Divas of Damascus Road by Michelle Stimpson

Author:Michelle Stimpson [Stimpson, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781479315345
Google: NcB8MgEACAAJ
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2012-09-13T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Joyce Ann never went to church, but she always came to the dinner. This Sunday she arrived wearing an outfit that would have made the devil ashamed. With her belly button winking, her breasts clapping up and down in an undersize halter top, and the bottom two inches of her behind spilling out of her skirt, she wiggled up to the porch, attempting to make a grand hoochie-style entrance at Gloria’s house.

This outfit was one that always got the men’s attention when she wore it, and she was sure that both Richard and Yoyo’s little boyfriend wouldn’t be able to keep their eyes off her. They were, after all, living, breathing, sighted men. But they were only pawns in Joyce Anne’s plan to move on. Maybe if she could have a big falling-out, leaving would be easier and the bridges wouldn’t be totally disintegrated, because years later they could all reason that it takes two to tango.

“What in the world you got on?” Aunt Toe confronted her at the doorway, blocking the entrance with her wheelchair.

“Clothes.” If she could just make it to the kitchen.

Aunt Toe gazed at her, from the hideous blonde wig to the run-down open-toed red pumps. “Looks like you got on naked with a few raggedy patches tacked on. Got your stomach hanging all out between your clothes like a can of exploded biscuits.”

Gloria entered the living room and gasped at her sister’s bold outfit, moving Aunt Toe aside and shoving Joyce Ann back out onto the porch. “You are not coming in here dressed like that.”

“You can’t tell me what to wear.”

“I can tell you what you will not wear in my house,” Gloria insisted. She was prepared to send Joyce Ann packing with a foil-covered plate if she wanted to have one of her spells.

“Ooh!” Joyce Ann huffed and puffed all the way back down the street. A carful of youngsters rolled by and whistled at her pathetic attempt to look sexy in her seventies disco attire. She gave them the finger, and they laughed at her senseless gesture.

Back in Gloria’s house, the phone rang, and Yolanda answered. “Hey, everybody, it’s Dianne!” she announced.

Dianne wasn’t too happy about Yo-yo’s announcement. She assumed Joyce Ann was there, too. “Girl, you ain’t got to tell the world. I just called to see how Regina was doing.”

“She’s still Regina,” Yolanda explained.

“I’ll take that to mean that she’s still moping around.”

“Pretty much. We’re all getting ready to sit down for dinner.”

Though Dianne couldn’t be there, it wouldn’t hurt to imagine. “What did Aunt Gloria make?”

“She cooked a ham, some black-eyed peas, cabbage, and cheese rolls.” Yolanda let the words slide off her tongue with every intent to entice Dianne into making a trip back to Dentonville. Since they’d begun talking regularly, Yolanda missed Dianne. She wanted her back in the family so maybe she wouldn’t have to run to Kelan so often.

Dianne could almost smell the food, hundreds of miles away. Now that her weekend plans didn’t include a leech, she had time to think about her life’s direction.

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