This fanfic is from The Jeffersons and here's the synopsis:

The Jeffersons' and everybody else's world is suddenly turned upside down when Louise Jefferson suffers a heart attack. George Jefferson is changed forever and is given disturbing insight into his faults as a husband. He also learns of a whole new side to Louise that he's never seen before, as well as the truth behind several important things Louise has kept hidden from him through the years. Through the painful and frightening process, George learns things about Louise and about himself he never could have dreamed of before, and through it all, the Jeffersons as a couple quickly realize they and their relationship with never be the same. Nobody's lives will ever be the same after this...

Chapter One
The moment she felt his lips softly brush her cheek, Louise Jefferson smiled, because she immediately knew who was kissing her and trying to gently bring her out of sleep.
“Weez?” George Jefferson whispered in his wife’s ear.
“Hmm?” she responded without opening her eyes.
“Can you wake up for me for just a second, honey?” George asked with obvious tenderness in his voice.
“Not without another kiss,” Louise whispered with a smile.
“My pleasure,” George said to Louise, and then instantly obliged her request for another kiss, making this one much longer and more passionate. After the long kiss ended, Louise opened her eyes, and George smiled. “Hi, gorgeous.”
“Hi, handsome,” Louise whispered back, still not fully awake yet. “What time is it?”
“It’s a little after four.”
“Oh goodness, I need to be getting up,” Louise said as she started to rise.
“Oh no, you don’t have to stay awake. I just wanted to help you to the bedroom,” George explained as Louise moved her legs around into a sitting position. When George realized Louise was determined to sit up on the couch, he quickly got up out of her way so he wouldn’t be an obstacle for her. Once Louise was sitting up, George sat back down on the couch next to her.
“Sorry Romeo, but you know the doctor said it would be a while before I was up to…you know,” Louise teased.
“No,” George said with a laugh. “That ain’t what I meant, Weezy, and you know it. I meant that I wanted to help you get to bed and lie down. You’ll be more comfortable there than on the couch.”
“I appreciate it, sweetheart, but if I let my nap last any longer, I won’t sleep a wink tonight.”
“Don’t worry about it. You can always sleep late,” George suggested, and Louise let out a slightly frustrated sigh.
“You know I can’t put off going back to my volunteer work forever,” Louise told him, and at that, George, too, let out a sigh of frustration. George knew Louise was hoping to return to her work the following morning and that sleeping late was the last thing she wanted to do. “They need me. There are a lot of people who are really counting on me. There are a lot of children who are really counting on me,” she said soberly.
“Everybody’s fine, Weezy,” George insisted. “Will you please, just trust me? I’m learnin’ the ropes. Look, I promised you in the hospital that you weren’t in this alone anymore, and you’re not. I may not know Zion as well as you do yet, but I’ll get there. Even Marco says I’m doin’ a good job holdin’ down the fort, and he hates my guts.”
“Believe me, George, I do trust you,” Louise said warmly while putting her hand on top of his. “And I’m not at all surprised to hear that you’re doing well down at Zion. You’re a very clever and intelligent man and you’re a very fast learner, especially when you really put your mind to something. I know how hard you and Marco and everybody have been working and you’re all doing a wonderful job. This isn’t about you or how well you’re doing at Zion. It’s about me needing something more to do with my life other than lying around and sleeping and asking you or Mama or Florence to fluff my pillows for me.”
“Lyin’ around sleepin’ and askin’ for your pillows to be fluffed is exactly what you’re supposed to be doin’ when you’re recovering from a heart attack. It’s barely been three weeks.”
“It’s been four weeks, George,” Louise corrected him, knowing that he knew better. “Darling, can’t you see it? Can’t you at least try to understand? It’s time we started moving on with our lives. Dr. Garrison said yesterday that everything was looking well and that I could begin my volunteer work again anytime I wanted to.”
“He’s a quack,” George said instantly, and Louise smiled at her husband’s loving stubbornness.
“He is not a quack and you know it,” she told him gently. “You asked for him to oversee my case in the hospital because you investigated all the different doctors and cardiologists in New York City and you were told he was the best of the best around here. The man knows exactly what he’s talking about, George. He’s a professional in the field of cardiology.”
George let out another sigh, this time out of fear, and buried his head in his hands for a moment, and then told Louise honestly, “Weez, I’m scared. I came so close to losing you. And the work you do at Zion is hardly an ordinary job. It’s all so incredibly stressful and I think stress is the last thing in the world you need right now.”
“But George, stress is something that’s a part of everyday life. It’s how you handle it that counts, and believe me, it’s going to make it a lot easier for me now that you know everything where Zion and the Help Center is concerned. And if it makes you feel any better, I promise you I’ll take it really slow and easy.”
“And that you’ll stay out of danger?”
“And yes, that I’ll stay out of dangerous situations over there…for now.”
“For now,” George grumbled. “Well, knowing you, that’s probably the best I’ll get.”
“George…we’re dealing with the very lives of young children, here. You know that in my position at Zion, I have no choice. I have to take risks sometimes. I refuse to be the kind of leader that’ll order the people working under me to do things that I’m not willing to do alongside them myself.”
“I do understand, Weez,” George said in a deep voice. “And believe me, sweetheart, I am in awe of what you do at Zion every day, what you’ve been doing there every day for years without me having the slightest clue. I do understand why you do what you do and I love you and appreciate you for it. You’re a remarkable woman, Louise,” George whispered, and Louise kissed his cheek. “And we can talk about the dangerous stuff later. Right now, helping you is what’s important, and if going to back to do some light work at Zion is what you need, then I’m with you and I’ll do all I can to help you.”
“Thank you, George,” Louise said as she wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you so much.”
“No, Weez, thank you. I thank you for…” George started to say as his mind then went to the hardest place for his heart to go to.
Thankfully, Louise immediately sensed what George was trying to say, and she stopped him, saying, “No George, don’t.” Then she started rubbing his back as tears came to his eyes just at the thought of all she’d gone through silently for his sake. And to think, after enduring the closest thing to hell on earth he could imagine, now, here she was, comforting him. It was beyond anything George could imagine. “You don’t need to say it. You don’t need to say anything. I know how you feel. Believe me, I do.”
“No, you’re wrong. I do need to say something. I’ve taken you for granted for far too long,” George told Louise after the hug ended. With his arms still holding her and with him looking into her eyes, George said, “After the past few weeks, I don’t ever want to take anything about you or our relationship for granted again. I won’t go into long speeches. I’ll just say…thank you, sweetheart. Thank you. Thank you so much for giving me so much. Thank you for putting yourself through so much for my sake. Thank you for putting up with so much crap from me through the years. Thank you for always treating me so much better than I deserve.”
“Oh, George,” Louise gasped as tears came to her eyes, and then she hugged George again. “I thank you for saying all that. It means so much to me.”
At that, George hugged Louise tighter.
Scenes like these between Louise and George were commonplace nowadays since her heart attack four weeks ago, but before then, it was far more common to see the Jeffersons at each other’s throats. Largely, it was Louise having to get at George’s throat for doing something wrong or she was having to drive herself crazy trying to keep her self-centered, immature husband out of trouble. George and Louise had met, fallen in love, and gotten married and had their only child back in their early twenties in Harlem. George worked all kinds of different jobs and Louise worked as a maid for many years until George was finally able to start his dry-cleaning business some years later. Getting ahead and making it into their East Side neighborhood had certainly gone to George’s head a lot in the past and he often liked to take all the credit for it and overlook all that Louise, too, had gone through to help get their family where it was today.
Overlooking all that Louise was going through was something George was doing all too well the night of Louise’s heart attack. That night, George was completely clueless to how ill Louise looked, although before their maid, Florence Johnston, and their upstairs neighbors and best friends, Tom and Helen Willis, had left the Jeffersons’ apartment that evening, they all had commented about it and Louise had said she was afraid she might be coming down with something. But George had been too absorbed in the enormous cleaning contract he’d landed that day to even begin to think about anyone or anything other than himself and the business, and all the money he knew he’d be making. Louise had complained of weakness and dizziness and nausea she’d been having all day, but it had all gone in one of George’s ears and out the other.
In the last moments of their lives as they’d known them, George had walked back around behind the couch where Louise was standing and had wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her and said, “Well don’t worry, sweetheart. When you and I sign the cleaning contract with Bill Kronan tomorrow, you’ll be too rich to feel bad.”
“Bill Kronan…from Harlem?” Louise gasped.
“Weezy, ain’t you been listenin’ to a word I’ve been sayin’ all night? Of course from Harlem!”
It was in that very next instant that Louise suddenly started crying out in pain and collapsing as George struggled in vain to hold her up.
“Weez! Weez!” George yelled. “Weezy, what’s the matter?! Weezy, what is it?!”
“I think it’s my heart,” Louise gasped through her sobbing.
“Oh, dear God!” George cried out. “I’ll call an ambulance,” he said as he started to get up, but Louise grabbed him with what was left of her strength still.
“No, don’t leave me, George,” she begged him through her tears.
“I won’t leave, sweetheart, I promise. I won’t leave you. I’m just getting up to go call an ambulance; then I’ll be right back over here.”
“No, George! No! Please don’t!” Louise cried.
“Weezy…baby, I have to,” George told her so gently. “We need to get you to the hospital, now.”
“No, George, you don’t understand. I—” Louise began, but then she went limp in George’s arms. George had been holding Louise in a sitting position, but suddenly, as she was talking, Louise’s eyes rolled in the back of her head and she went dead in George’s arms.
“Weez!” George hollered.
At that very moment, thanks be to God, the Willises, Florence, and Mr. Bentley all came inside. Florence, Mr. Bentley, and Tom and Helen were all going to a local ballet performance together. The Willises had two extra tickets and they were going to ask the Jeffersons to come with them that night, but they asked Florence and Bentley instead when they came downstairs and learned how badly Louise had been feeling that day. Tom, in all the rush and excitement of the evening, had forgotten the tickets after he took them out of his pocket and laid them down on the Jeffersons’ desk. The other three had returned from Bentley’s apartment with him. Of course, when they all came inside, George overheard Tom’s and Helen’s bickering.
“Willis! Quick! Call an ambulance now!” George shouted. “It’s Weezy! She’s had a heart attack!”
“Oh God, no!” Helen gasped.
“I’ll do it, Mr. J.,” Bentley offered. “The Willises are both trained in CPR.”
“So am I,” said Florence.
“Well I need one of ya over here to do compressions,” George told them.
“Oh, God,” Tom said with tears brimming his eyes.
“I’ll do it,” Florence said immediately and got down on her knees near Louise and George (as did Tom and Helen for that matter).
“I’ll start mouth-to-mouth,” George said, and instants later, he and Florence were working together in great precision, Florence pumping Louise’s chest five times, George giving Louise a breath afterwards. “Come on, sweetheart,” George whispered in Louise’s ear. “Breathe for me, baby. Breathe for me!”
After several cycles, all of them watching Louise’s chest like hawks, it looked like Louise tried to move a little air in and out of her lungs.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” George said softly, coaching Louise on. “That’s it, baby! That’s it! Breathe! Breathe for us!”
In that next moment, Louise opened her eyes and gasped, “George?”
“I’m here, baby. I’m here,” he anxiously told her as he held the side of her face with his hand. “We’re all here, sweetheart.”
“It’s…so hard to breathe.”
“It’s still hard to breathe?” asked George and Louise was able to give a slight nod.
“Help me, George,” Louise said in a raspy tone.
“I’ll help you, sweetheart. I’ll help you,” George said nervously, not really knowing what to do next. But thankfully in that next second, it came to him. “I’ll tell you what, sweetheart. I’ll cover your mouth with mine again, and when I breathe out into your mouth, you breathe in as much as you can. Okay? We’ll breathe together.”
Louise nodded again, and for the next minute or so, they breathed together like that in a concerted effort. Then, though, Louise finally felt like she was able to breathe normally again, and gave a big gasp as the air felt like at long last it was returning to her lungs.
“I can breathe again,” she told them. “Oh George, help me sit up. I want you to hold me again like you were before.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” said George and then he pulled Louise back up into a sitting position in his arms. “I’m right here, baby. I’m right here.”
“We’re all here, Louise,” Helen assured her.
“We’re right here,” Tom said. “We love you, Louise, and we’re with you. We’re right here.”
“And we’re not goin’ anywhere, Ms. Jefferson,” Florence said softly.
“The ambulance is coming,” said Mr. Bentley. He had knelt down with the others in the floor several moments before after getting off the phone with the paramedics.
“I’m so scared,” Louise said as more tears came to her eyes.
“I know, Weezy. I know, honey. I know,” George whispered as he continued to hold Louise close. “So am I. We’re all pretty scared right now but we’re together and we’re all right here with you. We’re gonna get through this, Weez. We’re gonna do this together, okay?”
“Together,” Louise whispered with a nod.
“Together,” said George with a nod in return, his eyes locked with Louise’s eyes.
“Oh, George, I need help to the bathroom. I feel like I’m gonna be sick.”
Instantly, before Louise even knew what hit her practically, she vomited all over George’s suit coat and vest.
“Oh, George, I’m so sorry,” Louise said, looking up into George’s eyes, crying.
George quickly took his coat off and started unbuttoning his vest with one hand while he was holding onto Louise with his other arm and hand.
“Oh, Weezy, don’t worry about it, baby,” George said with such tenderness and love. “It’s just clothes, that’s all. My clothes ain’t important, baby. You are. Nothing matters except you right now, Weezy-girl. Nothing. You hear me?”
Louise looked up at George with a slight smile and said, “Weezy-girl? You haven’t called me that in years. I think I’m too old to be a ‘girl’ now.”
“Ah no, Weezy. You’re a girl. You’re a girl. You’re my girl. Forever.”
Louise’s smile grew bigger as she looked up at George and agreed, “Forever.”
“You’re our girl too, Louise,” said Helen.
“And we’re gonna take such good care of you,” Tom said through his ongoing tears.
“We sure are,” Florence said.
At that moment, the paramedics arrived. George held Louise in his gaze as they loaded the gurney she was on into the back of the ambulance. And now George held Louise in his arms and enjoying staring into her ever-lovely face. That face was one of the most precious sights in the world to George Jefferson now and he finally understood what a great God-given gift it was to be able to see it every day of his life. Louise now put her hand on the side of George’s face and held it and locked her eyes with his.
“Where are you, darling?” she asked him gently.
“The night of your heart attack,” George said soberly.
“Oh honey, don’t go there,” Louise said with great warmth. “I’m fine now. I’m just fine, and I’m right here with you, and I’m not about to go anywhere. Not for a long, long time.”
“A long, long, long time,” George whispered and then pressed his lips to hers and kissed her with all the passion for her he felt in his heart.

That was great.

That was great.
Thank you! :) Believe it or not, I am FINALLY posting chapter two (and chapter three soon!) I've been having real writer's block, plus I've been going through some really rotten stuff over the past year, but thank God, I'm finally writing again! :D

Chapter Two
Thunder softly rumbled that next morning as George began coming out of sleep, and a light shower started raining down from above. He took a quick glance at the alarm clock on Louise’s nightstand and saw that it was four minutes ’til six. George had fallen asleep next to Louise the night before facing the same direction she was with his right arm draped across her waist, holding her close. They often slept that way now, snuggled as close to one another as possible, whereas before, they would often have fallen asleep facing opposite directions or with one of them asleep on their back and the other on their side, although neither one of them were all that aware that even their sub-conscious body language and gestures were showing just how much closer they’d become over the past few weeks. But even though they were so much closer now, they still remained somewhat divided on the issue of Louise’s return to Zion, although George did promise her his support the afternoon before. And he was going to live up to his promise…if he absolutely had to. George snuggled up even closer to Louise than he already was, and started slowly and oh so carefully inching his right hand up closer to the alarm clock, hoping to be sneaky enough to shut it off without Louise knowing it so she would keep sleeping.
“Forget it, George,” Louise told him in a soft voice, just now beginning to wake up herself.
“Ah!” George grumbled. “Man, Weezy, that’s not fair, now,” he complained and Louise started laughing.
“You keep forgetting, George, you’re married to me, the woman who knows you better than any other human being on this earth. A lot of things may have changed about you a few weeks ago, but you’re still a little sneak.”
Since George had already gotten caught, he went ahead and turned the alarm clock off, and then he whispered, “George wasn’t tryin’ to turn off the alarm. You’re dreaming. Go back to sleep.”
Louise laughed even harder at that, and then she said, “And on top of being sneaky, you’re as stubborn as a mule. “
“And proud of it,” George quipped and again, Louise laughed. “Go back to sleep.”
“Not a chance. I’ve been looking forward to seeing everybody at Zion again for too long. Plus, with me being gone for so long, I’m sure they’ve got a lot of work down there they can use my help with.”
“I thought we agreed you’d be takin’ things easy over there today.”
Louise turned over in bed to face George and she responded, “I will be, but I’m not just going there today to be lazy and sit around, either. I know with my not being there these past few weeks, they could probably use all the help they can get their hands on. This isn’t just a social gathering, George. I’m not going there for a tea party.”
“Why not? Ain’t nothin’ wrong with tea parties. Them Brits have ’em all the time. Unless you don’t like the British. Don’t tell me after all these years you’ve started bein’ racist against English people. What’ll we tell Bentley? Don’t come over anymore ’cause Weezy’s a mean racist now?”
“Oh goodness gracious, Jefferson!” Louise cried out as she gave George a playful shove. “You have completely lost your mind!”
“Yeah well, that’s what remarkable beauty does to a guy,” George said warmly, touching his finger to her cheek.
“Oh, George,” she said in a rather choked-up voice, and in the next instant, she kissed him. “Now this is completely unfair. Now, you’re making me really want to curl up next to you and lie here with you all day and just…listen to the rain.”
“So why don’t you?”
Louise gave George a knowing smile and told him, “You know why. I am going there today to help everyone out, but that’s not the main point of being there. We may have been joking around about a tea party just now, but even if I did only go there for a tea party with everybody, at least they’d all see me, especially the children. I know how upset and worried they’ve all been, and my going back today is largely about me simply making an appearance, letting them know that I’m okay now.” George playfully grumbled at that, knowing that again he was losing the battle, and again Louise laughed at her husband.
“Alright Grumpy of the Seven Dwarfs,” Louise teased him. “You can lie here and grumble if you want, but I’m getting in the shower.”
“Well since you won’t lie here with me and listen to it rain today, why don’t I take a shower with you?” George said with such an air of mischief, and yet again, Louise laughed at him. “Bet that’ll get ya back in bed with me,” he teased again, and Louise laughed even harder.
“George, what in the world am I going to do with you?!” Louise chuckled and then she swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up, but just as she was about to stand up and walk to the bathroom, George gave her arm a little yank.
“No, no, come back to bed, Weez,” George joked yet again, and Louise couldn’t stop giggling.
“Give me back my arm, silly!” she said with a laugh and yanked her arm back out of his grip and then she stood up and went into the bathroom to take her shower.
In the meantime, George got up too and made their bed, and then he got dressed, planning on going out and buying something for everyone’s breakfast, knowing full well that Florence would never be up this early just to cook something for them. And since Louise was so stubborn and insistent on returning to her volunteer work today, George certainly didn’t want her leaving the house without making sure she’d started out the day with a healthy meal. Obviously, ever since Louise’s heart attack, George had been watching her eating habits very closely and making certain she kept her weight down, not to annoy her of course or to try and hurt her feelings about all her years of struggling with her weight, but because of her recent heart problems, which was something Louise completely understood. And George definitely wasn’t inconsiderate enough nowadays to try to make her start a healthier diet all on her own while he and Florence ate whatever they wanted. He and Florence both fervently agreed that healthy eating would now be a household rule for all of them, and before Louise came home from the hospital, he also got Tom Willis, who was one of the world’s worst overeaters of all time, to agree to behave himself whenever he was in Louise’s presence.
However, when George walked out into the living room, he was pleasantly surprised because as it turned out, Florence, miraculously, actually was up and she already had breakfast waiting for them on the table.
“What’s this? Is the world comin’ to an end or somethin’?” George kidded. “It’s got to be huge, whatever it is, to make Florence Johnston get up before six in the mornin’ to make our breakfast for us.”
“I think Ms. Jefferson’s heart attack would easily fall into the ‘huge’ category, Mr. Jefferson,” Florence told him truthfully.
“Yeah, you’re right about that,” he agreed. “It was huge enough, that’s for sure.”
“Anyway, I knew Ms. Jefferson would probably want to get an early start on the day, so I set my alarm. The past two weeks we’ve had her here at home with us, we’ve managed to get her to stick to her diet, and I ain’t takin’ any chances today.”
“Thanks, Florence. That was very considerate of you. Oatmeal and a fruit basket, huh?”
“And orange juice,” Florence added, pointing to the glass pitcher sitting in the middle of the table next to the big basket of fruit, surrounded of course by everyone’s bowl of oatmeal.
“Looks lovely,” George said quietly, although of course inside, a large part of him was yearning for pancakes or biscuits or eggs with nice, greasy pieces of bacon or sausage…something, anything with a little more substance and flavor to it. But of course, he immediately shook those thoughts off in the next instant, reminding himself that Louise was far, far more important than greasy breakfast foods.
“I know, Mr. Jefferson, you’re missing what we all used to eat around here, but –”
“No, no, Florence, I ain’t missin’ anything,” George fervently denied. “I ain’t missin’ anything at all. I always wanted to go health-food-crazy at the breakfast table. Honest.”
“Mm-hmm,” Florence said doubtfully.
“Is the…uh…coffee…?” George asked, allowing the sentence to trail.
“Decaf,” Florence answered. “Just like the doctor ordered.”
“Great, great,” George said without much enthusiasm. “That’s good. We don’t need no caffeine around here…especially not at six in the morning,” he said as he tried to stifle a yawn.
“Now Mr. Jefferson, you know how important all this is. We can’t let Ms. Jefferson start fallin’ back into any bad eating habits, not after everything she’s just been through.”
“I know, Florence. I know. You’re right. We got to be strong for her. We got to be there for her. We got to be a good influence with our eating habits. I know.” A brief moment of silence passed, and then George joked, “It’s still a pain in the butt, though,” and Florence laughed.
“What’s a pain in the butt?” Louise asked as she walked out from the bedroom, showered and dressed and ready to begin her day.
“Uh, nothing,” George hesitantly replied. “Nothing, sweetheart. It’s not important. Here you go, Weezy,” he told her as he pulled out a chair for her. “Florence has got breakfast all ready for us.”
“Oh, really? How thoughtful, Florence, especially this early in the day. Thank you,” Louise said as she sat down.
“You’re welcome, Ms. Jefferson,” Florence said as she took her seat as well, and then George finally sat down.
“Oatmeal and fruit, huh?” Louise said with the same level of enthusiasm George had had.
“And orange juice,” George said rather jokingly as he held up his glass.
“Ms. Jefferson, you know it’s good for you.”
“I know, Florence,” Louise responded a little sullenly, resigning herself to giving up the foods she still strongly missed, although she silently thanked God when she also saw that there was coffee. While George and Florence started digging in, Louise began fixing herself a cup. But when she took her first swallow and failed to receive the caffeine rush she was used to, she quickly remembered her cardiologist’s strict orders about cutting caffeine entirely out of her diet for good and came to the painful realization that it was decaf she was drinking. Unfortunately, George and Florence hadn’t missed a thing.
“I’ll be right back, guys,” Louise announced as she rose from her seat. “I just remembered a little errand I’ve got to go run. It won’t take me two minutes. I’ll be right back.”
“At twenty after six?” George said, understandably puzzled.
“It’s just a little something I meant to go do yesterday, but I forgot,” Louise told him as she was grabbing her purse and trying to make the quickest exit possible.
George and Florence just stared at each other for a brief moment after Louise closed the door behind her and shrugged, and then continued eating, until about thirty seconds later when it finally began dawning on Florence what Louise was probably up to.
“Mr. Jefferson, Ms. Jefferson just sat down with us and took one sip of that decaf coffee and then jumped up and said she had a mystery errand to run. She’s goin’ out after caffeine, child!”
“Oh, man! We got to go stop her!” George said aloud just before both he and Florence jumped up out of their seats and made a mad dash out of the apartment after Louise. Once they walked out the apartment door, though, they were very relieved to find Louise impatiently waiting for the elevator doors to open.
“Come on, Weezy,” George said after he put his hands on her shoulders and proceeded to turn her around and practically push her back inside like she was a car he was trying to steer in the right direction. “Come back inside. Come back inside and drink your decaf coffee like a good little girl.”
“Oh, come on!” Louise instantly moaned. “Come on, you guys! I’ve been following this new diet to the letter for four entire weeks since this whole heart attack thing started. Don’t I deserve just a little break? A teeny, tiny little reward?”
“No, you deserve a big reward,” George said to her surprisingly, and at that, Louise’s face lit up, thinking and hoping for a split second that George was actually going to relent and let her enjoy an entire meal in addition to caffeinated coffee.
“I do?” she said quite hopefully.
“She does?” Florence said skeptically with her hand on her hip, actually thinking the same thing.
“You sure do. You deserve lower cholesterol levels and cleaner arteries and lower blood pressure and a healthier body, all of which is happening to you right now.” At that, Florence didn’t hesitate to let out a big chuckle and give George a high-five before walking back to the table.
“Just one, George,” Louise continued to plead with him. “Just one cup. A small one. That’s all I ask.”
“Mr. Jefferson, don’t you let her break you,” Florence warned.
“I won’t, Florence. Weezy, you know what the doctor said. No caffeine. Caffeine is off limits,” George said as he pulled Louise’s chair out for her again and again, she sat down.
“Yeah, but for the whole rest of my life?”
“No, not for the whole rest of your life,” George told Louise which again, at first, caught Florence by surprise. Then George bent down next to her cheek and said quietly, “For all eternity,” and then he kissed her cheek, and again, Florence laughed.
George sat down again himself and they all finished their breakfast together, and then after George went and took a shower, he and Louise left for the Help Center, and the world called Zion.
And Zion was exactly that – an entire world all its own. Zion was actually an entire city that existed completely underground, for the sole purpose of rescuing children and teenagers living in all kinds of abusive and dangerous situations, especially those trapped in the downright satanic world of child prostitution and human trafficking. Many volunteers often risked life and limb to do rescue missions in joint operations with the police, working together to get them out of such a dark, evil world, and before her heart attack at least, Louise had always been one of them. One of the entrances to the city of Zion was actually connected to the basement floor of the current Help Center building, and many Help Center volunteers put in at least some of their volunteering time at Zion. Many of them even now lived there, volunteering their services twenty-four-seven, for those who could actually afford to do so. And many others gave not only of their time, but also their resources and talents to help keep the city running on a daily basis.
In addition to all the underground floors of apartments, there was an enormous dining area right in the center of activity there on the first floor, where most of the city’s residents chose to share their meals. And when it wasn’t mealtime, the large cafeteria area was used as one giant classroom where several retired teachers dedicated their time to the children’s education. There was even a small hospital there, with all the necessary beds and supplies and equipment, run by volunteering doctors and nurses twenty-four-seven.
And Louise was its leader. The entire story of how Zion was founded was one of, to use George Jefferson’s terms about himself, guts, drive, and determination. But unlike George had been saying about himself and his dreams all these years, Louise had always been wise enough to realize she hadn’t made her dreams about Zion come true without any help from anybody. George now knew what hogwash those words were himself, that everything he now had today, he had because of the good Lord’s grace and his wife caring for him and watching out for him in ways he never could have imagined back in those days. And Louise had always known from day one that Zion was truly a miracle from the Almighty, Himself, and that it was all the kind-hearted souls volunteering their time, money, and talents that kept Zion running on a daily basis, that without them, the city would be lost.
But even though it was God’s grace and the hundreds of volunteers that kept Zion going every day, it would be completely unfair to say that all the citizens of Zion didn’t owe Zion’s very existence to its remarkable leader. Yes, a lot of people gave a lot of themselves to keep Zion running every day, but all along, Louise gave even more. Zion had been her baby all along, her idea, and her dream, and the way she creatively came up with the resources to even found it, much less keep it running daily, had always been nothing short of remarkable. It was Louise who had Zion on her mind twenty-four-seven, always thinking about it and coming up with ways to run it more efficiently, as well as constantly creating a warm and loving atmosphere, making all the volunteers’ workdays there so much easier. It was Louise who always had had time in the past, no matter what she may have been going through in her own personal life, to listen to every single complaint and concern from every man, woman, and child living and working there, and had never failed to find some way to address it. It was Louise who had set up the work-study program through Zion for counselors and psychologists in training, to gain their work experience and college credits for their volunteer work with the children there. And she was also the one who set up a similar work-study program for nursing students, med students and doctors working on their residency, making it easier to always ensure that there was never a shortage of medical staff or counselors. It was Louise who, although she clearly didn’t have to, had constantly been putting herself in the middle of harm’s way for years doing dangerous rescue missions, and had somehow always managed to find time for every single person there no matter how difficult and demanding her schedule was, and had even put up with a husband like George Jefferson in the process. It was Louise, and her mere presence there alone, that always inspired terrific love and loyalty from every person working there under her. Everybody working there, especially the kids Louise rescued, would have gladly given their very lives for her and vice versa.
When Louise and George walked out of the elevator and into Zion’s first level that morning, it didn’t take long for people and especially the kids to notice that their commander in chief was back, and when they did, there were hollers and joyful screams everywhere. But it didn’t take long for the kids’ jubilant screams to start turning into overwhelmed tears. Louise quickly walked them over to the large cafeteria area and sat down at one of the many tables with them and immediately started trying to comfort and console them.
“Now kids, what’s all this?” she asked them warmly and gently. “What are all these tears for?”
“We were afraid for a while you were never coming back,” answered a ten-year-old girl named Alyssa, who was a mixed child with lovely brown hair and dark eyes. “I just knew I’d never see you again.”
The other children basically said the same thing, and Louise spent the next half hour with them all, holding them and loving on them and drying their tears, and giving them promises after promises of reassurance that she wasn’t going anywhere and that she wasn’t about to leave them. George remained perfectly silent and just watched the scene unfold in the background, and while he was very touched at all her tenderness, in the back of his mind he couldn’t shake his fears that in the end, she wouldn’t be able to keep those promises.
For a couple of minutes before Louise left the children, as the dining area started filling with more and more students, someone else came in as well and he also quietly observed the scene taking place with Louise and the kids in deep contemplation. He was a rather tall Mexican-American man who had somewhat of a belly and a head full of graying hair and deep, dark eyes. His name was Marco Garcia, and while Zion didn’t officially have any kind of hierarchy in place to organize all its workers, it was always explicitly understood that Marco was Zion’s second-in-command. Marco had been taking over everything at Zion for Louise during the past month of her absence, and while filling her shoes had hardly been easy, he had in fact done an exemplary job.
But Marco was far more than Louise’s second-in-command, close friend, and trusted and respected colleague. Marco Garcia was a man who had been very deeply in love with Louise for fourteen of the past fifteen years they’d known each other. While Zion had in fact been Louise’s baby all along, Marco had been instrumental in helping her set it up, and he had made her dreams for the city of Zion his own. He now lived, breathed, ate, and slept Zion just as much as Louise did, and he was every bit as much in love with and passionate about the work at Zion as she was. But as much as he was in love with and passionate about the city of Zion, he was even more in love with and passionate about Louise and the close relationship they enjoyed. Working with her and watching her bust her tail all these years to keep Zion running had only made Marco fall harder and deeper in love with Louise than he ever dreamed was possible with any woman. They both completely understood Zion and how it worked like the back of their own hands, and having to work so closely together like that all these years and having to understand their city like they did also required that they understood one another as intricately as they understood Zion. And when their friendship and working relationship began in earnest so many years before, it hadn’t taken Marco long to fall head over heels in love with Louise. He absolutely adored everything about her – her warmth and gentleness, her kind presence, her selfless and strong and courageous spirit, her intelligence, her lovely face and smile, her deep voice, everything.
And if Marco Garcia were your typical red-blooded American male, sure, he’d start trying every trick in the book to break Louise and George up so that he could marry her and spend the rest of his life with her himself as he yearned to so badly. But thankfully for George Jefferson, Marco was a great man filled to the brim with moral integrity and Christian principles. Marco had actually begun studying to become a priest when he was eighteen and had served as one for many years as a by-the-book Catholic, but through the years, he’d struggled with a lot of the aspects of Catholicism that seemed to him to fly right in the face of what the Bible said. As more and more time passed, he started really feeling moved by the Lord to leave the Catholic Church, which in fact had been one of the most agonizing decisions he ever had to make in his life. It had been far from easy, but when his relationship with Christ had truly begun to suffer because of it, he finally made the painful choice to leave his entire way of life behind for His sake. Marco was a man who was actually well into his fifties now and was still a virgin, so he’d had almost an entire lifetime of experience making difficult choices for the Lord’s sake. And it was precisely for that reason, his unwillingness to do anything that would cause the Lord any grief, that all through these years, he’d managed to keep his relationship with Louise a very deep but platonic one. And equally thankfully for George, Louise, of course, took her relationship with God as a Christian every bit as seriously as Marco did, and it was because of both their strong commitments to Him that it had always been understood between them that gravitating towards a more romantic relationship was simply not an option.
But that didn’t stop Marco from being in love with her, and it definitely didn’t stop him from wishing with all his heart that things between them could be different. And it certainly hadn’t stopped him from being petrified right down to the bone when Louise had had her heart attack four weeks ago. The very first moment Marco spotted Louise with the children several minutes before, he’d been so overwhelmed that a tiny tear escaped from his eye. Of course he instantly wiped it away, not wanting to lose a hint of his composure in front of everyone and especially not in front of the kids, but still, it was hard for anyone to deny just looking at his face and into his eyes how overcome he was by her mere presence alone.
Once the teachers entered the dining area, Louise quickly stood up and told all the kids goodbye so they could begin on their class-work for the day. As Louise stood up, though, she spotted Marco, and George was all too quick to notice how Louise’s face and eyes actually seemed to sparkle just at the very sight of him.
“Marco,” Louise said warmly and happily and quickly walked into his arms. Then in that next second, they both remembered that dozens of kids and several teachers (and unbeknownst to them, a jealous husband), were all staring at them. “Let’s get out of here, huh?” Louise whispered in his ear.
“I’m with you,” Marco whispered back, and then they proceeded to walk out of the schooling area with their arms wrapped around each other’s waists, looking – especially to George’s line of vision – like a couple who had been in love for centuries.
Because underground tunnels had been built to construct all rooms and facilities and living quarters of Zion, all ceilings appeared curved like archways above. The ceiling above the dining and schooling area was the biggest arched ceiling of them all because it was the largest area of the city. All doors and hallways of Zion had the same curved design, and so did the area Marco quickly whisked Louise off to, which was nothing more, really, than a few swing-sets and a jungle gym and slide with a great big fountain sitting in the middle of it. It was this area, of course, that everybody in Zion used for a park.
“Oh, Marco, you don’t know how much I’ve missed you,” Louise told Marco with obvious affection in her voice.
“I’ve missed you even more,” Marco said solemnly, and Louise could easily hear it in his voice how deeply her heart attack had affected him, and she truly hated to see it. When they were just a couple of feet away from Zion’s park area, Marco got out in front of Louise and faced her and grabbed her upper arms and practically yelled at her, “Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”
“Marco, please, you know I didn’t have a heart attack on purpose.”
“Maybe not, but you still knew better. Dr. Moore has been warning you for the past few months now about your heart and all the stress you’re under all the time. He and several other residents here have been warning you to start eating healthier and to start taking it easy. How many times have they all warned you that you were pushing your body and especially your heart too hard? You should have listened to them.”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve talking to me like that Marco, and if you’ll forgive me for saying so, you’re being a real hypocrite because you spend as many hours working your butt off to help keep Zion running every day as I always have,” Louise angrily responded, even raising her voice to him a little bit, which was a pretty rare thing for the two of them.
“I don’t have heart problems,” Marco practically yelled back at her, just as loudly as the tone of voice she’d used with him.
“No, not yet. But look at the situation for a moment. You’re a slightly overweight man in his mid-fifties working long, hard hours in a high-stress environment and doing dangerous rescue missions on top of that, often skipping meals and not eating healthy when you do eat something. You drink a good ten or twenty cups of coffee every single day just to keep yourself going, just like I used to. Do you honestly believe you can keep carrying on like this without any kind of problems or complications coming up with your health for the rest of your life?”
“I stand a much better chance of it than you do because I’m not married to George Jefferson,” Marco teased and naturally, Louise found it impossible to repress a smile and a small laugh.
“Now Marco, you know that’s not fair,” Louise said more gently. “You’ve seen how much he’s changed because of all of this. He’s nowhere near the man he used to be.”
“Thank heaven for small favors,” Marco joked again.
“Marco,” Louise scolded.
“Okay, okay,” he sighed. “You’re right. You’re right about everything you just said. I apologize. I know I was really out of line just now, but when I came to see you in the hospital and I looked at you through that ICU window, you’ll never know what that did to me, Louise,” Marco gasped and then, no longer able to hold back, he began to cry.
“Oh, Marco,” Louise said as tears came to her own eyes while she pulled him into a tight hug and as with the children, tried her best to console him. “I know,” she told him as she rubbed his back. “I know what a terrible scare I gave everyone. I honestly didn’t mean to. I promise you that. And I know I should have listened to what the doctors kept trying to tell me. I just couldn’t force myself to slow down. I kept telling myself that one day when all my kids here didn’t need me as much, then I’d start taking it easy. But that day just never came.” Finally their long hug ended, but they were still holding onto each other and looking into each other’s eyes when Louise said a moment later, “Now I see it. Now, I understand at long last that that day’s never going to come because there’ll always be children out there who need to be rescued. And, I see too that no matter how old they get, if something should happen to me, all my kids here would be affected by it. That’s certainly a mistake I don’t ever intend to make again.”
“I’m holding you to that,” Marco told her seriously, and then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and said, “Come on. Let’s finish our little stroll to the park, huh?”
“Lead the way,” said Louise, and several moments later, they reached the Zion Park and sat down on a bench that was just a few feet away from the waterfall.
“You know Louise, it’s been kind of hard adjusting to your absence here. I won’t lie. But I do have things pretty well under control here, and it’s still awfully early for you to come back. You’ve only been settled in at home a couple of weeks. You should really take some more time off, give yourself more of a chance to fully recover, take a vacation trip somewhere even. Why don’t you give yourself another two or three weeks off? I know everybody here will understand.”
“You know who you sounded like just now?”
“Who?”
“George,” Louise said incredulously.
“George?!” Marco yelled out loud. In the next moment, he started grabbing his chest, declaring, “Now I’m having a heart attack! Get Dr. Moore over here now! This is way more than my poor heart can handle! I actually agree with George Jefferson about something?! That kind of condition is lethal! I’m about to die!”
“Oh, my gosh!” Louise said aloud after rolling her eyes at Marco. “You’re about to die, alright, but not because of a heart attack! You’re about to die because I’m about to push you into that fountain and drown you for being so silly and ridiculous!”
At that, Marco had a good, hard belly laugh. But a short distance away, George was standing by, watching the playful scene unfold between the two, and he was hardly laughing about it. In the past before George’s personality did the complete one-eighty that it did a month ago, George would have been filled with pure jealousy. George was still filled completely with jealousy, but this time, it was a different kind of jealousy somehow. George wasn’t a mere insecure and immature little brat about it now like he would have been in the past. Now, George’s jealousy wasn’t self-centered anger because he feared another man was trespassing on what he considered to be his territory. Louise was far more to him than some kind of territory he possessed now. She was his guardian angel, his all, his everything, his reason for living. And the thought of losing what he had with her utterly terrified him to his core, even though he was now finally mature enough to understand that if he did lose Louise to Marco, it would be exactly what he’d deserve.

Chapter Three
George thought about it for a little while, asking himself what he should do as he stood just in front of the Zion Park entrance. Of course only a month before, he would have marched on up to Louise and Marco and he would have started yelling at them, and even at his small five-feet-six, he wouldn’t have hesitated to get right up into Marco Garcia’s face and holler at him to back off and get away from his wife, even though he was clearly no physical match for a man of Marco’s size whatsoever. Marco could have very easily squashed George Jefferson like a bug if he’d ever wanted to.
Now, George’s mindset was far more mature and respectful of Louise. He could have simply approached them in the park and tried to join the conversation, but he correctly anticipated how awkward of a situation that would be for all three of them. So, he went to the only person he could think of to go to in the city of Zion.
Her apartment was one of the handful of apartments that were on Zion’s first level. The first floor of Zion had the hospital on its furthermost west side, the apartments and dining and schooling area in the center, and offices for Louise and Marco and the doctors and psychologists as well as a large conference room, and the park, on its east side. All levels below were strictly living quarters for the volunteers and the children. It was silently understood that living quarters on the first level were for “the top brass” of Zion, so to speak.
And this lady was the top of the top brass. She was a tough and strong, but also very tender and loving woman in her eighties. While there were a lot of men and women volunteering their time and even living in Zion, serving as surrogate mothers and fathers for the children Louise rescued, Louise was always considered Zion’s “main” mother. And in that sense, the woman George had now decided to go visit was in fact considered to be Zion’s official grandmother.
On top of that, she was also his own mother. The first night Louise was in the ICU, her doctors all agreed that a triple bypass surgery had to be performed as soon as possible and they’d scheduled it for the next morning. George had spent as much time with Louise as the ICU staff would let him get away with that evening, trying his best to reassure her that the surgery was going to work out okay. But after he’d been forced to tell Louise goodnight and leave, he saw a sight coming down the corridor towards him that practically gave him a heart attack in addition to Louise. The sight of his mother had been such a traumatizing shock to George’s system because he’d honestly believed she died five years before. George had been understandably terrified at first that he was losing his mind, but Olivia quickly reassured him that he was perfectly sane and that she was very real and very alive. She’d wisely chosen not to spring everything about the city of Zion and her life there with Louise on him all at once. She’d simply told him as much of the truth as she believed George could handle at the moment, which was that she had actually had her own death and death certificate faked, and that the story behind it was a very long and complicated one that she’d explain to him later, when she felt he was ready to hear it all. She’d also told him that in the meantime, she was here for both Louise’s sake and his, and that it was Louise’s heart attack that had finally forced her to come forward. Her conscience simply wouldn’t allow her to hide in the shadows anymore, especially not in a time like this when her family so clearly needed her by their side.
Louise had been in the hospital for around a week or so, still recuperating from the surgery when Olivia introduced George to Marco for the first time, and it was on that day that his entire life and world and all his illusions about it had been brought down crashing to the ground. It was on that day that the George Jefferson he’d been the first fifty-three years of his life completely ceased to exist, when he finally learned about Zion and Louise’s dreams for her own life and things about her and their past together that shook him to the absolute core. And while he had gone through that first week with his mother in his life again with a lot of shock and anger at what she’d done, it was on that fateful day of George’s first introduction to the city of Zion that she also explained to him why she’d chosen to drop out of his life the way she did five years before. And looking back on it now, he completely understood the hard decisions Olivia had had to make and why she’d chosen to do things the way she did, and while George still wished she’d come to him five years ago and told him the truth back then, he couldn’t deny that her decision had been one she’d made entirely out of love and respect for Louise, and he couldn’t even begin to blame her for that. He understood perfectly well now that had he been in her shoes at the time, he would have made the exact same choice.
“Just a minute,” Olivia Jefferson’s voice answered a moment after George knocked on her door. When she opened her apartment door, George smiled.
“Good mornin’, Mama,” he told her warmly.
“Oh, hello, son,” Olivia replied just as warmly and then gave her son a hug. “Come on inside. Have you and Louise eaten breakfast yet?”
“Yep, we sure have,” George answered as he followed his mother inside to her living room and sat down next to her on the sofa. In all reality, the arch-shaped ceilings above were one of only a handful of indications that Olivia Jefferson’s living quarters existed in an underground city. Of course there were no windows anywhere, and the lighting was changed to compensate for lack of sunlight. The city’s lights were always made brighter during daytime hours to try and give more of an atmosphere of daytime and they were dimmed during evening and nighttime hours, although all residents of Zion were free to choose how to light their own living quarters, of course. Other than those things, Olivia’s and everybody’s living quarters looked like perfectly regular, everyday apartments. The walls of Olivia’s living room were painted a soft shade of rose pink and in the middle stood a matching white sofa and overstuffed chairs, as well as a coffee table and matching end-tables made out of white wicker, and there were several flowery paintings adorning the walls as well as a matching wicker stand filled with knick-knacks. Her apartment was filled with love and life, as she herself was now – and she also now perfectly understood that she owed that fact of her life to God and to Louise more than anyone. Olivia understood painfully well that for many years, there hadn’t been much genuine love or life in her heart or her personality at all.
“How’s everything been going for you two this morning?” Olivia asked.
“It’s been okay,” George sighed.
“What is it, son? What’s the matter? I can tell you’re upset about something.”
“Well for one thing, you know I’m not exactly thrilled about Weezy comin’ back to work today.”
“I know. I wish she’d take more time off too, but we both know how stubborn our Louise can be. But everybody’s keeping an eye on her. I can promise you that every person living here loves her just as much as you and I do, and we’re not gonna let her overdo things. We’re all watching out for her, but even if we weren’t able to watch out for her, God always will. I know how hard it is, but try not to let it worry you so.”
“I know all that, Mama. I know.”
“What else is on your mind, George?”
“From day one, Marco’s made no secret about his feelings for Louise. I know he loves her. More than that, I know how in love he is with her. He adores her. The man absolutely adores her, every bit as much as I do. I just got Weezy back a couple of weeks ago,” George said in another sigh. “I don’t want to lose her again. Before she returned to Zion today, like I said, I knew that Marco had feelings for her, but I didn’t know if there was any part of Louise that might be returning those feelings. But when I saw those two together a couple of minutes ago, I knew. The way they act when they’re together, the way they talk, even the way they move together…Ma, they’ve got this chemistry that seems to scream out to the entire world, ‘Hey, look at us…we’re a couple.’ They know each other so well. And that scares me to death. Tell me the truth, Mama. Does she really love him?”
Olivia paused for a long moment and then finally replied, “Yes, she does…but not in the way you think. I know this’ll be hard for you to hear, but since you asked for the truth, I’ll give it to you. You are right when you say that they know each other extremely well. They do. And right now, Marco understands Louise and the way she thinks and how she feels about things a lot better than you do, especially where Zion is concerned. But none of that means that your relationship with Louise is doomed. It just needs working on, that’s all. And yes, Marco is very much so in love with your wife, but George, you are making a very big mistake. You are seriously underestimating Louise and her love for you. Now, I’m going to be honest with you, and the truth is going to hurt, but I think you should hear it. Ninety-nine point nine percent of womankind everywhere, if they were put in Louise’s position and had been running a place like Zion and had been living with a husband as chauvinistic and self-centered as you used to be, would have divorced you and married Marco a long time ago. So when you say your prayers tonight, you need to get down on your knees before God and thank Him with all your heart and soul that He was generous enough to bless you with that exceptional tenth of one percent of womankind that we both know Louise is. George, if Louise really wanted to leave you for Marco in her heart of hearts, she would have done it long before now.
“And in the meantime, instead of needlessly worrying about your relationship with Louise, why don’t you do something about all your concerns?”
“Like what?” asked George.
“This won’t be easy, but if you’re that concerned about Marco understanding Louise better than you do, then swallow your pride and humble yourself and go to Marco and tell him how you feel, and ask him for his help. If you’re really serious about wanting to understand your wife better, he’s one of the best people you can go to.”
“I don’t know. I’ll consider it, but I think I’m the last person on earth that Marco would want to give any kind of help to.”
“I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but even though you and Marco don’t like each other very much, for Louise’s sake, you two are going to have to find a way to settle your differences and learn to work together. I know that you plan on spending far more time with Louise here at Zion now, and if you’re going to be here more often, that means that like it or not, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of Marco because he’s every bit as much a part of this world as Louise is.
“I know it’s not easy, son. I remember it all myself. I remember what it was like five years ago when I first learned the truth about Louise and all the hell she’d chosen to suffer through for our sakes. I remember getting that big bucket of ice water dumped all over me, waking up to the truth of who and what I really was and the terrible way I used to treat people, Louise especially. And most importantly, I remember waking up to that painful and terrifying realization that all these years, I had thought I’d known what it truly meant to be a born-again Christian, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I remember learning, not only about what Louise had done for us, but also about her dreams and this very miracle from God, Himself, that you and I are sitting right in the middle of. I remember truly understanding in my heart for the very first time what genuine Christianity really meant and what it looked like, and the fact that I had thought throughout most of my life that I was born again and on my way to heaven when I was actually headed in the exact opposite direction.
“And I know that all of this isn’t easy for you. You’re a brand new Christian. You’ve only been born again for three weeks now and you’re still a babe in Christ. You’ve got an awful lot to learn. And one important lesson you’ve got to learn in all of this is that God has called all of His children to live in peace with one another, whenever it’s at all possible. If you possibly can, George, then God does expect you to work out your differences with Marco, because whether you two like it or not, you are brothers in Christ now.
“But listen, even though these are your first steps as a born-again Christian and even though it is hard sometimes, I don’t ever want you to forget that I’m here for you, alright? If you ever need advice in a situation like this where you don’t know what to do or if you just need a friend to listen to you, I’m here.”
“Oh, Mama,” George said and then of course he pulled her into a hug.
“I may have been gone for a little while, but I’m back now, and I’m not going anywhere. I want you to remember that, okay? I love you, George.”
George planted a hard kiss on her cheek and replied, “I love you, too.”
George spent the rest of the morning talking with his mother, learning from her and gaining encouragement from her. In the meantime, Louise held a meeting in the conference room with all the medical and counseling staff as well as several other volunteers, essentially putting her finger on the pulse of Zion and seeing how it was doing.
Everyone sat together at a long rectangular light oak table with matching chairs and stacks of papers in front of every person, just like a regular business meeting. The walls were a light beige and were adorned with a couple of nice paintings. But despite the arch-shaped ceiling and the absence of windows, it looked exactly like a typical business conference taking place in some executive office somewhere. There were actually several accountants there who kept close tabs on Zion’s finances and helped Louise as best they could to manage the city from a monetary standpoint, and even though it was hard sometimes, of course Louise always made sure Zion’s needs were being met. After being briefed by them on Zion’s financial situation and making the financial decisions that they all needed to make together, Louise discussed Zion’s overall medical and psychological well-being, and listened to what the doctors and nurses and counselors had to say and their concerns and suggestions about several things. It wasn’t until noon that Louise finally adjourned the meeting so everybody could go and eat lunch, but Marco remained behind with Louise after everyone else left the room, obviously hoping to have a few more words with her in private.
“Okay, Marco,” Louise said knowingly after the last person walked out the door, and then she rose from her chair. “What is it? What’s on your mind?”
“The same thing that’s constantly on my mind, my dear Louise,” Marco replied.
“And what’s that?”
“You,” Marco said with his usual loving tenderness, and Louise smiled. Marco then walked up to Louise and put his hands on her shoulders. “You did a terrific job of covering it all up in front of everybody else and if I didn’t know you so well, you might have fooled me too. But I know your eyes, and your eyes can never lie to me, no matter how hard the rest of your face may try to.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve come back to us too soon. You’re still pushing your body too hard. You did your usual marvelous job of handling things in the meeting today, but I could see it for the past couple of hours now how tired you’ve been getting. Louise, I’m telling you, you need more time off to fully recover from what’s happened to you. You still need more rest. I really think you ought to go home early today and get a good lunch with George and lie down a while and take it easy.”
After Marco said his piece, he took his hands off her shoulders, and then Louise let out a chuckle and put her hand to her forehead and shook her head.
“Oh, heaven help me, now I’ve got another husband in my life who’s being a nervous mother hen. Marco, you are being so silly. You’re being sweet and loving and adorable, yes, but silly. I’m not the least bit tired and I’m perfectly capable of finishing out the day here. Believe me.”
“Well there you are,” Olivia said loudly as she and George walked into the conference room. “So, you’ve been here all day and you couldn’t come and pay your poor, sweet old mother a visit regardless of the fact that I’ve been waiting on pins and needles to see my daughter again. Okay, fine. I see how you are,” she joked with a feigned hurt expression on her face, and at that, Louise rolled her eyes. Ever since Olivia learned the truth about everything concerning Louise (and as a result, genuinely became a Christian) five years ago, she’d always insisted on doing away with the “in-law” part of their relationship. Olivia insisted that Louise look on her every bit as much her mama as she was George’s, and from that point on, she also insisted on Louise simply addressing her as “Mama” and not “Mother Jefferson.”
“Now Mama, you knew perfectly well that I was holding this staff meeting today so I could start catching up on all the work and all the events I’ve missed this past month,” Louise said with a bit of a laugh in her voice, knowing completely well that Olivia was just kidding around with her. “And you also knew that I was planning on coming to pay you a visit as soon as the meeting was over, so you can’t lay any guilt trips on me.”
Olivia snapped her fingers then, acting like she was disappointed that her efforts at a guilt trip hadn’t worked, but everybody knew she was only clowning around.
“Oh, well,” she said. “You can’t blame a mother for trying.”
Louise let out a loud laugh at that and then she kissed her cheek.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Jefferson,” said Marco. “How are you today?”
“I’m terrific, Marco, thank you. I’m as happy as can be now that I’ve got my daughter here with me and she’s safe and sound again.”
“Thank you so much, Mama. And I’m just as happy as you are to finally be back. I’ve really missed you guys.”
“Not half as much as we’ve missed you, dear,” Olivia told Louise warmly. “And speaking of having Louise back here with us, I still don’t think it’s fair that you guys have gotten to spend all day with her and I’ve only seen her for the past two minutes. Come on with me, Louise. You and I are going back to my place and we’re having lunch, now.”
Louise laughed and said, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Now Mama, you know all about Weezy’s new diet, don’t you?” asked George.
“Of course I do, George. You don’t have to worry. I made a perfectly balanced meal for the two of us.”
“You didn’t make any coffee for her, did you?”
“As a matter of fact, I did. I thought Louise might enjoy a cup.”
“Mama,” George groaned.
“Don’t worry so much. I made it decaf.” At that, Louise was the one who now groaned.
“Hey, way to go, Mama,” George said and held out his hand and Olivia gave George five.
“Just what I need…a conspiracy of health nuts,” Louise jokingly complained as she and Olivia walked out of the conference room together.
Once the door closed behind them, George hesitantly approached Marco and asked, “Hey Marco, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure,” he said as he held his hand out towards the table and empty chairs. “Have a seat.”
“Thanks,” George said as he and Marco sat down facing other from opposite sides of the table.
“What can I do for you, George?”
“Look, Marco, I’m gonna lay all my cards on the table, alright? I know that I am not your favorite person in the world. As a matter of fact, you ain’t mine, either. I know how you feel about me. But when I talked to Mama today, she helped me realize that it’s important that we try to work out all our differences as best we can. I think it’s definitely important where Louise is concerned. Whether you like it or not, you and I are gonna be seein’ a lot more of each other because I’m gonna be spendin’ a lot of time here with Weezy, tryin’ to help her as much as possible. And, when I saw you two hangin’ out earlier today, it really began to hit me that in a lot of ways, you understand Louise much better than I do.”
“What are you saying?” Marco asked him seriously, but deep down, he already knew what George was going to tell him next.
“I’m saying I need your help,” George admitted, although it was painful to do so. “I’ve realized over the past four weeks that I have fallen unbelievably out of touch with my own wife. She should be the one human being I know and understand better than anyone else on earth, but as you know, I’ve learned that there’s a whole side to her that I barely know at all, that I didn’t even know existed all these years. There’s such an important part of her life here that I’ve completely missed out on, and I need to understand it. I need to understand her. And I know that I can’t really help her, I can’t really be there for her as her husband or her friend, unless I understand more about who she really is. I know, I can sense it somehow, that Louise probably has a much easier time opening up to you than she does to me right now, and I want to change that. I need to change that. I need to start really bein’ a husband to Weezy again.”
“And you want me to be the one to teach you how to do that,” Marco observed.
“I need you to be the one to teach me how to do that, because you understand her better than anyone here.”
Marco let out a sigh and started massaging his temples.
“Oh, boy,” he grumbled. “You had to do it, didn’t you?”
“Do what?” George asked, confused.
“I really miss the days before I knew you in person, George. Back then, I could just completely dislike you with incredible ease. When you act all humble and concerned about your relationship with your wife like this, you almost make me want to start liking you, and that is giving me one major headache.” When Marco said this, George actually chuckled a little. “Alright, man. I’ll do it. I’ll be your professor. I’ll start giving you detailed classes in Weez-ology. But bear in mind, I’m doing this much more for her sake than I am for yours.”
George nodded and told him, “I understand. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You’re right. Louise needs us now. She needs us both, and regardless of how we feel about each other, we do have to start working together. Since I’ve agreed to help you, maybe now you can help me with something where Louise is concerned.”
“What is it?”
“Our rescue teams are doing another mission two weeks from today. From our very earliest days on, Louise has always given our rescue volunteers her word that she would never let them go out into the field without her by their side. Louise feels very, very strongly about the promises she makes, and like you’ve been saying today, I do know her well. I know how strong-willed and downright stubborn Louise can really be, especially about anything pertaining to Zion. And I know that Louise is not going to care less about the fact that she’s still recovering from a heart attack. I doubt I’ll be able to keep news of this from Louise much longer, and if she does find out about it, despite her heart problems, she’s going to be determined to go. I’ve been trying to convince Louise that she isn’t ready to make a full return to Zion just yet, that she needs more time to rest and recuperate. I’ve been trying to convince her to take the next two weeks off, maybe take a little vacation trip with you somewhere. So far, of course, my attempts haven’t succeeded at all. But if we pull together on this thing, maybe we can be fortunate enough to keep Louise away from Zion until the rescue mission’s over and done with.”
“Hey, yeah, that’s a good idea. Maybe if I call and make plane and hotel reservations for some great vacation spot somewhere and spring it on her this evenin’ as a surprise romantic getaway, she’ll want to go.”
“Now you know, that idea isn’t half bad,” Marco agreed. “Knowing Louise, it’s still a long shot, but it just might work.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
“Good deal. I may be trying to convince Louise to take some more time off, but when I told her earlier that she was starting to look tired, I wasn’t completely exaggerating. Maybe if you and Olivia work on Louise together after they’ve eaten lunch, between the two of you, you’ll be able to convince her to take the rest of today off. I know her doctor told her it was alright for her to return to work now, but didn’t he say she still had to take it slow?”
“He did, and I’ll go to Mama’s and remind her of that right now,” George told Marco as they both stood up from their chairs.
While George was on his way out the door, Marco said, “Hey George, I may not have told you this, but I hold a Bible study group in the dining area every Wednesday and Sunday evening. Louise tries to come whenever she can, whenever she doesn’t attend church services with Florence. If you’d like to come, you’re welcome to join us.”
“Thanks,” George said, quite surprised at the invitation. “I’ll think about it.” Since George had gotten saved several weeks before and had been talking to other Christians like his mother and Florence about his faith, he’d heard them talk about “discipling” new believers, and he was now beginning to wonder if this was actually Marco’s indirect offer to teach him about a lot more besides “Weez-ology.” As George walked out of the conference room, he did say a small prayer for himself, asking God to help him as he still struggled in his first baby steps down the road called faith, understanding that he had a very long way to go.

