Epilogue
“Trina, he’s here.” Monica sounded exhausted, but happier than I’d ever heard her sound.
“Oh my goodness.” I sat up in the bed. “When?”
“At about one o’clock this morning. I wanted to call you then, but as soon as they took him to the nursery, I fell asleep. Can you believe I was in labor for eighteen hours?”
“Dag, Monnie. Are you serious? I can’t imagine. How was it? As bad as they say?”
“Worse. It was horrible, girl. I can’t even begin to describe it. It’s true what they say, though. As soon as I looked into his beautiful, little face, all the pain was forgotten. You should see him, Trina. He looks exactly like Kevin. Head full of thick hair and all.”
“Oooh,” I cooed. “What’s my nephew’s name?”
“Kevin Andrew Day, Jr. What else?”
“Of course. Don’t even know why I asked.”
Gabe stirred in the bed next to me and let out a little snore. I reached over and smoothed my fingers through his wild hair.
“So I know you guys are just getting settled in and all, and even though you said you’d be here as soon as he was born, I’d understand if—”
“No way, Monnie. As soon as we get up, I’ll have Gabe start looking at plane tickets. We’ll give you guys a week or two to bond with baby Kevin, but after that, we’ll be there.”
“Yeah?” I could hear her smiling into the phone.
“Yeah.” I kissed Gabe’s closed eyelids and slid out of the bed so I wouldn’t wake him.
“But what about . . . is Moms okay . . . you know, for you guys to leave her? We have plenty of room if you want to bring her. If she’s okay to travel that far again.”
I walked down the long, narrow hall of our small house in Pemba, my feet swishing on the coarse sand that always littered the smooth, stone floor, no matter how many times I swept. “Girl, please. Moms is fine. You should see her. She’s eating well. She’s picked up about twenty pounds in the two months since we’ve been here. And there’s no way I could get her away from here. She ain’t leaving her babies, and they ain’t trying to let her go.”
I peeked into Moms’s room. She was fast asleep, crowded in the bed with at least four children who found a way to sneak into her room after I shooed them away every night. There were at least six more scattered on the floor around the bed. I shook my head, but couldn’t help but smile.
“Is she . . .” I could tell Monica was afraid to ask the question.
“Healed? Girl, I guess so. It’s not like we have a CAT scan machine or anything like that here to check.” I stepped back into the hall and closed Moms’s door. “All I know is she’s getting stronger, fatter, and healthier every day. Her hair is growing back, her skin color is peachy again, and she can run around after the children all day long. A few days after we got here, she got rid of the oxygen tank her doctor insisted we bring after telling us how crazy we were for trying to take her halfway across the world. It’s been all good ever since.”
“Wow. God is . . . awesome.”
I walked down the hall a little farther, into the main room with the small kitchen, eating area, and living area. “Girl, awesome ain’t the word. I honestly never thought I’d see the day when my mother had anything good to say about Jesus, but she beats us to church for every service. She and the kids are on the front row every time. You should see her teaching them stories from the Bible. I still can’t believe it.”
I walked over to the large window and stared through the wire mesh screen out at the huge African moon. I could actually count the stars as their brightness contrasted against the pitch black sky. The thick, gnarly branches of the Baobab tree in the yard reached up to heaven, almost like it was praying.
“I may see if Tiffany wants to fly down and meet us in Atlanta while we’re there,” I said. “Who knows when I’ll get a chance to spend some time with her again?”
“Why? What’s going on with her?”
I stepped out the front door and almost tripped over the mangy dog that seemed to think he was ours. I knew it was because Moms always snuck him food because she couldn’t stand seeing his ribs. “She, her friend Stacy, and Stacy’s two kids moved into Moms’s house in Baltimore after I rented my house out. They’re really getting things going with their fashion business,and I don’t know when she can get away to come over here again. Not that she’d be trying to visit. You should have seen her while she was here for the wedding. Everything was ‘eeeuwww’ this and ‘yucky’ that.”
Monica laughed. “Sounds like how I would be if I came over there to visit.”
“If?” I took a deep breath, inhaling the ever present, acrid odor of burning brush and trash. “Don’t even try it. As soon as the baby’s old enough, you have to come visit. It’s only fair. Besides, you never know what might happen the first time you come. You might like it and decide to move over here too.”
“No chance of that, girl. Like I said before, I like my nice big house in suburbia and my perm and my long, hot baths in my Jacuzzi, and my swimming pool, and all my favorite restaurants here in Atlanta, and the mall and my—”
“Okay, Monnie. I get it.” I walked back into the house and closed the door behind me. “If I want to see you, I have to come there.”
We both laughed. I walked back down the hall to my bedroom. “Okay, my friend. You get some rest and kiss my nephew for me. See you in about two weeks?”
“Yep. I can’t wait. Love you, Trina.”
“Love you too, Monnie.”
We said our good-byes and I crawled back into my bed. I snuggled up against my husband of two months, and pulled the mosquito net back around us.
As I fell back asleep, all I could think of was the scripture that had proven so true in both me and my best friend’s lives. Everything that Satan had meant for evil, God had turned for good.
Gabe rolled over and pulled me into his arms. I nestled into his chest.
Better than good.
The end