TWENTY-THREE
“You’ve been flying high for two days, Dr. Taylor,” Margaret said as she entered his office and handed him the stack of folders in her hand. “You hit the lottery and didn’t tell me?”
Neil laughed. “You know I don’t gamble, Ms. Dasher. And don’t act like you’re not on the same high that I’m on.”
Taking the liberty to sit in the chair across from his desk, Margaret said, “Lord have mercy. I have hardly slept since Sunday evening when I heard the news. Now, I’m not saying I haven’t seen any miracles in my day, ’cause truth be told, it was a miracle that I didn’t kill my first husband when I found out that he’d been sleeping with our neighbor ... in the same bed that he and I slept in.” Margaret pursed her lips and grabbed the letter opener from Neil’s pencil holder, clutching it like it was a switchblade. “That devil didn’t know how close he came to getting something cut off him that he needed.”
“Whoa ... whoa. Hold up,” Neil said. Margaret always had the tendency to go into some kind of bipolar-like twisted tangent when she referenced her first husband. “Just calmly put that down and back away from my desk.”
She put the letter opener back and just as quickly as she’d gotten riled, she shifted back to first gear. “I’m so happy for Pastor and First Lady. And see? I knew you’d learn sooner or later that what everybody’s been telling you about your voice is true.”
Neil smiled. He knew it was only a matter of time before Margaret would get to her “I told you so” speech. He probably would have gotten it yesterday, but Neil opted to take the day off in preparation for today. He had only stopped by his office briefly, to print some ticket information that he had saved on the hard drive of his computer. Shaylynn knew that he had planned something special for Valentine’s Day night, but she had no idea just how special it was going to be.
“There are a few things that became clear to me over the past couple of weeks,” Neil admitted, “and my calling to sing is just one of them. I mean, I’ve always known I had a special gift, but God confirmed some things for me in all of this.”
“Yeah. He confirmed just how stupid you’ve been for doubting it to begin with.”
Neil couldn’t deny it, so he moved on. “Pastor Loather said that although Theresa hasn’t awakened yet, she’s been responding well to the tests they’ve been giving her at the hospital, and all her MRIs and other scans have come out normal. No brain damage has been detected.”
Margaret stood. “Well, as big a miracle as that is, to tell the truth, none of it should surprise us. We’re always talking and singing about how all-powerful God is, but as soon as something like this happen, we act all shocked, like we didn’t even know God had it in Him. We serve a good God, and He doesn’t do anything halfway. If He wants to heal a person completely, then that’s what He’ll do.”
Nodding in agreement, Neil said, “So true. When Shaylynn and I went to the hospital last night, Theresa was looking like herself for the first time. She just looks like she’s asleep. She even stirs if you nudge her or tickle her feet. Dr. Hale says they expect her to open her eyes any day. Since all her tests are fine, as soon as she wakes up, they are going to move her out of ICU. Her unconsciousness is the only thing keeping her there.”
“I hear there’s going to be a write-up on it in this weekend’s edition of the Atlanta Weekly Chronicles.”
Margaret had to be the nosiest person Neil knew. How she’d found that out, he didn’t know. CJ had just told Neil about it last night while he and Shaylynn were visiting. Hunter Greene, the owner of the highly popular newspaper, was the son-in-law of Reverend Tides, and he had gotten exclusive rights to print the full story. It would be on the front page when the paper was released on Friday.
“Yes, that’s true.” Neil decided against asking her where she’d heard it. If there was a long “he said, she said” story attached, he didn’t want to hear it.
“I sure wish Pastor would let us come out and see First Lady, especially now that she’s doing so much better. I don’t know why he let some and not others.”
“I think there’s a good chance that he’ll completely lift the restrictions once she’s in a regular room.” Neil knew when Margaret said “some,” she really meant Shaylynn. He and Shaylynn were the only two non-related church members who had been allowed, and by process of elimination, he knew Margaret wasn’t talking about him. There was no one who would not have expected CJ to allow Neil access.