Chapter Five
Not long after Olivia finished washing the dishes, George arrived back at her apartment. Louise smiled and stood up and walked up to George and when their eyes met, Olivia could easily see all his love for her practically gushing out of his eyes and face. She hardly would have been glad to see it in the past, but she was more than happy to see it now, and she was finally ready to step aside after all this time and let Louise be the main woman of George’s life, which was the way Olivia knew it should have been all along.
“Hi, gorgeous,” George said softly.
“Hi, handsome,” Louise responded with a big smile, and of course in the next moment, their lips met. And unlike George’s short, lifeless kisses of the past, this one lasted quite long. When the kiss was finally over, their foreheads rested up against each other and they let out a sigh together.
“I missed you, you know,” George told Louise in a low voice.
“I missed you, too.”
“You know, you two,” Olivia said as she walked up to them, “I believe this is the first time I’ve ever seen you alone together.”
“What do you mean ‘alone together,’ Mama? You’re standin’ right here with us,” George disagreed.
“Your bodies might have been standing with me, but in here,” Olivia said as she pointed to her chest, “you were all alone. And you know something? It sure was a beautiful sight.”
“Oh, Mama,” Louise said lovingly and then both she and George wrapped her in a hug.
But before they could really enjoy the group hug, Louise was suddenly hit by a wave of dizziness. Saying nothing, she merely strengthened her arm’s grip around George’s waist and tried to lean on him for support.
“Weezy, what is it, baby? What’s wrong?” George asked in a bit of a panic.
“George, she needs to sit down,” said Olivia.
“Come on, Weezy. Come on. Lean on me,” George said as he helped Louise over to the couch. George sat down on the coffee table directly in front of Louise and took her hands in his own, and Olivia stood over Louise anxiously.
“I’ll get you something to drink, Louise.”
“Oh, no, Mama, I’m fine,” Louise insisted. “I’m alright, honest. I just got a tiny bit lightheaded there for a second. It’s passed now. I’m fine. I think I just needed to sit for a moment. Don’t worry. I’ll be okay.”
“I think you should go to my room and lie down,” Olivia told Louise. “George, you help her in there, and I’ll make Louise a nice cup of tea.”
“Mama, you don’t have to talk about me like I’m not in the room,” Louise said in a chuckle. “You’re really overreacting. You both are. It only lasted a second…a fraction of a second. I feel perfectly fine now.” In all truth, Louise was feeling somewhat weak and rundown, but she wasn’t about to admit it to George and Olivia and make them worry about her even more than they already were.
“Well at least lie back on the couch and relax,” George suggested.
“That’s a good idea,” Olivia agreed. “And while you’re resting, Louise, I’ll make the tea.”
“Oh guys, come on,” Louise said stubbornly, still convinced they were overreacting. “I’m fine.”
“And we’re gonna keep you that way,” George told Louise just as stubbornly. “I’ll take your shoes off for you,” he said as he reached for her feet, and Louise hit her forehead with her hand and shook her head.
“I don’t believe this,” Louise said while barely managing to suppress a laugh, and then George moved her legs onto the couch for her. “One month ago, I start having a heart attack and you don’t even notice there’s something wrong with me until I stop breathing and you have to do CPR. Now, if I get the slightest bit lightheaded for one second, you act like I’m the most helpless person on earth.”
Louise had only been kidding around with George when she said that, but the instant the words were out of her mouth and she saw the hurt look in George’s eyes, she completely regretted it and wished she could undo the last couple of moments of their lives and stop herself from saying what she did.
“Oh George, I’m so sorry. I just blurted that out without thinking. I didn’t mean that like I was trying to rub in your past mistakes. I was only kidding around with you a second ago.”
George remained quiet for a second and then he took Louise’s hands and kissed them, and he told her, “You never have to apologize to me for anything, Louise. Never. You’re right. All my past mistakes, the way I used to treat you and everybody else all the time…it hurts. It really does. But I’m the one who’s at fault for that, Weez, not you. I know you weren’t tryin’ to rub anything in just now. I know you were just jokin’ around.”
Louise held the side of George’s face with her hand and said, “I still wish I hadn’t said it, though. But I want you to know that none of that matters to me now.”
“And I want you to know that I want you to shut up and stop talkin’,” George told Louise, but he said it in such an obviously kind tone that Louise knew George hadn’t said what he just did out of meanness, that he was trying to play with her somehow.
“Why, George?”
“So I can kiss you like I was kissing you a minute ago.”
Louise let out a soft laugh and said, “Be my guest.”
Naturally, of course, George had Louise in another lip-lock in all of two nanoseconds, until about a minute later when Olivia came out of the kitchen with Louise’s cup of tea.
“Here you go, dear,” she told Louise just before she handed her the cup.
“Thank you, Mom. You really didn’t have to, you know.”
“Now what makes you think I do any of this for you?” Olivia asked.
“What do you mean?” responded Louise.
“Haven’t you ever stopped to consider that maybe I do things like this for myself every bit as much as I do them for you, because you’re the only baby girl I’ve got and I love you?”
“Oh, Mama, I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything. Just drink your cup of tea and relax.”
“When Weezy’s finished with her tea, Mama, I think I’m gonna go ahead and take her home for the day.”
“I hate to see you kids leave. I’ve enjoyed having both my babies here with me today, but I think you’re right, son. You should go home and rest, Louise.”
“Or at least smooch,” Louise joked, and then George chuckled and gave Louise another kiss, although it was much quicker than usual.
“I hope you kids will forgive me. I don’t mean to try and butt into your private life together or anything. I really don’t, but…well, I can see how close you two are now and how attracted you are to each other and…Louise, did your doctor tell you it was alright for you and George to…uh…” Olivia asked, allowing the sentence to trail, and George and Louise both laughed.
“Not just yet. We have to wait a little while for me to get my full strength back first,” Louise answered.
“Well in that case, George, I fully expect you to be on your best behavior until the doctor says Louise is strong enough for…”
Olivia allowed her sentence to trail again, and again, George and Louise laughed.
“Sex, Mama,” George said through his laughter. “You can say the word ‘sex.’ We won’t tell anybody you said it.”
“You kids can pick on me about it all you like, but I’m old-fashioned and proud of it.”
And of course, when Olivia said that, George and Louise did laugh once again, this time even harder.
“Oh, what? You think me and Weezy’ll run outside and yell at the whole city of Zion, ‘Hey guys, Mama’s in here talkin’ to us about sex!’?”
“Anyway George, Louise, enjoy each other. Enjoy the time you spend together, but George, I don’t want you going too far until the doctor says Louise is ready. Take a cold shower, even, if you have to. I don’t want you kids taking any chances.”
“No, ma’am, I won’t get carried away,” George said good-naturedly, because although he and Louise were perfectly mature, middle-aged adults who hardly needed to be cautioned about their own sex life, he understood that his mother was simply being her typical overprotective self and that her words only came from her love and concern for them. “It won’t be easy, I’ll admit, but I won’t get carried away.”
“Good.”
“The tea was wonderful. You certainly didn’t have to make it for me, but I thank you,” Louise said as she reached over to set her cup down on the coffee table, but before she could set it down, George took it from her.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ll get it,” George said.
“I’ll take it into the kitchen,” Olivia said as she then took the cup from George and disappeared into the kitchen for a brief moment. When she returned, George and Louise started getting ready to say goodbye to her for the day.
“I think we’ll shove off now,” George told his mother.
“Alright, son. Take it slowly, Louise.”
“Mama’s right, Weez. We should go slow,” George agreed as he picked up Louise’s shoes.
“Not so fast,” Louise said as she took her shoes from George’s hand. “I’m not going to let myself be entirely helpless today,” she told them while she was putting her shoes back on. George then sat down on the couch beside Louise and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“Don’t try to get up all at once, sweetheart,” George said in his now typical kind voice. “Just go slowly. Let me help you.”
“George, you’re being so silly. I’m perfectly capable of standing up on my own.”
“Well let’s not take any chances,” George insisted. “I’ll stand up with you and hold onto you, and we’ll just take our time, alright? We ain’t in any rush. We’ll go easy.”
“You’re treating me like I’m two hundred,” Louise jokingly complained. She thought that George and Olivia were being ridiculously overprotective of her, but of course, she truly did love them for it. And deep down, it really did feel wonderful to be fussed over so much, even though she thought it was quite unnecessary. “You guys are so overprotective, it’s absurd,” she teased them again.
“And proud of it,” George announced and Louise laughed. In the next moment, George started helping Louise to stand, although she really was feeling better and was more than confident that she could stand and walk on her own.
“See? What’d I tell you? I’m just fine,” Louise happily informed him once they were completely standing.
“I know you’re alright, but we’re still gonna take this slow,” George told her, and Louise rolled her eyes, although she couldn’t conceal her borderline laughter. She did think it was ridiculous, but incredibly adorable and hilarious at the same time.
After they said their goodbyes to Olivia, George slowly walked Louise back up to the Help Center and hailed a cab and took her home, and when their cab pulled up in front of their apartment building, George walked Louise inside and to the elevator the same way, with his arm wrapped around her waist, moving as slowly and carefully with her there as he had been at Zion.
“Sweetheart, how you doin’?” George asked after they stepped off the elevator on the twelfth floor.
“I’m perfectly fine, George,” Louise replied, still with a little laughter in her voice. “Believe me. You worry way too much.”
“Good. I’ve wasted way too many years worryin’ about myself all the time and hardly worryin’ about you at all. I’ve got a lot of makin’ up to do,” George said and once again he gave Louise a long kiss.
“You keep all this up and we might not be able to behave ourselves like we told Mama we would,” Louise joked in a soft voice, but George firmly shook his head.
“Oh, no, Weez,” he disagreed. “Kissing is where it stops. I gave Mama my word I was gonna behave myself with you and I am. No matter what, I am behaving like a perfect gentleman.”
“That’s too bad,” Louise kidded.
“Louise, that heart of yours is too precious to be playin’ Russian roulette with,” George told Louise as he tried to turn their doorknob.
“Don’t tell me the apartment’s locked,” Louise said after he unsuccessfully tried to open their door. “Florence usually lets us know when she’s going out somewhere. This isn’t like her.”
“She may have had a lunch date with somebody today and simply forgot to tell us,” George suggested and then he reached in his coat pocket for their apartment keys and unlocked their door.
“Maybe, but it’s still pretty unlike her. I hope she’s alright.”
“Oh don’t worry so much, Weezy. I’m sure she’s fine.”
Louise laughed then and told George, “Now how can you stand there and tell me not to worry so much, when you worry about me around the clock?”
“There’s a big difference between worryin’ about somebody with a heart condition as opposed to worryin’ about somebody ’cause they’re scatterbrained. Bein’ a forgetful maid ain’t nothin’ that could end up bein’ fatal, Weez, but your heart–”
“Okay, okay, George. I’ve heard this song and dance constantly, all day every day, for a whole month now. I have to worry about my heart.”
“No, you don’t have to worry about anything, Weezy-girl. If you do, it’ll just add to your stress and that extra stress will make things worse for your heart. You’ve been doin’ all the worryin’ in this family all these years, watchin’ out for all of us, takin’ care of us, worryin’ about us whenever we had a problem or got into any kind of trouble or got sick. Now I say it’s high time that the shoe was on the other foot. It’s my turn to do the worryin’ for a change, and it’s your turn to kick back and get as much rest and relaxation as you possibly can, ’cause God knows you’ve earned it.”
“I appreciate that, but I can’t simply flip a switch in my mind and shut my feelings down,” Louise said as George helped her off with her coat, and then George took his own coat off and hung it up with hers. “I am a bit concerned about Florence.”
“Okay then, I’ll tell you what. You go to the bedroom and slip into something comfortable and lay down for a while, and while you’re asleep, I’ll wait for Florence to come back. If she doesn’t show up in a couple of hours, I’ll ask around the building, see if anybody’s seen her.”
“Thank you. I’m sure you’re right. I’m sure Florence is okay. It’s just unusual for her to do something like this.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve got to remember, it’s been a pretty unusual four weeks,” George reminded Louise.
“It’s such a shame I’m concerned about Florence’s whereabouts right now, not to mention my heart attack. If it weren’t for those two things, I could only do half of what you just said and we could have the most wonderful afternoon together.”
“Huh?” said George, clearly confused, and then Louise wrapped her arms around George’s neck and explained what she was talking about.
“We could go off into the bedroom and instead of taking my clothes off and changing into something more comfortable, I could just take my clothes off and we could–”
“Alright, Louise,” George interrupted her in a playfully scolding voice. “Now you cut that out.”
“Or you’ll do what?” Louise asked as she planted several soft kisses on his cheeks and then his lips.
“Or I’ll…” George started to say, but he didn’t have the heart to try to back away from Louise’s kisses so he could finish his sentence. Finally, though, several long moments later, he said, “Or I’ll never be able to stop kissing you for as long as I live.”
“That’s the whole idea,” Louise whispered and George let out a chuckle.
“Why are you actin’ so naughty all of the sudden?” he asked.
“Because nothing on earth turns me on more than you do when you’re considerate and adorable like you’re being right now. Can I really be blamed for wanting to act on it when you’re being irresistibly sexy?”
“Yes, because if you do act on it, you’re putting your heart at risk. I’ll just have to find a way to lose my sex appeal, that’s all,” said George, and at that, Louise let out a hearty laugh.
“Don’t worry about it, hon. You do have a lot of sex appeal, but I think I can find the strength to resist you until Dr. Garrison says it’s safe. I just wanted to make sure I still had mine.”
“You mean you were just messin’ with me a minute ago?”
“Not entirely,” Louise said with a wink.
“That is so unfair, Weez, turnin’ me on like that! Now I am gonna be takin’ five cold showers a day every day for the next month because of you. Thanks a lot!” George joked.
“What do you mean for the next month? Dr. Garrison said we had to wait six weeks and it’s been four. We’ve only got another two weeks left to go.”
“Yeah, but I think we ought to throw another couple of weeks in there, just to be on the safe side. Dr. Garrison could be wrong. Six weeks could be too soon. Your heart might not be strong enough for it by then and I want to be as careful about this as humanly possible.”
Louise took George’s hands in that moment and stared deeply into his eyes for a little while, and then she asked, “George, this is going deeper for you than concerns about my physical health, isn’t it?”
George was silent for several seconds before finally saying, “I know we need to talk more about this, Weez. But I just got you back and…well, kind of like with the way we walked out of Zion, I guess…I just want to take things slow and easy for a while. I feel like we’ve been caught in the middle of some giant hurricane while we were out to sea one day and we just barely got back to shore with our lives. I ain’t in no hurry to go diving back out into the middle of the ocean. Not after all this. I want to tread water with you first before we go out for another swim.”
Louise nodded and told him, “I understand. I know these have hardly been the easiest four weeks of my life, but in some ways, they’ve been a lot harder on you than they’ve been on me. I know you have had an absolutely astonishing jolt. I’ve lived with this for decades now, so it’s nothing new to me. But as for you, on top of getting the jolt of my heart attack, you also got bombarded with the truth about my past, all within the span of a single week. I can’t even imagine what it must’ve been like for you.”
Tears flooded George’s eyes after Louise said that, and then he shook his head and said, “I got bombarded with the truth about your past, Weezy? You make it sound like you were having an affair with Bill Kronan in the old neighborhood. You make it sound like it was you who was doin’ something wrong. I got bombarded alright, but not by anything you did, Weezy. I got bombarded by the fact that during the vast majority of our marriage, I have been the sorriest excuse for a husband that has ever walked the face of this planet. I got bombarded by the fact that you’ve had the lives and well-being of literally hundreds of kids resting squarely on your shoulders for years while I was too self-absorbed all the time to notice. I got bombarded by the fact that it literally took you lying here on this apartment floor clinically dead before I even began to realize that the whole world does not revolve around George Jefferson.”
“Yeah well, that’s ancient history, and I’ve never been a big history buff. I’ve always been much more interested in current events than in history. And according to my best sources, the state of current events around here is looking mighty good, with a very respectful, loving, sensitive, and yes, sexy, husband.” After Louise said that, yet again, she and George found themselves lip-locked.
“But Weez, you can’t have current events without history. And if you don’t understand your history, you’re doomed to repeat its mistakes. It’s history that teaches us the most about who we are, where we came from…what sacrifices others had to make to give us the things we take for granted all the time.”
“Alright, sweetheart, I’ll admit it. Helping you to get our family out of the old neighborhood did require me to make some sacrifices that were…rather difficult.”
“Weezy, a workout at the gym is a ‘rather difficult’ sacrifice. Sayin’ no to a girl you’ve been wantin’ to date for months because she’s seein’ your best friend is a ‘rather difficult’ sacrifice. I used to see keepin’ my promise to take you out to dinner instead of workin’ late at the office as a ‘rather difficult’ sacrifice, may both God and you forgive me for bein’ so stupid. The sacrifices you made for us…for me back in Harlem…they go so far beyond ‘rather difficult.’ Words can’t even describe it all.”
“I know, love,” Louise whispered as she wrapped her arms around George. “I know it’s not easy. This is precisely why I went to such great links to try to keep Zion and this part of my life a secret from you all these years, because I knew how badly it would devastate you if you knew the truth.”
“You’re right. It is so hard having to live with the knowledge of what you did for me back in those days. It’s hard for me to simply know about it. It’s even harder having to live with myself, with my conscience, and with all the memories of the way I used to treat people, especially you. But I know that however hard it is for me to merely know about all this stuff now, I still get off so easy, too easy, because knowin’ about somethin’ is a pretty far cry from actually havin’ to live it. Yes, it is painful, even excruciating for me at times, but I don’t care about the pain. I’ll take the pain if it means getting to be this close to you, getting to share such an important part of your life like this, getting to carry it all with you. You never should have had to bear this burden alone, Louise. But you did. You carried all these painful memories inside you, and on top of all that, you’ve provided for the physical and psychological needs of hundreds of kids through the years. You’ve kept an entire city going, kept it alive and thriving, for a whole lot of years, and God knows you didn’t get any help from me. And if I have to deal with some pain in order for me to start really helping you with everything now, then that’s fine. It’s worth it.”
“I still hate it that you had to get hurt like this, though,” Louise said quietly.
“Will you please, please stop worrying about me? I’m not that same young little teenage kid I was when we first fell in love. Unfortunately it took me an incredibly long time to do it, but I finally did grow up, Weez. It may hurt, but I’m perfectly capable of handling it. I promise you.”
“I know. I guess I just have this tendency to be pretty overprotective of the people I really love. It’s an old habit.”
“Well from now on, it’s time you started protecting yourself for a change. You’ve done a terrific job of protecting and taking care of me and everybody else. It’s your turn now. It’s high time you were on the receiving end of all that TLC you’ve been givin’ others through the years.”
“I’ve already been on the receiving end of it for the past month, George.”
“And you’ve been on the giving end of it from day one of our marriage, and we’ve been married thirty-one years now, which means I’ve still got another thirty years and eleven months’ worth of making up left to do.”
“Oh, for goodness sake!” Louise said as she rolled her eyes. “You sound exactly like your mother. You’re both being unbelievably silly. The Bible says that love doesn’t keep any record of wrongs and I am not keeping score of how much I believe you and Mama owe me.”
“I know that. It’s not really about keepin’ score, though. I was just kiddin’ around. I don’t want to be here for you now just because I think I owe you something, which we both know I do. I want to be here for you now because I love you, and I love the thought of doing anything that’ll really help you, or simply make you happy. And speaking of helping you, why don’t I help you into the bedroom?”
Louise chuckled and said, “I appreciate the thought, but I’ll be alright. I can make it to the bedroom without help.”
“You sure?” George asked.
“Mm-hmm,” Louise answered, and then she took several steps towards their bedroom and during those first few steps, she was fine. But about halfway there, Louise suddenly got hit with another dizzy spell. When it happened, Louise reached out and braced herself against the wall.
“Weez!” George cried out as he rushed up to her side, and when he got there, Louise didn’t try to stop him as he put his arm around her waist and started supporting most of her weight. And while George supported her, Louise took the opportunity to try to regain her equilibrium. “Easy, Weez. Easy. I’ve got you.”
“You know, George? I think maybe I could use a little help after all,” Louise admitted, and George kissed her cheek.
“That’s what I’m here for,” he told her as he helped her to the bedroom. And after Louise got changed into her nightgown and climbed back into bed, George sat down at her bedside and gave her another very long kiss.
“You do realize that if we keep carrying on like this, we’ll never last another month,” Louise said with a mischievous grin. “We’ll be lucky if we make it another week.”
“I’ll move into the shower then and keep the cold water running,” George joked and Louise laughed out loud, and then he gave her yet another kiss, although this time it was a shorter one. “Get some rest, baby.”
“Why don’t you join me in bed? You look like you could use a little rest, too.”
George chuckled and answered, “Forget it, Weezy. Don’t you think I can’t see that naughty little twinkle you’ve got in your eyes ’cause I can. I know what it is you really want to get me in that bed for.”
They both laughed at that and then Louise said, “You can’t blame a girl for trying.”
“I don’t believe you. All these years, I thought you loved me for me. Now, I come to find out you only want me for my body. I’m just a lowly sex object to you,” George kidded while he folded his arms and wore a hurt expression on his face, although it was obvious he was joking.
In the next moment, Louise completely caught George by surprise when she reached around and gave him a playful slap on the behind.
“Hey!” George said aloud.
“My secret’s out, huh?” she teased.
“Now you’re really askin’ for it. If you keep that up, I really will climb into that bed with you.”
“Good. That’s what I’ve been askin’ for ever since we came home.”
“Alright, you mean little female chauvinist who only thinks of men as sex objects,” George kidded as he took off his shoes and got into bed beside Louise. “I’ll make you pay for this little lifestyle of yours of just usin’ me for sexual pleasure all these years when I thought you really loved me. I’ll lay down here next to you and I’ll even cuddle in bed with you. But no matter how hard it is for me to resist you, I will. No matter how much I may want to, I am not making love to you today, and all you can do is stare at my devastatingly sexy body and curl up next to it and you won’t be able to do anything else. That’ll teach you to degrade men like that!”
“Now George, that’s just mean. That’s cruel and unusual punishment,” Louise chuckled as she snuggled up closer to George. “But I can dish out cruel and unusual punishment too,” she said as she patted George’s behind again.
“You’re right! You can!” George said as he sat straight up. “I need to get out of this bed!” But as he tried to get out of the bed, Louise grabbed him and pulled him back next to her.
“Too late, Romeo. You’re trapped with me now.”
“Oh Lord, help me,” George sighed and Louise laughed again, and then they snuggled even closer together and George kissed Louise’s forehead and held her while she fell asleep.
In the meantime, as Louise and George were cuddling in the bedroom, Florence returned home with Mr. Bentley.
“I’m glad you were able to get today off, Harry,” Florence told him as they walked through the door, and once they were inside, Bentley helped her off with her coat and hung it up for her. “It must be nice to get to enjoy a three-day-weekend.”
“It certainly is, Florence,” he agreed as he took his own coat off then and hung it up with hers. “I want to thank you for suggesting that I take a little time off. I haven’t taken any time off from work in ages so I’ve had plenty of vacation time saved up. I just never felt I had much of a reason to really use it…until now,” he said with a warm smile, and in that moment Florence returned the smile. “It’s awfully nice to be able to simply spend a day hanging around with a good friend.”
“I hear ya. Today’s been every bit as nice for me as it has been for you. I really enjoyed lunch,” Florence said as she walked over to the couch, and Bentley followed her.
“Ah, me too, Florence. Me too. What would you like to do now? We’ve still got half a day to kill.”
“Well I would like for us to dig out that new novel we started reading the other day. I think we left it in your apartment yesterday evening.”
“We did, as a matter of fact. It’s still on my coffee table. I’ll go get it right now.”
“Alright, Mr. Bentley. I’ll be here.”
“Alright, who?” said Harry, and Florence laughed at herself.
“Alright, Harry,” she corrected herself. “Old habits are hard to break.”
“You’ll get the hang of it,” Bentley told her and then he went back to his own apartment for several moments and quickly returned with their new novel. When he came back to the Jeffersons’ apartment, he and Florence sat down on the couch together long enough to take off their shoes, and then Bentley laid back on the couch and Florence laid back with him, sitting on his lap with her legs and feet on top of his, with her head leaning up against his chest. Bentley held their new book out in front of both of them where they could each see it clearly.
“I dropped our book when I went back to get it just now and I think I lost our place. Where were we? We were on page seventeen, right?”
“Uh huh. We sure were,” Florence replied.
“And when Abigail saw Frederick’s bulging muscular frame, her heart nearly failed her for excitement. Don’t you just love a good harlequin romance?” Bentley joked and Florence giggled at him.
“Now Harry, quit makin’ silly stuff up. You know this ain’t no harlequin romance. It’s a mystery novel, and the only way Abigail would be excited to see Frederick is if Frederick gets killed by the mob and she could go to his funeral and see his dead body in an open casket.”
“Who knows, Florence? Maybe Abigail actually will fall in love with Frederick somehow, in some crazy, twisted turn of events. We’re only on page seventeen. We’ve got an awful long way to go and anything can happen.”
“Yeah, Florence, Bentley’s right. If any guy’s ever crazy enough to take you out on a date, then that proves that anything really can happen in this world,” George teased, and both Florence and Harry were a little surprised to see him.
“You’re right about that, Mr. Jefferson. After all, Ms. Jefferson was crazy enough to get married to you,” Florence shot back, and George let out a chuckle.
“Yeah, you’re right. And I thank God every day of my life now that she was, too.”
Florence and Bentley then got up from the couch and put their shoes back on and walked up to George, and Florence asked, “Speakin’ of Ms. Jefferson, is she home now too?”
“Yeah. She started feelin’ a little dizzy so I brought her home and made her lie down. She’s resting in our bedroom right now.”
“Good. You know, I was afraid it was too soon for her be goin’ back to work like this.”
“So was I, but you know how Weezy is. She’ll probably be just as stubborn and insist on going back tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry so much, Mr. J. Mrs. Jefferson will be fine with you here to look after her as closely as you do. And don’t forget what a tough lady she is. She’ll get through this whole recovery perfectly fine. You’ll see.”
“Thanks, Bentley. I know she will. I know she’ll be alright. I just worry about her. It goes with the territory.”
“Well after seeing Ms. Jefferson lying on the floor not breathing, that’s territory we’re all living in now, Mr. Jefferson, not just you. But we’re all keeping an eye on her, and we’re not going to let her overdo it.”
“I know,” George said quietly, but it was all too obvious how concerned he still was, how concerned everybody in the family still was when it came to Louise’s health. “I just hate the way she pushes herself when it comes to her work. I wish she’d just let herself relax and take it easy like she’s supposed to.”
“We’ll get her to take it easy,” Florence reassured him. “It might be a challenge, but we’ll keep her from pushing herself too much.”
“Speaking of taking time off, how much longer do you plan to take off from your own work, Mr. Jefferson?” asked Bentley.
“Seein’ as how I’m the boss, it’s really no big deal. I can take as much time away from the business as I want to and turn all the work and the big decisions and problems over to my general managers. And given everything that’s going on with Weezy right now, to be honest, I can’t imagine goin’ back to work, not yet anyway. I’ll probably be away from the office at least another couple of months or so. Right now, this time is for Weezy. I want to help her recover and I want to start takin’ as much of a load off her shoulders with Zion and the Help Center and everything as I possibly can. I may go back to spendin’ more time with the business and the stores and all sometime in the future, but quite frankly, I can’t imagine doing any of that any time soon.”
“I think you’re doin’ the right thing, Mr. Jefferson. Your business and your stores and your employees can all manage perfectly fine without you for a while, but your wife can’t. She really loves you, and she really needs you now.”
“I need her even more,” George said seriously, and Florence smiled and patted his upper arm.
“I know you do,” she agreed.
“Oh, no!” Bentley suddenly cried out, looking at his watch. “I completely forgot. I’m terribly sorry, Florence, but I’m afraid we’re going to have to put off reading our novel together for another day. You see, I just remembered that I’ve got an old buddy from college coming over to my place this evening for dinner, and unfortunately my apartment’s a real mess. I’ve got to go straighten it up and then I’ve got to decide what to prepare for dinner. I’m really looking forward to seeing old Russell again. We had a terrific time together in our old college days.”
“Oh, really? That sounds like fun. I’m glad you’re getting a chance to see him again,” said Florence.
“So am I. Why don’t you join us tonight? I’d sure love for him to meet you.”
“I appreciate the invitation, but Mr. and Ms. Jefferson need me here to cook dinner this evening.”
“Not necessarily, Florence,” George disagreed. “I admit it’s been a pretty long time since I’ve cooked, but I can manage if you’d rather go over to Bentley’s tonight.”
“Unh-unh, child. No way. Ms. Jefferson’s been through enough pain with her heart attack as it is. I am not exposing her to something as painful as your cooking on top of that.”
“Exposin’ her to your cookin’ is even more painful than a heart attack,” George responded.
“That’s because whenever I’m cooking your dinner, I remember the painful sight of the face of the man I’m cooking it for in the first place,” Florence quickly fired back. “But seriously, you guys know you need me here to keep the two of you honest where our new diet is concerned.”
“I do hate to hear it that you won’t be joining us tonight, Florence,” Bentley said as he and Florence walked up to the door together. “If you should happen to change your mind tonight, you’re more than welcome to come over.”
“Aw, thanks hon,” Florence told him, and then they quickly kissed one another on the cheek.
“I’ll see you later, dear,” Bentley said.
“See you later,” Florence said with a smile, and in the next moment she closed the door behind him.
And when she turned around, she saw George standing in front of the couch with his arms folded across his chest.
“Florence, Florence, Florence,” he said in a playfully scolding voice.
“Oh, what, what, what?” Florence responded as she walked up to George with her hands on her hips.
“You and old Bentley sure were lookin’ cozy together on the couch a minute ago.”
“Oh, Mr. Jefferson, please!” Florence said as she rolled her eyes.
“Please, nothin’, Florence. How long have you guys been an item?”
“We are not ‘an item.’ Harry and I–”
“So it’s Harry now, is it? Florence, let’s look at the facts and put two and two together, shall we? You’re callin’ Bentley by his first name now. You called him ‘hon’ and he called you ‘dear.’ You kissed each other on the cheek, and the couch was a dead giveaway. You two really have the hots for each other!”
“We ‘have the hots for each other’? What is this, Mr. Jefferson? High school? Harry and I are not a couple of silly kids with a teenage crush on each other. We’re completely mature adults.”
“So what’re you sayin’? That once you reach a certain age, you can’t fall in love with somebody, and if you do fall in love with someone, it’s just a teenage crush you’re too old for? That’s ridiculous. I am more in love with Louise than I have ever been before and you should know it well by now that our love goes way beyond a simple crush.”
“You know that ain’t what I mean.”
“So enlighten me. What exactly do you mean?”
“I mean that just because Harry and I have gotten a lot closer over these past few weeks, we don’t have this silly crush on one another you think we have. We’re old friends. We’ve known each other forever now and after everything that’s happened to our family lately, it’s simply brought us closer and made us appreciate each other’s company more. That’s all. We’re just a couple of old friends who go way back and enjoy spending time together, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Uh huh. Whatever you say, Florence. Whatever you say. I assume that if you and Ralph ever start readin’ the same novel together, I’ll be seein’ you all cuddled up with him on the couch too.”
“Oh, give it a rest, will you? It’s just a crazy, silly little habit Harry and I got into back at the hospital. You know we were all there practically twenty-four-seven, especially through the first week Ms. Jefferson was in the hospital. He always rushed over as soon as he left work for the day and stayed at least half the night with us, and you know how impossible it was for any of us to get to sleep in the ICU waiting room, so while you were staying with Ms. Jefferson in her room, Harry and I would often lie back on one of the couches there and read a novel together to pass the time. It’s that simple.”
“If it’s really so simple, how come you two are still doin’ it? We ain’t at the hospital anymore.”
“You’re reading way too much into it. It’s just something we do together for fun. Seriously, you are being so ridiculous about this.”
“Uh huh. Whatever you say, Florence. Whatever you say. I guess that’s why he invited you to dinner with his old college buddy and not me.”
“No, he probably invited me over you because the man’s smart enough to know that all he’d ever get from you is a slammed door in his face, whereas with me, he knows I know how to be nice.”
“Now wait a minute. That’s pretty unfair. I haven’t been that person in quite a while. I don’t ever intend to be him again.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Jefferson. I know how much you’ve changed. We all do. I guess even I can blurt stuff out sometimes without thinking.”
“It’s alright. The sad fact is, just a few weeks ago, you would’ve been dead on. I can understand why you’d all be so used to thinking of me that way.”
“Well believe me; nobody thinks of you that way anymore. We’ve all been amazed at the one-eighty you’ve done.”
“Thanks, but I don’t deserve all the credit. God and Weezy had even more to do with all of this than I did.”
“That’s true, and God does deserve all the praise and glory for it in the end, but you deserve some credit too, because it was your decision. You could have chosen to close your eyes and your ears to the truth that you learned, both about your wife and about yourself. You could have remained determined to hold onto your pride and your delusions and you could have tried to keep going on with your life pretending that none of what you learned had happened. You could have tried to convince yourself that Marco was lying to you and that your mother was simply crazy. You could have kept lying to yourself, and you could have ignored or tried to run away from the voice of the Lord, from what He was trying to tell you, but you didn’t. You didn’t keep letting yourself get away with living a self-centered lifestyle anymore. You faced the truth about your wife and her pain and struggles, and you faced the hurtful truth about yourself and your marriage, head on, and you dealt with it. And I think you’re really to be commended for that. That took a lot of strength and courage.”
“Oh no, Florence,” George said in a very deep, serious voice, shaking his head. “What Weezy chose to go through back in Harlem, that is strength and courage. Getting nailed to a cross is strength and courage. Accepting the truth about the hell Weezy went through for my sake is not strength and courage, because if I’d ever truly had those qualities in me, she never would have suffered the way she did in those days.”
“Mr. Jefferson– ”
“No, no, Florence, let me finish,” George interrupted. “It’s true that when all those horrible things started happening to Louise when Lionel was little, I was a very busy young man. I had a young family to support and I really had to work my butt off back in those days just to keep a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs and food on the table. A lot of times I had to hold down two jobs at once just to make ends meet, and sometimes even Weezy had to.
“But my eyes were still in perfect working condition. And even though we didn’t always see a lot of each other in that time in our lives, I was perfectly capable of seeing the cuts, the bruises, the burns on Weezy’s skin. And, my voice was in perfect working order too. I could and should have sat her down one day back then and asked her what was going on, who was doing things like this to her…but I didn’t. God Almighty forgive me, I didn’t. Of course I loved and respected Louise. I always have and I always will and nothing could ever change that. But back then, of course, all I could ever think about was me, myself, and I – the unholy trinity. All I could think about was the dreams and the future for my family that I wanted to make happen, the money I wanted to earn and save up for my future business that was gonna make me a wealthy man. And I didn’t want to face or think about or in any way deal with anything that might distract me from that.
“Weezy and everybody’s been sayin’ that I’ve only known about the hell she went through on those Harlem streets for a few weeks now. That’s not true, Florence. I don’t believe I’ll ever be able to forgive myself for this for the rest of my life, because the awful truth is, I haven’t known about what Weezy went through for weeks. Deep down, I’ve known all along. Deep down, I’ve carried this thing inside of me for as many years as Louise has. The difference is, because it was Louise living through it doing the suffering, she didn’t have the luxury of lying to herself about it and hiding from the truth of it the selfish, cowardly way I always did. She had no choice to but to live with the truth about it all these years. And she never had to be alone, Florence. I did have a choice. Even after we finally got out of that dangerous neighborhood, I still had the choice of asking her about what happened. I could have found out about everything from her a very long time ago, and even if I didn’t choose to face what was happening to Louise and get our family out of that neighborhood back then, I still could have chosen to ask her about it all later. I still could have been there for her and helped ease her burdens. But again, I was too much of a coward and I was too selfish to face the truth and do anything to help her and be there for her. Again, because of my selfishness, she had to carry this unspeakable burden all by herself all these years.
“The only reason I’m facing it with her now is because her heart attack left me no choice. I had the business and all our money to distract myself from it in the past, but when Weezy was in that ICU room, I couldn’t do that anymore. I know we’ve all grown a little thicker around the middle over the years, not just Weezy, but if we’re real with ourselves, Florence, we have to admit that Louise did not have that heart attack because of her weight. She had that heart attack because of all the agony she had to suffer through and live with all these years in silence. She had that heart attack because she’s been running an entire city all by herself, carrying the weight of being responsible for over a hundred kids and all the volunteers who take care of them, and she’s had to do it alone. She never felt like she was able to share any of that with me in the past. She was never truly able to turn to me for emotional support or help of any kind until now. If it hadn’t been for Weezy takin’ care of me and Lionel all these years, I doubt I even would’ve been able to handle bein’ responsible for just myself, not to mention another person or a child. And yet here Weezy’s been, bearing the responsibility of not only my life and Lionel’s when he was growin’ up, but of literally hundreds of young lives. I can’t begin to imagine what kind of stress she’s been enduring all this time. God bless her, it’s no wonder she’s havin’ problems with her heart these days. And it all could have been prevented if I only would have been a real husband to her all these years and realized that the world does not revolve around me. I may as well have taken a loaded gun and held it at point blank range in front of her chest and shot her in the heart myself.”
“Oh, Mr. Jefferson,” Florence said sympathetically, and then she gave him a big hug. “In a lot of ways, unfortunately, I do have to agree with a lot of what you just said. You made a mistake, an enormous and even tragic mistake, when you started seeing Ms. Jefferson’s cuts and bruises and you didn’t sit down with her and try to get to the bottom of it. You obviously knew that there were warning signs there and sadly, you chose to ignore them and protect yourself first before your wife. But I can tell you now that you’re not doing her any favors by beating yourself up about it all the time, because I also agree with you when you say that she really needs you. She does. And if you choose to stay stuck in this point in your lives and not forgive yourself and move on, you won’t be able to be there for her as much as you could be if you let all of your guilt go. By staying stuck here, you’ll always be in pain and Ms. Jefferson will pick up on that, and as perceptive as we both know she is, she’ll easily pick up on why you’re in so much pain, and that could end up bringing a lot of her old pain back for her, too. Don’t you see, Mr. Jefferson? If you don’t forgive yourself and let yourself move on like Ms. Jefferson has, you could inadvertently open up a lot of old wounds that had previously healed.”
George shook his head and said, “There’s no way I’d let that happen. I can’t forgive myself for the disastrous mistakes I’ve made any more than I can stop breathing oxygen, but I can and I will make certain to hide whatever pain I’m in because of it from her. I would never do anything to bring her old pain back.”
“You wouldn’t mean to, but it could happen.”
“Don’t be too sure. You’d be surprised how good I can be at hiding my feelings when I need to.”
“Not from her,” Florence disagreed.
“Alright, I’ll admit that we actually were talking about this very thing when we first got back to the apartment, but I think I convinced her to finally stop worrying about me for once.”
“Now it’s my turn to say, ‘Don’t be too sure.’ She just may be trying to put up an act for your sake too.”
“What are you talkin’ about? Weezy is the most honest and genuine person alive. She never puts up acts.”
“She put up an act for fourteen years, pretending that she was merely a businessman’s wife and nothing more when in fact, she was a leader of an entire city, because she didn’t want to see you get hurt.”
“You’re right. Okay, maybe according to our faith, I am supposed to forgive myself, but it’s simply too hard. Like I said, I can’t forgive myself any more than I can stop breathing oxygen. And anyway, if there’s ever been anybody in the history of all humanity who’s always needed to give himself a good beating inside, it’s me. Do you realize, Florence, that one of the sad reasons why I never found out about Zion is because I never bothered to sit down with Louise and ask her what her dreams are? I always just assumed, stupidly I might add, that her dreams were exactly the same as mine, to make enough money to get out of the old neighborhood and get rich. Now that’s a pretty sad and sorry state for a marriage to be in when a husband is so ridiculously self-absorbed that he isn’t even aware of what his wife’s dreams are.”
“You’re never gonna let up on yourself, are you?”
“Only when the day comes that I can go back in time and erase every bruise, both from her skin and from her heart. When it comes to self-forgiveness, Florence, I’m a lost cause.”
“Well if it makes you feel any better at all, your marriage since those days doesn’t even come close to resembling the ‘sad and sorry’ state it used to be in, and you’re a hundred million miles away from that ‘ridiculously self-absorbed’ guy who used to live here. And you should know pretty well by now that getting a compliment like that from me is nothing to take lightly.”
“I do know that, and I thank you for what you said. It does make me feel a little better. But I’ve still got a long way to go.”
“Don’t knock yourself. You’ve come a long way. Over the past month, you’ve already traveled to the moon.”
“Maybe so, but I’ve still got the whole rest of the galaxy to travel.”
“Oh!” Florence said as she threw her arms up in the air. “That’s it! I give up! You simply will not relent!”
“Have I stopped breathing oxygen?”
When George asked that, Florence groaned and rolled her eyes.
“Alright, stand here then and keep beating yourself up. I’ve got work to do.”
“I can’t believe I just heard the words, ‘I’ve got work to do,’ coming out of Florence Johnston’s mouth,” George teased.
“Oh okay, I’ll admit it, Mr. Jefferson. You ain’t the only person around here Ms. Jefferson’s heart attack has changed. Sometimes, the good Lord does have to discipline His children and give us a good old-fashioned spanking every once in a while. And at one point when we were all hanging around the hospital so much, the Father really did take me aside and put me over His knee. He really spoke to my heart. One day out of the blue, I heard Him saying to me, “Now Florence, Louise has been incredibly good to you over the years. She is the person who is responsible for ensuring that you always had a roof over your head, money in your pocket, and a family to be there for you all these years, so from this day forward, you are to treat her with nothing but the utmost respect. I also want you to start actually doing your job for a change, not just for the Jeffersons but for Me, because everyone knows you’re a Christian and it’s a bad reflection on Me if you don’t do your job to the best of your ability.’ And after a spanking like that, I plan on doing my job to the best of my ability, child, because everybody knows a spanking ain’t no fun, especially a spanking from God.”
“Amen,” George chuckled. “I don’t blame Weezy’s heart attack on God. I blame myself. God does give us free will and I was the idiot and the jerk that made all the lousy decisions as a husband I made all this time. God never forced me to be a rotten and self-centered husband. I did that on my own, and this was the consequence of the way I chose to live my life all these years. But I think God used this to give others of us a spanking, Florence, not just you. You know it was Spank Central Station for me. And for those of us, like Bentley and the Willises, who were fortunate enough to escape getting spanked, I think God used it as a huge wake-up call, you know? To remind us that while we may think we’ll go on living forever, we really won’t. Maybe we all needed to be reminded how precious life with our loved ones really is.”
“You won’t get any argument from me. Anyway, were you planning on watching TV right now or anything?”
“No. Why?”
“I was gonna vacuum the carpet in here and I didn’t want to start on it if you’d be out here trying to listen to the set. I don’t want the noise to bother you.”
“You ain’t got to worry about me, Florence, but if you don’t mind, I’d prefer if you’d wait until Weezy wakes up from her nap. I’m afraid the noise might disturb her sleep.”
“You really think she can hear it all the way out here?”
“I don’t know, but she might. And well, you know how people use the expression Mama Bear mode? Weezy’s heart attack has officially put me in Overprotective Husband Bear mode.”
“Gotcha. I understand, Mr. Jefferson. I’ll get to the windows then and save the vacuuming for later. I’ll try to be really quiet with my window washing,” she joked, and George let out a small laugh.
“I know, I know. I probably am goin’ a little overboard with my overprotective husband mode, but I can’t help it.”
“I know. And for the record, I feel almost as overprotective when it comes to Ms. Jefferson nowadays as you do, so I really do understand where you’re coming from.”
“Thanks. I’m glad to know I’m in good company. I’ll be in the bedroom,” George told Florence as he started to walk back there.
“Oh, are you goin’ to sleep too?”
“No. I’m just goin’ back to our bedroom to watch Weezy sleep. It’s become a hobby. What can I tell ya?”
Florence chuckled and said, “Alright. I’ll see you later, Husband Bear.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you later, Sister Bear.”
“Sister Bear?” Florence said and George stopped walking towards the bedroom for a moment and turned to face Florence again.
“Oh please, Florence. Have you listened to the two of us over the years, the way we argue with each other and insult each other? You know perfectly well that we carry on just like we’re brother and sister.”
“You know something? You’re right. I never even thought about it before, but you’re right. We really do tease each other and fight and carry on like we’re siblings. Well how about that? I guess you really do learn something new every day. In that case, see ya around, Brother Bear.”
George let out a small laugh and turned around and walked back into the bedroom, and Florence laughed a little at the discovery herself, and shook her head, and then she got out everything she needed to do the windows and made a start on them. And while she worked, she silently marveled at all the changes that were taking place, not just in George, but in herself too. Deep down she did wonder just what God’s plans were for all of them, and why He’d allowed Louise’s heart attack to occur now, at this point in their lives. She knew that she had to trust in Him and in His perfect timing, and she’d already seen a lot of wonderful things happen as a result of Louise’s sudden heart problems. She’d seen George Jefferson, of all human beings on planet earth, get saved and truly give his life to Christ. She’d seen the most self-centered man alive be transformed into a tender, kind, gentle, loving, and even now selfless man and husband, who finally understood that all of creation did not solely revolve around him, who was now more than willing to put others and especially his wife before himself. While Florence certainly was curious about what the Lord was doing in their lives, she knew that God knew exactly what He was doing. After all, if He could get her of all people to start actually acting like a maid and George of all people to start actually acting like a husband, He could handle anything.

Chapter Six
Louise was surprised when she first opened her eyes at around five-thirty that evening, because one of the first things she woke up to was the smell of food.
“Dinner is served,” George said in a joking snooty voice as he carried a food tray in and set it down over Louise’s lap, and then he reached over and turned her light on.
“Oh my goodness, George, this quite a surprise. Thank you.”
“Oh, don’t thank me, Weez. Thank Florence. She had the option of goin’ over to Bentley’s for a hot date but she turned him down so she could stay here and babysit us and make sure we didn’t cheat on our diet tonight.”
While Louise had certainly been less than enthusiastic about her new diet, even she had to admit that the roast Florence had made that evening, and even the array of perfectly healthy, un-fried vegetables that went with it, looked very appealing. The one roll Florence had allowed her might have looked appealing too, if it hadn’t been buttered with the new low-fat butter she’d been using ever since Louise came home from the hospital. And it was the same case with her drink. She might have looked forward to it too, if she didn’t already know it was going to be diet iced tea with artificial sweetener. But even though she still wasn’t happy about the new diet, she did appreciate George and Florence being as stubborn about keeping her on it as they were, even to the point of going on it with her themselves.
“I don’t think I heard you right just now, George. Did you say Florence could have gone on a ‘hot date’ with Mr. Bentley?”
“I sure did. You’ll never believe it, Weezy, but I think those two are falling in love.”
“Oh, come on!”
“No, I’m serious,” George insisted as he sat down on the side of the bed. “As it turns out, Florence did have a lunch date today – with Bentley.”
“So what? Just because they got together for lunch today doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It doesn’t have to mean they’re falling in love. Maybe they just felt like getting together.”
“They got together on the couch today, too.”
“What?!”
“I couldn’t believe it, Weez,” George said in a laugh. “After you fell asleep, I went back out to the living room, and there they were: Florence and Bentley, lyin’ on the couch together. She was all leaned-back against his chest and he was holdin’ this book out that they were readin’ together. When I asked Florence about it, she said it was a crazy little habit they got into to pass the time at the hospital. She swears she and Bentley are just friends, but I ain’t buyin’ it.”
“George, you are the nosiest little gossip,” Louise said while she laughed.
“Who, me?” George asked as he pointed his finger at his chest, wearing a feigned innocent expression on his face.
“Yes, you. Now look, if either Florence or Mr. Bentley honestly wanted to tell us anything more about their relationship, they would. This is a private matter between the two of them. Their relationship, whatever it is, is no business of ours, so I want you to promise me you’ll behave yourself and stay out of it.”
“Aw, Weez,” George whined.
“Promise me, George,” she insisted.
“Alright, alright. I promise,” George sullenly agreed.
“Thank you. I also thank you for bringing my dinner in here for me. You didn’t have to, you know. I don’t think Florence would’ve minded if I would’ve just put on my robe and house shoes and eaten at the table in my nightclothes. I am in my own home, after all.”
“Oh no, Weezy, it was my idea to bring your dinner in the bedroom. I know sometimes people serve each other breakfast in bed. I didn’t see anything wrong with bringin’ you dinner in bed.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet. Have you and Florence already eaten?”
“I told Florence to go ahead and start without me. I wanted to come in here and keep you company. It seemed rude to just leave you in here to eat all alone.”
“Oh, sweetheart, that’s so thoughtful, but I’m fine in here. You don’t have to put off eating on account of me.”
“Yes I do, too. I’m dieting with you. Remember? Believe me, nowadays, I’ll gladly put off eating as long as I can!”
Louise laughed and said, “I don’t really blame you, but the roast is quite good tonight, actually.”
“I can still wait, though,” George reassured Louise with a wink.
“Well why don’t you kick your shoes off and come aboard? At least get more comfortable while you’re watching me stuff my face with diet food.”
“I don’t believe you!” George cried out in a joking voice. “I had no idea when I pledged my undying love and devotion to Louise Mills in nineteen-fifty-one that I was giving my heart to an uncontrollable sex maniac! You’re still tryin’ to get me in that bed with you!”
“Oh, for crying out loud, George!” Louise said aloud while chuckling. “I really was just trying to make you comfortable this time. You know how in love I’ve always been with food, even diet food when that’s all I’ve got. I can’t focus on sex while I’m eating! You know that! I say you’re the one being the sex maniac this time around! Not me!”
George and Louise didn’t say anything else to each other for several long moments while they both just laughed out loud at themselves. A little while later, they were actually in tears from laughing so hard.
“We’re crazy,” George said through his laughter.
“We sure are.”
“Louise, thank you for bein’ crazy enough to marry me and stay married to me all these years.”
“You’re very welcome,” Louise told him sweetly, and then she quickly finished her dinner and spent the next half hour talking and laughing and joking with George, until she finally got him to go out to the table and eat himself. She wanted to get up and carry her tray out to the kitchen and put it in the dish washer, but naturally, George wouldn’t hear of it.
When George eventually did bring himself to leave the bedroom for a while and go out to the dining area to eat his own dinner, he convinced Florence to go over to Mr. Bentley’s apartment for the evening and have some fun with him and his old friend from college. Before he did sit down to eat, though, he carried Louise’s tray to the kitchen and put it in the dishwasher. Then he finally fixed himself a plate of Florence’s roast and wolfed it down, anxious to get back to Louise. As George quickly gulped down his supper, he realized that he hadn’t felt this excited and impatient to be in Louise’s presence in years, since the early years of their marriage, as a matter of fact. While becoming a Christian had forced him to face the bitterly painful truth about himself and the way he’d treated others in the past, giving his life to Christ also gave him a kind of joy and peace of mind he knew he never could have truly experienced without Him. For the first time in his life, he was finally able to have and enjoy peace with God, and having peace with the Almighty also enabled him to have peace with himself, at least in some ways. George now realized that the Lord had been tugging at him through his conscience all his life, reminding him that the self-centered lifestyle he was constantly living was wrong. And now that he was finally able to have that special peace with both God and his conscience, he was also free to be the kind of husband he knew he should have been all along. Facing the truth about himself and finally surrendering to Christ after so many years of resisting Him had been painful and difficult, but as George shoved in one bite of roast after another that evening, he thanked God profusely for all the rewards that went with it, because even though it did still hurt greatly, his new faith and the changes it made in him breathed so much new life, not only into him, but into his marriage. It had practically made George and Louise newlyweds once again, and in a way, at least, George now felt like the teenage boy in love he had been so long ago.
Once George was finished, he put his plate and silverware and glass in the dishwasher and started it up to spare Florence the chore. Then he actually whistled as he strutted through the living room and back to the bedroom. When George walked through the bedroom door, he saw Louise sitting up in bed with their Bible propped up in her lap, reading it.
“Hey, sweetheart,” George said as he walked in. “Where are we tonight?”
“Proverbs 8,” Louise replied. She continued reading through that chapter in Proverbs while George walked into the bathroom and got into his pajamas to join Louise in bed. It may have just turned seven, but George knew this was likely going to be another one of those nights where he and Louise simply relaxed and cuddled in bed and read the Bible a while and talked and watched TV and hung out before eventually calling it a night. It was obvious they weren’t going anywhere else that evening.
Louise had read through chapter eight and chapter nine of Proverbs by the time George was changed into his pajamas, and after he got into bed next to her, she turned back to Proverbs 8 and handed him her Bible. After George read through it, verses eighteen through twenty-one really grabbed his attention. After reading the rest of the chapter all the way through, he went back and reread those verses, which said:
“Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, and my yield is better than choicest silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice, to endow those who love me with wealth, that I may fill their treasuries.”
Obviously, the riches and wealth those verses spoke of had nothing to do with the material wealth and possessions George had so actively sought after all his life. George knew that the Proverb he just read spoke about the Lord’s wisdom. Those who sought after God and His wisdom would receive spiritual wealth and blessings, and the Lord would reward those who actively sought Him in their lives with riches that would last into all eternity, not with mere money and materialistic things that would only last through this lifetime. George was able to look at his own life now, only weeks after becoming a Christian, and see evidence that that was absolutely true. While seeking God’s advice and help and answers about the past had indeed proven to be agonizing, there were parts, at least, of the past several weeks that George knew he wouldn’t trade for anything. Even though it was pretty painful, getting to share Louise’s dreams for the city of Zion and be a part of them, and getting to be able to know her as intimately as did know her now, were proving to be the gifts of a lifetime. He had never felt more at peace with himself and more fulfilled than he did at this very moment. Only a few weeks ago, the only thing he could have imagined that would have brought him this level of contentment in his life was that million-dollar contract he was practically salivating over to sign with Bill Kronan. Now, he couldn’t imagine doing much of anything that would turn his stomach more. He knew now that the Lord was basically saying to him, “Guess what, dummy? You’ve been seeking wealth and riches all your life when the greatest possible wealth and riches have been right in front of your face the entire time, because I’ve been here the entire time!”
I get it now, God, George told Him. I really do. Thank You. I’m sorry I took so long to really listen to what I know You were trying to tell me.
George put the Bible down a few moments later and he and Louise talked a little while about what the Bible verses they’d read that night, and Louise basically agreed with what George felt like God was trying to tell him. Then they talked some more about Zion, and when Louise expressed her stubborn determination to pick right back up and return to work tomorrow morning, naturally, George expressed his dismay at the concept. But when Louise told him that one of the main reasons she wanted to return to Zion tomorrow morning was to get in to see one of their residents about her dizzy spells, George felt somewhat better about the idea, although he wished she’d make an appointment to see their regular doctor since he had more experience than a mere resident, and Louise smiled again at her husband’s typical over-protectiveness of her.
“If it’ll make you feel any better, I’ll try to get in to see Dr. Reynolds tomorrow. He’s been a doctor for over twenty years now and he’s the main doctor overseeing our residents.”
“Yeah, okay, Weez. I think that’s a better idea,” George agreed. “I only want you to have the best, most experienced doctors around, not a bunch of residents or medical students or interns. Let those kids practice on somebody else.”
“Oh, George,” Louise said with a laugh while rolling her eyes. “I really do think it’s sweet how much you worry about me, but even if I were just to see one of the residents about this, that would be fine. They’re all perfectly qualified and they already do have some experience under their belts before they start working at Zion.”
“Yeah, well some experience ain’t enough. I only want you bein’ looked after by doctors with a lot of experience. I won’t take any chances with you, Weezy.”
“Oh, George,” Louise said sweetly, and then gave him a warm kiss.
In the next moment, George touched Louise’s cheek and whispered, “I love you, too.” And then Louise responded by giving him yet another kiss. Afterwards, they went into the bathroom to brush their teeth for the night, and then they said goodnight to each other and fell asleep in each other’s arms as they were so used to doing these days.
Suddenly though, before George even knew it, he was standing outside his apartment door with his typical business suit and overcoat on. George looked around for a second, obviously confused, and wondered how he had gotten there. Then he shrugged and opened the apartment door and walked inside.
“Hey Weezy!” George called out as he hung his coat up. “Weez! Where are ya?!”
Then George walked out of their small foyer and into the living room, and in that moment, he saw his worst nightmares realized: Louise lying on the floor behind the couch, completely motionless and lifeless.
“Weezy!” George yelled as he rushed over to her and knelt down beside her. “Weezy!” he cried out as he gently slapped her face a little and tried to wake her up. “Weezy, can you hear me?! Weezy, wake up!” he hollered at her while he gently shook her. “Louise, speak to me!” he pleaded, but of course, she gave no response.
In that next second, all of George’s CPR training began to kick in. He took a quick moment and composed himself and took a deep breath, and then he felt Louise’s neck for a pulse. When he couldn’t feel one, he put his index and middle fingers on the inside of her wrist and tried to feel for a pulse there, and again, he couldn’t. Then he turned his head and held his ear slightly over her mouth and watched her chest, anxiously listening and watching for her to take a breath, but of course, she didn’t, so George moved on to the next step, and he pinched her nose closed and covered her mouth with his and he breathed into her mouth several times. When Louise didn’t start to breathe again as he’d fervently hoped and prayed, he started pumping on her chest. After many minutes of pumping on Louise’s chest and breathing for her, George began to panic and completely lose control of himself.
“Come on, Weezy,” he told her breathlessly as he anxiously pumped on her chest. “Come on, Weezy! Breathe!” he yelled at her. “Listen to me, Louise. You have to breathe. You have to breathe! Start breathing, Louise! Now! Come on! Come on! Come on!”
From out of nowhere, George suddenly started hearing Louise’s voice all around him.
“George,” she said, and then he felt like someone was gently trying to shake him. “George, come on,” she said more urgently. “Wake up! George, wake up. Wake up.”
“Huh? What?” George said as he finally opened his eyes. When he did that, he realized he was crying.
“You were dreaming, sweetheart,” Louise explained. “You were just having a bad dream. It’s alright. It’s all over now. You’re alright. You’re safe. You’re right here with me,” she assured him as she put her arms around him. George responded by clinging to her as tightly as he could, and before he knew it, he was crying his heart out.
“I came home and you were lying on the floor,” he said through his crying. “You weren’t breathing. You didn’t have a pulse. I kept doing CPR but I couldn’t get you back.”
“Oh, George,” Louise gently whispered and then she planted a hard kiss on the top of his head as she continued to rock him. “It’s alright, honey. It’s alright now. It was just a nightmare. I’m right here. Everything’s fine. We’re okay. I’m not going anywhere, George. I promise you that.”
In that moment, George unexpectedly let out a small laugh.
“What is it, George?” Louise whispered.
“Your heartbeat,” George responded. “I can hear your heart beating. Oh Weezy, that’s the most incredible sound I ever heard in my life.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” Louise said lowly. “Just relax. It was just a little dream. That’s all.”
“I know,” George sighed. “But I still can’t get it out of my head.”
“I know. You want to keep rocking for a while, like you did for me in the hospital?” George nodded and Louise said, “Okay,” and kissed the top of his head again. As she rocked him, she remembered the first time in so many years that they had rocked like this together.
When George walked into Louise’s ICU room that evening, to say he looked haggard and disheveled was an understatement. In some ways, he looked even worse than Louise did. George had obviously taken off his coat and vest since Louise had accidentally vomited all over them, and George had his sleeves rolled up. While everybody else’s clothes were still intact, their faces and eyes looked exactly like George’s did: scared to death.
After they got Louise off the ambulance and into the emergency room, the doctors there ran all their tests and quickly came to the obvious conclusion that Louise had just suffered a heart attack. While the doctors had been running their tests, George made some calls and got the name of the best heart specialist in New York, who thankfully was also considered one of the best cardiologists in the country and the world, and he used all the pull and connections he had in the business world and actually got the doctor, Dr. Nigel Garrison, on the phone that very night and got him to agree to oversee his wife’s case. Dr. Garrison then called the hospital and informed the staff that he would be taking over as Mrs. Jefferson’s doctor, which did help to at least somewhat put George’s mind at ease. Since a decision had to be made quickly about whether or not to perform open-heart surgery, Dr. Garrison had the hospital fax her records and test results to him. Afterwards, he called George again back at the hospital and informed him that he agreed with what the other doctors at the hospital were already saying, that Louise needed to have a triple bypass performed as soon as possible, and he told George that he and his team would be there to do the operation at seven o’clock the next morning. Once George got off the phone with Dr. Garrison, thankfully, it wasn’t long before he was allowed to go back to Louise’s ICU room to see her.
When George walked into the small ICU room, he didn’t have to say anything. His face and his eyes said it all, and the same went for Louise. They both looked exactly the same – shell-shocked. Saying nothing at all, George simply walked up to Louise’s bedside and sat down on her bed and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the forehead.
“We’re gonna get you through this, Weezy,” George told her in a deep, serious voice. “I promise you. We’re gonna help you get through this. You’re gonna be just fine. I got you the best heart doctor in New York. In fact, he’s one of the best in the whole country, in the whole w–”
“George, stop,” Louise interrupted him. “Just stop. I know you’re trying to make me feel better about all this, but please don’t. I don’t need to pretend that everything’s going to be a bed of roses tomorrow. I need to be real about this. I need to be honest, with both you and myself. I know you probably went to a lot of trouble to get me the best doctor you could, and I appreciate it. I’m sure he’s wonderful at what he does. But no matter how good this guy is, there’s still a real chance that I won’t make it through the surgery tomorrow.”
“Weezy, don’t say that. Don’t talk like that. Don’t even think that, Weez. Not for a second.”
“Why not? It’s the truth, isn’t it? George, I don’t need to hide from this or pretend that my life isn’t at stake here when we both know that it is. Like I told you, I need to face this. I need to be honest about this. Whether we like it or not, I could die on that operating table tomorrow.”
“Louise, that is not going to happen. I promise you that. I won’t let it.”
Louise knowingly smiled up at George and said, “You won’t let it? George, I know you’ve always thought pretty highly of yourself all these years, but it’s time for you to come down to earth now. You’re just a man, George. You’re not God. You don’t have the power to decide if I live or die tomorrow. That’s up to Him, not you.”
“Yeah, but come on, Weez. I mean, surely God can see how much you mean to all of us, how much you’re always helping other people, how hard you work at the Help Center, how much time and love you give to your family and friends, to everybody you know. Surely He can see all that. Surely He understands how much we all still need you here.”
“I sure hope so,” Louise said as tears finally started coming to her eyes. “I’m going to fight and hang on in that operation tomorrow, George, with all the strength I’ve got. But I keep getting so scared that I won’t be strong enough to pull through it tomorrow, and if I’m not, if I can find enough strength to get through it and survive, I’m going to hurt so many people.”
“Oh, Weez,” George said as he hugged her. George let her cry for a few seconds and then he gently told her, “No, Weezy, you’re wrong. You’ve got it all wrong. You’re not supposed to be the strong one now. You’re not supposed to try to muster up enough strength to get through it all on your own. You’re supposed to let the people who really love you be the strong ones for you right now, and you’re supposed to depend on us to get you through this, not the other way around. And if you start to feel like you’re losing your strength, that’s okay. Use ours,” George told Louise gently. After he paused for a moment, then he locked his eyes with hers and said, “Use mine, Weezy.”
“Oh, George,” Louise whispered as she hugged him and held onto him even tighter, with more tears streaming down her face. “Oh God, I’m so scared right now.”
“I know you are. I’m scared too. But we are gonna get you through this. We are. You’re gonna be just fine. You’ll see.”
“I know. I know I will. Thank you for being here.”
“There’s no place else I’d ever want to be, Weez.”
Louise smiled and held the side of his face with her hand for several long moments, and then she asked him, “Would you do something for me…even if it’s a little silly?”
George reached up and took Louise’s hand then and kissed it and replied, “You got it. Name it.”
“I know this something a child would ask, but right now, I sure feel like a frightened little girl and for some reason, I need to rock.”
George instantly hugged her and kissed her again, and then he slowly began to rock her.
“I love you, Weez,” George whispered. “I love you so much. And I’m here. I’m right here.”
“I know you are, George. I love you, too.”
As Louise now rocked George, she couldn’t help but marvel at how he’d changed over the past month, how he overflowed with love and respect for her now, how sensitive and attentive he was to her needs. In some ways, the transformation was like pure heaven for Louise, but in others, it really broke her heart. Deep down Louise had known all along that if George ever found out about what hell she’d suffered through for his sake back in Harlem, this would be the result. Yes, learning the truth about her past had largely contributed to George finally getting saved, but Louise still wished with all her heart that that could have been accomplished in some other way. The same went for how he changed in their relationship as a husband. Of course Louise had always wanted their marriage to be better than it was, but Louise had also known how devastating it would be to George for him to learn the truth, and no matter how much he’d constantly hurt her with his selfishness through the years, Louise had always been willing to pay the price to keep George in the dark about her past and free from all the agony that went with it. Louise now wished with all her heart that she had the power to go into the past and get George to truly become a Christian without exposing him to so much pain. She wished she could turn back the clock and turn George from the hurting, guilt-ridden, and terrified man trembling in her arms that he was now into the strong-willed, confident man he used to be. Of course Louise did understand that no matter how hard and painful it was for George, this truly was what was best for him in the end, but sometimes it still broke her heart.
“Shh,” Louise whispered in George’s ear as she continued to rock him. George’s sobbing and crying had finally begun to die down and he was starting to settle down at last. “I’m here, George,” she told him softly. “Everything’s going to be alright. I’m right here. I’m not leaving you. I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Weezy,” George said in a choked-up voice. Then he fully sat up, gently breaking free from Louise’s embrace, and he reached over and grabbed some tissue and started wiping his eyes. “It’s alright,” he told Louise a minute later. “I’m alright now, sweetheart. Go back to sleep. You need your rest.”
Louise chuckled and said, “George, believe me, rest is the last thing I need now. No one has mastered the art of getting way too much sleep more than I have these days. Listen, why don’t I make you some hot chocolate? Maybe that’ll relax you and help you get back to sleep. As a matter of fact, why don’t I go out into the kitchen and make us both some hot chocolate and some sandwiches, and we can sit around at the table and enjoy a little midnight snack, and we can talk and ‘hang out’ a little while, as the kids say. That should help you feel better.”
George shook his head and said, “I’ll be alright, Weez. Besides, I don’t think hot chocolate and midnight snacks are on our diet.”
“I won’t tell Florence if you don’t,” Louise teased and George smiled.
“Forget it. I know it’s a real pain, but Dr. Garrison’s told us how important it is that we stick with it, remember?”
“Yeah, I know. I just thought a little midnight snack and some conversation would make you feel better, that’s all.”
“I appreciate the thought, but I’m a big boy. I can get over a silly nightmare easily enough. It’s no big deal. I’ll be fine.”
“Sometimes a nightmare can be a much bigger deal than you think. Back when…you know, all those terrible things were happening to me back in Harlem, if you’ll recall, there was a time when I was having nightmares every single night. Nighttime used to be a terrible struggle for me, so don’t think you have to brush your nightmares off as no big deal for my sake. You know I’m telling the truth when I say to you that I understand how you feel. I really do.”
Louise had said what she just did honestly trying to help her husband, but without realizing it or meaning to, she completely shattered his heart. After Louise told George what she did, another painful piece to the puzzle of their past just snapped into place inside George’s mind. For several years, Louise couldn’t get through a single night without waking up in the middle of it crying and screaming because of recurrent nightmares. Now he knew why. As George thought back to that time in their lives, he realized that while he had tried to comfort her a lot of nights, there had also been a lot of nights when he simply ignored her and went back to sleep, or worse, had even been annoyed with her for waking him up with her crying when he had a long workday ahead of him the next day. Now, George asked himself how many times had Louise needed him to hold her and rock her and go out to the kitchen and eat a midnight snack with her and talk with her and spend time with her until she felt better. How many times through the years had Louise had to get through nights like this one all by herself, with absolutely no help from him?
George caressed her cheek and looked her intensely in the eye and told her, “I am so sorry for all the times I wasn’t there for you like I should have been. I’m so sorry for all those nightmares and sleepless nights I made you get through all by yourself. There’s no excuse for what I put you through.”
“Oh, George, George,” Louise said lovingly as she embraced him again. “That was not what I meant at all. I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad about anything. I was just trying to let you know that I understand what you’re going through.”
“I know you were. You didn’t make me feel bad about anything. I did. I brought this on myself.”
“George, you’ve simply got to start putting all of this behind you and stop beating up on yourself all the time. You’ll really make yourself sick if you don’t.”
“Don’t worry about me,” he said with a small smile after their hug finally ended. “I’ll be fine. Like I said, I’m a big boy. I can handle it. I’m alright.”
“I don’t think you are. I think you’re just saying that and trying to put on a brave face for my sake.”
“No,” George said as he shook his head. “As long as I’ve got you here with me, I’m always in good shape. Let’s go back to sleep.”
“George, I– ”
“Please,” he whispered.
“Alright, if that’s what you really want. But I’m here you need me.”
George took Louise’s hand and planted a firm kiss on it and then said, “I know that, angel. I know that. But I’m okay now. I’ll be alright, so let’s turn out the lights and get back to sleep.”
In the next moment Louise gave George a long kiss, and then they turned their lights out and curled up next to each other in bed again. Fortunately, it didn’t take either of them long to go back to sleep, and they both slept soundly until the next morning. Louise, George, and Florence all ate their healthy breakfast together as usual, but Florence could tell how much more quiet they were than usual and when she asked them about it, Louise explained about George’s nightmare. Florence was understanding and sympathetic to George, a lot more than she would have been before Louise’s heart attack, and then out of the blue she suggested that perhaps they needed go off on a nice romantic getaway, just the two of them, and then she carried all their dishes, glasses, and silverware into the kitchen to put them in the dishwasher.
While Florence was in the kitchen, George said to Louise, “Hey you know Weezy, that ain’t a bad idea. I think we probably do need a nice, long vacation somewhere, just the two of us. Maybe if you take some time off away from here, you’ll stop havin’ dizzy spells and I’ll stop havin’ nightmares.”
“I don’t know, George. I hate the thought of taking more time off from Zion when I only started back to work over there again yesterday.”
“Yeah, but that could be what’s causin’ you to get dizzy so much. It might be your body’s way of tryin’ to tell you that it’s too soon for you to go back to your volunteer work right now.”
“That may be true, but I want to wait and see what Dr. Reynolds has to say about it first.”
“Well if you were to say yes to a vacation, where would you like for us to go?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think I’d probably like to go back to Hawaii. The scenery was just incredible over there.”
“It sure was. Hey, Weez, what do you say? Why not pack our bags and say, ‘Aloha!’?”
“Only if that’s what Dr. Reynolds recommends.”
“I’m sure he will,” George told her, and he did feel pretty confident that the doctor would agree with his assessment, and he did start to feel at least partially relieved and certain that he could keep Louise away from Zion while Marco and the other volunteers did their latest rescue mission. However, much to George’s apprehension, that proved not to be the case. Louise asked George to wait for her out in the waiting room while she went with Dr. Reynolds back to one of the exam rooms because she knew if she let George go back there with her, he’d ask the doctor a million questions and second-guess everything he said and simply drive them both up the wall, which of course is the only thing George ever did these days when it came to Louise’s doctors. While his over-protectiveness of her could be incredibly sweet, at times, it could also be a pain, although Louise would certainly never say that to George.
Thankfully for George, he didn’t have to wait very long for Dr. Reynolds to find out what was wrong with Louise, because she came out of the exam room and met George in the waiting area only twenty minutes later. The minute George spotted Louise, he rose from his seat and gave her a quick kiss and a smile.
“Hi, sweetheart,” George told her. “So what’d the doctor say? Is everything alright?”
“Well, I have some good news and some bad news.”
“Oh, God. Tell me the bad news first.”
“Don’t worry, George,” she quickly reassured him. “The bad news isn’t all that bad. It’s nothing serious. But I’m afraid Hawaii’s out, at least for the time being. The good news is, what’s been making me get dizzy so much here lately isn’t anything big. It’s just an inner ear infection. Dr. Reynolds gave me a prescription for some antibiotics, and I should be over it soon. But because I have an ear infection, he said it wouldn’t be a very good idea for me to do any flying right now.”
“Oh, okay. I understand. Well thank God it’s nothing serious. I was really startin’ to get worried.”
“Like I’ve been trying to tell you George, you worry about me way too much. I’ll be perfectly fine. Pretty soon, I’ll be as good as new.”
George kissed Louise and hugged her and said, “You’re way better than new, Weezy. You’re incredible. You’re amazing.”
“Oh, George,” Louise said in a laugh. “You’re so funny.”
“I ain’t sayin’ that to be funny, Weez. I’m dead serious. You are amazing. You’re just wonderful.”
“Thank you. You’re not so bad yourself, you know.”
George smiled then and gave Louise a long kiss.
In the meantime, while Louise resumed her normal activities at Zion with George at her side, Tom remained at Helen’s side in their apartment, only his presence wasn’t nearly as loving as George’s was at the moment. In what normally would have been an unbelievable scenario before Louise’s heart attack, this time around, while the Jeffersons were practically acting like newlyweds, the Willises were actually the ones who were at each other’s throats.
“Tom, you are driving me insane! Why don’t you just get out of here and go to work?! You’re already late!” Helen yelled at her husband in their kitchen.
“Helen, I’m not going anywhere until we get this thing settled once and for all!” Tom shouted back. “Now Louise has been home from the hospital for over two weeks, and you’ve only been down to the Jeffersons’ apartment to see her once. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out that you’re trying to avoid her. Why?”
“I am not trying to avoid Louise,” Helen stubbornly insisted. “You know that ever since Louise’s heart attack, I’ve had to take over for her and handle a lot of her responsibilities at the Help Center. I’ve been working myself ragged over there and I’ve also had to bring a lot of her paperwork from the Help Center home and do it, so I simply haven’t had the time to go downstairs and see her.”
“That’s hogwash, Helen, and we both know it. Yes, Louise does have some responsibilities at the Help Center, but you know perfectly well that she spends the vast majority of her time at Zion. You haven’t been all that busy taking over Louise’s work for her. You are trying to avoid her, and I want to know why.”
“Tom, I am busy with the Help Center. And speaking of the Help Center, I’m late. I really need to get moving. I don’t have time to stand around and argue with you.” After Helen said that, she wasted no time in darting out of the kitchen, heading for the door. As she rushed out towards the hall closet to grab her coat and purse, Tom followed her.
“Helen, you can run away from this as far as you want to. You can bury yourself in work from the Help Center. You can stay at the Center ’til the wee hours of the morning. You can stay away from home, and when you are home, you can stay away from the Jeffersons’ apartment, but in the end, none of that is going to change the fact that Louise almost died.”
The moment Tom said that, Helen responded by slamming the closet door shut, and then she finally turned to face him.
“Did you really have to go and say that?”
“Yes I did, because like it or not, it’s the truth. And no matter how hard it is, the only way you or any of us will be able to move on is if we face it. I know it isn’t easy to hear, but it’s the truth, Helen. Louise did almost die four weeks ago. We almost lost her.”
Helen folded her arms and walked around nervously for several moments, and then at last she said, “I’ve never handled things like this very well, Tom. Even though I’ve felt so angry and betrayed at my father for the way he’s treated us all these years, when he had that stroke last year, I never felt more scared in my life. Despite the fact that he wouldn’t even let me visit him when he was in the hospital, despite how much pain he’s caused me through the years, I just knew I’d die if anything ever happened to him.
“And I am ten times, a hundred, a thousand times closer to Louise than I am to my father. She’s my best friend. She’s the closest friend I’ve ever had besides you. And yes, I admit it, alright? I’m afraid. Is that what you want from me this morning? Do you want me to weep and wail and cry all over the place about how horrible and how terrified I’ve been feeling ever since Louise had her heart attack? Alright then, Tom, fine. I am afraid. There. I said it. I am so afraid that every single time I even look at Louise now, all I’ll ever be able to see is that memory, that awful memory of her lying motionless on the floor, not breathing. I’m afraid that when I look at her now, all I’ll ever be able to think about is her lying in that hospital bed in the ICU on oxygen, hooked up to all those monitors and IVs. There. Is that what you want from me? Is that what you want to hear me say?”
“It’s a start,” Tom said gently. “Oh Helen, I’m not trying to force you to talk about this before you’re ready to, but I can’t just stand idly by and let you keep running away from this either. The longer you run, the harder it’ll become to really deal with it. And if you keep staying away from Louise and keep trying to avoid her, you could end up seriously hurting your relationship, and I simply care too much about you both to sit back and let that happen without doing anything to try and stop it.”
“You’re right, Tom,” Helen quietly admitted. “I know how bad I’ve been about trying to run away from all this. And I know I can’t keep running away from it forever. I know I can’t keep running away from Louise forever, either. I just don’t know what to do.”
“The next time you see Louise, if your mind starts to wander back to the night of her heart attack, just push those thoughts aside. Don’t let yourself dwell on them. The instant you start to think about her heart attack, force your mind to focus on something else, something happier. Think about our wedding day. Think about Lionel and Jenny’s wedding. Think about when our children were born. Think about when little Jessica was born. Think about our terrible second date when I wore that suit that was two sizes too small, and when I dropped my wallet that night and I split my pants wide open in front of everybody when I bent down to pick it up.” Helen laughed out loud for a second, and then Tom continued. “It doesn’t matter what it is, but when those terrifying memories come back into your mind, fill it with pleasant ones instead. The point is not to let your fears control your entire life and interfere with your relationships. You can’t give fear the power to beat you like this, Helen, and you can’t give it the power to interfere with your friendship with Louise.”
“I realize that, but thanks for reminding me,” Helen told Tom with a smile, and then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“Oh, you’re quite welcome. That’s what husbands are for.”
Tom and Helen shared a smile for several long moments, and then they walked over to their hall closet and put on their coats, and even though they were both late, they felt rejuvenated after their conversation and more than ready to take on the challenges of the rest of the day.

Chapter Seven
The first half of Louise’s workday at Zion flew by as she went about her normal routine, although it was now much more pleasant for her since she was able to share it with George. Then at lunchtime, George took Louise and Olivia out to eat at a nice small restaurant nearby. Even though they still found their new diet annoying, they managed to stick to just salad for their lunch that day. Then they returned to the Help Center and George walked with his mother back down to her quarters while Louise remained at the Help Center upstairs for a couple of hours and focused on trying to get caught up in all her leftover work there that Helen hadn’t been able to get to. She had hoped she’d run into Helen, but Helen had been stuck in a meeting since she got back from her own lunch break and their secretary informed Louise that she’d probably be in the meeting for the rest of the day.
At around three o’clock that afternoon, Louise decided to call it a day at the Help Center and returned to Zion, hoping that she’d get to spend some time with the kids now that their class-work was officially over for the day. When Louise got back to Zion though, one of the psychology students, Linda Green, an average-sized young woman with strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes, approached her and asked for her help.
“Mrs. Jefferson, I’m so glad you finally came back. I really need your help right now.”
“Of course, Linda. And how many times do I have to tell you to call me Louise?”
“Sorry, Louise,” she corrected herself.
“What seems to be the trouble?”
“It’s Veronica. Dr. Peterson and I have been trying to work with her all day, but we just can’t get anywhere with her. Dr. Peterson finally had to leave Veronica in her room to go and work with another one of her patients. Greg and Emma have been with her almost constantly here lately because she’s always so hysterical. And all her other personalities are remaining completely dormant right now. We’ve been trying to get one of her alters to come out, but Veronica refuses to leave, and she’s going absolutely crazy. We’ve had to keep her locked in her bedroom with someone there to monitor her at all times. We had to remove practically everything from her bedroom except her bed, or she’d try to use any object she could get her hands on to injure herself. Sometimes we’ve literally had to put our arms around her and hold her down and physically restrain her. If we didn’t, she’d run into the walls over and over again and try to hurt herself that way.”
As Louise started to walk with Linda to one of the elevators, she asked, “How long has she been this way?”
“Ever since your heart attack. When that first day came and went without you being here and she realized you were gone, she just lost it.”
“Oh, no,” Louise sighed. Hearing this news about Veronica really hurt Louise’s heart, but sadly, it didn’t surprise her. There were an awful lot of kids in the world, and living in Zion for that matter, that suffered from multiple personality disorder as a result of their traumatic and abusive childhoods. Louise had hoped that her absence wouldn’t affect any of the children very negatively or cause them to come to the conclusion that she’d abandoned them, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
The young girl Louise was now going to see had four distinct personalities or alters as psychologists often called them. Her given name and main personality was Sarah, and Sarah was a very far cry from Veronica. Sarah had a real tendency to try to repress all painful memories and emotions she experienced as a result of her childhood. She was extremely quiet and excruciatingly shy, even to the point of being nearly terrified of every person she ever met. But when somebody did manage to break through all that fear and shyness as Louise and the psychologists at Zion had managed to do through the past few months since she’d been there, she was by far one of the most loving and loyal human beings alive.
Rebecca was the second alter Louise and the counselors met, and again, as with Veronica, the difference between her and Sarah was like the difference between night and day. Rebecca was the side of Sarah that was fun-loving and artistic. Like Sarah, she kept all memories of her childhood repressed, but unlike Sarah, she spent the vast majority of her time actually trying to seek out new people to try and be friends with. She was quite extroverted, as well as passionate about the arts. She was a very gifted painter and singer, and she was always trying to entertain everyone and be the life of the party. She also had a terrific sense of humor and she loved making others laugh.
Destiny was the last alter Louise and the psychologists met, after their abrupt introduction to the anger-filled Veronica. Destiny was the alter that came out the least of the four, which Louise hated, because Louise really thought the world of Destiny and often wished she could have more time to sit down and talk with her. In some ways, Destiny was even shyer than Sarah. Unlike Sarah and Rebecca, Destiny as well as Veronica had all the memories of Sarah’s childhood. She was deeply heartbroken at her parents’ abuse and neglect and was constantly in a state of depression, convinced that everything they put her through was her fault and that she didn’t deserve love, compassion, or respect from others in any way. However, there was more to Destiny besides the continual sea of depression. She was always in deep contemplation about something, and she was deeply philosophical. She thoroughly enjoyed going to classes at Zion, as well as reading practically any book at all she could get her hands on, including the Bible. She was also very gifted at her studies in math and science. Louise told Destiny one time that she should come out more often when Sarah was grown so that she could go to medical school, or perhaps study psychology and help other people in the world like her who were also suffering from multiple personality disorder. Louise knew that if anybody had the perfect mind to study and become a doctor, it was Destiny.
However, while Destiny did make a profound impact on Louise, it was actually Veronica who got to her the most. Sarah was now sixteen years-old and both Sarah and Destiny were their biological age inside. Rebecca had remained at age twelve, and Veronica at age seven. Veronica had none of the others’ maturing abilities and interests. Her world was completely the world and mindset of a little girl stuck at age seven. Clearly, it was Veronica who had all of Sarah’s feelings of anger and betrayal and bitterness and fury at everyone who had hurt her. Shortly after Sarah had been rescued and brought to Zion, Veronica emerged and when she did, she started throwing and breaking everything in sight, and even biting and clawing at Louise and the other volunteers when they tried to restrain her and calm her down. Veronica yelled at them countless times that they were going to hurt her just like her parents did, and that she hated them for it. She yelled about everything Sarah’s parents and eventually evil men on the streets had done to her, and she hollered that she knew what they were going to do to her, and that she would never forgive them for it and never stop hating them.
It had taken an awful lot of work, to say the very least, for Louise and the others to bring Veronica around over the past several months, but up until Louise had her heart attack at least, they’d finally been making some progress with her. Veronica hadn’t been able to admit it to Louise, but Louise’s ongoing acts of love and kindness towards her really had meant the world to her, and then some. At long last, she’d finally begun to have the tiniest little bit of faith in people again, and she’d just barely started to believe that not all parents were cruel and abusive as her own had been, and that Louise really did want to help her and be her friend.
Now, tragically, all that progress seemed to have been lost. After Louise and Linda got off the elevator on the second level, they could both already hear all of Veronica’s screaming and wailing coming from her quarters. Louise almost wanted to cry when she heard it, but she refused to allow herself to give in to it, and while she certainly wasn’t looking forward to seeing Veronica like this, she quickened her pace because she knew she had to get to her as soon as possible.
Louise said nothing as she opened the door and rushed through the living room to one of the two bedrooms in the back. While Olivia’s quarters and her own on the top level only had one bedroom and one bathroom, every child’s living quarters had two bathrooms and two bedrooms, one bedroom for the child and one for the volunteer who was living with the child and seeing to his or her daily needs. Veronica’s quarters looked almost identical to Olivia’s except the walls and matching furniture were a sunny shade of beige, as was her now sparse bedroom. In the end, they’d even had to take down the paintings in the bedroom Rebecca had painted, which had adorned not only her bedroom but the whole apartment, because Veronica kept taking them down and trying to hit herself with them.
Veronica (or rather, Sarah) was a dark black teenage girl with dark eyes and black hair, who was short and skinny. But what Sarah’s body may have lacked in size, Veronica’s personality more than made up for in fervor and passionate anger. Two volunteers were in the bedroom with her, one woman and one man. Ordinarily a male volunteer would never be allowed in a female child’s bedroom for obvious reasons, but because of how violently Veronica had been reacting to the entire situation, it was clear that at least one man needed to be there at all times to help restrain her. The female volunteer’s name was Emma and she was a tall, slender woman with brown hair and brown eyes, and the male volunteer was Greg, and he was a pretty big and muscular black man with dark eyes and a shaved bald head, and they were both in training to become counselors. Emma was also Veronica’s guardian at Zion and she lived with her and made her meals and cared for her every day.
When Louise walked in and saw Greg sitting in the floor with her, with his arms and legs wrapped around her in a gigantic bear hug trying to restrain her as she continually wrestled with him, her heart broke in two.
“I can’t let you go, Veronica,” he tried to explain to her. “We both know if I let go of you, you’ll start trying to run into the walls again and hurt yourself, and you know I can’t let you do that.”
“Look, Veronica,” Emma told her in a cheerful voice. “It’s Louise. You see? We told you she’d be back.”
“I don’t care!” Veronica screamed. “She’s acting just like everybody else did! She said she’d always be here and she lied! I never want to see Louise again! Never! I hate her! She lied to me and she abandoned me just like everybody else! She’s just like the rest of them! I knew it all along! I knew I couldn’t trust her! I knew I couldn’t trust anybody!”
While Veronica’s words shot daggers into Louise’s heart, Louise was determined to remain strong. She refused to give in to her desire to cry, and she refused to allow herself in any way, shape, or form to break in front of the child. Louise stood there and took the child’s angry words and accusations and gave nothing of her inner emotions away on her face, except love for the little child, and pure strength.
One of the biggest reasons why Louise had done such a remarkable job in running Zion over the years was because she always listened to her instincts, and no matter what, they had never failed her. Louise knew what she was about to suggest to Greg and Emma would sound completely insane to them and that they’d refuse to go along with it, but she was determined to convince them. Somehow, she knew this was the right thing to do.
“Greg, Emma…leave us alone,” Louise quietly instructed them.
“What?!” Emma gasped.
“Louise, with all due respect, are you out of your mind?!” Greg asked. “She’s completely out of control. She could really hurt you.”
“I know how crazy it sounds, but you have to trust me now,” Louise insisted. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and believe me, I do know how to do my job. Right now, I need to talk to her alone. I need to have some time with her, just the two of us. Please.”
“Well, I suppose Greg and I can wait outside and you can call for us if things get out of hand in here,” Emma suggested, and Louise nodded in agreement. Emma got up out of the floor then, and finally, after much hesitation, Greg let go of Veronica and got up himself and walked out of the bedroom with Emma. He left the door open a crack on purpose, wanting to be sure to hear all noises and sounds coming from Veronica’s room so he’d know to hurry back inside in case there was any trouble. However, Louise overrode him and closed the door behind him.
Veronica breathed heavily in those next moments and stayed crunched on all fours on the beige carpet floor, looking almost like a cat ready to pounce on Louise and attack her. Then, it was almost as if Louise could hear God, Himself speaking to her heart, saying to her, “I’m right here with you. Don’t be afraid. I won’t let any harm come to you.”
As Louise slowly began to approach Veronica, she growled, “Don’t come any closer! Stay away from me or I’ll kill you! I swear I will! I’ll hurt you just like you hurt me!”
Louise responded by only taking another step towards her, and then another, and then another.
“I don’t believe you will,” she said softly. “I believe you’re too smart for that.” Then she sat down in the floor directly in front of Veronica, and when she did that, Veronica’s heavy breathing only became heavier as she breathed through tightly clenched teeth. “Veronica, I want you think back, just for a second. Do you remember what happened six weeks after we first met? You woke up in the middle of the night with nightmares, and you wanted me here with you, remember? It was cold and raining that night, and it was three o’clock in the morning. But when Emma called me, I got up and got dressed, and I came over here and I spent the whole rest of the night with you. A few days after that, you told me that nobody, not your parents or anybody in your family had ever done that for you before. And when I found you painting something with Rebecca’s paintbrushes, remember what happened? You tried to hide the picture you were painting from me because you didn’t think you were as good a painter as Rebecca. You told me that your parents always made fun of your paintings and laughed at you, but whenever Rebecca painted something, they left her alone so you always figured she was a lot better than you. You remember what I told you? I told you that your work was just as lovely and just as important as Rebecca’s was, and that I adored your painting, and you told me that nobody had ever said anything nice about your artwork before. And you know I’ve always tried to make it over here as many nights a week as I can to tuck you in bed at night, because I know how much that means to you. I know how upset you’ve been these past few weeks, but stop and think about those things for just a moment. Ever since we’ve known each other, have I ever tried to do or say anything mean to you? Have I ever done anything to hurt you? Have I ever acted like your parents did? Have I ever, in any way, treated you like they have? I think you’re smart enough to realize that the answer to those questions is, ‘No.’ So why would I suddenly turn around and start acting like them now? Why would I suddenly decide to abandon someone who’s been as close to me as you have these past few months?”
After Louise said that and Veronica really started to think about everything she’d said, she finally unclenched her jaw and started breathing easier and loosening up.
“Veronica,” Louise continued, “I can prove it to you that what Emma tried to tell you about my having a heart attack and being in the hospital is true. Look,” she said as she unbuttoned a couple of buttons on her red blouse and exposed more of her chest. “That’s the scar I have from the operation the doctors had to do on me. They had to cut my chest open so they could fix my heart, and this scar is from where they had to cut me. Nobody here was trying to lie to you when they told you I had a heart attack, sweetheart. I really did. And the reason I haven’t been here this past month is because I had to spend a lot of time in the hospital and in bed at home so I could get better and stronger again. I wasn’t away from you all this time because I wanted to be. I was away because I didn’t have a choice. I had to stay away at the hospital and at home for a little while so I could get better from being sick. Can you understand that now?”
Veronica remained perfectly quiet for a few moments, but then all of the sudden, she broke down into tears and threw herself into Louise’s arms as she sobbed. Louise kissed her on the forehead and said nothing. She simply held her and let her get all her crying and tears out of her system.
When Linda, Greg and Emma heard Veronica’s crying, naturally, they walked up to the bedroom door and quietly opened it, and when they did, they were absolutely astounded at how Louise had been able to reach out to her and get a different response besides anger and yelling.
“Amazing,” Greg whispered. “Absolutely amazing.”
“How does she do it?” Emma asked in astonishment.
“I don’t know, but whatever it is she does with these kids, it works,” said Linda, also in amazement at Louise.
Louise spent the next two hours with Veronica, holding her and drying her tears and helping her to calm down at long last. At a few minutes after six, Veronica finally began truly feeling the exhaustion from all her weeks of crying and screaming, and naturally Louise was there to care for her as she always had. Despite Emma’s protests, Louise went into the small kitchen area and made Veronica some dinner, knowing full well how much Veronica and all the personalities loved her cooking. Then after Louise got her to take a nice long bath and brush her teeth and say her prayers, she tucked her in bed for the night and held her hand and remained by her side until she fell asleep at seven-thirty that evening.
By the time Louise finally turned the lights in the bedroom off and emerged, George and Olivia were sitting with Emma on the couch in the living room waiting for her after asking around and finding out where she was. Greg and Linda had long since figured out that they were no longer needed there and left to take care of other things they had to do. Like the gentleman he was nowadays, the moment Louise came out of the bedroom, George instantly got up from his seat. Then, of course, he walked up to her and gave her a big hug and kiss.
“Hey, Weez,” he said softly.
“Hi, George. I’m sorry to keep you waiting so long, but Veronica really needed me tonight.”
“Oh no, don’t worry about it. I know what you had to do with her tonight is important. I just don’t want you to overdo things around here and wear yourself out. I called Florence and told her we’d be late and she said she’d keep our dinner warm for us. I just want to get you home and get a good meal in you and get you in bed.”
“You want to get me in bed, huh?” Louise asked with an obvious hint of mischief, and George laughed softly and blushed.
“Come on, Weezy. You know I didn’t mean that,” he chuckled.
“I know, but I couldn’t resist,” Louise told George with another laugh.
“Hey listen, while you were down here, I went out to the pharmacy and got your medicine,” George told Louise as he handed her a small white paper bag.
“Oh, okay, great. Thank you.”
“Of course.”
“Mama, Emma, I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Louise said as she walked with George up to the front door.
“See you tomorrow, dear,” Olivia said.
“Have a good night,” said Emma.
“You too,” Louise responded as she and George walked out the door. But then Louise remembered something and opened the door again and stuck her head inside. She said to Emma, “If Veronica wakes up in the middle of the night with bad dreams, give me a call.”
“Are you really sure you want me to call and wake you up in the middle of the night?”
“No, she doesn’t want you to call and wake her up in the middle of the night, either,” George interrupted just as Louise was about to speak.
“I think I can speak for myself, George,” Louise said, and it was all too easy to hear the annoyance in her voice.
“No, you can’t. Not this time. Goodnight, Emma. Goodnight, Mama.”
“Goodnight,” Emma said.
“Goodnight, son,” Olivia told George just before he closed Emma’s door again. After George closed the door, Louise simply stared at him for several long moments, completely baffled at his behavior. Then her bewilderment began turning into a little bit of hurt, which was followed by fear and anger. George hadn’t acted that way in a good solid month now, and to see George start to resume his previous patterns of behavior, even if only slightly so as he did just now, was deeply unsettling for Louise.
“George, don’t you think that was a bit rude, both to Emma and to me?” Louise finally asked him. “And furthermore, I’ll have you know that while I do love you, George Jefferson, I am not going to be the second-class citizen you always tried to force me to be in our marriage. I have a voice and I know how to use it and I am perfectly capable of speaking for myself. And if I want to be there for a little girl that’s really hurting and badly needs a mother figure in her life, that’s my decision to make, not yours. I am not the subhuman object you always tried to turn me into all these years just to inflate your ego. Is that clear?”
A couple of tears actually came to George’s eyes then as he began to understand once again just how deeply he had hurt Louise over the years. He had never really meant to make Louise feel like she was less than human whenever he’d given her one of his, “I’m the man of this house and what I say goes” speeches. But sadly, Louise had been dead on when she’d said that he’d treated her like that in the past to inflate his ego. Acting like he had some kind of power and control over her and her personal decisions in her life had made him feel macho and like “a real man” in the past. It made him feel pretty good about himself to try to fool himself into believing that he had the right to control Louise and order her around like a subhuman slave. Now, George never felt like a bigger, sorrier jerk, and he truly hated himself for it.
“I’m so sorry, Louise,” George gasped. “Baby, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I promise you, I didn’t. I just reacted when I heard you ask Emma to call you and get you up in the middle of the night, because I know that you really ran yourself ragged down here before your heart attack, and I didn’t want to see you start pushing yourself that hard again. I’m just so scared of you making yourself sick again. I am terrified of something more going wrong with your heart and losing you. You’re everything to me, Weezy, everything, and I just simply can’t take the thought of something else happening to you. I wasn’t trying to treat you like I didn’t respect you, and I promise you with all my heart that I wasn’t trying to treat you like you’re less than human. I respect you more than I can begin to tell you. I just got so scared and because I was so worried, those words were flying out of mouth before I knew what hit me. I promised you that I would never treat you that way again, and I meant it. So help me God, Louise, I never will.”
Tears were now coming to Louise’s eyes as well. She sighed and wiped them away and finally said, “I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have flown off the handle at you like that. I guess when I heard you talking like that a minute ago, it caused me to react to some fears of my own, and before I knew it, hurtful words were flying out of my mouth, too.”
“No, sweetheart, you weren’t bein’ hurtful,” George whispered as he hugged Louise. “You were just standin’ up for yourself, and after puttin’ up with an arrogant, selfish, chauvinistic jerk like me for so long, it’s no wonder you felt like you needed to do that. It’s no wonder you were afraid I was goin’ back to my old ways when I acted like I just did.
“Weezy, no matter how badly I may want to, I know I can never make it all up to you. I’m just now beginning to understand everything I put you through, and it tears me apart. But I do promise you that I really do want to spend the rest of my life trying. Tell me, how do I start? What can I do for you, right here, right now, that would bring you the most happiness?”
“You mind repeating the part where you said you respected me?” Louise whispered.
George put his hands on her shoulders then and looked her in the eyes and said, “I have more respect for you, Louise, than for any other human being on the face of this earth.”
“Except your mother, you mean,” Louise said quietly, but without malice. It had just been a fact of life for so many years that George always seemed to act like he had far more love and respect in his heart for his mother than for his wife. While Louise had settled her differences with Olivia a long time ago, she knew that George respected his mother more than anyone all these years, and that had included Louise.
“You’re wrong,” George whispered. “I know how I always acted. I know that I really did act like I respected Mama more than you, but that, you incredible angel, is only because your husband had the maturity of a two-year-old all those years. I never respected her more than you. In fact, it was the exact opposite. I am so ashamed to have to admit this to you Weezy, but the sad fact is, all those years, I did prefer Mama’s company to yours. And the reason I did is because I was an immature little spoiled brat. Mama babied me, Weezy, and for the longest time, I preferred that. Mama gave me coddling and dishonest illusions about myself. She gave me this false idea that I was the greatest guy who ever lived. You, on the other hand, gave me honesty. You told me the truth about myself, even when it hurt. You had the guts and the integrity to always tell me like it really was, and you also had the guts to stand up to me when I was doing something wrong. I preferred her to you because she soothed this foolish, false, macho, gigantic ego I had, and you wouldn’t do that. And I was too conceited and too stupid to admit this to you before now Louise, but baby, the truth is, deep down, I really did respect you for your honesty and your courage and your strength a whole lot more than I ever respected Mama for her coddling. Now I do respect my mother, but even before all this happened last month, I always respected you more. And now that I know everything I know about you and the hell you suffered through for my sake back in Harlem, I have a trillion times more respect for you now than I did before, and I know that Mama feels exactly the same.”
For so many years, while Louise had always known that George really did love her deep down, because of all his hurtful words and actions and broken promises, she’d greatly struggled with doubts as to how deep that love really went, and how sincere it actually was. And because of all of his, “I’m the man of this house and you’re the little woman and what I say goes” speeches, Louise had almost never genuinely felt like George respected her very much, so it was obvious that George’s words to her just now brought a kind of healing to Louise that words couldn’t even begin to describe.
“George,” Louise gasped through her tears, “everything you just said…it all means more to me than you’ll ever know.”
George gave Louise a firm kiss on the cheek and held her close as they both cried a little for several moments.
Then Louise pulled herself together and said, “Why don’t we go home, huh? I think we’ve kept Florence waiting long enough.”
George gave Louise a very long kiss, and then wrapped his arm around her waist and walked out of Zion alongside her, saying nothing. The way Louise allowed herself to rest her head on George’s shoulder as they walked said it all.

