The Call

“Why is the phone still ringing while I’m saying hello?” Saying it aloud must have startled me awake. Only then did I realize I had been answering the phone in my dream.

“Hello?” I groggily answered.

“Sissy, is that you?” There was only one person who still consistently called me Sissy as an adult, but this did not sound at all like my oldest sister.

“Renee, what is wrong with you? And why are you calling me at two-thirty in the morning? You know I get up to go running at four-thirty.” I held the clock radio in my left hand and the phone in my right.

It never dawned on me that Renee would not call me in the middle of the night unless something was wrong, terribly wrong.

“Are you alone, Sissy?”

“Yeah, Anthony is on his two-week reserve assignment. What’s wrong, Renee?” I bolted awake and pulled myself up in bed. Renee had never cared if I was alone before.

Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Oh Sissy!” Renee was crying.

“You are scaring me, Renee. What the hell is going on? Is there something wrong with Derrick or one of the kids?”

“Sissy, it’s Daddy! Sissy, Daddy is dead!” she screamed into the phone.

The room started spinning as I laid my head back on the solid oak headboard. She hadn’t said my daddy was dead. She was screaming, so I knew I’d misunderstood. “What did you say, Renee?”

“Daddy is dead! We’re at University Hospital Emergency Room. You gotta come home, Sissy. You gotta get on a plane now!” She was no longer screaming, but sobbing so hard it was still very difficult to understand exactly what she was saying.

“Give me the phone, Renee!” I heard Collette snap at her. “Why you just gonna blurt some shit like that out at her in the middle of the night. I told you to let me call, but nooooooo!”

“Hey, Sis, you okay? Did you understand what Renee was saying?” Collette’s demeanor had drastically changed as she took the phone.

“Collette, it sounded like she said that Daddy is dead!” He can’t be dead. I talked to him last night.

“It’s true, Sis.” Now Collette’s voice was cracking.

“What are you saying, Collette?” This time I was screaming. There was no way my daddy was dead. I’d spoken to him just before he went to bed. He’d told me he loved me and how proud he was of me for passing the bar! My daddy was not dead.

“Where’s Anthony? You need to calm down!” Collette immediately regretted the statement.

“Calm down, you calm down. He ain’t here. What happened to my daddy?” As usual, Collette was trying my patience.

“He was my daddy, too!”

“What do you mean was?”

“Daddy is gone, Sissy!” Collette, using my pet name, started sobbing into the phone.

“What happened, Lette? Please tell me what happened to my daddy!”

“He called Dawn to tell her he loved her and while he was on the phone he stopped talking. She was screaming for him, but he wouldn’t answer. She hung up and called 911 and then went over there. She called us from her car, and Renee and I met her there. When we arrived, Dawn was waiting on the porch to tell us he was dead when the paramedics arrived. But they were trying to bring him back. They tried everything, Sissy. They did, they really did.” Her voice trailed off.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Not my daddy. Not my daddy!” I screamed to the universe, not to my second youngest sister.

“Glynda, you need to call somebody!” This time it was Dawn on the phone. “We have each other, but you’re out there all alone. Can Anthony come home? Can you get in touch with him?”

“Dawn, tell me my daddy is not dead! Tell me it’s not true!”

“Sissy, it is true. He called all of us last night to tell us he loved us. I guess somehow he knew it was his time. He looks so peaceful. He’s with Mama now.” Dawn’s many years as a pediatric nurse had imparted such a soothing way of talking. She dealt with the worst kind of death of all every day—the death of children.

“Dawn …” I had wanted to tell her I didn’t want him to be with Mama. I wanted him here with me. I wanted to scream, in thirty years Mama could have him for all eternity, I needed him now! The words held up in my chest. My mouth moved, but no words formed. My daddy was dead.

“Glynda, you there? You okay?” Dawn was barely audible.

“I’m here, but I’m far from okay! How can I be, Dawn?”

“I know, Sissy. It was a stupid question. Can you call someone? You don’t need to be alone.”

“I’ll call Rico. She’s on call tonight. Dawn?”

“Yes, Glynda?”

“He called us all to say good-bye?”

“Yes, Sissy, he did.”

“Hello.” I knew it was Rico, but I didn’t want to just blurt out the horrible news.

“Hey gurlfriend! What’re you doing up in the middle of the night. I thought this privilege was reserved for us medical professionals. You lawyers got those banker’s hours.” Rico sounded more like it was three in the afternoon than three in the morning.

