“PEACHES?”

A large part of Josiah wanted the woman in front of him to laugh and reply, “No, silly. I’m her friend. She’ll be here in a minute.” But he knew that wasn’t going to happen. It was her. She looked a little older and a lot prettier … but it was her.

“Oh my goodness. Look at my little brother.” She reached up and grabbed him around the neck and hugged him tight. When Patrice pulled away, she scoped him from head to toe like she was trying to take it all in. “Goodness gracious. Time has been good to you, boy.” She capped it off with yet another embrace.

Time had been good to her too. Better than good. So good that Josiah tensed at the feel of her touches. A part of him wanted to push Patrice away from him and take off running toward the front door. Another part of him wanted to return her hug and hold her as long as she’d allow. But he did neither. All Josiah could do was stand there with his arms dangling by his side and hope that his leg muscles continued to hold steady.

Patrice wore a tantalizing unidentifiable flowery scent that nearly made him dizzy with pleasure, and when she planted a kiss on his face, he was ready to throw in the towel and surrender to what felt a lot like brewing passion. In Josiah’s lifetime, no woman had ever had this effect on him. Well, except Eva Pigford, but that didn’t count. His emotions were running amuck.

Something wasn’t right about this. This was his big sister. He wasn’t supposed to be attracted to her, let alone yearn for her. And if he did, the hankering should make him sick to his stomach. Any decent man who found himself craving the passionate affections of his sister ought to be on the verge of vomiting. But all Josiah felt was desire. Strong, confusing, desire. There had to be a support group for sickos like him. Where was that raggedy prayer mat when he needed it?

Patrice released Josiah and looked at him with concerned eyes. “Are you okay, JT?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, trying to shake off the temptation to pull her back to him and feel her soft cheek against his. “I … uh … I—”

“Look how tall he is, Patrice. I told you he was a tree.” Joanne’s interruption was a lifesaver, and with it, she had unknowingly rescued a drowning Josiah. “He must have shot up a whole foot since he left us.”

It was an overstatement, but not by much. Josiah had experienced a growth spurt during his last two years of high school. Between the ages of seventeen and eighteen, he’d grown five inches. Josiah had stretched a total of eight inches since they’d last seen him.

“You’re mighty quiet, JT.” Patrice scrutinized his hazel eyes with her deep brown ones. “What’s wrong? I know it’s been about twenty years, but you don’t have to treat me like a stranger.”

But a stranger was just what she felt like. It was as though a different woman had come along at some point and invaded his sister’s body. Patrice had always been a pretty girl. The genetic makeup of her African-American mother and her Asian father had blended together to make her a cute, skinny Blasian in her younger years. But something had changed since Josiah last saw her. He remembered being fourteen and waving as his eighteen-year-old sister left for college more than fifteen years ago. But what he felt then was a far cry from what he was feeling now.

Though no longer rail thin, Patrice still had a slim build, and just like he last remembered, her brownish black, wavy hair cascaded past her shoulders and stopped midway down her back. Her boney structure had been replaced by near-perfect slender curves that seemed to audibly beg for Josiah’s touch. Every part of her body complemented the next. She seemed shorter than he remembered, but that was probably due to the fact that he’d continued to grow long after she’d apparently stopped. He towered her now by about six or seven inches.

“JT?” Patrice playfully slapped him on the arm. “You done got too old to hug me now or what?”

Josiah finally broke his stare. Her eyes were burning into his corneas like hot coals. He didn’t want Patrice to think he was alienating her, but what was he supposed to do? His emotions were out of control. Any warmth he returned would probably turn into something inappropriate. “I’m sorry. It’s just that… I’m just…” Words escaped him. Jesus, help me.

“I think we’ve overloaded him,” Thomas joked with a hearty laugh. “He came here with only a smidgen of hope of even finding me and Joanne, and we’ve reunited him with the whole family.”