Chapter Eight
When Louise looked at the clock on the kitchen bar, she laughed and shook her head at herself when she saw it was eleven-thirty. It was getting close to noon and both Louise and George were still lounging around the apartment in their robes and slippers. Florence had actually gotten up and gotten dressed and had their breakfast already prepared for them when they finally did decide to stop lying around in bed, talking, joking, and laughing with each other as they so often did now. Before her heart attack, she couldn’t have imagined spending half the morning on a Saturday feeling so relaxed and content just lying next to her husband. Her mind on Saturdays back then had often been on trying to keep George out of trouble with his then typical crazy, selfish antics, or on an argument between them, or on the Help Center and Zion. And while it was true that Louise did have her mind on Zion that morning and wished she didn’t have to worry about George pitching a fit if she decided to go there and work the rest of the day, she was also deeply flattered by how overprotective George remained of her, and of course, by the way he really did enjoy spending a lot of time with her now.
But still, Louise had been dying to get back to her work at Zion ever since she’d come home from the hospital two and a half weeks before, and she did sometimes wish George would stop trying to stall her work there so much. When she first came home from the hospital, George convinced Louise to wait at least until they had a chance to see Dr. Garrison and make certain that Louise was strong enough to go back to her work, which they had four days ago on a Tuesday afternoon. George had convinced Louise to take one last day off before she returned, which she did that Wednesday, and of course, she’d worked at Zion that Thursday and Friday. Before her heart attack, Louise had worked her butt off at Zion constantly and put in as many hours there as she possibly could, and on days when she knew George would be working late at the office, which had obviously occurred incredibly often in those days, she stayed behind at Zion several more hours, although she was sure to get home before George did those nights. And on Saturdays, while Louise hated it when George drowned himself in his work either at home or at the office, when he did do that which again had been far too often, Louise did take advantage of it and she used that time to work at Zion. Quite obviously, things were very different now and Louise had known perfectly well that if she tried to do her volunteer work today, George would have gone completely berserk, so she didn’t even try, and instead resigned herself to the fact that George would leave her no choice but to spend the day with him, resting and relaxing.
While a large part of Louise hated it that George was now such an obstacle to her putting in as many hours at Zion as she used to, deep down inside, there was another part of her that just loved it. Even though her heart attack and surgery and hospitalization had been an extremely painful and trying ordeal for her, Louise now actually found herself thanking God for it. In spite of how she hated seeing George so heartbroken and devastated over their past all the time, she never in her whole life felt more loved, wanted, appreciated, and yes, respected, by George than she did now, and it was pure heaven for her. She really loved it the way that spending time with her and sharing her interests and being a bigger part of her life and their marriage were now so extremely high on George’s list of priorities. Spending a lot of time with George and truly sharing their lives had always meant a great deal to Louise, but sadly, George made no secret of the fact that he had been far more in love with himself and the business and making more money than he had been with her, and the way he’d always acted as though spending time with Louise was a terrible burden had hurt her over the years beyond words. After being in such a prison of pain all this time, God had actually used the very worst experience in all their married life to turn it into the beautiful, miraculous, glorious turning point that became Louise’s freedom from that emotional prison, much in the same way He’d used the crucifixion of His Son. He’d taken something painful, traumatic, and tragic and turned it into the point where everything had changed for the better, just as He’d taken Christ’s very death and turned it into the point where countless human souls would be rescued from hell.
When George walked into the kitchen that morning, he saw Louise standing in front of the kitchen bar with her head bowed and her eyes shut. George wasn’t entirely certain, but he was fairly sure Louise was praying. He wanted to ask and make sure she was alright, but at the same time he didn’t want to interrupt her prayers, so he decided to wait a little while before he said anything to her.
A couple of moments later Louise raised her head and opened her eyes, and of course it didn’t take her long to see George standing in the kitchen doorway.
“Oh, good morning, sweetheart,” she said with a pleasant smile, and then George walked up to her and put his arms around her and kissed her.
“Good mornin’, Weezy-girl.”
“How long have you been standing here, Georgey-boy?” Louise asked him while barely concealing a laugh. In a way she felt pretty silly to use that old pet name for him now that she’d called him while they were dating and in the early years of their marriage, but since George had resumed using his old pet name for her from those days, “Weezy-girl,” it had kind of seemed fair.
“Just a couple of seconds,” he replied. “Were you prayin’ just now?”
“I sure was.”
“Is it somethin’ private between the two of you or can I ask what you were praying about?”
“Oh, it’s fine to ask me that. I’ll tell you. I was just thanking God for everything.”
“Define ‘everything,’” George told her, still interested in what she was praying about.
“I know this’ll sound crazy, but I was actually thanking God for my heart attack.”
“For your heart attack?” George said in disbelief. “But why, Weezy? That’s the worst thing that ever happened to us.”
“Perhaps, but it’s the best thing that happened to us, too. George, I know you remember what our relationship was like before I had my heart attack that night. We could try to lie to ourselves and to other people about it, but we both know how unhealthy our marriage used to be, how many fights we always had, how miserable we were with each other so much of the time. Now, thanks to the way God has used my heart problems, you’ve been saved for eternity and as a result of that, our marriage is stronger and better and happier than it’s been since we first got married. As a matter of fact, I think it’s even better than it was back then. In a strange way George, that heart attack was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I praise God for it because of what we have with each other today as a result of it.”
“You have a point, Weez,” George said quietly. “I’m just so sorry it took you having a heart attack and almost dying to get me to finally get my act together as a husband. It never should have taken all that. You never should have had to suffer like that in order for me to finally grow up and start making our marriage a priority in my life.”
“Oh, no. I did it again, didn’t I?”
“Did what?”
“I said something that upset you and made you feel bad about the past without meaning to. It seems like I’m always doing that to you, George. I’m so sorry.”
“No, no, Weezy,” George said gently as he hugged her. “Baby, none of this is your fault. I’m gonna tell you what I’ve told you before about this: you didn’t make me feel bad about the way I’ve acted all these years; I did. Whenever you inadvertently bring it up in conversation, you’re just doin’ one of the things you do best – speakin’ the truth. You have no idea how to get through a day without bein’ honest, and I don’t ever want that to change. It’s one of the things about you that I love the most. And anyway, what did I tell you the other day about apologizing to me? I don’t ever want you to apologize to me for anything, Louise. Ever. It’s me who needs to spend the rest of my life apologizing to you, not the other way around.”
“Oh, no, George, you don’t need to keep apologizing to me all the time like you have been,” Louise disagreed. The hug had ended, but they still had their arms around each other. “The wonderful way you’ve treated me and all the TLC you’ve given me ever since my heart attack has more than made up for everything else. Believe me.”
George gave Louise a long hard kiss and hugged her again and told her as he hugged her, “You are such an angel to say something like that, sweetheart, but we both know it isn’t true. I just got finished complimenting you on how truthful you always are, but we both know you’re trying to soften the truth for my sake right now so I’ll feel better.” George ended the hug then, but they still had their arms around each other like before, and he continued holding onto her and he looked her directly in the eyes and said, “We both know that just like every human being owes the Father a debt that can never be repaid for sacrificing His only Son to save us, I, too, owe you a debt that can never truly be repaid. I might not owe you as much as I owe to the good Lord for everything He’s done for me, but still, my debt to you can’t ever be paid off.”
“George, in a way, I really hate it when you say things like that. In one way I appreciate it sometimes when you say that because it lets me know that what I went through those horrible years really means something to you, and it really helps me inside to know how grateful you are for all the pain I went through for you. Quite frankly, it feels pretty wonderful for you to respect me and appreciate me as much as you make it obvious to me every day that you do. But yet, in another way, I hate to hear you talk like that because I don’t want you to treat me like you do just because you feel like you owe me something. If you want to do things for me to bring me happiness and joy, if you really want to do something to bring a smile to my face every day, I want you to do it for your own sake. I want you to do it because it’s honestly something that you want to do in your heart of hearts. I want you to enjoy what we have together and spend a lot of time with me because you’re in love with who I am as a human being, not because you feel like you owe me something.”
Naturally, George instantly hugged her again and said, “Oh, Weez, I do do all of this because I’m in love with you and with who you are. I do all the things I do for you for my sake as well as for yours. Nothing in this world makes me happier than seeing you smile and hearing you laugh, believe me.”
The hug lasted a few more moments and then Louise gave George a kiss and walked over to the small kitchen table with him and sat down with him.
“George, ever since everything happened a month ago, it’s almost like you’ve been trapped back in time on the streets of Harlem. I’ll admit that after we finally did get out of that awful neighborhood, a pretty big part of me was still trapped there. It took me a while, but I eventually did realize that if I didn’t leave Harlem inside, I’d never be able to move on with my life. I know how hard it is. I really do because I went through it myself. But no matter how hard it may be, you have to do it, George. You have to come out of Harlem. If you don’t, you’ll make yourself sick. Like I said, I do know how hard it is, but it can be done. I’ll help you.”
George clasped his hands together and rested his head up against them and let out a long sigh, and then he sat up again and looked at Louise and held the side of her face for the longest time, just gazing into her eyes, and admiring her inner and outer beauty. Louise smiled and reached up and took his hand and kissed it.
“You are so beautiful,” George whispered as tears came to his eyes.
“So are you,” Louise said softly, but George fervently shook his head in protest.
“No, no, I’m about as far from beautiful as a person can get, Weez. You are beautiful, though. You’re absolutely gorgeous, and that’s putting it mildly. That’s why I call you ‘gorgeous’ as much as I do these days, because now that I fully understand everything about who you really are and what your dreams are and what you went through, I’m finally mature enough to understand that a person can’t get any more gorgeous inside than you are.
“Louise, I want to tell you that…it is not only beautiful, it is absolutely gorgeous of you, to want to help me get out of Harlem inside. You are…the most remarkable angel to want that for me. But I can never leave Harlem, gorgeous,” George told her in a very deep, serious tone.
“Why not?” Louise whispered.
“After we had been living in that neighborhood for several years, when Lionel was around eight or nine years-old, there was one afternoon when you came up to me and told me about this apartment building you’d found that had an opening. The rent was kind of higher than the rent we were already paying, but with all our jobs, we could have afforded it. You told me that because we were livin’ in such a dangerous neighborhood, you were terrified all the time and you said that leaving would give you peace of mind. You wouldn’t go into any more details besides that, but deep down, we both knew what it was you were really talkin’ about. Do you remember what I told you? I told you no. I told you that we had to stay where we were, where the rent was the cheapest, so I could keep saving up money to start my own business someday.”
“Yeah, but you also wanted to keep saving money for Lionel’s education, and for that matter, so did I. I understood.”
“Weezy, come on. You told me to be real with you that night in the ICU before your bypass surgery. You be real with me now, with both of us. The rent was a little more expensive, but not very much. It wouldn’t have made much difference at all in how much money we’d be able to save. But I was greedy and I was selfish and I was stubborn, and all I cared about in those days was money. I wanted to hold on to all the money I could possibly get my hands on. If we’d taken the other apartment, we might have had to wait a little bit longer to save up all the money we needed for Lionel to go to college and to start the business, but it wouldn’t have been that much longer. But I was too impatient to wait, even a short period of time. All I cared about was me. Me, me, me. My plans. My business. My money. My dreams. I was so stubborn about fighting for all the things in life that I wanted that I refused to look at the way we both knew deep down that you were suffering. You weren’t just askin’ me to move us into another apartment, Louise. You came up to me that day and you asked me for help. You weren’t just askin’ me to let us move. You were asking me for relief,” George gasped as he started to really cry. “You were asking me for relief from your suffering…and I wouldn’t give it to you,” he said as his voice cracked. “I was too awful and too selfish to give you the relief you desperately needed me to give to you back then. I’m not about to give it to myself now. I selfishly made you suffer, and suffer you did, for two more years. After I forced that kind of suffering and brutality on your shoulders, it’s only fair that I pay the price now. I wouldn’t let you leave that Harlem neighborhood when you were in so much pain and you desperately needed to, so what kind of man would I be if I made it easy on myself and let myself leave that world now? I know that God is a God of great love and great mercy, but He’s also a God of great justice. If I made it easy on myself and let myself get out of there now, that would just be too unfair to you. You had every right to leave that neighborhood, both physically and emotionally. I, on the other hand, will never truly deserve to leave it.”
“Shall I have you flogged as well?” Louise said rather sarcastically, which was clearly a surprise. Even though George did hate himself for what he put Louise through, often whenever they did talk about the past, Louise had been incredibly loving and encouraging and while George felt he didn’t deserve it, a part of him had really expected her to be that way now. “Or better yet, why don’t I just beat you and stab you and shoot you and pour tar and feathers all over you, and after I’ve kicked and beaten and shot and stabbed and tarred and feathered you, why don’t I top it all off by putting you in the stockade in the town square?
“George, I’ve tried to be as patient and understanding with you as I possibly could be since you read my old diary and found out the truth about what happened in Harlem, but after everything you just said, I have officially lost my patience. Now this attitude of yours has really gone far enough. I am getting really tired of seeing you walking around, torturing yourself with this all the time.
“Didn’t it ever occur to you that I had choices back in those days too? Of course I went through a great deal pain, but you make it sound like you had me chained to the streets of Harlem. You didn’t. I knew what was going on. I knew what to expect every day, and how much it would hurt, and I never had to stay where I was. Staying with you and Lionel and keeping you safe was my decision George, not yours. You didn’t force that decision on me. I could have left you. I could have gotten a legal separation or even a divorce from you and I could have gotten custody of Lionel, and with the jobs I had, I could have lived with him and taken care of him on my own. In the end, staying there was a choice that I alone had to make. And the reason why I made the choice to stay like I did and to keep protecting you is because I love you with all I’ve got in me, and with all my heart, I wanted you to be safe and happy, and I wanted you to be healthy, both physically and emotionally. I didn’t go through the kind of hell I chose to go through so that you could spend all your time torturing yourself and making yourself miserable. I’ll say it again; I did it because I wanted you to be physically and emotionally healthy and safe. So every day that goes by that you keep hurting yourself with this, you ought to bear in mind that you’re not just hurting yourself; you’re hurting me right along with you. I love you, George. And seeing you in so much pain like this all the time really does hurt me. And after all the pain I’ve been through in my lifetime, I don’t believe I deserve that. And if you won’t get out of Harlem, I’ll grab your hand and drag you out myself.”
George just sat there for a minute or so, completely stunned by everything Louise had said. To say the least, her response to him was the last thing he’d expected at all.
“I don’t know what to say,” he gasped, finally breaking the silence. Then he looked into her face and asked, “Do you have any idea how priceless you are?”
Louise smiled and said, “You’ve given me a pretty good idea these past few weeks.”
Unbeknownst to them, Florence had just walked into the kitchen and was standing directly behind them.
“I sure hope y’all manage to patch things up before you start heading out to the divorce attorney’s office,” Florence kidded them. “It’s a real shame seein’ a marriage on the rocks like this.”
“It sure is,” George joked as well. “It’s quite a shame, ain’t it, Weez?”
“A crying shame,” Louise said with a big smile, and then as with all dying marriages on the rocks like theirs, they leaned in and kissed each other.
“I never heard such a loud yellin’ match in all my life,” Florence continued kidding them. “Before y’all know it, the neighbors will be callin’ the cops on you two. I ain’t never seen such a terrible and hopeless marriage before.”
“Yeah, Weezy, we are pretty hopeless, aren’t we?” George chuckled, and Louise laughed with him.
“We’re a real lost cause. And since my marriage is such a lost cause and I’m so depressed that we’ve decided to file for divorce, I’m getting dressed and heading out to McDonald’s for some comfort food. I’ll see you guys later,” Louise unexpectedly announced as she got up from her seat and started walking out of the kitchen and into the living room. Naturally, George and Florence were about ready to pitch a fit over that, and they went running after her.
“Oh no you don’t, Weezy!” George said aloud as he ran after her. A second later, he caught up with her and grabbed her by the shoulders and stopped her, and he turned her around to face him. “Now just what do you think you’re doin’?”
Louise paused for several moments and kept her face expressionless, but then she finally smiled and put her hand on George’s cheek and replied softly, “I’m dragging you out of Harlem.”
“Weez,” George whispered in a deep voice, and then of course, he grabbed her and hugged her yet again.
In the next moment, the doorbell rang. Since it was abundantly clear that George was not going to release Louise from the hug any time soon, Florence smiled and shook her head at them and answered the door. It was Tom and Helen.
“Oh, hi you two. Come on in. Ms. Willis, it’s been a while since we’ve seen you,” Florence said as she walked with them back into the living room.
“I’m sorry, Florence. I know it has. It’s just been kind of hard for me to get down here lately,” Helen told her, which of course was as close to the truth as Helen could get without going into more personal details.
“Well I’m happy to see you,” Florence said with a smile. “Can I get you both somethin’? You want some coffee, even though it’s only decaf?”
“No thanks, Florence,” Tom replied. “We just wanted to come down and see how Louise has been doing lately.”
“You mean you didn’t hear all the shouting matches they’ve been getting into around here? I thought the whole rest of the country heard them yellin’ about filin’ for divorce. I thought the whole world knew how badly their marriage is on the rocks.”
“Yes, I can see that,” Tom joked.
“I just hope they don’t end up killing each other before the divorce is final,” Florence said. It was obvious she had no intention of relenting on the divorce jokes any time soon.
“Florence, do you have any idea how much longer they’re going to be super-glued together?” asked Helen. “I came down here because there’s some things I was hoping to say to Louise…in private.”
Florence chuckled and said, “You can forget it, child. These two are pulled into each other’s arms like a couple of magnets. They can’t be in the same room together without getting stuck to one another. It’s amazing they can pull apart from each other long enough to use the John!”
“So how do you talk to one of them when you need to discuss something?” Helen wanted to know.
“Well thankfully, just because they’re stuck to each other doesn’t always mean their minds are in la-la-land. Sometimes they are, but most of the time they’re not. Watch,” Florence told Helen, and then she walked up closer to George and Louise. “Ms. Jefferson, do you want me to invite the Willises to stay for lunch?”
“I don’t know, Florence. I’d love to have them here with us this afternoon so we can finally catch up, but I doubt they’d like our diet food.”
“Mr. Jefferson, since Ms. Jefferson is afraid Mr. and Ms. Willis won’t like our diet food, should I go out and get something else for them?”
“No way,” George replied firmly. “Absolutely not. I don’t want to be rude, but I refuse to expose Weezy to any kind of temptation. They either eat what we eat or they eat in their own apartment.”
“You see what I mean?” Florence asked Tom and Helen. “They may be glued together, but their minds are still with us. You just have to say what you want to say in front of both of them. It’s the only way around here.”
“Alright then,” Helen sighed, and then she took a couple of steps closer to Louise. “Uh, Louise,” she said as she put her hand on Louise’s shoulder, “I know that I haven’t been down to visit you very often since you came home from the hospital…and even when you were hospitalized, I only came around to see you a handful of times. I just wanted to tell you….I just wanted to let you know that I didn’t stay away because I didn’t care. As a matter of fact…in a strange sort of way, I actually stayed away because of how much I did care. I’m not very good at handling it when something like this happens to people I really love. You’re one of the closest friends I’ve ever had. Seeing you in that hospital…well, it really scared me, more than you’ll ever know, and for the longest time, I just couldn’t make myself face it. And since you came home, I’ve been really afraid that every time I’d see you, I’d think about your heart attack and…when you had stopped breathing. I, uh…I just wanted to apologize for avoiding you so much through all of this, and I wanted to explain why. So there, I’ve explained it. I guess Tom and I’ll be going now.”
“Helen, wait,” Louise said. “George, I know you don’t want to hear this, but I need you to let go of me for a few minutes and go out to the kitchen with Tom and Florence. I need to talk to Helen alone for a little while.”
George playfully stomped his feet like and yelled in a childlike voice, “Aw! Aw, crud! Weezy, I don’t wanna go!”
Of course, Louise and all the others laughed at his antics, and then she said to him much like a patient mother appeasing an impatient little kid, “It’s only for a few minutes.”
“I don’t care!” George said aloud, still sounding like a small child, as he stomped his feet again, and of course, everybody laughed a second time. “I don’t wanna go!”
Louise barely concealed her own laughter at George as she rolled her eyes and then put her hands on his shoulders and turned him around.
“George, go,” she told him a bit more firmly, and in that next second, she slapped his behind.
“Hey Weezy, if I go, will you promise to spank me again?” George asked, now in his usual adult voice, making everybody else laugh even harder than they already were.
“Get out of here!” Louise yelled as she gave him a playful shove, and finally, George walked out of the living room and into the kitchen like she asked, with Florence and Tom following closely behind him.
“It’s amazing,” Helen said, almost in a kind of awe, as she walked to the couch with Louise and sat down with her. “I can’t believe that was actually George Jefferson I just saw behaving like that. It’s like he’s a completely new and different person altogether. Tom told me over these past couple of weeks how much he’d noticed all the big changes in George’s personality, but I really had no idea it was anything like this until I saw it for myself a second ago.”
“I know,” Louise said with a big, warm, contented smile. “As crazy as it sounds, that heart attack was the best possible thing that could have ever happened to me. God used this whole terrible ordeal and created a real miracle.”
“You want to know something, Louise? After seeing George the way he was acting with you just now, I can’t help but agree. Only an act of the Almighty God, Himself could do something like that to somebody like George Jefferson. You know, Tom and I have been born again for most of our lives, but so much of the time, we just get so caught up in the business of our everyday lives, I suppose, that our faith has been nothing more than the occasional Sunday church service.”
“I understand what you mean. Far too often through the years, I’ve allowed myself to get lazy in my relationship with God and neglect things like church and prayer and Bible study. I told myself that I had too much on my plate, too many things on my mind with Zion and the Help Center and my turbulent relationship with George to focus on the Lord the way I knew I should have, but I always knew that wasn’t it deep down. I did realize with the work He inspired me to do with Zion and the Help Center, He was using all the pain I went through in Harlem to be a blessing to other people, to children who are suffering the way I did. But even though I did understand that God was using the events of my past to work together for good as He promised us He would in Romans, I still felt bitter and angry and betrayed at God for even allowing it all to happen in the first place. But now, I not only see how God uses my past to help everybody at Zion; I’m seeing every day in my marriage now how He’s used it to save George and make our marriage what it always should have been, and I finally began to realize that God really didn’t allow any of that to happen in Harlem because He was trying to hurt or betray me. He had a plan all along to use this to bring George to a saving faith in Christ and help him become the man he was always meant to be. And since I’ve realized that, to say the least, I’ve felt pretty stupid for moving away from God and getting lazy in my walk with Him as often as I did sometimes.”
“I’m beginning to feel pretty stupid for it now, myself,” Helen admitted. “Tom and I don’t have that excuse. God’s been very good to us through our lives. With the exception of both our families turning their backs on us when we got married, Tom and I have always been very happy and blessed. And sadly, I can’t even remember the last time I thanked Him for it all, for providing for all our needs so abundantly, for a wonderful and thoughtful and loving husband like Tom, for the great marriage we have, for our beautiful children and granddaughter.”
“Well the good news is, it’s not too late for you to start thanking Him every day for those things.”
Helen gave a sad smile and asked, “Do you really think He’d want to hear from somebody like me after all the time I’ve wasted?”
“Of course! If for whatever reason Jenny or Allan hadn’t communicated with you in a very long time and then one day they finally did decide to talk to you, wouldn’t you be happy to hear from them?”
“Of course I would. You know Louise, as a matter of fact, it has been an awfully long time since Tom and I have heard from Allan. I guess I’ve been putting off getting in touch with him because thinking about him reminds me of all the problems that are still going on between him and Tom. You’re aware of the fact that when Allan last left New York, he and Tom still hadn’t worked out all their differences. I don’t like thinking about how discouraged that makes me feel. I feel like they’ll honestly never work everything out.”
“I used to feel that way all the time about George. I used to feel like we’d never really work out all the problems we had between us and like we’d never be able to enjoy a truly happy marriage like the kind of marriage we had when we were newlyweds, but look at us now. And believe me Helen, if there’s hope for a marriage with George Jefferson, then there’s hope for any relationship!”
Helen laughed and said, “You’re right, Louise. Thank you.”
“That’s what best friends are for.”
“Funny, I came down here planning on apologizing to you and to start trying to be there for you the way I should have been, and here you are being there for me instead.”
“I’ll admit that it did hurt me when you hardly came around at all to the hospital or to the apartment when I first came home, but after you explained everything a few minutes ago, I understand now why you were like that. And as for me, you don’t have to worry about anything. I’m better than I’ve been in ages. And since I’m feeling so terrific, what’s wrong with talking with my best friend and trying to help her when she’s got a lot on her mind, huh?”
“Oh, Louise,” Helen said in a choked-up voice, and then she gave her a big hug. “You’re so beautiful.” In the next moment though, Helen unexpectedly gave her a small punch in the arm.
“Hey! What was that for?!” Louise asked in an irritated voice after she grabbed her arm.
“That was for scaring the absolute crap out of me four weeks ago!” Helen responded as tears started coming to her eyes. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again!”
“I won’t, Helen. Believe me. I’m alright now and I’m going to stay that way.”
“You better, because if you die of another heart attack, I’ll kill you!”
“That’s a bit redundant, don’t you think, Helen?” Louise said in a chuckle.
“You know what I mean.”
Louise laughed again and then in the next moment she called out, “Okay you guys! You can all come out of the kitchen now!”
George darted out of the kitchen then before Tom and Florence came out into the living room, and everybody sort of laughed and looked at each other puzzled when George ran up to where Louise was sitting on the couch and laid down on his stomach over her lap. Part of him was actually lying over Helen’s lap on the couch too.
“George, what on earth are you doing?” asked Louise.
“I’m waiting for my spanking,” he replied, and everybody started cracking up at him, even Louise who again, was only barely managing to conceal her own laughter as she rolled her eyes.
“Get up, you silly fool!” she told him, and George actually laughed a little bit at himself along with the others as got up from Louise’s lap. “Crazy!”
“Louise,” Helen said, still in a laughing voice, “I think Tom and I should go now and let you and George get back to your spanking session.”
“Please, Helen, don’t give him any ideas,” Louise said.
“Helen’s right, Louise. We’ll go and let you two get back to enjoying your Saturday together,” Tom said and then Helen got up and walked up to the door with Tom just behind her. Louise got up too and walked with them to the door.
“I hate to see you guys running off so soon,” she told Tom and Helen.
Tom let out a chuckle and said, “I think you’ve got your hands full enough down here with George as it is without having to worry about us.” Then he kissed her on the cheek and said, “I’m glad you’re doing so much better, dear.”
“Thanks, Tom. I’m really happy you two came down here today.”
“So are we, Louise,” Helen said lovingly and then she too gave Louise a kiss on the cheek and a hug. “I’ll see you later.”
“Not too much later, I hope,” Louise said warmly, and Helen smiled and shook her head.
“No, not too much later.”
“Good,” said Louise and then in the next moment when Tom and Helen left, she shut the door behind them.
“Now that they’re gone, we have some work to continue, Weezy,” George told Louise as he approached her. Then, not surprisingly to her or Florence, he wrapped his arms around her and started kissing her again. But then, George suddenly stopped.
“Aw!” he cried out as he stomped his feet again.
“What is it?” asked Louise.
“I gotta go to the bathroom,” he complained, and then he walked into their front bathroom, pouting and stomping his feet all the way. Florence laughed and shook her head, and again, Louise barely contained her laughter and rolled her eyes.
“Ms. Jefferson, I got to tell you somethin’. When I came out of my bedroom and was walkin’ through the living room to get to the kitchen a little while ago, I couldn’t help but overhear some of your conversation with Mr. Jefferson. I just have to tell you, the way you handled everything with him was really amazing. How did you know that being a little firmer with him this time around would work?”
Louise knowingly smiled and replied, “Because I know my men, Florence. Ever since I first fell in love with George, I’ve had this real sense of instinct when it comes to him. And it was the same way with Lionel when he was born. Somehow, I’ve always had this kind of feeling or voice in the back of my head, intuition, whatever you want to call it, that’s told me when George and Lionel needed me to be gentler with them, when maybe they were just down about something and needed me to give them some encouragement, and when they needed me to be more firm with them and give them an iron fist, or sometimes just a small kick in the rear to get them going.
“Ever since George read my old diary from Harlem, that little voice in my head’s been telling me that I needed to be extremely gentle and tender and understanding with him, so I’ve been trying my best to do all of that and give him what I thought he really needed from me. I was actually going to try to do that again after George went into his whole speech about why he didn’t think it would be fair for him to let his mind leave Harlem, but all of the sudden, that instinctive voice inside of me just snapped and started telling me that the time for being soft and gentle with him was over, that the time had now come for me to start being a little more firm with him. I’ll admit it wasn’t easy for me because I still really wanted to be gentle, but now I’m glad I listened to my instinct because as you overheard, it worked.”
Florence smiled and then suddenly she, too, gave Louise a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and she told her, “You know somethin’, Ms. Jefferson? Mr. Jefferson’s right. You are priceless.”
“Oh, Florence,” Louise said with a big smile, and then she pulled Florence back into another hug.

Chapter Nine
That Sunday, George and Louise went together to church, which of course was something they hadn’t done in quite a while. Louise had gone with Florence a good bit, but George had been a no-show the vast majority of the time. Ever since George had gotten saved though, he’d been attending services faithfully, and the pastor and the other church members definitely noticed a humongous change in his overall attitude. While he’d only gone to church with Louise and Florence on rare occasions before his conversion, when he had attended services with them, he’d proven himself to be an impossible soul to forget with his overbearing mind-set and big mouth, not to mention his obsession with money and the business, which was clear by how little money he put in the collection plate, in addition to one of his business cards he did put in it. When George walked in the sanctuary with Louise and Florence, everybody was now glad to see him there, whereas before, when they’d seen him, they’d practically groaned outwardly as well as inside.
After Louise, George, and Florence had taken their seats, a couple of minutes later, another unexpected soul came walking into the sanctuary, and George noticed a real light come into Florence’s eyes as she smiled. In the next moment he turned his head to see what she was looking at, and lo and behold, it was Mr. Bentley walking down the church aisle to their pew. Florence, who was sitting at the end of the pew next to the aisle, stood up and greeted him.
“Hey, Harry,” she whispered as she gave him a big hug. “I knew I’d wear you down and get you to start comin’ back to church eventually. I’m so glad to see you.”
“Well Florence, you can be pretty persuasive,” Bentley replied in a hushed tone.
“Come on; come on. Sit down here with us.”
“Thank you,” he whispered, and then George nodded his head to the right, signaling Louise that he wanted her to scoot further down the pew so he could give Bentley room to sit next to Florence.
“What’d I tell ya, Weez?” George whispered in Louise’s ear.
“George, leave them alone about it. It’s their business and not ours and you promised you’d stay out of it, remember?” Louise whispered back.
“I’m just sayin’, Weez,” George persisted.
“Shh!” Louise shushed him, and then several moments later, services began.
When church let out ten minutes after noon, George, Louise, and Florence were about to go to a nearby restaurant to get some lunch, and of course Florence didn’t want to be rude to Harry, so she asked him to join them. And when she did, George suddenly said that he didn’t like the idea of them going out to eat because he didn’t want to expose Louise to the temptation of all the unhealthy foods the other customers might be eating, and he insisted on going home with Louise and eating lunch in their apartment. Then he reached for his wallet and took out enough money to pay for lunch and slapped it in Florence’s hand.
“Here you lovebirds go,” George told her, and Louise rolled her eyes at what he said. “Have yourselves a nice, romantic little Sunday lunch date. On me,” and then he winked and walked off with Louise to hail them a cab.
“Lovebirds?” said Bentley.
“Romantic little Sunday lunch date?” said Florence. Then they both shrugged and walked the short distance it was from the church to the restaurant and ate lunch.
While their lunch together wasn’t all that romantic, they did have a nice afternoon together, simply enjoying each other’s company. And for that record, so did George and Louise, although for them of course, there was plenty of romance involved despite the fact that they still couldn’t be sexually active yet.
That Sunday evening was calm, relaxed, and pretty uneventful for them all, and both the Jeffersons and Florence got a very good night’s sleep that night. But unfortunately, that following Monday morning at Zion, things got quite turbulent. There were several more kids like Veronica who had taken Louise’s absence almost as hard as she had. George gave her heck for it, but for the next four days, Louise really worked her tail off with those children, and she didn’t care how late she had to stay or how hard it was for her to devote the kind of time to each child that she wanted to. Even though it had been extremely tough on her, she was determined to be there for each and every child who had suffered the worst impact from her absence. There was one night when Louise didn’t even leave to go home until close to midnight, although George, naturally, had stayed there with her. George pleaded and begged, and at one time even yelled at Louise a little bit, but no matter how hard he tried, he simply could not convince her to stop pushing herself so hard, and to say that that worried him sick was a big understatement.
That Friday morning, after talking to several other volunteers about some minor issues that had come up, she simply couldn’t take it anymore and she told one of them to give Marco a message from her, which was a single word: rescue, which was an old kind of coded communication between them. Whenever things got to be too much for one of them and they felt like they were starting to break down emotionally and the other one wasn’t around, they’d send one of the volunteers to find the other person and deliver the one-word message, and they’d drop everything they were doing right then and come to their rescue, at least in an emotional sense. Louise assured the young man she was talking to, who in fact was one of the newer volunteers there, that Marco would know what it meant. As he walked off to find Marco, Louise walked to her quarters.
Ordinarily, Louise found walking into her own designated quarters, which were right next to Olivia’s, to be a rather delightful and relaxing thing. She herself had chosen how to decorate her home away from home at Zion, and the living room, bathroom, and bedroom were all a beautiful mixture of blue, green, and purple. It was practically like walking into an enchanted blue-green forest.
But that morning, of course, Louise could have cared less how beautiful her surroundings were or how good her taste in interior decorating was. She never felt more like she was coming apart at the seams inside than she did right now. She knew she was really beginning to lose control of herself and her emotions, and that was a feeling that terrified her right down to the bone. She was Zion’s leader, protector, and physical and emotional provider, and she knew that if the other volunteers and the children couldn’t look to her for strength and guidance and leadership, the entire city would be impaired in a lot of ways. She was their captain and the volunteers were her crew, and she knew how damaging it would be for her crew if they had a captain they felt they honestly couldn’t trust to handle the tough and stressing situations and keep it together and keep the city running.
“I got here as fast as I could,” Marco’s voice interrupted her thoughts. Louise had a mahogany desk and chair situated in the entrance hall to her quarters, and Marco found her resting her upper body weight on her arms and wrists with her wrists and hands on top of the desk, with her head hung low, looking as though the entire world was about to cave in on her. “What is it, Louise? What’s the matter?”
“Marco, in all the years we’ve been working with each other here, how many times a year have you known me to take one of my cry days?”
“Usually only once or twice, although I think there was one year you allowed yourself to take three,” he answered her honestly.
“I just took a cry day recently, about three months ago.”
Marco put his hand on her shoulder and said, “You’re needing another one, aren’t you?”
“I don’t understand what’s happening to me inside these days. You know that I’ve always been able to cope with the hard emotional demands of this job. Stress is part of the package if you’re going to be a Zion volunteer. It just simply comes with it. It’s a part of life here, and I always understood that. And, I was always able to cope with the tough emotional demands this job made on me in the past. I was able to handle it all without letting any of the volunteers or any of the children here see that I was in any pain. They were able to look to me for the leadership and the strength they needed.
“But now, after just spending a few days here with the children, seeing what my heart attack and my absence from here has done to them, I feel like I’m about to fall apart and completely lose my mind. I feel like no matter how hard I try, I just can’t keep it together the way I used to, and that makes me so scared. I love everyone here so much. Zion means more to me than I could ever really put into words, my kids here mean more to me than I could ever put into words, and seeing so many of them losing faith in me because of this the way they have is just killing me. They’ve lost so much progress on account of me, and I can’t stand that. And I feel like, from an emotional standpoint anyway, that I’m so much weaker than I used to be. Things like this happened before. I was never absent for an extended period of time, but with the children’s therapy, it’s very often two steps forward, one step back. The difference is, I knew to expect it and somehow, I was always able to handle it before. Now, I can’t shake the feeling that not only have I let all my kids here down, but also that when things get rough and we have setbacks like this, I’m not emotionally capable of really handling it anymore. I feel so weak inside all of the sudden, like I really am about to just completely fall apart, and I hate myself so much for that, because the last thing on God’s green earth these kids and volunteers need is for me to start falling apart and for me to not be strong enough to handle my job here and be there for them anymore. I need to be strong again, Marco, like I used to be. I need to feel strong again inside, not like this. I need to be the kind of leader who can always be strong and be there for her people in all the ways they need her to be. I can’t stand the thought of my kids here feeling like they can’t trust me or depend on me anymore, like I’m too weak inside to handle doing my work here anymore. Honestly Marco, what on earth is happening to me? What’s wrong with me? Why am I so weak now? Why am I about to just start losing it and be completely falling apart? I mean, yes, I know my heart attack was a trying experience for me, but I’m fine now. It’s over and done with and it’s all behind me. Why can’t my crazy, jumbled-up emotions understand that?”
“A trying experience?” Marco said in utter disbelief. “Louise, living with George Jefferson on a daily basis before he got saved and truly became a Christian is a ‘trying experience.’ Getting a flat tire and getting stranded by the side of the road is a ‘trying experience.’ Stubbing your toe is a momentarily ‘trying experience.’ Your heart attack was way more than a ‘trying experience.’ Don’t you get it? Don’t you understand what an absolutely enormous thing this is? Don’t you understand? Louise…you almost died. You need to step back and think about those very words for a second. You could have died. As a matter of fact, for a brief instant in time, you literally did die. For one moment, you actually died. And you’re standing here wondering why this is such an emotional time for you, why you’re having such a hard time putting on a brave face and a brave smile and pretending to everybody else that everything is okay like you used to do?
“Louise, quite honestly, I have never in my more than half a century of living known another soul as ridiculously hard on herself as you always are. Five weeks ago, you were lying clinically dead on your apartment floor. Since then, after giving yourself all of about two seconds’ worth of recovery time, you come barreling back through here, moving about your work at practically the speed of light just like you used to do before your heart stopped. You haven’t given yourself a single nanosecond, even, to stop and just let the seriousness of it all sink in for you. Don’t you see it, my old friend? You can never truly be there for all our children emotionally until you truly deal with the emotional impact of your heart attack first. What you’re feeling, what is happening to you right now, is not a manifestation of weakness of any kind. I can’t believe you just said that about yourself a minute ago. Do you seriously not have a clue, even the slightest understanding at all, how much strength it takes for a person to even survive emotionally through the kind of hell you endured all those years ago, and move on with her life and keep going inside without succumbing to utter depression or insanity, not to mention the kind of strength it took to establish Zion at all in the first place? Don’t you get it, how unbelievably strong you had to be to keep Zion going all these years while protecting an egotistical jerk and taking care of him on top of taking care of this city every single day? And now, here you are, barely three weeks out of the hospital, trying to take on the cares and concerns of hundreds of other people, when I don’t believe the full emotional impact of your heart attack has even hit you yet. You are not falling apart in any way. The only thing you’re doing is what you’ve done here all along, which is working yourself way too hard. The only thing you’re doing is beginning to feel the natural, overwhelming emotions that any human being, no matter how tough or strong they are, would normally be feeling.
“And we both know it is not too soon for you to get away from here and give yourself a cry day if you need to take one. As a matter of fact, I think that would be the best possible thing you could do right now. You should take some time away for yourself, to let these perfectly natural, understandable emotions begin to come out like they need to. As a matter of fact, you really ought to take more than just a single day. I think you need at least another week or two off to begin to really deal with this like you need to and to get the kind of rest we both know you are badly in need of.”
After Marco said this Louise let out a sigh, but while she was still clearly upset, her body looked considerably less tense than it had when he’d first come into her quarters a minute ago.
“Marco, it’s amazing the way you were able to just come in here and figure all of that out about me in two seconds flat. It almost gives me the creeps, the way you seem to know me even better than I know myself a lot of the time. Somehow, you always end up telling me exactly what I need to hear. Thank you. Now that I think about it, I believe you’re right. I probably should take a cry day after all. But given the children’s reactions to my absence, I don’t dare take more than one day off or they’ll be convinced I’ve abandoned them again. And besides, even if I didn’t have that issue to worry about, you know I could never live with myself if I took more than one cry day at a time anyway.”
“Uh huh, and it’s that way of thinking that led you to having your heart attack in the first place. After working here and being under the kind of stress you’ve had to endure here for so many years, it all finally started catching up to you and your blood pressure started going through the ceiling. You ended up damaging your heart because you wouldn’t take enough time to take care of yourself. Working in a situation like this day in and day out five or six days a week requires far more than one or two cry days a year and I think you know that. As for the children who are having a hard time with your absence, this is something that’s part of everyday life, Louise. People need to go away to other places and do other things and be away for a while sometimes, and even though it’ll be tough on them at first, they’ve got to learn that your health simply won’t permit you to live and work here every second of every day. Sure it’ll be hard for them at first but over time, as they begin to see you leave here for a day or two and then come back to them, they will learn that your temporary absence from here does not equal abandonment.”
“Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one, Marco, but I do appreciate how concerned you always are about me. That means so much. But you know better than anyone that trust is the name of the game around here. It is one of the most difficult things in the world to do, to help one of our children learn to truly trust again. There’s nothing about my work here that’s more important, that means more to me than earning our children’s trust. Maybe I will try to give myself a little more time away in the future, but now’s simply not the right time to start doing that, not when their faith in me has already been shaken so badly. But in the meantime, as for right now anyway, I’ll go home and pack a bag and make some hotel reservations. Since today’s Friday, I guess I’ll be taking an entire cry weekend and not just a cry day like I usually do.”
“That’s a good idea. And yes, I do wish you’d take more time for yourself besides just this one weekend, but I’d better quit while I’m ahead, because I know how stubborn you can be.”
“That’s quite true,” Louise told Marco with a knowing smile, and then she gave him a big hug.
“You want to just run on home and start packing and let me talk to George for you?”
“Please. I don’t feel up to explaining all this to him right now. I just want to take off and check into my hotel room and start getting this whole mess out of my system.”
“I understand, dear. Don’t worry. Just leave it all to me.”
“Many thanks,” Louise said after the hug ended. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here.”
“Well me not being here for you is the last thing in the world you ever have to worry about.”
“I know,” she responded with smile, and then she left her quarters and returned to the above-ground world and took a taxi home, while Marco searched for George. Thankfully, it didn’t take him very long to track him down. He’d actually been in the conference room discussing the financial side of Zion with all the volunteers who were in charge of handling all of the city’s money issues. He’d actually come up with some very helpful ideas and suggestions that they all deeply appreciated. Even though George had always used his business and financial skills for his own selfish reasons in the past, now, he was actually proving himself to be a pretty big asset in the world of Zion. Marco listened intently for several more minutes and even he, who liked George Jefferson the least of practically all human beings alive, was slightly impressed with the way he was using his business expertise now.
But it wasn’t too long before their unofficial meeting finally did draw to a close, and when it did, Marco turned his mind back to what was going on with Louise, and he told George, “Stick around for a couple of minutes and take a seat, George. You’re about to get your next lesson in Weez-ology.” Marco had already been explaining several little habits and mannerisms that Louise had and what they all meant when she did them, but this was going to be George’s first lesson in the bigger concepts of Louise.
“Sure thing,” George replied, and then he walked over to the table with Marco and they sat down next to each other, Marco sitting at the end of the table closest to the door and George sitting directly in front of him in the first chair on the right side. “So what’s the lesson gonna be today?”
“Today, we’re covering a much more important chapter in Weez-ology. Over the past week or so I’ve been teaching you minor concepts, mostly, but this chapter covers one of the much bigger concepts.”
“Okay, terrific. I’m anxious to hear about it. What’s this chapter gonna cover?”
“Today’s chapter is going to cover something called a ‘cry day.’”
“What’s a cry day?”
“You’ve been familiar with Zion; you’ve been hanging around here an awful lot over these past few weeks, so I know how aware you must be of the kind of stress Louise is constantly under.”
“Am I ever. When I think about all she’s been through with her health, and then I think about how stressful things can get for her here a lot of the time, how much pressure she’s always under, the kind of responsibility she’s got weighing on her shoulders all the time, it worries me sick, quite honestly.”
“I never thought I’d live to see the day when I’d agree with something George Jefferson said, but this time around, I actually do. It worries me every bit as much as it worries you, but in the end, there’s only so much you or I can do for her, and when we reach that point where there’s nothing more we can say to her to get her to slow down, we just have to put it all in God’s hands and ask Him to take care of her where we can’t. Believe me, I do understand just how hard that is, but I’ve had to do it from day one where Zion and Louise are concerned.
“Anyway, with all that Louise has got on her, all the pain and broken hearts she’s trying so desperately hard to bring healing to all the time, obviously, she has times in her life when all the pain she sees here every day really starts to get to her. And when that happens, when Louise begins to feel like she can’t take much more here emotionally, she’ll pack a bag for herself and go to a nice hotel in town and stay there overnight. And after she checks in, she locks her door and curls up in bed, and she just lets herself cry for a day. It’s her own special, private way of releasing all the pain she sees here all the time, not to mention the fear. Being responsible for so many lives, children’s lives at that, of course creates a lot of anxiety in her life. In addition to needing to release all the pain the children here are going through all the time, taking a day for herself to get away from the world, away from everybody else, and simply spending it crying also helps her get at least some of all her worrying out of her system. Whenever Louise does go away like this, she calls it taking a cry day for herself. In the past, she’s usually only allowed herself to take two cry days a year, although there was one year she actually let herself take three. I always felt she needed to do things like this more often. I’ve always wished she’d take more cry days for herself, but you know how Louise is. It’s practically a miracle that she’d even take two cry days a year in the past.”
“Now why doesn’t that surprise me?” George said.
“Exactly. Anyway, the reason I’m explaining Louise’s cry day ritual to you now is because I just had a talk with her, and she’s really beginning to feel the emotional impact of her heart attack, the bad effect her long absence had on some of the children here, all of it. And she’s on her way home now to pack an overnight bag and take a cry day for herself. She didn’t feel like explaining this entire thing to you, so I agreed to do it for her.”
“Oh, man, I’d better get out of here so I can catch up to her before she leaves,” George said as he got up, and Marco quickly stood up with him.
“George, do you really think that’s wise?” Marco questioned just before George was about to walk out the door, and then George turned to face him again.
“Well of course it’s wise,” he replied. “Why wouldn’t it be wise? I can’t let Weezy go through that all by herself. She really needs some support right now. More important, I think she really needs a husband right now, and I am wearing the wedding ring, you know.”
“Your heart’s in the right place, George. I don’t doubt that at all. I understand that you want to help her through this and be there for her as much as you possibly can. We all want that where Louise is concerned. But there’s one thing going on here that I don’t believe you fully understand yet.”
“What’s that?”
“Louise has a very strong need for privacy, for two reasons. One, being the strong leader she’s always been, it can be extremely difficult for her for anyone, even her own husband, to see her when she’s not at her best. Two, you may not have realized this about Louise yet, but when she seeks privacy and is able to find it, that privacy means more to her than either you or I could even imagine. And when you stop to think about how many times, in how many ways, on how many levels Louise was so viciously violated in those unspeakable years, is it really any wonder that she values her privacy so much? If you try to find out where she’s gone and if you try to go after her, in the end, you could wind up hurting her far more than you help her. If you try to intrude on what has normally been a very private event in Louise’s life, it might cause her to feel like she can’t trust you to give her the privacy she needs, and no marriage can be healthy without genuine trust. Your marriage has come an incredibly long way in such a short time, and while it’s true that I’m not exactly your number one fan, Louise means the world to me and I’ve seen how happy the rebirth of your marriage has made her, and I’d never want to see anything endanger that. I don’t want the two of you to stop making the great progress you’ve been making together. I’m not saying definitely do not go. It does have to be your decision, but you did an awful lot of damage to your marriage through the years whenever you’ve just spoken or acted out of pure impulse. Don’t follow her on impulse, George. Sit down for a minute when you get home. Ask God’s advice. Ask Him to put it in your heart what He thinks you need to do. Think this through. Think about what you’re really doing before you go and do it this time. Be more careful this time around.”
“I didn’t even think about any of that, but you’re right. Thanks. You know that I ain’t exactly your number one fan either, but for the record, I can see why Weezy picked you to be her right-hand-man around here. I see why she trusts you so much. You do seem to have a real talent for showing good judgment about things.”
Marco shrugged and said, “It’s just experience. As you keep learning and growing and maturing in your own walk with the good Lord, you’ll begin showing better and better judgment yourself.”
“I hope so. And maybe I shouldn’t be so anxious to want to go after her, but I can’t help but think about how supportive Weezy was when I first read her old diary and found out the truth. I was devastated. I’d managed to keep a lot of it inside while Weezy was in the hospital but when we finally got her home, I just started completely breakin’ down, and she was right there. She hadn’t even been home from the hospital a full twenty-four hours yet and already, when it was getting to be too much for me and I was totally losin’ it in front of her, she was right there, man. I should have been the one taking care of her, not the other way around. But no matter how little I deserved it, she was determined to be there for me. I just can’t believe that God would have me stay behind here doing nothing while Weezy’s off locked away and cryin’ in some hotel room all by herself. I ain’t buyin’ it.”
“I guess I made a mistake when I came to the conclusion you were acting on pure impulse. I apologize. It sounds as though you really have thought this thing through after all, and you do have a good point. But if you do manage to catch Louise before she leaves and you ask her to let you be a part of her cry day and she says no, don’t try to force her to change her mind.”
“I understand. I won’t. After all she’s been through, I’d never try to force something on her that she didn’t want and make her feel like she couldn’t trust me to respect her wishes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really need to get goin’.”
“Of course. I’ll see you later,” Marco said as George began swiftly walking out of Zion.
George had been a few minutes behind Louise, but he was fortunate enough to catch up with her just as she was walking out their apartment door with her overcoat on and her beige leather overnight bag draped over her shoulder.
“Oh, Weez, I’m so glad I caught you,” George said the moment after he got off the elevator.
“I’m assuming Marco explained everything.”
“He did. He told me what’s goin’ on.”
“Good,” Louise said with a nod, and then she leaned in and gave George a quick kiss. “In that case, I’ll see you Sunday evening. I love you.”
“Wait a minute. Hold it a second. First of all, are we alone? Is Florence here?”
“No. She said this morning she’d be out doing some grocery shopping. Why?”
“Let’s just go inside and talk a little while.”
“George, I don’t have the time. I really need to go.”
“It’ll only take a minute, Weezy. I promise. Just come inside and sit down with me for one minute. Please, sweetheart. Just one minute.”
“Alright,” Louise sighed as she followed George inside. They actually didn’t even bother to take their coats off before they sat down together on the couch, although Louise, of course, had set her overnight bag down at her feet. “What is it, George?”
“I know you’ve always had to get through your cry days alone in the past, but it’s not like that anymore. I’m here with you now. I don’t understand why you felt the need to have Marco tell me about this while trying to slip away unnoticed. And okay, I was a self-absorbed, completely self-centered jerk before so in those days, sadly, it probably was all too easy for you to slip away without me noticing, but I am not him anymore, Weezy. And believe me, when you try to leave our home now, I do notice. And I don’t just notice your absence anymore; I worry.”
“I appreciate that, George, but there’s really nothing to worry about. I just have an awful lot of emotion building up inside me that I need to get out of my system. It’s simply a part of my life at Zion. It comes with the territory in a job like mine. And for me, when times like these come when I need to just sit down and cry all of this out of my system, I can’t do it in front of another person. I can’t stand the thought of anyone else seeing me that way, even if it’s my own husband. I can’t really put this into words, but for me, for some reason, this whole process I go through in one of my cry days is…something extremely private. I’m just not comfortable letting myself go like that in front of someone else. This is something I need to get through by myself, on my own.”
“Just like I got through my own breakdown about all of this by myself, on my own when you first came home from the hospital, huh?” George said rather sarcastically, but it was obvious he meant it in a loving and not disrespectful kind of way.
“George, that’s very different,” Louise said as she put her overnight bag strap around her shoulder and stood up again, and of course George stood up with her.
“How is it so different?” he persisted.
“Because you were learning about Zion and my past and everything for the first time, so it was no wonder it was hitting you so hard. You’re a rookie at this, George. No one could have expected you to get through something like that entirely on your own. But as for me, I’m a pro. I’ve been at this for many years and I know how to handle it, and it’ll make it much easier for me if I can just get through this alone right now.”
“Okay, sweetheart. Okay. If that’s the way you’d rather do this, then I’ll respect that. But I want you to know I’m here. Always. And you don’t have to be afraid of letting me see you during one of your cry days. If you’re worried that if you really start to let go in front of me that you’ll lose my respect in any way, I promise you, you couldn’t be more wrong.”
Louise shook her head and said, “What you just told me really does mean an awful lot to me, but I can’t let this happen, in front of you or anyone, at least not yet. I’m not ready.”
Then in that next moment, Louise began to feel the overwhelming urge to start crying, and without even thinking, she put her hand on her chest and started trying to take in some deep breaths and stop herself from crying. And naturally, the instant Louise started holding her chest, trying to stop herself from giving in to the sobs that were building up inside, George panicked.
“Weezy, baby, sit down,” he quickly told her as he got her to sit down next to him on the couch again. “What is it? What’s wrong? Why are you holding your chest, sweetheart? What is it? It’s not your heart, is it?”
Thankfully for George, Louise immediately shook her head no. Then she leaned forward and closed her eyes for several moments and took more deep breaths.
“Weezy, you’re starting to scare me,” George said as he put his arm around her shoulders. “Just tell me what it is, sweetheart. Please. Just tell me what’s wrong. Let me help.”
“For some reason,” Louise responded in practically a gasping tone of voice, “it’s much harder for me to control than it usually is. I can usually…I can usually keep myself under control until I get to my hotel room and start to…start to let it all go in private,” she explained as she fought desperately hard against the overwhelming urge to cry. “George, I have to go. Now,” she said as she stood up.
Of course, George stood up with her and told her, “No, Weezy, you don’t have to go. Please. I don’t want you to leave,” he said as he anxiously followed Louise to the door. “Not now. Please don’t go. I’ll respect your decision if you do decide to go away now. I won’t try to force you to change your mind, but I’ll sure beg for you to.”
Just as Louise was about to turn the doorknob and rush out to the elevator, before she even knew what hit her, the dam finally broke and her overwhelming emotions began running out of her like a flood. She didn’t say it out loud but in her mind, she cursed inside as she was suddenly overtaken by sobs.
“I don’t believe this. I’m not going to make it, George,” she gasped.
“It’s okay, Weezy. It’s okay. Please, sweetheart, just let me help you. Let me be there for you, the way that you were there for me. Please, baby. Please. Don’t fight it so much. Don’t fight it. Don’t fight me. Don’t push me away. Not now, Weezy,” George said as he was rubbing her back. He desperately wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her, but he was too afraid to try it at the moment, afraid that if he did try to hold her, she would feel like he was attempting to force her to let all her emotions go in front of him when she still didn’t feel ready to. Now that he finally knew her as well as he did, he completely understood how direly important it was that Louise not feel like he was trying to force her into something she didn’t truly want to do. It took every ounce of restraint George had in his soul, but even though refraining from putting his arms around her was one of the hardest things he’d ever done, he managed to. “Please, sweetheart. Let me help you. Please,” he whispered.
“I’m scared,” Louise gasped in a shaky voice.
“Baby, I’m right here. I’d never let anything happen to you. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You don’t have to afraid. You don’t have to be scared. I’m right here with you. Just let go, sweetheart. It’s alright.”
Louise took in yet another deep breath, and despite George’s loving words, it was obvious she still feared releasing all of her emotions in front of him and was still desperately fighting against what was happening to her.
“Let go, Louise,” George told her, this time in a deeper, firmer tone of voice. “I promise I’ll take care of you.”
At long last, Louise grabbed onto George like he was a life raft that had been tossed to her as she’d been fighting drowning in a raging river. In many ways, on that day, he actually was.
“It’s alright,” he whispered in her ear as he continued rubbing her back. “Just keep holding onto me. I’m right here. Don’t be afraid. Just let me hold you. Just cry. Just cry as much as you need to. Just cry it all out. It’s okay. I’m here. You’re right here with me. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re safe. I’ll keep you safe. I promise I will. Don’t be scared. There’s not anything to be afraid of anymore, sweetheart. I promise. You’re safe. I’ll take care of you. Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared. You’re alright. Everything’s okay. You’ll be alright. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. It’s okay to let go. It’s nothing to be afraid of.” George then kissed Louise on the forehead, and again several times on the cheek. Of course he wanted to kiss her on the lips, but he knew how badly she needed to cry for a while and he wanted to give her enough of a chance to get it all out of her system before he did finally kiss her on the mouth. “I love you, gorgeous,” he whispered. “I love you so much. It’s alright. I’m here. I’m right here. I’ll get you through this, Weezy, just like you got me through it. I promise I will. I’m right here with you and I’m not going anywhere. You’re not alone. Not anymore. And never again. Never again, Louise. Do you hear me? You are not ever going through another cry day like this alone. Never. Never, ever again. Do you understand? Whenever you get to feeling like this again, I want you to come and find me as soon as possible, and I want you to let me help you. I want you to let me in, Weezy. Please. Will you please do that for me?”
Louise paused for a moment and took a second to think it over, but she eventually nodded “yes” and George kissed her on the forehead again and kept holding her in his embrace.
“Thank you,” he whispered, and then he continued to rub her back and simply hold onto her for several more moments. But then Louise finally regained enough of her composure to be able to speak again, and she started to try to back out of his arms.
“No, don’t back away,” George said softly as he tried to pull her back into his embrace again.
“No, George, you don’t understand. I’m not trying to back away. I just really don’t want us to be standing here with me crying my eyes out like this when Florence gets back, or she’ll want to know what’s going on and I simply don’t feel like explaining everything to her right now.”
“Of course, sweetheart. I understand. Come on. We’ll go to our room and you can lie down. I’ll lie down with you.”
Louise nodded and told him, “I’d like that. I’d like that very much. Thank you, George. Thank you so much for all of this. I was so scared for you or anybody to see me like that. I guess I was afraid that if I really let you watch me fall apart the way I did today, you’d think I was weak. But I’ve been so used to being the strong one all the time that I don’t think I realized how hard it actually is to get through days like this alone. It’s so much easier with you here.”
“Oh, Weez,” George said quietly as he pulled her into another hug. “Don’t thank me. After all you’ve done for me through the years, I love being there for you for a change. I really do. And you are not weak. You have more truly unbelievable strength in the tip of your little finger than I’ve ever had in my whole body. It’s true that before God changed me the way that He did, whenever I’d see a woman cry, I did believe that she was being weak. But I am not him anymore. I know better now, and I promise you, I am never making that mistake again.”
“I know you’re not,” Louise whispered. And then in the next instant, she felt yet another sob coming on, and George could easily read it in her expression that something was happening.
“Baby, what is it?” he asked, but then he knew. “You need to cry again, don’t you?”
Louise nodded and said, “It’s happening again, George.”
George quickly took Louise’s overnight bag and set it down and then helped her off with her coat. Then he put his arm around Louise’s waist and held her close to him as he started walking with her to their bedroom, and he told her, “Okay, sweetheart. Don’t worry. Don’t be scared. I’ll get you to our room, and when you get everything all cried out, you can rest. I’ll be right here. You’re safe. I’ll help you. You can trust me.”
“I know I can,” Louise said hoarsely as she walked alongside George to their room. While she did find the entire process of her cry days unnerving still, even after all these years, as well as exhausting, in an odd sort of way, she was incredibly happy as George held onto her and helped her to their bedroom. It felt so wonderful to be so greatly loved and respected by the man who meant the most to her in the entire world, and it felt even more wonderful to not have to suffer through days like today all alone anymore. And on George’s end, while witnessing Louise going through such hell emotionally really did tear him up inside, and while he was terribly worried about her, hearing her say that she knew she could trust him now also brought him a kind of happiness and pure joy, even, that he’d never experienced before.

Chapter Ten
There were several children living in Zion who weren’t there because they’d been kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery and rescued by Louise and her team, but were in fact there because of child abuse and had had to be removed from their homes. Those children were foster children placed in the temporary care of Louise and the Help Center and Zion volunteers until suitable adoptive homes could be found for them. However, the vast majority of children there were only there because Louise and her fellow rescue volunteers had saved them and gotten them out of that evil world. Zion’s greatest enemy besides the very devil himself was a single man who owned and operated a child prostitution ring in Manhattan, a man who’d been an expert at leading a double life. In his “official” life, he was a successful business-owner running a local chain of hotels, a man who appeared to be a quite reputable corporate executive. But when he showed his true colors in a different life, he was cruel, brutal, merciless, and tragically, he was pure evil. If he’d ever had any sense of a conscience in his lifetime, it was now long gone, forever. He was always trying to stay one step ahead of Louise and her crew, always changing the whereabouts of the children he had kidnapped, but while he did succeed in eluding them a lot of the time, there were also many times when Louise and the volunteers working under her really threw a monkey wrench into the works for them. They had rescued children from other child prostitution rings before, but his was the biggest and deadliest, so it was obvious the Zion volunteers focused a lot of their time, energy, and efforts on his “organization” much more than on the others. The name of this man was Bill Kronan.
While it was true that George did have a lot of connections in the business world, Kronan was the ultimate expert in hiding where the bulk of his money was coming from and making it all appear legitimate. Only an expert detective with many years of experience could have picked up on it and found out what kind of monster Kronan really was. But even though Louise was not an FBI detective or expert, she was one of a handful of people who understood perfectly just how evil Bill Kronan could actually be. It was his name Louise had last heard George speak in that instant before she had her heart attack. She begged and pleaded with George in the hospital not to agree to sign that coveted contract that would have made him millions, but despite all she’d just been through with her heart attack and open-heart surgery, for a short while, George remained determined to go through with it. Even after coming within mere inches of losing Louise, the only thing George had been able to see at that time was dollar signs. It was then, after entire decades of protecting George from the agony of the truth, after much painful hesitation, that Louise finally realized she could remain silent no longer, that the only way to truly protect George was, at long last, to stop protecting him. When Louise had learned after her surgery that Olivia had made the decision to return to the family in the above-ground world, she’d known then that it was officially only a matter of time before she’d have no choice but to tell George the truth about everything. But she’d still stalled as much as she possibly could. When George had remained stubborn about going through with the business deal with Kronan, though, Louise had finally been backed into a corner and left with no other choice besides the most painful one. Quite obviously, their entire lives and marriage had never been the same since that extremely difficult decision and turning point.
And even though it had ended up being one of the greatest miracles and blessings Louise had ever experienced, that Monday morning, she found herself almost completely lamenting that decision. Of course she didn’t genuinely regret it. She understood that she’d simply done what had to be done and she knew it had been the right choice, regardless of how painful it had been. But as she sat in the conference room alone that Monday morning, impatiently drumming her fingers on the table waiting for Marco to meet her, she came closer to regretting telling George the truth about everything than she ever had, because now, she was faced with a similarly painful decision, and she was already feeling tired just thinking about it. The thought of all the emotional battles she’d have to fight against not only Marco now, but George as well, really drained her. She thoroughly hated it whenever she had to make a choice that she knew her second-in-command and old friend wouldn’t support. But, while Marco had proven himself to be a very capable leader in Louise’s absence and had always been instrumental in helping her run the city, in the end, it was still Louise who was Zion’s leader. She was still commander-in-chief. She was the one who was the captain, and no matter how badly she knew that now both Marco and George would be fighting her, she had to do what she knew in her heart was best for her people. Whether she liked it or not, she thoroughly understood that sometimes, being a leader could be a very lonely job.
Marco finally opened the door and came inside a moment later and said, “Hey, Louise. You wanted to see me?” About an hour after Louise and George had arrived at Zion that day, Louise had discovered something troubling, and she’d asked one of the volunteers to find Marco and meet her in the conference room.
“I did, Marco,” Louise replied in a very serious tone. “Please have a seat,” she said as she motioned to the chair across the table from hers, and Marco took it.
“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly, but he had a gnawing suspicion deep down that he didn’t like at all.
“I’ve just been talking with April and Simon and Andrew. And I have just learned that apparently, a new rescue mission is in the works in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Why wasn’t I told?”
Marco let out a big sigh and answered, “Because I know you too well, Louise.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I know how unreasonable you can be sometimes when you let that absolutely gigantic heart of yours run away with you. You’ve always been a magnificent leader, Louise. This entire city has flourished under your years of leadership, and that is largely because as a leader, you’ve always made decisions based on what your heart tells you over what your head says. A lot of times, your heart and your head are in agreement, which is another reason why Zion has constantly thrived under your leadership. Your heart is powerful, and your head is very sharp, and when they work in concert, it’s a truly wonderful combination. But whenever your heart and your head are in conflict, your heart always wins. Your heart and its selflessness and generosity and warmth and love and compassion is your greatest strength, but in times like these, it can also be your greatest weakness. I know what your heart is telling you to do, Louise, and if I know you like I think I do, you’re going to listen to what it’s saying to you and let it make this decision for you regardless of whatever argument I try to come up with. But because I love you as deeply as I do and because you’re the closest friend I’ve ever had, I’m going to try my very best to argue with you anyway, and you know that.”
“Yes, I do,” Louise quietly agreed.
“So here goes. Yes, your heart is reminding you right now that there was a similar time in your own life when you were being abused and violated just like these young children are. And it’s telling you that no matter what it may cost you, no matter how grave the risks may be to your health, no matter what serious chances you’d be taking with your heart, you have to do everything within your power to save them from the evil world they’re trapped in, that the risks to yourself don’t matter.”
“Well, I’ve got to hand it to you. You seem to have my heart pretty pegged down at the moment.”
“Of course I do. I’ve known you for fifteen years now. You’re my dearest friend,” he said as he put his hand over hers on the table. Louise responded by smiling and giving his hand an affectionate squeeze. “Of course I know you. You shared some of the deepest parts of yourself with me for many years, parts of yourself you didn’t even feel comfortable sharing with your own husband for the longest time.”
“Okay, smarty, if you know so much about me, then what’s my head got to say about all this?”
“It’s reminding you that with your heart surgery and recent health crisis, this is no time for heroics. It’s telling you that while you do want to rescue every hurting child in this world, there’s no way you can do that. It’s also reminding you that even though you do understandably want to help as many children as you can, you have over a hundred other children here already who still need you. And if something goes wrong out there and your heart has a bad reaction to all the stress and you make yourself sick again, you won’t be helping any child at all, and the repercussions of further heart complications could really be devastating, not just for Zion, but for all your loved ones, especially your husband.”
“You’re right. You do have a very accurate picture of the battle that was taking place inside me a little while ago.”
“Does that mean that the battle’s over now?”
“It does. Both my head and my heart made those exact same points. But then they both came together and made yet another point that you’ve missed.”
“And what point is that?” Marco asked, clearly intrigued.
“When Zion was first built and we first started working with the police doing rescue missions, I gave every rescue volunteer my sincere promise, my word, that no matter what, as long as I was able to, I would always go out into the field with them, that I would never ask them to face such a dangerous situation without me and my support. Every volunteer and every child living in Zion today is aware of the vow I’ve made. We now have a lot of volunteers on our rescue team who grew up here and have lived here and been a part of this world since they were children, and I’ve made them and each and every new volunteer we get here that exact same promise. And if I were to refuse to live up to my word and choose to stay behind and be all safe and comfortable while I’ve got children out there, incredible young men and women who are just as much my children as Lionel, who I helped to raise, then sure, I might be protecting myself and my health, but I wouldn’t be much of a leader to them anymore. Sure, I’d be safe, but as their leader, I’d be breaking my word and in essence, I’d be turning every promise I made to these children into lies. And if our volunteers here and all our dear little children witness me breaking a promise I’ve made to them, yes, they’d still have me as their leader, but I’d be a completely useless one because from that point on, they’d know that they couldn’t trust me when I give them my word that I’m going to be there for them. I’d be alive. I’d be here. I’d healthy, and I’d be safe, but I wouldn’t be a person our children could trust anymore. And I’m not about to let that happen. And if the worst should happen to me out there, we both know that in the long run, our children would be far better off knowing that I died in the line of duty, that I died keeping a promise I made to them and being worthy of their trust, than they would be if I were to remain alive having abandoned our volunteers and not staying true to my word. From my head’s point of view, it’s perfectly logical. If I selfishly try to protect myself and start breaking my promises to my crew and to my children, it would hardly make much sense to have me around as a leader anymore because everyone would know they couldn’t trust me anymore. And from my heart’s point of view, I’m doing everything I can to help more children out there who are suffering and I’m refusing to abandon the people I love.”
“Louise, I have to say it again: you are not being reasonable. You just had a heart attack for goodness sake! Do you honestly believe that nobody here understands that? You gave our volunteers your word that you would go on missions with them as long as you were able to. You seem to be omitting that one little detail.”
“I’m not omitting anything, Marco. I am able to do this now.”
“No, you’re not. You think I can’t see it in your eyes, how tired you still are at times? You do not have all your strength back yet. You still need rest. Your heart isn’t the slightest bit ready for something like this. You need more time to get your full strength back first, before you can even begin to think about rejoining our rescue missions.”
“Funny. I seem to remember someone going on about how I was so much stronger than I was giving myself credit for a couple of days ago. Do you happen to remember who that was?”
“I was talking about mental and emotional and spiritual strength, Louise. This is physical strength I’m talking about now. In all those other areas, you’re stronger than every other person here put together, but that is not the case for you physically, and you know that.”
“Don’t be too sure. It’s true that this old body of mine has been through a lot, but don’t count it out just yet. It may have been through a lot, but it can take a lot more if it has to. And besides, don’t you remember what you reminded me of in the book of Job the day before I did my first rescue mission and I was all scared and nervous? You reminded me that it says in the book of Job that it’s God who determines how long every human being will live, and that He doesn’t give us a single moment longer. It’s already been decided, Marco, how much time I’m going to have here on this earth, how much time we’re all going to have. And that means that God’s going to take me whenever He says it’s time for me to go. He’s the One who determines that, not you or me. And that means that if things should go badly for me this Thursday and the worst should happen, then I will have died in the exact moment I was supposed to, and nothing I could have done differently could have changed it. If God decides to call me Thursday night, then He’ll call me no matter where I am or what I’m doing, whether I’m doing the mission with all of you or sitting back here on my behind. And since the exact length of my lifespan has already been decided, I’m choosing to join you and the others out in the field Thursday, keeping my promises and being there for my crew.”
“You may be keeping your promises – although I don’t believe you’d be breaking them if you decided to stay behind – but you will not be a big help to our crew. You’ll be a distraction, because you know perfectly well how much we all love you here, how much you mean to all of us, and with you out there in the field with us, in the back of our minds, we’re all going to be worried sick about you. Of course we’ll put it out of our minds as best we can and focus on the job we have ahead of us, but there’ll still be a part of us deep down that’ll be worrying about how you’re doing, wondering if the stress and the tension is starting to get to you and if you’re having any problems with your heart.”
“You do make an excellent point, but Marco, that’s part of life. We all have lives outside of Zion, and we all have our share of personal problems we have to deal with. Back in the old days, I’d often have to fight to keep from getting distracted from our mission because of something stupid or hurtful George had said, some kind of fight we’d gotten into. We all have people and events that we’re worried or upset about in some area of our lives. But we’ve all had no choice but to put whatever we’re worried or upset about to the side and focus on our jobs. We’ve had to do it a lot of years, and we do have plenty of experience at it. This is no different.”
Marco let out a long sigh and said, “I think I knew all along that trying to win this debate with you was entirely hopeless. But you know I had to try.”
“I know you did,” Louise said with a smile. “And for the record, I enjoy our little debates we get into sometimes. You really make me think. Sometimes you can give my positions about things a real challenge. I enjoy a debater who can keep me on my toes the way that you do.”
“Oh please, Louise. You know as well as I do that you have pulverized me in every single debate we’ve ever had.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘pulverized.’ And what I said a second ago is the truth. There have been several times through the years that you’ve really given me a run for my money. However, I will admit that I’m glad our little debate is over now. I knew that getting through my inevitable debate with you would be the hard part. Now, I have to start getting ready for my second round in the debating ring, but I think this’ll be a little bit easier.”
“George?”
“Mm-hmm,” Louise nodded. “George has really impressed me with all the incredible strides he’s made over the past few weeks. He’s grown and matured so much, and I am so proud of him. But he still doesn’t have your level of debating skill yet, and quite frankly, after that round I just went with you, I’m glad. But I know he’s still going to give me a hard time about this. He may not be the debater you are just yet, but I know him, and I know he’s not about to make any of this easy for me.”
Marco laughed and said, “You’d better enjoy his underdeveloped debating skills while you can, because George is maturing at an exponential rate, both as a Christian and as a husband. And as a debater, I’m sure it won’t be too much time before he starts catching up to me.”
“Why Marco, what’s this? Are you actually expressing a little admiration for George now? Are you feeling alright?” Louise teased and Marco laughed again.
“Well don’t ever tell him I said this, but deep down, yes, I think I am beginning to feel a little begrudging admiration for him. For the longest time, I really couldn’t stand him because of all the pain he’d caused you through the years, but in the end, I do have to hand it to him. When George Jefferson learns his lesson about something, it stays with him. He never forgets. I’m certainly not saying that the way he behaved towards you and others all those years was right, but I do have to give him credit. He does see to it that he learns from his mistakes, and he does accept responsibility for them and he does do everything in his power to make it right again. I could never understand how George could take a remarkable lady like you for granted the way he used to all the time, and I never will understand that, but despite it all, I’m beginning to see how much that crazy little man really does love you.”
“You’re right,” Louise said softly as another smile lit her face. “He does love me, very much. I’ve never felt more reassured about that than I do now. It’s so wonderful to feel so respected and wanted and appreciated all the time. I love him so much.”
“That’s always been obvious. It’s a real breath of fresh air to finally see him making his love for you as obvious as you’ve always made your love for him. It’s nice to finally see you getting all the things you deserve from him, and you do deserve them, Louise, more than anyone.”
“Well thank you for saying that.”
“It’s just the truth.”
Louise smiled with Marco for another moment and then she told him goodbye and left the conference room and began looking for George. She assumed he’d probably be visiting with his mother, but before she reached Olivia’s quarters, she spotted April sitting in the park area by herself. And when she spotted her, her heart melted as it always did, because Louise had an extremely special place in her heart for this young woman.
April was a beautiful, lovely soul, both on the inside as well as on the outside, who was twenty-four, with long, deep red hair and deep blue eyes. The bond Louise shared with April was an old and special one. April had been the very first child Louise had rescued and brought to Zion at age ten. Louise had actually had to carry her out of danger, but she had been able to do so for the tragic reason that on top of enduring some of the most heinous abuse imaginable, she had also been severely malnourished. Louise had carried her into Zion as practically a skeleton, but thankfully, she’d responded immediately to all of Louise’s both spiritual and physical feeding and nurturing. Because of all the time she’d been so horrifically deprived of food, April’s growth had been stunted and she now barely measured at five feet tall, but what her small body lacked in size, her spirit more than made up for. April in so many ways had been the daughter Louise had never had, and Louise had in fact been the only true mother April had ever known. Louise had always been involved in much of April’s life, especially where all the important events of it had been concerned. Louise had been present at April’s college graduation, and had been April’s matron of honor when she’d gotten married a couple of years before to Simon Miller, who was actually a young black man from a very well-off family.
Simon’s parents actually didn’t have him until they were almost in their fifties and he’d been their only child. Simon’s father had suddenly died in his sleep one night at age seventy, when Simon had been twenty-one, and over the course of the following year, his mother’s health rapidly deteriorated due to grief and she died when Simon was twenty-two, and since then, all his family’s estate and money and possessions had been his. He’d met and fallen in love with April a couple of years afterwards. He’d gotten saved not long after they met, but giving his life to Christ had largely been thanks to April’s influence. Since then, Simon had wanted nothing more than to share in April’s dreams of rescuing as many hurting and abused children as possible. While he had convinced her to live in his big and beautiful estate in the above-ground world, he understood how direly important continuing in her work at Zion was to her, and that he would never be able to convince her to let go of it regardless of how dangerous it was. And since he knew better than to try to change who his wife really was, he did the next best thing and took the necessary training to be a rescue worker alongside her. Simon was now twenty-five and in charge of his father’s company and was doing incredibly well, thanks to the fact that his father’s best friend had taken over for him after his death and had given Simon all the proper guidance he’d needed. Thanks to the guidance of his father’s best friend, Simon had well secured the family’s fortune and had managed to provide a very comfortable life for himself and for April, and that greatly pleased Louise. In a lot of ways, Louise actually hated the thought of April putting herself in harm’s way just as much as Simon did, but even though she worried about April’s safety, she was still extremely happy that April had such a fine young man like Simon for a husband who both respected her and treated her like royalty, which to Louise, she always had been.
Louise walked up to April and sat down on the bench beside her and asked, “How’s it going, princess?” “Princess” had always been Louise’s special nickname for April.
“Good,” April said with a nod.
“Are you sure about that?” Louise gently asked, knowing that April really had something on her mind.
“Yeah. I’m just a bit nervous about Thursday. You know how it is.”
“Yes, I do. You’re right. This can be a very nerve-racking time. Are you sure that’s all that’s bothering you, though? I don’t know. Maybe my heart attack has messed my maternal radar up a little bit, but according to it, there’s something else that’s bothering you.”
April let out a small laugh and replied, “No, there’s nothing wrong with your maternal radar. It’s just as accurate as ever.”
“What is it?”
“I’m really mixed up inside right now. When you said that you’d be joining us on Thursday, part of me was actually really relieved to hear it. I’ve been hating myself for it ever since. You’re the only mother I’ve ever known, and you’re still recovering from a heart attack. You still have heart issues going on. You’ve often said to me over the years that you really did consider me like a daughter to you, and what kind of daughter would actually feel relieved to hear that her mother is putting herself in such danger? In a way, I really do hate it that you’re coming with us. I know I’d die if anything ever happened to you.”
“Oh, April,” Louise whispered as she put her arm around April’s shoulders.
“But in another way, I actually do feel so relieved that you’re going to be there. Don’t get me wrong. I love what I do and I’d never change it. I love rescuing children from the same kind of hell that I’d had to live through. But still, it is hard, and very scary. It can be pretty difficult to go back into the same kind of situation I used to be trapped in myself. And whenever I have gone back into it with you and the others, no matter how frightened I’ve felt, somehow, I always knew that I’d be safe as long as you were with me. You were the person who made it possible for me to get out of that terrible world. You saved my life. You gave me protection when I needed it the most, and since then, you’ve always been like some kind of guardian angel to me, nurturing me, watching out for me, protecting me. And I’ve been pretty terrified of the thought of having to go out there without my guardian angel with me to protect me.”
“Oh sweetie, I appreciate you thinking of me that way, but I’m not an angel. I’m just a person.”
April looked into Louise’s eyes and said, “You’ve always been an angel to me.”
Louise then gave April a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and told her, “And you’ve always been a little angel to me, too. When I first held you in my arms, you were the sweetest little thing. And you may be grown now, but you’re still just the sweetest little thing in this world.
“And you don’t have to be mad at yourself for feeling relieved knowing that I’ll be there with you during our next mission. It’s no wonder you’re feeling so frightened about returning to the same hellish world you barely escaped from with your life when you were ten years-old. And after going through such hell, it takes so much courage and strength to face it again, and no one can fault you for wanting there to be someone with you to protect you. It’s not wrong to feel happy that you’ll have someone going with you who loves you and wants to watch over you and keep you safe. But just remember, even if I couldn’t have agreed to go this time, even if I weren’t going to be there with you, God is always watching out for you. And I know that He’ll always be looking out for you and protecting you when I can’t.”
April looked at Louise and smiled and took her hand and said, “I love you, Louise.”
Louise almost had to fight off a tear as she brought April’s hand up to her lips and kissed it, and then she replied, “And I love you too, my dear little April. Don’t worry. Just put it all in the good Lord’s hands the way we always have. He’ll see us through. He hasn’t failed us yet.”
“I know He hasn’t.”
But as April and Louise stared at the waterfall in the park together, holding onto each other’s hands, they both felt a worrisome kind of stirring deep down in both their hearts. They both knew that God had called them both to this job and they both had clearly understood the risks and the dangers that went with it all along. But that still didn’t change the fact that the prospect of getting beaten or stabbed or shot out in the field on Thursday was hardly a pleasant possibility, and it was a possibility they understandably feared. They knew that as Christians they had to depend on the Lord and trust in Him no matter what, and they were trying very hard to override their anxious emotions that were building up inside them, but it was hardly an easy thing to accomplish. They both honestly felt in their hearts that this was their calling and that their place was alongside their fellow rescue volunteers regardless of how dangerous it was. But both women had always had a gut instinct about their jobs in Zion. Usually, despite the fears and the anxiety and the adrenaline, they knew deep down inside that everything was going to work out okay for all of them and that they would be safe. This time, however, neither woman’s intuition was giving her that reassurance. Somehow, they knew that this time, things would be very different out there, that weren’t all going to make it back in one piece. They weren’t sure who it was who wasn’t going to be returning with the rest, but April was terrified that it was Louise they were going to lose, which was why she was so furious at herself for feeling glad and relieved that Louise had decided to go with them this time. And on Louise’s end, she feared that April was going to be the one they lost and that she would fail her as her protector. She was greatly afraid that she would make a terrible mistake somehow and that a person on her crew was going to suffer for something she did wrong. Realizing that it was now utterly pointless to waste their time worrying and speculating about events that hadn’t unfolded yet, they simply prayed in silence, asking the Lord to help them to carry out their jobs to the best of their ability and to help them not to let any of the others down.