Rico Martin had been my friend since the day we met at the library more than seventeen years ago. Rico was in her senior year at the University of Southern California, and I, a junior at California State University at Dominguez Hills. We were both trying to escape the madness at our respective apartments. USC had won a spot in the coveted Rose Bowl, and the parties abounded. My roommate was in college to get her swerve on with whoever was willing to swerve at the moment. I just wasn’t in the mood to listen to her proclaim love for a stranger, again.

Rico and I had so many books spread out across the massive table that no one dared to try to join us. We worked in silence for two hours before we engaged in conversation.

“Hey, want a cup of coffee? My treat,” Rico said as if we had been friends for years.

“I’d love some, but I’ll buy my own,” I said, digging for change in my jacket pocket.

“You can buy the next round.” Rico winked at me.

“Sounds like you’re in for the long haul, too.”

“Yeah, I’m pre-med, and tests don’t stop because we got into the Rose Bowl. I’m Arico Perez. But my friends call me Rico.” She extended her hand.

“Hi, Rico. My name is Glynda Naylor. My friends call me Glynda.” We both laughed.

“Nice to meet you, Glynda. What’s your major?” Rico’s deep Hershey’s bittersweet-chocolate complexion, with the distinctive features of a true African descendant, accented by hazel eyes and unruly curly jet black hair made me think her last name was Johnson or Williams, not Perez.

“Double major, English literature and business. The English is for me; the business is for my daddy. He said I have to be sensible, unless I want to teach for the rest of my life.” I immediately felt comfortable with Rico.

“Ahhhh, I understand about family pressures. I’m the first in my family to go to college, and everyone wants the golden child to be a doctor. I really want it, too. But sometimes I feel like I have no choice in the matter.” Rico was putting on her jacket.

“Well, my sisters and I had no choice on the college thing, but I was the only one brave enough to go away to school. All the others are in school back in Maryland.”

“How many others?” Rico stared at me curiously.

“Three.”

“And you’re all in college at the same time?”

“Actually, the baby is still in high school. My oldest sister got married at nineteen and then went to college two years ago. Daddy doesn’t have to help her, but he says if she’s trying to make a better life, he’s going to help her any way he can. But that’s just how Daddy is.”

“He sounds like a wonderful man. What about your mother?”

“Mama died ten years ago in a car accident—drunk driver. He’s been raising us on his own ever since.”

“Wow, I’m sorry to hear about your mother. My mother raised three of us by herself, because my daddy, whoever the hell he is, had other plans.” Rico had a distant look in her eyes as she spoke.

“Sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“What do you want in your coffee?” Rico smoothly changed the subject.

“I like it the way I like my man—black with just enough sugar and cream to take the bite out of it.”

“I heard that!” We slapped five.

A month after that cold rainy night we spent in the library, Rico and I became roommates. We had moved up from one apartment to a better one then another, until we bought a house in the prestigious View Park neighborhood for African-American professionals who had arrived. We’d shared the house until Rico married Jonathan Martin two years before.

Everyone, except me, had been amazed when the renowned pediatric trauma surgeon married the UPS man. Jonathan made Rico’s heart, not to mention other vital parts of her anatomy, sing!

·   ·   ·

“That’s what you think!” My poor attempt at humor didn’t fool my best friend for a minute. “Thank you for returning my page so quickly, Rico,” I said, trying to keep the tone in my voice even.

“What’s wrong, Glynda? You and Anthony have another fight?”

“No, Rico. It’s Daddy. He …”

“What, Glynda? What’s wrong with Papa Eddie?” Rico had adopted my daddy as her own on our first visit to Baltimore together.

“Rico, Daddy died tonight.” I spoke just above a whisper.

“What? CVA, MI, what?” Rico had slipped into her medical jargon without thinking I’d have no clue what she meant.

“We don’t know yet, but we think it was a massive heart attack.”

“Oh my God, Glynda! Let me get someone to cover for me. I’ll be there within the hour. Have you called Anthony?”

“No, he’s in the desert on reserve duty. Besides, I called you first. I’ll call his company and leave a message. Rico, please hurry.”

I never seemed to need anyone for anything. Rico had always been the one who was so dependent in our relationship. When she heard the desperation in my voice, she knew tonight I needed her, and I knew she would move heaven and earth to get to me.

“I’ll be there, I promise you! Just hang on.” The authority in Rico’s voice made me know she would handle everything when she arrived.

The phone rang almost the instant I touched the OFF button on the cordless phone. “Gurl, just get over here and stop calling me.”

“Who’re you talking to?” It was Collette’s voice on the other end of the connection.

“Oh, Lette, I thought this was Rico calling back.”

“Is she coming over? God knows you have been there for her.”

“Lette, don’t start. You know she’s on her way. She just has to get someone to cover the ER for her. Anyway, how y’all doing? Are you still at the hospital?”

