Tracy, why in the world would you do something like this?” Curtis asked, and he could tell Charlotte, Janine, and Carl were just as anxious as he was to hear her answer. They were all gathered in the kitchen, not saying a word.
It was the question of the decade and Curtis was hoping that somehow, maybe some way, Vivian had made a mistake. He was hoping that maybe Vivian had somehow gotten Tracy mixed up with someone else. Hoping the woman he and Charlotte had welcomed into their household, the woman they had trusted with their children, would never consider betraying them in such a harsh way.
“Mr. Curtis…I’m…so…sorry…Ms. Charlotte…I’m…,” she said and sobbed uncontrollably.
“After all we’ve done for you,” Curtis told her.
“We’ve always considered you as part of our family,” Charlotte added.
“I…know…and…I’m…sorry. But…that…woman…made…me.”
“Made you how?” Charlotte wanted to know.
Tracy sniffled multiple times, and Janine passed her a couple of tissues from her purse. Carl didn’t move.
“She was…blackmailing me. She was going to…turn me in,” she said, crying loudly.
“What do you mean?” Curtis asked.
“I’m not supposed to be here. I’m not legal.”
Charlotte folded her arms. “Are you saying you’re not a citizen here?”
“I’m not. And I’m so sorry for not telling you and Mr. Curtis.”
“But why aren’t you?”
“I didn’t pass the test.”
“How many times have you taken it?” Curtis asked.
“Just once.”
“When was that? And why didn’t you keep trying?” Charlotte said.
Tracy burst into tears all over again. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Curtis knew he should have been beyond outrage at Tracy, but he felt sorry for her. He wasn’t happy about what she’d done, but he couldn’t imagine what life must have been like for her, being a single woman and living here as an illegal alien. “Tracy, why didn’t you just tell us? Why didn’t you just come to Charlotte, me, or anybody for that matter so we could help you?”
“I was ashamed, and I was afraid that if you found out, you would fire me. Ms. Charlotte had already fired me that time I didn’t tell her about some things I had seen little Marissa do, so I was scared to say anything. I just hoped and prayed that no one would ever find out.”
“But how have you been getting by?” Janine asked. “Because there are so many things in America you can’t do if you’re not a citizen.”
“I have friends who are citizens, and they’ve helped me a lot.”
For the next thirty seconds no one said a word, and then Curtis asked, “So how exactly did Tabitha start contacting you?”
“About a month ago. Somehow she got my phone number, and she called me. She told me that she had a friend that worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and that she knew I wasn’t legal.”
Curtis knew Charlotte was upset with Tracy, but he could also tell that Charlotte was even more incensed by the way Tabitha had used Tracy the way she had.
“She told me that if I didn’t call her every day with the information she wanted, she would report me to the authorities. And I did it because I didn’t know what else to do.”
Curtis rested his hand on Tracy’s. “I’m sorry that you even had to become involved in this whole Tabitha matter.”
Curtis waited for Charlotte to make her offer of sympathy as well, but instead, she looked away from Curtis and Tracy and went over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water.
“Janine. Carl. Can I get you anything?”
“I’ll take some water, too,” Carl said.
Janine shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”
“Please, Ms. Charlotte,” Tracy said, pleading. “Please let me make this up to you. Let me make this up to you and Mr. Curtis.”
“I don’t know, Tracy. I just don’t know if we can ever trust you again, because you should have come to us right away. You should have come to us as soon as Tabitha contacted you.”
Tracy dropped her head with sadness, and Curtis knew she was worried about losing her job. She was worried that they no longer wanted her working for them, that she would definitely be turned in, and that she would ultimately be deported. He felt bad for her and deep down, no matter what Charlotte had just said, he knew Charlotte felt at least somewhat the same way. Charlotte felt deceived, but he knew she cared about Tracy.
“This is all a lot for us to digest,” he finally said. “Especially since we have so many other problems going on right now. So if you’ll just give us some time, Charlotte and I will talk about this and then make a decision.”
“I understand,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“We do love you, Tracy,” Charlotte admitted. “But you’ve really disappointed us. You’ve really hurt us in a way we weren’t expecting.”
“Yes. And until the day I die, I’ll be sorry for what I’ve done to you. I’ll never forgive myself.”
Curtis wanted to believe her and for the most part he did, but, like Charlotte, he wasn’t sure they could keep her on. Not with the way she’d so quickly allowed fear to blind her judgment. If only she’d come to them at the very beginning, they could have done something about it. They could have helped her, and they would have known just how far Tabitha was willing to go.
Right after Tracy left, Curtis, Charlotte, Janine, and Carl went out to dinner, and now Curtis and Charlotte were back home. Curtis was trying his best to relax but the more he did, the more he thought about Tabitha and the HIV announcement Vivian had made to the congregation. He worried about Tabitha’s well-being, only because she was the mother of his child, and he wanted to call her to see if she had in fact been sleeping with Tolson. He couldn’t imagine that Vivian would have lied about any of what she’d said, but still, he was hoping, for his daughter’s sake, that Tabitha hadn’t contracted such a deadly virus.
“I need to call her,” he said to Charlotte.
“Call who?”
“Tabitha.”
Charlotte squinted her eyes. “For what?”
“To see if it’s true.”