Chapter Eleven
The past several days had hardly been a bowl of cherries for Louise and George. To say they’d been difficult was in fact quite an understatement. When Louise had first told George about her decision to do the mission, at first, he was very gentle and understanding, and as Marco had done, he tried his absolute best to appeal to the same logical arguments Marco had tried to make against it. When they didn’t work, however, George became increasingly emotional and upset and things between them slowly but surely escalated into an argument, which of course had been a pretty rare thing for them since Louise’s heart attack. When Florence eventually overheard their raised voices and walked into the kitchen and asked them what the trouble was, for one of the extremely few times in the entire course of their friendship, she actually agreed with George and took his side. And while Florence now treated Louise with a lot more respect than she used to and was now very diligent in her work, when she did side with George over Louise, unlike George, she was not gentle or very sensitive about it. She was in fact almost unfairly harsh and blunt with Louise, telling her that she had no idea what her heart attack and hospitalization had put George and the rest of the family through. At one point, Florence even accused Louise of being selfish, claiming that she seemed to care more about her own dreams and desires and being some kind of hero than she did about her family and her husband and what bad effects endangering her life and safety would have on all of them.
It was at that very moment in the conversation that the tides turned. The moment George saw the very hurt look he saw in Louise’s eyes, he immediately switched gears and sided with Louise. After Florence had said her piece to Louise, he very nearly yelled at her that if she or anyone ever accused Louise of being selfish again in his presence, that person would be knocked clean into next week. George then told Florence in a very heated and raised voice that this was not about Louise caring about one group of people over another; it was simply about keeping a promise that was very important to her and her not wanting to risk the trust she’d worked so long and so hard to gain from all the abused and molested children she was caring for in Zion. Knowing that she had just completely lost this verbal battle, Florence merely retreated into her bedroom for a while. In the meantime, after George had just clearly taken up so well for Louise, he began to understand her point of view and why she felt as strongly about it all as she did. And knowing that no matter how hard he or anybody else would try, they would never be able to change her mind, he decided to give her all the love, understanding, encouragement, and support he possibly could.
George not only continued working by Louise’s side constantly in Zion; he also made it a point to take her places and do special things for her. He surprised her with huge bouquets of flowers and he took her out to eat at beautiful and classy places, although he still wouldn’t allow her to cheat on her diet and insisted she order healthier dishes on the menu. Thankfully though, George was not a hypocrite and he ordered the same things Louise did. And on top of the flowers and the nice dinners at fancy restaurants, George took her for little romantic strolls in the park and one evening, they simply sat down on a park bench and held hands and watched the sunset together. It was these special things, all the sweet and thoughtful little things that George had done for Louise when they were first falling in love, that had meant more to Louise than anything else. And they meant more to her now than they ever had before.
It was now a quarter until seven Wednesday evening. The place Louise and the volunteers and the police would be invading tonight was a large house, one of many Kronan owned and operated out of. One of the best possible times to go in was usually in the wee hours of the morning when all the pimps were getting in with the young girls they’d had out on the streets through the night and were tired and sleepy and had just gotten into bed. Louise and all the others would be going into the house at around four to four-thirty that next morning.
It had been a long and tiring and difficult week and it was now only half over, and Louise knew she had a long and tiring, and very, very difficult road ahead of her. She was now standing on the balcony outside, staring at the breathtaking pink and purple sunset over the New York skyline. It was now November and it was obviously quite chilly outside, but Louise didn’t care. She was about to go inside and find a sweater to put on, but she simply couldn’t tear herself away from the remarkable sight she was seeing, at least not just yet. It was incredible, to say the very least. But what made the sight even sweeter and lovelier to her wasn’t the actual sunset itself, but how loved and appreciated George had made her feel. While she certainly didn’t want anything to happen to her in a few hours, it gave her great comfort to know how much her presence really did matter, and how much she really would be missed. It felt so good to be so loved, and it was so much easier not having to go through it all alone this time. It meant more to her than she could ever truly express with words.
In the next moment, Louise’s mind was suddenly brought back into reality and snapped out of its wandering thoughts when she felt George’s hands on her shoulders. And then she realized he’d put more than his hands on her shoulders; he’d wrapped one of her sweaters around her.
“Oh, George, you didn’t have to do that,” Louise told him in a loving voice. “I was just about to go in and get a sweater. I would have done it sooner but I just couldn’t tear myself away from this marvelous sunset.”
“Well what kind of husband would I be I just let you turn into an icicle out here and didn’t do anything to keep you warm?” he teased. “But I know what you mean about the sunset though. You’re right. It is beautiful.”
“It’s amazing,” Louise said and then she let out a sigh.
“I know,” George said softly. “You’re scared about tonight, aren’t you?”
“Oh no, it’s not that. I was only thinking.”
“About what?”
“About these lovely past couple of days we’ve spent together. I can’t pretend that doing the mission tonight doesn’t scare me. The missions have always been pretty frightening. But it feels so good to not have to go through all of this alone anymore. It really does make this entire thing incredibly easier for me.”
“Oh, Weez,” George whispered, and then he turned Louise around and gave her a very long kiss. “I am so sorry for all those times when you did have to go through things like this without any help from me whatsoever.” George then held the side of Louise’s face with his hand and told her, “Heaven only knows how many times there’s been when you knew you were about to put your very life on the line and I was completely oblivious to it and insensitive to you. Heaven only knows how many times I was mean-spirited and selfish, how many fights I was probably responsible for while you were going through so much. I’m so sor–”
In that next second, Louise silenced him by putting her finger over his lips, and then she kissed him.
“You’ve been apologizing to me practically every second of every day since you first found out the truth about everything. You don’t have to keep telling me how sorry you are over and over and over again all the time, George. I get the point. I really do. You’re forgiven. It’s all over and done with and behind us now, and it’s okay to move on.”
When Louise said that, naturally, George kissed her once again and then he whispered in her ear, “I love you more than you’ll ever know.”
“No,” Louise disagreed. “I think I do know. And I love you, too. Thank you for all the help you’ve given me.”
“Don’t thank me, sweetheart. Thanking me for easing all your burdens in any way is like thankin’ me for eatin’ ice cream. I love to do things like that, more than just about anything.”
Afterwards, George simply stood next to Louise and put his arm around her shoulders and watched the sun go down with her. When it was dark out, Louise and George walked back inside and went to their bedroom. Since Louise would be leaving the apartment to go meet with the rescue team and police officers at the police station at around three o’clock in the morning, obviously, she wanted to get to bed early that night and at least try to get as much sleep as she could. The sun had set at around six-thirty and once they came inside, Florence had dinner all ready for them. As they ate together, Florence finally apologized to Louise and George for the role she had played in their argument. She had realized the more she’d thought about it over the past couple of days that she had been seriously out of line when she’d accused Louise of being selfish, and she explained that she had reacted that way because of how terrified she was of the possibility of reliving all the pain and fear she’d gone through when Louise had had her heart attack. Louise was more than understanding and sympathetic to Florence’s fears, and she told Florence that the possibility of her family and friends getting hurt if something happened to her was in fact one of her biggest fears too. But just as a soldier had to leave his family in times of war, Louise knew that she too was called to be a kind of soldier. And she explained to Florence that just as a soldier had to put protecting his country above even his own family, Louise had to do the same and do all she could to help and protect the rescue workers of Zion. It was simply the call the good Lord had put on her life, and it was one she knew she had to be obedient to, no matter what difficult sacrifices she had to make or how hard it could sometimes be.
Louise, George, and Florence then went on to finish their meal together in silence, and once they were all done eating, Florence gathered up all the dishes and put everything in the dishwasher and Louise and George went off to bed. When they’d gotten dressed for bed, Louise set the alarm for three-thirty and then they turned and faced one another in bed. George took Louise’s hand in his and then they closed their eyes. Ironically, while George had always been a very light sleeper, he fell asleep almost instantly that night because he’d been too worried and upset about Louise doing the mission to get any decent sleep the past several nights. Louise, on the other hand, basically cat-napped her way through the night like she’d done on all nights like this one before. The three-thirty alarm hadn’t gone off yet, but when Louise had awakened from her latest cat nap so far, she knew that it probably wouldn’t be much longer before it did. When she turned around and looked at the clock, she saw that it was four minutes ’til three-thirty. Louise knew George would probably be angry and upset at her for doing it, but she quietly picked up the alarm clock and turned it off so it wouldn’t wake him. Then she very carefully and quietly slipped out of bed and tiptoed over to the closet and got out an old and oversized black sweater and jeans and socks and sneakers and walked into the bathroom and changed clothes. Once she was dressed, she walked back out into their bedroom and stared down at George’s face for the longest time. She longed to give him a quick kiss goodbye on the cheek, but since she knew what a light sleeper he was, she was too afraid that he would wake up if she did. So instead, she very gently lifted the covers up over George’s shoulder and tucked him in.
“Sleep well, George,” she said in an almost entirely inaudible whisper, and then once again, she tiptoed out of their bedroom and very quietly closed their bedroom door. After she closed it behind her though, she began to walk a little more normally through the rest of the apartment on her way out. To her surprise, when she walked into the living room, Florence was sitting on the couch waiting up for her in her gown, robe, and slippers.
“What are you doing up, Florence?” Louise asked her, and then Florence got up and walked over to her.
“Please, Ms. Jefferson,” she replied. “You know I wasn’t about to let myself go to sleep on a night like this one. Where’s Mr. Jefferson?”
“He’s still asleep. I woke up a few minutes before my alarm was set to go off and I just didn’t have the heart to keep it on and let it wake him. He hasn’t slept a wink these past several nights and I can see how exhausted he is, so I turned the alarm clock off and tiptoed around and got dressed.”
“You know how upset he’ll be when he does wake up that he wasn’t here to go to the police station with you.”
“I know, but he’s so worn-out. He needs a good rest very badly right now, so please don’t wake him.”
“Now Ms. Jefferson, you know it’s not fair to ask me to agree to something like that, because when he does wake up, I’m the one he’ll be furious at for not waking him up.”
“Please, Florence. Look, when this whole thing is over in a few hours, I’ll explain it to him that I was the one who asked you to let him sleep and I know if I ask him not to give you a hard time about it, he won’t.”
“Okay,” Florence sighed.
“Thank you. Tell George I’ll see him in a few hours, and that I love him.”
“I will.”
“Thanks. And I love you too, you know.”
It was clear how difficult it was for Florence to keep herself from tearing up as she put her arms around Louise and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“I know. And you know how much I love you. Be careful, Ms. Jefferson. Please, please be careful out there,” Florence said as she clung to her.
“I will be, Florence. I will be. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’ve done this before and I have plenty of experience. I know how scary and dangerous it can be out there, but I know exactly what I’m doing.” Louise then kissed Florence’s cheek and they quietly stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment before Louise finally put her coat on and left.
A couple of minutes after Louise had left the apartment, Florence couldn’t stand it any longer and despite the fact that Louise hadn’t wanted Florence to wake George up, she knew he’d never forgive her if she didn’t. But just as she was about to walk into the Jeffersons’ bedroom, George came out into the living room in his pajamas, and obviously in a bit of a panic.
“Where is she, Florence?” George instantly asked her.
“Since you’ve had such bad insomnia here lately, Ms. Jefferson really didn’t want to wake you. She woke up a few minutes before your alarm clock was set to go off and she turned it off and got dressed and left. She’s on her way to the police station now.”
George said nothing in response, but simply let out a worried sigh, and then he called for a cab to meet him downstairs and rushed back into the bedroom and hurriedly got dressed and practically ran out of the apartment at the speed of light. The cab was waiting for him when he got downstairs. But by the time he made it to the station, to his dismay, he found out that he’d just missed Louise and the others by only a few minutes. Then remembering that a lot of the Help Center and Zion volunteers got together in the Zion dining area and held a prayer vigil until the rescue team returned to Zion with the children they’d rescued, he immediately went there. By the time he arrived, the Zion dining area was about half-full, and he did notice both his mother and the Willises sitting together at one of the tables holding hands with their heads bowed in prayer. When George took a seat next to his mother, they all opened their eyes for a second to see who was there. When Olivia saw it was her son she took his hand, and then she and Tom and Helen returned to their praying, and George joined them.
Over the course of the next half hour, everyone remained perfectly silent in their continued praying. Then several small groups of people formed who no longer wished to pray in silence. They took turns leading the others in prayer for Louise and the rescue workers and police officers, as well as for the close friend or family member who was one of those rescue workers or cops. While George’s mother and the Willises were experts at having the kind of patience that was required during the prayer vigil, George, understandably, did not. He simply couldn’t stand staying still and seated anymore, so he got up from his chair and went to the conference room and anxiously paced back and forth for the next hour. After he finally wore himself out, he returned to the dining area and sat down again where he’d been sitting before and took his mother’s hand and returned to his prayers.
It was at about twenty after six that a young, average-sized blonde guy in a shirt and jeans came to the dining area. When Zion’s rescue volunteers did joint missions with the police like this, as a courtesy to them, the police always had an off-duty cop stationed near the Help Center listening to the police calls on the radio. Once the cop learned anything of the volunteers’ situation and the rescue mission, he or she would go to Zion and inform all the people holding the prayer vigil of what was going on.
“Excuse me everybody,” the young man said, and then everybody raised their heads and opened their eyes and turned their attention to him. “I have some news. The mission’s over and the volunteers are on their way here with the children they’ve rescued. Thankfully, most of the rescue workers came through it alright. But sadly, I also have some tragic news to report.” At that, George’s grip on his mother’s hand tightened. “Simon Miller has been killed.” When he said that, there were understandably some cries and gasps. “And, unfortunately, two of the rescue volunteers have been injured: Simon’s wife April, and Louise.”
George instantly jumped out of his seat and asked, “How has she been hurt? How bad is it?”
“I’m sorry, sir,” the young man replied. “I only know that she’s been injured. I don’t know how bad it is. She and April are on their way to the Zion hospital as we speak. That’s all I can tell you. I’m very sorry. I wish I could tell you more, but I just don’t know.”
When George heard him say that, he almost completely doubled over and held onto the table, as if someone had just shot him in the stomach. He started breathing very heavily, and Olivia and Helen and Tom were all quite alarmed.
“George, sit back down,” Olivia quickly told him as Tom and Helen got up and walked over to George.
“Your mother’s right, George,” Tom said. “You need to sit. Helen, I think he needs a glass of water.”
“I don’t need to sit down!” George yelled. “And I don’t need water! I need to know what’s happening with my wife!”
After George said that, he quickly remembered making a very similar statement the day of Louise’s open-heart surgery.
George had kissed Louise and promised her she’d see him soon that morning at five minutes ’til seven, just before they’d wheeled her off to the operating room. Dr. Garrison had told everybody that the surgery would probably take around four hours. After Louise had gone into surgery, George joined the others in the waiting room and went on to endure the most grueling waiting period of their lives. It had helped George somewhat having the others going through it all alongside him, but one thing that really made it tough was the absence of his son.
His daughter-in-law Jenny had gotten a babysitter for his baby granddaughter Jessica, so she was able to be there along with her parents and Florence and Mr. Bentley, but it was still hard not to have Lionel there too. It had been in the wee hours of the morning before George had finally been able to get around to calling Lionel and informing him of what had happened to his mother. To make an already bad and tense situation even worse, a lot of flights had either been canceled or delayed due to bad weather, and Lionel wasn’t even able to get on a plane for several hours. Just before he got on his flight at last, he called George and told him that he probably wouldn’t be able to make it there until around eight o’clock that night. It had been even harder on Louise hearing that, and George knew how afraid she’d been that she’d never see her son again, which in turn, also made it very difficult and worrisome for George.
But while he did feel the deep pain of Lionel’s absence, obviously, the main focus of his attention and worrying was Louise. He knew he couldn’t even begin to imagine an existence without her in it. As he sat and waited and then paced a while and then sat down again a while and waited some more, he became more and more furious with himself for how he’d taken Louise for granted over the years. He now vividly recalled how many times she’d simply wanted to spend some time with him and share her life with him, and how the vast majority of those times, he’d been too greedy and self-centered and immersed in the business and the thought of making more money to even care about truly spending time with his wife and sharing his life with her. The long hours of waiting became even more torturous for him as his conscience now mercilessly replayed all the arguments they’d had and all the times he’d hurt her because of all the promises he’d broken and all the birthdays and anniversaries he’d forgotten. He painfully began to realize that while he had always claimed that he loved his wife and that she was more important to him than money and the business, his actions had painted a very different picture. From that point on, George made up his mind that as long as they lived, never again would he give his love for Louise mere lip-service. George decided that from then on, he wouldn’t just claim that he loved her more than money or the business with only words; he would live it.
After what to George had seemed like an eternity, eleven o’clock finally came…and went. He was able to suffer through the next fifteen minutes, telling himself that maybe the surgeons were just running a little bit behind for some reason, but as another fifteen minutes passed, George really began to hit the panic button. Everyone could see that he was clearly becoming terrified.
“Something’s wrong,” George said in a low and very serious voice.
“Oh no, Mr. Jefferson, I’m sure that nothing’s wrong,” Jenny tried to reassure him.
“They’re just probably running a little late,” said Tom. “I mean, look how slow doctors are at doctors’ offices. You have to wait forever before you’re finally called back to see the doctor. Doctors are slow about everything they do.”
“Tom’s right, George,” Helen agreed. “I’m sure the reason the doctors and nurses are taking so long is only because they’re trying to be as careful as they can possibly be. You did say Dr. Garrison’s one of the finest cardiologists on the entire planet. I’m sure he’s careful and cautious about everything he does.”
“And you know how complicated medicine can be, “Bentley chimed in.
“Exactly,” Florence said. “Their work is extremely complicated and intricate. They have to be really careful. It’s probably a very good sign they’re taking so long. If I ever had to have an operation like that, I know I’d want a doctor who would take his time and make sure he was doing everything right instead of one who was careless and did the surgery in a rush.”
“That’s a good point, you guys,” Jenny said. “I know this is really hard, Mr. Jefferson. I know how worried you are. We’re all worried about Mrs. Jefferson right now, but I’m sure the delay isn’t because of anything serious. Just keep hanging in there.”
“Everybody’s right, son,” Olivia said as she patted him on the back. “Don’t worry. You know that we’ve all been praying. You know that God’s in there with her now and that He’s watching over her.”
George shook his head for several moments and then he said, “I might have believed they were just bein’ careful fifteen or twenty minutes ago, but they wouldn’t be a whole half hour late unless it was somethin’ serious. Something’s wrong. Something’s bad wrong. Weezy’s havin’ some kind of complications back there in that operating room. I know it. I just know it. She’s in trouble in there. She’s in bad trouble and there ain’t a thing I can do about it except sit here like a dumb statue.”
George was like that for the next half hour. As noon approached, George was even beyond utter terror and absolute panic. He was truly going out of his mind. It wasn’t until ten minutes after noon that everybody finally learned what was causing the delay. Dr. Garrison’s secretary, a short, slim young lady with long brown hair and blue eyes wearing scrubs and a white lab coat, walked out into the waiting room at long last holding a clipboard. The moment George and everyone else spotted her, they practically leapt out of their seats.
“Hello, Mr. Jefferson,” she said in a kind tone of voice, which in fact was giving away nothing about Louise’s condition.
“How is she?” George instantly and abruptly asked, not even bothering to return her “hello.” He could understandably care less about the little niceties now.
“Yes, what on earth is taking the doctors so long back there?” asked Jenny.
“What’s going on with my daughter-in-law?” Olivia asked.
“I know that the operation is taking longer than we all expected it would,” she began to explain.
“Well why is that?!” George snapped. “We’ve all been worried sick out here!”
“I know that. That’s why the doctor wanted me to come out here and give you an update. Dr. Garrison’s decided that your wife needs to have a quadruple bypass instead of a triple bypass.”
“What?!” George gasped. “Oh, God! Oh, God!”
“Dr. Garrison and his team are some of the finest surgeons and nurses in the entire country, Mr. Jefferson, and Dr. Garrison knows what has to be done and what is best for Mrs. Jefferson right now. I know how difficult this can be, but she is in very good hands. Now, even though it’s very hard, the only thing you can really do is wait. We’ll keep you posted,” she assured him, and then she left.
After the secretary was gone, George backed himself up against the wall and closed his eyes and put his thumb and index finger over them.
“Hey, hey, come on, Mr. J.,” Bentley said gently. “Come on everybody. Mrs. J.’s going to be just fine. Modern medical science has made enormous strides over the years. It’s incredible what doctors and nurses can do with medical technology now. And we all know how strong Mrs. J. is and what a fighter she can be. This will all work out, Mr. J. This’ll work out, everyone. I know it will.”
“Look Bentley,” George said in the same low, solemn tone, “I ain’t tryin’ to be a jerk or anything, but I am not in the mood for rosy little speeches right now. I just want to be alone.”
“George, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Helen said cautiously.
“I don’t want to be with anybody now,” George insisted. “I don’t want to talk, and I don’t want to be talked to, either. I just want to be left alone. I ain’t tryin’ to be rude to anyone, but please, just get out. Go and eat lunch. Most of us ain’t had nothin’ to eat all day. Go down to the cafeteria. Go out to eat. I don’t care what you do or where you go, but please, just go.”
In those next moments, everybody quietly started walking out of the waiting room. After everyone but Florence and Tom had gone, Tom patted George on his upper arm and said, “We’ll bring you something from the cafeteria, George.”
George shook his head and told Tom, “Don’t. I can’t even think about food at a time like this.”
“I’ll bring you something anyway,” Tom said quietly and then he finally left with the others.
“I know you want me to leave too, Mr. Jefferson, but I won’t. I can’t. I know we’re picking at each other and teasing each other and giving each other zingers all the time, but we both know that deep down, that’s actually because we really care about one another. I know you don’t want anybody to talk to you and you don’t want to talk to anybody else. Fine. I’ll sit down over here and I won’t say a word. But don’t think I can’t see how sick all of this is beginning to make you inside, because I can, and I will not just walk away from someone who means as much to me as you and Ms. Jefferson always have, not at a time like this. You can try to fool the others into believing that you don’t need anybody right now, but don’t even think of trying it with me because I know better. You may not want me here, but like it or not, you need me here, so I am not leaving.”
Once Florence sat back down in one of the uncomfortable gray chairs in the blinding white and sterile hospital waiting room, George looked at her and said, “Hey Florence?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
Florence smiled and said, “Don’t mention it.”
A few minutes later, George sat down next to Florence, and they remained in utter silence for a short while. But then it was actually George who broke the silence.
“I have to do something,” he suddenly said.
“What do you mean?” Florence asked, and then George got up and started pacing again.
“She’s my wife, Florence. I know what a lousy job I do of showin’ it most of the time, but she’s everything to me. She’s absolutely everything. She is in the middle of a life-or-death operation right now, and the doctors are havin’ problems. They’re runnin’ into things they didn’t expect to run into. She’s having complications in the middle of life-or-death surgery and I will not just sit out here waiting and doing nothing to help her.”
Florence stood up and said, “Mr. Jefferson, you heard what the doctor’s secretary said. There’s nothing else you can do for her now except pray, and you’ve been doing that. We all have.”
“Oh please, Florence! Prayer is just another way of doing absolutely nothing! What is prayer? It’s just askin’ Somebody else to do somethin’ for you! It ain’t you doin’ anything at all! And Louise is everything to me. She is the reason for every breath that I take. I don’t think I even truly started breathing until I met her. She is the mother of my child, and let me tell you right here and now, Florence, Weezy went through pure hell to bring Lionel into this world. There were complications during the delivery and she had to have an emergency C-section. She almost died, and I almost died right along with her. And a few weeks after we brought Lionel home from the hospital, I lost my job. I went crazy. I worked my butt off tryin’ to find work but I couldn’t, and guess what Weezy does. She’d just barely recovered from the C-section. She was still in some pain from the surgery and she was weak, but when I couldn’t get another job, Weezy found a housekeeping job and despite how bad she felt physically, she still worked up the strength to go to work. And since I’d never learned how to cook very well, Weezy didn’t even get to rest when she came home like we both knew she needed to. Any woman in her right mind would have dropped me like a bad habit, but not Weezy. No other woman could even hope to be half as remarkable as she always is. She has taken so much crap from me through the years, Florence. I have given her so much less than my best, but she’s always given me nothing but her best. She gave me a wonderful son and granddaughter. She gave me encouragement when I needed it the most, and a swift kick in the behind when I needed that the most, too. And no matter how many promises I broke to her or how many times I put myself and my desires before her and no matter how many times, in how many ways I let her down and hurt her and probably made her feel like she didn’t matter to me as much as money did, she stayed, Florence. She stayed. No matter how many promises I always broke, Weezy never broke hers. And now that she is in the middle of the most serious medical procedure of her whole life and things are startin’ to go wrong in there, she needs me more than she’s ever needed me before, and I refuse to stand around out here and not do anything to help her. I have money. I have connections. I’ll get in touch with the head of this hospital, even, if I have to, but one way or another, I am getting back there in that operating room with her.”
“Hold on a second, Mr. Jefferson. Just stop for one moment and take a deep breath.”
“Don’t try to patronize me like that, Florence! I do not need to take any deep breaths! I need to be with my wife! She needs me more now than she’s ever needed me before. There are problems going on in there and she is not strong enough to get through all of this by herself. She needs me. She needs the touch of my hand, the sound of my voice. She needs my strength. She needs to know that’s not alone, that I’m here.”
“Mr. Jefferson, you’re forgetting two very important things.”
“What are they?”
“Number one, if you get the head of the hospital involved in all of this and create a big ruckus about it trying to get back there in that operating room, you won’t be doing anything to help your wife. The only thing you’ll be doing is creating a big distraction for the doctors and right now, it’s Ms. Jefferson they need to be focusing on and thinking about, not you. Number two, you’re seriously underestimating Ms. Jefferson. You’ve just been telling me yourself about all she had to go through during Lionel’s birth and the first few months of his life. Don’t you think it took an awful lot of strength to get through the C-section and go out to work before she was even completely recovered? And don’t you think it took even more strength to put up with all your antics all these years? Of course it did. Trust me, honey. She does not need any strength from you. The good Lord blessed her with plenty of her own. Mr. Bentley’s right. She’s very strong, and she is a fighter, and if there’s any human being on the planet who can get through something like this, it’s Ms. Jefferson, and you know that.”
“Yeah,” George sighed, finally relenting. “I guess I do. I just can’t stand it, Florence. I can’t stand stayin’ out here not doin’ anything for her. Yeah, sure, I can pray, but that ain’t really doin’ anything for Weezy myself. That’s just me asking Someone else to do something for her, and that’s not the same. And besides, I’ve already prayed for her about a thousand times already today. I’m sure the Almighty gets the point.”
Before Florence could respond though, George swore and covered his mouth and made a mad dash for the nearby men’s room. Florence, of course, stayed close behind and stood just outside the door as she listened to George vomiting.
Florence let out a sigh and looked up and prayed, “Lord, please help him. Help them both.”
A moment later she heard the sound of the toilet flushing, but she began to worry as several minutes went by without hearing another sound. She was almost afraid he had lost consciousness, but just before she was about to run off and try and find a doctor or a nurse, she heard a muffled sound of crying. When Florence realized that George was actually crying, she had to fight with all she had in her to keep from crying along with him. She let him cry for a few more moments and then she softly knocked on the door.
“Are you okay in there, Mr. Jefferson?” she asked.
After a long pause, George finally answered in a quiet voice, “I’ll be alright. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“I’ll be here,” Florence told him in an obviously kind tone.
A minute later, Florence heard the sound of the faucet running. It wasn’t long after he turned the water off that he finally emerged from the bathroom, and even though she knew he probably wasn’t in the mood to be hugged, she couldn’t help but embrace him. To her surprise, he actually returned the hug.
“I’m alright, Florence,” he said a moment later. “It’s no big deal. I’m fine.”
“No you’re not fine either, Mr. Jefferson. I think I’d better go find a nurse.”
“No,” George said as he shook his head. “I told you, I’m fine. I’m alright. Weezy’s the one we all should be worryin’ about now, Florence, not me. Weezy’s had a heart attack and she’s in the middle of a complicated open-heart surgery as we speak. The only thing that happened to me was I lost my lunch, and I seriously doubt that’s anything that could be fatal. I’ll live. I’m a big boy.”
“I just don’t want to see you making yourself sick. That’s the last thing Ms. Jefferson needs right now.”
“I know it is. I’ll be alright. Don’t worry about me. Just worry about Louise.”
“Believe me, Mr. Jefferson, I’ve got plenty of worry in my heart for both of you,” Florence joked and then she put her arm around his shoulders and sat down with him again. But practically the very moment they were seated, Dr. Garrison came into the waiting room, and when they saw him of course, they instantly jumped back up out of their seats.
“Mr. Jefferson?” he said.
“Yes, Dr. Garrison?” George responded.
“I’m happy to say that I have some good news. The surgery’s over now and it went very well. Your wife came through it all just fine.” Naturally Florence let out a joyful scream while George started weeping tears of relief. “Mrs. Jefferson has an extraordinary will to live.”
“We’ve been out here talkin’ about how strong she is,” said Florence.
“Can I go back and see her now?” George anxiously asked.
“Not for a while. She’s still sleeping. She’ll probably be asleep for several more hours at least until the sedative wears off, maybe longer. You have to remember, her heart’s been through a lot today and she needs to rest.”
“I understand,” George said with a nod. “So does this mean she’s out of the woods now, that she’ll be okay?”
“I’m fairly certain she will be, but her condition is still critical. We have to wait now and see how well her heart adapts to the procedure. Everything does look pretty good, but we still have to take it one step at a time.”
George nodded again and said, “Thank you for everything, Dr. Garrison,” and shook his hand.
“You’re quite welcome,” he pleasantly replied. “I’ll make sure you’re informed when Mrs. Jefferson begins to wake up.”
“Thank you,” George told him, and then the doctor left. After Dr. Garrison was gone, George simply reached out and grabbed Florence and started crying an ocean of tears of relief.
“George, please, just calm down,” Olivia said, bringing George back into reality. “I know how hard it is to stay calm in a situation like this, but for Louise’s sake, you’ve got to.”
“I know, Mama,” George said more softly. “I know. Don’t worry about me, guys. I’ll be alright.”
But they all knew he was anything and everything but alright as he continued to pace back and forth for the next several minutes until the rescue workers, police, and children arrived. There was a special emergency entrance and elevator that took people down directly to the hospital section of Zion and when it was announced that everyone was back, George naturally rushed to the hospital to try and find Louise.
And when he did find her, he was shocked. She was not anything at all like he had expected her to be. Since he’d heard that she had gotten hurt somehow, he’d expected her to be sitting down at the very least, if not lying down. He’d had horrible pictures of her lying weak and helpless and bleeding on a gurney, but what he’d found when he walked into the emergency room of the hospital was not a poor helpless victim, but instead, a drill sergeant. When Louise had first started Zion’s rescue program, she and the police and other volunteers she’d been working with all decided that it would be a requirement for a rescue volunteer to take classes and become a certified paramedic since it could obviously be very rough out there and nobody knew what kind of injuries or illnesses the children they were saving would have. Louise and Marco were the first ones, obviously, to complete the rescue training program and become certified paramedics and official rescue volunteers, and they’d helped many others through the process as well. And now, Louise was using medical terminology that was totally foreign to George, and she was helping to organize patients and staff, making sure that everybody got to wherever they needed to be in the hospital. George noticed the way Louise was gingerly holding her left arm, and he could tell that it had been bleeding, but he could also tell that Louise was now entirely oblivious to whatever injuries she herself might have sustained. She only cared about the children and the volunteers working under her, not about herself.
“Louise, what happened to your arm?” one of the interns asked, a young, short black woman in her early twenties.
“When we went in and started trying to get the children out, somebody came at me with a knife and stabbed my arm. It’s only superficial, though. It’s just a small flesh wound. I’ve almost got the bleeding stopped. Just stitch me up right quick. It was a real mess out there and I’ve still got a lot of work to do. And I want to go back to where April is and see what I can do to help the doctors with her. When that guy stabbed my arm, she hollered at him and jumped in between him and me. Before he could do anything else to me with the knife, April was standing in front of me and he went crazy stabbing her for the next few seconds. Simon yelled at him and he started trying to run over to him and stop him, but then another guy shot him in the head he was killed instantly. Then the police finally captured everybody that was still alive and arrested them, but not before April got very badly hurt.”
Unbeknownst to Louise of course, George had been listening to their conversation and after overhearing everything that Louise had just said, to say the very least, it shook him to the very core. If not for the grace of God, as well as the courageous act of young April Miller, heaven only knew what would have happened to Louise out there today.
“Well come on over here and I’ll get you taken care of,” the intern assured her, and then they walked back into one of the tiny exam rooms and pulled up a couple of chairs on either side of a small gray medicine tray, and she cleaned off Louise’s arm and started on her stitches. It was then that George finally walked to where Louise was.
“Hi, sweetheart,” Louise said in a clearly tired voice.
“Hey,” George said in a rather choked-up whisper, and then he bent over and gave her a long kiss. “I’ve been scared to death ever since they told me you’d gotten hurt. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just need a stitch or two. It’s only a little flesh wound, George. It’s not anything to write home about.”
“I heard about Simon and April. I’m so sorry, Weez.”
Louise looked into George’s eyes sadly and said, “So am I. Simon’s always been a wonderful young man. He loved April very much and he always treated her with the courtesy and respect she deserved. He was such a great husband. I loved him all along for who he was as a person regardless, but I always really loved him for the way he never failed to treat April like a queen.”
“Does April know yet?”
“She was still conscious when Simon got shot, so she knows he’s hurt, but I asked everyone not to let her know that he’s gone. I think it would be best if the news came from me. When she finds out about this, I know she’ll need me by her side more than ever before.”
“Excuse me,” said a doctor’s voice behind George, and George walked into the small exam room and out of the doorway to give him room to walk inside. It was Dr. Reynolds.
“It’s April, isn’t it?” Louise said to him knowingly.
“We have a good little hospital here at Zion, but it’s exactly that – little. We don’t really have the equipment and the staff down here to deal with injuries as major as April’s. She needs to be taken to the city hospital immediately, as soon as possible, but she refuses to leave. The stab wounds to her chest and abdomen are so severe, I’m sorry to say, that even if she did agree to go another hospital, she probably wouldn’t even survive the surgery. I’ve explained all of this to April and she absolutely insists on staying here. And she wants to see you. She’s been asking for you.”
“Are you done here?” Louise asked the intern.
“I am now,” she replied as she completed the last stitch.
“Thank you,” Louise told her. Then she got up and asked Dr. Reynolds, “Where is she?”
“I’ll take you to her,” he said and then he led her to one of the small trauma rooms they had.
The trauma room Louise walked into was your typical white and sterile hospital environment. April was as white as the sheets that were covering her, and attached to IVs, an oxygen mask, and machines monitoring her vital signs.
Louise slowly and quietly approached her and sat down in the small gray chair beside her gurney. She’d asked to have her gurney elevated so she could sit up more and have an easier time breathing. Louise said nothing to her as she simply stared at her sitting up against her pillows on the gurney, struggling for every breath, with her eyes closed. She picked up her hand and gently laid a kiss on it.
“Mommy’s here, baby,” Louise whispered in her ear as she fought to keep from bursting out in tears. “I’m right here and I’m not leaving you. Just rest, sweetheart. Don’t worry about anything. Just sleep. Take it easy. You fought long and hard out there and you were so courageous. You really saved my life out there. I only wish I could have saved yours,” Louise gasped as tears finally began to flow from her eyes. “I want you to know that I’d switch places with you in an instant if I could. I do love you, dear girl. I love you so much. You are such a sweet little angel and you always have been, from day one. You’ve always thanked me so much through the years for rescuing you all those years ago, but I’m the one who needs to be thanking you. Your kindness, your love, your sweetness, your generosity to me and to everybody else here through the years has meant more to us than you can begin to know. You’ve enriched my life far more than I could ever really explain to you.
“I know I made you and Simon a special promise a few months ago. And I want to reassure you that I haven’t forgotten it at all. This promise won’t be very easy for me to keep, but it’s a promise nevertheless and if it’s at all humanly possible, I will live up to my word. I’ll see to it that your children get here and I will care for them.”
The very instant those words left Louise Jefferson’s lips, the beeping of the heart monitor erupted into a loud and high-pitched whine, and Louise looked up at it and saw the green flat line going across the screen and gasped, and chill went right through her.

Chapter Twelve
The news of April’s and Simon’s deaths obviously hit the city of Zion very hard, and Louise really busted her tail over the course of the next several days, taking care of all their funeral arrangements and working with and counseling the volunteers and children who came to her seeking the compassion they needed to help them get through this awful time. Louise had suffered severe insomnia over the next four days and nights as the date of their funeral came and went. She held a small wake in her quarters, and both George and Olivia tried their hardest to get her to sit down and relax and let them help her with the food and guests, but she insisted that she preferred to keep busy. At long last, after the last volunteer left, Olivia, at least, prevailed and forced Louise to relax and take it easy while she took care of all the dirty dishes and started cleaning everything up. While Olivia was taking care of the dishes in the kitchen, George, wearing a somber black business suit, stood around with Louise in her living room and tried again to convince her to start taking it easy.
“Everybody’s gone now, honey,” George said gently. “It’s just you and me and Mama here. It’s alright to cry if you want to.”
Louise fervently shook her head and said, “I don’t want to. I just want to do my job and get everybody through this.”
“You’ve already done that, Weezy. The funeral’s over, and you were amazing. You were the most incredible pillar of strength I’ve ever seen. Every person that’s needed to talk or needed a shoulder to cry on or a place to come to so they can vent their anger and frustration has come to you and you’ve been right there for them.”
“Maybe so, but just because the funeral’s over doesn’t mean that all of this is over and behind us. This entire city has a lot of grieving ahead, and grief is not an easy road to travel, and I have to be there.”
“You are there for everybody else. But if you don’t start lettin’ somebody be there for you and take care of you, you’ll really make yourself sick, sweetheart. I’m very worried about you and about how hard you’re always pushin’ yourself around here. It was only six weeks ago that I was havin’ to do C.P.R. on you on our apartment floor. Since then you’ve put yourself in a terribly dangerous situation and you’ve gotten hurt, and two people you were very close to have actually been killed. Weezy, it scares me so much just thinking about what all this stress could be doin’ to your heart right now. You have got to let us take care of you. You have got to rest. You have just got to.”
It was George’s sensitive words to her that enabled her to really let her emotions go in front of him once again, knowing that this time, she really could trust him to be there for her. She finally allowed herself to truly begin to feel the emotions of the hell she’d just been through.
“I’m so tired,” she gasped and then she clung to George and simply let herself cry.
“Oh, Weez,” George whispered in her ear as he held onto her. “I know, baby. I know. Come on back with me and lie down, sweetheart. I’ll lie with you and you can go right to sleep, alright?”
Saying nothing, Louise simply nodded in response and walked back to her bedroom with George holding onto her and walking beside her.
Over the next three months, George remained as tender and attentive to Louise’s needs as ever, not to even mention how overprotective he still insisted on being towards her. As George helped Louise through the grieving process and listened to her when she needed someone to talk to and held her when she needed to cry, her trust in him grew deeper than it had ever been in the entire history of their marriage. George knew he never could have understood feeling this way in his years as an unbeliever, but now, having the growing trust Louise was beginning to place in him meant more to him and made him happier than a blank check from a multimillionaire would have. Louise had suffered her heart attack back in October and April and Simon had gotten killed in mid-November, and it was now February and after four whole months, George still hadn’t returned to his work at Jefferson Cleaners and he still spent practically every second at Louise’s side, helping her run Zion, and simply being a husband to her. George still went to the occasional meeting and ran the business from a supervising perspective at a distance, but it was really all his general managers and additional staff he’d hired since Louise’s heart attack who had taken over the bulk of responsibilities he used to take care of himself. Before he’d gotten saved, he would have been miserable leading such an existence, but now he was happier and more at peace with himself than he ever could have hoped to be before.
But one Friday afternoon in February, that peace got thrown out the window for a little while when the good Lord and Louise started the process of throwing George a curve he never could have seen coming or imagined in his wildest dreams. Thankfully there hadn’t been any more rescue missions since their last one in November, and the break had really given Louise and the others the chance they’d needed to recuperate from all the trauma and grief they had all experienced. They were informed by the police that it could be a long while yet before they’d be doing another one, and hearing that news gave Louise and all the others the kind of chance they needed to genuinely unwind a bit and relax. Even though her grief over April’s passing was still very near to her heart, however, over the course of the past four months her heart really was beginning to heal. April’s absence from her life would always be agonizing for her, but Louise knew she had a lot of other people who greatly loved her and were counting on her and it was for that reason that she was able to force herself to pick up and start moving on with her life again. By the time February rolled around, Louise really began to feel it was time for her to stop lying around grieving and to get to work on keeping her promise to April and Simon. She knew she had to move on with her life and that there was still a lot of important work she had to do. So when Louise and George came home from Zion at around four o’clock that Friday afternoon, she decided it was time for the work to begin.
“George,” she said to him while he helped her off with her coat, “do you remember how you kept trying to get me to agree to go on a vacation to Hawaii with you back when I first got out of the hospital?”
“Sure,” George replied.
“How would you feel about doing it now?”
“Hey yeah, Weez, that’d be great.”
“The catch is, it could only be for three or four days, tops. You know how terribly a long absence from me affects the children.”
“I understand. But what brought all this on all of the sudden? You never want to take any time off and be away from Zion longer than a weekend.”
Louise knowingly smiled at George and told him, “You’re right, sweetheart. You caught me. There is a reason I want us to get away and off to ourselves for a few days. I have a couple of important things I want to talk over with you about and I really think a nice romantic getaway would be the perfect setting for it.”
“Is something wrong?” George asked in a concerned tone.
“Oh, no, there isn’t anything wrong,” Louise quickly reassured him. “The issues that are on my mind right now aren’t any kind of bad news or anything along those lines, but they are important and if I’m going to talk to you about them, it’s best that I be alone with you and that we have some privacy.”
“Okay, Weezy-girl,” George said with a big smile. “Your wish is my command. I’ll call the travel agent and you can start packin’. We’ll head out first thing tomorrow.”
“If you don’t mind George, I’d rather pack some things for us and head out tonight instead of in the morning. I want as much time alone with you in Hawaii as I can possibly get.”
George gave Louise a quick kiss and said, “You know whatever you want is always alright with me.”
Louise chuckled and said, “I doubt you’ll still feel that way when you hear what I’ve got to say in Hawaii.”
“Don’t be silly, Weezy. Of course I will. You know I will. You know that I’ll always support you in whatever you want to do. You know that if there’s somethin’ you want or somethin’ you need, I always want you to come to me. You know all you have to do is ask and no matter what it is, the answer is yes.”
“Well that’s sweet of you to say, but I think your attitude will be a little different once I’ve explained everything to you in Hawaii.”
“Boy, I can’t wait to get there now. You got me on the edge of my seat wonderin’ just what the heck this thing is.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll be there soon enough. I wonder where Florence is. We’ll have to find her and tell her we’ll be leaving tonight.”
“She’s probably hangin’ out with Bentley.”
Louise rolled her eyes at George then and asked, “Are you still on that, George?”
“No, it’s more than that. I ain’t just jokin’ around anymore. Ralph told me himself just the other day that she’s almost always there while we’re out of the house during the day.”
“And we all know what a reliable source Ralph can be,” she said sarcastically.
“Oh no, Ralph ain’t the only one around here besides me that’s noticed it. Tom and Helen said the same thing to me last week.”
“I’ll tell you now just like I’ve told you before that you need to stay out of this, George. I’ll admit it that I’m every bit as curious about this whole thing between them as everybody else is, but it’s not anyone else’s business. It’s theirs. And it’s entirely up to them whether or not they want to discuss their relationship with us. For whatever reason, it’s clearly not something they want to talk about, so we all should respect their feelings and leave them alone.”
“I know, I know. It’s just hard not to wonder about them.”
“I understand all your curiosity because I have plenty of my own, but we’re going to be too busy with each other in Hawaii to even think about anything else,” Louise said as she wrapped her arms around George’s neck.
“Yeah, I guess we will be,” George said quietly, and Louise could hear it in his voice that he was really troubled deep down, and she understood exactly what it was that was bothering him, which was one of her reasons for wanting to get away with him to Hawaii.
Louise kissed George then and said, “I’ll get started packing.”
“And I’ll get on the phone. Maybe by the time we’ve made all our reservations and packed, Florence will be back.”
“If she isn’t back by the time we’re ready to leave, I’ll just call Helen and ask her to tell Florence where we are.”
“You’d have better luck passin’ the message along to her through Bentley,” George teased, and Louise playfully hit his arm and George laughed. Then Louise walked back to their room and started packing their things, and George called the travel agent.
Not long after they’d taken care of the packing and the reservations, Florence finally returned home. When she came back, George and Louise explained everything to her about their spontaneous plans for a romantic getaway. While Florence might have tried to convince the Jeffersons to take her along with them in the past, now she was completely understanding of their desire to go someplace romantic just the two of them and she wished them a safe trip and a happy vacation. As a matter of fact, she even seemed happy to see them leaving, and of course George and even Louise wondered in the back of their minds if that wasn’t because their absence would give her more free time to spend with Bentley. After they told Florence about their plans, Louise gave the Willises and Lionel and Jenny a call and explained everything to them as well, and then she and George took off for Hawaii.
When they arrived and walked into their hotel room which was actually an elaborate presidential suite, Louise was deeply touched. The walls of their suite were a simple beige and the bedspread and curtains and furniture almost seemed to sparkle with similar golden colors. It was lovely and romantic and Louise could really tell that George had gone all out. There was a small round beige oak table and chairs sitting in the middle of the room where they could eat their meals, and on that table was a bucket of ice with a bottle of champagne sitting in it, and an enormous bouquet of pink and red roses. Louise’s heart was warmed even more so than it already was the moment she spotted them because she knew it was all George’s doing.
The moment after George set all their luggage down, Louise saw the champagne and roses and said in an even deeper voice than usual, “Oh, George.” Then she walked up to the table and picked up the bouquet and inhaled deeply and afterwards, took out the little white card that was attached to it and read it. It said simply:
Weezy, you’re the best and I love you. Enjoy your vacation. You’ve earned it. George.
“How beautiful,” Louise whispered. “George, all of this is just amazing. Thank you.”
George walked up to Louise and kissed her and said, “You’re more than welcome. You know I love doin’ things for the woman I love.”
Louise said nothing in response and simply gave him another kiss, although this one lasted much longer.
“Okay, Queen Louise,” George said jokingly as he walked over to the foot of their queen-sized luxurious bed and sat down. Then he patted the bed beside him and she smiled and walked over to the bed and sat next to him. “I’m beginnin’ to feel like King Xerxes, here,” he said jokingly. “Since Marco’s been goin’ through the book of Esther in our Bible study sessions at Zion, I think I can relate to him a little bit now. I bet Esther was drivin’ him crazy with suspense, makin’ him wonder just what the heck it was that she wanted when she kept puttin’ off tellin’ him what her request was. But I ain’t gonna be like King Xerxes tonight, Weez,” George told her in a deep, loving voice. “I ain’t just gonna promise you up to half my kingdom like Xerxes promised Esther. Tonight, I’m promising everything,” he whispered as he put his hand on top of hers and gazed into her eyes, and Louise smiled and kissed his hand.
“No George, don’t. Don’t go making any rash promises just yet. What I need to talk to you about isn’t any kind of bad news in any way. It’s nothing to be worried about or afraid of, but it is something deeply serious and important and it’s not anything you should just jump into without giving it a lot of careful thought first. Yes, there is something I have to ask of you, but this is no small, ordinary, everyday favor. I didn’t bring you here tonight to ask you to stop making me drink decaf every morning,” she joked and George let out a small laugh. “I’m going to be really honest with you. What I have to ask you for now is something huge.”
George squeezed her hand and responded, “So?”
“What do you mean, ‘So’?”
“I mean, so what? Big deal. The last time I checked, you’ve done some absolutely enormous, mind-boggling things for me in the past. If there’s a chance I can even begin to return the favor to you now, believe me, nothing would make me happier, Louise. I mean that.”
“I know you do.”
“Trust me. Whatever you want, I promise you, the answer is yes.”
“I warned you not to make any promises, George. Now God will really hold you to your word, and I’ll have to as well.”
“Weezy, I want to give you all the things in life that you want from me. I want to do everything in my power to make you happy. I don’t consider doing anything for you a chore, no matter how big it is or how much it might cost me.”
“I believe you, George. I really do, and knowing that you feel this way and that I’ll always have so much support from you means everything to me. But for your own sake, I wish you would have heard me out before you agreed to this. You may not be too happy with either one of us when this conversation is over.”
“Ever since our good Lord was gracious enough to knock me down to size and teach me a little humility, I’m never all that happy with myself anymore anyway, but I am always happy with you, baby. Always. And that can’t ever change. Don’t you know that?”
Louise smiled and said, “We’ll see. Here goes.”
“Finally! The suspense ends,” George kidded.
“Do you remember when you’d dressed up as Santa Claus one Christmas and you promised one little boy to give him anything he wanted for Christmas and he said he wanted you find him a family to adopt him? You actually came to me and asked me about the two of us adopting him.”
“Yeah, I remember all that.”
“I gave you some silly excuse. I said that we were too old to be parents again, but I wasn’t really telling you the truth. I just said that because I couldn’t even imagine trying to explain everything about my life at Zion to you back in those days. The real reason I didn’t want to adopt him had nothing to do with age. I was afraid that if I was a mother to a child again in the above-ground world, he would be devastated if something were to happen to me in one of our rescue missions.
“Now I brought all of that up because I was afraid if I didn’t, I would sound really hypocritical in what I’m about to ask of you. April and Simon were always extremely anxious to have children of their own. They tried for a while but they just couldn’t get pregnant on their own and so they went to several doctors and had tests run and they had some infertility problems. They found out that the only way they could conceive would be through something called in vitro fertilization. Basically, their doctors went in and harvested some of April’s eggs and mixed them with Simon’s sperm and several embryos were created.”
“Yeah, I think I’ve heard of that stuff. Modern science is pretty incredible, alright. But I still don’t understand. What does all this have to do with you?”
“I’m getting to that. April and Simon decided to have all their embryos frozen until at least a few years down the line. They may have been really anxious to try and get pregnant, but after they got together and prayed about it for a little while, they felt like the Lord was telling them to wait. They simply assumed that He wanted them to wait until He moved them on to working in a different kind of ministry where they weren’t putting their lives on the line. I mean, it hardly made sense to go through all they were going through to try and get pregnant if they were still in a line of work where they could easily get killed and leave their poor child an orphan.
“Anyway, you know that April and I were always terribly close. I knew all along about everything she and Simon were going through trying to have a baby. We all got together one afternoon and talked about it, and they told me that they were pretty concerned about what would happen to their children if something should happen to them on a rescue mission. They wanted to make certain that if the worst should happen to them, their children would still have a chance at life. They never tried to push me into anything. They just asked me if I would take the time to pray about it and consider carrying their unborn children to term in the event of their deaths. I know what you’re thinking, that they should have gone to a younger woman and asked her, but you have to understand my relationship with April. Ever since I first rescued her, I’ve been the mother to her that she never had. It’s never very easy for a betrayed and abused and abandoned child to learn to trust someone, even as an adult. Even though I did rescue her and bring her to Zion, it was still somewhat of a challenge for a while for her to genuinely trust me, and in fact, even as a grown woman, there weren’t very many people at all that she’d be willing to place that level of trust in.
“I did agree to it. I gave April and Simon my word that in the event of their deaths, I’d make sure their unborn children would be taken care of. But I want you to know that it wasn’t a decision I rushed into. I understood what a huge commitment I was making, and I thought very long and hard about it and weighed the pros and the cons, but most importantly, I prayed about it, and in the end, that was the deciding factor. Somehow, I just got this overwhelming sense that God really wanted me to agree to this. I had a lot of concerns about it, especially considering my age, but God kept reassuring me that no matter what, He’d take care of me. I still have that sense of reassurance and peace about it now. April and Simon and I made all the necessary arrangements with their doctors as well as all the legal arrangements. Their embryos are now legally mine, so there’s no problem there. Now, the only thing left is…talking to you about it, finding out what your feelings are.”
George let out a low whistle and said, “Wow.”
“You can’t say I didn’t warn you, George.”
“I know. I don’t have any problems with bein’ a parent again, Weez. I don’t have a problem with opening our home and our hearts and lives to a little baby in need of parents. I really don’t. I think you agreein’ to do this for April was a very loving and beautiful thing for you to do. But I have to be honest. There are some things about this that I really don’t like.”
“What things?”
“I don’t like all the danger that this could pose to your health. You still have heart issues. I mean, let’s face it. Your body really has been through hell on earth, sweetheart. I just hate the thought of putting it through anything else, and a pregnancy, especially at your age, could really put your body under a lot of strain and that worries me. That’s the only problem I have with all of this.
“And it’s for that reason that I have to agree with what you first said. I am a little mad at myself ’cause I am gonna be worried sick about you for the next nine months. But then again, I always worry about you since your heart attack anyway, so it ain’t like I’m not already used to it,” George said with a smile, and then Louise returned the smile and gave him another kiss.
“Well you shouldn’t worry so much. I’m a very strong woman, George. I’m an awful lot tougher than I look.”
“I know that. How else could you have put up with the old George Jefferson all those years?” George asked and they both chuckled and leaned in and rested their heads on each other.
“I am going to be alright,” Louise whispered.
“Will you at least stop pushin’ yourself so hard now and start takin’ it easy at Zion and at the Help Center?”
“I know how hard I always push myself and I know how much it worries you all the time. I’ll try to be more sensitive to that from now on. I really will.”
“Thank you. Alright Mama, what do you say we turn in? If we’re gonna be getting ready to become parents for a second time around, we’ll need all the sleep we can get. We’ll need it anyway for all the energy we’ll be usin’ up doin’ sightseein’ tomorrow.”
“Oh, I don’t know, George. I have another idea for something we could do together tonight, just the two of us,” Louise said softly as she kissed him several times. “I mean, just think about it. It’s only you and me here and nobody else. No Florence. No Tom and Helen. No Mr. Bentley. No Lionel and Jenny. Just George and Weezy, sitting together on this nice, luxurious bed, in this lovely and romantic hotel room, in lovely and romantic Hawaii. Surely you want to do more besides sleep,” she said as she laid several small kisses on his lips.
George let out a sigh and Louise felt him tense up, and then he stood up and nervously began to pace a little.
“That’s another reason you brought me to Hawaii, isn’t it?” George asked, but he already knew the answer.
Louise got up and walked over to him and replied, “George, we may have joked around an awful lot about all our sexual attraction to each other during those first few weeks after I came home from the hospital, but since that rescue mission, we’ve just shoved this issue to the back of our minds. But I know you better than anyone does, George, and I know that while you did joke around a lot about your desire to make love to me, deep down, you’re actually very afraid to. And I understand why you’re so afraid of having sex with me now.”
“I know how crazy this’ll sound, but I was really hoping that with everything that happened with April and Simon a few months ago, not to mention everything that’s happened with your heart, you’d eventually want to forget about us having sex again. I know it was a long shot, but part of me was really hopin’ that this would never come up.”
“I know,” Louise said gently, and George could really hear it in her voice that she understood how he was feeling. “I get it, George. I really do. But I love you too much to not face this with you. We can’t just avoid this thing for the entire rest of our lives, sweetheart. And when you finally stop running from it, it’s only then that you learn that there’s nothing to fear.”
“How can you say that, Weez? There’s everything to fear. We don’t know how something like this could affect you, physically or otherwise.”
“George, you know that I am more than ready to start making love again physically. Dr. Garrison said it would be fine for us to resume our sex life after six weeks and it’s been over twice that long now.
“And I know exactly how this will affect me emotionally. I know what it is that you’re so afraid of. You’re afraid that while we’re in the act of sex, you’ll do something or say something that might somehow remind me of everything that happened to me back in Harlem. But let me explain something to you. Back in those days when I was going through all of that agony, there were times when obviously, you as a young man, were pretty anxious to make love to me. And there was a time when I couldn’t even imagine having sex due to the hell I was going through. And there were a lot of times when I simply couldn’t meet your needs in the bedroom. It was just too much for me to handle back then in that terrible situation. And you know that in a situation like that where a woman can’t satisfy her husband, the vast majority of men on the planet would start having affairs. I knew how much you always loved me and I knew that the last thing you wanted was to break your wedding vows to me, but I also knew how deeply frustrated you were becoming sexually. During that time, I really wouldn’t have blamed you if you would have gone looking around for another woman to meet the needs in you that I couldn’t. As a matter of fact, I half-way expected you to. And I waited and waited and waited for the inevitable to happen. I waited to hear someone tell me that they’d seen you with another woman. And the inevitable never happened. There was one day I’ll never forget when you came home sick with a cold and fever. I asked you when it had started coming on, and you said that you’d had it since that morning because the water heater wasn’t working and you’d had to take a cold shower. It was right then that I realized the truth. I knew that you weren’t telling me the whole truth. I knew that you hadn’t taken a cold shower that day because the water heater had stopped working. I realized that you had been taking cold showers, even if they made you sick, to keep yourself from giving in to the temptation to go out and have sex with another woman since I couldn’t make love to you at the time. And it was in that moment that I realized that if you would even go to the point of making yourself sick so that you could stay faithful to me, you could never be like one of those monsters. I knew from that point on that I had absolutely nothing to fear from you in the bedroom, that you would never try to do anything to hurt me like they did. And you never have. Even back in those years when we were at each other’s throats twenty-four-seven, when it came to the bedroom, you were constantly a perfect gentleman, and you always, always treated me with tenderness and respect. And I know I can expect nothing less from you tonight.”
“Weez,” George gasped, and Louise could see the tiny tear forming in his eye as he hugged her. George gave her a firm kiss on the cheek and whispered in her ear, “I love you so much.”
“Oh, honey, I know you do,” Louise said as she started getting a little misty, herself. “And I love you, too. And I’m right here. We’ll get through this together. This is nothing to be afraid of. There’s a big difference between mere sex and two people coming together because they love each other and making love. It’s always been love with us, George. And it always will be. It’s been too long. It’s time we came together again. Don’t be afraid. You don’t have to worry about hurting me. I won’t break. It’s alright.”
“Let’s just be careful and take it slow, okay?”
“That’s perfectly fine. We have plenty of time. I’m not in any hurry.”
George responded by giving Louise a long, passionate kiss, and then they took it from there.

Chapter Thirteen
Louise and George remained in Hawaii through the following Tuesday and took an evening flight back to New York that night. They spent all day Wednesday at Zion and at the Help Center, and then they went to see one of the Millers’ fertility specialists that Thursday afternoon after spending most of the day at Zion. His name was Dr. Bill Manning, and he was an average-sized guy with brown hair and blue eyes, and he also had a very friendly, inviting personality. Both Louise and George took a liking to him instantly, and Louise could easily see why April and Simon had chosen him as their doctor.
“Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson, I am going to be totally honest with you, here. If it weren’t for just one single thing you guys told me about your situation, I wouldn’t even consider attempting a frozen embryo transfer. I mean no offense, Mrs. Jefferson, but your age is one big concern, although I wouldn’t have any qualms about attempting the transfer in a woman your age if that were the only issue. But it’s not. As a physician, I would be very afraid to attempt a pregnancy because of your previous heart attack. From a medical standpoint, a pregnancy looks like a rather bad idea, to say the least. It puts a lot of demands on the body of even the healthiest young woman. I would be very worried about the kind of demands it would be putting on a body as old as yours that has been through as much trauma as your body has. I won’t sugarcoat it. If a pregnancy does result from this, you could really be putting your health in jeopardy.
“However, I’m not only a doctor. I’m a Christian just like you and the Millers, and if you say that the Lord is leading you to do this, then I’m not about to try and stand in your way. I agree with everything you said. I, too, believe that life begins at the moment of conception, and I don’t believe it’s right for the Millers’ unborn children to be forgotten about and not at least be given a chance at life. But I do want to caution you about the odds and I don’t want you to get your hopes up. While there is a chance that a pregnancy might result, the odds are not at all in your favor considering your age. They’re pretty stacked against you.”
“You didn’t offend me, Dr. Manning,” Louise assured him. “I’m perfectly aware of everything you just said. George and I are aware of the risks and the odds, and we’ve decided that we want to try, at least, to give these unborn babies a chance at life.”
“I understand your position, Mrs. Jefferson. I really do.”
“So, uh…where do we go from here, doc?” George asked.
“First, we’ll do an ultrasound and make sure there aren’t any cysts or problems with your wife’s uterus. We can do that today. Then I’ll start you on some medication, Mrs. Jefferson, and on hormone injections to help make the lining of your uterus more receptive to embryo implantation. We’ll do that for about the next three weeks or so and run some blood work and then you’ll come in and we’ll have the embryos thawed, which should take about an hour or so, and then we’ll transfer them into your uterus and hope at least one of them implants. The Millers had all four of their embryos frozen. Have the two of you decided how many of them you want to have thawed?”
“We’ve talked it over and we’ve decided that we want to try the transfer with all four of them at once,” Louise replied. “Since my age is obviously such a big factor in all this, we know that a pregnancy resulting from an attempted transfer with just one of the embryos is pretty unlikely. We know we’d have a bigger chance of success if we attempted it with more than one. And if we do end up beating the odds and getting pregnant and if we still have more frozen embryos here, naturally, we’ll feel obligated to try another transfer with them, which could result in a second pregnancy. And since my body has been through a lot, we really want to avoid more than one pregnancy, so we’ve decided that if it is God’s will for us to have more than one child, we’d really prefer to have them all at once so we don’t have to keep putting my body through so much.”
“I understand. That’s probably the best way to go about it,” Dr. Manning agreed. “So now, there’s nothing left for us to do but get started.”
“We’re ready,” Louise said confidently and George squeezed her hand.
Over the course of the next hour, Dr. Manning had all the necessary tests performed and he commented to George and Louise that he was actually quite stunned at how well Louise’s uterus looked considering her age and the traumatic C-section of Lionel she’d gone through. Then one of his nurses gave Louise her first hormone injection and his prescriptions for all the medications she’d need, and after they thanked the doctor for all his help, they left his office and went to the pharmacy and got her prescriptions filled.
Once they arrived at their apartment building and got off the elevator on their floor, Louise told George, “This is insane, sweetheart. It really is. I mean, just look at us. We’re over fifty. We’re already grandparents. And yet here we are, getting ready for a possible pregnancy in this stage of our lives. We should be looking at retirement homes and gold watches and kaopectate,” Louise joked, and George laughed out loud.
“Kaopectate,” George said as he laughed. “You’re crazy, Weez.”
“See? That’s my entire point. I am crazy. I shouldn’t be thinking like this. I shouldn’t even be thinking of trying to become a mother again at my age. This whole thing is such nonsense. It’s just pure, utter insanity!”
George looked at her and smiled and said, “So?”
Louise returned the smile and gave George a kiss and said, “Thank you for being crazy enough to do all of this with me.”
“And thank you for bein’ crazy enough to stay married to me all these years.” Naturally, they had their arms wrapped around each other and were kissing again the moment those words left George’s mouth. “You’re gorgeous, Weezy,” he said with his arms still wrapped around her waist. “You really are. Even your insanity is gorgeous. My kind of insanity through the years was just me makin’ a fool of myself over money and my ridiculous ego. Your kind of insanity is bein’ willing to go so far as to even attempt a pregnancy, after a heart attack I might add, because you’re tryin’ to do what you believe the Lord wants you to do and because you’re doin’ everything within your power to try and live up to your promises to a friend. My kind of insanity was just me tryin’ to glorify myself in stupid ways, but your kind of insanity might actually result in a little child getting a chance at life they never would have had otherwise. Your kind of insanity could actually end up giving a little baby an entire existence on earth that never would have even happened without you. My kind of insanity has always been just plain stupid, but your kind of insanity is selfless and beautiful and amazing. I know what other people will probably say to us, what their reactions will probably be. I know how crazy they’ll think we both are and they probably won’t get it, but that’s okay. It only matters that we get it, Weez.”
“George…are you sure this is what you want? I know you promised ahead of time that you’d agree to this, but if this pregnancy actually does happen and a little child actually does get born into the world, I don’t want you to be a part of it out of some sense of obligation to me. It wouldn’t be fair to this child if your heart isn’t really in it.”
“Oh no, my heart’s in this, Weezy. It really is. I’ll admit that when you first explained this entire thing to me, I was incredibly stunned. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that what you wanted to ask me about would be anything like this. I certainly never planned on becomin’ a dad again at my age. I never imagined that the next twenty years or so of my life might actually be filled with formula and pacifiers and diapers and preschool and high school and college. I know what a huge commitment this is, but I’ve really been thinkin’ long and hard about this whole thing over these past few days, and I’ve realized somethin’. I’ve realized that lovin’ and takin’ care of a child again is hardly the worst thing in the world I could spend my life doin’ over the next twenty years. Don’t get me wrong; I was happy when we had Lionel, but as wonderful as it was for me to get to go through the experience of havin’ a child with you, I was never able to completely enjoy it because I was always so stressed about money in those days. There were a lot of times when we didn’t know where our next meal was comin’ from, and I was worried sick that I wouldn’t be able to provide for you and Lionel and give you everything you needed. During your pregnancy with Lionel and the first few years of his life, yes, I enjoyed it, but I was also more stressed out then than in any other time in my whole life, with the exception of your heart attack. Deep down, I’d always wished that I could somehow take all the money we’ve made today and go back in time with it and go through the pregnancy and the early years of Lionel’s life all over again. If it really is God’s will for us to have another child this way, it’ll almost be like givin’ me a chance to do that. I’m still worried about what a pregnancy could mean for your health, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized how much I would love the thought of havin’ another baby with you, because this time, I get to do it right. God has really blessed us financially and I know I don’t have to worry about providing for you and a baby now, and also thanks to Him, I know I’ve finally gotten my act together as a husband. Both spiritually and financially, I know I am in the perfect position to be a part of something like this now, so I say let’s go for it. Let’s have a baby, Weez.”
“Oh, George,” Louise said with a huge smile, and again, they gave each other a long kiss. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up too high, though,” she cautioned after the kiss was over. “You know that doing a frozen embryo transfer is still something that’s brand new in reproductive medicine. And my age makes the odds even worse. Frankly, I love the thought of us having another child together every bit as much as you do, but I also want to be realistic. Most likely, it won’t work.”
“I understand that, but since we first talked about it last week, I’ve been praying for guidance, too. And since I started prayin’ about it all, I just got this sense of peace about it somehow, like God was letting me know He was pleased that I was supporting you in this, like this is right, like this really is what I’m supposed to be doin’ now. Somehow, I keep getting the sense that the odds aren’t as stacked up against us as we think.”
“Maybe they’re not. We can certainly hope that’s the case.”
“Well, are you ready to go inside and expose all of our insanity to the rest of the family?” George teased. He and Louise had invited Lionel and Jenny and the Willises and Mr. Bentley over for dinner that night so they could inform all of them of their plans. Thankfully Louise had remembered how often April had told her about how prompt Dr. Manning was, so she knew they could invite everybody over without having to worry about being very late.
Louise laughed and answered, “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Alright, then, let’s do it,” George said and then he turned the doorknob and walked inside with Louise.
“Hey, you two,” Florence said in a friendly tone. “You guys have great timing. Supper’s almost ready.”
“Yeah, we’re all really looking forward to all the dieting tonight, Pop, especially Mr. Willis over here,” Lionel teased. Tom, Helen, and Bentley were sitting together on the couch and Jenny was sitting in the chair at the end of the couch facing the door, and Lionel was sitting in the chair on the opposite end. Florence was standing behind the couch near the bar and it was obvious they’d all been simply sitting around joking and enjoying each other’s company as they had been waiting for Louise and George to come home.
Helen laughed and said, “Please, Lionel. You know perfectly well that whatever dieting Tom may do down here tonight will get tossed out the window the instant he’s back at home with me upstairs.”
“Oh now come on, Mom, Lionel,” Jenny scolded. “Daddy may have failed at a lot of other attempts at dieting but that does not mean he’ll fail at this one.”
“Why thank you, Jenny,” said Tom.
“All his past failures do not automatically spell defeat this time,” she continued. “However, all the candy bars and chips and soda pop he’s got stashed away upstairs does pretty much spell out an automatic defeat,” she kidded her father, and everybody responded with a big and hearty laugh.
“Thanks a lot,” Tom said, and then Helen kissed his cheek.
“We’re just teasing you, Tom,” she reassured him. “You know we love you.”
“Yes, I know,” Tom admitted with a smile and then he gave Helen a kiss.
Finally, in the next moment, everyone noticed how quiet George and Louise were, and how they were just silently holding each other’s hands and smiling. It was obvious they had something on their minds, and that whatever it was had to be something good.
“Mr. J., Mrs. J., you’re both awfully quiet tonight,” Bentley observed.
“Yeah, you two look like you’ve really got something on your minds,” Lionel agreed. “What’s going on?”
“Uh…Weez, how do you want to handle this? Shall we tell ’em right now or wait ’til dinner’s over?”
“Tell us now, Louise,” said Helen. “You’ve really got my curiosity stirred up.”
“Mine too,” said Florence. “Come on, Ms. Jefferson, child. Out with it. I want to know what’s got you two smilin’ at each other lookin’ like the cat that swallowed the canary.”
“I say it’s more fun to keep them in suspense,” Louise joked. “Let’s wait until we’ve finished eating.” Of course the moment after Louise said that, everybody loudly groaned in protest, and Louise laughed. “Alright, alright,” she said as she held her hand up. “You guys win. We’ll tell you now. Just give George and me a second to find a seat somewhere because explaining everything will take a little while.”
“Oh here, Mom,” Lionel said as he got up from where he was sitting. “You can have my seat. I’ll go over and sit with Jenny.”
“Thanks, son,” Louise told him and then she took his previous seat while he walked over and sat down on the arm of Jenny’s chair. George, too, sat down on the arm of the chair Louise was sitting in and lovingly wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Florence squeezed in next to Bentley on the couch, and when everybody was seated, the conversation began. Over the next several minutes, Louise explained the entire situation to them and told them of the decision she and George had made. For a few long moments, there was nothing but pure silence.
“I know what you guys must be thinkin’,” George said, finally breaking the silence. “I know you’re probably thinkin’ that we’re the biggest lunatics on the whole face of the earth, that we’re already grandparents, that we should be makin’ plans to retire, not plans to try and get pregnant. You’re probably thinkin’ that we ought to be out shoppin’ for things like gold watches and kaopectate, not pacifiers and diapers.” The instant George said that, Louise playfully hit him in the arm, and everyone enjoyed a good laugh. “But after some soul-searching, we both agreed that this is something we have to do and we hope you can support us in this, even if it does seem pretty crazy.”
“But what about your heart, Louise? Aren’t you guys concerned about the potential strain a pregnancy could put on your body like that?” asked Helen.
“Oh yes, of course we are,” Louise admitted. “That’s why George and I have come to an agreement that if by some off chance we actually do achieve a pregnancy, I’ll only be working half-days at Zion and at the Help Center. I’ve given him my word that if I do get pregnant, I’ll take it as easy as possible until the baby comes, and I’ll be under my doctors’ constant supervision. Believe me, we do understand the risks that are involved, but we still really do want to do this. We’re going to be as careful as humanly possible.”
“Well I think it’s terrific,” Florence said. “I know how liberal we all are around here a lot of the time, but I agree with you guys, that life begins at the moment of conception, and that those unborn children deserve a chance to live.”
“Call me old-fashioned and sentimental, but I’m with Florence on this one,” Bentley agreed. “I’m usually of a rather liberal mindset as well. I strongly believe in the true equality of every person, regardless of what race and what gender they are, and for the most part, I’ve always been in support of the women’s movement and women’s struggle for genuine equality in the workplace and in the world. But I’ve never been able to support their mindset when it comes to unborn children. Perhaps it’s because I was raised with a pretty religious background, but I’ve always believed that whenever it came to deciding another person’s entire earthly existence and future, that’s strictly God’s domain, and that no man and no woman has the right to play God and take a child’s whole existence on earth away from them. I know there are a lot of risks involved, Mrs. J., but that only makes me respect you and want to support you even more, because making a decision like this despite the obvious risks to your health takes an enormous amount of courage. And I say God bless you for that.”
“Amen, Harry,” Florence said lovingly and then put her hand on top of his.
“You know Louise, George, Helen and I have always been pretty liberal-minded all our lives, too. But there are some things a lot of liberals advocate that we’ve never really been able to support in good conscience, and abortion is one of them,” Tom said seriously. “I think it’s very cruel to end a life before it’s even had the chance to take its first breath yet. Maybe I’m simply old-fashioned, but if more liberals truly believed in the equality of every single human being, I’ve always wondered why the equal rights they fight for can never seem to extend to the unborn.”
“And it’s such a slippery slope, too,” Helen added. “At what point does a human being get to decide that another human life does or does not have value? At conception? At a month into the pregnancy? At nine months? Does a newborn infant have the same right to life as an adult? And if it does, then did that right to life not even exist for it the day before when it was still in the womb? At what point is it supposed to be ‘okay’ to take a baby’s life? And if it’s ever supposedly ‘okay’ to take a baby’s life, at what point does it ever stop being ‘okay’? A month after it’s born? Six months? A year? Five years? If it’s not okay to kill a one-month-old child, or a six-month-old, or a one-year-old, or a five-year-old child, why should it be okay to take that very same child’s life away just because it’s in the womb? At any given point, life is life, period, and it’s precious, and it’s never okay at any age to try to take it away from another person.”
“You know before I had Jessica, I actually did sort of halfway support abortion,” Jenny said. “I listened to all the feminist arguments from all my college professors and my more liberal friends, and I used to believe that all the arguments against abortion were mostly just coming from a bunch of male chauvinists who wanted to prevent women from having the freedom to choose what to do with their own bodies. But when I first got pregnant with Jessica and I realized that I was carrying a whole brand new unique life inside of me, I realized then that being against abortion had nothing to do with chauvinism. I realized that I no longer had just my own personal life to consider anymore; I had another life whose life was now dependent on mine. I realized that if I didn’t take care of myself through the pregnancy, I wouldn’t only be hurting myself; I’d be hurting my baby and doing damage to her life as well as mine, that my life was no longer the only life to consider, that my choices really did affect someone else very deeply. And I knew then that my little baby’s life was every bit as valuable and worthy of safety and protection as my own life was. And I mean, merely hearing my doctor say the words, ‘You’re pregnant’ to me brought all of this home for me. I bet, Mama, that you and Mrs. Jefferson especially can imagine what it did to me when I felt Jessica kick for the first time and when I first heard her cry and held her in my arms when she was born.”
“Definitely,” Helen agreed.
“Oh, yes,” Louise said as she nodded. “Believe me, Jenny, we understand perfectly what you’re talking about.”
“I have to admit that I was pretty much in Jenny’s shoes. I used to buy into all the liberals’ arguments for abortion, but man, when I put my hand on Jenny’s stomach and felt Jessica kicking for the first time, that changed everything. I agree with the rest of you, that life is always precious, regardless of how old it is or whether it’s been born yet or not. Nobody has the right to make the decision about who gets born and who doesn’t except God, Himself.
“Now I’ll confess that I do find this whole thing pretty weird,” Lionel said with a laugh. “It’s kind of crazy thinking that I could end up having a sibling that’s younger than my own daughter. But while it is kind of crazy, I also think it’s a very loving thing to do for a friend, and that no life, born or unborn, deserves to be forgotten about. And on top of all that, regardless of what my feelings are about it, Mom, Pop, it’s your lives, man, not mine, and I don’t have the right to tell you not to do this if it’s what you really want. And if you guys really do have your hearts set on this, then I’m with you. We all are.”
“Thanks, Lionel,” George said softly. It was clear that while this wasn’t Lionel’s decision to make, his approval and support meant an awful lot to George and Louise.
After everyone enjoyed a smile together for a moment, Tom said out loud, “Let’s eat!” Naturally, everybody laughed, and then they got up and walked to the dinner table and sat down and Florence brought out all the food and they began eating. As everybody else was talking and laughing and eating, George and Louise couldn’t keep from smiling at each other. It was then that Louise remembered that she and George had felt that way once before, back in the early years of their marriage when they’d first decided to start trying for children. It had been one of the happiest times of Louise’s life, and she was utterly amazed that all of the sudden, here clear out of the blue, now, after all this time and even after becoming grandparents, they were once again revisiting the experience. Louise had to admit it to herself that the old saying was really true: the Lord really did work in mysterious ways.