“Yeah.” Josiah stuck both his hands in his pants pockets and used two steps to put some much needed space between him and Patrice. “I’m overwhelmed. It’s just so good to see everybody.” He looked at Patrice and gave her the most genuine smile he could rally under short notice. He had to get it together … and fast. “Thanks for the compliment, sis. You look good too. And you’ve got a beautiful daughter. She looks a lot like you.”

Giving Arielle an adoring brush to the cheek with her hand, Patrice said, “Yeah. That’s my mini me.”

Josiah subconsciously scanned her hand for a wedding ring. When he didn’t see one, he chose not to ask about the whereabouts of Arielle’s father. “Does she have your lungs?” he opted to say. “I heard you sing at church, and I was blown away. I don’t remember you singing much back in the day.”

“Why don’t we talk over dinner?” Joanne interrupted. “We got a lot of catching up to do, and we might as well do it while we eat.”

Thomas patted his protruding belly. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

The chatter was placed on pause while the serving dishes were placed in the center of the table and everyone was seated. Josiah and Sam grabbed the seats on one side of the table while Patrice and Arielle occupied the two chairs on the other. Thomas and Joanne sat at opposite ends of the polished oak table that looked a lot like the one that they had when Josiah was a child living in their home. He wondered if it were one and the same.

As soon as Thomas blessed the food, the conversation picked up where they’d left off.

“In response to your earlier comment,” Patrice said, after downing several ounces of her fresh-squeezed lemonade, “I actually did sing when we were kids; I just didn’t do it in front of anybody. Too shy and too intimidated to take the chance of anybody hearing me, I guess. I know you remember the speech impediment that I had back then.”

It was the reason he called her Peaches. On the day he was brought into the Smiths’ home, he shook her hand and said, “I’m Josiah.” In response she mumbled what sounded like, “I’m Peaches.” He had called her Peaches for five minutes before Joanne walked in the room and told him otherwise. Frankly, Josiah thought Peaches fit her better, so he stuck with the nickname, eventually prompting everybody else to refer to her as the same. Patrice must have liked it. She never complained.

Josiah nodded with a half grin. “I remember the speech impediment. I see it’s all cleared up now.”

“The therapy finally paid off,” she said while tossing an appreciative smile at Thomas. “Being impeded and having to endure the cruelty that came along with it is what made me switch colleges after my sophomore year and transfer from Auburn University where I was majoring in business to LaSalle University’s School of Nursing and Health Sciences.”

Josiah didn’t see what nursing had to do with her speech impediment, but just as he was about to question her on it, Joanne jumped into the conversation.

She laughed aloud and clapped her hands together. “JT, you stayed in trouble for fighting the kids that picked at Patrice and the ones who picked on Sam too.”

Josiah’s grin widened at the recalled memories, and he swelled his chest for visual entertainment as he said, “That’s right. J-to-the-T used to whip some tail back in the day.” For added effect, he slammed his right fist into his left palm.

“Yeah, and then J-to-the-T used to get his tail whipped when he got home and his parents found out,” Thomas added.

“Guilty as charged,” Josiah said, “But when you really think about it, those were unfair spankings, Dad. I mean, I was only trying to protect what was mine.”

“Protect what was yours?” Patrice frowned and laughed at the same time. “What were Sam and I, your pets or something?”

Conversing with her was much easier from where he now sat. Josiah had purposely grabbed the chair that would put him in the space directly across from Arielle, leaving the chair facing Patrice for Sammy to sit in. He didn’t think he’d be able to sit directly in front of her without appearing as uneasy as he would feel.

Josiah laughed along with the rest of the family, and then said, “Of course not. But you were my family, and that’s way better than having a dog or a cat.” He sobered and paused before adding, “No mean lil’ bully was gonna get away with picking on neither one of y’all. Not if I could help it anyway. You were the only family I ever had, and that was worth fighting for.” Josiah wasn’t prepared for the sudden breaking of his voice or the trembling of his lips. Embarrassed by the emotions that sneaked up on him, he stopped talking and began drinking lemonade from his glass.

The table fell quiet for a moment, like no one quite knew what to say. The conversation had been flowing so well. Josiah was regretful that he’d somehow put a damper on things. He tried to think of something to say to lighten the mood, but his brain wasn’t cooperating.