“Yeah, they have us in this nice quiet room. So we can make the arrangements and call family. We need to pick a funeral home. I’m going to put you on speaker so we can all talk. We can’t agree.”

With the touch of a button I could hear my sisters’ voices. “Are you guys doing okay?”

“I think we should call Morton and Dyett.” Collette spoke first, ignoring my inquiry.

“Why Dyett? I don’t like the way the funeral home looks on the outside, plus his cars are not as new as Brown’s on North Avenue,” Dawnelle interjected.

“Well, March is the premier funeral home in the city. They have the most locations.” This time it was Renee.

“I think we should use the other March funeral home. You know, he’s the cousin of the one with all the locations. They’re really nice people. I met them when Delores’s mother died.” I couldn’t believe we each had a different preference.

“Well, the March chain is definitely out. They’re so expensive. You’re only paying for their name. That’s why I suggested Dyett. They’re reasonable,” Collette said.

“Daddy has all kinds of insurance. Money isn’t of any concern.” I was livid. I couldn’t believe Collette’s tight ass was going to try to penny-pinch with my daddy’s funeral.

“But that does not mean we’re going to spend an obscene amount of money just because it’s there. He took out those policies so we would have the money, not some slick funeral home,” Collette yelled.

“Why are you screaming, Lette? I bet you’ve already called your broker, haven’t you?” Dawn did little to hide her annoyance.

“We’re not scrimping on this funeral. Do I make myself clear? Daddy sacrificed everything for us, and we will not cut any corners.” Now I was the one yelling.

“We’ll set a budget and anything over that will come out of your share, Dawn.” Collette was relentless.

“What the hell do you mean her share? Who do you think you are? Whatever we decide will be paid by all of us. I don’t think we should spend more than we have to, but I do know my daddy was a classy, hardworking, strong black man, who gave only his best in life and will receive no less in his death.” Renee began to cry.

“What about Estelle?” I asked softly.

“What about her?” Collette’s words dripped with disdain.

“We should ask for her input; after all, they were engaged. How’s she taking the news?” I knew this was a very touchy area with Renee and Collette.

Estelle Taylor and Daddy had been friends for more than twenty years. Estelle was a nice enough lady who loved her some Edward. They had worked together on the midnight shift at the plant for all of those years. Their friendship turned to love after Estelle divorced her husband of twenty-eight years when she found out his taste in a mate had changed to someone younger and of the same gender. Daddy had been such a comfort to her. She literally threw herself into his arms, but he told her she needed time to heal. If genuine love for him was what she felt and not rejection from her husband, then he would be patiently waiting.

Being the wonderful man who we knew him to be, Daddy was there through all of her ups and downs. Estelle just always seemed to be around doting over Daddy. Dawn and I thought it was wonderful since he’d lived alone since our mother’s death. Renee and Collette hated her. On Father’s Day the year before while we were all at brunch, Daddy announced he was in love with Estelle and he wanted our permission to ask her to be his wife. I ran around the table and kissed him on the left cheek, Dawn leaned over and kissed him on the right one. Collette and Renee stared at him as though he had just confessed he was Timothy McVeigh’s coconspirator.

“She doesn’t have a damn thing to say about this funeral. He was our father, not her husband. She was just using him anyway.” Renee was adamant.

“How can you say that, Renee? You know she loves Daddy as much as we do. You have never given her a chance. And Daddy sure made it clear on Father’s Day that he loved her, too.” I was trying to hold back tears.

“Renee and Lette want to call her to give her the news, but I think we should go over there. This is horrible news to have to deliver over the phone.” Dawn pleaded her case, silently asking me for reinforcement.

“Well, I’m not going,” Collette stated flatly.

“We told Sissy on the phone, and she is no better than his daughter,” Renee volunteered.

“Well, I can’t make y’all do anything, but if you aren’t going to do it in person, you need to call her immediately. She does deserve that. Maybe she can help decide what funeral home.” I knew it was hopeless to try to change their minds.

“She doesn’t have a damn thing to say about this! How many ways do I have to say it?” Collette said.

I could sense Collette’s hostility even though I wasn’t present in the small room. “Lette, you’re not running this, we all are, and I say we ask for Estelle’s input. She was going to be our stepmother in six weeks.” I was not backing down on the issue. It gave my anger a great outlet. I needed to be mad at something or someone. It didn’t seem right to be angry with Daddy.

“I agree with Glynda.” Dawn spoke up quietly.

“Oh, isn’t this just wonderful. We’re split down the middle.” I could almost see Renee shaking her head as she spoke.

“I have a suggestion.” Dawn waited for someone to ask her to continue.

