Chapter One

Wearily closing the door with her free hand, Willona Woods was the
last person to enter the Evans apartment after J.J. and Thelma, tightly
clutching her purse as if it were a football and was only a few yards
away from a touchdown, only this touchdown was a few feet away and
the end zone was the couch. It had been a few hours since they were
at the graveyard to view James Evans Sr.’s grave and the market right
after. Collapsing onto the sofa, Willona huffed and puffed, silently
cursing to herself that the elevator went out. Again. Looking up to her
left she saw J.J. and Thelma place the groceries they had in their
hands on the dinner table, pulling the items contained inside the tall,
tacky, brown paper bags standing side by side. Shaking her head and
laughing, Willona couldn’t believe that after all these years, she was
still tired after climbing all those flights of stairs yet the twenty three
year old and the twenty two year old were able to walk around as if
they had not broken a sweat.

“Lord, I tell you…if they made an Olympics event out of a stairs

climbin’ marathon, y’all would win the gold medals,” Willona laughed
some more between her heavy breathing, taking a minute to fan her
face with a newspaper she had picked up off of the table in front of
her. “Have you two heard from Gramps lately?”

“He said he would be in town in a few more months, Willona,” Thelma

said, turning a few knobs on the oven to warm it up. Making her way
over to the cabinet, she took out a small glass and began pouring
coffee in it from their nearly broken down white “Mr. Coffee” machine
they were lucky to find. “He wanted to stay at his dormitory for the
rest of the school semester so that he would keep up with his studies.”

“Well, that’s Gramps for ya,” Willona stood up and walked over to the
dinner table, thanking Thelma for the glass of coffee she handed to
her. “He’s always keepin’ his head in those books.”

“And keepin’ his nose wide, ‘cause of some chick from his school he
was talkin’ about a few weeks ago,” J.J. added, taking a sip of Kool-Aid
from his glass. “When he was here, him and Yvonne were wrapped
more tight than pigs in a blanket!”

“You’ve got that right, J.J.,” Thelma chuckled. “Remember when you
and Thelma had that party for that one basketball player…I forget his
name, but…Lord, as soon as I saw them in that closet makin’ out, I felt
like I was a referee and had to break up their tonsil boxin’ match!”
“Yeah…it looked like they were about to go all twelve rounds!” J.J.
added, Willona and J.J. laughing at each others’ remarks.

“But guys, he’s really grown up,” Thelma said with a small smile. “Dad
would be so proud! He’s got one more semester until he graduates and
gets his Political Science degree so that he can go to law school!”

“That’s right! I taught him well,” J.J. grinned, straightening out his
collar and his tie. Feeling a light slap on his shoulder, he turned to the
side to see Thelma laughing at him as well as Willona chuckling before
taking another sip of coffee.

“Yeah right, J.J.! Look at you, struttin’ around, actin’ like it was only
you who helped Michael!”

“Well, being the new man of the house, it was only right that I helped
Michael straighten up and fly right, and keep a stiff upper lip! Besides,
Thelma, you did help…”

“Well, thank you J.J…”

“The man now has a stomach made of metal, thanks to your cooking,”
J.J. started to say, avoiding another playful slap from Thelma and
deciding not to say anymore sarcastic remarks.

“You two are too MUCH!” Willona shouted, holding her stomach as she
laughed some more. “No wonder Flo was so resistant about going on
her vacation we got her and let me watch y’all.”

“But she deserved it, Willona,” Thelma reminded her, sitting next to
her with her own cup of coffee. “She hasn’t had a vacation in years…
not since we got her one the two years ago after selling all of that
underwear.”

“Can you believe that that one woman a few floors down bought that
three cupped bra?” Willona asked with an honest look of surprise on
her face. “And that one man from the ninth floor looked at me like I
was a lady from outer space when I said we were sellin’ boxers! He
started askin’ if I had Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman,”
Willona counted the names on her fingers as the three of them
laughed together.
“That’s the projects for you, Willona,” J.J. shook his head, walking over
to the telephone. “But if y’all will excuse me, I have a phone call to
make.”

“Who’s the girl, J.J.?” Willona asked without even turning her head,
knowing J.J. too well for him to be calling anyone else at this time of
the evening.

“Well, there’s this chick that works a few floors down from me where I
work. And I’m tellin’ you, this is the one!”

“We’ve heard that too many times, J.J….and each time after you say it,
you get your heart broken.”

“Not this time, Willona,” J.J. said while dialing her number. “This chick’s
got puh-notch-she, with a capital P!”

“That’s PANASHE, FOOL!” Thelma shouted, trying her best not to laugh
too hard at J.J.’s naïve attempt at pronouncing difficult words.

“Hellooooooo!” J.J. said into the telephone, ignoring Thelma’s words.

Willona on the other hand began to block out J.J.’s conversation as she
looked down at her cup of coffee containing only a few more dark
brown spots for her to gulp down. She figured that spending the next
few days in her best friend’s apartment was turning out to be just
groovy, even with the demanding and challenging visit to James Evans
Sr.’s tombstone on her first day of spending the day with her best
confidant’s children. At times, however, she still felt James Evans’
presence around the apartment even though it had been three years
since his unfortunate departure from the earth. Willona smiled at how
the two of them would often trade jokes at each other and help each
other when they needed a hand. Even though he would be hard
headed and stubborn at times, he was still able to compromise a little
when called upon for a favor or when something needed to be done for
the better good. However, a tickling feeling began to appear in the
bottom of her stomach. It seemed to rear its’ ugly head whenever
something terrible was about to happen, and she was afraid that that
‘something’ was about to appear pretty soon. She never revealed to
Florida that that feeling happened during that party for James, right
before they received the news that he had passed away.

“Mama!” She heard someone shout, turning around to see a familiar

young girl’s smiling face only a few inches away from hers.
“Penny!” Willona greeted her daughter Penny Woods, hugging her and
kissing her on the cheek. She looked over to see that J.J. was now off
the phone and walked back into the refrigerator for another refill of
Kool-Aid. “How was school, baby?”

“It was good, but today was fillet fish Fridays, and the fish wasn’t so
filleted…” She innocently complained, bringing a smile out of her
mother.

“Awww, that’s okay honey, we’ll be having dinner in a few hours, so go

into Thelma’s room and relax, okay?”

“Yes, mama,” Penny hugged her mother one more time before walking
into Thelma’s room and closing the bedroom door shut. Hearing the
telephone ring, Thelma announced that she would get it and picked up
the receiver.

“Yes, that’s her…what…WHAT? This can’t BE!!! I mean…she just left,

and…” Thelma cried out, stopping in the middle of her sentence as she
continued to hear the woman speaking into her ear for a few more
moments before she finally decided to distraughtly hang up the phone.

“Thelma, honey, what was it?” Willona got up and walked over to a
crying Thelma, as did J.J. who had a concerned look on her face.

“Yeah, what did they say, Thelma?”

“It’s ma!” Thelma sobbed, holding a hand over her mouth as tears
flowed from her eyes like a running faucet. “She’s…she’s…”

“Lord, no…Thelma…” Willona said, her voice full of worry. “Please let it
be that she’s all right.”

“Willona…she’s…she’s gone…”

Look Out for Chapter Two…