Chapter Fourteen
About eleven o’clock that Friday morning, Louise was alone in her quarters with Marco after asking him to meet with her there, telling him that she needed to discuss some important things with him in private.
“What’s up, dear?” Marco asked in his typically warm, loving demeanor.
“Why don’t we sit down first?” Louise suggested as she motioned towards her small love seat in the living area, which was a lovely blue-green shade and had a couple of purple throw-pillows on it, and had matching living chairs facing each other on opposite ends of it. There was also a matching mahogany coffee table and end tables and a small television set in front of the loveseat.
“Sure thing,” he replied as he took a seat next to her on the loveseat. “Now, what did you want to talk to me about?”
“You know that April and Simon were going to a fertility clinic because they’d been trying to have children for a while and they were having problems.”
“Yes, I remember that. What about it?”
“Well, they were trying to conceive through a procedure called in vitro fertilization.”
“Yeah, I know what it is. It’s where doctors harvest a woman’s eggs and combine them with her husband’s sperm in a petri dish and embryos are created, and then they try and get at least one of the embryos to implant in the woman’s uterus.”
“That’s right. Because April and Simon were putting their lives on the line at least several times a year doing rescue missions, they wanted to wait until the Lord called them to a different kind of ministry before they tried for a pregnancy. They really wanted to have a child of their own, but even though they were really anxious to get pregnant, they also didn’t want to leave their child without a mother or a father should the worst happen to them on a mission, so they chose to wait. They went through with the IVF and four embryos were created, but instead of trying to have one or more of them implanted in April right away, they chose to have them frozen. April and Simon and I discussed what would happen to their unborn children should the worst happen to them on a rescue mission. And, I believed the Lord was leading me to agree to at least try to carry their unborn children to term for them in the event of their deaths.
“That’s actually one of the reasons I asked George to go away to Hawaii with me for a few days, so we could have a few relaxing days alone and discuss this in private, just the two of us. Understandably, he was pretty stunned about it all at first. But I’ve got to say, his reaction to this whole thing has just been amazing. He has been unbelievably supportive and understanding and encouraging. The idea of the two of us even thinking about a pregnancy at our age, and especially given my health situation, is obviously pretty insane. George and I are already grandparents so it’s clearly pretty crazy for us to be making plans to possibly get pregnant again at this point in our lives.
“But George completely understood. And he’s very supportive of my desire to give the Millers’ unborn children at least the hope of a chance at life, however slim it might me, considering my age. I simply couldn’t ask for anything more from him than all the love and understanding and support he’s just been lavishing on me ever since I explained everything. And even though he is pretty concerned about what a pregnancy might mean for me health-wise, he actually told me that he realized that after he thought about it all for a while, he realized that he loved the idea of having a baby with me again.”
“Wow. That’s pretty amazing, especially coming from George. Our God is really an incredible God. After all these years, He still amazes me. I never would have dreamed all these years that George Jefferson could ever have been that supportive of a husband. I guess I should have remembered more often that our Lord said that what is impossible with man is possible with Him.”
“It sure is. I’ve been pretty amazed myself at the miracles God has brought out of some terrible situations in my own life. He uses my painful past to help George come to faith in Christ and get saved, as well as Mama, for that matter. He uses my heart attack as a means to start rebuilding my marriage to George. Now, I’m wondering if He doesn’t want to use April’s and Simon’s deaths to give George and me the opportunity to help give their unborn children life, if perhaps we weren’t meant to raise their children for some unknown reason that isn’t clear to us yet.”
“Knowing God, it’s very possible,” Marco said with a smile. “It wouldn’t surprise me a bit to learn that God is using this tragedy to actually build a new family and create a unique blessing in that way.”
“I still keep reminding myself of how miniscule our chances are of getting pregnant, though. Deep down, now George and I actually are kind of hoping that the frozen embryo transfer will be a success, but I’m trying to be realistic and not get my hopes up. However Marco, for obvious reasons, if three weeks from now George and I actually do beat the odds and get pregnant, I’m going to need to depend on you more than ever before. As a matter of fact, if I do conceive, I want to put you in full command of Zion while I reduce my workload here to a part-time status. Do you feel ready for it?”
“Yes,” Marco answered seriously. “I’ll certainly miss you since you won’t be around here as much during the day, but I know I can handle the responsibility for an extended length of time if you need me to. And, if you do get pregnant in a few weeks, Lord willing, then I think reducing your workload here would be a very wise thing for you to do. You might even want to consider not working here at all throughout your pregnancy and wait until the baby is at least a few weeks old before you come back. That way, you’ll have even less stress to deal with while you’re pregnant and you’ll be able to take it as easy as possible.”
Louise smiled knowingly and said, “You sound like George. He tried to talk me into doing that too, as a matter of fact. But you know perfectly well that simply staying away from Zion will not reduce my stress because I’ll always be worried about how my kids here are doing, and our volunteers. But if I only work half-days here and go home with George at lunchtime, it’ll give me a chance to interact with my crew and our children and keep up with how the city’s doing and I’ll still be able to get plenty of rest and relaxation and leisure time at home.”
“Yeah, I see your point,” Marco agreed. “But I know you, Louise. When it comes to anything pertaining to this city or the Help Center, you are the absolute worst workaholic in the entire history of the human race. You can almost never tear your mind away from Zion.”
Louise chuckled at herself and admitted, “I know. You’re right. That’s something I do have to really work on. But anyway, thank you, Marco.” Louise gave Marco another smile then and put her hand on top of his, and while Marco couldn’t express it for obvious reasons, the mere gesture alone practically made his heart want to sing. “It means everything to have someone like you around here I can count on so much.”
Marco put his other hand on top of Louise’s and lovingly replied, “Believe me, Louise, you are so welcome. I’ll be praying for you and George about this over these next few weeks. I really will.”
Louise gave Marco a big hug and told him, “Thank you. I appreciate that an awful lot.”
And Marco was true to his word and frequently prayed for Louise and George over the following weeks, first and foremost, that God’s will be done of course, but also for the embryo transfer to be a success if that indeed was His will for them. He also prayed that God would give them the grace and patience and endurance they needed to get through the next few weeks of hormone injections, medications, and suspense. After Louise’s conversation with Marco ended that morning, Louise also went to Olivia’s quarters and explained the entire situation to her, and she was every bit as understanding and supportive as Marco and everyone else had been, and like Marco, she too prayed frequently in earnest for them.
And while Louise and George did try to simply trust in the Lord and not worry about the upcoming frozen embryo transfer, they couldn’t help but be in suspense about it. They did try to keep telling themselves constantly over the next few weeks that they shouldn’t get their hopes up because of the terrible odds, but they couldn’t help it. They more they thought about finally having another baby together after so many years, the more they wanted it.
Louise and George had decided even back before they got married that they wanted to have a big family together. They’d really dreamed of having a lot of children in their lives, especially Louise, and when Louise had awakened from the surgery of her emergency C-section and learned that having another child wouldn’t be possible for them, she had been particularly crushed. Lionel had actually been a very big baby, weighing nearly ten pounds at birth, and he had simply been too large for Louise to give birth to naturally, and so the doctor had eventually had no choice but to perform the C-section. And when the doctor had performed the surgery and delivered Lionel, he’d discovered multiple cysts on Louise’s ovaries and had felt it necessary to remove them. Of course George’s love for Louise had never been based on her ability to bear children, but he had been pretty heartbroken as well when he’d learned that they’d never have another child. Now, all of the sudden, modern medical science and technology were offering them one tiny, almost microscopic shot at a miracle and were possibly granting them a way, after all these years, to finally experience the joy of having another baby together, the resurrection of an age-old dream they’d both believed died decades before. So understandably, although they knew how badly the odds were stacked against them, it was hard not to hope.
But in the meantime, despite all the suspense they were going through every day, thanks to their little escapade in Hawaii, they’d rediscovered a very fun way to pass the time when they weren’t working in the Help Center or Zion. Before George had gotten saved, he and Louise had had a very mediocre love life at best. Now, however, just as the spiritual and psychological aspects of their marriage had drastically improved and even surpassed what it had been when they were newlyweds, the same could also easily be said about the sexual side to their relationship. When George and Louise had made love in the past it had been fairly good, but now that they were falling so deeply in love with one another again and were plainly putting all their hearts into it, they were getting satisfaction out of each other that had gone beyond anything they could have hoped for in their wildest dreams.
The evening before Louise and George were scheduled to go to the fertility clinic for the frozen embryo transfer, they’d practically run to their bedroom the instant they got home from Zion. It was now a daily routine for them to anxiously hurry through their volunteer work and rush home to make love a little while before eating dinner with Florence. Out of courtesy to her, of course, since they considered her a member of the family, they made an effort to sit down with her after supper and spend a little time with her, but Florence had hardly been born yesterday. She understood perfectly well what was happening between them and she often insisted that they forget about her and go on with what they all knew they really wanted to go back to doing. And that night when they were through making love and had gotten dressed again to go out and eat dinner with Florence, naturally, they were standing in front of their locked bedroom door in a lip-lock.
“Well, it’s nice to know I’m still up to par after being out of practice all these months,” Louise said softly with a big smile.
George laughed softly and said, “Up to par? Weezy, you own the par. I don’t know why you were so convinced you were at the kaopectate stage of life.” The moment George said that, Louise threw her head back and laughed out loud. “The way you are in bed, you’re still in your twenties!”
“You are never going to let me forget about the kaopectate thing, are you?”
“It’s a funny joke. Why waste it?” George said and Louise chuckled and then gave him another kiss.
“You know George, I’d given up on us ever having another baby. I never even imagined that there would be the kind of advancements there’ve been in medical technology that might one day make it possible for us to become parents again, even after we’d become grandparents. When that doctor told me after Lionel was born about what had happened during the surgery, I really believed that that would be the last word about the possibility of us having another baby. I know that there’s a pretty big chance that this won’t work, but this whole experience is really reminding me that it’s God who has the final say about things in the end, not human beings. I know we need to just trust in Him to do what’s best and stop dwelling on this, but it’s so hard not to.”
“I know what you mean. It’s pretty hard for me not to think about it and wonder what’s gonna happen, too. But at least we’ve got one really great way to pass the time ’til we know if the transfer was a success or not.”
Louise laughed again and said, “That we do. But if the transfer works and we end up having another child together, I sure hope we’ll be able to force ourselves out of the bedroom long enough to actually raise it.”
“Yeah, that’ll be a pretty big challenge, alright. But maybe we can pull it off.”
“I’m so happy that you really want to do this with me, that you’re even as excited about it all as I am,” Louise said with a smile, and yet again, they kissed for the longest time before finally joining Florence for dinner.
Understandably, Louise and George had just been too filled to the brim with anticipation and excitement to get any real sleep that night. But even though they were tired from their insomnia, they wasted no time the following morning in eating their breakfast with Florence and getting showered and dressed and ready to leave the apartment. Louise’s appointment with Dr. Manning was for nine o’clock, and she and George were at the fertility clinic and waiting in his waiting room by eight-thirty.
Once the embryos were thawed, George sat at Louise’s bedside and held her hand and talked and joked with her while Dr. Manning did his work. George did a terrific job of helping Louise stay calm and relaxed through the procedure, and although it was quite painless, George still felt it was important to help ease her tension. After Dr. Manning was finished, he said that it would probably be best if Louise spent the next day or two on bed-rest and he reminded Louise that it was very important for her to relax as much as possible, and then he sent them on their way.
The instant they arrived back at their apartment, Florence walked up to them and pounced on Louise with questions.
“So how’d it go, Ms. Jefferson?” she questioned anxiously.
“It went just fine, Florence,” Louise replied, and went no further into details which irritated Florence, who of course, wanted to hear absolutely every detail about it.
“Well?” said Florence impatiently.
“Well what?” said Louise.
“How are you feeling? Are you feeling any different now than you did when you left this mornin’? Do you feel like you’re pregnant?”
Louise laughed and said, “Of course not, Florence. You know a woman can’t automatically tell when she first gets pregnant. Symptoms of pregnancy don’t start happening for weeks.”
“If you’ll excuse us, Florence, Weezy needs to go lie down.”
“You’re not feelin’ sick are you, Ms. Jefferson? Are you feelin’ queasy? You know, that could be an early sign of morning sickness.”
Louise barely concealed a laugh as she said, “No, Florence, I’m not feeling sick at all. I feel perfectly fine. I’m only supposed to go to bed right now because Dr. Manning said it was very important that I rest and relax as much as possible over the next couple of days. He thinks getting plenty of rest will make it easier for a conception.”
Before Florence could ask any more questions, the doorbell rang and she answered the door, and it was Tom and Helen standing outside.
“Oh, good afternoon, Mr. and Ms. Willis,” Florence greeted them.
“Good afternoon, Florence,” Tom replied, while Helen rushed up to where Louise was standing. “Ralph was just up at our apartment and he said he’d seen you guys coming back from the doctor’s office.”
Louise chuckled and said, “Boy, word sure gets around fast in this building, doesn’t it?”
“So Louise, tell us, how did it go?” Helen asked as anxiously as Florence had. “I’ve been on pins and needles all day. What happened at the clinic?”
“I’ll tell you and Tom what I just got finished explaining to Florence. I hate to burst your bubble, but there’s really not that much to tell you at the moment. George and I went in and Dr. Manning did the procedure and it was easy and painless. And then we came back home. It’s as simple as that.”
After Louise chatted with the Willises a little bit, George stepped in and told them what Dr. Manning had said about putting her on bed-rest for the next couple of days and got Louise off into their bedroom so she could lie down. Then George returned to the living room and just as the Willises were leaving, as if on cue, the telephone rang and he answered it. Naturally, it was Lionel calling and asking how things went, and he told him the same things Louise had said. And again, he had to repeat himself when Bentley showed up at their door not long after George had gotten off the phone with Lionel.
Things remained like that for the next two weeks, with everybody on the family grapevine calling the Jeffersons or knocking on their door wanting constant updates on Louise, and with everybody, especially Florence and George, watching out for the earliest, tiniest signs of pregnancy. While it would have taken at least a month or two after conception for a home pregnancy test to confirm a pregnancy, a blood test could confirm one only two weeks after conception. Of course George and Louise could have had the option of just waiting several more weeks to do a regular pregnancy test, but they knew having to wait that long for an answer would have driven them out of their minds, so they were grateful for the blood test.
George had obviously wanted to accompany Louise to Dr. Manning’s office for the results of her latest blood work when the date of her appointment for the blood test arrived, but Louise had insisted that she wanted to go alone. George was adamant about going with her at first, but Louise told him that if the test was negative, it was really important to her that she be by herself for a little while before dealing with telling anybody else. And even though George did fight her on it for a little while, he eventually relented, not wanting to force her into something she truly didn’t want.
It was actually a rather cold and rainy evening in mid-March as George and all the rest of the family, including Olivia, anxiously and impatiently waited for Louise to come home from her doctor’s appointment. Dr. Manning hadn’t been able to work her in until four-o’clock that afternoon, and it was now five-thirty. Jenny had arrived with Jessica at around a quarter after four, and Lionel and the Willises and Mr. Bentley had all rushed straight over to the Jeffersons’ apartment as soon as they left work for the day. And although they hadn’t been waiting all that long when Louise finally did walk through the door, it had still felt like an eternity, especially to George.
But the moment he and everyone else saw the solemn expression on Louise’s face, she didn’t have to say anything. They all knew. The pregnancy test had come up negative.
“Weez,” George said softly, and then he walked up to where she was standing in the foyer. But just as he was about to put his arms around her and try to console her, he caught a gleam in her eyes that not even her serious facial expression could mask.
And it was in that moment that Louise smiled.
“Louise, are you…are you…?” Helen asked, allowing the sentence to trail.
Louise was too choked up to answer, so she merely nodded as tears came to her eyes.
“Weezy, you’re so amazing,” he whispered in her ear finally as he fought to keep from crying. “You’re so incredible. I can’t believe it.”
“I can’t believe it either, George,” Louise gasped and then they kissed.
“Oh, you two, that’s wonderful,” said Florence.
“Yes, congratulations,” Bentley said.
“It may be a little late in the game, but it looks like you’ll be getting an aunt or an uncle soon, Jessica,” Lionel told his little girl.
“Oh man, what’s the matter with me?” George suddenly scolded himself. “And what’s the matter with all of you? Can’t y’all see we’ve got a pregnant lady in the room here? Bentley, Willis, Florence, get your butts up off the couch! Weezy shouldn’t be standin’ up like this! She should be restin’. And Helen, go to our bedroom and bring out some pillows. Weezy might want to put her feet up on the coffee table since we’ve been stupid and had her standin’ around this long.” At that, Louise rolled her eyes. “And Lionel, go out into the kitchen and boil some water.”
“Mr. Jefferson, Mrs. Jefferson doesn’t need any boiled water,” Jenny said while she was laughing. “You’re not supposed to boil water until the actual birth, and really, nobody even does that anymore because women go to hospitals now when they’re in labor and they have all the instruments and equipment and everything they need there.”
“And anyway, George, I think we have a little ways to go yet before the delivery,” Louise teased him as she walked over to the couch and sat down with him like he wanted. Little Jessica was sitting on Jenny’s lap, and when Louise took a good look at her little grandbaby, she, too, had to fight to keep from crying tears of joy. “Jessica, come here, sweetheart. Come to Grandma.”
“Go see your grandmother, baby,” Jenny whispered in Jessica’s ear and then she set her down on the floor, and Jessica walked up to Louise and held out her arms for her to pick her up, which she gladly did.
Louise kissed her on the forehead and said, “How you doing tonight, little one? It’s so good to see you.” Jessica responded by kissing Louise back on the cheek, and of course, everybody including Louise went, “Aw,” and Louise gave her a big hug and held her tight.
“Hey there, Jess,” George said softly as he touched his finger to her cheek. “Your grandma’s right. It’s wonderful to see you, little girl.”
“Guess what, baby? In a few months from now, we’ll have another little baby around here for you to play with,” Louise told Jessica.
“Maybe it’ll be another little girl for you to hang out with,” George said.
“Oh George, children are so amazing, so incredible, so precious,” Louise said as she lovingly stared into Jessica’s little face. “I know they’re an enormous responsibility and I know they can be a handful, but they’re what make life worth living.”
“I can’t wait to see what our baby looks like,” George said.
“Our baby,” Louise whispered with a smile. “I can’t believe we just said that, George. Our baby. We’re actually having another baby. I can’t believe this is happening to us after all these years.”
“I can hardly believe it right now, myself,” George admitted.
“George, I realize how much you’ve changed these past few months,” said Tom, “but out of curiosity, I just have to ask you something. You know that the DNA that created the baby Louise is carrying came from a mixed couple. How do you really feel about that now? What if this baby actually does end up looking totally white like Allan did?”
“You know, I didn’t even think about any of that, Willis. And I know how bigoted I always used to be against whites, but honestly, now I really don’t care what the baby looks like. I just want Weezy and the baby to be okay. That’s the only thing I’m concerned about right now. I’ve got more important things to be concerned about here besides race and appearance.”
“Well it’s a real breath of fresh air to hear you say that, Mr. Jefferson,” said Jenny.
“Amen,” Helen agreed. “Anyway, do you still want those pillows, Louise?”
“Oh, no thanks, Helen. I’m fine. George was just getting a little carried away a second ago.”
“Hello, everybody,” Olivia said as she walked out of Lionel’s old room. After she’d spent the day doing a little work with the children at Zion, she’d felt pretty tired when she met everybody at the Jeffersons’ apartment so she’d been in Lionel’s old bedroom taking a nap.
“Oh, hi, Mama,” George said with a smile. “Come on over here and sit down with Weezy and me. We’ve got somethin’ to tell you.”
“Oh, Louise,” Olivia gasped with a big smile on her face, because in the moment George said that, she realized what the result of the blood test was. It was written all over their faces. In the next moment, Olivia sat down beside George and Louise like he wanted her to, and she said, “Louise, you angel. You dear, sweet, wonderful little angel. You’re going to make me a grandmother again, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am, Mama,” Louise responded with the same smile. “Lord willing, anyway.”
“Oh, Louise!” Olivia cried out and then she threw her arms around Louise’s neck, practically squashing her and Jessica in the process, and Louise laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry, Jessica, dear,” she said as she cupped the side of Jessica’s little face in her hand. “Oh Louise, I just can’t believe this. First, I’m blessed with a handsome grandson; then, I’m blessed with the most adorable little great-granddaughter, and now, I’m being blessed with a second grandchild. I can’t get over how good God is being to me.”
“George and I feel the exact same way,” Louise agreed.
“Oh goodness, you two, we’ve got so much planning to do,” Olivia said. “We women will have to get together and throw you a baby shower, Louise.”
“And you guys will have to go furniture shopping and start makin’ plans to convert Lionel’s old room into a nursery,” Florence added.
“And you’ll have to set up a trust fund for college,” said Tom.
“Now hold on a minute, everybody,” Louise said as she chuckled at their enthusiasm. “We do have a little bit of time, you know.”
“Yeah, let’s just try and ease into this,” George agreed. “We ain’t exactly sendin’ the kid away to college tomorrow, you know.”
“You’re right, Mr. and Mrs. J. You still have some time. We’ll wait ’til in the morning to throw your baby shower,” Bentley teased, and everyone laughed.
And while George and Louise had pointed out the fact that they had plenty of time to prepare for their baby’s arrival, in fact, they were the ones who had raced through the next day at Zion anxiously waiting for noon so they could go out and start shopping for baby things after they’d eaten their lunch together. They went and looked at cribs and bassinets for the nursery, but while George wanted to start buying baby furniture right away, Louise wanted to wait, so he agreed to hold off on it for a little while. But all their browsing did give them a lot of good ideas about how they wanted to decorate the nursery, and George made a lot of mental notes in his head of the pieces of furniture Louise had liked the most. Of course the majority of the furniture in the baby store was either pink or blue, but Louise had mostly had her eye on the pieces of furniture that were green, although there were some yellow things there that had also caught her eye. When George asked her why she was looking more at the green furniture than at the pink or blue, Louise explained that for one thing, green was one of her favorite colors, and for another, it made more sense to decorate the baby’s room in a gender-neutral color since they didn’t know yet if it was a boy or a girl. Then George brought up the fact that with ultrasound technology they had nowadays they could find out the sex of the baby, but Louise was against it and wanted to be surprised, so George agreed to wait until the birth to find out the baby’s gender.
The following month and a half was basically the same story, with Louise and George putting in half-days at Zion and at the Help Center, counting down the seconds until they could go eat lunch and enjoy the rest of their day together. They now often went shopping and browsing for baby furniture and clothes and accessories and it wasn’t long until they had enough baby clothes and toys and supplies for not just one baby, but a hundred. And in fact, since they didn’t know yet how many of April’s embryos had successfully implanted, they were glad they’d already bought so much baby stuff because obviously, they still didn’t know how many babies they were actually having. And while George was just as thrilled about having another baby as Louise, the possible number of babies she could have been carrying was a real concern for him because he feared the strain a pregnancy of multiples could put on Louise’s body. Louise, on the other hand, had completely turned her concerns for her health over to the Lord and wasn’t the slightest bit concerned about it. And even though she knew how close to impossible the odds had been of her merely conceiving at all and was hardly expecting to be carrying more than one baby, she would have been thrilled if she’d learned she was actually was expecting more than just one child.
Finally, after six long weeks of impatient waiting, Louise and George held each other’s hand and fought off tears one morning in early May as they caught the first glimpses of their child on an ultrasound screen. To George’s relief and Louise’s slight disappointment, Dr. Manning informed them that only one of April’s embryos had successfully implanted. But of course, Louise wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and she was more than thankful to God for the one life she now felt so privileged to get to carry. And they had another reason to be happy as well that morning, because Dr. Manning informed them that so far, the baby looked perfectly healthy.
After Dr. Manning gave Louise and George the happy news, they gave each other a long kiss, and then just stared at the miraculous little life on the screen.
“Remarkable,” George gasped. “I still can’t believe it.”
“Neither can I, George,” Louise said in a similar choked-up voice. “God is really incredible.”
“You won’t get any argument from me, Weez. And you’re incredible, too.”
Louise smiled as more tears of joy came to her eyes, and then she reached up and held the side of George’s face in her hand and whispered, “I love you, George.”
“Oh Weez, I love you, too,” George responded as he was still trying to fight off tears. But of course, as he continued to stare at his unborn child on the black and white screen and hold onto Louise’s hand, he lost the battle.

Chapter Fifteen
Because Louise’s ovaries had been removed during Lionel’s surgical birth, Louise had to remain on the hormones Dr. Manning was giving her, which were, of course, the same hormones a mother’s ovaries normally produced during pregnancy that helped the baby to develop. And since Louise now had the same levels of hormones in her system that she would have had naturally during a pregnancy anyway, she understandably frequently fell prey to tearful outbursts and strong mood swings. But while George had been pretty loving and understanding about it all during Louise’s first pregnancy with Lionel, his good-natured attitude towards all her emotional ups and downs back then couldn’t even begin to compare to how patient and attentive he was with her in this one. His doting care and concern for Louise was plain for the world to see, especially Louise herself, and it simply never shut off.
It was now July and Louise was five months along and beginning to show. The first trimester of the pregnancy had actually been somewhat easier than the first trimester of her pregnancy with Lionel had been. While it was true that due to her compromised health and age, she did experience far more fatigue than she had when she’d been expecting Lionel, for some reason, morning sickness hadn’t been near the issue this time around that it had been before. In her first pregnancy, Louise’s morning sickness had been quite relentless, but while she had gotten sick to her stomach a handful of times in the first couple of months of this pregnancy, it still hadn’t been nearly as bad as before, and both she and George were very grateful for that.
But despite the fact that the occasional nausea and vomiting had worn off, as she began her second trimester, Louise merely traded in one uncomfortable symptom of pregnancy for another. As the pregnancy progressed and the baby grew larger, the baby’s increasing weight put a heavier strain on her back and her age was no help. Louise still stubbornly insisted on working half-days at Zion and at the Help Center, much to George’s dismay. But even she was starting to admit that if the back pain worsened in her third trimester, she would probably have no choice but to completely stop all her volunteer work for a while so she could lie down as much as possible during the day and make things as easy on her back as she could.
And even though George wished so badly that Louise would stop working for the duration of the pregnancy and just rest and let him take care of her much more than he already was, the fact remained that he was an absolutely enormous help to her. He did everything within his power to shield her from the least possible source of stress, and he waited on her hand and foot constantly, no matter how much she may have protested and insisted she could do things for herself. He wanted to make sure to save Louise every possible step he could, and he was always massaging her shoulders when she felt tense and giving her back rubs when her back was acting up, as well as rubbing her feet when they got swollen. Louise had never felt more like a queen in her entire life than she’d felt now, even if she did have to put up with an aching back and swollen feet and mood swings.
Unfortunately however, no matter how much George may have treated Louise like royalty and pampered her like a queen, Louise did still have days like today when the intense emotions brought on by pregnancy hormones and all her other physical symptoms really took their toll. When she and George were walking out to their cab at noon that day to go eat lunch and then return home, they’d seen the body of a white kitten lying by the sidewalk that appeared to have gotten run over in the heavy Manhattan traffic. Louise didn’t say much, but George could see it in her eyes that it had really upset her.
Over the past month, Louise had been experiencing an insatiable craving for strawberries. George was still insistent on Louise sticking to her diet, but he’d been willing to relent and let her exceed the amount of fruit she was supposed to eat every day so that she could enjoy all the strawberries she wanted to eat. Once they got home from lunch that afternoon, Louise had opened the refrigerator door and realized they were out, so naturally George was a good sport about it and had run out to the grocery store to get her some more. When George returned to their apartment a little while later holding a small paper grocery bag with Louise’s strawberries in it, he quickly forgot the strawberries, though, because he found her sitting on the couch crying.
“Hey,” George said in gentle, loving voice as he walked up to the couch and set the strawberries down on the coffee table. Then he sat down beside Louise and took her hand and asked, “What’s the matter, sweetheart? Why are you crying?”
Louise shook her head and replied, “It’s just my stupid hormones again, George. That’s all.”
“Well, you might be getting really emotional right now because of the pregnancy, but that doesn’t make your emotions any less valid than they would be for me if I were sittin’ here cryin’. Even though the hormones are messin’ with your emotions now, that doesn’t change the fact that you’re still real upset about somethin’, and that matters to me. I want to know what it is. Maybe I can try and help.”
Louise dabbed her eyes with a tissue and sniffed and then she responded, “It’s the dumbest thing, really. While you were out at the store, I thought I’d try and find something to watch on TV to pass the time until you got back, and I started flipping through the channels and I came across this cartoon that was on. I thought it’d be funny so I watched it for a little bit. It was about this cat, and no matter what the poor little thing did, it kept getting killed. It kept falling off of cliffs and all kinds of things, and in the end, it got run over by a car and when that happened, I just lost it because of the kitten we found earlier today. It’s just making me really emotional because even though the little thing wasn’t human, it was still a helpless and innocent little baby, and thinking about how it got killed and how painful that must’ve been for it keeps making me think about our own baby that I’m carrying now, and the thought of something terrible like that hurting it and me not being able to be there for it in any way.”
“Aw, Weez,” George said softly as he immediately hugged her. “I can understand how somethin’ like that would upset you in a time like this. But nothin’ like that’s gonna happen to our baby. Our baby’s gonna be just fine. Our baby’s gonna be perfect. You’ll see.”
“I know, George,” Louise said as she continued to wipe the tears from her eyes with the tissue. “I know how silly I’m being. I know that was just a stupid cartoon and not real life. I guess I’m just really sensitive right now about the thought of any kind of baby getting hurt, even if it is only a cartoon or a stray kitten.”
“And I think that’s very sweet and loving of you. Before the good Lord came along and gave me the kick in the butt I needed and got me turned around, I probably would have been a stupid, insensitive jerk about it and told you that I thought you were bein’ crazy and gone on about my business and forgotten about you. But now that I’ve finally got my head screwed on straight and my heart in the right place, I see the truth, and the truth is, there’s nothin’ wrong with you bein’ so upset about that kitten we saw, because you know what that proves about you?”
“What?”
“That you have a heart, Weezy. And havin’ a heart ain’t nothin’ to be ashamed of.”
“Oh, George,” Louise said in a kind voice, and then she put her arms around him and gave him a kiss. “Thank you. Nobody can cheer me up and keep me going through all of this the way that you can.”
“And hearin’ you say that means more to me than you’ll ever know,” George said just before he kissed her a second time.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done without you these past few months,” Louise said with a smile. “You’ve made everything so much easier for me. But listen, you’ve been practically glued to my side during this entire pregnancy, waiting on me hand and foot, taking care of me even down to the most minute detail. I think you deserve a little break from me and from Pregnancyville for a little while. Why don’t you take tomorrow off, go somewhere with the guys, catch up on some work at the office, just do something for yourself for a few hours? I can handle going to Zion and to my first Lamaze class by myself.”
“A break from you?” George said incredulously. “Weezy, that’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. You make it sound like you’re some kind of burden to me. Louise Mills, if you honestly believe that I hang around you so much because I consider it some kind of dreary obligation and because I consider you to be some kind of terrible burden, then those pregnancy hormones really have made you lose every ounce of your sanity. The last thing in the world I ever want to do is to ‘take a break from you.’
“I’ll be really honest with you, Weezy. I was able to find a little bit of a feeling of happiness and success and fulfillment back in the old days when livin’ for myself and for the business and makin’ more money was the most important thing in my life. But to tell you the truth, I wasn’t nothin’ but a slave in those days, a slave to my own materialism and greed, and it was such an empty way to live. I worked and slaved away at the office for hours on end, all day, every day, constantly, because I was always desperately tryin’ to get that great feelin’ I could sometimes achieve for a very brief moment in my life whenever I landed a new account and made a lot of money. In times like that, it made me feel successful and like I was somebody really important. But the feelin’ never lasted very long and so I was constantly runnin’ the hamster cage wheel, workin’ my butt off hopin’ and tryin’ to get that feelin’ again. Landin’ new accounts and makin’ bundles of money gave me a kind of an emotional high, almost like a drug, and as you know all too well, I was horribly addicted to it for many years. But like I said, that feelin’ never lasted very long. It was always empty, and so I was always workin’ and strugglin’ for that next high, but it never really could satisfy me inside.
“It wasn’t until I got saved after your heart attack that I finally began to understand why. I was slavin’ away and searchin’ all my life for that feelin’ of significance, you know? That feelin’ that you really do have an important purpose in life, that you really do mean somethin’ in the grand scheme of things, that you matter. And I know now that all human beings have significance and that we can play an important part in God’s overall plans, but that feelin’ can only happen if you’re in a real relationship with Christ and willing to live according to God’s will. We were always meant to be in a relationship with Him and if we’re not, then there’s no kind of high, emotional or otherwise, that can truly fill that void we’ll automatically experience. I was able to achieve a trace of that feeling occasionally back in those years, but if I’m painfully honest about it then I have to admit that while I lied to myself and deceived myself into believing I was happy, deep down, I was unfulfilled and miserable. You always tried to tell me through the years that no matter how long and how hard I worked and tried to find happiness in my so-called ‘success,’ I would never make enough money or land enough big business deals to truly satisfy me, and you were right, Weez. I should have listened to you. Even more important, I should have listened to God and to what He was tryin’ to tell me through the voice of my conscience.
“But now that I finally am on the right track spiritually for the first time in my life, I want to tell you that I am happier and I am more content with my life and more at peace with myself, not to mention more at peace with the Lord, than I have ever truly been before. I love my life the way it is right now Louise, and I can promise you, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I really wouldn’t. I love spending all my days and nights with you. I love workin’ by your side every day at Zion and at the Help Center. I love takin’ care of you and bein’ there for you the way we both know I should have been all along. And I love it that that unbelievably huge, giving, generous heart of yours is actually givin’ a little baby a chance to be born that it never would have had otherwise,” George said as he put his hand on Louise’s stomach, and Louise smiled and put her hand on top of his. “Yeah, okay, sure bein’ pregnant even after we became grandparents is a wild and crazy ride, but so what? It’s a beautifully wild and crazy ride, Weez, and I feel honored to get to be a part of it. And I feel honored to get to share in your dreams of helpin’ others at Zion and at the Help Center. I feel like I am doin’ things with my life as your husband and as a volunteer that are a million times more meaningful than any amount of money I could bring in at Jefferson Cleaners. And spendin’ my everyday life takin’ care of you and workin’ to make a real difference in other people’s lives makes me feel far more important than I ever felt after landin’ my biggest accounts with my stores.”
“Oh George, you’re so wonderful to say all of that.”
“No, I ain’t wonderful, Weezy. That’s your title. I’m just bein’ honest.”
“I guess I just feel a little funny sometimes about you centering so much of your life around me and giving me support. Maybe it’s because of the old-fashioned way I was raised. You know the way the world was when we were kids. The way I was taught, it was the wife’s place to stand in the background supporting all her husband’s dreams. You know that old saying, right? That behind every successful man there stands a good woman. I know that women’s lib has come around and changed a lot of that, and I do believe in the equality of men and women and of husbands and wives. I do believe that husbands and wives should equally work together in everything they do in their marriage and make all their decisions together and be equal partners, but I have to admit that sometimes, I still do feel uncomfortable with you focusing so much of your daily life on me. Perhaps it’s just because I’m not quite used to it, or maybe it’s because I worry sometimes that you might feel more like you’re being Mr. Louise Jefferson every day instead of being George Jefferson.”
“Well Weez, to my shame, you know as much as I do that back before God intervened and got me on the right track, I probably would have felt that way if I’d been doin’ then what I’m doin’ now. And I don’t have any problem with bein’ old-fashioned about some things, like our faith and values and everything, but we have to admit that sometimes, the older generations that taught us all our old-fashioned beliefs got it wrong.
“Take the issue of child abuse for example. How did people handle it when a child was bein’ abused and neglected back in the supposedly ‘good old days’? The vast majority of the time, they were of the mindset that it was another parent’s business if they wanted to raise their child abusively, or even their right, and they swept it under the rug and forgot about it to selfishly keep themselves from feelin’ bad.
“And I think it’s the exact same thing with the women’s equality issue. That’s another important issue where I think the older generations really fumbled the ball. When you were a girl growin’ up, you were taught that it was a wife’s duty or a wife’s place to stand in the background supporting her husband, like you said. You were taught that it was wrong for a woman to have any kind of a career or life beyond doin’ the cookin’ and the dishes and the laundry, and you were taught that because it was the husband’s place to support you and pay the bills, that basically gave him the right to control your life and treat you like some kind of slave or second-class citizen. You were taught that you were supposed to put your hopes and your dreams for your own life completely on the back burner in order to support your husband’s hopes and dreams, that you basically didn’t get to matter, or at least not as much as your husband and his desires mattered.
“You know, Marco’s taught us in his Bible-study class that one of the changes that’s supposed to take place in your life once you become born again is you’re supposed to begin to realize all the things you were doin’ in your life before you came to faith in Christ that were sinful against Him, and you’re supposed to start naturally developing a hatred of all the sins you used to love. Well that’s been happening to me a lot, Weezy, over these past ten months since I got saved. And one of the things I’ve looked back on a lot and developed an intense hatred for is the chauvinistic way I used to treat you. When we had that little argument not too long after you first returned to working at Zion and you told me you were not the subhuman object I had always been trying to turn you into through the years, you’ll never know what that did to me inside, Weez.”
“I’m sorry, George,” Louise said kindly, but then George put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him and protested her apology.
“No, no, Weezy, you don’t understand, sweetheart. Hearin’ you say that you’d felt like I’d always tried to treat you like you were something less than human absolutely tore me to shreds inside, but it did so in the best possible way. It was a downright shocking wake-up call to me, Weez. The vast majority of the time, not even I took myself seriously whenever I was bein’ stupid and runnin’ my mouth, so I didn’t really believe you or anybody else did, either. I figured that you and everybody else knew that I was just runnin’ my mouth and rattlin’ off a bunch of garbage that I didn’t really mean and to not take any of that seriously. But hearin’ you tell me that night that you’d felt like I’d always been tryin’ to turn you into a subhuman slave whose entire life I had the right to control just to inflate my ego really made me stop and think for a minute and ask myself how all my ‘I’m the man of this house and what I say goes’ speeches would’ve made me feel if I had been in your shoes. And it was then that I finally began to understand just how horribly disrespected and unappreciated you must have felt all these years.
“And since then, I’ve come to loathe chauvinism and disrespect against women in any way. And maybe I am supposed to forgive myself for my sins, but all my years of making you feel like I didn’t truly respect you and appreciate you and even made you feel like you were less than human is somethin’ I can’t ever forgive myself for. I will always hate myself for the way I used to treat you. As a matter of fact, the main reason why I used to be so driven to be a big hotshot business executive is because of all the racism and discrimination we used to go through when we were younger. I mean, you know what those times were like. Back in those days, bein’ black made you less than human in the world’s eyes. And when it hit me that I’d been makin’ you feel less than human because you’re a woman, I can’t even begin to describe how that broke my heart.
“And that’s why I say now that this mindset so many Christians and folks from the older generations have about wives bein’ some kind of second-class citizens and puttin’ all their hopes and dreams on the back burner behind their husbands’ is another huge example of previous generations fumbling the ball. I don’t believe they were wrong in everything they taught us, but I think that when it came to ideas and beliefs about husbands and wives, they did get it wrong, terribly wrong. The entire painful history of our marriage, of my chauvinistic viewpoints and my years of disrespecting you and looking down on you because you’re a woman is the very result of the sexist mindset our parents and grandparents taught us to have. Sure, they taught us men that it’s wrong to ever hit our wives physically, but they sure never taught us how wrong and awful it is to hit our wives emotionally, with our thoughtless words and our disrespect. And they may have taught us to treat a young lady with courtesy and respect when we’re dating her, but when we marry her, then they teach us that because we make all the money and pay all the bills, that’s supposed to transform the girl we’ve married from a human being into some kind of slave or object who we get to take total control over. But on top of realizin’ how much I hate my past sin of disrespectin’ women, I’ve also realized what a load of hogwash that whole idea is. I don’t care how many bills the husband pays and if he’s the sole breadwinner or not. If he’s got a wife who’s doin’ all his cookin’ and ironin’ and laundry and dustin’ for him all day long for nothin’, then the money he makes and the bills he pays don’t give him the right to think he owns her like an object; his financial support of her is her rightful salary because she’s doin’ all kinds of things for him every day free of charge.
“And of course, because we husbands were the high and mighty breadwinners and you wives were the unpaid and severely underappreciated homemakers, that meant that the wives had to always push their own dreams to the side to support their husbands’ dreams. Well you did that, Weezy. You kept your own dreams to yourself and you didn’t even mention them, all the while givin’ me the love and moral support I needed to make my own dreams come true. And when you weren’t workin’ as a maid, helpin’ me to make ends meet and save up enough money to one day start a business, you were takin’ care of Lionel and me at home, still givin’ me all the support you possibly could and not sayin’ one word about the things in life you were dreaming of for yourself.
“But Weez, this is not the fifties anymore,” George said in a serious, loving voice. “And there is no reason whatsoever why a husband can’t or shouldn’t take a backseat to his wife and support her dreams in the same way that wives have always been expected to do with their husbands. I’ve realized an awful lot of things since last October, and one of those things is that you are and always have been a much better person than I could ever hope to be. It may have been true that my dreams for startin’ a business were because of my love for you and Lionel and my desire to get you both into a better neighborhood and be able to put Lionel through college, but there was a lot of selfishness in my dreams, too. I wanted to start my own business and make a lot of money because I wanted to be somebody and I wanted people to look at me all the time and go on about how great I was. But what has your dream been all this time? To rescue children from abuse and sexual slavery. My dreams were all about glorifying myself, but the only thing you have ever wanted to do is help people who are suffering, especially children, and to make a difference in people’s lives, to save lives. And now that we have all this money and I’ve turned over most of my business responsibilities to my general managers, I’d pick spendin’ all my days at your side helpin’ you to make a difference and save lives over glorifying myself any day of the week.”
“George…I can’t even begin to tell you how much everything you just said means to me,” Louise gasped as more tears came to her eyes, and when that happened, George naturally had to hug her again. When the long hug finally ended, Louise said, “I was always aware of everything you told me a minute ago. I knew all those years that you never really meant all the things you were saying deep down, that underneath your ego and your big mouth, you really did care for me and that you didn’t mean to hurt me. But it feels so good to hear you tell me that you respect me now and appreciate me. And I want you to know that I feel the same way about you, and I always have.”
“Weez,” George said softly, and then of course he hugged her once more and gave her a kiss. “You are too good to me all the time, Weezy. You always have been. You’ve got to stop spoilin’ me like this.”
Louise laughed out loud and said, “You think I’m the one who’s spoiling you? George, I haven’t been the one going out at ten-thirty at night to buy strawberries so I could have one last little strawberry snack before going to bed. And I haven’t been the one getting up at two in the morning to give you backrubs or consoling you over cartoons,” she joked and George laughed.
“Yeah, but that’s ’cause I ain’t the one who’s five months pregnant. And besides, I’m your husband and as the husband of a pregnant wife, my most important job right now is keepin’ you happy and comfortable.”
“Well you’re doing great, because I’m both.”
“Hey, I bet I know what we can do to make you even more comfortable,” George said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye that Louise recognized all too well, and she folded her arms.
“What are you up to, George?” she asked in a playfully stern voice, but George could hear the tiny bit of laughter she was trying to suppress.
“Now that I have come to my senses at long last and become a liberated guy, I think we ought to throw a great big party and celebrate and make it a women’s only party. We’ll invite Helen and Jenny and Mama and we’ll have Florence here, and I’ll host the Jeffersons’ first annual bra-burnin’ party!”
“Oh, my gosh!” Louise cried out as she laughed out loud, and then she playfully hit George in the arm. “You are insane!”
“No, Weez, I’m serious! Bras are oppressive! Take your blouse off and we’ll burn the one you’re wearin’ right here and now! After all, Florence ain’t home and it’s just us.”
“George!” Louise said aloud as she laughed even harder. “You’re acting just as crazy as I am with these pregnancy hormones! Maybe you need a pregnancy test!”
“No, Weez, you ain’t gotta keep wearin’ that uncomfortable bra,” George kept teasing. “You’re five months pregnant and if we’re gonna keep the baby healthy, we’ve got to keep the mama comfortable, don’t we? Trust me; you’ll feel much better after we burn this evil piece of female oppression!”
“George, shut up!” Louise said through her tears. George had her laughing so hard that she was now indeed crying. And then a few seconds later, they kissed yet again and it lasted quite long. When the kiss ended, they rested their foreheads up against each other and let out a long sigh and rested their eyes for several long moments. “You can be so beautiful when you’re crazy like this,” Louise sighed, their eyes still closed.
“I’m glad you think so,” George whispered.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Louise said gently after they opened their eyes and moved their heads away from each other again.
“Well that’s the last thing in the world you ever have to worry about, Weez.”
“I know. Thanks for cheering me up.”
George took Louise’s hand and kissed it and told her, “Just doin’ my job. But I still think we ought to burn all your bras!”
“Oh, George!” Louise cried out and then she jokingly shoved him and he laughed again.
Louise and George spent the rest of the evening like that, simply hanging out, talking, laughing, and loving on each other. The next day flew by as they did their usual work at Zion until noon, and then they went out to eat lunch together as they always did and returned home for a few hours. Then they left their apartment again at a quarter ’til five that evening to go their first scheduled Lamaze class.
Due to all of Louise’s medical issues like her previous heart attack, her age, and the fact that Lionel had been delivered via C-section, Dr. Manning informed Louise and George that a normal birth was absolutely out of the question, that this baby, too, would have to be delivered by a caesarian. But even though their baby was going to be delivered by a scheduled C-section, there was still the possibility that as Louise got closer to her due date she would start going into natural labor and experience a few contractions, and obviously if that happened, Dr. Manning would give Louise the proper medication to stop her labor long enough for him to perform the caesarian. But after George and Louise talked it over, they decided that it was best that they go ahead and take the Lamaze class just in case Louise should have a few contractions and need the Lamaze training to handle the pain.
“All you dads know that you’ll be the moms’ coaches in the delivery room,” said the Lamaze teacher, a short and skinny woman with dark hair in her forties. “But what you might not know is there is so much more to being your wife’s coach besides doing deep breathing exercises with her and telling her what to do like what we see on television all the time. Being the mom’s Lamaze coach does not mean that you’re her boss and you just get to order her around. They go on in TV shows about the dads needing to remain in control because the moms are going crazy, but step back and think for a second. Why are the moms going crazy and supposedly ‘out of control’? Because they are in absolutely unbelievable pain that you men can’t even begin to imagine. Being your wives’ coaches does not mean that you’re going to be her bosses. Your wives are in pain, gentlemen; they’re in agony, and in a time like this, they do not need you barking orders at them and bossing them around. Let me say it again: being the coach does not make you the boss. As a matter of fact, it’s the exact opposite, and you coaches take your cues from the moms. Being the coach means being the system of support for your wives. As her coach, it is your primary function and responsibility to meet her needs. It’s your most important job to do the things for her that make it easier for her to bring your child into the world. It’s your job to hold her hand if she needs you to, or to walk with her while she’s having contractions if that’s what she needs you to do, or to give her encouragement and remind her that she’s doing a good job.
“But in the same token, ladies, your husbands can’t do it all. It may be their most important job to help you and to meet your needs, but they can’t do that if you don’t talk to them and tell them what those needs are, so you moms need to start getting in the habit now of communicating your needs to the dads. And that’s the first exercise we’re going to do this evening. We’re going to take the next few minutes and give you mommies a chance to talk to the daddies and explain to them what your needs are.”
George and Louise and all the expecting couples there had brought plenty of pillows with them as they’d been instructed to ahead of time and were now sitting on mats on the floor with many of the mothers, including Louise, propped up against their pillows for comfort. George was sitting up while Louise was reclining, and it was obvious that despite the fact they were sitting on the floor, they were actually very relaxed and enjoying the class so far, as well as each other’s company.
George smiled after the teacher had finished speaking and he told Louise, “I like this part of the class.”
“Oh George, that’s so sweet,” Louise said as she returned the smile.
“Talk to me, Mama. What are your needs right now?”
Louise chuckled as she replied, “For you to cut it out with all the bra-burning jokes.” When Louise said that, George laughed with her. “You’ve made me laugh so hard with all your bra and women’s lib jokes that my sides are beginning to get sore.”
“I’m sorry, Weez. I just do it ’cause I love to hear you laugh so much.”
“I know you do. Actually, I was only teasing. I really can’t think of anything I need right now because you’re always so good at responding to my needs when I have them. You’ve been taking wonderful care of me through the pregnancy since day one.”
“I’m happy to hear you say that, sweetheart. But you know what they say: there’s always room for improvement.”
“Well not right now, there isn’t. You’ve kept all my maintenance up to date for today,” Louise joked. “You’ve rubbed my back and massaged my shoulders and kept me in a good supply of strawberries. I’m pretty happy.”
“What about your feet? How are they doin’? Are they swollen?”
“I think they are just a little bit, but it’s not a big deal.”
“Unh-unh, Weez. You know what the teacher said. Mommies have to start getting in the habit of tellin’ daddies what they need. And since you’re in need of a foot rub at the moment, that makes it a big deal. I’ll take your shoes off for you.”
“Here? Now?”
“Of course. This is a class about pregnancy and birth, ain’t it?”
“Well yes, but–”
“And swollen feet is a part of pregnancy. That’s what this whole class is about, what everybody’s here for in the first place,” George said as he took Louise’s shoes off, and then he started rubbing her feet.
“Oh that feels good, George,” Louise sighed after she closed her eyes.
“I think I’m beginnin’ to become a real pro at this,” George said good-naturedly as he continued massaging her feet.
“You sure are,” Louise agreed.
In that moment, the Lamaze teacher walked up to them and said, “Very good, you guys. Keep up the good work, Mr. Jefferson.”
“Thanks,” George responded. “I will.”
And in fact, receiving a compliment like that from her on top of the praise he’d already received from Louise really did boost his self-confidence as a husband. In the back of his mind in the past, he’d always had to try and fight off the voice of his guilty conscience and attempt to deceive himself into believing he was being a good husband when he knew deep down that he wasn’t. Now, it felt so wonderful to not only be at peace with his conscience finally, but to also have all the confirmation that he really was being a lot of help to Louise, making her difficult road in life with running Zion and her pregnancy at least a little bit easier for her.
After the class was over and they returned home, George’s kindness and thoughtful gestures towards Louise continued. When they stepped off the elevator and were standing just outside their apartment door, George informed Louise that he had a surprise for her.
“Just so you know, Weezy, I’ve invited a surprise guest to join us for dinner tonight. I know it’s somebody you’ll really be happy to see.”
“Does Florence know to set an extra place at the table tonight?”
“Oh yeah, she knows. After what happened with the kitten yesterday and everything, I just wanted to do a little somethin’ to cheer you up, and I came up with the perfect surprise guest for dinner. I know you’ll love her.”
“I can hardly wait to see who it is,” Louise said, and then George opened the door for Louise and let her inside and followed her into their apartment a second later.
And when Louise saw her, she gasped and smiled, unable to believe her eyes. Their surprise guest was actually an orange tabby kitten who was now perched on Florence’s lap happily purring for her as she petted her.
“Hey, Ms. Jefferson,” said Florence as Louise walked up to the couch and sat down next to her. “Permit me to introduce you to the newest member of the family. Her name’s Ginger.”
“Well hi there, Ginger,” Louise said as she started petting her along with Florence. “George, where did she come from? And whatever made you decide to get a cat all of the sudden? You’ve always hated the idea of us having a pet.”
“After what happened yesterday, I thought about it for a little while and I remembered how much you’ve always loved cats through the years and wanted to get one of your own. I wouldn’t let you do it in the past because I never really liked the idea of havin’ a pet all that much, but when I saw how upset you were about that kitten, I just knew I couldn’t deny you one of your own any longer. So I started askin’ around and as it turned out, the family livin’ in 10-E is movin’ and the apartment buildin’ they’re movin’ into doesn’t allow pets, so they were lookin’ for a home for little Ginger, here.”
“How old is Ginger?” Louise asked.
“The family’s had her since she was four months-old, and they told me they’ve had her for the past four months, so that’d make her eight months-old now,” George answered.
“George, this is one of the most thoughtful things you’ve ever done for me,” Louise said as she picked up the kitten from Florence’s lap and started petting it. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything, Weezy. Just enjoy her.”
Louise continued petting Ginger for another minute or so and then she handed her back to Florence and stood up and walked over to George.
“George, thank you for being so good to me all the time,” Louise told him lovingly and of course, it didn’t take her long to kiss him and wrap her arms around him.
“Weez, the last thing in the world I want is for you to thank me for anything,” George said softly. “You do not need to thank me. As a matter of fact, all of this is my way of thanking you for being so good to me all these years. This ain’t no kind of sacrifice, Weezy,” he said after their hug ended. “Like I’ve already told you, I love doin’ things for you and makin’ you happy. I really do.”
“And you’ve made me happier than–” Louise started to say, but in the next moment, something happened and she gasped and put her hands on her growing stomach.
George immediately responded by grabbing her arm and asking, “Are you okay, sweetheart? Is somethin’ wrong? You need to sit down?”
Louise smiled then and shook her head and replied, “The baby…George, the baby just moved.”
“It did?” George asked as he put his hand on Louise’s stomach as well.
“Uh huh. It sure did.”
“Hey, that’s terrific, Ms. Jefferson,” Florence said.
“I can’t believe it,” George said happily.
“Neither can I. Hey, do you remember what it was like that night when I felt Lionel’s first kick?”
“I sure do. We were both so excited, we couldn’t get to sleep for at least half the night.”
“I never thought we’d be able to have that same experience again,” said Louise. “I think I’ll be up half the night again tonight simply pinching myself, trying to make sure all of this isn’t some kind of dream.”
“I love you, Mama,” George whispered and he then kissed her.
“I love you too, Daddy,” Louise whispered in return.