“What? Whether she was having an affair with Reverend Tolson? Whether she was sleeping with another woman’s husband? Of course she was. She slept with you, didn’t she? So what’s to keep her from sleeping with every other married man who will have her?”
“I’m worried about Curtina. I mean, I know you can’t get HIV just from having someone touch you, but let’s just say Tabitha accidentally cut herself and Curtina had some little scratch and the blood accidentally got on her. I know that may never happen, but it is possible. Especially if you don’t know you’re infected.”
Charlotte looked away from him and flipped the page of today’s church bulletin.
“Baby, I know you don’t want me talking to her, but please. Just this once. Because if she slept with him she needs to get tested right away.”
This time Charlotte turned to the back of the bulletin.
“Baby, try to understand what I’m saying. This isn’t about Tabitha or me. It’s about Curtina.”
“Fine.”
Curtis pulled out his cell and dialed the number.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Tabitha?”
“Oh God, Curtis,” she said, sniffling. “What am I going to do?”
Curtis sighed because he now had the answer to his question. Tabitha had definitely slept with Tolson and there was a chance she’d been infected by him.
“This is bad,” he said.
“I didn’t know,” she screamed hysterically. “I didn’t know he had HIV. How could he do this to me?”
Curtis heard Curtina crying in the background and his heart ached for her. He hadn’t held her in days, and his separation from her was nothing less than complete torture.
“Tabitha, you’ve got to try to calm down. I know it’s hard, but you’re going to have to deal with this, and you’re going to have to stay strong for Curtina.”
“I don’t know if I can. I just don’t know how to be strong when I might have…oh my God, Curtis…” Her voice trailed off and she cried the way most people did when their mother or child had passed away.
When she settled down some, Curtis said, “Is anyone there with you?”
“Yes, a friend of mine. But do you think you could come by? Just for a few minutes?”
“No. I’m sorry,” he said and saw Charlotte staring at him.
“I’m sorry for all the problems I’ve caused,” Tabitha said.
“The past is the past, and I hope we can let it stay there. And what you need to do is get tested as soon as possible,” he said.
“I am. First thing tomorrow morning.”
“You take care, and let me know when you have the results.”
“I will. And, Curtis, no matter what you think, I was only with John because I couldn’t be with you and because I wanted to get back at you. But I still love you.”
“Like I said, let me know when you have the results,” Curtis repeated and said good-bye because while he didn’t want to keep secrets from Charlotte, he just didn’t see where it was worth letting her know that Tabitha was still insisting on how she felt about him.
Which to him was very sad. Sad because her thoughts should have been focused on her possible infection and the hope that she didn’t have it. Of course, there was a chance she hadn’t contracted anything, but still this was very serious. More serious than Curtis wanted to imagine.
It had been a couple of hours since Curtis had phoned Tabitha, but Charlotte was still sitting there thinking about it. Of course, she didn’t like Tabitha, actually couldn’t stand her, but she would never wish that horrible virus on anyone. Worse, she would never wish this sort of situation on a child because every child needed and deserved to have a healthy mother.
When the phone rang, Charlotte looked at the screen and hesitated. It was someone calling from the local newspaper, and she wondered what they wanted now. But against her better judgment, she answered.
“Hello?”
“Mrs. Black,” a young man said.
“Yes?”
“My name is Byron Hunter, and I was hoping to talk to you about the story we’re running tomorrow in the Mitchell Tribune.”
“Well, if it’s about my husband and everything you and the rest of the media have been publishing, then there’s nothing else we can add.”
“Well, actually, Mrs. Black, part of the story is about what Reverend Tolson’s wife announced in church today. You know, about them having HIV and that Ms. Charles may have it, too. But what I’m contacting you about is in regard to the court documents that were filed a few days ago by a man named David Miller who claims to be your son’s father and who is now suing for full custody.”
Charlotte wondered how much more public embarrassment she and Curtis would actually be able to handle. In his sermons, Curtis regularly quoted the scripture “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” but as far as Charlotte was concerned, she didn’t see how they’d possibly be able to experience any real joy ever again.
“Mrs. Black, are you still there?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any comments?”
“No. And I’d really appreciate it if all of you, every single one of you at that newspaper, would leave us alone. Now is that too much to ask?”
“Mrs. Black, I’m only trying to do my job.”
“Really? Well, that may be true, but for this article, you’ll be doing it without me,” she said and hung up.
But as soon as she did, it rang again, and this time it was a national tabloid. She wanted to tell them the same thing she’d told Byron, but Curtis had told her to let the call go to voice mail. So she waited and then picked up the phone again to see if they’d left a message. Of course they had.
“Hello, my name is Shelia Tanner, calling from the Quest Weekly, and I’m calling for Reverend or Mrs. Black or both of you, if you’d be willing to speak to me. It’s our understanding that Reverend John Tolson infected both his wife and Ms. Tabitha Charles with HIV, that Ms. Charles infected Reverend Black and that Reverend Black infected his wife. We’re trying to confirm every piece of information our sources have given us, but we’d also like to hear from you. We’d like to hear your side of the story and what your feelings are in general.”
Charlotte heard the woman rattling off her phone numbers and e-mail address, but Charlotte hung up before she’d finished. Petty rumors were now turning into hideous lies, but what worried her most was that these lies might really hurt them in court.
She worried that there really was a chance they could lose Matthew.