Chapter 23
I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
—Hosea 13:5
William was in Lawrence’s office before his two visitors were out good. He practically slammed the door. “What was that all about?”
Lawrence had his chair turned as he stared out of the window. He turned around slowly.
“And why did you send me out of here? You know I would have gotten the two of them out of here quickly and with minimal damage,” William said, sitting down.
Lawrence rocked his chair back and forth.
“Will you say something?” William said.
“It’s okay. I think I handled things all right. You know I’m quite capable of watching my own back. I was doing it long before we met.”
“Yeah. Back when neither of us had a pot nor a window to throw anything out of.”
“Must you always go there?” Lawrence said.
“Well, at least I cleaned the quote up. But you know I’m speaking the truth. You and I were out there wandering in the wilderness. Times were tough. We were eating dust from drought,” William said. “You’d met Deidra and she was more accustomed to the finer things in life.”
“Yeah,” Lawrence said. “And still, I won her over.”
“You with your good little church boy act. Quoting scriptures and having folks saying that you had a calling on your life. You have a certain charm, that’s for sure. And your charm is definitely an asset in politics. But some of the messes, which come as a result of fallout, can be hard to mop up.”
Lawrence opened the red folder. “I’m more interested right now in this tidbit of information you just dug up about my son-in-law. So it appears Paris was right. Andrew did know Gabrielle prior to the other day.”
“It looks that way. Not that there’s anything listed saying that they dated or anything. But there was definitely something that went on.”
Lawrence closed the folder. “Well, all of this is starting to get out of hand. I was just with Andrew and he pretty much lied to my face.”
William laughed. “That’s funny coming from you.”
“I don’t lie. What I do is called massaging the truth.”
“Yeah. Some form of truth is generally in there somewhere. It’s just a matter of finding where and getting your hands on it. But on another note: Your little girlie friend that just left appears to be a problem we really don’t need. Mattie told me that was Dr. Morgan with her. So I suppose our plan to expose her past to him in order to get her to back down is out of the window now?”
Lawrence nodded. “He knows everything. Except that one bit of news I sprung on him about her knowing Andrew. Apparently Gabrielle totally forgot to mention that to him even after running into Andrew the other day. Maybe the two of them are not as tight as they’d like me to believe. I have to give it to him though; he’s standing with her on this. I don’t know if she’s that good or if he just really cares about that child in need of that transplant.”
“Speaking of which,” William said. “As I’m sure you saw in the folder, there really is a child, and she really is in need of a bone marrow transplant. Whether the child was fathered by you or not, without a blood test or DNA to confirm it, I honestly can’t say.” William reared back on his chair’s hind legs and smiled as he looked at Lawrence.
“If your question is: Was I there at one point in time and is there any possibility, then the answer is yes. But that admission is strictly to remain between me and you.”
“Man, you know I’m not going to say anything. I’ve kept all your other secrets all of these years.”
“As I have yours, in case you’d like to believe you’re some saint without sin and can freely cast the first stone.” Lawrence’s face was stern.
“Hey, that’s what blood brothers do. That’s what being a blood brother is all about. And you and I are brothers to the end. We’ve come too far to mess up now. So”—William clapped his hand—“what are our plans for the present mess we find ourselves in? In addition to, of course, that Rev. Walker fiasco that I believe we may be able to get out of easier than even we first thought. Greed is such an ugly animal. Someone should have informed Marshall Walker of that, a long time ago. So, I think we can cross Rev. Walker off the done list. And now that we’ve run into this information on Andrew, he just might help us more than he was originally willing to do if we need it.” William beamed with pride. “Conflict of interest, my foot!”
“Andrew is still family now. Whatever negatively affects Andrew, affects my daughter. And whatever affects Paris—”
“Affects the whole entire world,” William said. “Especially since Paris thinks the whole world revolves around her.”
“Precisely. If Paris is affected, then her mother will most certainly get involved. Then I’ll be left to have to act like I care and that I’m doing all I can to fix it. I don’t want to even start down that road. Not with everything else that’s going on and most likely will be still going on if this bone marrow donor situation breaks the wrong way. Leave my son-in-law to me. You just remain focused on getting me reelected or we’ll both find ourselves looking for a job.”
“Right,” William said. “And what about Miss Goodness and Mercy . . . Gabrielle Mercedes?”
“William, I know you’d love nothing more than to put her in her place. But I must say: She offered a pretty compelling solution to this whole mess should we need to go there. I didn’t dare let on too much to either of them today, but I believe her idea could be just what this campaign needs to give me that air of caring boost that those focus groups you paid all that money to claimed I lacked and needed to strengthen my reelection bid.”
“Okay,” William said. “I’m all ears.”
Lawrence recapped what Gabrielle had said about a bone marrow donor awareness campaign where he and his family would appear to be leading the charge.
