Mandy looked at the other two and then spoke up, her eyes already filling with tears. “Brooke, you can’t just give up. It’s not right. The kids need you. They need to know that they’re okay. Don’t let people’s hate keep you from loving these kids!”
“That’s what he’s gonna do, ya know.” Her voice was quiet enough that it drew everyone’s attention to her. Even through her slur, what she said was easy to understand. Seeing that she had the room’s attention, she raised her voice to a normal volume. “That’s what he’s going to do. Love them.”
Not hearing the tone of her voice and not knowing my mother like the rest of us, Mandy nodded earnestly. “That’s right! That’s all he’ll do. He will love the kids.” She turned to Pastor Thomas. “How can you keep someone from showing these children more love, someone who is willing to sacrifice himself for them, to face opposition, just so he can show them they are valuable, both to us and to God?”
Pastor Thomas’s eyes widened at her, his eyebrows creased downward, as if questioning if she was serious, if she really didn’t understand what Rose was saying.
“Mandy.” I looked at her apologetically. “Sweetie, you don’t get it. Rose is—”
“I don’t need you to interpret for me, boy.” Rose kept her eyes on Pastor Thomas, but addressed Mandy. “You’re right, my girl. Brooke will love the kids, especially all the little boys. It will be like a smorgasbord for him. A different flavor of little boy for every night of the week.”
Mandy gasped, her face glowing, the brimming tears beginning to fall. “That’s not what I meant.” Her face transitioned from shock to anger in less than a second. I hadn’t known it was possible for Mandy to possess anger and disgust the way her voice did now. “You are despicable to accuse him of such things! You’re his mother!”
Twyla looked torn between her dislike of my mother and her disgust of me. Not surprisingly, I lost. “She’s right, Mandy. Time to wake up, little girl. The both of them will molest every kid we have. No little boy or girl will be safe, and it will be on your heads!”
Donnie’s tone matched Mandy’s. “That doesn’t even make sense. Make up your mind. Are they going to molest just the boys, or the girls too? What would gay men want with little girls? You’re showing your ignorance and your hatefulness! Neither of which are found in God.”
Pastor Thomas still managed to keep his voice calm. “Twyla is right. Sexual deviancy knows no boundaries and will fester wherever it is given an opportunity to grow.”
“He’s always wanted this.” Rose’s face beamed with joy. She was loving every second of the argument. “He’s always wanted to be able to have little boys all to himself.” For the first time, she looked right in my eyes, and yet again, I was shocked that she was still capable of hurting me. “What do you think he did with all those little gangbangers he worked with in Denver?”
Rose’s face blurred in front of me as I did my best to keep from letting the tears overcome. Jed’s hand tightened on mine. I knew what he was thinking.
“Get out of my home!” As she stood at the head of the table, Sue’s voice rose to a level I had never heard, not even when Donnie wrecked the car when he was sixteen while doing tricks in the snow in the grocery store parking lot. “Get out of my home!” she repeated, this time quieter. She looked at Pastor Thomas and Twyla. “I’ve heard many complaints about you over the years. I’ve always stood up for you, given you the benefit of the doubt, and told people it was wrong to speak ill of God’s chosen.” She smoothed her skirt. “I was wrong. You were never God’s chosen. And if you were, like King Saul, that has obviously fallen away a long time ago.”
Twyla started to fight back, but Sue’s glare shut her up. Sue turned to Rose, her voice deepening with loathing. “And you. I’ve done my best to overlook your flaws, always doing my best to have faith you would change your ways. Giving you allowance because of your rough life, because my brother abandoned you.” Her voice rose again. “No longer! I should have taken Brooke from you when he was a little boy. It is my greatest error in life that I let him stay with you when I knew you were an unfit mother.”
Rose dripped venom as she glowered at Sue. “Just because I’m not little miss—”
“Shut up!” Sue screamed at the top of her lungs, her eyes looking capable of murder.
Rose shut her mouth, and her eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and respect for this new Sue.
Sue took several breaths to regain her composure. No one made a sound. “I am done with you. You are never welcome in my home again.” Her gaze flitted between Rose and the Thomases. “Iwill never utter a kind word about either of you again. I will wish you no ill will, but I cut you from my life. The three of you are evil, irreparably so.” She looked at Rose. “If I ever see you again, if you so much as look at me or any of my family wrong, I will finish what that stroke of yours started.” She then turned to the Thomases. “As for you two, I know I will see you in church, but I will never again speak on your behalf or direct any word toward either of you. I will not go out of my way to disrespect you, but I will fight you with every fiber of my being if you attempt to stand in Brooke’s way.”
She turned her eyes on me, tears starting to make their way down her face. “As for you, Brooke. I am so sorry. I have not been as supportive of you as I should have been. I have been too worried about tradition, what people will say, and what I have been taught, to truly look at the beautiful man I have always known and see God in him the way He surely is.” Her voice grew quieter, and the flow of tears strengthened. “I can never make amends for the harm I have done you. Every time I returned you to that woman, I was afraid for you, but I never did anything. I never took you away from her.”
I couldn’t speak; tears were flowing unfettered down my face.
Chuck stood and put his arm around his wife. “You heard her. Leave our home.” He looked Pastor Thomas in the eye. “Take Rose home on your way out.” Both Twyla and Rose opened their mouths to protest. Chuck cut them off, his voice raising. “Get out.”
We sat, no one saying anything for several minutes after the three of them left. Finally, Sue looked at me again. “Brooke, really, I am so sorry. I can’t even begin….”
“Sue, don’t. Please.” Her tears started again, triggering mine. “You’ve always been a mom to me. You’re the reason I had a childhood at all. You and your family are the only reason I have been able to come back down here and not go crazy.” I looked at Maudra. “And you too, of course.”
Donnie spoke up then, his voice sad. “Brooke, I’m sorry too. I’ve been pushing for you to take the youth group position so hard. I didn’t realize it would be like this. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t think people would be capable of saying such horrible things about you.”
Jed had finally been able to get ahold of his temper. “It’s not the first time.”
Donnie nodded. “Just forget the youth group. It’s not worth it. You don’t need to face this.”
“No!” Sue’s voice rose again. “Absolutely not! He needs to do this. Mandy’s right. Those kids need him. What if Darwin really is gay? What if several of them are? Maybe he can help them, show them God still loves them.”
“Not just them.” Zephyra’s tone matched her mother’s. “The straight kids,andtheir parents, need to know that God is bigger than what they say He is. We can’t let hateful people stop what needs to be done.”
Tyler broke in. “You’re both right. And so is Donnie. This is even bigger than I realized it would be when I asked you to join us, Brooke. The choice has to be yours. I can’t ask you to take this on when it could turn out to be a war. You have to make this decision yourself.”
I could see Chuck nodding his agreement.