All of a sudden, Sammy slammed his closed right fist into his open left palm and at the same time declared, “Pow! Dat’s right. Mess wit’ m-m-me, and my b-b-big brudda beat yo’ t-t-t-t-tail.” His eyes batted heavily the whole time, but he managed to get it all out and to sound authoritative while doing it.

Arielle was the first to break into a full-bellied laugh, but the rest of the family wasn’t far behind. Josiah reached over and placed his hand on Sammy’s shoulder and gave him a quick squeeze. Josiah didn’t think it was possible that Sammy really remembered any of the childhood scuffles he had gotten in because of his foster siblings, but he appreciated the much-needed comic relief. Sammy’s outburst had been just what they needed to get beyond the melancholy.

“It’s so good to have all of you here,” Joanne said. “God is a prayer answerer.”

“I’m just so surprised that Sammy is still here after all these years,” Josiah said. “I guess I never considered that you all would still have him after the age of eighteen.”

“They adopted him,” Patrice said. “Smith is Sam’s legal last name.”

Josiah’s movements became painful under the stab of jealousy that he felt. How could they adopt one and not the other? He never meant to ask the question out loud, but it was one that his mind wouldn’t allow him to keep imprisoned. “Why did you choose to adopt him and not me or Peaches?” Josiah really only threw in Patrice’s name so that he wouldn’t sound totally self-serving. But in reality, he couldn’t care less as to why they didn’t adopt Patrice. He just wanted to know why he’d been rejected.

Thomas and Joanne looked at each other from across the table, and Josiah was surprised that Joanne took the lead and answered.

“It wasn’t preplanned or anything. We just got tired of being hurt.”

“Hurt?” Josiah didn’t understand.

Nodding, Joanne said, “First Patrice left, then you.” She took her eyes off of Josiah just long enough to glance at Thomas again. Looking back at Josiah, she continued. “A piece of us died every time we had to say good-bye to you all. So we wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t have to lose Sam too.” Joanne repositioned herself in her chair and added, “Besides, JT, you weren’t up for adoption. Your mother was going through rehab, and it was always the state’s plan to return you to her. We didn’t have the choice to adopt you. But we hope that we loved you to the point that you felt like you were legally ours. It felt that way to us.”

“Yes. It certainly did.” Thomas had finally broken his silence.

Josiah nodded and smiled. Getting that one question answered had put to rest many years of pondering. It made all the sense in the world. Why hadn’t Reeva Mae just relinquished her maternal rights? It was clear that she would never be a fully fit mother.

After taking a sip of his lemonade, Josiah said, “I can say with all honesty that I have never felt so loved in my life as when I lived here with you all. I don’t know where I would be today if I didn’t spend those years with you all. It was the only time in my life that I felt loved every single day.”

“Even on the days you got whippings?” Patrice asked, grinning from ear to ear.

“Even on the days I got whippings.” Josiah shared her smile.

“Oh, you got your share too, Miss Lady.” Joanne pointed her fork at Patrice.

“Only when Daddy wasn’t around, and I couldn’t run to him to be rescued.” She gave her father a little-girl smile and reached over and rubbed his arm.

“That was my job.” Thomas sounded proud of himself.

“Speaking of which,” Josiah looked at Joanne, “I’ve learned over the years that the state doesn’t allow foster parents to spank the kids that are placed in their care. Did they forget to pass that tidbit of info to you?”

“Nope.” Joanne said it as if she had no regrets. “I knew that from day one. As a matter of fact, that part might’ve been highlighted in yellow on the contract. But the Word of God instructed me to train you up in the way you should go so that when you got grown you wouldn’t depart from it.”

“Proverbs 22:6,” Thomas announced. “It’s all about balance. When talking to you all was enough, that’s all we did. But if your heads got particularly tough and your behinds needed a little tenderizing, you got that too.”

“Not really,” Patrice said. “JT, do you ever remember getting an actual behind whipping when you lived with us?”