Chapter Sixteen
Louise continued her work at Zion and at the Help Center over the next few weeks, but as September approached and Louise was in her seventh month of pregnancy, she was simply too fatigued and in too much pain with her back to continue her volunteer work, a choice she hated with a passion and George couldn’t have been more grateful and relieved to see. Louise was not entirely bedridden, but Dr. Manning agreed that bed-rest was probably the best thing for her now so even though she did go for little walks with George through the day to get a bit of exercise, she did spend most of her time lying down and taking it easy and letting George wait on her hand and foot like he wanted to. Louise and George actually lived in her Zion quarters from the last week of August through the first half of November because even though Louise did have to spend most of her time in bed, she was still determined to be there so the children could come and visit her and she could still be there for them in some capacity, at least. But as her due date approached, George wanted them to return to their apartment for the simple reason that that was closer to the hospital they were going to for Louise’s scheduled C-section, and he wanted to be as close to their hospital as possible just in case she should start having contractions and going into labor before then and they needed to get there quickly.
Louise’s C-section was scheduled on her due date, which was the twenty-fifth of November, the day after Thanksgiving. The last couple of weeks of Louise’s pregnancy were surprisingly uneventful. In the back of George’s mind, he’d expected for Louise to start going into premature labor and for there to be a lot of stress and tension as he tried to rush her to the hospital in enough time for Dr. Manning to stop her contractions and perform the caesarian. He’d also expected Louise to be more tense and emotional and on edge, growing more and more weary of being pregnant and anxious about the birth, but in fact, while Louise may have gotten tired of the discomforts of pregnancy, she was amazingly calm during the two weeks before her due date. She often bragged to Olivia and Florence and Helen about how warm, loving, understanding, and attentive George was being, and she frequently attributed her uncanny ability to relax to all of George’s TLC. She made no secret of the fact that while going through a pregnancy at her age had been incredibly draining and difficult a lot of the time, it had been George who had made it all far easier for her than it would have been otherwise.
Lionel and Jenny had a big Thanksgiving celebration planning that Thanksgiving Day at their house, and almost the entire family was going. The Willises were going, naturally, and so was Florence and Mr. Bentley, and of course, they’d asked George and Louise to come as well, but they couldn’t give the kids a definite yes or no answer until Thanksgiving morning because it all depended on how Louise was feeling. Neither she nor George were sure if she’d feel well enough to go out that day or not, and of course, everybody understood. When Louise did first wake up that Thanksgiving, she didn’t even have to say a word to George. He could take one look at her face and tell that she simply was not feeling up to leaving the house that day.
About an hour after they first woke up that morning, Florence knocked on their bedroom door.
“Yeah, come on in, Florence,” George told her, and Florence opened the door and walked in, still in her robe and slippers.
“Hey, you two,” she said. “I’m just about to start getting dressed. Are you guys goin’ to Lionel and Jenny’s today too?”
“No, I think we’re gonna skip it today,” George replied. “I don’t think Weezy’s feelin’ up to it.”
“Alright, then. Is there anything you want me to tell Lionel and Jenny for you?”
“Just tell them we’re sorry we couldn’t make it,” Louise answered. “And give the kids our love.”
“I will. Are you sure you’ll be alright here all by yourselves?”
Louise laughed and said, “Florence, we’re not children, you know. We’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, and besides, since we’ll have a baby around here to keep us up all night and we’re already old parents, we need all the sleep we can get,” George joked as he curled up closer to Louise and rested his head on her stomach.
“Well if you guys get hungry, remember, I made plenty of food for dinner last night, so there’s plenty of leftovers for you in the fridge.”
“We’ll remember,” Louise said. “Thanks, Florence.”
“You’re welcome, Ms. Jefferson. After all, I’m your maid and I’m your friend, and I wouldn’t be a very good maid or a very good friend if I let you go hungry on Thanksgiving.”
George suddenly jerked his head away from Louise’s stomach and held the side of his face and cried out, “Ouch!”
“Are you alright, Mr. Jefferson?” Florence asked with a chuckle in her voice.
“My child just broke my jaw!” George said aloud, and both Louise and Florence laughed.
“This is one busy little baby I’m carrying,” said Louise as she patted her stomach.
“I can see it’ll be a troublemaker like its mother,” George teased, and again Louise and Florence laughed at him.
“And I guess you think you’re a perfect angel, huh?” Louise quipped.
“Naturally,” George joked back, and both Louise and Florence rolled their eyes at him.
“I’ll see y’all this evening,” Florence said and George and Louise told her goodbye as she walked out their bedroom door.
“I wish Mama would go with everybody else to Lionel and Jenny’s,” Louise said. Florence had agreed to call Olivia and let her know whether or not George and Louise were going with everybody else to Lionel and Jenny’s house that day, and Olivia planned on meeting everybody there if they were, and if they’d decided to stay home, she’d planned on going to their apartment and spending the day helping George look after Louise.
“Yeah, I kind of wish she would too, but you know how Mama is.”
“I know,” Louise agreed.
“Since Florence is celebratin’ Thanksgiving over there at the kids’ house with everybody else, she doesn’t want us to be here alone today. She wants to be here to help just in case you should start having contractions before you’re supposed to have your C-section tomorrow and we have to rush you to the hospital. You know how overprotective she is of you. You’re her daughter now.”
“I know, but I hate the thought of her ruining her Thanksgiving on account of me. It’s already my fault that you’re having to miss out on Thanksgiving dinner with the kids and Jessica and the rest of the family.”
“Hey,” George said as he put his index finger under Louise’s chin and turned her face towards him. “I am not missin’ out anything. I love spendin’ time with you and takin’ care of you. You know that. And as for Thanksgiving, for one thing, there’ll be other Thanksgiving meals we can share with the rest of the family, and for another, what is Thanksgiving supposed to be about in the first place? Spendin’ time with the people you love, right? Well that’s exactly what I’m doin’ today. I’m spendin’ Thanksgiving with the woman I love the most, and that’s all that matters.”
“Thank you for saying that,” Louise responded with a smile, and then she leaned over closer to George and gave him a kiss.
Louise relaxed in bed with George a little while longer that morning, but then she got a sudden burst of energy and began to feel restless, so she got up and got dressed and went on to make a little breakfast for herself and George and Olivia. As would be expected, once George got showered and dressed and walked out to the kitchen and found Louise cooking, he pitched a fit, and so did Olivia when she arrived soon afterwards. But even though Louise’s back had been hurting too badly for her to feel like going to Lionel and Jenny’s that day, she stubbornly insisted on making breakfast. She’d told them that while she might not have felt like getting out that Thanksgiving, thanks to the sudden surge of energy she’d begun to experience, it was simply too uncomfortable for her to sit or lie still, that she really needed to move around a lot and start working all that energy off. And that was the one and only reason they relented and allowed her to make their breakfast that day.
While the threesome were eating, George and Olivia both brought up the fact that they thought it was a good thing her C-section delivery was scheduled for the next day because they could see that she was getting really close to going into labor, and Louise agreed. They all talked and reminisced about what it had been like for her in the days and hours leading up to her first labor with Lionel. When her time with Lionel had been getting close, she’d had a similar burst of energy and restlessness all of the sudden and had had this overwhelming urge to clean and organize the house and the baby’s room and hadn’t been able to force herself to sit still a single moment. And once they were done eating, Louise’s hyperactivity continued, and she was adamant about cleaning up and doing the dishes. Ordinarily Olivia would never have allowed it, but since she as a woman had been through a pregnancy herself, she well understood what Louise was going through and she knew the best possible thing either she or George could do for her now was to simply let her be.
“I don’t understand it all, Mama,” George told Olivia after Louise had carried all their breakfast dishes into the kitchen. “These past couple of weeks since we came home from Zion, Weezy’s been so stubborn about getting off to herself all the time. I didn’t mind givin’ her space if she felt she needed it, and really whenever she’d get off to herself, it’s just been to get some rest, which I understood. But since about an hour ago when you first got here, she hasn’t stopped movin’. Why?”
“Well George, there’s a process every pregnant woman goes through when it’s getting close to time for her to have her baby. When Louise has been getting off to herself so much these past couple of weeks, she’s been doing more than just resting. She’s been gathering her strength, because in both her body and in her mind, she instinctively knows that she’s having her baby soon and that when her baby does come, she’ll need every ounce of it. And again, on a level of pure instinct, she senses the baby’s going to be born soon and her burst of energy and her need to organize the apartment and the nursery is just her way of making sure that everything will be ready for the baby when it does get here.”
“But we’ve already got everything ready for the baby, Mama. Weezy ain’t got to do anything else to prepare for it. We’ve got the nursery set up and ready to go, and everybody at Weezy’s baby shower three weeks ago gave us enough diapers and formula and bottles and rattles and pacifiers to last the baby a good ten years.”
“I know that, son, and yes, Louise knows it too, but again, it’s just kind of an instinct for mothers. It’s automatically built into us to want to be overly cautious and double check everything and make absolutely certain that everything’s in order. I know how much you’ve worried about her through the pregnancy and how much you’re still worried about her, and I’m as concerned for Louise as you are, but if you really want to help her right now, then the best possible thing you can do for her is to do nothing. Just leave her alone for now and let her do all the things she feels she needs to do. If she feels like she wants or needs your company, she’ll let you know.”
“Alright,” George sighed. “If that’s what you think is best, then I’ll just try and stay out of her way for right now. But I wish she’d let me help her, and I wish she’d let herself relax.”
“Don’t worry. She’ll be just fine, and so will the baby. I know it.”
And George tried to take Olivia’s words of wisdom to heart, and he did try to give Louise the space Olivia told him she needed, but as she went through the day organizing and straightening up a perfectly organized and straightened-up nursery and cleaning a perfectly clean apartment, George grew more and more fretful. He worried about what all of her working and moving about all day long was doing to her back and swollen feet, and watching her zoom around the apartment in a bustle of activity was indeed upsetting for him. Louise did stop long enough for Olivia to heat up all the leftovers Florence had left behind for them from the night before and eat lunch with them, but then she went right back into her whirlwind of activity. It wasn’t until around two that afternoon that Louise’s strained back and returning fatigue got the best of her and forced her to go back into their bedroom and lie down and take a nap. Before Louise did go back to bed though, she asked George to rub her back and her feet, which he was more than happy to do.
At around five-thirty that evening, everyone returned from Lionel and Jenny’s house, including Lionel and Jenny themselves, and they brought little Jessica with them. While they’d all enjoyed their Thanksgiving meal together, they really wanted to go to the Jeffersons’ apartment to find out how Louise was doing, and of course Olivia brought them up to date on everything that happened with Louise that day. When Louise had fallen asleep a few hours earlier, naturally, George had been lying next to her in bed, and he’d remained in bed with her as she slept. But not long after the rest of the family came back from Lionel and Jenny’s, Louise woke up with a gasp as she came to a pretty unsettling realization.
“Oh, George,” Louise gasped as she sat up in bed and held her stomach.
“What is it, Weezy? Is it the baby?”
“It’s the baby,” Louise answered with a nod. “Oh boy, is it ever the baby! George, I think I’ve really messed up.”
“No, Weezy, you haven’t messed anything up,” George reassured her as he sat up with her and scooted over closer to her. “Everything’s okay. Is it a contraction?”
“It’s way more than a contraction, George,” Louise replied, and in that following second, the bed was soaking wet.
“That was your water breaking, wasn’t it?” asked George.
“It sure was. George, I need you to listen to me, and I need you to stay calm, alright?”
“Of course, Weezy; of course,” George said lovingly as he got up and walked around to Louise’s side of the bed and took her hand.
“When I was in the baby’s room all day today and running all over the apartment, I kept getting pains, but I didn’t take them seriously, because remember what it was like when I was pregnant with Lionel? For about a week or so before he was born, I kept going into false labor. I kept having those Braxton-Hicks contractions.”
“And you’ve been having pains all day today but you didn’t think they were the real thing; you thought you were havin’ Braxton-Hicks labor pains.”
“Exactly, because they really didn’t seem all that bad. But I know now that they were the real thing, and here’s where I need you to stay calm.”
“Don’t worry, Weezy. I’ll stay calm. Whatever’s goin’ on, you know I’ll help you. You know I’ll take care of you.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have time to get to the hospital anymore. I need you to go out and call an ambulance and then I need you to get Mama in here because we’re going to need all the help we can get. This baby’s coming now. My body is absolutely screaming at me to push and I can’t hold back much longer, and I don’t believe I can walk.”
“Oh, man,” George said as he was obviously panicking inside, although he tried his very best not to let on to Louise that he was. “Okay. Okay, Weezy. Don’t worry. Don’t worry about a thing, alright? I said I’d take care of you and I will. Don’t worry. You’ll be alright.”
“George, quit babbling and get moving!” Louise cried out, but clearly not out of any kind of rudeness, but simply because George was wasting very valuable time.
“Oh, right. You’re right. I’m sorry, Weezy. I’ll be right back,” George said breathlessly, and then he ran out to the living room and told his mother what was happening and Florence instantly offered to call the ambulance for George so he could get back to Louise. When Helen and Jenny offered to go back to the bedroom with Olivia and George, Olivia told them to stay where they were. Louise had been like a daughter to her for several years now and Olivia was close enough to her to know that in a time like this, the less people there were back there with her now, the better, that her privacy was extremely important to her and that this was not something she felt comfortable sharing with anyone other than her husband and her mother. Before Olivia went back with George, though, she quickly got out a large stack of fresh towels and a small pair of scissors to cut the cord.
“You’ve got the lights pretty dim in here, sweetheart,” George said to Louise as Olivia came in and set the towels and scissors down at the foot of the bed. He’d noticed that Louise had turned the lighting down considerably since he was last in there with her a few moments ago. “Let’s turn ’em back up so we can see what we’re doin’.”
“No, George, don’t,” Olivia said as she walked back over to the bedroom door and locked it.
“Why’d you lock the door, Mama?”
“For the same reason Louise needs the lights to be dim. If Louise is going to get through this delivery without any problems, she needs to feel safe. And in order for her to feel safe, she needs to have a sense of privacy. She does not need bright lights and people coming in and out of this bedroom right now.”
“I didn’t even think of that,” George said. “Thanks, Mama. You’re right. That’s a good idea.”
“Louise, if it’s alright with you, I’ll check now and see if I can see the baby yet,” Olivia said, and Louise gave her permission with a nod.
“What can I do, Weez?”
“Just try and find a spot on the bed that isn’t wet and sit beside me. I need you to be sitting, George, so I can make eye contact with you. I need to be able to look into your eyes.”
“Of course, sweetheart. And I don’t care if the bed’s wet or not.”
“Here’s a towel, George,” Olivia said as she handed him one. “You can put it on the bed and sit down.”
“Thanks, Mama,” George said and then he took the towel his mother handed him and laid it out on the bed and sat at Louise’s bedside.
“Louise, I can see the baby’s head. Have you been pushing with the contractions at all?”
“No, I haven’t. Since I woke up from my nap, though, I’ve wanted to push really badly, but I’ve been fighting it.”
“Well don’t fight it anymore, honey. Just push when you feel you need to.”
In that very moment, Louise had another strong contraction, and George felt it too because he had his hand on her stomach. Without saying anything, Louise just instinctively put her arms around George and held onto him and pushed.
“Good, Weezy. Good. You’re doing great,” George whispered. “You’re just incredible.”
A few seconds later, Louise pushed again, and it was then that Olivia said, “You’re doing terrific, Louise, just terrific. The baby’s head is out.”
But while George and Olivia were praising and encouraging Louise, Louise, obviously, was in great pain.
“You hear that, Weezy? The baby’s almost here. You’re doing great.”
“It doesn’t feel like it,” Louise said, on the verge of tears.
“I know,” George said sympathetically. “I know, baby. I know it hurts. I know it’s bad. I know. Would it help if I rubbed your back?”
Louise shook her head and responded, “I just need a minute. Just don’t rush me. Let me take my time with this.”
“Oh Weezy, you can have as much time as you want. Don’t worry about anything. Mama and I ain’t goin’ anywhere and we ain’t in a rush. You take as much time as you need.”
“I need to cry,” Louise gasped.
“Oh, sweetheart,” George whispered, and then he kissed her cheek as he continued holding her in his embrace. “It’s okay. It’s perfectly alright to cry if you need to. I know the pain’s got to be awful and I’m so sorry. I’d do anything if I could take it for you right now. I love you so much.”
“I know,” Louise said through her tears. “And I love you too, George.”
“I know you do,” George said as he rubbed her back, even though she’d said she didn’t need him to. “And I know the pain’s bad now, but just think, in a minute or two, all that pain will be behind you. It’s almost over, sweetheart. It’s almost over. You’re almost there. And when all that pain’s over with, you’re gonna have the most beautiful baby in your arms. Try to focus on that and on how much we all love you. Try not to think about the pain if you can help it.”
“I am trying, George.”
“I know you are, baby. I know you are, and you’re doing such a wonderful job. You’ve been amazing from day one, and you’re more amazing now than ever.”
Despite her tears and enormous physical pain at the moment, Louise was able to look up at George after he said that and smile, and George responded by kissing her.
“I need you to do one last thing for me,” she told him softly.
“You just name it,” George said with great warmth.
“I need you to look in my eyes and tell me I can do this.”
“Oh, Weezy,” George whispered lovingly, and after he gave her another kiss, he made eye contact with her. “You can do this, Weezy. You can do this. You are so strong and so incredible that you could probably go out into the desert and give birth to this baby by yourself if you had to. But you’re not by yourself, not anymore. I’m here. I’m right here. And so is Mama, and most importantly, so is God, and we’re all gonna help you, alright?” At that, Louise nodded. “You’re not alone. We all love you, and we’re gonna take good care of you, and the baby. Everything will be just fine.”
After George said that, Louise had another contraction, and she held onto George and pushed like before, and his words of support and encouragement gave her the strength she needed to keep pushing in spite of the horrendous pain.
“The baby’s out,” Olivia announced, and Louise practically let herself collapse into George’s arms, feeling so relieved that it was all finally over. As George gently leaned her back against one of her pillows, the baby let out its first cry. And when Louise heard the cry of her newborn for the first time, naturally, she cried some tears of her own.
“I can’t believe it, George,” Louise gasped. “I can’t believe our baby’s really here, finally.”
“I know, Weez,” George said in a quiet voice, as overcome as Louise was. “I can’t believe it, either. Hey Mama, what is it?”
“No, wait,” said Louise. “If you don’t mind, Mama, I’d like George to be the one to tell me what it is.”
“That’s fine with me, dear, but George, I think I should warn you,” Olivia said.
“Warn me about what?” he asked.
“You’re in for quite a shock,” Olivia answered.
In those few moments, George was so swept away with the emotion of the moment, his relief that Louise had gotten through the birth safely and his joy at hearing his baby cry for the first time, that he couldn’t imagine what his mother was talking about. So, he simply got up and walked around to the foot of the bed to see what she was going on about, and the instant he first laid eyes on the newest addition to the Jefferson family, he understood, and he laughed out loud.
“What is it, you guys?” Louise asked.
“George, I think the good Lord’s trying to get even with you,” Olivia teased.
“You’re probably right, Mama,” George chuckled. Then he looked up and said, “Alright, God, I get the point!” After he said that, Olivia laughed even harder.
“What in the world is going on over there?!” Louise demanded to know. “And George Jefferson, if you don’t give me my baby now–”
“I’ll be right there, Weez. Just let me cut the cord and clean it up real quick.”
“I don’t want to keep calling my baby ‘it’ anymore, George. What is it for crying out loud?! And what has all the commotion between you two been about?”
“George, I’ll clean the baby up and take care of the cord,” Olivia said. “You explain everything to Louise before she breaks your neck.”
“Alright, Mama,” George said in a laugh, and then he walked back over to Louise. “Weezy, remember after Lionel was born when you said you’d had a feeling all through the pregnancy that he was a boy?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“And remember when we got to talkin’ about that a few weeks ago and I asked you if you had a feeling about whether this baby was a boy or a girl and you said you did have a feeling about it but you didn’t want to tell me because you wanted it to be a surprise?”
“Yeah, and I wasn’t sure if my feeling would be right this time or not, so I didn’t want to give you any false expectations.”
“What was your feeling about this baby? What did you think it is?”
“I’ve kind of had the feeling that it’s a little girl this time. Was I right?”
“It’s a girl,” George confirmed with a smile, and Louise’s face lit up. “By any chance, Weezy, did you have any feelings about what race she is?”
“What race? No, not really. Why?” Louise asked, but then it dawned on her, and she began to smile and laugh. “George, are you saying she’s white?”
“As snow,” George replied, and Louise threw her head back and laughed out loud. “God got me back, Weez.” He and Louise enjoyed a good laugh together, and then he told her, “And her race and gender ain’t the only things she’s got in common with April.”
“They’re not?” Louise said as she wondered what else George could possibly be talking about that she might have in common with April.
“Nope. She’s got a head full of red hair,” George explained, and Louise laughed even harder in delight. “Reddest hair you ever saw in your life.”
And just when Louise thought she’d burst into a million pieces at the building anticipation of waiting to hold her baby for the very first time, Olivia finally got finished cutting the cord and cleaning her up. She wrapped her in one of the many blankets they had gotten for her, either in their numerous shopping sprees or from the baby shower, and she handed her to George, who gently placed her in Louise’s arms at long last.
“Oh, my little baby,” Louise gasped. “Hi, sweetheart. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. I can’t believe you’re finally here. Well, welcome to the world, sweet baby girl. I love you more than I could ever tell you.”
“You see this gorgeous lady who’s holdin’ you right now?” George asked in an emotional whisper, pointing to Louise. “Her name’s Louise, and she’s the most remarkable woman in the world. And you get to have the privilege of having her for a mommy. And my name’s George, and I’m your daddy, and the sweet lady who delivered you just now is your grandma. And you’ve got a whole family full of people that are just gonna love you and spoil you rotten.”
“We sure are,” Olivia agreed. Then after Louise and George just stared into their newborn daughter’s face and said nothing the next few moments, Olivia told them, “I think I’ll go out and wait for the paramedics and give you three a little privacy.”
“Thank you, Mama,” Louise said.
“No, Louise…thank you,” Olivia said. “Thank you for giving me another sweet little grandchild to love.” Then she unlocked the bedroom door and walked outside to the living room.
“Hiya, Grandma,” said Lionel when she came into the living room. “We all heard the baby cryin’ just now. How’d everything go?”
“Yes, is Louise alright?” asked Helen.
“There weren’t any problems, were there?” asked Tom.
Olivia smiled and shook her head and replied, “There weren’t any problems. Louise came through it just fine, and so did the baby.” The moment Olivia told them that, they all cheered.
“Oh, Mrs. Jefferson, what is it? Is it a boy or a girl?” Jenny asked excitedly.
“It’s a little girl,” Olivia answered, and again, they cheered.
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” said Florence.
“It certainly is,” Bentley agreed. “Congratulations on your new granddaughter, Mrs. Jefferson.”
“Thank you,” Olivia responded. “And that’s not all. There’s more.”
“Like what, Grandma?” Lionel asked.
“You all remember what George was like when Jessica was born. He was scared to death that Jessica would turn out white.”
“We remember,” Lionel said.
“Well he may have gotten his wish back then and gotten a black grandchild, but let’s just say he wasn’t quite so lucky this time around.”
The moment Olivia said that, everybody gave a slight giggle.
“Hey, wait a minute,” Jenny said. “Mrs. Jefferson, are you trying to tell us that the baby’s white?”
“She sure is!” Olivia answered with a big laugh, and then everyone else’s giggles turned into much louder laughter, especially from Tom and Helen. “I told George that God got even with him for all his years of hatred against whites.”
“I can’t believe it,” Helen said in a bit of shock. “I simply can’t believe it…George Jefferson actually becoming the father of a white baby.”
“It almost feels like we’re in the Twilight Zone,” Tom joked, and again, everybody else laughed.
In the next moment, Florence looked up and said, “Lord, You really do move in mysterious ways!”
“Amen to that,” Jenny agreed.
“And His ways seem to be getting more and more mysterious all the time,” Lionel said. “Only Someone as powerful as the Almighty could have pulled something like this off. I’m in shock, you guys. I am just completely in shock. Imagine…my dad adopting a white baby. I feel like I need to keep pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
Everyone continued to marvel at the way events had unfolded in the Jeffersons’ lives for another minute or so until the paramedics finally arrived. They all took cabs and followed the ambulance to the hospital and it wasn’t long until they were permitted to go back to Louise’s room to see her and the baby, although only for a few minutes since it was past visiting hours. Dr. Manning met Louise, George, and the baby at the hospital and examined Louise and the baby and gave them both a clean bill of health, and the rest of the family walked into Louise’s hospital room just as he was on his way out.
Just after Dr. Manning left, George started goofing around and pretending as though he were crying, but everyone could plainly see he was just kidding around. Louise fought to keep from laughing with the others as she lay in her hospital bed cradling her newborn daughter in her arms, knowing how crazy and silly George was going to be acting.
“It’s terrible, guys,” George said through his fake tears. “It’s awful. It’s just awful. Weezy broke my heart. The baby ain’t mine, folks.” The moment he said that, everybody chuckled and Louise rolled her eyes. “Weezy’s been out havin’ sex with white men. Weezy don’t love me no more, y’all.”
In that moment, Tom walked up to Louise and put his hand on her shoulder and kicked the teasing up a notch, saying, “Ah yes, George, Helen, I knew this day would come sooner or later. You see, I’ve been madly, passionately in love with Louise for years,” he joked as the laughter became even louder, “and I just couldn’t resist her beauty and her charms, and I’ve been making love to her every chance I get. The baby’s mine, George. Helen, our marriage is over. I can’t pretend any longer. I can’t keep going on with this façade. It’s Louise I love now, and I’m leaving you, Helen, and Louise is leaving you too, George, and we’re running away together to elope.” When Tom made that last joke, everybody’s already loud laughter exploded.
“Actually, you guys,” Bentley said as he walked up to other side of Louise’s bed and put his hand on her other shoulder, “I’ve been captured by Mrs. J.’s beauty as well, and I’ve been seeing Mrs. J. on the side. The baby’s mine, and as soon as she gets a quickie divorce from you, Mr. J., she’s agreed to run away with me and elope, and after we run off and get married, we’ll be raising our child together.” By that point, everyone there was laughing ’til were crying, especially George.
“Actually, you’re both wrong,” Florence said. “There’s another white guy Ms. Jefferson’s been seein’ on the side and I think he’s the father. I think it’s Ralph!”
When Florence said that, everyone’s side-splitting laughter only grew in intensity, until finally, Louise said, “You guys are such a bunch of lunatics! You guys are crazy! If I ever decide to run away, it’ll be to the courthouse to get a court order to have you bunch of crazies committed to Bellevue!” Again, the laughter intensified.
At last, though, things calmed down and everybody took turns looking at and oohing and aahing over the baby, but it wasn’t long before one of the nurses came and ordered them all to leave, with the exception of George, who had gotten permission from Dr. Manning to stay the night with Louise. Louise protested and wanted George to go home, of course, so he could get some decent sleep that night, but as expected, George insisted on remaining with her and she was too tired to press the issue so she relented.
Not long after all the others left, another nurse came in and wanted to take the baby back to the nursery to give her a bottle, but Louise really wanted to feed her newborn herself. After they argued about it a bit, George stepped in and took Louise’s side as he always did and convinced the nurse to allow Louise to feed her.
“I just can’t get over how easy it all was,” George commented as Louise continued feeding the baby. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Weezy. I know the pain was awful for you, but this baby’s birth was so much less traumatic than Lionel’s was. I wonder why that is. You would think that it would’ve been Lionel’s birth that would have been easier since you were younger back then. You’d think there would’ve been a lot more drama and complications for you this time around with your heart issues and age and everything. Not that I’m lookin’ a gift horse in the mouth, of course. I am so grateful things went so smoothly for you this time, but it’s kind of hard not to be curious and wonder.”
“I know what you mean, George,” Louise agreed. “I can’t really say for certain exactly why this birth went so much better than Lionel’s, but I think I know two reasons why it did. For one thing, did you notice what the doctor said the baby’s weight is? Dr. Manning said she only weighs six pounds, one ounce. She’s little like her mother was. I mean, I know that the way she was being starved when I first rescued her stunted her growth, but April always had a small frame anyway, so I don’t think she would’ve ended up being that much taller than she turned out. I think April was naturally little, and I think this baby takes after her in size. But Lionel, on the other hand, was huge. He was over nine pounds.”
“Yeah, that makes sense. What’s the other reason?”
“I shouldn’t have mentioned there were two reasons why I think this birth was easier. I wasn’t thinking and I let that slip out. George, I’d really rather not tell you the other reason. If I did, it might upset you.”
“No, it won’t, Weez. Tell me.”
“No, George. I know you very well and I know this will upset you, although you insist it won’t right now. Let’s just drop it.”
“No, Weezy, tell me,” George stubbornly insisted. “I want to know. I really do. I promise I won’t get upset.”
Louise let out a small sigh and replied, “It all goes back to what I went through in Harlem. Back when I had Lionel, it was before I’d gone through that whole hellish nightmare. But after getting hurt in those years and going through all the physical pain I had to endure, it kind of had an unexpected side effect. Going through so much pain all the time really gave me a much higher tolerance of pain than I had before. I didn’t have that same really high pain tolerance back when Lionel was born that I have now. I think that’s why I didn’t even recognize it this time around when I was having actual contractions. I think that’s why I made the mistake of believing they were false labor pains and didn’t take them seriously.”
George said nothing in response and simply leaned over and gave Louise a kiss.
“I told you it would upset you,” Louise said quietly.
“You let me worry about it if somethin’ upsets me. And besides, no matter how badly it breaks my heart just thinking about the kind of hell you went through in those days, how awful I may feel about it can’t even hold a candle to the kind of agony you suffered. It may hurt quite a lot to live with the knowledge of what you went through, but I still get it so much easier than you ever did. I still get it easier than you do now, to this very day, because I just have to live with the mere knowledge of what you went through. You’re the one that has to carry the actual memories of your experiences in that unspeakable hell. You still have so much more to live with than I do, Weezy, and I realize that. I realize that you always have and always will get the raw end of this deal while I get to have it so much easier than you do. Believe me, I’m aware of that. So I don’t want you worrying about me. As long as you’re with me, I’m in great shape.”
“Well I don’t know that I’ve gotten such a raw deal. You just became a parent with me again in your fifties when I know it was the last thing on earth you were planning to do with your life at this stage. You just helped me bring the most precious baby girl into the world. I have the most considerate husband alive, and a wonderful family and friends, and for the first time in my life, I actually have the loveliest little daughter. I think I’m getting a pretty good deal out of life at the moment.”
“I’m just happy I was able to help you as much as I did,” George said softly.
“And I want you to know, I never could have gotten through all of this it hadn’t been for you and all your constant love and encouragement and support and understanding.”
“Well, turnabout’s fair play, Weez. You’ve always given me those things whenever I’ve needed them through the years. It’s high time I started giving you the same kind of support you always gave to me. And, I don’t consider getting to be a parent again after all these years any great sacrifice. As a matter of fact, I have to admit, the more I look at her, I the more I want to love her. She’s cute and adorable and all that, like all babies are, but there’s something different about her, Weezy. She just seems so…sweet and full of love.”
“I can see it already that she’s going to be a lot like her mother.”
“I wish you’d stop that, Weez.”
“Stop what?”
“Referring to April as her mother all the time, acting like she’s this baby’s mother and you’re not, like you had nothin’ to do with it. Sure, her DNA came from April, but you were the one who put your health at risk to carry this baby and give birth to her and give her a chance at life she never would have had otherwise. You are her mother, Weezy, just as much as April, if not more so.”
“I’m sorry, George. I won’t be that way from now on if it really bothers you. I just wasn’t thinking,” Louise told George as she set the empty bottle down on the nightstand beside her hospital bed, and then she reached over for the towel the nurse had left behind on the nightstand for Louise to use when it came time to burp the baby.
George quickly jumped up from his seat and said, “Here, let me do that.”
“It’s alright, dear. I’ll take care of it.”
“Now that ain’t bein’ fair. You got to be the one to feed her. I want to do somethin’. I can’t let you have all the fun.”
Louise laughed then and said, “Alright, if you insist,” and then she handed George the towel and gave him the baby.
“Good girl,” George praised her a few moments later after she let out a small burp. Then he walked back over to the chair on the other side of Louise’s bed and sat down with the baby and said, “We’ve got to come up with a name for this baby. We can’t just keep callin’ her ‘the baby’ or ‘girl’ all the time.” They had discussed possible names for their baby a couple of times through the pregnancy, but neither of them could really seem to make up their minds, and so they just kept putting off the task of choosing a name for their child. Obviously though, they couldn’t put it off any longer.
“Actually, I’ve given it a lot of thought over these past couple of weeks, and there is one name I really do have my heart set on.”
“That’s great. Let’s hear it.”
“George, do you remember the story of the prophet Samuel? Do you remember how heartbroken his mother Hannah was all her life because she couldn’t have a child, but then one day God answered her prayers and she finally got pregnant and had Samuel?”
“Yeah, I sure do.”
“Well, I feel like both April and I can relate to Hannah’s story pretty well. I was told after Lionel was born that I’d never get the chance to be a mother again, and April struggled with the exact same pain herself. And as you just pointed out, both she and I are this little girl’s mother, so I think it’s quite fitting that we call her Hannah.”
“Hannah,” George mused. “I like it. That’s a pretty name. And, I think you’re right. I think it makes perfect sense to name her after Samuel’s mother. Okay, since you picked out the first name, I want first dibs on the middle name.”
“Of course,” Louise agreed.
“I want to name her after you. It might cause some confusion if we make her first name Louise, but I do want to name her after you. After all you put yourself through to give her a life, I think it’s only fair. What do you say, Weezy? What do you think of the name Hannah Louise Jefferson?”
“Oh George, that’s the most thoughtful, beautiful thing in the world. You are so sweet. But I don’t need a namesake.”
“Perhaps not, but you sure deserve one.”
“Hannah Louise Jefferson…I like it. Hannah Louise. It does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“It sure does.”
“Oh George, thank you. That’s so loving and thoughtful. It’s one of the sweetest things you’ve ever done for me.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve done some pretty sweet and incredible things for me through the years, too. And like I said, turnabout’s fair play.”
Louise was too moved to say anything else, so she just quietly observed her husband with her new baby daughter. As George continued cradling Hannah in his arms and staring into her newborn little face, Louise realized that George had never looked more beautiful to her in their entire married life together than he did in that moment.

Chapter Seventeen
Dr. Manning remained overly cautious and kept Louise in the hospital the next three days for observation, and although baby Hannah couldn’t have been in better health, he kept her in the hospital too so Louise could have her close-by. While Dr. Manning, George, and all of Louise’s family and friends marveled at how smoothly Hannah’s birth had gone, they realized that God must have had a hand in it because the second day Louise was hospitalized, everyone learned that several patients had become severely ill after surgery, having contracted a bacterial infection in the operating room. Obviously, if Louise had gone under the knife as planned the day after Thanksgiving, there would have been a good chance that she could have become ill as well, and given her health history, the consequences of such an infection could have been disastrous for her if not fatal.
When Louise and Hannah were discharged from the hospital that following Monday, naturally, Louise had an abundance of help in getting home and settled in with the new baby, and Florence, Olivia, and Helen were all there in addition to George to help out. Once they all arrived at the Jeffersons’ apartment, they spent the rest of the day hanging out in Hannah’s nursery. They all stayed in there with Louise, George, and Hannah for quite a while, holding her, rocking her, staring at her and making a fuss over her, although Louise insisted on feeding and burping Hannah herself. George and Louise had originally planned to convert Lionel’s old bedroom into a nursery for Hannah, but after they thought about it a while and discussed it with Florence, they all decided it would be better for Florence to move into Lionel’s old room and turn Florence’s room into Hannah’s nursery since her room was closer to George’s and Louise’s bedroom. They had bought all the green baby furniture Louise had seen during their earlier baby shopping sprees and George and Lionel had assembled everything and put up a lovely wallpaper that was in the pattern of a forest. It was quite beautiful and everyone, especially George, frequently complimented Louise on her good taste. But not long after Louise laid Hannah down in her new bassinet for a nap, George practically shoved Louise out of the beautiful green nursery because he wanted her to lie down and get some rest too, which she was glad to do since it was obvious he was only being as pushy as he was out of love and concern and not out of any kind of egotistical desire to give her orders.
As expected, George was more than prepared to be as helpful to Louise in caring for little Hannah as he possibly could be, and he was also more than prepared to continue caring for Louise as well, and it was a very good thing he was so ready and willing to look after Louise and Hannah because he did have his work cut out for him over the next week. The day before George brought Louise and Hannah home from the hospital, Florence informed him that a friend of hers from out of town had suddenly decided to elope that week and wanted her to be there. Since she was planning on leaving Manhattan for a little while, she asked him if it would be alright if she took some of her vacation time now and enjoyed a few days off, and George had no problem with it, so she was all set to leave that Wednesday. Florence might have felt pretty guilty about taking time off and not being there to help the Jeffersons out after they had just had a baby, but thankfully, Olivia was very happy to stay with Louise and George and help them with Hannah during Florence’s absence.
The next six days sped by in a whirlwind of activity, baby Hannah keeping her parents and grandmother quite busy, but even though George, Louise, and Olivia were being vividly reminded of how much work was involved in taking care of a newborn, it actually was not all that stressful for them. Since going to work every day was not an issue for them thanks to their secure financial situation, Louise and George and Olivia were able to dedicate far more time to taking care of Hannah than they would have had otherwise. And since they had so much more time freed up in their everyday lives to devote to caring for Hannah, it allowed them a lot of freedom to take more time off as they needed it so that one of the others could take over for a while. Louise, of course, stubbornly tried to spend as much time taking care of Hannah every day as George and Olivia did, and of course, they just as stubbornly insisted that she rest and relax and take it as easy as she could. Most of the time, with George and Olivia combining forces, Louise lost the battle, but there were also several times when she won and was able to do her share of caring for Hannah too.
That Sunday evening, the heat went out in the Jeffersons’ apartment and the Willises invited Louise, George, Olivia, and Hannah to come upstairs and spend the night with them. Florence was supposed to be returning that night, and Tom and Helen asked Ralph to extend their invitation to her once she came back home. They also would have invited Mr. Bentley to stay with them that night since the heat had gone out in all the apartments on the twelfth floor, but like Florence, he too was out of town.
The Jeffersons had left for the Willises’ apartment not long after Louise had won her latest battle with George and Olivia and given Hannah her latest feeding. Before Jessica was born, Tom and Helen had converted one of their bedrooms into a nursery for her, and shortly after Louise and the others arrived, she went into Jessica’s nursery and sat down in the rocking chair that was in the corner and rocked Hannah to sleep in her arms. Once she’d gotten Hannah to fall asleep, she gently set her down in Jessica’s crib and turned out the lights, and then Louise joined the others in the Willises’ living room and had fun hanging out with all of them for a while. But after they’d spent about twenty minutes together, Louise suddenly realized that she’d forgotten and left Hannah’s special baby bag she’d packed for her downstairs. When Louise explained that to everybody and told them she had to go downstairs to get it, naturally, George wanted to go after it for her. And because she’d already won the last battle with George, she decided to let him win this time around and she agreed to let him go and get Hannah’s baby things.
On his way down to their apartment, George realized nature was calling him so obviously, the first thing he did when he got downstairs was to pay a visit to the John. Then a couple of minutes later, he went to what was now Florence’s bedroom because Louise had left Hannah’s baby bag there. After Louise had packed all the diapers, bottles, and formula Hannah would need for the night, she went into Florence’s room to pack one of Hannah’s favorite toys, a pink rattle, and after she’d packed it, she set the bag down and accidentally forgot about it. The rattle had been in Florence’s room because in the couple of days before she’d gone out of town, she had taken Hannah into her room to hold her and rock her and spend a little time with her, and she’d brought the rattle in there with her so Hannah would have something to play with. After Florence had left, Louise and George and Olivia had forgotten the rattle and Hannah had moved on to all the other toys they’d bought her, but she was now getting a little bored with some of them so Louise thought getting her rattle out for her again and packing it might be a good idea.
But when George opened Florence’s bedroom door and turned on the light, what he found in that bedroom was no baby bag or pink rattle. The moment George turned Florence’s bedroom light on, he saw Florence shielding her eyes with her hand as she slowly sat up in bed. That might have been a perfectly normal sight for George to see coming into Florence’s bedroom and all, except for one thing: Florence was not lying in that bed alone. There was a man lying next to her, and not just any man. That unforgettable Sunday night in early December, George Jefferson knew for all of time, he would forever remember the sight of Florence Johnston lying in bed next to Harry Bentley.
“Oh Lord, help me,” George gasped as part of him struggled really hard to hold back a surprised laugh. “Uh...sorry, guys,” he said quickly, plainly embarrassed, and then wasted no time in backing out of the bedroom.
“No, Mr. Jefferson, wait,” Florence said just before he shut the bedroom door.
“Yes, please, Mr. J. We can explain this,” Bentley told him.
“Look guys, we’re all adults, here. Weezy’s been tellin’ me all along that whatever’s going on between the two of you is your business and nobody else’s, and she’s right. Y’all don’t owe me any explanations. It’s your lives.”
Just as Florence was about to respond to what George just said, they all heard the voices of everyone coming in from upstairs.
“Hey George, where are you?” Louise’s voice called out.
George hesitated a brief moment, but he instantly realized he’d never be able to hide what he’d just seen from Louise even if he could hide it from everybody else. Louise simply knew him too well now for him to successfully keep a secret from her of this magnitude, so he answered, “I’m in here, Weez.”
A couple of seconds later when Louise walked into Florence’s room and saw Florence lying next to Bentley, she cried out, “Goodness gracious!”
Quite naturally, in the moments that followed, Helen, Tom, and Olivia walked into Florence’s room too after they’d heard Louise’s raised voice.
“Oh, my!” Helen gasped.
“You can say that again!” Tom said aloud.
Olivia was holding baby Hannah, and in that second, she covered Hannah’s eyes and told her, “You are way too young to see this, little one. Come with Grandma. I’ll put you to bed,” and then, of course, she left for the nursery.
“What are you guys doin’ down here?” George asked.
“A few seconds after you left, the heat went out at Tom and Helen’s,” Louise explained. “And we found out from Ralph that they’d gotten the heat fixed down here on our floor, so I invited Tom and Helen to come and spend the night with us.”
“Looks like Florence invited a friend to spend the night, too,” Helen quipped.
“Well so what if she did?” said George. “Like I was just tellin’ them before you got here, it’s their lives, Helen. It ain’t anybody else’s business.”
“I know that’s what I’ve been saying to George all along, and I’m the first to admit that this isn’t any of my business or anyone else’s, but Florence, I can’t help but be curious about something. If you’ll forgive me for asking, why all this, Florence? We’re all Christians here and we know how much your relationship with Christ has always meant to you, and how strongly you’ve always felt about not having sex with any man except your husband,” Louise said.
“He is my husband,” Florence informed Louise, and to say that a great sense of shock overwhelmed everybody in the room after she said that would be an understatement.
Olivia had walked back into Florence’s bedroom just as she’d said that, and Olivia asked her, “Is that true, Florence? Is Mr. Bentley really your husband?”
“Guys, just go out into the living room and give Harry and me a chance to get our robes on, and then we’ll come out and explain everything, alright?” Florence suggested. Even though everyone had just seen them in bed together, they actually hadn’t done more besides sleep that evening, and Florence was still in her nightgown and Harry was still in his pajamas.
“Yeah, sure, Florence,” George responded, still clearly flabbergasted along with everyone else, and then he and the others did as Florence asked and went out to the living room and sat down and waited for them to come out. A couple of minutes later, they came out of Florence’s bedroom in their robes and slippers and sat down beside one another on the couch. George and Louise were also sitting on the couch, and Olivia was sitting in the living chair to their right, and Helen was sitting in the chair across from Olivia and Tom sat on the arm of Helen’s chair.
“Okay, I know everybody around here has probably noticed some changes in our relationship over the past year,” Florence finally admitted after over a year of fervent denial.
“You might say that,” Louise sarcastically joked.
“For a long time, Harry and I didn’t even know it was happening. We were growing a lot closer, but for a few months, we merely believed it was a result from getting so shaken up by Ms. Jefferson’s heart attack.”
“And I think there’s some things about myself I should explain,” Harry said. “On the surface, I’m sure it would appear to all of you that I’m not the right man for Florence. As you pointed out, Mrs. J., Florence’s faith in Christ is everything to her, and I know I probably haven’t seemed like the kind of person who’s very big on something like faith. Furthermore, I know I’ve always acted like I was a real ladies’ man. I can understand how it would seem that I’m entirely wrong for Florence.”
“But you guys know that old saying, don’t you? Appearances can be deceiving,” Florence said as she put her hand on top of Harry’s.
“In our case, they’re very deceiving. You see Mrs. Jefferson, Mr. J. wasn’t the only one who shaken up and scared to death when you were in the hospital. I was as well. We all were. And the day after your heart surgery, Florence and I really got to talking, and I started admitting how terrified I’d been of losing a member of my family, and that got me to talking to her about other things.
“I’ve always tried to be an honest person, but there are a lot of important things that, unfortunately, I’ve been lying to you about through the years. Before Florence, yes, I did take out a lot of women on dates, but the vast majority of them never went nearly as far as I told all of you they did. Most women who used to date me will tell you that I’m the worst tease in the world. The reason I dated so many women so often is because I wanted all the people around me to believe that I was this kind of ladies’ man who didn’t have the slightest interest in settling down, because if I didn’t portray that image to the rest of the world, all the people around me would always be trying to set me up on dates and find Princess Charming for me when I simply wanted to be left alone. Ever since I moved to the U.S. from England, my friends and neighbors and colleagues at work have always tried to do that to me. People never could accept the fact that I just wanted to be left alone, and it didn’t take me much time to figure out that the only way I could be left to live my life in peace the way I wanted to was to play along. So, I made a point of going out on a lot of dates with a lot of different women, and I told a bunch of stories about those dates to my friends afterwards, and it worked like a charm. Everybody who knew me got the impression that I was just your typical bachelor who wasn’t ready to settle down yet, and they finally left me alone and stopped trying to fix me up on blind dates and marry me off to someone. All I had to do was take a couple of pretty ladies out for dinner a fewf times a week, and then I was left to live the rest of my life the way I wanted to without any hassle.
“And there’s a reason why I’ve worked as hard as I have to avoid serious romantic relationships all these years, a very painful one. There was this very dear, sweet, loving, witty, brilliant young lady who was absolutely full of life. Her name was Melissa Winters, and I adored her. We were neighbors growing up. We were best friends, and as we grew into teenagers, that friendship turned into love. We dated all through high school and college. We were high school sweethearts, as the old saying goes, and I asked her to marry me once I’d graduated from college and started my career, and she said yes and we were married soon after. And for the next five years, Melissa and I were in heaven. It was one of the greatest times of my entire life. Of course, no marriage can be perfect and Melissa and I did have our problems every once in a while. We had our fights and squabbles just like every married couple, but most of the time, it was really wonderful. We had a beautiful marriage.”
“What on earth happened?” George asked, now anxiously hanging on to every word right along with everybody else.
“Cancer happened, Mr. J.,” Bentley quietly replied, and while George didn’t respond in words, the look on his face said it all. He was clearly feeling Harry Bentley’s pain now, as were all the others whose faces perfectly mirrored George’s wounded expression. “She wasn’t a smoker, but she still somehow ended up getting lung cancer. She fought a long and hard and courageous fight. She was far stronger and more courageous than I know I ever could have been in her place. But in the end, not even her special kind of courage and strength was enough to win the battle.
“After I lost Melissa, I basically stopped truly living inside. She was the best thing about my world. Really, she was my world all those years we were together. She was everything to me. It wasn’t long after her passing that I requested that the U.N. transfer me out of the country, because everything about where I was living reminded me of her, and it drove me crazy. I had to get out, so once I was approved to be transferred to the U.N. here in New York, I left England as soon as I possibly could.
“Since I’ve lived in America, my life has basically been going to work every day, taking a pretty woman out for dinner some nights of the week, and coming home and immersing myself in books, which is one of the things in life I enjoy the most. Escaping in a good book always made me forget all the loneliness and emptiness of my life since Melissa died. I couldn’t bear to even think about the kind of agony Melissa was in when she died, much less bring myself to talk about it with another person, so I just held it in. I could never imagine falling in love again and finding the same incredible kind of relationship I had with Melissa, so I didn’t even try. I believed it was impossible and I was completely convinced that I never even wanted to so much look at another woman again as long as I lived. So, in addition to being a translator, I became a pretty good actor, and I put on the performance of the ladies’ man, the bachelor who just could never get ready to settle down.
“But when you were in that hospital, Mrs. J., I got terrified of losing another member of my family, and I started really going insane with the worrying and the fear. I finally couldn’t keep telling all those lies about who I really was anymore; I had to be honest with someone and tell them what I was really going through. That someone ended up being Florence. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done if she hadn’t been there. And as she got to know the real me, she gave me so much love and acceptance and understanding, and it was just amazing. It was the first time in so many years where I really felt comfortable showing another person who I truly was. I’d gotten so used to all the loneliness that I’d actually forgotten how lonely I’d been since Melissa’s death. Of course, Florence and I have been friends with each other all along, but since I leveled with Florence about Melissa, it felt so good to have a friend I could honestly be that close to again. I found myself enjoying every possible second I could spend with Florence and feeling miserable every second we were apart. It didn’t happen overnight. It happened rather gradually over the past year, but finally a few months ago, it dawned on me that I hadn’t been this happy in my life since Melissa was still alive. And when I worked up the courage to tell Florence how I felt, thankfully for me, she felt the same way.”
“Once we finally admitted it to ourselves and to each other how in love we were, it didn’t take us long to realize that we wanted to be together for the rest of our lives. But unfortunately, there were some obstacles we had to deal with,” Florence said.
“What kind of obstacles?” Louise asked.
“Well Ms. Jefferson, as you may have noticed, my relationship with Harry is a rather special one, the same kind of relationship Mr. and Ms. Willis have. When my mother and father pictured me getting married, I can promise you, they did not picture a wedding ceremony with a white groom.”
“And as much as it pains me to say it, my family’s even worse. I know how I came off as this crazy weirdo because of all the outrageous stories I came up with about my family, but that’s another area of my life I’ve been lying to all of you about. And I told you all those lies about my family because I was too ashamed to tell you the truth. The sad truth is, I come from a long line of stuck-up racist idiots who I absolutely cannot stand, who would have gone to utterly ridiculous links to try and stop me from marrying Florence if I wanted to. They’re very wealthy and they have a lot of connections and a lot of power and if I’d allowed them to find out in advance about my plans to marry a black woman, I can promise you, one way or another, they would have come up with something to try and stop it.”
“A few months ago when Harry and I first realized how in love we are with each other, we sat down and had a really long talk about all of this and said a few prayers and made some decisions on how to go about it. Because of your high-risk pregnancy, Ms. Jefferson, I wanted to wait until after the baby was born before I went away to get married. I wanted to stick close to home so I could help you and Mr. Jefferson out as much as possible, so Harry and I agreed to wait until after you had the baby and came home from the hospital before we went away anywhere. And this past Wednesday, after you’d been at home with the baby a couple of days and had a chance to get settled, Harry took me down to Miami and we eloped. We’ve been there these past few days on a kind of a mini-honeymoon.”
“Hey!” George cheered.
“Oh, that’s incredible!” Louise said aloud.
“That’s just wonderful, Mr. Bentley, Florence!” Helen cried out.
“That’s terrific!” said Tom.
“Congratulations,” said Olivia.
“Wow,” George said. “Just…wow. And I thought Weezy was full of surprises when she got pregnant with Hannah!” When George said that, everyone laughed.
“But Mr. Bentley, the rest of your family is living all the way in England and there’s no one here who could’ve told them. Why all the secrecy?” Louise asked.
“I may not have any members of my family living around here, but they’ve got friends in high positions of government in different countries, who spend a lot of time in Manhattan and at the U.N. I understand that the chances of them ever finding out about Florence and me and reporting it back to my family overseas were slim, but after being so lonely for so long and then getting this unexpected chance at love again, just completely out of the blue, I wasn’t about to take any chances of losing Florence like I lost Melissa. I know it was pretty paranoid of me, but after getting such a remarkable gift, I couldn’t help but want to give in to paranoia rather than take even the slightest chance of losing it. That’s why I asked Florence to keep what was happening between us a secret. I did buy her an engagement ring shortly after we decided to get married, but we’ve always kept it at my place so nobody would ever see it until we tied the knot and it was too late for my family to do anything about it.”
“And sadly, my own parents aren’t that much better. If they’d ever found out that I’d decided to marry a white man, it’s likely that they would’ve tried to stand in the way of us getting married, too. On top of that, we both felt that taking care of a wedding in addition to your pregnancy, Ms. Jefferson, was too much to deal with all at once. So, we figured going away somewhere to get married, just the two of us, would be the easiest and the best way to go about it.”
“I’m still in shock,” George told them in a laugh, and they laughed with her. “I’ll never forget this evening as long as I live. I’ll never forget walkin’ into your bedroom, Florence, and seein’ you in bed next to Bentley and me thinkin’ the worst.”
“Oh, come on, Mr. Jefferson. This is me we’re talking about. You should know me well enough by now to know that I’d never be in bed with a man who isn’t my husband. You should all know how much my faith means to me and how I feel about sex outside of marriage.”
“And even though I never showed it like Florence did, I actually feel the same way. I’ve been a born-again Christian since I was a teenager, and I have Melissa to thank for that. My snobbish, racist family claimed to be a Christian household, but the way they acted and treated others in their everyday lives made the worst possible group of heathens look better than they ever did. If it hadn’t been for Melissa, I’d have probably grown up hating God and become an atheist. I felt so hurt and betrayed by God after Melissa died that I ran away from Him all these years. I never completely turned my back on Christ. I never stopped believing in His sacrifice and deep down, I never stopped loving Him and caring about Him, but I stayed angry at Him all this time, and because I stayed angry at Him, I stayed away from Him. I went to church services on Christmas and Easter and I said the occasional prayer, but that was about it between Jesus and me for many years.
“But it wasn’t long after I opened up to Florence about everything that she started really helping me and encouraging me to go back to God and to start trusting Him with all my pain and my problems. She kept reminding me how the Bible promises that God will work all things together for good for the people who love Him. Back when I’d first started confiding in Florence about Melissa and all my struggles with my faith, I couldn’t imagine what good could possibly come from it all, but now, obviously, I can see how right she was,” Harry said with a smile, and then he put his arm around Florence’s shoulders and gave her a very long kiss.
“Okay, you two. There’s just one more question I have got to ask you,” George said.
“What’s that?” asked Florence.
“You kids ran off to Florida and got married last Wednesday and you’ve just come back from your honeymoon in Miami. Is that right?” George asked.
“It is,” Florence replied.
“Y’all ain’t even been married a whole week yet?” he said.
“Not yet,” said Mr. Bentley.
“Well then why on God’s green earth did I walk into that bedroom and find you guys just sleepin’ for cryin’ out loud?!” George teased and everybody laughed.
“Oh, there’s a simple explanation for that, Mr. J.”
“What is it?”
After a look of pure mischief came over Mr. Bentley’s face, he answered, “I’m afraid Florence is a terrible disappointment in bed.” Naturally, Florence playfully shoved him the moment he said that and the others had another good laugh. “I’m only kidding,” he admitted several seconds later. “We were asleep, Mr. Jefferson, because we haven’t gotten a wink of sleep since Wednesday night.” Of course when he said that, everyone laughed even harder.
“Ralph told us about the heat going out, and we thought about joining you guys upstairs, but we were just so tired when we finally got back that we decided we wanted to get a good night’s sleep first before we explained everything to you. We knew we’d have a pretty hard time keeping our cool around all of you and pretending that we were still just friends with each other. And on top of that, I really wanted to get back into my own bed for a change, and Harry said he didn’t mind spending the night in my room, so we went in there to go to sleep for the night. We thought Harry would be able to get up in plenty of time tomorrow morning to leave the apartment before all of you returned. As I’m sure you guessed, we believed we’d have my room to ourselves for tonight.”
“I have a question, too, Florence,” said Helen. “Why didn’t you and Mr. Bentley take a longer honeymoon? You didn’t even take a whole week for yourselves.”
“Oh, we will,” Florence assured her. “We’re just saving it for Christmas. We’re going back to Miami a week before Christmas and we’re staying through New Year’s Day. We’ll be back on the second.”
“I’m like George. I’m still in shock,” Louise told them. “But it’s a wonderful kind of shock. I’m so happy for you guys. But, I do have to admit, I’m also sad for my own sake.”
“Why, Ms. Jefferson?”
“Because all of this means that George and I’ll be losing you, Florence, and I’ll really miss you. It just won’t be the same without you here.”
“Oh, Ms. Jefferson, you don’t have to worry about losing me. Look, as much as you and Mr. Jefferson have done for me through the years, I’m more than happy to return the favor. I may not be your maid anymore, but I’ll still come over every day and help you take care of the apartment. You guys were always so good to me, especially you, Ms. Jefferson. You’re the one who saw to it that I had a roof over my head and clothes on my back and food to eat and money in my pocket and most importantly, a family. And you put a roof over my head and gave me a job and made me a member of your family even though you knew how lazy and overbearing and sometimes even downright disrespectful I could be. And I know that you’ve had problems with your heart and I know how much responsibility you have on your shoulders every single day, and that on top of all of that, you just brought a newborn baby into the family. So I ain’t got any problems with comin’ over here every day and taking care of the apartment for you for free. I know you’ve got a lot to deal with and that you need all the help you can get, and you have been incredibly good to me, better than I usually deserved, as a matter of fact, and I think that it’s high time I did a little something for you for a change.”
“Oh, Florence, that’s incredibly generous of you, but that wasn’t what I meant. I’m not worried about not having a maid to do the housework for me anymore. That’s no big deal. I meant that I’ll really miss you living here with us. But on the other hand, I am so happy that you’ll be living next door. And I couldn’t be happier for you and Mr. Bentley and the love you’ve found in each other, not to mention the fact that your dream of being something more in your life besides a maid has finally come true.”
“Yeah, it took me long enough, but it looks like I’ve ‘moved on up’ at last, as you would say, Mr. Jefferson.”
“You don’t have to call me Mr. Jefferson anymore, Florence,” George told her.
“I don’t?”
“Well I don’t see why, Florence,” Louise agreed. “You’re not working for us any longer, and we are family to one another. I don’t see any reason why we have to be so formal now.”
“Either that, or we could just start callin’ her Mrs. Bentley,” George teased.
“I have a better idea, Mr. J.,” Bentley said. “Why don’t we all drop the formalities around here from now on? We’ve all been like family to each other these past few years anyway, and what family is always so formal with one another every day?”
“You know, that’s a good point, Mr. Bentley,” Louise said.
“That’s a good point, who?” Harry responded with a joking smile.
“That’s a good point, Harry,” Louise then corrected herself.
“I agree,” said Helen. “I never even thought about it before, but it’s really ridiculous and it sounds so stuffy going around all the time calling one another ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs. Such-and-such.’ That’s a great idea, Mr. Bentley.” The moment Helen said that, Harry loudly cleared his throat and everybody chuckled, and then Helen said, “Excuse me. I mean, that’s a great idea, Harry.”
“Well in that case, I say it’s time everyone around here started calling me Olivia,” Olivia announced. “I won’t have all of you going around calling each other by your first names and calling me ‘Mrs. Jefferson’ like I’m some ancient old fuddy-duddy.” Of course, all the others laughed when she said that.
“Anyway, if y’all don’t mind, maybe we can continue this conversation in the morning,” Florence said. “I know I wanted to sleep in my own bed tonight, but I’ll have to get used to Harry’s bed sooner or later anyway, and I’m bushed, so I think we’ll head on home if that’s okay with you, Harry.”
“I think that’s a good idea, love. After all the sleep we’ve lost over the past few days, I’m quite ready to go home and get a little shut-eye, myself,” Harry said and then everybody got up from where they were sitting and walked with Harry and Florence to the door.
“Goodnight, Florence. Goodnight, Harry. And congratulations, you two,” Louise said warmly.
“Thanks,” Florence responded.
“Congratulations,” Olivia said.
“Yes, congratulations,” Tom told them.
“And remember, you guys, if your families do give you a hard time whenever you do decide to tell them about your relationship, you can always come to Tom and me because we’ve been there,” said Helen.
“Thank you, Mrs. Willis,” Bentley said.
“Thank you, who?”
“I mean, thank you, Helen,” he corrected himself.
“Goodnight, you two,” said Olivia.
“Goodnight,” Florence said, and then she and Harry walked over to their own apartment door, with Louise, George, Olivia, and the Willises following them out into the hallway.
“Goodnight, kids,” George said as they were walking inside. George actually followed them a couple of steps into their apartment, obviously getting ready to kid around and mess with them a little bit. “Sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite. And no matter what, do not have sex. If you do, you’ll never get to sleep again for the next decade, and I’ve seen how horrible you can look, Florence, if you miss a mere ten minutes of sleep. I can’t even imagine what missin’ an entire ten years’ worth of sleep would do to your appearance! Harry, you’d never survive the trauma and the shock! If you wanna be married to our Florence, here, you must never forget that single rule. If you do, she’ll turn into a monster more hideous than Godzilla and Bigfoot combined! Humanity would never survive a single look into her face!”
“George, shut up and get out of there and leave the two of them alone!” Louise said aloud, although with obvious laughter in her voice.
“No, wait a minute, Ms. Jefferson,” Florence protested. “Let me handle him.”
“Wait a minute, who, Florence?” said Louise.
“I’m sorry. I mean, wait a minute, Louise. Let me handle this. If there’s any soul on the planet who’s an expert at dealing with George Jefferson, it’s me.”
“Actually, Florence, Louise, would you two ladies mind it if I took care of George, just this once? There’s something I’ve been wanting to do to him for many years now and this is the perfect opportunity.”
“No, I don’t mind at all, Harry,” Louise replied.
“I don’t mind either, sweetheart. What you got in mind?” Florence asked.
“Watch and learn, my darling,” Harry answered. “George, I never would have dreamed of doing anything like this to you in the past, but thanks to Florence, I’m a good bit gutsier than I used to be. And on top of that, I’m a newly married man who just got back into town with his bride, and it’s you who’s standing in the way of me taking her to bed, so I know I can do this without the slightest bit of guilt.”
In that hilarious and downright incredible moment in time, Harry Bentley actually put his hand on George Jefferson’s shoulder and gave him a big shove out of his apartment and into the hallway, and then slammed the door in his face. The instant he did that, all the others nearly died laughing, and none more so than George, himself.

Chapter Eighteen
1983 had ended on a pretty pleasant note for the Jeffersons, the Willises, and the Bentleys. Harry took Florence back to Florida for their honeymoon as planned, and they thoroughly enjoyed their extended vacation and first Christmas together. George and Louise also equally enjoyed sharing their very first Christmas with little Hannah, and the rest of the Jefferson and Willis families really had a lot of fun with each other over the holiday season.
But as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. On the third of January, the day after Florence and Harry returned from Miami, they each had long, draining, and even quite painful conversations over the telephone with their families, explaining their elopement to them. Harry’s parents reacted with the same venomous, arrogant racism he had come to expect from them over the years, and when his father declared that he was now officially cut off from the rest of the family, Harry was hurt, but he wasn’t surprised. Florence, however, was a different story. She’d expected her parents to be upset with her and even a little angry, but she never believed they would react to her interracial marriage as violently as they did. They were both downright livid with her, and as it had been with Harry’s family, they, too, actually completely disowned Florence.
“But Daddy, don’t you think you’re going just a little overboard, here?” Florence said as she desperately tried to reason with her parents. “Look, you and Mama have been wantin’ to see me fall in love and get married all my life, and that’s been my dream, too. And now, after all these years, it’s finally happened. God was gracious enough to bring the most wonderful man into my life and I really love him, and he loves me, and more than anything, we simply want to spend the rest of our lives together. What difference could it possibly make that the man of my dreams just happens to be white? Who cares?” Harry stood quietly by for next several moments as Florence’s father continued to rail at her on the other end of the line. “But Daddy—” Florence started to say, but then was obviously interrupted. “But Daddy,” she said again with increasing anxiety in her voice. “But Daddy, you don’t mean that. You can’t mean that. No matter what you say to me in the heat of the moment right now, I know how much you love me, how much you’ve always loved me, and I know that regardless of how furious you are at me at the moment, you and Mama could never stop loving me.” Florence was silent for several more long moments, and then finally she said, “But Daddy…but Daddy…Daddy? Daddy? Daddy, are you still there? Hello?” In that moment she realized that her father had hung up on her, so she slowly set the receiver back down on its cradle. Saying nothing, Harry merely held his arms out to her, and she walked into his embrace and he held her while she cried for the next couple of minutes.
“Don’t worry,” Harry lovingly whispered in her ear, and then he kissed her. “Don’t worry, Florence. Don’t worry about him. Don’t worry about your father or your mother or my parents. It doesn’t matter. If they can’t see far enough past their own foolish racism to be a part of our lives, then it’s their loss, not ours. We have Jesus and we have each other and our love, and that’s all that really matters.”
“I know,” Florence said as she sniffled and quickly wiped her eyes. “I know what you’re saying is true, Harry. I guess I just wasn’t prepared for something like this. Sure, I expected my folks to be angry and upset for a little while, but I honestly never dreamed that eloping with a white man would actually make Daddy so furious at me that he’d tell me that he hated me and never wanted to speak to me again. I still can’t believe he just told me that. Because of all the prejudice and discrimination my parents went through when I was growing up, I knew they weren’t all that fond of white people, but I honestly never realized their animosity for the white race ran this deep. I guess I should have known; I guess I should have seen it all these years, but I actually didn’t. Perhaps I was just fooling myself over this past month because I didn’t want to believe that Mama and Daddy would really disown me and turn their backs on me like this.”
“Tragically, the white race has given the black race more than enough reason to have such strong feelings of animosity, Florence. When I explained our elopement to my parents, they actually had the audacity to try and convince me that you weren’t good enough for me because you’re black. They actually had the nerve and the gall to try and tell me that a Bentley had no business having any kind of a romantic relationship with a black woman, that a Bentley is supposedly too good for ‘that sort of thing,’ as they put it. They could care less about how lonely I’ve been since Melissa died and how much pain I’ve been in all these years, and they could also care less about the fact that I’ve been happier now with you in my life than I’ve been in ages. All they can see is your skin color and the fact that you used to be a maid. They aren’t willing to even at least try to get to know you and understand how wonderful you are, and that infuriates me more than anything. My parents and my aunts and uncles and most of my brothers and sisters are always going around with this mentality that just because their last name is Bentley and they have a lot of money, that makes them so much better than everybody else, especially if you’re black. Because they’ve always had it so easy all their lives, they have no idea what it means to be clever and gutsy the way that you are, Florence. They’re also too hoity-toity to understand what it means to have a true sense of humor like you have. And they’re definitely too stuck-up and clueless to even begin to understand what it truly means to live your life for Christ the way that you do every single day. Sure, they call themselves Christians, but they don’t have the slightest idea what that word really means like you do. And for all blacks who have had to endure such horrible, racist idiots like my family, the way that your own parents had to, for instance, I can certainly understand and sympathize with them when they have feelings of anger and frustration against whites. I’m not really holding my breath for my own family of racist idiots to see the light and come around because they’ve been like that their entire lives, but I think there’s still a lot of hope for your own parents. You’ve told me yourself how much they’ve always loved you. Just try to hang in there and give them a little bit of time. Surely they’ll come around sooner or later.”
“Thanks, Harry. I know you’re only trying to help make me feel better, and I appreciate it, but I’m every bit as angry about this entire mess as you are. Yes, the black race has been treated horribly by the white race in the past, but things are changing. Things are so much better now than they used to be. We may not completely have the kind of good relationship between our races that we’d like to have yet, but we are getting there. And even though there have been a lot of white folks who have done a lot of black folks wrong, there have also been a lot of whites who have been smart enough to see racism for the evil that it is and take a stand against it. But is it those whites people like my parents think about? No. They always remain determined to think the very worst, that just because someone has white skin, that automatically, at the drop of a hat, makes them a total racist. Don’t you see, Harry? My parents jumping to the conclusion that you’re some kind of evil racist just because you’re white isn’t any better at all than your parents automatically jumping to the conclusion that I’m not good enough for you just because I’m black. Just as you wish your own parents would get to know me before they started jumping to false conclusions about me, it makes me every bit as mad as it does you that my own parents aren’t willing to get to know you before they start jumping to false conclusions about you. There may still be a lot of ignorant white racists in this world, but you aren’t one of them, and it is so wrong and unfair of them to automatically assume that you are.
“They could also give me a little more credit. They ought to know me well enough to know that I could never fall in love with any kind of bigot, and I didn’t. I told you one time after we’d been dating a while that I fell in love with a pure gentleman, and that’s exactly what I did. The word ‘gentleman’ describes it in a nutshell why I love you so much. If you break down the word ‘gentleman’ into its root words, you get the words gentle man, and that’s exactly what you are. You are simply the gentlest human being I have ever known, and I love you for that. I love your gentleness and kindness and honesty and decency. I’ve never known another man, black or white, who has those qualities in such abundance like you do. And if my foolish parents would only give you a chance, they’d see that for themselves.”
“Well I must admit, Florence, I’m not feeling very much like a gentleman right now,” Harry admitted.
“Why not?”
“Because hearing you say all those nice things about me suddenly made me want to whisk you off to the bedroom and start tearing your clothes off, and I know a true gentleman would never think thoughts like that.”
“He can if those thoughts are about his wife,” Florence told him as she wrapped her arms around his waist, and then she gave him a long kiss.
“Oh Florence, do remember that night when I kissed you for the first time?”
“Mm-hmm. I sure do. We’d gone out to see a movie and then we ate dinner, and we were actually pretty late getting back home. Since we were still trying to keep our relationship a secret, I didn’t invite you to come inside in case the Jeffersons woke up and heard us, so we said goodnight in the hallway. You were so shy about it, it was utterly adorable. You kept hanging around, trying to delay telling me goodbye as long as possible. I’d been on pins and needles just waiting for you to kiss me, but you were so shy and I didn’t want to risk scaring you off, so I never brought it up. But finally that night in the hallway before you told me goodnight, you asked me, ‘Florence, would it be alright for me to kiss you?’ I think it was right in that very moment that I realized I was in love with you.”
Saying nothing, Harry just smiled and kissed Florence for the longest time, and then he asked her, “Florence, would it be alright for me to undress you?”
Florence threw her head back and laughed out loud and replied, “Perfectly,” and then went back to their bedroom with Harry, and they stayed there for hours on end.
Unfortunately, when Tom and Helen came home for the day, their evening wasn’t nearly as pleasurable as the Bentleys’ evening had ended up being. Much to their surprise, when they walked into the apartment building, they were informed by Ralph that their son Allan had arrived about twenty minutes before and that he had used the pass key to let him inside. Ralph also told him that Allan hadn’t been alone, that he’d been carrying a little girl who appeared to be about a year old or so.
“Boy, he’s done it this time, Helen. He’s really done it,” Tom fumed on the elevator ride up to their floor.
“He’s really done what, Tom?”
“Oh, come on, Helen. You and I weren’t born yesterday. He’s gotten some girl in trouble. I’ll bet you every last cent we’ve got that that little girl Ralph saw Allan carrying is his and that her mother doesn’t want to take care of her anymore and so she dumped her on him. And now Allan doesn’t want to deal with the responsibility so he wants to try and dump her on us.”
“Tom Willis, that is one of the most terrible things I have ever heard you say. When did you suddenly become so mean-spirited and cynical? If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear I was talking to the old George Jefferson just now and not my husband.”
“Well I’m sorry, but when it comes to that boy, I can’t help but be cynical. Experience has taught me that when it comes to that boy, I should always expect the worst.”
“What is with all this ‘that boy’ stuff? You make it sound like Allan’s still a teenager, and you also make it sound like he’s just some kid who walked in off the street and not our son.”
“Believe me, I wish he were just a kid who walked in off the street. That way, it wouldn’t destroy me inside to watch him waste his life the way he has been all these years.” The moment after Tom made that complaint to Helen, the elevator doors opened and they got out and continued their conversation standing next to the closed elevator in the hall.
“Who says he’s been wasting his life?”
“What would you call living in a ridiculous commune for so many years, just barely making enough money as some kind of silly carpenter to feed himself every day?”
“Now hold it right there, Tom. In the first place, Allan hasn’t lived in that commune for many years, and second, even if he were still living there, he’s a fully grown adult and wherever he chooses to live is up to him, not us. And third, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a carpenter. Jesus Christ was the son of a carpenter and had probably learned a lot about being a carpenter from His stepfather. And you know how Allan enjoys working with his hands, building things and fixing things, and if he’s happy with his life and the kind of work he’s in, shouldn’t that be the only thing that matters?”
“No it should not!” Tom angrily said aloud. “Helen, I’ve always worked very hard to provide the best possible things for my family that I could. That’s what truly being a man is all about. I have always provided well for us and for our children. I’ve given both Jenny and Allan every possible advantage I could as a father. I gave them a good and solid education and I sent them both to first-rate colleges. I gave them every possible opportunity in the world to make something of themselves. Jenny did the right thing. Jenny took advantage of those opportunities. She graduated from college fifth in her class. She studied. She worked hard and she used that intelligent and creative mind of hers and she really made something of herself. She’s a college graduate with honors, and she’s a wonderful wife and mother. Allan could have done those exact same things. I gave him the exact same opportunities I gave Jenny. He had every possible chance in the world to go out there and make something of himself, but he wasted all his chances, and just look at him today. He’s just a construction worker who can barely afford better clothes than a homeless bum. Can you honestly stand there and look me in the eye and tell me that none of that bothers you?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, I can. Tom, you seem to have this idea drilled into your head that if you don’t graduate from college and get some kind of degree, you’re an automatic nobody, and that is complete and utter hogwash. Yes, Jenny did very well in school, and I am extremely proud of my daughter and her accomplishments. But I am equally as proud of my son. I don’t make it a requirement for one of my children to have gotten a college degree in order for me to be proud of him or her. Allan has gone out into the world and he has lived up to all of his dreams. He always wanted to travel and see the world, and after he spent a couple of years in college, he realized the academic world wasn’t for him, so what did he do? He examined himself and realized what was for him, what his dreams for his own life truly were, and he got out there and made those dreams come true. After he left college, he learned a trade and earned enough money to go out and travel and see the world like he’d dreamed of doing all his life, and then he settled down when he was ready to and he found a job as a carpenter, and he’s spent his life doing the things he loves the most ever since, and I do respect him for that. And if you would take the time to get off of your high horse long enough to really spend time with your son and get to know him for who he is instead of wasting all your time looking down through your nose at him because he didn’t do exactly what you wanted him to do with his life, I believe you’d feel the same admiration and respect for him as a person that I do.”
“Admiration?” Tom scoffed. “Respect? For a man who spends every day of his life looking like a low-class bum?”
“Tom, I just had a very disturbing realization.”
“What’s that? That I’m right? That our son’s a loser?”
“No. That my husband’s a loser. Tom, when you were just a few years younger than Allan is now, you asked me to marry you and I said yes. And you told me that whenever you talked to your father about our engagement, the one thing about him that infuriated you the most was how stuffy and rigid and downright stuck-up he was. You told me all about how he had this mentality that if you didn’t go to the schools he wanted you to go to and have the kind of career he wanted you to have and marry the kind of woman he wanted you to marry, then he didn’t want to have a thing to do with you. In all our married life, I have always believed that you were the exact opposite of your father, that you were understanding and open-minded and not the least bit judgmental. But here you are after all these years, writing your son off as some kind of loser just because he doesn’t have a college degree or some kind of prestigious executive career or expensive clothes. After all our years together, I’m beginning to see that you are absolutely no better at all than your own father when it comes to our son. You’re behaving exactly the same way that he did.
“And I also think I’m beginning to realize that that’s why I’m as proud of Allan as I am today, because I look at him, at the way he remains determined to be himself and live his life the way he wants to live it despite the way you treat him, and I see a young Tom Willis. That may actually be the reason why you two have always had so much trouble getting along – when push comes to shove, you two are far more alike than you are different. Like it or not, Tom, Allan is your son in every way. He’s a very strong and determined young man, just like you were when we were dating. And he’s too strong and he’s too honest with himself to try and fool himself or anybody else into believing that he can ever be anything other than what he is. There is so much of you in him. I think that’s your entire problem. You want Allan to be completely identical to you in all the ways that don’t really matter. You want him to have a college degree like you. You want him to have a well-paying career and make a lot of money like you. You want him to dress like you. But it doesn’t seem to matter to you at all that he’s open-minded and true to himself like you’ve always been. You think Allan’s such a terrible embarrassment to you and the rest of the family because he lives his life differently from the way you would have him to live it, but in reality, he’s not an embarrassment at all. He’s someone our family can be very proud of. I only wish you could see that.”
“Oh Helen, this goes far beyond college degrees, expensive clothes, and making a lot of money. It has to do with stability, Helen. People who work at odd jobs so they can be a drifter and spend all their lives out on the road traveling most of the time just simply aren’t reliable and responsible. A person can’t have a very worthwhile life if they merely spend it catering to every whim and fancy they have. I raised Allan to be a responsible man when he became an adult. I taught him to be the kind of man his wife and children could depend on when he had a family of his own. That’s why a college degree and a true career are such important things. It’s in college that a person learns the most about becoming a responsible, trustworthy adult, and it’s the requirements and challenges a career places on a person’s shoulders that help to keep him responsible. But a young man isn’t going to learn the first thing about real responsibility in his life if he only wastes it living it out according to his own momentary fantasies, working at little more than odd jobs all the time, trying to save up enough cash to run off to his next destination. As long as he does that, he’ll never truly grow up. And now, I know that he’s here on our doorstep hoping to put his responsibilities for his own child off on us. I just know it.”
“No you don’t know that, either. Now look, ever since we first fell in love and started getting shunned by our families, you’ve preached about the importance of keeping an open mind and not jumping to false conclusions about people. Well now, I say it’s high time for you to practice what you preach. If you’re willing to keep an open mind when it comes to others, you ought to be even more willing to do so when it comes to your own son.”
“Alright, alright, Helen. I’ll try and keep an open mind,” Tom told her, and then he and Helen walked to their apartment door and went inside.
The moment Allan saw his parents walk through the door, he rose from their living room couch, holding the little girl Ralph had told them about. She was a lovely Oriental baby girl with shiny black hair and dark eyes, who had the cutest smile.
“Well hello there, honey,” Helen warmly welcomed him.
“Hello, Mom,” Allan responded with the same warmth, and then he walked up to his mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “It’s been a pretty long time. It’s wonderful to see you. How’ve you and Dad been lately?”
“Oh, we’ve been great, Allan. Just great. And who is this little darling?” Helen asked in a baby type of voice as she pinched the little girl’s cheek.
“She’s yours, isn’t she, Allan?” Tom asked abruptly.
“Why yes, Dad, as a matter of fact, she is. Mom, Dad, I’d like to introduce you guys to the newest member of the Willis family. This is your gorgeous granddaughter, Rose.”
“Oh, my goodness! I can’t believe it!” Helen gasped. “Allan, why on earth didn’t you tell us about her sooner?”
“Let me save you the trouble of a longwinded explanation, Allan,” said Tom. “While you were out on your adolescent little adventure, you met a pretty girl and you had a one night stand. And not too long ago, she arrived on your doorstep with this little girl and you haven’t heard from her since. And now, you’ve arrived on our doorstep so we can take over fulfilling all of your responsibilities to her.”
“My ‘adolescent adventure’? Dad, for heaven’s sake, you know I’ve been in China these past few years doing missionary work. I haven’t been going out on some joy ride. And for your information, Rose is not the result of some one night stand. She isn’t even my daughter biologically. She’s my daughter through adoption.”
“What?” Tom gasped, obviously amazed at what Allan had just said.
“Normally, you can’t even think about adopting a Chinese child if you’re not married, but because of all the work Mrs. Jefferson’s involved in with children, she had some connections, and she was instrumental in cutting through all the red tape. Oh, Dad, Mom, you should see all the baby girls in China who are in need of good homes. Because the Chinese culture is so biased against females and their government only permits families to have one child, baby girls are very often abandoned. In all my work with our church over there, I saw so many helpless baby girls who had been abandoned or left just outside the doorstep of an orphanage. It was heartbreaking, and I couldn’t stand merely watching it all happen any longer. I had to do something about it, so I got in touch with Mrs. Jefferson and thanks to her help and connections, I was able to cut through the red tape in record time and adopt little Rose, here,” Allan explained, and then he kissed little Rose on the cheek.
“And just how do you plan on supporting her? What kind of a life do you honestly expect to be able to give her? Do you plan to raise her in third world countries while you’re running around all over the world? Do you plan to raise her out on the road here in the States with you dragging her all across the country? What possible kind of life can you hope to provide for her, Allan? You can’t just carelessly drag her all over the planet like this. Children need roots and stability, and a mother,” Tom relentlessly complained.
“Dad, don’t you think I considered all those things before I decided to adopt Rose? I would never have been approved for adoption if I didn’t already know where I was going to live and have a stable source of income. Lionel helped me find this terrific job with a construction company that his employers often do a lot of work with. It’s a stable position, and they pay’s pretty good.”
“Oh Allan, that’s fantastic!” Helen happily cried out.
“And Jenny helped me find this wonderful little apartment that’s only a few blocks away from where she and Lionel live. It’s a really good neighborhood. As far as Rose’s need for a mother is concerned, Dad, that’s why I wanted to make sure to find someplace to live that wouldn’t be too far away from Lionel and Jenny. I’ve talked it over with Jenny, and she’s promised to help me look after Rose and be there for her when she needs an older woman to talk to. So, you see there, Dad? I’ve got all my bases covered. The only thing is, I don’t have any furniture for my new apartment yet, so Rose and I are staying with Lionel and Jenny until I get my place furnished.”
“Well why don’t you and Rose stay here with us and then I can take you out furniture shopping tomorrow?” Helen suggested. “After all, we’ve still got Jessica’s nursery all set up. We kept Jessica’s crib up and we left her nursery here the way it was because, as I’m sure you know, the Jeffersons just welcomed a new baby into their family, too, and Tom and I thought it would be a good idea for Jessica’s old nursery to still be here for whenever they brought Hannah over.”
“Yeah, I remember Jenny telling me about Hannah.”
“So why don’t you and Rose stay here with us for a while, since we’ve already got a crib set up that she can sleep in? It’ll give us a chance to really get acquainted with our newest little grandchild,” Helen said with much enthusiasm as she stroked Rose’s hair.
“Gee, Mom, I’d really love to,” Allan said with clear hesitation as his eyes locked with Tom’s, “but I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”
“Now look, you two. It’s only for a couple of days until everything is taken care of with the new apartment. I know you guys have always had your problems, but problems or not, we are still family and we do still love each other, no matter how stubborn and foolish we can behave sometimes,” Helen said pointedly as she gazed over at Tom. “And I think we could really use a little time together. I need to get to know my new granddaughter a little better, and you guys need to work some things out between you, especially if you’re going to be living here from now on, Allan. This isn’t going to just go away on its own. It is high time the two of you worked out all your differences, once and for all, and a few days together will give you the perfect opportunity to do just that.”
“Mom, a few days together isn’t going to undo all these years that Dad and I haven’t been able to get along. Spending a lot of time with each other isn’t going to solve anything. I think we proved that the last time I stayed here.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t even ‘stay here’ at all. You mooched off the Jeffersons,” Tom angrily spat out at Allan.
“Dad, I did not mooch off anyone. After I gave Mrs. Jefferson the family warehouse to use for the Help Center, she asked me if there was anything she could do for me in return, and when I explained it to her that I needed a place to stay until I could work things out with you, she made it abundantly clear that I was perfectly welcome to stay with her and Mr. Jefferson as long as I needed to. The only thing was, she had no idea that working things out with you would take a couple of seconds short of eternity. That’s the entire reason I left New York the last time, because I came to care a great deal about the Jeffersons, especially Mrs. Jefferson, and I didn’t want to overstay my welcome, so you cannot accuse me of mooching off of her or Mr. Jefferson. When I saw how hopeless it all was between us, I didn’t stay with the Jeffersons one millisecond longer.”
“Now wait a minute, you guys. Things are not hopeless. Allan, you’ve just done a beautiful, loving, and incredible thing here. You have just given an innocent baby girl in need a home and a family. But do you really want this precious little angel,” Helen said as she took Rose from Allan’s arms into her own, “to grow up in an environment where her father and her grandfather are always hostile to each other? Is that really what you want for your new daughter, Allan, and for your new granddaughter, Tom?”
After a long pause, Allan finally replied, “No, Mom.”
“No, Helen,” Tom responded quietly.
“You’re right, Mom. That isn’t what I want. I do want Rose to grow up in a warm and healthy environment, with a loving family. That’s one of the main reasons I’ve come back to New York in the first place.”
“Alright, then. Where are your bags?” asked Helen.
“I left them over at Lionel and Jenny’s.”
“Well go over there and get them and bring them back here. You and Rose are staying with us until you can get your new apartment furnished. And while you’re gone, your father and I will start getting to know the newest Willis a little better,” Helen told him.
“Yes, Mom,” he said quietly, and Tom responded by saying nothing at all. Both the Willis men were smart enough to know when they’d been beat.
“And while you’re out, why don’t you get some baby food for Rose? I’m sure she’s ready for dinner right about now.”
“I’ve already got all her baby food and toys and things packed in with the rest of my stuff over at Lionel and Jenny’s,” Allan told Helen on his way out the door. After Allan had closed the apartment door behind him, the telephone rang.
“Here, Tom,” Helen said as she handed Rose over to Tom. “Start getting to know your new granddaughter while I answer the phone.”
“Yes, dear,” Tom said as he took Rose, and then he walked over to the couch and sat down with her and put her on his lap while Helen walked over to the telephone to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Helen. It’s me,” Louise answered on the other end of the line.
“Oh, hi, Louise.”
“Ralph told us that Allan’s upstairs in your apartment now, so I take it that means that you know about Rose.”
“Yes, we sure do. Tom’s holding her right now, as a matter of fact. Allan left her with us while he went back to Lionel and Jenny’s to pick up his luggage. I talked him into staying with us until he can buy some furniture for his new apartment. Oh Louise, why didn’t you say anything before now? Why didn’t you tell us about Allan wanting to adopt a Chinese girl?”
“Believe me, Helen, it wasn’t easy keeping it all to myself all this time. I only kept quiet about it because Allan really didn’t want me to tell you guys. He didn’t want you to get your hopes up in case the adoption fell through, but if everything with the adoption did work out, he wanted to be the one to tell you himself. Like I said, not telling you about it wasn’t easy, but I understood Allan’s reasons for wanting to do it this way.”
“Now that I look at it from his perspective, I think I can understand why Allan wanted to keep everything to himself, too. But he still could have called us from China and told us about Rose before he came here instead of just showing up in our apartment out of the blue one day with a baby girl in his arms.”
“He probably wanted to surprise you. I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous of you and Tom now, but I’m so happy for you, too. Congratulations, Grandma.”
“Thank you, Louise.”
“The reason I’m calling is to tell you and Tom and Allan to come down here with Rose as soon as you can, because I just got off the phone with Jenny, and she and Lionel are taking Jessica to the babysitter’s and then they’ll be on their way here. We’re throwing Allan a surprise party to celebrate the adoption. Harry and Florence are coming too.”
“Oh Louise, Allan just left. He’s on his way to Lionel and Jenny’s now to pick up his luggage. I talked him into staying here with Tom and me for a little while.”
“That’s alright, Helen. Jenny left a note behind for him at their place, telling him to come here, since she didn’t know how much time he’d be spending at your apartment with you and Tom. She knew it was a possibility that he’d be on his way back to their house after they left to come here, so she wrote a quick note telling him that he needed to come to our apartment if he got there after they were already gone.”
“Oh, okay. Should we dress up or anything?”
“No, of course not. Just come as you are. That’s what Lionel and Jenny are doing. After all, this party is just as much for you and Tom and Jenny as it is for Allan and Rose. This is a huge day for the Willis family.”
“You can sure say that again. I don’t know what to say, Louise. I’m really very touched by all of this. I know Tom will be also.”
“It’s nothing, Helen. I’m happy to do it. This is a big event in your lives and it’s more than worthy of a celebration. The way I see it, I owe you guys a surprise party because you were the one who got the rest of the family and everybody from the Help Center and Zion together and threw me a surprise baby shower, remember?”
“Of course I do. We really had a great time at that. It was so much fun.”
“And you can expect nothing less than absolute fun down here tonight,” Louise said in a joyful tone of voice.
“We’ll be there. Thank you, girl.”
“You’re very welcome. I’ll see you and Tom and that lovely new little granddaughter of yours in a few minutes.”
“See you,” Helen told Louise and then she hung up the phone.
Helen spent the next ten minutes fussing and arguing with Tom before she finally convinced him to join her downstairs with little Rose. It was about half an hour after the Willises arrived at the Jeffersons’ apartment that Lionel and Jenny showed up, and while Tom gave a somewhat convincing performance as the happy new grandfather, he remained uncharacteristically quiet as the rest of the family talked and laughed and enjoyed one another’s company. Olivia arrived from Zion soon after Lionel and Jenny came, and Harry and Florence did finally show up as planned, but they were considerably late. They were supposed to have made it to the party at the Jeffersons’ place long before they did, but they were newlyweds after all and the others completely understood.
Several minutes Lionel, Jenny, and Olivia arrived, Allan rang the Jeffersons’ doorbell and when Louise asked who it was, he told them, and then of course, everybody hid and George turned the living room lights off and they all got pretty quiet with the exception of some giggles and whispers. When Louise told Allan to come in, naturally, he did and when he walked through the door, George turned the lights back on and everyone jumped out from their hiding places and yelled, “Surprise!”
“Goodness, you guys,” Allan said in a chuckle. “What’s all this?”
“It’s a surprise party, silly,” Helen kidded him. “It’s for you and Rose.”
“Mom, you really didn’t need to go to so much trouble just for me.”
“Well it isn’t just for you, Allan,” Helen corrected him. “It’s for Rose, too. And actually, it wasn’t me who did all this. It was Louise. I didn’t even know about this little surprise party Louise had planned until a couple of minutes after you left to go to Lionel and Jenny’s. I was just as surprised by this whole thing as you are.”
“Mrs. Jefferson,” Allan said with a warm smile as he approached Louise and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I really don’t know what to say. Thank you. This was incredibly thoughtful of you.”
“Oh, don’t mention it, Allan. I’m glad to do it. After all, it’s not every day you get blessed with a brand new little baby girl in your life. I should know. And you don’t have to keep calling me ‘Mrs. Jefferson’ anymore. It’s perfectly alright to call me Louise. Florence and Harry and all the rest of us had a little discussion recently about how ridiculous we all felt calling each other ‘Mr. This’ and ‘Mrs. That’ all the time. We’ve always said we consider each other to be family, and no family goes around addressing each other so formally, so we decided to do away with all of that.”
“Okay then, Louise,” Allan said with a big smile. “You got it. No more being formal.”
“Good,” Louise responded with the same smile.
“Louise, I really wish you hadn’t gone to all this trouble. You’ve already done so many incredible things for me. If it hadn’t been for all your help and all your efforts, I never would have even been able to adopt Rose at all. First, you actually help to give me a daughter, and then you go and throw me a surprise party on top of that. This is too much.”
“It’s never too much for family, Allan,” Louise kindly disagreed.
“Hey, are we gonna just stand around out here forever or are we gonna start eatin’ all the nice dinner and refreshments Weezy’s been slavin’ over a hot stove preparing all day?” George asked.
“Well I say we quit wasting our time talking and start digging in, because I know the food’s got to be wonderful if Louise was the cook,” Olivia responded, and then her eyes met Louise’s eyes for a long moment and they smiled at each other knowingly. Although Louise had tried hard not to show it very much through the years, all of Olivia’s mean-spirited stabs of criticism against her cooking had really hurt her. Hearing Olivia now give her compliments in areas of their lives where she used to give her insults, and knowing that Olivia thoroughly meant all those compliments, gave Louise great happiness and really meant the world to her.
Louise, George, Florence, and Harry all ate together at the small table in the kitchen and all the others ate out in the dining area and living room. Everyone enjoyed the food and conversation, or rather, everyone that is except Tom who remained unusually quiet. But even though he was a good deal more quiet than normal, Tom was not hostile or unfriendly towards the others in any way and it really wasn’t all that obvious that something was on his mind. While Tom didn’t talk very much, Louise, George, and Helen totally enjoyed themselves with the conversation that evening, not to mention the fine food Louise had made.
“Oh Weezy, that was good,” George sighed as he leaned back in his chair and patted his obviously full stomach. “Mama’s right, sweetheart. You are the best.”
“Thank you, George,” Louise replied with a smile, not only on her face but in her eyes, and then she reached out and took his hand. “I probably should have made the dessert for tonight too, but Florence promised that she would. She insisted on it. Somehow, though, I get the distinct impression she forgot about it.” As Louise said that, George let out a loud chuckle.
“Yeah, it’s a real shame those newlyweds can’t come up with a way to occupy their time,” George teased, and then Louise and Helen and even Tom laughed a little.
“Very funny, guys,” Florence said as she walked into the kitchen carrying some of the dishes. Olivia and Harry were both still eating, but all the others had finished. “I’ll have all of you know that I did make the dessert, as a matter of fact, thank you very much. I just don’t have it with me tonight.”
“Why not, Florence?” Helen asked while Florence set all the dishes down in the sink.
“Because the only place where I had it perfectly made like I wanted it was in my mind,” Florence jokingly admitted, and again, the others laughed. “I tried, but I just never could seem to make it out to the kitchen to take that perfect chocolate cake out of my mind and bring it into reality. I couldn’t keep from getting distracted all day today for some unknown reason.”
“I know what you mean,” Louise said. “Isn’t it the craziest thing that happens to newlyweds? All of the sudden, you start getting distracted so easily from something you set out to do and you just completely forget about it. You forget to meet your friends to go out and see a movie you’ve been dying to see. You forget to cook that big dinner you had planned for when your in-laws came over.”
“You forget to eat. You forget to sleep,” George kidded. “You can sometimes get so badly distracted and forgetful that you almost forget to breathe and go to the bathroom.” The moment George said that Louise let out a big laugh, and Florence rolled her eyes at him, although she wasn’t able to totally suppress a smile.
“I should have just brought vanilla ice cream instead of worrying about going to the trouble of baking a cake from scratch.”
“Why vanilla ice cream, Florence?” asked Tom.
“Because it’s the perfect metaphor for my Harry – sweet, white, and unbelievably satisfying, child! Have mercy!” As would be expected, the instant those words left Florence’s lips, everybody laughed even harder than they’d been laughing before. And quite naturally, George couldn’t resist the urge to get up from his seat and walk over to Florence and kick all the joking up a notch.
“Florence Johnston Bentley, I am surprised at you!” George said with his hands on his hips in a mocking stern voice. “You’re a believer just like me! You go to the same church I go to and you’re my sister in Christ, and here you are, standing around with the audacity to make jokes about sex! I ought to drag you out to the bathroom right now and wash your mouth out with soap, young lady!” Louise merely rolled her eyes in response to what George said, but Florence didn’t take his silly guff for a second.
“Oh really, Mr. Puritan?” she said as she put one hand on her hip. “Seems to me that I recall a certain someone around here who just can never seem to break himself of the habit of walking up to his wife and giving her a slap on the behind when she least expects it.” Again, the others laughed.
“I’m sorry, Florence,” Louise told her. “I’m afraid I have to take the rap for that one. I’m the one who’s guilty of getting George started on that whole thing in the first place. When I first came home from the hospital, there was some tension between us…you know, in the bedroom, because Dr. Garrison told us we had to wait six weeks after my heart attack before we could…you know, get back to doing things normally again. And I kept teasing George and I got in the habit of slapping George on the rear whenever I wanted to kid him about it. He’s been doing the same thing to me ever since.”
“I’m really dreading tomorrow, you guys,” Florence sighed.
“Why’s that?” George asked.
“Because Harry has to start back at work tomorrow. It’ll be so lonely in the apartment all day with Harry gone.”
“Well where is it written that you have to stay all cooped up in your apartment all day long while Harry’s at work? Being a housewife now doesn’t have to mean that you can never get out and do anything while your husband’s working,” said Louise.
“Louise is absolutely right, Florence,” Helen agreed. “You said it yourself when you and Harry first got married over a month ago, that you’ve finally moved on up in the world, and you have. You have financial security now. You have all the time, all the money, and all the opportunity you need to get out into the world and broaden your horizons. And after all, this is New York. This city is just bursting with activity and great places to see and things to do. You can visit the theatre or an art museum.”
“You can go to the concert hall here in town and listen to the symphony,” Tom said.
“You can go to the opera and the ballet,” Louise said.
“Or you can do what Weezy did when we first got rich and moved here. You can study French or learn some other foreign language,” George suggested.
“Hey, you know Florence, I think I have an even better idea than all those other things,” said Louise. “Why don’t you start doing volunteer work at the Help Center with Helen and me?”
“I haven’t even thought about what all I’d be doing with my life every day after Harry and I got married and I wasn’t a maid anymore,” Florence admitted.
“Of course not. You’ve been too busy getting distracted,” George quipped, and again, Florence rolled her eyes at him.
“Well I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with being a housewife. I may have always hated being a maid, but I love Harry very much, and I don’t have any problems with taking care of our home and taking care of him. Shoot, with this nice and comfortable lifestyle he provides for me, I figure it’s the least I can do for him to have a clean house for him to come back to and a hot meal waitin’ for him on the table after he’s been out workin’ all day long. But once all the chores around the house have been taken care of, there’s really not that much left for a housewife to do with her life until her husband comes home. Like I said, over this past month, I actually hadn’t given it a whole lot of thought as to what all I’d be doing with myself during the day while Harry’s at work, but I think volunteering with you two at the Help Center sounds like a terrific idea. I’ll talk to Harry about it and see what he thinks.”
“Talk to Harry about what?” Harry asked as he walked into the kitchen, and then he went up to Florence and gave her a long kiss.
“Alright, kids, break it up,” George kidded them as he tried to separate them. “We don’t need to see no X-rated movies bein’ acted out in my kitchen.”
“Oh George, shut up and leave them alone!” Louise jokingly scolded him.
“Hey Harry, Florence says vanilla ice cream is the perfect dessert to represent you,” George told Harry, obviously still joking around. “Want to know why?”
“Shut up, George!” Florence said in her best no-nonsense tone of voice while the others enjoyed yet another good laugh.
“Let’s put it this way, Bentley. According to Florence, you’re a real tiger,” George said and then he slapped Harry on the shoulder. When he did that, Harry immediately winced and grabbed his shoulder.
“Ouch! Easy on the shoulder, George,” Harry said.
“What’s the matter with your shoulder, Harry?” asked Tom.
“Oh, nothing much, Tom. I just bruised it a little the other day,” Harry explained, and the moment he said that, Florence self-consciously pulled the long sleeve of her left arm down a little more and then held her arms behind her back. While she’d been in Florida on her honeymoon, Harry had taken her on a shopping spree and bought her a whole new wardrobe. Florence hadn’t worn the cheap clothes she’d worn as a maid in quite a while, and that evening, she was wearing a lovely periwinkle blue velvet dress with long sleeves. Unfortunately though, the long sleeves weren’t quite long enough to conceal the tiny bruise Florence was now trying to hide on her left wrist.
“Why are you hidin’ your hands, Florence?” George asked, and then he took both of Florence’s hands and carefully examined them, and it didn’t take him long to discover the small bruise on her wrist. “Well, well, well, what have we here? A bruise? Why are you tryin’ so hard to hide a bruise on your wrist? What would that have to do with Harry’s bruised shoulder? Don’t tell me you kids are getting so carried away in the bedroom that you’re actually inflicting bruises on each other now!” When George said that, both Harry and Florence blushed and the answer to George’s question was written all over their embarrassed faces. Naturally, everybody else totally cracked up.
While all the others were still laughing out loud, Allan walked into the kitchen holding Rose, who was now crying.
“Hey guys, I think I’ll be taking Rose upstairs now. She’s getting pretty tired and cranky,” he informed them.
“Aw, poor little thing,” Louise said sympathetically. “I bet this has been a really long day for her. I wanted to wait until tomorrow to throw the party, give her a chance to get rested up and all, but I’ll be at Zion through the rest of the week. I’ve got an awful lot of work I need to catch up on and Marco tells me things have been getting rather crazy over there since I had to start taking time off in the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I’ve postponed going back as long as I possibly can.”
“I understand, Louise, and I thank you very much for everything,” Allan told her kindly as he approached her and bent down and kissed her cheek. “This was all so thoughtful of you. I really enjoyed myself tonight, and I know Rose enjoyed the party and getting to meet the rest of the family too, even if she is a little tired and upset right now. Anyway, we’ll see you around.”
“Goodnight, you two,” Louise said, and then George, Harry, and Florence said their goodnights to Allan and Rose as well and afterwards, Allan headed upstairs with Rose.
But even though the party’s guests of honor had left, the party itself with all the others actually continued for another hour or so. George put on some fun party music and everybody got in the spirit of the evening and enjoyed some dancing, even Olivia, and then they spent a good half hour or so simply hanging out and talking and laughing and kidding around with one another. While Olivia had enjoyed the night just as much as everybody else, though, she insisted on checking on little Hannah and looking after her for Louise and George through the duration of the party, although Louise, of course, did protest, but Olivia’s stubbornness ultimately prevailed. When Olivia came out into the living room from the nursery after giving Hannah her latest feeding, however, it was she who looked around and realized the fact that George and Louise were missing.
“Lionel, where are your parents?” she asked him.
“I don’t know, Grandma. I just assumed they joined you in the nursery to see how Hannah was doing.”
“That’s what I assumed, too,” Jenny said. “You mean they were never back there with you, Mrs. Jefferson?”
“Now Jenny, what did I tell you about that?” Olivia lovingly scolded her.
“I’m sorry, Olivia. I know. No more formal titles in the family. It’s just an old habit and you know what they say. Old habits die hard.”
“I understand, dear, but keep working at it. You’ll get used to calling us all by our first names pretty soon. But anyway, no, George and Louise never came to the nursery. I’m not sure where they got off to.”
“They might have just gone to bed,” Florence suggested.
“But going to bed for the night while you’ve still got people in your house in the middle of a party, without even bothering to tell them goodnight, is a pretty rude thing to do, and I know Louise could never be that rude.”
Florence chuckled and said, “Olivia, when I said they might have gone to bed, I didn’t necessarily mean that they’d gone there to sleep.” Obviously, the second she said that, everybody laughed. “They may not be newlyweds like Harry and me, but we all know how much they act like newlyweds all the time. Maybe they were just plannin’ to slip away for ten or twenty minutes and then comin’ back to the party out here.”
“I was going to suggest that one of us check the bedrooms in the back, but in light of what Florence just said, I think I’ll steer clear of the bedrooms for a while,” Lionel kidded.
“Well why don’t we just go through the apartment and call out their names and see if they respond?” Jenny said.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Lionel agreed. “I’ll do it. Hey, Mom! Pop! Where are you guys?!” he called out to them as he starting walking to the back of the living room, heading in the direction of the bedrooms. “Mom! Pop! Are you two around here anywhere?!” After Lionel yelled that, he heard a soft bump in the closet. “Hey, did everybody hear that?” he asked them the moment after he heard the noise.
“I think I did,” Jenny replied. “I think I heard a little something in the closet.”
“Yeah, I think I did, too,” said Florence.
In that next moment Lionel opened the closet door, and of all things, he found George and Louise standing inside the closet, totally lip-locked.
“Mom! Pop!” Lionel said in a surprised chuckle. “What in the world are you guys doing in the closet?”
“Lookin’ for privacy. Do you mind?” George answered, and then he closed the closet door again, and Lionel laughed harder than he had in ages.
“What are they doing in there, Lionel?” Harry questioned.
“Oh man, everybody, you won’t believe this,” he responded as he was still laughing, and then he went back up to the front of the living room where all the others were. “Mom and Pop are making out in the closet.” The instant Lionel told them that, they all began laughing as hard as Lionel was, and in fact, they laughed until they were in tears. Even when the party finally did break up twenty minutes later and everyone started leaving to go home, they were still utterly laughing their heads off and wiping tears from their eyes.

