When Love Calls, You Better Answer by Bertice Berry

Author:Bertice Berry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307419576
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2007-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

getting ready

Somebody needs you, Lord, come by here.

—NEGRO SPIRITUAL

Bernita worked even harder at the Wellness Center than she did at Passage Way House. She was there every morning by seven and didn’t leave until after 8:00 at night. Her salary wasn’t as good as it had been before, but Bernita was thrifty and good with money. She had saved enough to make up any difference. The only problem was that she was giving more and more to the Center. There were so many in need and she had been so blessed. The more she worked the closer she got to Van and Tricia.

Sometimes, if Tricia couldn’t make an appointment or go with Van to a dinner engagement, Bernita went along for company. Van would introduce her as his wife’s best friend. You can forgive me if you need to, but I think that best friends are for children. It’s fine to have someone you confide in more than someone else, but life’s problems and joys are too much to dump onto one person. Bernita was going from one event to the next, and Tricia was hardly around anymore. Mark my words and your calendar, if you ask a man about his wife and he get to complaining, you better put your guard up.

One night, Van told Bernita that there was extra work to do. Everyone else had gone home, so Van was free to talk openly. Old Van got to telling Bernita how Tricia never really understood him and how she didn’t support his dreams. But when he spoke to the congregation, Center, or whatever it was, he would say just the opposite. Bernita asked him about that.

“I got the impression on Sunday that things had gotten better,” she said.

You see, the Sunday before, Van and Tricia were all hugged up. Van had called Tricia to the front and got on his knees to ask her to forgive him.

“I have been neglecting my wife.” He was crying and lying like Jimmy Swaggart did on TV. Van told everybody how much he loved his wife. He said that men need to learn when they are wrong and to ask forgiveness. They hugged and cried in front of everybody. Van told the men in the congregation to take a moment to do the same.

“We don’t need to pray right now, we need to act.” Well, folks were kissing and crying and saying they were sorry. They all meant it too, everybody but Van.

“I am praying that God will heal your and Tricia’s relationship,” Bernita told him.

“Even God needs a willing partner.” This was one of Van’s favorite sayings. Usually, he was talking about the need for each person to play their part in their own restoration, but that day he was talking about himself.

“My wife never loved me,” he said. “She married me because her family told her that I was gonna be somebody.” Bernita didn’t know what to say so she decided to say nothing. She had been counseling people for years.

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