Josiah thought for a short while, then burst into a fit of laughter when the memories came flooding back. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten so many colorful things about his life with the Smiths.

“Laugh all you want, but it worked,” Joanne cut in. “Those social workers would come by here all the time, and they would arbitrarily strip y’all naked, checking your stomachs, arms, backs, butts, everything… trying to find any welts that might be the result of corporal punishment.”

“Yes, indeed,” Thomas said. From the look in his eyes, it was safe to assume that he was reminiscing. “They’d pop in on us without notice in hopes of catching us in the act, I suppose. Y’all were some good kids for the most part, and it was like they thought the only way you all could be that respectful was if we had put the fear of God in you by beating the devil out of you. I don’t know why so many educated folks think you can’t spank a kid without abusing him.” He stopped and shook his head. “Schools are in a mess, jails are running over, graveyards are full, and a lot of it is due to the wayward thinking of mankind.”

“Preach, Daddy!” Patrice teased.

“Preach, Granddaddy,” her daughter echoed.

Josiah laughed. Arielle was almost too adorable for words, and her speech carried the hint of an accent that Josiah couldn’t determine.

“And God had called us to open our home and heart to children just like y’all.” Joanne didn’t so much as miss a beat. It was as though Thomas had handed her a baton and told her to keep the sermon going. “And we weren’t about to let a single one of you end up contributing to none of those statistics; so contract or not, we had to do what we had to do. Speaking for myself, I had way more fear of what God might do to me for not raising y’all to know Him and His ways than I was scared of what the government might do.”

“Those social workers were some smart cookies, but wasn’t a single one of them smarter than your mama.” Thomas’s stomach bounced when he chuckled. “They checked every nook and cranny of y’all bodies.”

“But they never checked the bottoms of your feet!” Joanne exclaimed.

Josiah laughed so hard that water ran from his eyes. He could hear Patrice laughing too … and for good reason. The two of them had gotten their share of foot-whippings from Joanne. Slideshow images of Joanne standing over him with an afro comb in her hand, demanding that he take off his shoes in preparation for his whipping cascaded through Josiah’s mind. They were no laughing matter at the time, but in hindsight, Josiah couldn’t think of anything funnier.

“And that junk used to hurt too,” Patrice was saying. “I think I would rather have gotten a regular whipping with a belt or a switch. That foot-whipping was a whole different kind of pain.” She paused to laugh some more, then said, “When I heard the words, ‘Get in your room, and take off your socks and shoes,’ I would just go ahead and start crying right then.”

“I believe tarrying is more like the right word for what you used to do, Peaches,” Josiah managed to say when he finally caught his breath. Then in his best little girl voice, he mimicked, “‘Ooooo, Ma. I’m sorry. I ain’t gonna do it no more. I promise. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus … ooooo, Ma. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Above the howling that roared around the table, Josiah added, “And then by the time the comb started making contact with the bottom of your bare feet, you’d not only dropped Ma’s name all together, but you had stopped pronouncing Jesus’ name right too. By then it was just ‘Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je … ooooo, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je, Je!’”

Hurling her cloth napkin across the table at Josiah, Patrice said, “Shut up, JT. You act like you didn’t get your feet beat.”

“Oh, my,” Thomas said, using his napkin to wipe moisture from his eyes. “You kids are something else.”

“I know one thing,” Joanne interjected, “a major point those foot-whippings proved was that just because a parent uses corporal punishment when disciplining a child doesn’t mean he’ll grow to become some violent and aggressive menace to society. A proper spanking ain’t never hurt nobody. Not emotionally and psychologically, anyway. I don’t care what all these educated fools say; I don’t even care what Dr. Phil or Oprah says. The Bible advocates it, and this right here was a Bible-believing home.”

Thomas leaned forward and carefully placed his elbows on the table, on either side of his plate. “And although I wasn’t the major disciplinarian in the household, I fully support that. And each one of you is a billboard to prove that a lot of good comes from it. Look how you turned out.” He looked at Patrice. “You finished college and now you’re teaching, and—”

“Teaching?” Josiah’s eyebrows rose. “As in school?”