Chapter Nineteen
Louise returned to working at Zion the next day as planned, although she made the very difficult and painful decision to resign from all her work at the Help Center. Louise had established the city of Zion years before she’d become a Help Center volunteer, and when she did begin her work at the Help Center, she introduced the woman who ran the Help Center to the city of Zion and she immediately decided to join forces with Louise. Since then, Louise had had a special passageway built from the Help Center basement to Zion, giving all Help Center volunteers access to the city, and all people volunteering at the Help Center had the option of splitting their work between the Help Center and Zion as Louise had always done, or they could work at the Help Center full-time as Helen chose to. With baby Hannah to care for now, it was obviously understandable that it would simply be too implausible for Louise to keep up with all her volunteer work in two different places in addition to being a new mom again. While Helen and everyone else at the Help Center was deeply saddened and sorry to see her go, they certainly didn’t blame her for making the choice to leave and to focus all her volunteering efforts on taking care of Zion.
Despite the fact that it was Louise who established the city in the first place and the obvious responsibility she would feel towards Zion for that reason alone, there was also another very good reason for her to focus all her time and talents for volunteering strictly on Zion from now on, and that was the fact that doing so would allow her to spend plenty of time with Hannah and still do the work she loved. It would clearly have been too distracting, both for Louise and for all the other Help Center volunteers, if she’d chosen to bring Hannah with her to work there every day, but Zion was a different story. While everybody at the Help Center all liked one another and worked well together, they were mere friends and co-workers and colleagues, but Zion was different. All the people working together to keep Zion running on a daily basis were all working together for such a drastically important cause that it practically left them no choice but to love each other as a family. Everyone working at Zion well understood that the well-being and even the very lives of children depended on what they did every day, and that really made them all very close. And because everybody living and working in Zion truly did consider one another as family, they were perfectly willing to love and help care for little Hannah as a member of their family too while Louise was working, and none more so than Olivia. Olivia looked after Hannah for Louise constantly whenever Louise had to get some work done and wasn’t able to have Hannah with her, and whenever Olivia wasn’t able to babysit, Marco or another Zion volunteer was always perfectly willing to step up to the plate and help out. And whenever George’s business skills weren’t needed in helping the volunteering accountants manage the financial side of Zion, naturally, he was right there to look after his little girl. Thanks to George being such a helpful new father, and thanks to the abundance of help and support Louise received from Olivia and her fellow volunteers, she was able to resume complete command of Zion upon her return.
Amazingly, all throughout Louise’s pregnancy and during the first couple of months of Hannah’s life, Zion’s rescue missions basically ground to a screeching halt. There had been one mission they’d had to go on that Louise had obviously had to miss because she’d been about seven months pregnant with Hannah, but with that one exception, there hadn’t been any other missions at all since April and Simon had gotten killed. But it wasn’t long after Louise fully took over her work at Zion again that they had to do another one, and as would be expected, when George found out about it, he went through the ceiling. George and Louise got into what was now one of their very rare arguments with each other, and what was even rarer between them, they actually ended up raising their voices to one another. But while they did come to verbal blows, again as would be expected, their fight didn’t last very long. George was understandably scared to death about Louise doing another rescue mission, but he soon came to realize that whether he liked it or not, this was a part of Louise’s life and who she was, just as going away to Korea during the Korean War had been a part of George’s life back when he’d been a soldier in the navy. During their fight, George actually berated Louise a bit, asking her how she could even consider doing such a thing with her being a new mother, but then Louise brought up the very real point that he wouldn’t even think to ask her such a question if she were a man. Louise told George to imagine for one moment that they weren’t married and that they were just a couple of old friends, and that she was a man who felt called by God to live his life as a soldier protecting his country. Then she told him to imagine that in that scenario, she was not only a man who was a soldier, but also a married man who had just become a new father, who now had to temporarily leave his family behind to go to war to protect his homeland. Then Louise asked George if he would accuse that man of not being a good father, and George admitted that he wouldn’t. After George admitted that, Louise explained that being a soldier and rescuing children from the child trafficking industry was the calling she knew God had placed on her life, and that she could hardly be a very good mother to Hannah if she wasn’t true to God and to herself. Deep down, George knew that what Louise was saying was true, and however difficult it might have been for him, he realized that it was even more difficult for Louise and that the last thing in the world she needed was for him to give her a hard time, so even though it was terribly hard for him, in the end, George gave Louise all the love and support he could.
Thankfully the mission went off without a hitch, and with the exception of the rescue mission and the rare fight Louise had had with George because of it, the rest of the year went by without too much happening that was out of the ordinary. Florence settled nicely into her higher new status of an upper-class housewife, and while she’d always made it abundantly clear how much she hated doing household chores during her years as the Jeffersons’ maid, she kept a nice house for Harry to come home to at the end of the day. She also decided to do more with her life besides cooking, cleaning, and waiting for her husband to get home from work, and she began working with Helen doing volunteer work at the Help Center. When Florence discussed it with Harry he couldn’t have been more supportive, but he begged her to limit her volunteer work to the Help Center and not get involved with Zion because he was scared to death that if she did that, she’d eventually want to start doing rescue missions and put herself in danger. Given all Harry had gone through with the loss of his first wife, Florence completely understood and agreed to simply work with Helen full-time at the Help Center every day and to not get into any volunteer work at Zion. The one thorn in the Bentleys’ side was their parents’ refusal to accept their marriage. Florence had hoped and had genuinely believed that they would eventually calm down and start to get over their anger towards her and start talking to her again, but sadly, that never happened. Harry knew what his own parents and family would be like and their reactions hadn’t come as any kind of a surprise to him, but he knew Florence’s parents’ reactions to their marriage had come as a huge surprise to her, and seeing her in such pain over it all really hurt his heart.
And Harry’s heart wasn’t the only one who had been badly hurt by the reactions of family members to unexpected situations. As the months went by, Helen had hoped that things between Tom and Allan would improve, but sadly, they didn’t improve all that much. Allan couldn’t get his new apartment furnished and get out of Tom’s and Helen’s apartment soon enough, to Helen’s dismay. But while things weren’t exactly peachy between Allan and Tom, they did eventually realize that they had one important thing in common, and that was their love of little Rose. While Tom and Allan usually went to great links to avoid each other, deep down, they were each pleased with the other when it came to Rose. Tom was pleased to see Allan being such a loving and doting new father to Rose, and Allan was pleased that Rose’s grandfather always insisted on spending so much time with her. But naturally of course, the two stubborn men weren’t about to admit those things to one another.
Thankfully though, Rose was still too little to decipher the fact that there was obvious tension between her father and grandfather, and she grew up happily and normally over the course of the next year, as did Hannah. Baby Hannah grew like a weed even if she did start out in life rather small, and naturally she captured the hearts of all who looked into her little face. Her fiery red hair became even redder, but while she was white like April and had April’s red hair, there were some subtle indications that she was racially mixed. For one thing, her eyes grew darker and eventually became brown as Simon’s had been, and for another, even though Hannah’s hair was red like April’s, April’s hair had also been perfectly straight, but Hannah’s hair became curly like Simon’s hair had also been. And when Tom and Helen had been hanging out with Louise the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Helen had gotten into a conversation with Louise about Hannah’s hair, and Louise brought up the fact that even though Hannah’s hair was softer like a white person’s hair typically is, she had a drier scalp like that of a black person, and Helen told Louise that Allan had always been the same way.
“I still can’t get over that red hair of hers,” Tom commented that day.
“You want to know something, Tom? I can’t either, and I’m her mother,” Louise said in a chuckle. “I laughed out loud the first time I saw her when she was born. I couldn’t believe that I had actually been carrying this white, redheaded baby inside me the past nine months.”
“Believe it or not, Louise, I had the exact same reaction when the nurse first put Allan in my arms the day he was born. I mean, what black woman honestly ever expects to give birth to a white baby?” Helen asked.
“I know,” Louise agreed. “But even though our children aren’t what we expected, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“Neither would I. I’m so proud, of both Allan and Jenny.”
“And I couldn’t be any prouder of Hannah and Lionel.”
The moment Louise said that, George walked through the door carrying little Hannah. It was a chilly afternoon in November, and George had taken Hannah out to play in the park for a little while. Both he and Hannah were all covered up in winter coats, hats, gloves, and scarves.
“There’s my little birthday girl,” Helen said warmly. “Come over and sit with your Aunt Helen, sweetie.”
“Oh no you don’t, Helen,” Louise told her as she got up and started walking towards Hannah and George. “George has been at the park with Hannah for hours and since I’m her mommy,” Louise said as she took Hannah from George’s arms, “I get to spend some time with our little birthday girl first.” After Louise said that, she planted a firm kiss on Hannah’s cheek. Then she waited for George to take off his coat and hat and hang them up and when he did, she gave him a big kiss as well.
“Hey, sweetheart,” George said with a smile.
“Well, did you and Hannah enjoy yourselves in the park today?”
“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. I think we’re frozen solid, though.”
“I’ll go to the kitchen and make you some hot tea to warm you up.”
“Thanks, Weez. I’d appreciate it.”
“I would make us some hot chocolate, but somebody around here who shall remain nameless won’t let me buy any because it supposedly goes against our diet,” Louise teased.
“So? I’m glad this nameless somebody won’t let you get hot chocolate. That stuff’s gross! I hate it! I don’t know how people can stand it.”
“Oh, shut up!” Louise teased again as she gave George a playful shove, and of course he was laughing the whole time. “Helen, why don’t you come to the kitchen with Hannah and me? You can spend some time with Hannah and peel off all her layers of winter clothing for me while I make the tea.”
“Sounds good to me, Louise,” Helen said, and then she went to the kitchen with Louise and Hannah following closely behind. Once the women were in the kitchen, Tom looked at George and began to pick up on the fact that something was troubling him, so he got up from the couch and walked up to him.
“You seem awfully quiet today, George,” he observed. “Is anything the matter?”
“No. I just ran into a bunch of idiots at the park today. That’s all. I’m tryin’ not to let it bother me.”
“It may help to talk about it and get it off your chest.”
“Yeah, you could be right. Alright then Willis, if you want me to talk about it, I’ll talk. When I was at the park with Hannah, I was playin’ with her, and you know how she’s beginnin’ to learn to call me Daddy, right?”
“Right.”
“Well as I was playin’ with her, these dudes came up to us and they heard her talkin’ to me and everything, and they figured it out that I’m her father. And because I’m black and Hannah looks totally white, they also figure it out that Hannah’s mixed, and so they start callin’ her a zebra. That just makes me so mad. I mean, what kind of a man goes around callin’ another man’s baby girl a zebra?”
“Yeah George, what kind of a man goes around calling another man’s baby girl a zebra?” Tom quietly asked, but with a lot of seriousness, looking George straight in the eyes.
“Oh, man,” George sighed as the hard truth of what Tom was trying to tell him really began to hit him. “Willis, I…Tom, I just don’t know what to say. I don’t even know what to tell you. You’re right, man. You’re right. I ain’t any better than those sorry creeps I ran into in the park today. You know, uh…all these years that I’ve been stupid and runnin’ my mouth, I never once stopped to really think about how the words I said might make the people around me feel. I never even stopped to think, not even once, about the fact that Jenny’s your baby girl. Now that I’m the daddy of a baby girl myself, I realize that Hannah will always be my little girl, always, no matter how old she gets, and so I get it now that in the same way, Jenny will always be your little girl, even if she is a grown adult woman with a family of her own. I know that when Hannah’s Jenny’s age and she’s graduated from college and gotten married and started her own life, she’ll still be my baby girl. I’m sorry, Tom. I really am. I’m so sorry for all those years that I said such mean things about your little girl. I’m sorry for all the times I was so disrespectful to you and to your wife and to your children, for absolutely no good reason at all.
“You know, uh…I bet it’s not any secret to you that I grew up hating white people, and I hated whites because of how they made me feel all my life, like I was less than human. And I dreamed all my life of startin’ my own business and becomin’ this wealthy business executive so I could prove to all those white people who put me down and looked down on me because of my race that they were so wrong to make those judgments about me just based on my skin color. I always swore to myself that I’d be the exact opposite of all those white racists who were lookin’ down on me through their noses all the time. But in all my efforts to try and build myself up, I ended up accidentally tearin’ people down in the process, especially Weezy. I had no idea all my chauvinistic words to her through the years were doing this to her, but over the past couple of years, I’ve learned that whenever I’d go into one of my, ‘I’m the man of this house and you have to do whatever I say’ type of speeches with Weezy, I’d actually made her feel like I considered her to be less than human. I don’t know. This whole dumb idea of getting to call all the shots in my wife’s life and getting to have complete control over all my wife’s decisions and getting to order her around, it used to make me feel all macho and important. It made me feel so good to supposedly be so far above my wife that I got to rule over her entire life like some kind of tyrant. But I never, ever meant to hurt Weezy or to try and tear her down inside. That doesn’t change the fact, though, that that’s exactly what I did do to her. I made her feel like I thought of her as some kind of subhuman object and like I never had one ounce of respect for her. Without ever meaning to or even realizing it, I did the same thing to Weezy all those years that all the racist white people in my life had done to me when I was growing up.
“And now, I see it that I did the same thing to you. I never tried to order you around or treat you like you were less than human, but just as a lot of white people took the attitude that they didn’t even want to be in the same room with me because I was black, I took the attitude that I didn’t want to have anything to do with you or with your family because you were white. When push comes to shove, I’m not any different. I didn’t even give you a chance, man. I didn’t try to sit down with you and get to know you and your family better before I decided how I felt about you guys. I just instantly decided that I disliked you and Helen and Jenny and that I didn’t want a thing to do with your family because you were white. Just as tons of white people in the past had jumped to all these false conclusions about me that I was a loser simply because I was black, I jumped to the same conclusions about you just because you were white. I’m sorry, Tom. I really am. Friends?” said George as he held out his hand, but with Tom of course, a handshake just wouldn’t cut it, and he gave George an enormous hug. “You’re still touchy-feely, ain’t ya, Willis?” George gasped as Tom tightly hugged him, making him feel like he was cutting off his air supply.
“It’s one of my most favorite things about Tom,” Helen said. She, Louise, and Hannah had all come back into the living room as Tom had started hugging George, having overheard everything George had just told Tom.
“Oh, hey Helen,” George said after Tom finally released him from the tight hug. Much to George’s surprise, Helen then pulled him into a hug of her own. While Helen hugged George, Louise set the tray with the tea and cups she’d been carrying down on the coffee table, and then she walked over to where they were all standing.
“George, I don’t think I’ve ever been any prouder of you than I am right now,” Louise said lovingly.
“What’s there to be proud of, Weez? The fact that I ain’t any better than a bunch of racist jerks?” asked George after Helen finally released him from the hug.
“George, you are now way better than that,” Louise disagreed. “And the reason why is because all the people who looked down on you because of race in the past, sadly, will probably never realize what they truly are in God’s sight, and therefore, will never have the kind of courage and integrity to be as painfully honest with themselves as you’re being now. It takes a very big human being to do what you just did, to see where you’ve gone wrong and hurt others, and to admit it and take responsibility for it. The vast majority of people in this world are simply too immature to do that, and you used to be one of them, but you’re clearly not anymore. You’ve come so far these past couple of years and you’ve matured so much as a Christian and as a person, and I’m proud of you for that. I’m prouder of you now than I’ve ever been.” After Louise said that, she gave him a long kiss.
“She’s absolutely right, George,” Tom agreed as he put his arm around Helen’s shoulders. “None of that stuff matters anymore. It’s in the past now, and it’s over and done with, and Helen and I are perfectly willing to forgive and forget. The only thing that really matters is that you acknowledge the truth about the way you used to be and see it in yourself where you went wrong and decide not to repeat your mistakes anymore. It takes a lot of courage to be so honest with yourself.”
“Tom and Louise are right, George,” Helen said. “It’s how you choose to live your life today that truly matters, not the way you chose to live it many years ago. You are not the same man today that you were when we first met you, and even though I never could have said this back then, today, I feel very fortunate to have you for a friend.”
“And so do I,” said Tom.
“Thanks, you guys. That means an awful lot. It really does,” George told them quietly, clearly overwhelmed by what they’d just said.
As if on cue, once everybody had stopped speaking, Hannah started to cry.
“Aw,” Louise said as she bent down and picked little Hannah up, and then she gave her a kiss on the cheek. “What is it, baby girl? You tired from playing with Daddy in the park all day? Is it past your naptime?”
“Yeah, I think it is, Weez. I fed her and changed her before we got back home.”
“She’s probably just cranky,” Louise said. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go to the nursery and take a little nap, okay?”
Not long after Louise laid Hannah down in her crib for a nap, Tom and Helen said goodbye and went upstairs. George and Louise enjoyed the rest of their afternoon together while Hannah slept, and not long after she woke up later that evening, Florence and Harry dropped by for a visit. George was sitting at the kitchen table with Harry, and Florence was standing in front of the counter with Louise, holding Hannah and loving on her. As Florence held her, she continued on and on in an incessant stream of adorable baby babbling, attempting to form words. Much to George’s delight, her first word had been “dada,” but of course they all knew that Hannah hadn’t said “dada” before “mama” because she preferred George to Louise, but rather, simply because it was easier to say. Hannah did have a special and very loving bond with George and she was a real daddy’s girl, but she had the same equal bond of love with Louise as well, and was also quite a mama’s girl. It hadn’t taken Hannah long to figure out how to say “mama” after she’d first said “dada,” and tonight, Florence was coaching her on learning a new word besides “dada” to call George.
“Who’s that, Hannah? Who’s that sittin’ over there at the table next to your Uncle Harry?” Florence asked her.
“Dada,” Hannah replied, and naturally, everybody smiled.
“That’s right. That’s Daddy. You know, there are other things you can call him besides Daddy. Your daddy has a lot of other names, too. Remember all the names I told you about the other day that we like to call your daddy? Remember what your Aunt Florence told you about?” she asked, and Hannah responded with an obedient nod.
“Oh man,” George groaned. “Hannah, whatever your Aunt Florence told you, ignore it; understand? Forget all about it.”
“No baby girl, don’t mind him. He’s just jokin’ around like he always does. He loves all those names I told you about. Say one of them now, honey. You can do it. Say one now.”
“Bald,” said Hannah in her adorable baby voice, and Harry laughed and George let out another groan, and Louise rolled her eyes.
“Baldy! That’s right, Hannah! Good girl!” Florence praised her. Then a second later, George got up from his seat and walked up to Florence and took Hannah from her arms.
“Florence, quit corrupting my child,” George teased. “Hannah, I want you to listen to your daddy and listen good, alright?” Again, Hannah nodded. “Never listen to anything this crazy woman says. She completely lost her mind as a child and since then, nobody’s ever been able to take anything she has to say seriously. It’s a tragic story. When she was first born, her parents couldn’t stand the sight of her ’cause she was so ugly, and so they gave her up for adoption. She was adopted and raised by this family of wolves, and that’s why she lost her mind. Since there weren’t any humans around, she couldn’t hang onto her sanity.” Once again, Louise rolled her eyes at George and Florence, and Harry laughed his head off at them.
“Oh shut up, George!” Louise teased, and then she took Hannah from George’s arms. “Hannah, don’t listen to either one of those two. They’re both crazy!”
“Well, maybe Harry and I’ll get lucky and our little boy that we’re expecting won’t be too badly influenced by all our insanity.”
“Your little boy?” Louise said incredulously, with a huge smile on her face. “Florence, are you trying to say that you’re pregnant?”
“Three and a half months,” she confirmed, and Louise let out a jovial scream.
“Hey Florence, that’s great!” George said aloud. “That’s terrific.”
“It sure is! Oh Florence, I’m so happy for you guys,” Louise said as she reached over and gave Florence a sideways hug, still holding onto Hannah.
“So am I. That’s wonderful news. Maybe now we can start evening things up around here with all these girls. Don’t get me wrong, ladies. I adore my beautiful little Hannah,” George said as he lovingly kissed Hannah’s cheek, “and our beautiful little Jessica and our beautiful little Rose, but I think it’s time we got some more boys in the family.”
“I agree, George,” said Louise. “It will be really nice to have a little boy in our lives again.”
“I was happy to find out it’s a boy, too,” Florence told them. “I love the idea of having a little boy in my life. I mean, I don’t know if he’ll end up white like Hannah and Allan did, but regardless of what how his skin tone turns out, I’m still really hoping he’ll look and act a lot like Harry. Harry’s such a beautiful man, and I’d just love to have another little Harry around. Harry was actually a bit disappointed, though.”
“Is that true, Harry?” Louise asked him as she sat down at the table with Harry, still holding Hannah in her lap. “Were you really disappointed when you found out it was a boy?”
“I was,” Harry said with a nod. “I really had my heart set on a little girl. The more I thought about it, the more I fell in love with the thought of having a daughter who’s as fiery and sassy and gorgeous as Florence.”
“Uh oh. I knew it would happen,” George said.
“You knew what would happen?” asked Florence.
“Bein’ married to you for the past year has made Harry lose all touch with reality, Florence. Now he’s every bit as insane as you are. He actually thinks you’re gorgeous now!”
“Looks like bein’ married to you has made your poor wife go crazy as well, because we all know that only a case of pure insanity would cause a woman to stay married to a bald Chihuahua like you for so many years,” Florence fired back.
“Well regardless of whether you’re crazy or not Harry, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t let you give Florence the title of ‘gorgeous,’” George told Harry.
“Why not?”
“That’s Weezy’s title,” George said with a warm smile, and then he walked over to the table and put his hands on Louise’s shoulders and kissed her on the cheek.
“Oh, George,” Louise said softly.
Again, as if on cue, Hannah suddenly started to cry in protest at that moment, and naturally they all laughed.
“Yes, Hannah, Daddy thinks you’re gorgeous too,” George said to her and then he tried to pacify Hannah with a kiss on her cheek. Several seconds after he kissed her, she stopped crying. Not long after Hannah settled down, George sat down beside Louise at their small kitchen table.
“Have you two decided on any names yet?” Louise asked them.
“I’ve been pushin’ for Harry Bentley, Jr., but I can’t get Harry to go for it,” Florence answered.
“Oh why not, Harry?” Louise inquired.
“Well I know a lot of men prefer to name their first son after themselves, but that’s always seemed rather egotistical to me. And on top of that, I’ve never really forgiven my parents for sticking me with the name Harry. I hate it. I always have.”
“Hey, wait a minute. How come you guys even know at this point that the baby’s a boy? Dr. Manning told Weezy and me that she’d have to be well into her second trimester before he’d be able to find out Hannah’s gender with an ultrasound.”
“I had a special kind of test done that checks for birth defects. It’s called an amniocentesis,” Florence explained.
“It’s the same kind of test Dr. Manning tried to talk me into having done, George. Remember?”
“Oh yeah, where they draw out some of the amniotic fluid with a needle and run all these tests on the fluid that are supposed to determine if the baby’s healthy or not.”
“That’s right,” Florence told George. “And the test can also look at the baby’s chromosomes and determine if it’s a boy or a girl, in addition to checking for problems. Thankfully, even though I ain’t the youngest mother-to-be in the world, our obstetrician assured us that the baby’s just fine.”
“That’s wonderful, Florence,” George said, and although he’d been picking on her and teasing her a lot that evening, it was obvious how warm and sincere he was now. “It really is. I couldn’t be happier for you guys.”
“And neither could I,” Louise concurred. Then in the next moment, Hannah started cooing and babbling, and again they all laughed. “I think Hannah’s trying to tell you she’s happy for you too,” she chuckled. Once Hannah settled down again, Florence and Harry joined Louise and George at the kitchen table.
“Of course, even if the test results hadn’t turned out as well as they did, it wouldn’t have made the least bit of difference,” said Florence. “I’d be grateful to God for this baby no matter what, but after Harry and I talked it over and prayed about it, we decided to go ahead with the test because if there had been any problems, there might have been a chance that we could do something ahead of time to help the baby.”
“I can understand that,” said Louise. “If I had been in your shoes when I was expecting Hannah, I might have made the same choice. But the main reason I decided against it was because Hannah has April’s and Simon’s DNA, and of course they were in their twenties when they conceived Hannah through IVF, so I knew there wasn’t very much of a chance of birth defects at all. And since I knew that it was so unlikely that there’d be any problems with Hannah, I just couldn’t bring myself to face them sticking that needle into my stomach. I would have been scared to death of that needle hitting Hannah and hurting her somehow.”
“I know what you mean. I was pretty terrified of it myself,” Florence admitted. “You know, my entire life, I have dreamed of finding the right man, falling in love, getting married, and raising a family. You’d think that I’d be running out and announcing my pregnancy to every friend and acquaintance I’ve had since I was twelve. But more than anything, I’ve been scared. I’ve had this enormous fear in the back of my mind that something was going to happen to the baby, that something would go wrong with the pregnancy because of my age. I guess that’s part of the reason why I went ahead and decided to go through with the amniocentesis, because I was simply too afraid to let myself believe that everything was okay and that I could let my guard down and relax and celebrate. That’s why Harry and I have waited an entire month before we told you.”
“We haven’t even started working on a nursery for this little fellow yet.”
“Uh oh. Look out, Weez. Looks like we’ve got a couple of newcomers to world of baby shoppin’. I think these kids are in need of our expertise, wouldn’t you say?”
“I think that’s a very safe bet.”
“Yeah, Harry, Florence, what do you say? Why don’t y’all let Weezy and me take you inexperienced parenting novices out for a little baby furniture shoppin’ one day? You two can just sit back and learn from the experts.”
Florence laughed and replied, “It sounds terrific. But I’d still like to wait a while.”
“How long you plannin’ on waitin’? Until this kid graduates from high school?” George teased.
“Oh George, shut up,” Louise playfully scolded him. “Don’t pay him any mind, Florence. Just go at your own pace and do what you feel like doing, when you feel like doing it. There’s no timetable with these things. George and I were really excited and we had a lot of fun shopping for things for Hannah and we couldn’t wait to get the nursery ready, but every family and every couple is different. Some couples prefer to wait a little while and give themselves a chance to ease into it, and if that’s what you and Harry had rather do, then that’s perfectly okay.”
“I just really want to wait until I’m absolutely certain that everything’s going to work alright and I’m past the danger of a miscarriage. I know that everything looks good now, but I can’t get this nagging fear out my head about my age.”
“Oh age, schmage, Florence,” George told her. “Weezy and I are living proof that age don’t mean a thing.”
“Oh George, leave Florence alone about it. She doesn’t have to get everything ready for her son right this instant. She still has plenty of time. Let her and Harry do this their own way. And while Harry and Florence are getting ready for their baby in their own way, I’ll go take care of my baby in my own way,” Louise said as she stood up with Hannah. “Somebody’s ready for a diaper change.”
“Oh no Louise, wait,” said Harry as he stood up as well, holding his arms out to receive Hannah. “Let me do it. I need the practice.”
“Are you sure, Harry? You really don’t have to.”
“Oh yes, I’m sure.”
“Alright then,” Louise said as she handed Hannah over to him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Louise,” Harry said as he walked out of the kitchen with Hannah, all the while wearing a big smile on his face.
“I think I’ll go and get everything ready to give Hannah a bath,” Louise told them, and then she followed Harry out of the kitchen.
“He’s one in a million,” Florence said quietly. “There aren’t too many men in this world who would be that willing to change a diaper. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him this happy before. He loves me so much, and he’s so happy and excited to have a child with me.”
“Are you really that surprised?” George asked. “I mean, sure, I mess with you a lot of the time and I pick on you and stuff, but you know how much Weezy and I love you. You know that when we ain’t too busy drivin’ each other crazy to be honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we’re friends, even more than friends…that we love each other like family. And I ain’t friends with just anybody, Florence. Since I’m a Christian now and everything, I make the decision every day of my life that I’m going to love everyone out of respect for the Lord Jesus, but doesn’t mean that I’m going to trust everyone enough to accept them as a friend. I don’t choose just anybody for a friend, Florence. I’ve known you for a lot of years now, and even though I love pickin’ on you and fightin’ with you just as if you were the sister I never had, I also happen to really respect you.”
“You do?”
“Of course I do. You’re a very special woman. You may not have gone to college or anything, but you are very intelligent and clever, and you’ve got a lot of gusto. On top of that, anybody who listens to you going a few rounds with me when we’re insultin’ each other can tell you that you’ve got a great sense of humor. And, you’re one of the few people in the world callin’ herself a Christian who actually acts like one. I may love to pick on you a lot of the time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see all the fine qualities you have in you as a person, and most importantly, as a Christian. And I think it makes perfect sense that Harry would fall in love with you. There’s a lot about you to love, and I can see it that Harry’s head over heels in love with you. We all can. And I don’t blame him for bein’ as excited as he is about havin’ a child with you. I felt the same way when we had Hannah. It was one of the happiest times of my whole life when I found out I’d actually get to have another baby with Weezy.”
“Well I really appreciate you saying all that,” Florence said softly with a smile, and George smiled in return.
“Looks like I’ll have to give old Harry some lessons.”
“Lessons? About what?”
“Well somebody has to teach that husband of yours how to handle a pregnant woman. It may as well be me. After all, I just went through the whole thing last year myself, remember? And if there’s any guy on the face of this planet who knows how to handle pregnant women, it’s me. If you’ll recall, I had Weezy eatin’ out of the palm of my hand when she was pregnant with Hannah. She adored me. That’s because when it comes to dealin’ with women and especially pregnant women, I’m the master. I’m the expert.”
“Oh please, George! Louise did not adore you or eat out of the palm of your hand when she was pregnant because you were some kind of expert at ‘handling’ women. You didn’t ‘handle’ Louise at all. You just loved her and were there for her.”
“That’s it, you see? That’s my strategy with women. Nothin’ works on a woman like love and humility,” George joked.
Florence laughed and said, “You are talking complete hogwash and you know it. You never took care of Louise the way that you did because you were trying to use some kind of ‘strategy’ on her to try and make her worship you. You loved her and you were as attentive to her needs as you were because your heart was overflowing with pure love for her and concern for her overall well-being, and you know it. You never did all that because you were trying to make her adore you. You did it because you adored her, and we all know you still do.”
“Yeah, you’re right, Florence,” George admitted with a chuckle.
“And besides, Harry doesn’t need any kind of a teacher or a coach to tell him how to take care of me as a husband. He’s doing beautifully on his own.”
“All kiddin’ around aside, Florence, I’m sure you’re right,” George agreed. “You know I was just jokin’ around a minute ago, but I’ll still be there for Harry to give him moral support when you go and drive him up the wall, you know, when you expose him to the horrendous sight of your face uncovered, which’ll probably get to be even worse over these next few months than it usually is when you start havin’ mornin’ sickness and backaches and mood swings and all.” Naturally, the moment George teased Florence like that, she reached out and playfully hit his arm, and of course, George laughed when she did.
Florence and Harry stayed at the Jeffersons’ apartment a little while longer that evening before they decided to leave so Florence could get to bed. As with Louise, due to Florence’s age, she experienced a great amount of fatigue and became very tired pretty easily. The following night after the Willises had gone to church with the Jeffersons and the Bentleys, they all hung out together in the Jeffersons’ apartment for a little while. After they all got back from church, Florence and Harry announced their pregnancy to the Willises and informed them of the results of the amniocentesis and told them they were having a little boy, and as would be expected, they let out shouts of jubilation at the news. They talked about the pregnancy with Harry and Florence for a good half hour while Louise and George gave Hannah a bath and got her ready for bed that night. Once they laid her down to sleep in her crib, they rejoined the others in the living room and talked with them about the Bentleys’ baby a few more minutes, and then there was a lull in the conversation. During the lull, they decided to get out the deck of cards George and Louise had and start playing gin. Just after George had dealt out all the cards to everybody though, the doorbell rang.
“Weezy, it’s for you,” George told her.
“Well what makes you so sure it’s somebody here to see me?” Louise asked.
“Just trust me. I can sense it. I know it’s for you,” George insisted, and everybody else let out a slight laugh, wondering just what it was that George was up to, especially Louise.
Louise shrugged and said, “Alright then, George. I guess I’ll humor you and go answer the door.” When she walked up to the door and opened it, she saw Ralph standing there with a huge bouquet of long-stemmed red roses.
“Good evening, Mrs. Jefferson, ma’am,” Ralph said with a smile.
“Good evening, Ralph. What can I do for you?”
“Nothing at all, Mrs. Jefferson. I’m just here to deliver these roses to you,” he told her as he handed her the bouquet. “They’re from Mr. Jefferson.”
“Oh, how lovely. George, I think you need to tip Ralph.”
“Oh no, there’s no need for that, ma’am. Your husband’s already paid me handsomely this afternoon to go as far as I had to go to get to the one flower shop in the city that stays open on Sundays, and he paid me even more handsomely to keep the roses hidden away until you guys got back from church this evening so I could surprise you with them.”
“Oh, alright then. Thanks a lot, Ralph.”
“My pleasure, ma’am. Have a nice night,” Ralph said as he tipped his hat. In the past, Ralph wouldn’t have hesitated to try and fabricate some kind of story about some further trouble he’d had to go to in order to deliver the flowers in hopes of getting more money out of her or George, but not anymore. Louise’s heart attack two years ago had been such a life-changing event that it had not only caused monumental changes in George and the Bentleys. It had even affected Ralph. Even though Ralph had always looked down on the rich people like the Jeffersons who lived in the building and had thoroughly enjoyed taking advantage of them and getting all kinds of money out of them in the past, he’d known all along what a kind and generous soul Louise was, and deep down, he’d always liked her. And the night of her heart attack when he’d seen her hooked up to oxygen and rushed out of the apartment building on a gurney and loaded into an ambulance, he swore to himself that he would never again try and take advantage of Louise just to get more money out of her, and he never did.
“You too,” Louise said with a smile, and then she shut the door. After she closed the door, she walked over to the dining table where George was sitting with the others, and he laid his cards down for a second and stood up. The moment he got up, Louise gave him a very long kiss. “I don’t know what to say, George,” Louise told him in a soft voice. “This was so unexpected. It’s all so thoughtful of you. Thank you so much.”
“Oh no, don’t thank me, Weezy. The roses are my way of thanking you.”
“Thanking me? For what? I didn’t do anything.”
“Oh yes you did, too. You did something really incredible for me yesterday morning.”
“George, I didn’t do anything yesterday that was all that special,” Louise said as she racked her brain, trying to figure out what on earth George was talking about.
“If you still can’t remember what I’m talkin’ about sweetheart, take a look at the card.”
“Okay,” Louise said as she took the little white card out that was attached to the bouquet, and then she set the roses down on the kitchen bar and read the card. “To her royal majesty, the reigning queen of incredible, remarkable, outstanding, unbelievable, life-changing, beautiful, fabulous, and absolutely mind-boggling sex.” Of course the instant Louise said that, all the others died laughing. “Oh my gosh, George!” Louise cried out and then she gave George a playful shove, and he laughed too. “What in the world has gotten into you?! You’re crazy!” Louise said as she laughed with everybody else.
“You want me to go put those in water for you, Louise?” Helen asked a minute or so later after all the laughter had finally died down.
“No thanks, Helen. That’s alright. I’ll do it since I’m already up,” Louise replied.
A few moments later once Louise had put the roses in water, she and George sat down at the dining table again with the others and started playing cards.
“You know, my brother Malcolm came up with this crazy sort of game back when we were kids. We used to play it all the time. We’d each have to name something that we considered to be beautiful. The catch was, before we’d play, we’d have to draw a marble out of this box of green marbles. All the marbles were green except one, which was yellow. We couldn’t let anybody else see the marble we drew, and all the people who drew green marbles had to tell the truth about the things they named that they thought were beautiful, but the person who drew the yellow marble had to lie. And the person with the yellow marble couldn’t simply name something that was obviously ugly. He or she had to name something that others could easily think of as being beautiful, but that he or she didn’t think was beautiful for whatever reason. The object of the game was to keep asking each other questions about why they named what they did as a beautiful thing, until somebody was able to figure out who’d drawn the yellow marble and was lying, and they had to do it within five minutes. If nobody could figure out who wasn’t telling the truth, the person with the yellow marble won. It was a pretty difficult game to win, but it sure was interesting.”
“Hey, that does sound really interesting, Harry,” Florence said. “I wonder if we could play a game like that and figure out when somebody wasn’t telling the truth.”
“Sounds kind of tough to me,” said Tom. “Like, say for instance, I said I thought white chocolate was a beautiful sight. Since you guys know how much I love to eat, I’m sure you’d all assume I was telling the truth. But in reality, white chocolate is the one kind of chocolate I don’t like. I think it’s way too sweet.”
“Believe it or not, you guys, he’s telling the truth,” Helen said. “Tom never did care for white chocolate very much.”
“I like my chocolate the way I like my women, dark with the perfect amount of sweetness,” Tom said as the others gave a slight chuckle, and then he gave Helen a kiss.
“I second the motion,” Harry agreed, and then he kissed Florence.
“Well Tom, since you’ve already told us what you don’t consider a beautiful sight, why don’t you tell us something that is beautiful to you,” Louise suggested.
“Oh…I’d say the sight of that great spread Helen will be preparing for Thanksgiving later on this week. What about you, Louise?”
“The sight of my little baby girl when she’s sleeping,” Louise said with a smile. “What about you, Helen?”
“For me, it’s the sight of Tom whenever he’s playing with Rose and making her laugh. What about you, Harry?”
“Florence’s smile when I get home from work at the end of the day.”
“It’s the same for me the moment Harry comes through the door,” said Florence.
“And what about you, George?” Tom asked, and then he picked up the glass of soda he was drinking and took a swallow, which would soon prove to be a big mistake.
“Weezy with her clothes off,” George answered with absolutely no hesitation, and the moment those words left his mouth, poor Tom got choked on his soda from laughing. Also in that instant in time, Louise just completely gave up trying to focus on the game they were playing and she tossed all the cards she was holding up in the air while everyone else died with intense laughter. As Tom continued coughing and laughing, Harry leaned his head on Florence’s shoulder and hit the table with his hand over and over again as he laughed until he cried along with all the others.

