The village prepares for a severe storm. Hut doors and windows are boarded up. Machetes trim the branches off nearby trees. The winds have picked up dramatically. And though we aren’t close to the ocean, others in Accompong swear they can smell the sea and its angry, turbulent nature. Lightning rips across the sky. I count to three; sure enough, thunder rumbles, shaking the trees and my heart. A hurricane is coming, but the rain hasn’t started yet. There is still time.
Before heading to our hut, I tell Tully I want to visit the silk cotton tree. He points to the sky. “Bad weather is coming,” he says.
“I have something to tell the tree and it can’t wait, but I need to be alone to say it.”
“I’m going with you.”
“Please, I need to do this on my own.”
He nods reluctantly and walks away, looking over his shoulder as the rain begins, the heavy drops falling like small pellets.
When I reach the tree in the middle of Accompong, I sit on the damp ground beneath the branches, my legs folded beneath me. I lift my hair off the back of my neck and twist it into a bun. I don’t need to talk to Clifford. His death was an accident. His note was frustrating, but it wasn’t about Tully and me. The true monster was my father’s infidelity. And dear Clifford, he knew about that and maybe even my father’s criminal activities.
A knot twists in my chest as pain and grief battle for supremacy. I miss Clifford. I mourn for him and the baby I lost to a miscarriage. I tell the tree how much I love Maxi Green. Despite my father’s sins and Maxi’s role, she is just as much a victim as my mother and me.
My father is the last thought I have while sitting under the tree. I see him in my mind’s eye, as clear as day and as dark as night. When I return to Chicago, there will be a headline in theChicago Defenderthat reads BRONZEVILLEFEDERALSAVINGS ANDLOAN’S PRESIDENT CONVICTED OF RACKETEERING.
The subheading will state MAJORLEONARDTHOMAS TO SERVE30YEARS.
My father will be punished for his crime, and I will mend the broken pieces of my relationship with my mother. I won’t abandon Maxi Green. I will forgive myself as well. Even Tully will be loved for who he is, not for what he saved me from. But that day isn’t today, tomorrow, or even the day after. It will happen just as everything happens—in time.
“Vivian Jean, you should come out from under the tree.” Zinzi walks toward me, a little more than a silhouette against the darkness of the moonlit night. “The tree is a dangerous place with all that lightning in the sky.”
“I hadn’t thought about that.” I wipe a hand across my mouth. “That was quite a speech your friend Byron gave at dinner,” I say.
“He said what needed to be said,” Zinzi replies.
I stand, shaking leaves and dirt from my riding pants. “I feel the same about my father.”
“You didn’t know he was Tynesdale’s partner?”
I shake my head, walking toward Zinzi, but she sways and looks ready to crumple. I grab her shoulders just in time. “You almost fainted. You need to get home.”
Zinzi smiles weakly. “I think I’m pregnant.”
“Oh my God.” I hold her tight. “That’s wonderful. Or is it?”
“It’s fine. If I am with child, the father is the man you met tonight.”
“Byron Tynesdale?”
“Yes.” We start walking toward our homes. “But he doesn’t know. Not yet. I want to wait until I’m certain.”
“You must be pretty close to being sure.” I smile. “You told me.”
Zinzi grins weakly. “Sometimes life is like drawing straws. You get the long stick and other times, you get the short one. I feel like I’ve won the game and the long stick is mine whenever I want it.”
“You’re in love,” I say.
“Anything is possible.”
We reach Zinzi’s home first.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say.
After leaving the silk cotton tree and Zinzi, I head home and slip into bed next to Tully, wrapping my arms around his waist.
“Are you asleep?” I ask.