“So let me see if I’ve gotten this straight,” William said. “You want us to pretend we’re taking this on, highlighting awareness for folks to consider becoming donors in some form or another, highlighting the plight of those especially in need of bone marrow transplants. You’ll parade your family out to the public to prove just how serious and how much you truly are behind this rhetoric.”
William made several approving facial expressions. “Admirable. But what happens if, let’s say, you or one of your children turn out to be a match? Then what? Can you seriously convince your family to go along with something like this? Being a donor for most folks is no joke. Black folks don’t even want to hear about it, let alone possibly offer themselves up. And I don’t mean to beat a dead horse to death, but I’m sure Paris will be the first to give you attitude about doing anything like this.”
“I’ve thought about that. But we’re basically planning to highlight only one person to bring home the point. We’re not putting ourselves out there to be a donor for just anybody in need. Think of all the publicity we’ll generate doing something like this. We make a big show about the initial test required, complete with the cotton swab inside the cheeks. Again, using this one person as the one we’re trying to help. When it comes back that none of us are even possible candidates for any further matching testing, then it’s done . . . it’s over. My candidacy profile is raised considerably. Me and my family appear to truly care about others. And this child’s plight has gained exposure she otherwise wouldn’t have received, possibly finding her a real donor.”
“Okay. I get that part. But if there’s another person that one of you matches and you refuse to help, how will it look if you balk at going further for that person?”
“That’s why I’m expecting you to have this all crafted to protect us from anything remotely like that happening. Again, we’ll emphasize our main goal is to shine the light on help for this young child, which will absolutely be true. And just imagine the residual publicity that will occur if a match is found from someone who was encouraged to be tested through our campaign drive.”
William nodded. “Yeah. This could really give you a boost in the polls. It will definitely get you tons of publicity that we absolutely can use to get more of the word out about your political agenda. I have to admit, Lawrence: This really could turn out to be a win-win for ever ybody.”
Lawrence leaned back in his chair as he gazed up at the ceiling. “It would definitely be a win-win for all concerned.”
“The real win will be you getting your family on board with this.”
Lawrence sat back straight and faced William. “You handle your part and leave my family to me.”
William stood up to leave. “I’ll get right on it.”
“Oh, and William?”
William stopped. “Yeah?”
“Do your magic or whatever it is you do, and get Mattie to start putting Gabrielle’s calls through to me if she calls in the future. I don’t need Gabrielle riled at this point. If we play this right, she won’t be bothering us too much longer, especially after this is all over.”
William chuckled. “Man, you know you have more influence over Mattie than I do.”
“Yeah, but when something like this comes from you, she knows we’re not playing and there’s no room for her creative implementation of the order.”
“I suppose what you’re really doing, in your slick way, is letting me know that I need to cooperate better with Gabrielle as well. That’s what you’re really doing right now.” William nodded. “I don’t know why you’re trying to play me.”
“I just don’t need any more trouble coming from Gabrielle. If we play our cards right, I’ll do this little swab test, get the word out about the plight of this child, who I’m sure is a sweet child regardless of who her father really is, and in just a few weeks . . . tops, all of this goes away. Poof! A mere distant memory of what was.”
“Yeah. A blip on the radar, then we’re on to our next exciting opportunity that awaits us with open arms.”
“Oh, and William? One more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“I want you to participate in the swab test phase along with us. And get as many on our staff and working on my campaign as possible to sign up as well.”
“Me? You want me to do it? How did I get involved in this?” William said. “I didn’t sleep with her.”
“We’re a team, remember? And we want people, including my family, to believe this is a team effort. If we’re going to do this and not draw attention or scrutiny, then we all need to put some skin in the game. Or as will be in this case: a little saliva on a piece of cotton.”
“And I suppose it goes without saying that we’re on a short timetable for all of this to take place?”
“Yeah. I’m going to go get tested tomorrow so I can see where I stand,” Lawrence said. “I’m going to do it through their anonymous system first.”
“You know, if it turns out that you’re a good candidate for a match, then maybe none of us will need to do it at all. What say before I begin to move on this, we wait on your results to come back first? If you end up being a match, then I’d recommend we adjust this strategy completely.”
Lawrence looked up at the ceiling again. “You know . . . that’s probably the best plan. Because if I am a match, we’d really need to keep this as hushed as possible,” Lawrence said.
“Yeah. And if you’re a match and end up qualifying as a donor for her, we could easily manufacture a business trip for you while you have the procedure done and the time you need to recuperate.”
Lawrence nodded. “Good looking out. But if they say I’m not even a potential candidate to proceed any further and we need to involve my children to satisfy Gabrielle and keep her quiet with what she knows, then we’ll enact Operation Become a Possible Donor.”
“Hey, I like that: Operation Become a Possible Donor.” William walked to the door and opened it. “I like that.” He closed the door as he left.
Lawrence retrieved the card Gabrielle had given him with the special number connected to the child in need of the bone marrow transplant, picked up the phone, and made an appointment. He then called Andrew and told him he needed to see him again, sooner rather than later.
It was on now.