I got a good mind to cancel while I’m still ahead.”
    “You will do no
such thing.”
    I couldn’t get
mad at her, though. If it was one of my close friends spendin’ a night on the
town with a man at age seventy-two, I might have been as nosy if not more.
    Son, my oldest,
got a whiff of my plans through my daughter , Debra
Kay . Lord, I don’t know why she went and told him I was going out with
Dr. Wilson. He beat Libby with the interrogation.
    “Is he really a
doctor, Momma?” Son very nearly yelled at me when he came over to the house to
help Derrick change out some plugs and wires in my car. “He might be one of
those quacks practicing in a back alley.”
    “Frank was the
one takin’ care of First Lady before she passed away,” I tried to calm Son’s
fears. “I saw him for myself in uniform at the hospital.”
    “Why you callin’
him Frank?” the quiz continued.
    “’Cause that’s
his name. Why don’t you get somewhere and get some business, Son.”
    He headed on
back to the garage to finish up the work with Derrick, who, by the way, had
become preoccupied with making himself awful handy around the house. Aside from
fixing the gate, he’d tightened a leaky faucet, replaced light bulbs in ceiling
fans, and replaced the filters in my vents. And on top of all that, he’d
suddenly learned how to pick up after himself.
    I wasn’t sure if
he was going to ask for reduced rent or extended time to stay, but he had to
want somethin’ cause that boy came home every day by five o’clock and seem like
he couldn’t rest unless he had some kind of project he was workin’ on at the
house.
    Really, I was
hoping he’d have some kind of social life so I could have the evening to myself
at least, but he stayed put once he got home from work. He’d called Twyla a few
times. From what I could tell, she’d just put the baby on the phone so Derrick
could talk to