“Well?” Collette asked.

“They have to do an autopsy anyway. That’ll happen later today. By the time the body is released, Glynda should be here. We can make the decision then. That way, we’ll have had some time to calm down, think it through, and get some input from Estelle. She can have the deciding vote.” Dawn felt pleased at her rationale.

“Autopsy? They’re not cutting on my daddy! And I done told you, that woman has no say-so, let alone a deciding vote!” Collette was fuming.

“Lette, we have no say in the autopsy. The state has to determine the cause of death; that’s the law. And stop talking about Estelle like she was some kind of stranger. She is a nice woman who I happen to like a lot. She’s meant a lot to Daddy.” Dawn tried fruitlessly to win Collette over to her way of thinking.

“This is getting us nowhere. I agree with Dawn. Let’s leave the funeral home decision until I get there this afternoon. Y’all go on home and start calling the family. Has anyone called Uncle Thomas?” I changed the subject, trying to defuse the impending war.

“We called, but you know he turns his ringer off at night. We left him a message. We’ll drive by there when we leave here. I guess you’re right, we can decide on the funeral home when you get here. We need to stop disagreeing. Daddy would be so mad at us.” Renee’s tears started up again.

“You know, Renee is so right. He wouldn’t have it! We’re acting like those sisters on Ricki Lake.” Collette was finally starting to make sense.

“I’ll call you back as soon as I get my reservation. I’m going on the Net to get the first available flight out. I love you all so much. Please let’s not fight anymore. Promise?”

“We love you, too, Sissy,” Renee’s crying started a round-robin of tears from all of us.

You’d never have believed the four of us had been at one another’s throats less than five minutes prior. Everyone fell silent for what seemed like an eternity. I spoke up first.

“I’m going to put on some coffee. Where can I reach you all?”

“We’re going over to Daddy’s. The paramedics broke down the door to get in. We need to secure the place until we can call someone out to fix it. Sister Greene is staying there until we get back. We’ll make the calls from there. We’ll stop by Uncle Thomas’s first though.” Renee’s voice was weak.

“I’m going over to tell Estelle. She shouldn’t have to hear the news over the phone, and she’s right here in the same city with us.” Dawn wouldn’t accept any flack from Renee and Collette. Her mind was made up.

“That’s a great idea, Dawn. She’ll really appreciate you for it.” The battle lines were clearly drawn.

“Well, I’m through with the matter. Let Miss Fast Ass do what she pleases. I’m just not going with you.” I could feel Collette rolling her eyes.

“Nor did I ask you to go, now did I?”

“Sisters, please!” I longed to be in the same room with them instead of on the phone twenty-seven hundred miles away.

“Okay, Sissy, we’ll behave. Just hurry and get here. We’ll call you from Uncle Thomas’s house. This is going to almost kill him. You know how tight he and Daddy were.” Renee took charge.

“I love y’all so much. Promise me we’ll stay strong for one another. We’re all we have.” My voice cracked as if I was on a cellular phone in a valley.

“I love you, too, Sissy,” all three sisters said in unison.

“Call me after you tell Uncle Thomas. And Dawn, you call me again after you tell Estelle. Dawn and I will deal with Estelle if you two have a problem with it. But she will be involved, and there will be no further discussion on the matter.” This time you would have thought I was the oldest and in charge.

“Okay, okay, truce,” Renee said.

With that, we sisters said good-bye, and the connection was broken.

True to her word, Rico was slipping her key into my front door an hour and five minutes after she had hung up the phone. She had defied all the traffic laws set forth by the state of California. She’d made the drive from Orange County to the Antelope Valley in forty-eight minutes.

When I moved from the spacious home we’d shared in View Park, I ended up in Palmdale. Living in the high desert was the only way I could afford to continue law school and pay a mortgage at the same time.

Rico smelled coffee brewing and knew where to find me. As she entered the ultramodern, spacious, black and white kitchen, I dropped the creamer onto the granite countertop and ran to her. We spent several minutes crying and holding each other before Rico finally spoke.

“Come sit down, Glynda. You’re trembling all over.”

“Oh Rico, what am I going to do without my daddy?”

“I don’t know, Glynda. I don’t have a clue.” Rico sat, speechlessly pondering the possibility of life without Papa Eddie and his always optimistic attitude.

“But at this moment we need to focus on what it is we need to do to get you to Baltimore. I’ll help you pack and stay with you until I put you on an airplane.” Rico finally spoke, running her hand over my braids.

“You’re not going to the funeral?” Anger replaced my tears.

