MOTHER WIT
By
ANGELIA VERNON MENCHAN
And
DERA WILLIAMS
MAMM PRODUCTIONS 2010
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either figments of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2010 Angelia C. Menchan
All Rights Reserved.
ISBN: 978145072657
Printed in the United States of America.
Dedication Page
I dedicate Mother Wit to my mama, Ora Lee Vernon and all those women who blessed me with their wisdom. And I thank my husband, Maurice Menchan for believing in my dreams to publish.
Thanks Dera for joining me on this story-telling journey…
Angelia Vernon Menchan 07 19 2010
Many thanks to all those who have supported my writing, especially my family, my mother, Vivian Rowland Jones, and my late father Laybon Jones, Sr., sister, Florence and brother, Laybon Jr., and of course my daughter, Rebecca. Many friends and colleagues have also been very supportive. A special thanks to Angelia Vernon Menchan who invited me to participate in this project.
Dera Williams, July 14, 2010
Table of Contents
Stepmama by Angelia Vernon Menchan
Page 6
Song for a Pretty Girl by Dera Williams
Page 61
On Her Own Two by Angelia Menchan
Page 94
Searching for Mama by Dera Williams
Page 119
Divana’s Mama by Angelia Menchan
Page 154
STEPMAMA
Angelia Vernon Menchan
“You aren’t my mama, and I hate you…” Snot flowed down Cecily’s face as she stood toe-to-toe with her father’s wife. Cecily was fourteen and resented the fact her father had met and married Glenda Jackson. Glenda represented everything her mother had taught her to hate. Glenda was a calm, regal woman who carried herself as if the world was hers. And the fact that she was beautiful, educated and married to Cecily’s father didn’t help anything.
Cecily was the love child of Tyrone Williams and the late Ebonee Jones. Tyrone and Ebonee had become lovers sixteen years earlier when Ebonee was a freshman at Hampton University and Tyrone was a senior. She had been taken in by his handsome, smartness and he was more than intrigued by her ‘round-the-way’ hood-girl ways. What neither had bargained for was a baby. By the time Cecily was born, the two had parted ways, but, Tyrone had always financially supported Cecily with his more than adequate salary as a financial broker. However, his actual presence; had been sporadic at best. Ebonee had spent her short life consumed with men and alcohol and a combination of her excesses had led to her murder at the hands of one of her lovers. Cecily had come to live with her father two years earlier and though she missed her mother, she loved being the pampered daughter of a ‘baller.’ That is until he married Glenda and messed everything up.
Standing, firm and stoic, Glenda felt spittle from Cecily’s outraged mouth, touch her face. She didn’t flinch. As an inner-city, high school principal not much moved her and she totally understood Cecily’s pain. Even in rage, Glenda was impressed by how lovely the girl was. Her skin was the color of dark chocolate, and flawless, and the braids flowing past her shoulder blades were all her own. Ironically, except for the braids, Cecily looked like a replica of Glenda. That thought caused her belly to clutch, because at 36, Glenda knew she would never be able to have children of her own. An abortion as a junior in college had taken care of that. She immediately dismissed the thought from her mind.
“Cecily, I know I’m not your mother, I also know you hate me and that’s okay. What you are going to have to accept is that I’m married to your father. He loves me and I love him and as a Christian man he places his wife before his daughter. And like it or not, I am your step-mama, and you will not come in this house anytime of the night when your dad isn’t here. You don’t do it when he’s here and you won’t do it when he’s gone…” Glenda’s voice was as smooth as silk, but, Cecily could hear the steel in her words. Rolling her eyes, she prepared to walk away. Immediately, she felt a strong, yet soft grip on her arm. Outraged, she jerked away…
“Get your damn hands off me…” balling up her fists, she sucked back the tears, threatening to spill from her eyes.