Patrice’s head bobbed. “Elementary level. The earlier you catch it and begin treating it, the better.”

“Catch and treat what? I thought you said you graduated from LaSalle’s School of Nursing.” Josiah suddenly snapped his fingers. “Oh, I get it. You work in the infirmary at the school.”

“No no no.” She shook her head. “I’m a speech therapist. I majored in speech pathology, and it falls under LaSalle’s Nursing and Health Sciences program.”

“Ahhh.” It all made sense to Josiah now. “Now that’s what I call giving back. Good for you, Peaches. That’s great. My best friend is a teacher as well. He teaches physical education on the high school level.”

“The world can sure use more good male teachers,” Joanne said.

A sudden thought invaded Josiah’s mind. “Do you do private tutoring? I mean, if a person wanted you to help with their child’s speech, but it wasn’t a service or a class being offered in the school, would you take them on as a private client?”

Patrice crinkled her face. “Sure. Why not? As long as I could fit it into my schedule. Why? You have somebody in mind?”

Josiah wiped his hands on his napkin and reached in his pocket for his wallet. “As a matter of fact, yes.” He gave a business card to Sammy, and he immediately passed it to Patrice’s awaiting hand.

“Danielle Brown, Guidance Counselor.” Patrice read the words on the card. “Who is this?”

“A friend of mine.”

“Friend?” Patrice gave him a curious look.

Josiah knew what she was thinking, and he quickly cleared it up. “Yes. She’s my best friend’s fiancée, and she has a thirteen-year-old niece who suffered head trauma in a car accident she was involved in last year. She had to have brain surgery as a result of it, and now she’s learning to do a lot of stuff all over again, including talk. I don’t know what kind of help you can do with her being in North Carolina and you being in Georgia, but even if you can suggest a good pathologist to her it would help.”

“Sure. If I can help, I certainly will.”

Josiah smiled. “Thanks. She’ll appreciate it.”

“While we’re on the subject of professions, what is it that you do, JT?” Thomas asked while he put another dinner roll on Sammy’s plate. “Whatever it is, it must be pretty lucrative to afford you a car like the one sitting in the yard out there.”

“I saw that when I drove up,” Patrice said. “I didn’t even want to park my little Solara next to it.”

Josiah looked at her. “Toyota is an excellent carmaker. I guarantee that if you take care of your Solara, it’ll be around just as long as my R8.”

“So what is it that you do, JT?” Joanne asked between bites of food.

“I work in computer software.”

“We should have figured that,” Patrice said. “Remember how much he used to like to play on your computer, Daddy?”

“Yep. Sure do.” Thomas nodded his head. “Do you build computers?”

Josiah loved talking about his job. He leaned back in his chair. “Not exactly. I guess you can say I enhance them. I’m a computer analyst. Just got promoted to senior analyst a few weeks ago.”

“Well, congratulations!” Pride was written all over Joanne’s face. “I have to bake you a cake or something so we can celebrate properly.”

The more they talked, the more Josiah realized how much he’d missed his family. How much he missed having someone be proud of him. “I work for MacGyver Technologies, and they pay me well. The Audi has been my only splurge though. I’d wanted one for a long time, and when I was able to purchase one, I did.”

“MacGyver Technologies?” Thomas followed his question with a low, extended whistle. “That’s a big-time company. Fortune 500, right?”

Josiah smiled. His father had always kept current on business issues. When he lived in the Smiths’ home, Thomas subscribed to Forbes magazine, and it seemed that he never threw away a single issue. “Yes, it’s Fortune 500. I’m one of only two black senior execs that they have on staff in the headquarters office.”

“Look at my baby!” Joanne’s words caused JT’s neck to become heated. He was sure he was blushing.

Thomas scratched his chin and looked up at the ceiling. “Their headquarters is in North Carolina, right? So you live in North Carolina?”

They had been chatting so much that Josiah hadn’t even noticed that he hadn’t filled in his family on any of what had gone on in his life for the past fifteen years.