“Of course I’m going to the funeral. But you need to get to Baltimore today, and even if you take an early flight, it will be afternoon before you get there. I’ll be there in a day or so. I have some loose ends to tie up. But you know I would never let you go through this without me. You think his commanders will let Anthony come to the funeral?” Rico was still stroking my hair.

“Probably not. Since we aren’t married. This’ll be all the ammunition he needs to use against me for that marriage thang. Damn!” I tried to laugh.

“Let me get us some coffee. Have you called the airline yet?” Rico was opening and closing cabinets like it was her own kitchen.

“Not yet. I have only made the coffee since we spoke. My sisters called again after I talked to you to ask what funeral home we should use. We spent most of the time arguing. We all had a different opinion. But I think we really argued because if we didn’t agree, no one would have to make the call to the funeral home.”

Rico only stared at me as she wiped up the spilled cream.

“How can I call a funeral home and tell them to go pick up the remains of Edward Zachary Naylor? Tell me that, Rico!” I was raising my voice without meaning to yell at my friend.

“Did you call Anthony’s company yet?” Rico didn’t have an answer to my question.

“Not yet. Will you call for me?”

“Of course I will. I’ll get online and find you a flight, too.” Rico was doing what she did best—handle situations in a crisis.

Rico had known on her first emergency-department rotation that she worked best under extreme pressure. It was her surgery rotation that made her know that God had given her an extraordinary gift in her hands.

I’m not sure what happened after Rico picked up the telephone. I only heard her muffled voice in the distance as I stared into the empty coffee cup. I didn’t even understand what I needed to do to fill the cup with the dark liquid I love so much. I’d wait for Rico because she’d know what to do.

In what seemed like only a few seconds, Rico was sitting across from me holding my hands in her own. These were the same hands that had healed so many broken bodies. Could she heal my broken heart?

“You’re all set. Your flight leaves at eight fifty-seven from Los Angeles. So we’ll have to leave around six to get you there in time. We only have an hour and a half to get you ready. We need to pack. I left a message with the company clerk, and he promised to get it to Anthony’s company commander. Jonathan is going to meet us at the airport. He wants me to tell you how very sorry he is.”

Rico had handled it all. Within minutes she would have me packed and in the shower. She’d even dress me if I seemed incapable. Rico took me by the hand to lead me toward the master bedroom. With each step my movement became more difficult. My feet dug into the plush peach carpeting, causing Rico to pull my arm slightly. Each tick of the grandfather clock in the alcove under the winding staircase announced the beat of a heart broken into a million pieces.

My sanctuary awaited me at the top of the sixteen stairs. With each grueling step my resolve was weakened. I couldn’t make this climb. I needed to rest.

Rico felt my hesitation. “Come on, gurl. You can make it. Just a few more steps.”

As I finally reached the top of the stairs and stepped through the double doors into my bedroom, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the oak-trimmed mirror. I looked defeated. I gathered my strength to speak. “Renee and Collette don’t want Estelle to have any say in the arrangements. I think that is so wrong. What do you think?”

“Why do you think they feel that way?” Rico seemed to always answer my question with a question. She should have been a lawyer, or better yet a psychiatrist.

“They’ve never liked her. Dawn said she’d go over to tell Estelle on her own because she didn’t want to break the news over the phone. They refused to go with her.”

Rico held me by the elbow as she guided me to the king-size bed, sitting beside me as she touched my face gently with her delicate fingers. Tears once again filled my eyes.

“Why did this have to happen, Rico? Daddy was so happy and appeared so healthy. He was going to retire in two years and start to travel the way he always wanted to do.” I was in her arms again, sobbing.

“We can never know or understand how destiny can appear to rob us of so much. Papa Eddie lived a wonderful life though, Glynda. You know how pleased he was with the way you all turned out, and when I graduated from medical school, there was no one in attendance who didn’t think he was my dad. Including Mama!” She was brushing tears from my cheeks and my braids from my face.

“I know, but it was just way too short. He should’ve lived until we were his age!” Now I was angry.

“We can’t say when one has fulfilled their earthly purpose.” Rico’s voice was so soothing.

“I guess you’re right.”

“Are you going to be okay sitting here? I need to start packing.”

“Yeah, I think so.”

I watched Rico in silent awe as she moved from my walk-in closet to my dresser drawers, picking and choosing just the right clothes. I stood to go into the massive bathroom that adjoined my bedroom, but my legs abandoned me. I couldn’t move forward or return to the sitting position. I tried to ask Rico to help me, but my vocal cords were paralyzed. What was happening to me? Was I having a heart attack?

I stood in this position for several minutes before Rico realized I was in trouble. As she approached me, the room started to spin and I felt as if I was falling through a deep dark hole. Everything went black.