Just Wanna Testify: A Novel by Pearl Cleage

Author:Pearl Cleage [Cleage, Pearl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sagas, African American, Contemporary Women, Fiction
ISBN: 9780345526243
Google: G-YynMNnFh4C
Amazon: B004J4WJZW
Publisher: Random House LLC
Published: 2011-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

A Born Buddhist

They decided to leave Abbie’s little Civic on the island and ride back together in Peachy’s Lincoln. Louie promised to keep an eye on things at the restaurant, but Peachy wasn’t worried. The place ran smoothly with or without him there to greet folks at the door, he always said. It just didn’t have as much style. He was right about that. Peachy had style to burn. With a head full of wavy white hair that was his only real vanity, he looked like what he was: an inveterate hipster who was aging well.

Peachy eased around a big red and white truck with the Target logo emblazoned on the side and glanced over at Abbie. Her eyes were closed, but he knew she was awake. He wasn’t worried. By the time they got to Atlanta, he knew Blue would have a plan and he would be there to help implement it. That’s the way their partnership always worked and this time would be the same. All he had to do was keep Abbie cool until they got to the city.

“How you doin’, sweet thing?” he said gently.

She opened her eyes and turned to him with a less-than-successful attempt at a smile. “I’m okay.”

He knew she was a pretty good distance from okay. “So you want to talk about these vampires or what?”

“Do you?”

“Hell, yeah,” Peachy said. “What else are we going to talk about?”

“Do you think they’re in West End looking for men like Louie said?”

Peachy frowned without taking his eyes off the road. “I thought you said they were here so Aretha could take their picture.”

“There are a lot of fashion photographers in New York. Why didn’t they use one of them?”

“There’s a lot of men in New York, too,” Peachy said. “Why would they come all the way here to find something they can round up on 125th Street any day of the week?”

“I don’t know,” Abbie said.

The small gold hoops in her ears moved against her cheek and she tugged at one absentmindedly. It was all too weird, so they rode in silence. Abbie had taught Peachy to meditate and the two of them were used to sharing silence without feeling any pressure to speak, but today the presence of the vampires was so strong in their minds, they both heard it loud and clear.

Abbie watched a pod of six huge Harleys roar by in the passing lane. She had ridden around Spain on a motorcycle behind her second husband, a painter, back in her early twenties, when she was moving through her expatriate years. She enjoyed the sense of danger riding always gave her, although her husband was a tentative cyclist who never went as fast as she hoped he would.

Sometimes she wished she’d met Peachy when they had had more time in front of them than they had behind, but she didn’t dwell on it. If her postmenopausal visions had taught her anything, it was to appreciate the present moment. She loved Peachy now.

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