“Yes sir.” Josiah paused long enough to polish off the last of his lemonade. As soon as he placed the empty glass on the table, Joanne picked up the pitcher and refilled it for him. He thanked her, and then gave his attention back to Thomas. “After I graduated high school, I accepted a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and—”

“That’s outstanding,” Thomas exclaimed. “Full academic scholarship, son?”

“Yes sir … academic.” Josiah was reeling in every compliment he was fishing for. “And need I say that the baddest brothers on campus wore black and gold?”

Thomas dropped his fork and his bottom lip. For a second Josiah thought his father was going to cry. “You?” Thomas pointed at him. “JT, are you …?” He couldn’t even bring himself to finish the sentence.

Before answering verbally, Josiah curled in his index, middle, and ring fingers and allowed his thumb and pinky to point outward to flash the sign that Thomas had always been so proud to display “Alpha Phi Alpha all the way,” Josiah said.

“Oh, goodness. Now I got two of ’em to deal with,” Joanne grumbled.

Ignoring her, Thomas pumped his fist and said, “Excellent! Excellent! You couldn’t have pledged anything better, son.” He seemed more enthused by Josiah’s Greek affiliation than he had been about the full scholarship.

“I began working at MacGyver shortly after I graduated,” Josiah continued. “I had done a summer internship there between my junior and senior years, and the late Mr. MacGyver was so impressed that he promised me a position once I had my bachelor’s.” Josiah didn’t see a need to pass along Lillian’s rumor that the company had an equal opportunity quota to meet. “Once I began working, I didn’t return for my master’s. It just didn’t seem necessary. I had already landed the job that I’d wanted to do for most of my life.”

“Praise the Lord,” Joanne said, clasping her hands under her chin as if she were about to call for everyone to bow their heads in prayer. “I always hoped and prayed that things worked out with you and your mother. To the natural eye, she seemed like a lost cause, but look at God.”

Joanne was so elated that Josiah didn’t have the heart to volunteer the truth about Reeva. But when Joanne went on to specifically ask him how she was doing, he also didn’t have the heart to lie. Josiah stood from his chair and took a few steps toward the china cabinet that stood catty-corner in the dining room. Talking about Reeva always tended to make him antsy. When he moved around versus sitting still, it seemed to be easier to discuss the unpleasant matters regarding her.

“She was murdered about twelve years ago.” Josiah cut right to the chase, and despite the gasp that ran around the table, he barely paused before continuing. “Mama never really got her life straight. She did pretty well for the first few months after they returned me to her, but she couldn’t stay clean. We lived in pretty poor housing in Chicago, and she did a lot of drugs and … well, other things that she had no business doing.” Josiah made a turn and faced the table, but didn’t look at anyone in particular. “It all finally caught up with her, I guess. The police found her dead the morning after my high school graduation ceremony. Based on her autopsy, she was probably being strangled as I was marching across the stage.”

“Jesus.” Thomas whispered the one-word prayer as he sat with his eyes closed. His head lowered and he massaged his forehead like he was in physical pain.

“Oh, my,” Joanne said. Her hand fluttered to her chest. “We didn’t know.”

“I’m so sorry, son.” Thomas looked injured. “If I had known, I would have—”

Josiah forced a weary smile. “It’s okay, Dad. It wasn’t your fault, and I wasn’t your responsibility anymore. I’m not gonna downplay it. It was rough; really rough, but I have you and Mama to thank for my survival. Because you presented Christ to me before I left, I made it.”

His words didn’t seem to soothe Thomas at all.

Patrice rose from her chair and secured Josiah in the warmth of her arms. “I’m sorry too, JT. What happened to your mom was awful, but I hope that being here with us for a while will help to make it better. I know everybody else missed you, but I can’t speak for them. But speaking for myself, I just want to say that I missed you so much.”

This time, Josiah returned her embrace. “I missed you too, Peaches. I can’t tell you how good it feels to reunite with y’all.” He said the words, but as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the stimulating feel of her skin, Josiah didn’t feel so much like he was reconnecting with Patrice as he felt he was meeting her for the first time.