Blessings-Chapter Four

Chapter 4


We carried the bags upstairs to our bedroom and I closed the door. I went into my bag and took out the money envelopes and handed them to him. I then told him about him about the meeting with Mr. Michaels and about Abigail Murphy.

“One hundred million dollars, are you serious?”

“Does this look serious to you?” I asked, indicating the money.

“Damn, how much is there?”

“About nine hundred and some change. As you can see I did a little shopping.”

“Yeah I see that. Damn baby, this lady must have really like you.”

“Yeah I know.”

We left the bags where they were and went downstairs to eat. Since our finances hadn’t been so good, eating had been a little hit or miss. We’d been eating sandwiches, noodles; whatever our budget would allow us. I grabbed a box of the boneless wings, along with some of the sides while he grabbed silverware and one of the pops. When I finished eating, I had a burst of energy that came from eating obviously, and I started cleaning. I bagged all of our dirty laundry that sat on the closet floor and set it out in the hallway, I then bagged up all of the other clothes that were either in drawers or hanging up in the closet, and set them in the hallway also. Seeing that I was busy, Lewis started cleaning also, cleaning out the room that he usually smoked in, and where we stored junk. He’d ask me every five minutes about something of mine, whether or not I wanted to keep it, or throw it away.

“We are going to need clothes to wear at least for tomorrow while you’re throwing stuff in bags.” He said leaning against the door jam.

“Well just take you out something to wear; it’s really not that difficult.”

Once the bedroom was as empty as we could get it, I went into the hallway and emptied the closet that held junk, plus there was a shelf inside that held nothing but formula and diapers for Chanel, something I’d gotten ready for her when I thought she was coming home from the hospital. We cleaned everything out of it, tossing what we didn’t want or need, and setting what we did want aside. I then pulled out the cleaning products, and sprayed down the inside, making sure that it was completely clean before I put anything inside.

“Remind me to get some contact paper to put on the inside of here, that way it’ll stay clean.”

I soon ended up in the bathroom, once again spraying and wiping down everything. Lewis was moping all of the rooms down for me, and we were good. Once we finished, I ran myself a tub of lukewarm water, using some of the bath products that I’d just bought.

“So, have you thought about taking off tomorrow?” I asked him as I stripped off the dirty clothes I wore.

“Oh yeah, I’d already planned to take the rest of the week off, since I start at Children’s Monday, I’d decided that before you came home.”

“Oh, okay.”

I grabbed one of the new Nora Roberts books that I’d bought, hadn’t read before and went and sat in the tub filled with bubbles. I washed up, got out of the tub and went into the bedroom to see Lewis under the covers and lightly snoring, the television on adult swim. I yawned as I finished drying off, and got under the covers beside him, and turned off the television.



The next morning my eternal alarm clock went off, causing me to wake up as it usually did. Lewis was gone, but as I sat up I could hear him and my mom downstairs talking as they usually did before they went off to work. I wondered if he’d told her anything about the money, but I was sure he didn’t, he would leave it up to me to tell her if I wanted to. I got up, took care of my morning business and did my morning bible study as I did every morning, spending 30 minutes to an hour reading my bible and praying. Today I had a great deal to thank God for, because I knew that the blessing had come from Him.
I decided that I would call my cousin Carla, and see if she wouldn’t mind driving us around today. I know I had to catch her early, and that I had to have gas money to give her, which was not a problem. I could tell she was still asleep when she answered.

“Hello?” she answered her voice groggy.

“Hey girl, before you curse me out, you feel like making a couple of dollars?”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Monique, I know it’s early, but I wanted to catch you before you got started, so do you feel like making some money?”

“Girl please, I’m always down to make money, what do you want me to do, come take you some where?”

“If you can, if you’re not too busy.”

“I just have to take Shai to school, and that’s it.”

“What time is that?”

“She has to be there at 8:30, so I can be at your house by nine or so, where are you trying to go?”

“I think Lewis wants to go to the Secretary of State, and then I need to do some shopping, so I guess it should take a couple of hours or so.”

“What kind of shopping are you trying to do?”

“Well, I wanted to buy some paint, go look at some furniture, and maybe get me a few outfits.”

“Damn, you got some money, shit, I’m on my way.”

I laughed. “Okay, we’ll be ready.” I said and hung up.

Lewis was downstairs in front of the computer, and my mom was gone. “Hey Carla is going to come and take us running around, she’ll be here around nine or so.”

“Okay, that’s about the time the Secretary of State opens.” He said, pulling me into his arms and on to his lap.

“I figured you’d want to go there this morning, did you want to try to get a car too?”

“Yeah, that would be nice, then I want have to depend on Zack any more, and we won’t have to catch the bus to go and see the kids next week. What else did you have planned for today?”

“I wanted to buy some paint so we can start painting the rooms upstairs, and then I wanted to go and start looking at bedroom sets for the kids, that way when we go and see them next week we can tell the worker that we got the beds.”

“That sounds good.”

It didn’t take me long to get dressed, since all I was going to wear was a pair of jogging pants and a t-shirt since it hadn’t started getting cold as of yet. True to her word, Carla was at the house a little after nine.

“What do you have to eat?” she asked walking in the door.

“Nothing, we’re going to have to stop some where and eat, I want to go to IHOP.”

“Yeah, that sounds good, well come on lets go, I’m starving. What Secretary of State office are you trying to go to?” She asked.

“You know the one over on West Grand Blvd, inside the state building?” Lewis replied from the backseat.

We let Lewis off in front of the building, and I handed Carla a hundred dollar bill.

“Why don’t you go and get your drivers permit?”

“Yeah I should huh?”

“Shoot, I wish I could get my drivers license back, I owe so much money its ridiculous.”

“Well why don’t you found out how much you owe, I mean since we’re here, and I’ll help you pay it.”

“Really, girl you don’t have to tell me twice. Let me find some place to park.”

She found a place to park and we went inside, and each took a number. Mine was called first, and so I went to the counter and let the cashier know that I wanted to take the written test for my permit. She took down my information, and handed me an exam and a tiny pencil, when I got ready sit at one of the desk, Carla was at the counter. It took me all of ten minutes to take the test, and recheck my answers before I went back to the counter. I watched with my nails in my mouth as the clerk checked each answer, putting a mark next to each wrong one.

“You’ve got six wrong, you passed.” She said, smiling at me. “Did you want to pay for it now, or later?”

“Oh I can pay now.” I said, taking out twenty five dollars and handing it to her.

As we walked out, Lewis walked over to us, smiling, and flashing a piece of paper at us.

“I got my drivers permit.” I said, flashing my own piece of paper.

“Did you find out how much you owe?” I asked Carla.

“$2,654.09” she said sadly.

“Okay, now if I give you this money you have to use to get your license together, do you hear me?” I asked her.

“Yeah, I promise, right hand to God.”

I waited until we were in the car before I gave her three thousand dollars, and put it in her hand.

“Don’t say I never gave you anything.”

We headed over to the IHOP on Jefferson Blvd, where we all ordered huge breakfast meals. I ordered stuffed pancakes, with eggs and sausage, and Carla and Lewis ordered their own thing. When we finished, we found that neither one of us could barely move.