“So do you and Ms. Ford have plans for tonight?” Margaret was looking over her frames at him now. Neil knew that meant only one thing: her nosey nose was about to start sniffing.
“It’s Valentine’s Day, of course we do.” Neil pretended to busy himself with organizing the files she’d brought him. Margaret was good at reading eyes, and he didn’t want her to decipher his plans for the evening. This was his and Shaylynn’s second Valentine’s Day together, so he knew a marriage proposal wouldn’t be Margaret’s first guess.
“Where are you going? Dinner? Dancing?”
“Maybe a little bit of both.” Neil figured the best route was to just tell her the part he didn’t mind her knowing. Margaret would stop fishing if he just handed her a nice-sized perch and called it a day. “I’m taking her to dinner at Canoe and to the concert at the civic center.”
Margaret’s eyes grew large. “The one with Peabo Bryson?”
“That’s the one.”
She wrapped her arms around herself like Peabo was in front of her. “I love that man! And isn’t James Ingram there too?”
“And Jeffery Osborne.” Judging from Margaret’s reaction, Neil knew he’d hit a home run with this choice. He could only hope that Shaylynn would feel the same.
“Well, shoot! You could’ve given me tickets to that show. I didn’t have to be a third wheel; I could have driven my own car and sat clear on the other side of the auditorium.”
Neil laughed. “There’s just no pleasing you. Didn’t I present you with a dozen roses this morning?”
“Yes, you did. And they were real pretty up until you told me you had tickets to this concert. The good seats sold out real fast.”
“I know,” Neil said. “The brokers bought them as soon as they hit the Web so they could jack up the prices and resell at a hundred percent profit. I only know one guy who was idiotic enough to go to them and pay those ridiculous prices rather than settling for seats that were farther back.”
“Who was that?”
When Neil raised his left hand, both of them burst out laughing. “Hey, an idiot’s gotta do what an idiot’s gotta do. Valentine’s Day comes only once a year, right?”
“I hope Ms. Ford knows she’s got a good one. I still can’t believe my niece let you get away.”
“You mean the niece with the bench warrant for assault and battery? The niece the police came and handcuffed while we were on our date?” He laughed again. “I don’t mean no harm, Ms. Dasher, but she didn’t let me get away. I was getting away with or without her permission.”
Margaret shook her head. “My poor Lawrence ... God rest his soul. His family is so messed up. Even the ones with good book sense are just a bunch of educated fools.”
Neil never knew either of Margaret’s husbands, but from all he’d heard, she seemed to really love the second one. That was more than could be said about the first man she’d married. Every time she mentioned him, she did so through clinched teeth. Lawrence was the only one she’d even identify with a proper name. The first guy was always identified by words like devil and beast. On good days, he was upgraded to fool or scoundrel. Neil had often wondered what the man’s given name was, but he was too afraid for his own life to ask.
“Well, let me get back to my desk and finish things up so I can get out of here on time.” Margaret began walking to the door, and then stopped. “Did Sean Thomas call you today?”
“Who?”
“Sean Thomas. That’s the same man who called here for you a few weeks ago and said he just wanted to be sure he had the right workplace. He called again yesterday while you were out.”
Neil hadn’t heard that name since the first message Margaret gave him. At that time he didn’t see any need to be concerned, but now that the man was calling again, his curiosity was piqued. “Did he leave a message or a call-back number this time?”
“No.” A slight grin tugged on Margaret’s face. “This fellow has a young voice. You don’t think that maybe Ms. Ford has an ex she never told you about, do you?”
The thought had never crossed Neil’s mind, but now, thanks to Margaret, it was sitting front and center. He shook his head despite his doubts. “No. Shay would have told me.” He tried to shrug it off like before. “Oh well. As long as he’s not leaving a message, it can’t be too important.”
Neil wished he believed his own words.