“Little girl, you had better not cuss me, you may hate me all you want, but you will not disrespect me and unless you are convinced you can beat me, you better un-ball your fists, or you will end up in intensive care.” Cecily’s eyes bucked with shock, she had never seen that side of her perfect stepmother. Glenda always spoke in well-modulated tones, and looked as if she had stepped from the pages of Vogue magazine, but something told her Glenda had more going on than she knew.
“Did you hear me…” for several seconds all that could be heard was the drone of the refrigerator as the two women faced off. Gently untangling herself, Cecily, answered,
“Yes ma’am.”
“Good, now go to bed and remember that loving me isn’t a requirement but respecting me is. And don’t call your dad and try to turn this around. He’ll be home tomorrow and together we will have a family meeting and discuss it.”
Her and her damn family meetings and vacations, she makes me sick, why couldn’t she just marry somebody else and leave me alone. Dad had no right to marry her… Cecily grumbled under her breath, but her instincts told her to keep it to herself.
Later, sitting on the patio with a cup of herbal tea, Glenda thought about the exchange from earlier. She knew going in that taking on a stepdaughter who had lost her mother was going to be a challenge, but some days it taxed her very soul. The girl was getting used to having a mother who died violently and coming to live with her father. Tyrone had overindulged her to make up for not always physically being there and for the loss of her mother. Now, he expected Glenda to fix things that had been broken for so long.
God knows I love that man. I had decided when I married him I would do the best I could with the girl-child, but she’s working my nerves. I understand her anger, but damn, at least she had a mama, I spent the first ten years of my life in foster care because no one wanted me, thank God, Ms. Evelyn showed up that day and decided to give me a home.
Glenda wanted to share her early life with Cecily but hadn’t had a chance. It had been constant combat since she had moved in. The only person who knew Glenda had been a lost child for years, in this town was Tyrone. After being adopted by Ms. Evelyn, she had been groomed into a scholar and a beauty. However, she had still had a pretty hard life, because Ms. Evelyn’s husband, Blade, had never kept his hands off her, that is, until she was sixteen and cracked his head open with a bottle of orange juice. Ms. Evelyn had covered it up, as she did most things. For the next two years they had lived in silence. But, he never touched her again. He never even looked her way. Once, Glenda graduated from high school, she moved to Washington D.C. to attend Howard University and never looked back. She had returned home only once to attend Ms. Evelyn’s funeral. She didn’t know if Blade were dead or alive. But, what she did know is that he would still have that jagged scar across his head. One of her regrets is that she had never told the police. She felt she probably could have saved other girls from his touch. But, she had been too grateful to Ms. Evelyn to do that. Sighing, she stood up, walking into her lovely home. She would be glad to see Tyrone. It was time for a family meeting, to be sure.
“Hey Baby, you must be really tired?” Opening her left eye, Glenda was shocked to see Tyrone sitting beside her on the bed. Rubbing her eyes, his chocolate-cream face came into full view. Glancing at the clock, she could see it was after ten. Startled, she tried jumping up, but, his strong arms pulled her back to the bed and he covered her lips with his. Immediately she relaxed in his arms. It felt so good to be cared for. Finally, pulling his lips away, he looked at her with pure love in his eyes.
“You must be exhausted, even though it’s Saturday; I have never known you to sleep so late?” She could hear the loving concern in his voice. Sliding from beneath the sheets, she tucked her legs beneath her and stared into his handsome face.
“I am tired Ty, Cecily defies me at every turn. She didn’t get in until midnight last night and she and I had a confrontation. I don’t know if ….” Fear raced through Tyrone’s heart, he’d had his share of women but he had never loved anyone like Glenda. She was the perfect match for him. She was calm, where he was high-strung. She was pure class, where he was educated- hood and loved it and she was smart, funny, honest and sexy as hell. But, he loved his child and wanted so badly to make up for all she had gone through. He felt enormous guilt because for years he had given Ebonee thousands of dollars, but he had seen Cecily sporadically at best.