Chapter Twenty
The last couple of weeks of November sped by in a whirlwind of activity for everyone, especially given the fact that they had to prepare for three different celebrations, one big event after the other with Thanksgiving, Hannah’s birthday, and the Bentleys’ wedding anniversary. All three families decided that in years when Hannah’s birthday was on Thanksgiving Day, the Jeffersons would take care of the Thanksgiving and birthday celebration all at once, and during years like 1984 when they fell on different days, the families would split responsibility for all three events equally, with the Willises taking care of Thanksgiving dinner, the Jeffersons taking care of Hannah’s birthday party, and the Bentleys taking care of their anniversary party. Everyone enjoyed themselves at the Willises’ place that Thanksgiving Day, and Louise, Olivia, and Jenny all arrived early that morning to give Helen help in the kitchen, and after they’d all gorged themselves, the men dutifully washed all the dishes before gathering in front of the tube to watch football.
Everyone was of a cheerful and helpful spirit that day, and even the typically lazy Florence would have ordinarily been happy to show up earlier to help Helen with all the cooking, but she was understandably feeling all the strain and fatigue that went along with approaching the fourth month of pregnancy, and they all understood when she and Harry arrived later than everyone else did. It was rather obvious, though, how utterly exhausted Florence appeared, and while all the others shrugged it off as normal pregnancy fatigue, it did concern George. Since he did share a special kind of bond with Florence and they really did relate to one another as brother and sister, he sometimes had a real sense of instinct where she was concerned. And in the back of George’s mind, he was beginning to get the feeling that something just simply wasn’t right with Florence. He felt the same concerns when he saw Florence again a couple of days later at Hannah’s birthday party, but when he shared them with Louise, she disagreed and she tried to reassure him that it was perfectly normal for Florence to feel and look as tired as she did. Louise changed her mind, however, when Harry called them and the rest of the family five days later to cancel their plans for their anniversary party the next day, telling them that Florence simply did not have the strength to go through with it.
“What do you mean she doesn’t have the strength to go through with the party tomorrow night, Harry? Is she sick?” George asked him.
“Something like that, yes. George, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d really rather not discuss this over the phone. Perhaps you and Louise can come over for a few minutes and we can explain it to you in person.”
“Yeah, alright. Sure. We’ll be right there,” George said and in the next moment, he hung up the phone, and then Louise put down the magazine she was reading and got up from the couch and walked over to him.
“What’s going on, George?” asked Louise.
“That was Harry, Weez. It’s Florence.”
“Yeah, I heard that part. He said she wasn’t strong enough to give the party tomorrow night. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. He said he didn’t want to talk about it over the phone. He wants us to come over.”
“Okay, George. You go on ahead. I’ll go to the kitchen and ask Mama to keep an eye on Hannah for a few minutes while we’re gone.” Olivia had spent the evening with them and Louise had invited her to stay the night since Hannah had been having so much fun with her grandmother that evening and would obviously pitch a fit if Olivia tried to leave before she went to sleep for the night like she usually did.
Several minutes later, Louise joined George at the Bentleys’ apartment and sat down with Harry and George on his big leather sofa in his living room and waited for him to tell them what all was going on with Florence.
“I asked you to come over because I’m a bit embarrassed about discussing these kinds of things over the telephone,” Harry explained. The moment Harry said that, both George and Louise knew it in their guts that he was talking about the pregnancy and that something was going wrong.
“Harry, you don’t have to be embarrassed,” Louise said kindly. “You’re not just among your friends, here. You’re among family. We’ve known each other and cared about each other for many years, so you don’t have to worry about discussing issues like this with us. It’s the pregnancy, isn’t it?”
“I’m afraid so,” Harry answered in a defeated sigh.
“I know Florence has had a lot of fatigue these past few days. Tell me, has she had any problems with cramping or bleeding?” Louise knew Harry was obviously pretty embarrassed about discussing such intimate topics with others, thanks largely to his aristocratic British upbringing, but as a trained paramedic, she knew the question had to be asked. If Florence was beginning to miscarry, Louise wanted to know it so she could get her some help as soon as possible.
“Quite a bit, yes. She’s been bleeding on and off through the entire pregnancy, but we’ve been to our doctor several times and he’s done the amniocentesis and run all these tests on Florence and the baby, and he’s always insisted they were both fine. He told us that bleeding during pregnancy was actually normal for a lot of women and that many times, it was nothing to be overly concerned about. But yesterday, Florence’s bleeding suddenly became much worse. When I saw how much blood she was losing, I think I knew then we were starting to lose the baby, although, of course, I don’t know that for certain and I keep hoping and praying that somehow, I’m wrong and the baby’s alright. But the bleeding’s only continued through last night and today. I keep pleading with her and begging her to let me take her to the hospital, but no matter how hard I try to convince her to see a doctor, she just won’t listen. But if the bleeding doesn’t get any better soon, I’m picking Florence up and carrying her to the hospital myself.”
“Let me go and talk to her for you,” Louise offered. “Maybe a good woman-to-woman talk will help.”
“Oh, would you, Louise?”
“Of course. That’s what families are for.”
Harry then gave Louise a big hug and kissed her cheek and whispered, “Thank you.”
However grateful Harry was to Louise for her help though, unfortunately, it wasn’t enough because Florence stubbornly dug her heels in and totally refused to go and see a doctor. George then tried to convince her as well, but he too was unsuccessful. Over the course of the next week, Florence continued losing great quantities of blood, and Harry’s and Louise’s greatest fears were realized. As a paramedic, Louise knew that a miscarriage in the second trimester of pregnancy presented a greater risk of the miscarriage being incomplete, in which not all of the fetal tissue inside the uterus is expelled from the mother’s body. Louise didn’t want to frighten Harry, but she felt it was only right that she tell him the truth about the kind of chances Florence was taking with her health by refusing to go to the hospital. Louise knew that if Florence suffered an incomplete miscarriage, she ran the risk of getting a septic infection in her uterus from the remaining fetal tissue left behind in it, and of that infection spreading to her bloodstream and to the rest of her body. If that happened, Louise knew that Florence could very easily die of septic shock.
And as that horrible week dragged by, Harry watched helplessly as Florence developed a raging fever and chills, and Louise knew beyond a doubt that Florence was beginning to suffer a septic miscarriage. And tragically but understandably, Florence couldn’t even begin to face the fact that she’d lost the baby she’d yearned so badly for during so much of her life, which was why she’d been so adamant about not going to the hospital. In her mind, as long as she didn’t see a doctor and have him or her confirm what she already knew in her gut had taken place inside her body, she could still cling to the impossible hope that somehow, her baby was still alive and still alright. Finally, against Florence’s wishes, Harry called for an ambulance but to his dismay, the paramedics could not force Florence into an ambulance against her will because to do so would be legally seen as kidnapping. George and Louise and Tom and Helen went over to their apartment and were with Harry when the paramedics arrived, and even with Harry, the Jeffersons, the Willises, and the paramedics all desperately trying to convince her to go to the hospital, Florence still absolutely refused to budge. It was only when Florence slipped into unconsciousness several hours later that Harry was able to call the paramedics back to his apartment and get her to the hospital.
About half an hour later, after Harry had followed the ambulance to the hospital in a cab, all of the Jefferson and Willis families arrived there. It was about seven o’clock at night and they’d all been home from their jobs and volunteer work for a good while when George, Louise, Tom, and Helen had gotten the call from Harry informing them that Florence had lost consciousness and that he was about to call an ambulance for her. Naturally, Louise, Jenny, and Allan had all called babysitters to look after their daughters for them and they all met up at the hospital that evening, including Olivia. George and Louise arrived first, followed by Tom and Helen a couple of minutes later, and then Lionel, Jenny, Allan, and Olivia showed up about fifteen minutes after Tom and Helen did.
When George arrived at the emergency room with Louise that night though, Louise knew she’d never forget what happened as long as she lived. In some ways, it was almost as if Harry and George had even forgotten she was there. She had never seen George Jefferson truly connect with another human being the way he connected with Harry Bentley that night. Up to that point in time, George and Harry had been next-door neighbors and good friends with each other, but nothing more. Tonight though, they were both husbands who were well acquainted with the fearsome and heartbreaking hell of the terrifying possibility of losing their wives. And tonight, for the first time, they truly realized that on a much deeper level, they were brothers.
The moment Harry spotted George at the end of the hospital corridor, George said absolutely nothing. He didn’t need to. He simply held his arms open wide, and Harry didn’t hesitate to walk into them and start crying.
“Oh God, I can’t do this again, George,” Harry said as he sobbed. “I can’t go through this again. I’ll die if I lose Florence too. I can’t go through all this again.”
“I know,” George whispered as he rubbed Harry’s back. “I know. I know how horrible it is, man. I really do. But we’re gonna get her through this, alright? We’re gonna get her through this. And we’re gonna get you through this, too. You guys are gonna be alright. We’re gonna take care of you. You’re not in this by yourself, alright? You guys are gonna be okay. I promise. I know how bad everything looks right now, but it’s all gonna work out.” Then the hug ended, but George still had his hands on Harry’s shoulders as he looked into Harry’s eyes and told him, “Besides, this is Florence we’re talkin’ about, here. With the exception of Weezy, she’s the toughest woman alive. Florence will be back on her feet again before you know it.”
“I told myself the same thing many years ago when Melissa first got sick,” Harry said as more silent tears fell down his cheeks. “In the end, it really doesn’t matter how tough a person is. Illness is illness and sometimes, it can overpower even the strongest person. I know. I’ve seen it.”
“Well it’s not gonna overpower Florence. She’s gonna come through this. I know it, Harry. I know it.”
“No you don’t,” Harry disagreed, and George realized as he looked into Harry’s eyes that he’d never seen this level of sheer devastation in another person’s eyes before in all his life.
“Yes, I do,” George stubbornly insisted. “Look, I know that you were really there for Melissa when she got cancer. I know you took care of her emotionally as well as providing for all her physical needs, and I know that in the end, it didn’t seem like it was enough. But I’m telling you that even though Melissa couldn’t defeat her cancer, emotional support really does mean everything when you’re talking about illness. And if you don’t make the decision, right here, right now, tonight, that no matter what happens, you’re always going to believe in Florence and believe that she’s going to make it through this, then you’re not giving her any chance of surviving at all. Melissa may not have beaten her cancer in the end, but your love and your support and your believing in her gave her a fighting chance. And if Florence is going to have any kind of a fighting chance at all in this, then you have got to believe in her just like you believed in Melissa. If Florence sees it in you that you don’t believe she can make it through this, then as heartbroken and devastated as she is now about losing the baby, that’ll just give her more of a reason to want to stop fighting and give up and die. But if she sees it in you how much you love her and believe in her, it’ll help her to keep fighting and to not want to give up on life and on herself.” George had also really wanted to encourage him to keep believing in God and trusting that no matter what, He was taking care of them, but in his gut he knew it wasn’t the right time, that Harry was probably feeling pretty abandoned and betrayed by God right now and that speeches about His love and faithfulness were probably the last thing Harry would be willing to listen to.
“I know,” Harry sighed. “I know, George. You’re right. I just can’t stop thinking about Melissa. It’s so hard not to think that it’s happening all over again.”
“I know. It was real hard not to get scared and keep thinkin’ the worst when Weezy had her heart attack a couple of years ago too, but we got through that, and we’ll get through this, alright?”
Harry silently nodded, and then George gave him another quick hug, and a moment later, Louise finally approached them and gave Harry a big hug as well, and then they all sat down in the waiting area together and waited for one of the E.R. doctors to come out and tell them what was happening with Florence. To Harry it felt like an eternity, but not long after all the others arrived, one of the E.R. physicians on call that night came out to the waiting room and sat down with Harry and everybody else and explained Florence’s prognosis at long last.
“I talked with a couple of the paramedics and they explained to me how you and your friends tried to convince your wife to come to the hospital sooner,” he said to Harry with obvious compassion in his voice. He was a tall, rather muscular man with brown hair and blue eyes wearing glasses and a white coat and typical blue hospital scrubs. “If she would have agreed to come here sooner, the outcome could have been a lot different. As it is, Mrs. Bentley has obviously suffered a miscarriage. I believe it was caused by an infection in your wife’s reproductive tract. A lot of women get those types of infections, and many times, there aren’t even any symptoms. I don’t believe there’s any way you or wife could have possibly known.
“Because Mrs. Bentley was around four months along, she suffered a kind of miscarriage that’s called an incomplete miscarriage. For women that miscarry in their first trimester, often times, their bodies will naturally expel all of the fetus and its tissue on their own. For women like your wife, however, because they’re so far along, their bodies have trouble expelling all of the fetal tissue, and the tissue that remains in the uterus goes on to infect it. And that infection can become septic and spread to the bloodstream, and unfortunately, that is what has happened to your wife. Ordinarily, we’d take your wife back to the operating room and do a procedure called a D. & C. to get all of the fetal tissue out of her uterus, but because she’s gone septic, she’s beginning to go into what’s called septic shock. Her vital signs and her blood pressure are dangerously low and we’re having problems getting them to come back up to normal, and we’re too afraid to send her to the O.R. with her vitals this low. However, if we can’t get them to come up soon, I think we won’t have any choice but to risk it because we’ve got to clean her uterus out and we’ve got to do it as soon as we possibly can.”
“Will she…will Florence make it through this?” Harry gasped.
“I wish I could say, Mr. Bentley. But I’m afraid I can’t tell you for certain right now. We just have to take it all one step at a time.” Harry quietly nodded, and then the doctor said, “I’ll see that you’re kept informed.”
“Thank you,” Harry said quietly, and then the doctor got up and left. After the doctor was gone, Louise reached over and gave Harry another hug, and it wasn’t long until all the others were hugging and loving on Harry too. While everyone tried in earnest to be encouraging to Harry and lift his spirits a bit and convince him that Florence was going to be okay, George, who’d been standing by the payphones a couple of feet away, simply watched the scene in silence with his arms folded, deep in thought. He well recalled what it had been like for him the last time the family had been in a similar waiting area in the exact same hospital two years before. Until he and Florence had received word from Dr. Garrison that Louise had come through the open-heart surgery okay, he had been worried sick and unable to truly receive comfort from anyone, just as Harry was now.
Harry and the rest of the family waited another agonizing hour before a nurse finally came out and gave them another update on Florence. She was a heavyset woman with short blonde hair, blue eyes, and glasses, and she too was wearing the typical hospital scrubs. She introduced herself, telling them that her name was Angela, and then she started telling them how Florence was doing.
“I’m afraid I have some bad news,” she told them solemnly, and the instant she said that, George put his arm around Harry’s shoulders, almost as if he were trying to help him to brace himself for what was coming next. Harry was sitting in between George and Louise, and Louise had already been holding onto his hand. “When we start to lose all a patient’s vital signs, we say that the patient is crashing. Well, I’m afraid that Mrs. Bentley began to crash a little while ago. Thankfully, we were able to get her vital signs back, and don’t ask me how, either, except that for some reason, God’s really watching over her tonight. After we got her vitals back, Dr. Montgomery had her rushed back to the O.R. It’s risky, but the doctors are doing the D. & C. now because not doing it is even more risky. If they don’t perform the procedure right now, then Mrs. Bentley will most definitely die.”
“I understand,” Harry said in an almost inaudible whisper. Then Angela left after assuring them she’d continue giving them updates on Florence’s condition.
After Angela walked out of the E.R. waiting room, George and Louise gave Harry another big hug, and then George stepped away for a little while because the entire situation kept bringing it all back for him, and remembering the worst experience of his entire life was understandably not something he wanted to do. But no matter how hard George may have fought it, the instant he got a good look at Harry’s face after Angela’s update, even from a distance, he was immediately reminded of what his own face had looked like after Louise’s open-heart surgery.
It had been about five in the evening, several hours after he and Florence had gotten the good news from Dr. Garrison. Naturally, everybody had celebrated when they all came back to the waiting area and George and Florence had told them that Louise had come through the surgery alright. Since then, despite the fact that George had tried to convince them all to go home and get some rest, of course, they stubbornly refused to leave. And when they in turn tried to convince George to leave and rest, he’d even more stubbornly insisted on remaining at the hospital. But although he was stubborn about staying, the emotional strain from the events of the day was beginning to take its toll and he was starting to feel rather tired, so he went into the restroom to splash a little cold water on his face. When he looked at his face in the mirror that evening, he truly began to see it for the first time how old, haggard, and even downright ill he looked, and he knew that it was that very picture of his face in that moment in time that perfectly showed who and what he would always be without Louise – old, sick, and lifeless.
Several moments after George came out of the men’s room, Dr. Garrison returned to the waiting area and informed them all that Louise was beginning to wake up. He told them it would be alright for all of them to go back and see Louise for a minute or two, but he warned them to keep their visit with her short and sweet. When Dr. Garrison saw just how much George was overflowing with pure excitement about seeing Louise, he especially warned him that it was important for him to be very still, calm, and gentle while he was around her and that they couldn’t let her get too excited now. As George followed all the others back to Louise’s small room in the ICU, he repeated Dr. Garrison’s words in his mind over and over again, admonishing himself to remember to be still, calm, and gentle with Louise. They asked George if he wanted to go in first, but he told them to go on ahead, that he just needed a minute first. After the others went inside, George took a few seconds to collect himself, and he took a deep breath and did his best to calm himself down so he could be a calming presence to Louise and not make her overly-excited or nervous in any way.
“Still, calm, and gentle,” he whispered to himself, and then he quietly walked inside. Florence, Tom, Helen, Bentley, Olivia, and Jenny were all standing around Louise’s bed, and Louise lay still in the hospital bed, hooked up to machines monitoring her vital signs, as well as to an IV and nasal oxygen tubing. Her eyes were closed and even though she had just barely begun to wake up from it all, she was still clearly at least halfway asleep. George very quietly and carefully made his way past everyone, and they all helpfully tried to step back as far as they could and give him enough room for him to make his way to the front of Louise’s bed. When George finally got there, he slowly sat down on the side of her bed, and then he just as slowly and carefully leaned in and gently kissed her lips. The moment he did that, Louise began to wake up some more, and she opened her eyes.
“George?” she said, her voice little more than a rough whisper, and then George responded by leaning in even closer and resting his forehead up against hers for a few seconds.
“Hey there, gorgeous,” he replied in an emotional whisper.
“Is it really you? Am I really still here?”
“Oh yeah, baby, you’re still here. You’re right here with us. You’re right here with me where you belong. And we’re all here, Weezy. I’m here. Mama’s here and so is Florence, Bentley, Tom, Helen, Jenny. The whole family’s right here with you, and Lionel’s on his way. His flight’s a little late, but he’ll be here soon.”
“I need to see him,” Louise gasped. “I really do. I need to see my baby, George.”
“You’ll see him, Weez. You’ll see him. You’ll see him very soon. Don’t worry.”
“I need to tell him how much I love him,” Louise said, still in a rough gasp, as a tear came to her eye. “I need to tell him how proud I am of him.”
“Lionel already knows those things, sweetheart. I promise you he does. Don’t worry,” George lovingly whispered, and then he gently kissed her again. After he kissed her lips a second time, he planted several soft kisses on her cheeks and then on her forehead. “Don’t worry,” he whispered again. “Don’t worry about anything, Weezy. Lionel will be right here with all of us, right here with you, before you even know it. Everything’s okay, sweetheart. Everything’s fine. Everything’s just fine. I promise. Don’t worry. Just relax right now. Just take it easy, okay?” When George said that, Louise responded with a nod.
Several moments passed, and George and the others could easily tell that Louise was falling asleep again, and George looked up at them and held his index finger over his lips and motioned his head towards the door, obviously telling them that he wanted them to quietly leave her room so she could get some rest. After everybody else quietly walked out the door, George noticed that the instant Louise started to nod off to sleep, she quickly jerked herself awake again, trying to fight off the urge to sleep.
“No Weezy, don’t fight it,” George whispered. “Don’t try to fight it. You don’t have fight going to sleep. You really need sleep now. Your heart’s been through a lot these past couple of days and it needs you to rest.”
“I want to be awake when Lionel gets here.”
“Don’t worry about that. Weezy, I promise you, I’ll bring Lionel back here to see you the second he gets here, alright? Don’t worry. I promise, you’ll see him very soon. He’ll be here before you know it.”
Louise let out a sigh and nodded, and then she said, “Tell him how much I love him.”
“I will. Don’t worry about anything, Weezy. Don’t worry about anything. Just relax right now. Just relax and go back to sleep.”
“I love you too, George. I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you that until I just now. I just can’t get my mind off how much I want to see Lionel.”
“Oh, Weez, Weez,” George whispered as he hugged Louise, and then he held the side of her face with his hand and told her, “You don’t have to worry about letting me know you love me, Weez.” As George said that, tears came to his eyes. “You already do that every second of every day of our lives that we spend together. You always have. Weezy, angel, I know how much crap you have taken from me through the years. You put up with so much garbage from me all the time. There have been so many times that I’ve been selfish and self-centered and stupid and just downright rude and disrespectful, to all our friends but to you more than anybody else, and you have been such an angel, a pure angel, to put up with all of that from me through the years. And I promise you that’s gonna change. I am not gonna take you or your love for granted anymore, Louise. I’ve learned my lesson. I promise you I have. All these years, you have put up with so much, and it’s always been you makin’ all the sacrifices and you takin’ care of me all the time when most of the time, I’m really not there for you. But that’s gonna change, baby. I promise you, all that’s gonna change. I am not doing that anymore. I’m taking care of you now. It’s high time the tables were turned, and they’re gonna be, Louise. They’re gonna be. It’s your turn now, sweetheart. It’s always been all about me through our married life. Well, starting right here, right now, tonight, it’s all about you from now on. I’ve had my turn in the spotlight. You’re getting your turn, and it starts right now.” After George said all those things to Louise, he smothered her in more kisses, and as he was kissing her, he noticed that he was not the only one who was crying because of all he’d just said. Many more tears had come to Louise’s eyes as well.
“Okay,” George sighed a few moments later, and then he grabbed a tissue and started wiping the tears from Louise’s eyes. “We need to calm down now, sweetheart, or the doctors will get mad and think I’ve been in here upsetting you and they’ll toss me out of here on my butt. We can’t have that, can we, Weey-girl?”
Louise shook her head and replied, “No, Georgey-boy. We can’t have that.”
George gave Louise another very long kiss and told her, “You should sleep. I’ll come back here to your room the second Lionel gets here, Weezy. I promise.”
Louise nodded and then said to George, “You’ve been telling me these past few minutes how much you love me and how much I mean to you. I want to tell you too that I–”
“Shh,” George interrupted, putting his finger over her lips. “Weezy, don’t. Don’t talk now. You don’t need to talk. You need to say anything. Just go to sleep, okay?”
“But I–”
“Weezy, please don’t talk,” George whispered, and finally, Louise relented with a nod. “Just sleep now.” After George said that, at last, Louise closed her eyes, and George gently pulled the covers up and gave her one last kiss before he quietly left her room.
At about twenty minutes after eight that night, Lionel came hurrying into the hospital waiting room at long last, and of course, all the others were more than happy to finally see him, and none more so than George.
“Hey Lionel,” George happily called to him as he ran into the waiting area, and naturally he walked up to his son and gave him a humongous hug.
“Hey, Pop,” Lionel said in obviously worried tone of voice as George hugged him. “Hey, guys,” he said after George finally released him from the hug. “Hey, Jenny,” he said as Jenny walked up to him and gave him a hug and a kiss. “So what all’s happening with Mom, you guys? How’s she doing?”
“Good news, Lionel,” George said with a smile. “She came through the surgery just fine this afternoon.” The moment George said that, Lionel let out a huge sigh of relief. “She did just great, man. She’s still in the ICU, though. Dr. Garrison wants to keep her there for a little while to make sure her heart adjusts to the surgery okay. But so far, she’s doin’ alright. Your mom’s a trouper, Lionel. She really is.”
“Yeah, well, she had to be if she was gonna put up with the two of us for so many years,” Lionel teased as he slapped George on the back, and George laughed.
“You can say that again, son. But no more, man. No more. Like I’ve been tellin’ Weezy tonight, there’s gonna be some big changes around here from now on. Weezy comes first now. My whole life isn’t gonna be centered around just me, myself, and I anymore. Makin’ money with the business and landin’ new big accounts isn’t gonna be my entire life anymore. I’m gonna start truly sharin’ my life with Weezy again. I’m gonna be as supportive of her, whatever she wants to do with her life, as she’s always been of me and my life. Whether it’s the Help Center or anything else, I’m gonna be a part of it. I’m gonna be there for her from now on. I call myself her husband. Well now, I’m gonna start truly actin’ like one.”
Lionel nodded and said, “I hear you, Pop. I’m glad to hear you say that.”
“Come on back with me. I talked to Dr. Garrison and he said it’d be alright for me to take you back to see your mother even if you didn’t get here until visiting hours were over. And I had to promise your mother I’d bring you back to see her the moment you got here. If I don’t, I know she’ll break my neck when she gets stronger,” George said in a chuckle, and Lionel laughed with him for a second.
“Yeah, you’re probably right, knowing Mom,” he agreed, and then he followed George back to Louise’s ICU room. And while George had been prepared for what he would see when they went back there, Lionel wasn’t. He knew that Louise had come through the open-heart surgery well so far, but not even that piece of good news was enough to assuage all the fears that hit him when he saw his mother in an ICU hospital room, hooked up to machines monitoring her vital signs, an IV, and oxygen. Although he’d had a head knowledge of the fact that his mother had just suffered a heart attack, the emotions of his heart hadn’t fully understood it all until the very moment he walked back with his father into that room. It was only then that he completely realized the fact that his mother had very nearly died. Lionel quickly covered his mouth and choked back a sob, forcing himself to keep all his emotions in so he wouldn’t totally lose it in front of his mother.
George quietly walked up to Louise’s bed and sat down at her bedside as he’d done before, and he gently kissed her to wake her up.
“Hey, gorgeous,” George whispered.
“Hi, handsome,” said Louise.
“I brought you a present,” George told her, and then he got up and stepped aside, and when he did, Louise spotted her son.
“Oh, Lionel!” she cried out, and Lionel instantly went up to where George had been standing and sat down where he’d been just a moment before, and he threw his arms around his mother and gave her a very long, tight, emotional hug. As they hugged, they both cried. Naturally, seeing his wife and son in tears caused George to silently cry with them in the background. As they hugged, Lionel kissed Louise on the cheek several times.
“I’m sorry I’m so late, Mom,” Lionel said through his tears. “I wanted to get here a lot sooner but my flight was late.”
“Oh, I don’t care how late you are. I only care that you’re here now. Oh Lionel, I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Mom. I love you, too. I love you so much.”
“I love you and I am so proud of you. Promise me you’ll never forget that.” Lionel cried even harder when Louise said that, and again he hugged her and kissed her cheek.
“I could never forget those things, Mom. Never. You always made it so obvious to me every day of my life how much you loved me and that you were proud of me.” Lionel then held the side of Louise’s face and told her, “I only wish I’d have made those things as obvious to you. I only wish I’d have told you more often how much I’ve always loved you and how much I always appreciated having a wonderful lady like you for a mom.” Again they hugged, and they continued to cry for several more moments.
After they both settled down again, Louise asked, “So how long will you be in town?”
“Don’t worry, Mom. I’ve got plenty of time here. Before I left I called up my superior in Japan and I explained the whole situation to him, and he was very understanding. He said I could take as much time off as I needed to and for me not to worry about anything. So you’re going to be stuck with me for quite a while, because I’m not going anywhere for a good, long time. I’m staying here as long as you and Pop need me to.”
“Oh Lionel, that’s wonderful!” Louise cried out as she hugged him yet again. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear that you’re staying a while.”
“I am, Mom. I am. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”
And Lionel was true to his word. Louise was moved out of the ICU and into a private room a week later, after the overly-cautious Dr. Garrison was certain that Louise’s heart was adjusting well to the surgical procedure and that she was mostly out of the woods, and Lionel assured Louise that he’d be staying in New York at least another week or so after the doctor told them all that he’d probably be keeping Louise in the hospital for one more week before he sent her home. Lionel wanted to at least stay long enough to help his parents out when she was released to go home, and after explaining that to his supervisor in Japan, he was very understanding and accommodating and told him to stay in the States as long as he felt was necessary.
The day after Louise was transferred out of the ICU and into her own private hospital room, everything was still nice and lovey-dovey between her and George and the rest of the family. Everybody was ecstatic to hear that Dr. Garrison had deemed Louise well enough to leave the ICU, and George especially. But the next day, the marital seas between Louise and George became rather rough as they’d usually been before her heart attack, for one final time in their marriage before the changes in George finally became permanent.
“Hey, gorgeous,” George told Louise that morning after he’d bent down and kissed her cheek. He’d come into her hospital room that day carrying another huge bouquet of flowers.
“More flowers, George?” Louise said as she laughed. Her hospital room was already practically filled to the brim with flowers from the Willises, Lionel and Jenny, Mr. Bentley, and even Ralph, and George had also brought her flowers when she’d left the ICU the day before.
“Well you can never have enough flowers in your room, Weez,” George said with a smile.
“What? No roses?” she teased. Yesterday George had brought her a lovely bouquet of pink carnations, and now he was carrying a very colorful bouquet of tulips.
“I’m savin’ the roses for a more romantic occasion after I finally get you home,” George said with a wink and a smile, and again Louise laughed.
“I was only kidding, George. But thank you. The tulips are just beautiful.”
“Well you know the wife of a millionaire can only expect the very best when it comes to flowers,” George said as he set the large glass vase of tulips down on the counter of the hospital sink, which was the only place he had any room to put them since both nightstands of either side of Louise’s bed were already full of flowers.
“What are you talking about, the wife of a millionaire?”
“I don’t know if you remember it or not, Weez,” George said as he sat down in the chair to Louise’s left side, “but the night of your heart attack, I was tellin’ you about this big business deal that’s in the works between Bill Kronan and me. I know you remember him from Harlem.”
George instantly noticed the change in Louise’s facial expressions and demeanor the moment those words left his mouth. She’d seemed warm, happy, and pleasant when he’d first come into her room with the flowers, but now she seemed horrified and very tense.
“George, you have to stay away from him,” Louise said to his surprise.
“Stay away from him? Weezy, what are you talking about?”
“He’s a very good actor, and he’s extremely good at hiding it, but there are a lot of things about that man you don’t know, George, that you can’t even begin to imagine. He’s a very dangerous man. You have to promise me right now that you’ll stay away from him, no matter what.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, Weez. Kronan ain’t any different than you or me. He started out in the old neighborhood, just like we did. And he fought and scratched to get ahead and start his own business, the exact same way I did, and just like me, he made it. He started his own chain of hotels and if I partner up my business with his, I can make more money than I ever dreamed possible. We’ll be millionaires, Weez.”
“George, you can’t do this. You can’t ever allow yourself or the business to have any dealings with him at all. He’s a terrible man.”
“How is he so terrible? What is it about him that has you convinced he’s so dangerous?”
There was a very long, tense silence before Louise finally told him, “I can’t answer that. All I can tell you is that something happened between Bill Kronan and me back in Harlem a long time ago, and I’ve seen him do things, horrible, unspeakable things, that I can’t bring myself to talk about. But you have got to trust me on this, George. You’ve simply got to trust me. I know what I’m talking about. You have to walk away from this, and you have to do it now before it’s too late.”
George said nothing for the longest time, and just let out a long sigh, unable to believe his ears, and then he finally said, “Weezy, you know how much I love you. And you know I’d do anything for you, but don’t ask me to give this deal up. I have worked for this and I have dreamed of this my entire life, Louise. You can’t ask me to sacrifice something like that.”
“George, if you don’t, I can promise you, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. We have known each other for decades, George. We’ve been married for thirty-two years now, and in all that time, have I ever done anything to betray your trust? Have I ever done anything to give you a reason not to trust me? Haven’t I always conducted my life in a way that’s proven to you that I’m an honest woman of my word?” George looked down then and let out another sigh and said nothing in response, because he knew perfectly well how right Louise was. “George, as an honest, Christian woman and wife of my word, I give you my word right here and now that it is in your best interests, as well as in the best interests of our business and all our employees, and in the best interests of our family, that you walk away from this immediately. Please, George, I need you to trust me on this now. I really do. I promise you with all my heart and soul that I do know exactly what I’m talking about. Please, George. Please. You know I’ve never asked you for very much through the years, and I haven’t asked you to make any kind of sacrifices for me, but I’m asking you now. You’ve got to trust me that it’s for a good reason.” Louise then reached out for George’s hand, but George pulled away from her and got up and walked out the door, leaving Louise behind in tears.
Stop it, Louise, a voice in her mind warned her.
Stop what? Louise asked the voice.
You know what I’m talking about, the voice answered her. It’s time, child. You know what you must do.
I can’t do that, Louise argued with the voice. George could never take it if he learned the truth. He can’t handle something like this. That’s why I’ve always had to protect him from it.
Louise, the only way to protect George now is to stop protecting him, and you know it. If you don’t stop protecting George from the truth, you know he will never change and open his heart to My Son. And you know hell will hurt him far worse in the end than hearing the truth about what you went through for his sake back in Harlem.
It was in that one instant that Louise admitted the truth to herself, that what the Lord was trying to tell her was right. No matter how badly she wanted to protect him from the truth, she simply couldn’t keep doing that anymore. If she didn’t finally stop protecting George at long last, George’s stubborn, self-centered, greedy heart would forever stay hardened to the message of the Gospel. He’d get in over his head and get himself and the family business involved in some of the worst kinds of evil imaginable, and when the truth about Kronan did eventually come out, George’s whole life would be ruined, and because he’d hardened his heart to the pleas of the good Lord that He’d made through Louise just now, he’d most likely continue hardening his heart out of his fear of facing the truth.
Louise took a few seconds to wipe the tears from her eyes and compose herself, and then she picked up the phone and called Olivia.
“Mama,” she said, “I just tried to convince George not to go through with the deal with Kronan. He wouldn’t listen. It’s time, Olivia.” Those simple words, “It’s time,” were all Louise had to say. Olivia knew exactly what she meant and what she had to do next.
“I understand, dear,” Olivia said quietly on the other end, and then they both hung up.
Not long after George went back home, he got a call from his mother.
“It’s time, son,” she told him on the other end of the line.
“Time for what, Mama?” George asked.
“It’s time for me to explain everything to you. It’s time for the truth about this entire thing to come out now. I want you to meet me at the Help Center in an hour. I’ll explain it all to you then.”
“Alright, Mama,” George replied, and then he hung up the phone and left for the Help Center.
When he got there, Olivia took him down to the Help Center basement where one of the entrances to the underground city of Zion was, and she showed him their hospital, their dining and schooling area, their park, and her living quarters.
“Is this where you’ve been living these past few years?” George asked her incredulously once he sat down next to her in her living room.
“Yes, it is,” Olivia answered.
“What is this place?” he asked in an astonished whisper, and for the next ten minutes, Olivia answered his question. She explained to him what Zion was and what it was all about, and she told him all about the children they were constantly rescuing from the child trafficking industry and abusive homes, and she told him that Zion had been working in concert with the Help Center ever since Louise became a Help Center volunteer, and that all Help Center volunteers had the option of splitting their hours between the Help Center and Zion.
“Louise has always split her work between the Help Center and here. She works at the Help Center until lunchtime, and then after she and Helen go out for lunch, she comes back and spends the rest of her time down here working with the children and all the Zion volunteers until the end of the day.”
“Why wasn’t I ever told about this place? Why is Zion such a big secret?”
“George, Louise has been hiding this part of herself from you for many years. The truth is, Louise is far more than just a volunteer here. Louise is Zion’s leader. Zion is her city. Louise is the person who founded the city of Zion in the first place.”
“When did she do this?”
“Fifteen years ago.”
“Fifteen years ago? But that’s impossible.”
“No, it’s not,” said a male voice from behind him, and George got up from his seat and turned around to see who it was. It was a rather tall and heavyset Latino man with graying hair and a beard, whom he’d never seen before.
“George, I’d like to introduce you to Marco Garcia. He’s a friend of mine, and he’s Louise’s second-in-command. Marco is taking care of everything here for Louise while she’s recovering.”
“Okay, then. Maybe you can explain just what exactly is goin’ on here and what in the world’s goin’ on with my wife today.”
“Well you are her husband, are you not?” Marco responded rather angrily.
“Of course I’m her husband. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“It’s got everything to do with all of this. If you’re going to call yourself Louise’s husband, you need to be acting like one and be truly involved in your wife’s life. If you’d ever really cared about Louise at all, you wouldn’t need me or Olivia or anybody else to explain what’s going on with her right now. You would have already asked her on your own.”
“What in the world are you talking about? And who do you think you are to talk to me like that? I’ve known you all of two seconds.”
“But I’ve known you much longer. Maybe we didn’t meet each other in the flesh until just now, but your hurtful words and actions and terrible reputation as a husband through the years have preceded you. You may have known Louise longer than I have, but I know her much better than you ever did. If that weren’t the sad case, you wouldn’t be so puzzled and stumped as to why Louise is so dead-set against that big business deal you’re trying to conjure up with Bill Kronan. You’d already know the answer to that.”
“The business deal? Is that what all of this is about? Mama, did Weezy somehow get you in on some kind of conspiracy to try and convince me to change my mind about signing the cleaning contract with Kronan? I bet I know what this whole thing is about. Now I love Louise, but when it comes to my business, she ain’t never been nothin’ but a pure nuisance a lot of the time. Alright, yes, I’m a workaholic. So what? Who cares as long as I’m makin’ a lot of money and keepin’ us financially secure? I may not spend all my time in the world with Weezy, but she knows I love her. And she knows, I’ve given her my word, that I’m not gonna spend as much time at work anymore, that I’m gonna start tryin’ to be more involved in her life like she wants me to be from now on. But even though I’ve agreed to start makin’ sacrifices so I can spend more time with her, that still ain’t enough. What is it with women?! Mama, you know how much I have always loved you and respected you all my life, but let’s be real for a minute. You know how you are. You are simply not happy unless you are the center of attention twenty-four-seven. And it don’t look like Weezy’s any better than you’ve been your whole life. I have worked my butt off and fought and scratched all my life to get my family where it is today. I am the reason for everything our family has, for everything Weezy has. Weezy is not the breadwinner in our marriage; I am. I am the one who puts those designer clothes on Weezy’s back, expensive rings on her fingers, the roof of a high-rise apartment over her head, food in her mouth, and money in her pocket. Every single good thing in her life that Weezy has, she has because of me and she has me alone to thank for it. And it still ain’t enough that I’m such a great provider. I have dreamed my entire life of becomin’ a millionaire, and because goin’ after this deal means that I won’t be able to spend my every waking minute with her, she’s tryin’ to take it away from me. How can Weezy honestly be that selfish?!” In the instant George said that, before he even knew what hit him, Marco gave him a very harsh slap.
“What you have just said about Louise is truly unbelievable!” Marco yelled at George at the top of his lungs. “And if you ever disrespect Louise like that again in my presence, I promise you, I’ll do far more damage to your face besides a slap across the cheek! Don’t you ever disrespect your wife like that again!”
“Alright, you two,” Olivia said as she got up and stood between them. “Hold it. Now just settle down, both of you. Marco, I think you need to leave. Go somewhere and do something else for a while and get your mind off all this and give yourself a chance to cool off.”
Marco said nothing in response to Olivia, and simply walked out the door.
“Man, that guy’s unbelievable,” George complained.
“And so are you,” Olivia told him in her best no-nonsense tone of voice.
“What are you talkin’ about? Don’t tell me you agree with him. Don’t tell me you’re gonna try and take up for Louise, that you’ve actually started liking her now.”
“No, I don’t like Louise. It goes way deeper than that. I love Louise with all my heart and soul, with everything I’ve got in me, and if you had a lick of sense, you’d love and adore Louise every bit as much as Marco and I do.”
“I do love Louise with all I’ve got in me, Mama.”
“No, you don’t. You love you with all you’ve got in you, but you have never truly loved Louise as much as you’ve always loved yourself.”
“Well if that’s your way of tryin’ to say that I’m self-centered, talk about the pot callin’ the kettle black!” George said aloud. While he did love and respect his mother very much, he was really beginning to lose his patience with her, and he was beginning to feel that she was going way too far.
“You’re right, son,” Olivia agreed with him, much to his surprise. “I do owe you an apology, because I really did set a horrible example for you all your life. I’m not going to sugarcoat this. It may hurt to hear it, but sometimes the truth can be a very painful thing. Sometimes surgery can be a very painful thing too if you’ve got a cancerous tumor growing inside you, but that painful surgery is necessary if you’re going to survive. And it’s the same thing with you. All your years of sinning against God and against others is just like a malignant tumor growing inside you. And exposing the truth about it to you is going to hurt quite a lot, but it’s something I have to do for you George, not because I want to cause you pain, but because I love you and I don’t want to see you destroy the rest of your life because of your sin. No matter how badly it hurts, I have no choice now but to finally tell you the truth about yourself, and the heartbreaking truth is, you are a very self-centered, selfish, greedy, chauvinistic, bigoted, and sometimes downright mean-spirited man. What breaks my heart about it even further is the fact that, like you said, all your life, I’ve been the cause of you being that type of person because you were simply living out what you’d learned from my example. For the majority of our lives, I, too, have been mean-spirited and selfish, and I do apologize to you with all my heart for setting such an awful example for you all these years, and I do hope you can forgive me.
“But George, no matter how utterly petty and stupid and foolish I’ve behaved all my life and no matter how unfairly I may have treated others, Louise most of all, in the end, I finally did face the painful truth about myself, and I did the best that I could to accept responsibility for the despicable way I used to behave and I did my best to make it right again with the people I’ve wronged. And now it’s high time, past high time, that you did the same thing.”
“Oh yeah, Mama, I really apologize for bustin’ my butt all those years and getting our family out of Harlem and puttin’ a nice roof over your heads and supportin’ all of you and puttin’ Lionel through college and makin’ it possible for him to have a fine engineering career. I was really out of line. That was a horrible thing for me to do. I sure hope you can forgive me,” George sarcastically mocked Olivia.
Olivia let out a frustrated sigh and closed her eyes for a long moment, and then finally, she told George, “Okay, George. I can see it that no matter what I try to say to you, I’m not going to get through. When you were a small child, I used to have to put the cookies I baked for you up on the highest shelf in the cupboards because if I left them where you could reach them, you would always gorge yourself on them and spoil your dinner. Whenever I’d put them up where you couldn’t get to them, you’d cry and scream, sometimes for as long as thirty minutes. But no matter how relentlessly you cried and screamed, I stood my ground because I knew I was doing what was best for you, that if I gave into you, you’d never eat anything else but cookies and you’d never get all the other nutrients you needed. It wasn’t easy, but over time, I finally broke you and you stopped being so stubborn and strong-willed and you stopped making such an enormous fuss about it whenever I put the cookies away.
“And all these years later, once again, you are being that same relentlessly stubborn little child. Right now, you are bound and determined that no matter what I or Louise or anybody tries to tell you, you are not going to listen, that you’re right and we’re wrong. You’ve already made up your mind that no matter what anybody tries to tell you, you’re going to dig your heels in and sign that million-dollar contract. Whatever I try to say to you is going to go in one ear and out the other at this point, just like it did when I used to try to reason with you and get you to calm down when you were crying and screaming over the cookies. It was only after I’d finally broken your stubborn strong will that you’d listen to what I had to say, and it was only then that I was able to explain to you why you couldn’t constantly eat cookies all the time and nothing else. And before I or any other person can even begin to get through to you and get you to listen to reason, once again, your stubborn will has got to be broken.” After Olivia said that, she walked over to her small dining table and picked up a small brown leather book that had been sitting on it, and she took it to George.
“What’s this?” he asked as he held it and stared at it.
“I believe this is what the good Lord is going to use to break that strong will of yours and get through to you where all the rest of us can’t. I know you refuse to believe that Marco or anyone else could actually know your wife a lot better than you do, but sadly, that’s exactly what’s happened. Both Marco and I know Louise a whole lot better than you do at the moment, and so do a lot of Zion and Help Center volunteers. George, answer just one question for me. What are Louise’s dreams?”
“What?” George responded in disbelief. He couldn’t believe she’d even ask him a question like that.
“Do you know what your wife’s biggest dreams for her life are?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Mama. Of course I do. Weezy’s livin’ her biggest dreams for her life right now, bein’ Mrs. George Jefferson, havin’ all the privileges that come with bein’ the wife of a rich, brilliant businessman like me. I’m givin’ Weezy everything she ever hoped for, every day of her life.”
Olivia shook her head and said, “That’s exactly what I was afraid you’d say. Tragically, your answer proves that despite the fact that you’ve been married to Louise for over thirty years, you don’t even know who she is. George, this is Louise’s old diary from all those years ago when we lived in the old neighborhood. I bet you’re probably thinking that you know what you can expect to find in there. A little while after I’d first learned the truth about Louise’s past and earned her trust, she gave me the privilege of reading this diary, and it was only after I read it for the first time that I truly started getting to know her and truly started understanding her from the inside out. Louise Mills Jefferson is the most remarkable human being on the face of the earth today, and you’ll discover that for yourself soon enough once you start reading. It may hurt to say it, but it’s the truth that as of this moment, you really don’t know this extraordinary woman you’re blessed enough to get to be married to. So go back to my bedroom and read this diary now, in private. Get to know your wife, George. Learn who she really is. Find out what her biggest hopes and dreams and passions are. And face the painful truth about the kind of man you’ve chosen to be today, about how terribly you’ve hurt Louise and others in the past, so you can truly start to deal with it and move beyond it with the good Lord’s help.”
George knew as he looked into his mother’s eyes that he could just forget it, that he had lost the battle, that she wasn’t going to give him any peace until he did as she asked, so without saying a word, he quietly walked back to her lavender-colored bedroom and started reading.
Olivia had been right when she’d said that George falsely believed that he knew what he was going to read about when he opened Louise’s old diary. He may not have known what specific daily events of their lives Louise was going to discuss on a particular date, but he thought he had a pretty good idea of Louise’s overall life story. He really believed he knew his wife, and that afternoon, he’d also really believed that his mother was simply a foolish, overly-concerned old woman who was overreacting. He hadn’t taken her words or her warnings too seriously at all. But in fact, Olivia was right about every word she’d said to him that afternoon. All her words of warning to him were perfectly on target, and she’d been completely right when she’d told George that he really didn’t even know his wife at all.
When George took off his shoes and laid back on his mother’s bed and started reading Louise’s old diary, he’d expected to read about the humdrum daily events of a young wife, mother, and housekeeper. He flipped the diary open to the first page and from the date he saw on it, he knew that Louise had started writing in it when Lionel was a young child. He hadn’t expected to find anything in that diary that he didn’t already know, and he certainly hadn’t expected whatever he did find in there to actually be very interesting. He’d expected to read about Louise cooking meals and washing dishes and doing housecleaning and going to her boss’s house to do more housecleaning there and going home and cooking dinner for him and for Lionel in the evenings and helping Lionel with his homework. And in fact, that was actually what he did find in the first few pages, but knowing that his mother wasn’t going to relent in her desire for him to read the diary all the way through, he didn’t put it down and stop reading like he had really wanted to. No matter how dull it had seemed to him to begin with, he stuck with it and kept going.
And heartbreakingly for both Louise and for George, the events Louise recounted in the pages of that diary did start to become more interesting. All of the sudden, with a mere turn of a page, George Jefferson’s entire life and all his perceptions of his wife and his past with her were shattered. George had always believed his life story had gone something like this: he was born and raised in Harlem, mostly by his mother after his father had gotten killed in an accident when he was nine; he’d met and fallen in love with Louise Mills as a teenager and proposed to her just before he’d had to leave and go to Korea; after he’d returned home from the war, he married Louise in his early twenties and they’d had their only child for many years, Lionel; George had really busted his tail doing any and all kinds of jobs in whatever work he could find, and Louise had worked as a maid many years; after they’d saved up their money through the years as Lionel was growing up, they used it to help send him to college in the city; a couple of years before Lionel began college, George sold the family car to make a down payment on an old building in their neighborhood that he planned to use for his first cleaning store, but the loan he’d been expecting to get from a bank to help him start his business fell through; a few months later, while George and Lionel had been dragged out of town with Olivia to attend a cousin’s wedding, Louise had gotten into a fender-bender in the used car they’d recently bought with a city bus, and it had been determined that it had been the bus driver’s fault, and not long after that, they’d been paid a settlement from the city of over two thousand dollars, which gave George enough money to officially launch Jefferson Cleaners. And the rest, as they say, was history…supposedly.
For so many years, George Jefferson had been incredibly proud of himself whenever he looked at his face in the mirror. For so many years, when he’d looked at himself in the mirror, he’d seen a self-made man, a man who had made it in the world despite the fact that he’d often felt like he’d had the entire world against him because of his skin color, a strong and determined man who had beaten the odds and gotten his family into a rich neighborhood. For so many years, he’d honestly believed that he’d done it all completely on his own, without any kind of help from anybody else. For so many years, he’d believed that Louise, Lionel, and Olivia really did owe all the good and nice things they had in their lives entirely to him.
And for so many years, George Jefferson had been nothing but a pure and self-deceiving liar. He’d totally fooled himself into believing that he had been the cause of all his family’s success in the world, that it had been entirely because of him and all his years of hard work and perseverance alone. The truth was, George had never had himself to thank for all that he had. Rather, he had God first and foremost to thank for all the blessings of his life today including the financial ones, and he had the heart-rending sacrifices of Louise to thank for it all as well. George may have persevered and worked his tail off to provide for his family and get them out of the old neighborhood, but while George had been out busting his rear to put food on his family’s table, it had been Louise who had been enduring the closest thing to hell there was on earth in order to keep their family from harm so that George could even be alive to do those things for them in the first place.
Every human being has something in his or her life that is so disturbing that he or she is utterly terrified to even think about it for a mere moment, and so the person often fervently denies the very existence of the troubling thing, even to the point of self-deception and delusion. That was exactly what happened to George throughout the majority of his marriage to Louise.
The Jeffersons had started out just like any happy newlywed couple, filled to the brim with hopes and dreams for their lives and with promise for their future together and with love for each other. When George had had his girlfriends in the past, he’d only dated them to have fun and to have a good time with them, but when he’d met Louise and had first started getting to know her well, it hadn’t taken him long to begin feeling something for her that he’d never felt as strongly for all the other girls he’d dated, and that was pure and utter respect for who she was as a human being. Many of his previous girlfriends had been nothing but total airheads who’d only been looking for a good time like George had been, but he instantly knew from the moment he met her that Louise was very different. She was never like all the other girls. None of them had ever possessed the kind of intelligence, wisdom, and depth that Louise had, nor had they had her sweetness and warmth and kindness. George had always known from day one what a rare, precious jewel Louise was. The rest of the world at the time had completely disregarded and discarded Louise and had tried to tell her that because she was a young black woman living in a poor neighborhood, she’d never be worth anything much, but George had always known better. From the first moment he looked into her eyes and saw the powerful depth in them, he knew that she wasn’t worthless because of both her race and her gender as the rest of the world claimed, but was instead a priceless diamond in the rough. The rest of the world might have been blinded to Louise’s beauty and sparkle, but George had always known that if merely given a chance, Louise could shine brighter than a million stars in a night sky. And it was with that mindset, with that appreciation of the depth and beauty of Louise’s soul, that George had earnestly courted Louise for a few years and then proposed to her and married her.
The first few years of their marriage had been heaven. They’d been exactly like any other young married couple in love, and their love only grew deeper and stronger as they went through the terrifying ordeal of Lionel’s emergency C-section several years later, and as they’d watched their little boy grow up together. Their marriage had not been perfect, of course. They’d had their spats and arguments from time to time, but for the most part, the earlier years of their marriage and of Lionel’s life had been a far cry from what their lives together had become in later years.
But then after a few honeymoon years of marriage, something happened, and their usual state of wedded bliss dramatically changed, practically overnight. George had known all along that something terrible was happening in Louise’s life that she just couldn’t seem to bring herself to talk about. He’d never known about what was happening to Louise in specifics, but it had always been that one place in his heart and mind that he’d utterly forbidden himself to have access to, that he’d constantly refused to look at and acknowledge all this time. He’d never known exactly what had been happening to Louise, but he had had some idea. And after Louise had started going through her own private hell, the once friendly and upbeat young woman George had fallen head over heels in love with seemed to have simply vanished off the face of the earth, and for many years had been replaced by a frightened, angry, depressed, lonely, hurting, emotionally volatile wreck. Louise had seemed to go from being a diamond to being a disaster in a heartbeat.
And tragically, instead of truly being there for Louise in her greatest hour of need in her life, George responded to the disturbing changes in Louise’s personality by burying the truth that he’d simply been too afraid to face. When the cuts, bruises, and burns had started appearing on Louise’s skin, he’d chosen to believe her when she’d told him that she was merely clumsy and had kept having falls and accidents around the house. And in addition to his blind eye to Louise’s physical marks of abuse, he’d also turned a deaf ear to all the disturbing rumors he’d heard about the street gangs in their neighborhood. Not long after they’d moved into that apartment building in a poor and very dangerous neighborhood, which George had insisted they move into because it was cheaper and could save them a lot of money, he’d started hearing neighbors talking about a vicious street gang that was extremely violent. Many people in their neighborhood had been very badly hurt or even killed, and according to the rumors, this gang especially went after married women with children, threatening to injure and kill their husbands and children if they didn’t submit to their torturous rape and abuse. And horrifyingly, all the threats they’d made had not been empty ones. There had been some women who had refused to go along with what they wanted, and had gone to the police about it. For some reason, not only did the police do absolutely nothing to help them, but they were also punished by being forced to endure the worst torture of all, and that was being forced by the gang to watch as they slaughtered their husbands, children, and other family members right before their eyes.
Tragically for the human race, if there’s any one thing human beings are naturally incredibly good at, it’s rationalizing doing something wrong, sometimes even terrible things that a person knows are totally against his or her God-given conscience. Both George and Louise had heard about how violent and dangerous the neighborhood was through the years, but after struggling as badly as he’d had to in order to make ends meet after he left the navy, George had been desperate to come up with some kind of way for them to hold onto the tiny bit of money they made for a while longer, and of course, he’d been even more desperate to start saving up enough money through the years to start a business of his own one day. And out of his relentless desperation and frustration, George told himself that he had no choice, that if he wanted to feed his family and keep a roof over their heads, he had to convince Louise to let them move into that dirt-cheap apartment building in that terribly dangerous neighborhood. He’d told himself lie after lie, that Louise would be perfectly okay as long as she didn’t go out anywhere alone at night and only stayed out briefly whenever she had to leave the apartment during the day.
But on one appalling afternoon when Louise had stopped off at the grocery store on her way home from work to do a little shopping for supper that night, on her way out to the car, a man suddenly came up behind her and grabbed her. Louise fought and kicked and screamed and yelled, but the handful of people that actually could hear and see what was going on were too afraid to do anything to help her, and so he got away with dragging her off to his car at gunpoint. Louise understandably grew more and more petrified with every passing second as the tall, muscular black man who’d grabbed her said nothing and merely drove with an even more terrifying cold, heartless stare ahead at the road.
He drove her to her apartment building and forced her at gunpoint to get out of the car and walk with him to a nearby alley, where several more gang members were waiting for her. Lionel had gotten out of school not long ago, and when Louise saw Lionel’s school bus pull up in front of their apartment building, she felt her heart stop. The moment Lionel got off the bus and started walking into the building, one of the men there pointed a gun in his direction.
“Do what we want you to do, or your son dies,” he threatened. “Do you understand?”
Louise couldn’t even make herself speak she was so terrified, so she simply nodded. Then they all got in the first man’s car and drove to an old condemned building where their gang frequently hung out. And one by one, the six evil men in that gang took their turn raping Louise.
But merely overpowering a woman physically and raping her wasn’t enough for them. They wanted to also overpower her and control her psychologically, as they’d wanted to do with all the women they’d abused and raped. After going through such hell, Louise had been so overwhelmed with terror and shame that she simply hadn’t known how to respond. Like George, she too had heard all the rumors of all the families they’d killed of the women who’d refused to give into them without a fight and had tried to go to the police to report them, and Louise had been completely panicked at the thought of what they’d do to Lionel and George if she did go to the police about it. And she knew she couldn’t ask George to try and protect her from them, because for one thing, it was six to one, and for another, George obviously couldn’t be around her twenty-four-seven. Even though in her own mind, Louise did in fact realize from an intellectual perspective that what had happened to her hadn’t been her fault, that those cruel monsters had forced themselves on her, from an emotional standpoint, she couldn’t get over the tendency to blame herself and feel dirty and ashamed, so ashamed that she couldn’t imagine confiding in George about it all. And the monsters knew those things and used them against her.
Finally a week later, Louise’s conscience got the best of her and she decided that no matter how terrifying it all was, she couldn’t just do nothing and let them roam free on the streets, endangering all the other women and families in their neighborhood, and so she went to the police. To her horror, they did absolutely nothing. It was only many years later after she’d managed to get out and move into a somewhat safer neighborhood that she learned that the reason why nothing was done was because of the fact that that street gang was heavily involved in drugs and prostitution, and there were actually a lot of police officers there who were in on it as well and were getting a big cut of the profits the gang brought in from those industries. Arresting them would have taken a great deal of money out of their pockets.
But not arresting them took something far more important from Louise’s soul. It hadn’t taken them long to hear about Louise going to the police about them, and when they did hear about it, to say they made Louise pay for it on absolutely inhuman levels was the understatement of the century. A couple of days after Louise had gone to the authorities about them, they grabbed her again as she was walking up to her apartment building and they held her down and covered her mouth and forced her to watch as they shot a young woman completely at random who’d merely been walking down the sidewalk minding her own business. Then they told Louise in no uncertain terms that that was precisely what she could expect them to do to her husband, son, and mother-in-law if she ever even thought of going to the police again. They also made it painfully clear that if she wanted her family to stay alive from that point on, not only would she not go to the police, but she would also willingly submit to whatever they wanted to do to her.
And obviously, from that day forward, for the next several agonizing and utterly brutal years of her life, Louise willingly allowed them all to physically, sexually, and psychologically abuse her. The young woman Louise had seen them shoot was one of her neighbors in the apartment building and her name was Eve, and like Louise, she too was viciously abused and raped by the gang. Eve actually hadn’t been surprised when she’d been shot, and she hadn’t even minded it because she’d been hoping and even praying for death so she could finally escape from the hell they were subjecting her to. But to her dismay and Louise’s relief, her gunshot wound had ended up being a mere flesh wound and it had taken her a couple of months, but she did recover. Louise had spent as much time visiting Eve in the hospital as humanly possible, and after Eve had returned home, the two women became deeply close, like sisters to one another. They’d been infinitely valued comrades who had depended on each other to help get them through the unspeakable hellish war that had been thrust onto them, that they had never done anything to deserve. Soon after Louise had started benefiting from all the emotional support she was receiving from Eve, she started making a concerted effort to seek out all the other women in their neighborhood who were being abused and raped and while they’d been too terrified to break their silence about it as Louise had been at first, she eventually did get them all together. Although they were trapped in a viciously cruel world at the time, having each other to turn to for support made it incredibly more bearable than it had been enduring it in isolation.
For the next couple of hours, George read about it all. He read about how Louise hadn’t been able to go out of their apartment to work every day or out to run the simplest, most mundane of errands without having to worry about being dragged off and abused and raped somewhere. He read about how they sometimes made a sport out of hitting her and inflicting bruises and burning her with their cigarette lighters, and even with a hot iron on a couple of occasions. He read about how they all took their turns raping her one by one, and how no matter how sick it had made her, she’d refused to resist them because of her powerful love for him and for Lionel and even for his mother, because of her unwavering determination to keep George, Lionel, and Olivia safe from them no matter what kind of hell they put her through.
During that horrendous turning point in their lives and marriage, Louise had dealt with it the best and only way she knew how at the time, and that was by withdrawing deeply into herself and seeking solace in her friendships with Eve and all the other women who were going through it with her. However much her relationships with the other women had helped her though, it was her relationship with Jesus that she turned to the most for the comfort she needed and for the strength to keep going and to survive all those years of unspeakable cruelty and abuse. She’d gotten saved during a Wednesday night church service as a teenager, and her relationship with Jesus had always meant a great deal to her, and she’d always taken things like church and Bible study pretty seriously. She’d never been self-righteous or judgmental, and she’d never tried to force her beliefs about her faith on anyone, but she’d never been afraid or ashamed of discussing her faith with anyone either. But through her teens and early twenties, Louise had often seen God as looking down on her from heaven, as a distant, lofty sort of Being who, although He clearly loved her and all of humanity, seemed too perfect and mighty to her to be overly concerned with everything that took place in her everyday life. It was only during her years of enduring the closest thing to hell there was on earth from that evil street gang that she started to understand and truly began to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ really was Immanuel, God with us, and not only God over us. It was only then that she began to relate to Jesus as not only her perfect and almighty God, but also as a Man who completely understood what it meant to suffer the way she did.
But while Louise retreated into herself and only seemed to find any kind of joy in her life in doing Bible study and going to church gatherings and spending time with Eve and her other friends, it was inevitable that her great withdrawal from life itself caused her marriage to suffer just as much as she did from day to day. In George’s mind, it had seemed that Louise had just suddenly been transformed overnight into a person he didn’t even know at all. He was a typical impatient young man who had obviously been stunned by the abrupt changes in Louise’s personality, and he also couldn’t begin to admit the truth to himself back in those days. And because George was too terrified of facing the truth of what he’d really known deep down in his gut all along about what Louise was going through, he told himself that the rough times their marriage was facing had been entirely Louise’s fault, that she had been the one who’d changed and who had stopped being the same person he fell in love with and married. And whenever he’d complained to his mother about Louise’s overly-emotional, depressed personality and about all the times she’d inadvertently lashed out at him and on rare occasions, even at Lionel, because of the unbelievable strain of the hell she was going through, Olivia had been all too eager to agree with George, that he was a total saint of a husband and Louise was a dreary and unworthy wife and mother who was dragging their family down with her depression.
And because George had been too cowardly and downright selfish to face the truth about the kind of hell Louise was being subjected to, the more Louise withdrew from the rest of the world into herself and into her own private world with her Bible, the more George separated himself from Louise and began to live his own life. It was then, at that distinct point in their marriage, that they’d truly stopped sharing their lives together as a married couple was supposed to do. Louise had been cruelly abandoned by George and left to endure an unimaginable hell with absolutely no help or support from him whatsoever, and George had begun burying himself in whatever work he was doing at the time. After he’d found a job working at a dry-cleaning store one day, he’d made it his drive and his passion to learn everything about running a dry-cleaning store that he possibly could, and to one day start his own chain of cleaning stores and get rich. Since he couldn’t find as much happiness in his marriage as he once did, he decided to search for happiness in materialism, wealth, and position, to fill the hole in his life that he’d successfully deluded himself into believing that Louise had created. Because Louise had become such a depressing person to be around in those years, at least in George’s immature and selfish mind, as far as George had been concerned, it had been she who had abandoned him and not the other way around. And although Louise continued to complain through the years about how little time he spent with her and how little interest he took in sharing his life with her, deep down, he’d told himself that Louise had only had herself to blame for it, that he would have been glad to spend more time with her over the years if she hadn’t decided to be such a dismal person to spend time with in the first place.
But the moment George finally got finished reading Louise’s old diary that evening, he realized he was no longer in a place in his life where he had the luxury of selfishly keeping himself comfortable with lies. It was now literally a do or die situation, and George instinctively knew that if he didn’t face the horrifying truth about how cruelly he’d hurt Louise over the years through his abandonment and self-centered lifestyle and thoughtless, insulting, mean-spirited words, and if he didn’t do it right now, he never would, and consequently his marriage would never survive, and neither would he on the inside.
Olivia listened to George cry for a good while and did not go back to him to attempt to comfort him, not because she was trying to be cold, but because she knew that she had to give it enough time to really sink in for George. After George had cried alone for about half an hour, then Olivia went back to her bedroom and sat down on the side of her bed and began to talk to him.
“George, do you still believe Louise is being selfish? Do you still believe she isn’t trying to look out for you?” Olivia quietly asked him.
“No, ma’am,” George replied in a rough gasp.
“Do you still believe I’m not trying to look out for you, too? Do you still believe I’m in some kind of conspiracy with Louise to try and take a big business deal away from you? Do you still believe that we don’t have your best interests at heart?”
“No, ma’am.”
“And will you finally listen to what your mother needs to tell you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. I’ll start by filling in the remaining blanks for you. I know you’re wondering how Louise was able to establish an entire city like this back before the business really took off and we had a lot of money. You know that after Louise got fired by that old woman, Mrs. Warren, she got another housekeeping job for several months, and she ended up being a lot more than a maid. She started working for this very wealthy man, Mr. Harris, who was a multimillionaire. He was a lonely and bitter old man who didn’t have any family or close friends at all. He didn’t have any brothers or sisters and he was all alone in the world after his grandparents and eventually his parents died. He’d fallen in love and gotten engaged a couple of times, but he discovered both times that the women he’d been planning to marry were just gold diggers who were after his money, and he’d broken both the engagements off after he’d seen their true colors. Since then, he’d been a lonely, depressed, and very angry and bitter man, but after Louise started working for him, she actually got through to him. She genuinely became his friend, and she made it abundantly clear to him that she cared far more about their friendship than his money. A couple of months after she first went to work for him, his health really started going downhill and it had been too much for Louise to handle, taking care of all the housework and helping to care for him every day, so he hired a butler to take care of all the household chores that needed to be done so it would be easier for Louise to look after him.”
“Marco,” George said in a whisper as yet another piece to the jigsaw puzzle of their past fell into place for him in his mind. “I remember Weezy tellin’ me about him. I never met him, but I remember her tellin’ me about Mr. Harris hirin’ this Mexican butler to take care of his house for him while Weezy was his caregiver after he’d gotten sick.”
“Marco had just left his position as a Catholic priest, and he’d needed the work pretty desperately. And he did all the cooking and cleaning for Mr. Harris while Louise saw to what medical needs she could take care of without a medical degree. And as Louise and Marco took care of him and his home, the three of them developed a very deep friendship. After Mr. Harris died, he split up all his money and assets equally between Louise and Marco. During the time they’d worked together, they both helped their boss to accept Christ, and he died in a lot more peace than he’d been able to enjoy through his life. And working together, helping him to get saved and watching him die before their eyes, understandably brought Louise and Marco a lot closer. After Mr. Harris died, Louise opened up to Marco about the kind of hell she’d survived in the old neighborhood, and she told him about the deepest desire of her heart, and that was to build a special place, a safe haven, for all rape and abuse victims to come to, especially children.
“Louise actually kept close tabs on what the gang was doing after we finally left that awful neighborhood, and as you know, it was Bill Kronan who had been the leader of that evil street gang. He raped and abused Louise more than any of the others, so Louise certainly kept her eye on him. The gang eventually made enough money through drugs and prostitution for Kronan to open this big chain of motels in order to make it look as though all his wealth is coming from a legitimate source. But he’s really making his money through the child trafficking industry in this country.”
“You mean slavery?” George said in disbelief, and Olivia nodded.
“As unthinkable as it is, George, slavery did not go out of existence in this country after our people were finally freed at the end of the Civil War. There are a lot of child prostitution rings in this country, in which teenage girls and even small children are kidnapped and forced into the unbelievably cruel world of sexual slavery. What happened to our own people was unthinkable, but what’s happening today is even worse because they’re doing it to children, George. Young girls who have maybe gotten into a fight with their parents and run away from home get picked up on the streets and threatened into prostitution by pimps. They’re told that if they don’t sell their bodies on the streets and make money for them, they’ll go after their parents or their brothers and sisters and other family members and kill them. Hundreds of children, young teenage girls especially, are psychologically manipulated into believing they have no choice but to sell their bodies for sex. They’re very often abused and beaten for trying to resist. They’re held captive. Sometimes they’re even tied down to beds and drugged so it’ll be easier for their captors to rape them.
“And nobody understands the horrors of that evil kind of world better than someone who’s already lived through it, like Louise has. Louise was tortured and psychologically manipulated into becoming a slave, George. And since those days, it has been her greatest dream and passion in life to rescue as many women and children from that evil world as she possibly can. After she told Marco about her dream, he instantly fell in love with it and wanted to share in it with her, so they combined their resources and Louise had Zion built. And after Zion was built, Louise and Marco took the courses they needed to become certified paramedics so they could be qualified to work with all the good guys in the police department to do rescue missions and get children out of that unspeakable world. When she started working at the Help Center, she told the woman in charge of the Help Center all about Zion, and like Marco, she fell in love with what Louise was doing here too, and she started working in concert with Louise and today, Help Center volunteers have the option of splitting their hours between there and here, like Louise has always done.
“There’s one more important thing about Louise that I have to tell you, son. Enduring the kind of hell she willingly chose to go through in order to save our sorry butts from that street gang is not the only remarkable thing she’s done. After Mr. Harris died and left half of all his money and assets to Louise, she did establish this city with Marco, but she did something else first. Do you remember how you were finally able to start your business? That week that I made you and Lionel go to New Jersey with me to help our cousin Anita and her parents get ready for her wedding, when we came back into town, Louise told us about getting into a fender-bender with a city bus, and she told us that the city had immediately decided to settle out of court and had quickly paid her over two thousand dollars so she wouldn’t go to a lawyer and sue them. And not long after that, after being turned down by bank after bank to get the loan you needed for the rest of the money it would take to get the business off the ground, you finally, suddenly got approved for the loan by one bank one day out of the blue.
“I could explain the rest of it to you, but I don’t really believe you need me to. I think you can figure out the rest from here.”
George nodded and said, “There was never any car accident with a city bus. There was never any settlement money. Weezy gave me that money from all the wealth her old boss had left to her when he died. And the reason I was finally able to get that loan from the bank that I needed was because Weezy went to them first without telling me and she cosigned for the loan, and the bank let her do that because they knew how much money she had.”
“And all this time, all these years, Louise bit her tongue and said absolutely nothing about it when she could have hurt you, devastated you, with the heartbreaking truth about the hell she’d put herself through for you, all along. All those times when you went into one of your little speeches about what a great self-made man you were and how you’d climbed that ladder of success rung by rung with nothing but guts, drive, and determination, without any help from anybody, Louise was astonishingly patient and gracious with you and she didn’t say one word. Just how easy do you think that was for her?”
George shook his head and replied, “I don’t think it was very easy at all, but why didn’t Weezy just tell me the truth about where the money had really come from in the first place?”
“Isn’t it obvious, George? If she had told you about the millions of dollars her former employer had left her, just how willing would you have been to let her use the money the way she wanted to? Just how willing would have you have been to not try and take all the money for yourself and use it for your own selfish, materialistic desires? Louise didn’t keep her millions of dollars from you out of any self-serving desire to hoard the money. She did it for your protection, and she did it for your own good. Louise knew that if she told you about the money, she’d never be able to use it to establish the city of Zion, because if she used as much money as it took to get this city built, you’d demand to know what she was using such a great amount of the money for. She knew you’d never let her use up so much of the money without making her explain to you why, and telling you about her dreams for the city of Zion would have required her to tell you about the hell she went through in Harlem for you, and that was the last thing on earth she ever wanted to do because she knew that if you ever found out about it, it would kill you inside.
“She did it for another reason, too. In her wisdom, Louise knew how terribly it would corrupt you if you had access to so much money all at once. She knew that you would be overcome with greed, and that after you’d used the money to start the business, you’d get so wrapped up in it that it would utterly consume you. Think about it, George. Think about the way all these corporate executive millionaires live. They’re consumed with worrying over losing their wealth and their position, and so they waste their lives and their vast resources in a constant effort to make more money so they can hold onto it, when the entire time, that money can be used to help hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, and to even save lives as Louise is doing with Zion. The only thing most corporate executive millionaires care about most of the time is money and how they can make more of it, and they become totally blinded to all the blessings and the comfortable lifestyle their wealth has already allowed them to have. They’re so consumed with making more money in their careers that their own selfish greed is the only thing they ever think or care about, and they can never appreciate any of the good things they have, and most of the time they can’t even enjoy all the nice things their wealth has given them. All they can think about twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, is their addiction to money and power, and even though they may have millions of dollars in their bank accounts, in reality, they’re nothing more than slaves, slaves to their own addiction.
“George, are you honestly going to sit here and try to tell me that even with the smaller amount of wealth Louise has already given to you, it hasn’t enslaved you to an addiction to it? Are you honestly going to try and convince both me and yourself that your lust for money and prestige and power hasn’t overtaken the vast majority of your life since you first became rich seven years ago? How many times in how many ways over the years have you put your own self-centered, greedy desires first before your friends, your family, and especially your wife and your marriage? How many times did you act like spending time with Louise was this horrible burden instead of a privilege? How many promises have you broken to her? How many times have you canceled dinner dates with her and forgotten her birthday and your wedding anniversary because you just simply couldn’t get your mind off yourself and the business and making more money?
“And if giving you a mere few thousand dollars to help you get the business off the ground has already enslaved you to your greed to the point that you would have been willing to sign a cleaning contract with a human trafficker like Kronan, just imagine what it would have done to you if she’d given you access to all of the assets that had been left to her. She was wise enough to understand that if she did that, you would have become hopelessly addicted to greed and materialism. You would have become so completely corrupted by it all that eventually, you would have lost all ability to hear the voice of your conscience.
“Now Louise loves you and Lionel and me, more than I think we’ll ever truly understand, as a matter of fact, and out of her love for us, she didn’t just decide to pour all her money into building and taking care of the city of Zion. She shared her wealth with us. She didn’t turn a blind eye to your dreams the way you’ve turned a blind eye to hers. She knew how you’d always dreamed of starting a business and making enough money to get our family out of the old neighborhood, and once again, in her wisdom, she knew what potential you had. She knew that you’ve always had a great mind for business, as well as the drive and determination to make a business work. She knew that you could make it out of the old neighborhood and run your own chain of cleaning stores one day, and that the only thing in the world you needed was a chance. She knew what you were capable of doing if you could simply be given the opportunity to do it. She knew that once she gave you the money you needed to open your first store, you’d take it from there, and that’s exactly what you did.
“Louise could have hoarded the money if she wanted to, George. She could have held onto all of it herself without ever saying one word about it to us, and after the cold, unfeeling, and downright cruel way we’ve treated her through the years, it would have been perfectly understandable if she did. Louise never had to do what she did for us, son. Never. She could have let us all stay poor, and she could have divorced you and left us behind in the old neighborhood and moved to the East Side by herself, without ever giving you one red cent and the chance you needed to start Jefferson Cleaners.
“You were going on about how you’d always been the breadwinner in your marriage and how you’ve always been the one putting a roof over Louise’s head and food on the table and money in her pocket. You said that every good thing Louise has in her life, she owes to you, but I want you to start getting it through your stubborn, strong-willed, thick-headed skull right here and now that that is a lie from the lowest pits of hell. We all owe the good Lord everything we have, right down to every breath we take, and we owe our whole eternity to Him for sacrificing His very Son to save us, and while we don’t owe Louise as much as we owe God, we do owe her almost as much as we owe Him. Everything we’ve ever had since we left that terrible neighborhood, we owe to Louise, right down to every single breath we have taken since then, because if she hadn’t willingly allowed herself to be raped and tortured by that gang, you know as well as I do that they wouldn’t have hesitated to kill us all. She saved our lives, George. You may have worked very hard to get where you are today, but Louise is the very reason you’ve even been alive so that you could accomplish what you did in the first place, not to mention the fact that the money you used to even start the business to begin with came directly from her. She owes absolutely nothing to you, but you, George? You owe her everything. She is the reason we got out of the old neighborhood, not you.
“And while you’re lying there thinking this whole thing through, you need to think about all the times you were prideful and arrogant and went around with this dumb attitude that you were the sole reason for your success and financial security. I love you son, and I do hate to break it to you, but you are not the big-shot you always believed you were. You need to truly begin to understand just what you have been putting Louise through all these years. You need to understand that although Louise could have told you the heartbreaking truth about everything and cut your arrogant attitude down to size a long time ago, she didn’t. She could have easily shown you her old diary and ripped you to shreds with the truth ages ago, but no matter how hard you made it for her with all your ‘I climbed the ladder of success’ and ‘I’m the man of this house and what I say goes’ speeches, she never said a word about the hell she chose to endure to protect you. She said absolutely nothing to you about any of this when she easily could have all along, and she didn’t say anything because she loved you so incredibly much that she was willing to put up with your hurtful, inconsiderate ways all these years so that you could be spared the intense pain of knowing the truth. Out of her astounding love for you, she was kind enough to you to allow you to have your allusions and let you think that it had been you all along who had gotten our family out of the old neighborhood, when it had really always been the other way around.”
“Why, Mama?” George gasped through his silent tears. “Why did it have to happen like this? Of all the billions of people on the planet, why did Weezy have to be the one to get sick? Why did Weezy have to be the one to have a heart attack?”
“I can’t answer that,” Olivia replied in a deep, emotional tone of voice.
“It’s all because of me, isn’t it? This entire thing, this whole unbelievable mess, is my fault, isn’t it? If I hadn’t been so selfish and inconsiderate all the time and if I hadn’t been causing so many fights and arguments between us all these years, none of this would have happened. But because I had to go and hurt her by being so insensitive to her all the time, I only added to all the stress she was already under with having to care for so many people here. Her high blood pressure she’s had these past couple of years contributed to her heart attack, Dr. Garrison told us. And I contributed to her high blood pressure. If I had just been a decent husband to her, none of this would have happened. Weezy almost died because of all my selfishness through the years. She actually did die for a couple of minutes before Florence and I got her heart going again with C.P.R. Oh God, Mama, I can’t take this,” George said as he began to sob, and of course Olivia put her arms around him and held him as he cried for several long moments. “I can’t do this, Mama,” he said a minute later when he was able to speak again. “I can’t do this. I can’t live with something like this. I can’t take this. I killed Weezy. I actually killed her, Mama.”
“George, we don’t know that for certain. There could have been other things besides stress that caused her heart attack. Dr. Garrison also told us that sometimes, high cholesterol and blocked arteries and heart problems could be hereditary, and you remember that Louise’s mother died of heart trouble not long after you were first married.”
“It’s my fault,” George insisted after he shook his head, and then the hug ended. “I know it is. This happened because of me. She’s been under unbelievable stress her entire life, Mama. She has been through so much, too much, not just emotionally but physically. And everything, every single cruel thing they did to her, was all my fault. I was too afraid to admit it, Mama. I just couldn’t face reality back in those days. I couldn’t bear to think about what I knew deep down that Weezy was going through. I couldn’t stand the thought that Weezy was being raped and abused and that it was all my fault because I’d been the one who’d insisted on moving into that neighborhood to save money. And because I couldn’t take the pain of merely even thinking about it for one second, I told myself all these ridiculous lies instead. I kept telling myself that our marriage wasn’t what it used to be because of Weezy. I actually told myself that it was Weezy who had caused the two of us to grow apart back when we lived in that neighborhood because of the way she’d seemed to change into a completely different person overnight. I actually had the audacity to tell myself that she was the one who had done me wrong and abandoned our relationship. And on top of that, I even had the nerve to tell myself that I was being some sort of saint by staying with her. And on top of that, as time went by over the years, I became so stupid and arrogant and greedy and self-centered, and I only added to her pain with the terrible way I treated her and everybody else, as if she hadn’t been through enough pain to last ten lifetimes back in Harlem already. Oh God, help me. Jesus, help me. Oh God, Mama, what have I done? What have I done?” Again George broke down into sobs, and again, Olivia hugged him and tried her best to comfort him.
“I know,” she whispered, and then she released him from her embrace. “I know what you’re going through, son. I really do. I went through the exact same thing myself a few years ago. I ran into Eve’s mother, Mrs. Livingston, one day a few years back, and we struck up a conversation. And naturally, I had to go and be my typical petty and mean-spirited self and I started criticizing Louise and putting her down, and after she got me back to her place where we could talk in private, she told me all about the hell Louise suffered through back in Harlem for our sakes. And she didn’t pull any punches, either. She told me just like it was, and she really let me have it with both barrels. And not long after Mrs. Livingston had forced me to come face to face with the truth, I started really thinking about our family’s past, and that in turn caused me to start connecting the dots in a way I’d never done before. Suddenly, Louise’s change in personality, her crying spells, her mood swings, her nightmares, her depression, it all started making so much sense. It was then that I finally began to acknowledge the truth about my own role that I had played in this terrible disaster.”
“What are you talking about, Mama? You didn’t have anything to do with this. This was never your fault.”
“Oh yes it was, too. In some ways, I’m even more to blame for all of this than you are. I saw Louise’s cuts and bruises too, George. And whenever I’d come over for a visit and spend a few days with you, I was perfectly aware of the fact that Louise was taking up to five showers a day, sometimes even more than that, and was scrubbing her skin completely raw. And I was also perfectly aware of all the stories of women being raped in that neighborhood. I saw the exact same things you did, and I heard the exact same things you did as well, and I, too, selfishly chose to look the other way and not acknowledge what I knew deep down was really happening. And whenever you’d come to me and badmouth Louise and complain about her and put her down, I was more than willing to help you do it. Helping you blame all the problems in your marriage on Louise and helping you turn Louise into the bad guy made it easier for me to hide from the pain of the truth, just as it did for you.
“And in fact, son, I was even worse than you were. You are largely to blame for all this, but nobody is more at fault than I am. You may have selfishly taken the coward’s way out to protect yourself before Louise, and you may have abandoned her in the very point in her life when she needed your help and love and consideration the most, but I am the main reason why you did those things in the first place. You know how my parents struggled to have a child for a long time before I was finally born and that they were never able to have another child after they had me, and you know how badly they spoiled me because of that. I was an entirely self-centered, spoiled little brat, and I ended up raising you to be the exact same way. I was the one who taught you to be immature and selfish all the time through my horrible example. If I had been a better, more Godly example for you, you never would have even considered putting Louise in danger in that terrible neighborhood for the sake of money to begin with, and this whole disaster could have been prevented. You could have grown up to be a Godly man and husband, and your marriage could have been so much better and stronger than it’s been all these years, and Louise could have been spared so much agony, as well as a heart attack. But because I had to go and waste so many years of my life acting like a spoiled five-year-old, you learned to act the same way. And because a lifestyle of immature self-centeredness was the only thing you knew, that’s the way you reacted to it all – like a selfish, spoiled coward, just like your mother.
“And she is greater than either one of us could ever possibly hope to be. The more I think about it, the more it blows my mind what an unbelievably remarkable woman Louise has always been. She could have told us the truth all along, George. She could have devastated us with the truth of what we’ve done to her, but all these years, she never once breathed a word of it, and nobody would have had more of a right to lay guilt trips on us than she did. I think about all the times, in all the ways I was mean and spiteful and insulting and inconsiderate to her in the past. I think about all the pain I must have caused her with my insulting words, and I begin to realize just how unloved and unappreciated Louise must have felt all this time because of the two of us, and it breaks my heart beyond words. When I think of how unwanted all our insulting remarks and inconsiderate, selfish ways must have made her feel, I just lose it. Sometimes even to this day, just thinking about it makes me cry. We should have helped her. We should have been there for her. But because we were too sorry and too cowardly to face it with her, we left her to suffer through hell on earth all by herself.
“When Eve’s mother first told me the truth about everything, I started spending a lot more time here with Louise in the city of Zion, and I started truly getting to know Louise for the very first time, and to be perfectly honest, I fell in love with her. I fell in love with her kindness and gentleness and warmth and strength and courage and integrity. She’s the most beautiful and remarkable human being I’ve ever known on the face of this earth. And the more I started really getting to know Louise, the more I began despising myself and even you, my very own child, for the despicable and absolutely inexcusable way we’ve always treated her. Because Louise is such a kind-spirited, selfless soul, she wanted to protect you with all her heart. That’s why Louise has hidden such an important part of herself from you all these years, George, because she never wanted you to find out the truth about the hell she’d gone through so many years ago. She knew how badly it would tear you up inside.
“And that’s why I moved here and left the above-ground world and faked my death, because I knew that if I stayed in it and kept coming to visit you and Louise and Lionel, I’d see you being insulting and disrespectful towards her, and just like Eve’s mother, I would totally blow my stack at you and tell you the truth. I wanted to tell you so many times, and there were some times when I’d made up my mind that I was going to tell you the truth, but Louise kept begging me not to. I knew that if I stayed where I was and if kept seeing you disrespecting Louise all the time, I’d never be able to hold it all in and keep the truth from you. But I also knew that if I did that, I would really upset Louise, and after all that dear, sweet angel has done for me over the years, I couldn’t bear the thought of doing anything that would distress her in any way. So I told Louise how I felt and I asked her for help in faking my death. She explained the situation to one of the cops who does rescue missions with Zion, and she got him to go over to your apartment and tell you that I’d been in a cab on my way to somewhere and that it had crashed and caught on fire, and that my body had basically been destroyed in the accident. Louise let you believe that there had been a charred and horribly disfigured body inside the closed casket you saw at the funeral service, but in fact, the only thing you had really buried that day was an empty coffin. And the death certificate you’d received had been faked. Perhaps faking my death, lying to you like I did was a big mistake. I for one really do wish that you would have been told the truth a long time ago, but I simply couldn’t stand the thought of doing something I know went so strongly against Louise’s wishes. But now that I know the consequences of you not knowing the truth, that her heart attack could have been the result of it, I do regret my decision to do this.
“And I know how hard and how painful it is to have to face the truth about the consequences of what we’ve done now, but that’s another lesson you’ve got to truly learn. Every decision we make does have consequences, son. We are incredibly late in life to be learning this lesson for the first time, but I finally learned the hard way a few years ago that the way we choose to live our lives not only affects us. If we live self-centered and mean-spirited lives, constantly insulting the people we claim to love, it does not solely affect us, George. If we spend our lives taking joy out of insulting other people as we so often did with Louise, there are very real consequences for other people besides ourselves. We don’t know for certain if the cause of Louise’s heart attack was thanks to heredity or high blood pressure, but even if Louise simply inherited heart problems from her mother, the cold, hard fact of the matter is, we still did play at least some role in it. We can’t say for certain if it was all entirely our fault or not. We obviously can’t control heredity, but we still made her life so much more difficult and painful than it ever had to be, and that most likely contributed to what happened, even if it didn’t completely cause it. We do bear at least some responsibility in this. And if Louise had died from this heart attack that we helped to cause, I can promise you that the consequences for all the people living here in Zion would have been devastating.”
Olivia sat silently by as George sobbed for the next hour. She could tell just by looking at him that he no longer wanted to be embraced and comforted, so she left him alone and let him cry it all out of his system.
“Answer me just one question, Mama,” George told Olivia in a deep, emotional voice once he’d finally been able to settle down again.
“If I can, George.”
“How on earth can I even begin to live with something like this every day from now on? How do you do this? How can you possibly go on knowing what intense pain we must have caused Louise all these years? How do you even function in life every day? I don’t see how I can anymore, to be honest with you.”
“Well for one thing, George, I go on with my everyday life here at Zion because of the simple fact that I have no choice. I’m still alive, and I’m not a brain-dead vegetable in a coma. I go on simply because I’ve got to. What’s my alternative? Suicide? And for another, I keep reminding myself of the tough truth that regardless of how much all of this hurts me, I still get it so much easier than Louise ever did, and so do you. Think about it, son. You and I may have to live with the painful fact that we abandoned Louise and treated her cruelly in the past, but how many memories of rape and torture and abuse do you and I have to live with? None. Louise, God bless her, is the person who has to live with that kind of agonizing pain every day for the rest of her life. You see George, it may hurt, terribly, to merely have the knowledge of what Louise went through, but ask yourself this question: how hard must it have been to personally live it? I don’t allow myself the option of buckling under all of this because I keep reminding myself that no matter how much it might hurt me, this has hurt Louise far more, and never once has she allowed herself the option of buckling underneath the weight of this. George, if Louise can live with something this painful and still keep going, who on earth are we not to?
“I do it for another reason, too. After Eve’s mother first told me about what Louise had done back in Harlem, and about the city of Zion, thanks to the incredible grace of Almighty God, I immediately began to realize something even more disturbing. He began to really get through to me and help me see that while I called myself a churchgoing Christian woman all these years, I’d only been talking the talk. I hadn’t been truly walking the walk with God at all. Sure, I went to church on Sundays and Wednesdays, and to all the church social gatherings and ladies’ luncheons. I went to church to play bingo with all the other seniors a few times a month. I sang the hymns and I shouted, ‘Amen!’ on Sundays during the pastor’s sermon like everybody else.
“But it was never until I finally was forced to face the truth about what Louise did for us that I truly began to understand the concept of unconditional, unselfish love. Understandably, I’ve hardly been Louise’s favorite person in the world over the years, but even though I stupidly caused Louise so much pain, she still made the decision to love me enough to live through that kind of hell in order to save my life. You see, it’s a very common mistake most people make in thinking of love as just an emotion. There are emotions involved, yes, but you can make the conscious decision to love another person even if you cannot like who they are. Love is an action above all else, George. And if you say you love somebody but your actions and the way you choose to treat that person don’t back it up, then you are not telling the truth, and you are not genuinely loving them. No matter how incredibly hard I made it for Louise to make the choice to love me, and certainly to love me enough to go to those kind of links to protect me from harm, she did make the decision to love me that much. Up until a few years ago, I’d always seen love as just an emotion, and I also realized the fact that all my life, I had never truly loved another person, not even you, without selfishly hoping to get something out of it in return. In fact, before I had to face the facts about what Louise did for us, sadly, it’s probably fair to say that I never genuinely loved another human being at all, not even my own son and grandson, because of all the selfish motives that were behind it. And if there’s anything I’ve learned in all this, it’s that there is no room for selfishness in love.
“When I began truly digesting this, I started to understand for the first time just how much Louise is like the good Lord Jesus, Himself. Just as she made the decision to endure torture and abuse for our sakes, Christ also made the choice to suffer for humanity at the cross. It was because of what Louise did for us that my heart was truly able to understand what it really meant to be a Christian for the first time. I had honestly believed all my life that I was going to heaven when I died because I’d always gone to church twice a week and called myself a Christian. Thanks be to God, the day when Eve’s mother told me the truth about everything, the Holy Spirit was gracious enough to show me the horrible truth about myself, that I was a mere Christian in name only, that I’d never been the real thing, and I prayed with Louise and genuinely gave myself to Christ that day. And had I died before that day, George, I’m telling you here and now that I would have gone straight to hell. I would have been eternally condemned because I’d never trusted in the sacrifice of Christ and in Christ, Himself to pay the price for all my sins against a holy and perfect God. I’d never really given my life over to Him and entered into an actual relationship with Him. And while I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to forgive myself like Louise has graciously forgiven me, it’s my relationship with God that gives me the strength and encouragement I need to keep going every day, despite all the atrocious things I’ve done.
“I won’t try to push you into completely giving yourself to Jesus as I’ve done, because it has to be your decision, not mine. But I will tell you that you will never find the kind of significance you’ve been searching for all your life in your wealth and your business. You’ve had the cleaning stores for years now, but have they honestly given you the things you’ve been searching for so long? If they really have, then why have you never been able to simply sit back and relax and enjoy the blessings you have? Why can you never be away from work long enough to merely take Louise out to dinner a couple of times a month, or to celebrate your wedding anniversary with her? What you’re looking for can never be found in money, and it’s time for you to realize that. It’s your addiction for more money, your self-centered greed all these years, that has caused your life to become the disaster that it is right now. And having even millions or billions of dollars will never solve any of your problems for you. The only thing it’ll do is completely consume you, and as a result, create even bigger problems in your life than you had to start with. And as heartbroken and devastated as you may be in this moment, son, this is only a tiny taste of the kind of misery that’ll be waiting for you in eternity if you keep living your life as a fake Christian in name only like I used to be.”
After Olivia said that, she got up from the side of the bed and started to walk out of the bedroom, wanting to leave George alone with his thoughts for a while. But then the sound of his voice stopped her.
“Mama?” he called to her just as her hand reached the doorknob, and she turned around and looked into his eyes. Then he said simply, “Help.” And thankfully, that was all he needed to say because Olivia knew precisely what he meant. Then she walked back over to him, and he got up from the bed, and they held hands and knelt down together and started praying.
“Mr. Bentley?” a voice called, bringing George’s mind back into the present. It was Angela standing there in the hospital waiting room about an hour later, getting ready to give them another update.
“Yes?” he responded.
“I have some good news. Your wife came through the D. & C. okay, but we’re still having trouble getting her vital signs to come up. They’re still terribly low, and that does have the doctors very concerned. She’s been moved to a room in the ICU on the second floor. You can go upstairs to the ICU waiting room if you prefer, but you won’t be allowed to see her until visiting hours begin tomorrow morning. There’s really nothing anyone can do right now, so it would probably be a lot better for all of you to go home and get some rest tonight.” Once she told them that, she said goodnight to them and left.
“She’s right,” Harry said to them. “You guys should go home tonight. I can stay here in case there’s any change.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Harry,” Helen said. “Of course we’ll stay right here with you.”
“Yes, Helen’s right,” Tom agreed. “You shouldn’t be alone now.”
“And besides, you didn’t abandon us when I was in the ICU myself a couple of years ago,” Louise added. “So we’re not going to abandon you now. We’re a family, and we’ll get through this whole thing together as a family.”
The others all fervently agreed with what Louise said and they followed Harry to the ICU waiting room upstairs, and sat with him for many hours before some of them had to return home. Lionel had to go back home with Jenny because their babysitter couldn’t stay with Jessica all night long and Lionel had to get at least some sleep since he had to go to work the next day, obviously, and Allan left for the same reasons. He too had work the next day, and his babysitter wasn’t going to be able to stay the entire night to look after Rose either. When Louise and George saw how sleepy and exhausted Olivia was getting, they talked her into going home and getting some rest as well, although she did resist the idea at first. Finally, Louise decided to leave a little after one that morning because she was still planning on spending a little bit of time at Zion later on that day, and so she and George could relieve Hannah’s babysitter at last. Tom was planning on taking the next day off from work and Helen was planning on not going to the Help Center so that they could remain with Harry all through the night. Regardless of where everybody was during that horrendous night though, one thing was for certain: they all felt like their entire world had been rocked to its core by an earthquake that would have measured above a nine on the Richter scale, and inside, despite the fact that the earthquake had happened hours before, they were still shaking.

Chapter Twenty-One
Although the holidays were supposed to be such a happy and joyous time of the year for everyone, this Christmas season for the Jefferson, Willis, and Bentley families was understandably on the opposite end of the spectrum. While Louise and George enjoyed sharing their Christmas with little Hannah and with their young granddaughter Jessica, and while Helen and Tom enjoyed sharing their Christmas with their new baby granddaughter Rose, Florence and Harry were enduring the agonizing pain of grief. Florence did recover from the infection after spending nearly two weeks in the hospital, but despite the fact that her body recovered, obviously, her soul didn’t mend nearly as quickly. All the others tried their best to include Florence and Harry in their Christmas in every possible way they could think of, and they frequently went over to visit Florence and spend time with her, trying desperately to help cheer her up, but they simply couldn’t. When her parents had been informed of the miscarriage and of Florence being put in the ICU however, thankfully, they finally became willing to lay all their stubborn prejudices against her marriage to Harry aside in order to be there for their daughter. They stayed with Florence and Harry for several weeks and once she was released from the hospital, they did everything they could to help Harry care for her, both physically and emotionally. They too were clearly heartbroken by the loss of their unborn grandchild, but what hurt them the most was seeing the incredible devastation in their daughter’s eyes every time they looked into them. Their presence and their show of love and support was helpful to Florence, though, and it did make the intensely painful burden of grief at least somewhat easier to bear.
Florence’s parents remained with Florence and Harry through Christmas and New Year’s Day before they returned home at last, and once the holiday season was over and done with, Florence tried her best to move on with her life and get back to normal. In the first week of January that year, she went back to her volunteer work at the Help Center with Helen. And in fact, she not only returned to her volunteer work, but totally immersed herself in it, and in whatever chores needed to be done around the house, hoping to keep her mind off the agonizing pain of her recent loss. Harry desperately tried to take care of all the cooking and cleaning himself and to convince Florence to take it easy, but she simply wouldn’t listen to him and insisted on taking care of everything around the apartment herself.
But one evening after the Bentleys, the Willises, and the Jeffersons had gotten home from either their career or their volunteer work and were hanging out in the Jeffersons’ living room, Florence came to the bitter realization that she couldn’t run from the pain of her problems forever. They were all merely having a friendly discussion amongst themselves that evening, and George had innocently brought up the fact that when he’d dropped Hannah off at Allan’s apartment to spend the day with Rose a couple of days ago, he had really been impressed with how attentive of a father Allan was being with his little girl. When George had taken Hannah over to Allan’s place that day, he’d simply seen Allan sitting in the floor with Rose, laughing with her, talking with her, playing games with her, and loving on her, and he’d also witnessed Rose’s glowing response to all of her doting father’s attention. Naturally, it pleased Helen to no end to hear such high words of praise for her son and his parenting skills, especially coming from someone like George Jefferson.
But unnaturally, hearing words of esteem for his only son only served to make Tom angry instead of happy and proud like Helen.
“Oh, sure, he’s a terrific father, alright,” Tom spat out sarcastically. “He’s working in a job where he’s barely making more than minimum wage. He can barely afford decent clothes for himself, not to mention a child. He never finished college, and that’s really setting a fine example for a young person. I’ll bet you all good money right here and now that Rose will never even think about college because of the lousy example of her father!”
“Now hold on a minute, Tom,” George said, although in a surprisingly calm voice. “I don’t really think you’re bein’ fair, here. I never graduated from college, but that didn’t stop Lionel from studying engineering and getting his master’s degree.”
“And I never went to college, either,” Louise added. “But the fact that I wasn’t a college graduate never discouraged Lionel from going to school and getting his degree.”
“Oh, George, Louise, the two of you are different. You guys never went to college because you couldn’t afford it when you were growing up. You didn’t have any real options about your education after you finished high school. Allan, on the other hand, had all the financial resources and opportunity in the world to finish his degree, and he didn’t do it because he’s a lazy, careless bum without any real ambition or direction for his life.”
“Oh for heaven’s sake, grow up, Tom!” Florence cried out, much to Tom’s surprise, and then she got up from the living room chair she was sitting in and walked around behind the couch where Tom and Helen were standing. George was standing near the dining table and chairs with Louise, and Harry was standing close to Tom and Helen behind the couch. Hannah was nowhere to be seen because she was finishing out her afternoon nap in her room. “I don’t think you have the slightest idea how stupid, how ridiculous, how narrow-minded, and how utterly pathetic you sound to me right now! If you had even half of one brain cell in your skull, you would be on your knees before the Lord every single day, thanking Him with all your heart and soul that you even have the gift of a son in the first place! The only thing you have ever done when it comes to Allan is behave like a sorry, pathetic little spoiled brat! You cry and whine and complain and throw stupid temper tantrums and fold your arms and get all in a huff because your son didn’t decide to live his life the way you wanted him to. Maybe I could understand your response if Allan had run away from college and started doing dope or something, but he has never spent his life doing anything wrong or doing anything to try and hurt other people in any way. He’s simply happier being a carpenter or a construction worker and working with his hands. He simply prefers blue jeans to expensive business suits, and so what if he does? If I were in your shoes and I got to have the gift of a caring Christian young man for a son like Allan, I would be celebrating, not wasting my time crying and whining like a pathetic two-year-old because my son didn’t turn out exactly the way I wanted him to.
“My son is dead, Tom. You need to really think about those words and digest them. My son is dead. My son, my baby, died a few weeks ago. People have this stupid idea that losing a baby in a miscarriage isn’t as big of a deal as it would be to lose a baby after he’s been born, but I can promise you now that that is nothing but crap. Just because I never got to hold my son in my arms doesn’t mean I’m not his mother. If anything, never getting to hold the baby I’d dreamed of and yearned for my entire life only makes the pain that much worse because I never got the opportunity to get to even meet him. I never got to hold him. I never got to rock him. I never got to look into his face, into his eyes. I never got to spend any time with him. I never even got the chance to get to know who he was as a person. I got robbed of all those things,” Florence told Tom as tears were obviously streaming down her face like rivers, while all the others, including Tom, remained perfectly silent. “And if I were in your shoes, if I had the blessing of a perfectly happy, healthy son who’d had such a big heart that he’d been willing to open his home to an abandoned baby girl, even without having a wife to help him out with that enormous kind of responsibility, I absolutely would not be wasting time whining because he didn’t finish college and wasn’t some uppity kind of business executive like you are!”
And with that, Florence flew out of the Jeffersons’ apartment in a clear rage and slammed the door behind her.
“Excuse me, everybody. I’d better go see about her,” Harry said quietly and then he, too, walked out the apartment door. Tom and Helen left immediately afterwards.
The remainder of the evening for Louise and George went by very quietly. They ate dinner with Hannah and they had their usual fun with her at bath-time and bedtime. Although Hannah had never been a big fan of having to go to bed, the way George and Louise always played around with her in fact made it a very fun experience, which in turn made her pretty cooperative when her parents finally did announce that it was time to turn the lights out. And after they put Hannah to bed, they hung out with each other for a while and watched a little TV before they decided to call it a day too.
But at one the next morning, after tossing and turning all night long, Louise had finally given up on getting to sleep that night and she went out to the kitchen and made herself some hot tea. It wasn’t long before George joined her.
“Oh, hi, George,” Louise said after he walked into the kitchen, sitting at the kitchen table sipping on her cup of tea.
“Hey, Weez,” George responded as he poured a cup for himself.
“What’s the matter? You can’t get to sleep either?”
“Not really,” George replied as he sat down across from Louise.
“You want to tell me what’s on your mind?” Louise asked in a warm voice.
“Probably the same thing that’s on yours – that fight between Florence and Tom.”
“Bingo.”
“I wouldn’t really call it a fight, though. I think the best word to describe it would be something more along the lines of ‘massacre.’ She really killed him. She was pretty brutal.”
“She may have been brutal, George, but she was also right.”
“Oh, I agree. She was right. But you got to admit, she really steamrolled old Willis.”
“Maybe she did, but by Tom whining and complaining about Allan and cutting him down just because he didn’t totally turn out the way he wanted him to, didn’t you stop to think that Tom was steamrolling Florence every bit as much as she did to him? I know Tom didn’t mean to hurt Florence. He didn’t think a conversation about Allan had anything to do with the loss of Florence’s baby. He probably didn’t see how the two could be connected or how his complaining about him could be seen as him being horribly insensitive to her, but he was.”
“You’re right, sweetheart. That’s men for you. A whole lot of the time, we simply don’t think before we start flappin’ our gums. The vast majority of the time, unfortunately, the male gender has to learn that lesson the hard way like I did,” George said as he reached out and took Louise’s hand in his, and she responded with a smile.
“Well at least you finally learned. That’s more than can be said for a whole lot of men in the world today.”
“Promise me something,” George said softly.
“I will if I can.”
“Promise me that if I ever end up sayin’ somethin’ to you that really hurts you, you’ll let me know and put me back in my place like Florence did with Tom.”
“It’s been ages since anything like that has ever happened, George.”
“I know, but promise me anyway. I don’t want to run the risk of getting overconfident. If I do that, I could start getting a swollen head again, and I don’t ever want to risk repeating that mistake.”
“Alright, hon. If it’ll make you feel better, then I promise that if you ever say something that’s insensitive or thoughtless like with what happened between Tom and Florence earlier, I’ll let you know and put you back in your place.”
“Thank you.”
“What Tom said did get me to thinking, though. I don’t know, George. It hadn’t really bothered me all that much over the years that I hadn’t graduated from college. I knew as I was growing up that I was a poor black girl living in a poor black neighborhood and that a greater education beyond high school was an impossibility for someone like me, and you grew up the same way. We both knew our families could never afford to send us to college, and so we just accepted it and decided that we’d simply try to do the best we could with what little money and resources we did have to work with in our lives. And up until now, I’d always believed that you and I had done well. We may not have been able to go to college ourselves, but we both busted our butts so we could make sure our son could receive the kind of education that hadn’t been possible for us.
“And I’d certainly never imagined that Hannah would come along into our lives the way she did. But now, I’m suddenly wondering what kind of an example we’re truly setting for our little girl. I want to see Hannah graduate from college someday just like Lionel did, George. I mean, yes, I want to see her fall in love and get married and become a mother, too. And if she decided she’d be happier being a housewife or a stay-at-home mother, then I’d give her all my support, but I don’t want to see her make that choice for the same reason Florence does – because she doesn’t have a college education and therefore, doesn’t have any other options. I’m not trying to be mean to Florence in any way at all when I say that. I love Florence deeply, and I respect her as a person very much, but it’s true. She’s living her life as a housewife because she doesn’t have a college degree and doesn’t any other options because of that. I want Hannah to have options, George. And I also don’t want to see her merely living off all our money and not doing anything with her life, either. Because of how well-off we are financially, she could do that, you know. Hannah, and Lionel for that matter, could live very well off the money we’ve made, even if Hannah never got a job or started a career of her own, and even if Lionel just up and left his engineering career one day. If neither one of our children hold down a job, because of all our money, they’d both be perfectly fine. Thankfully I know Lionel would never dream of doing anything like that, but after what Tom said yesterday evening, I do worry that maybe we’re not setting the best example for our daughter. If when she’s eighteen and she graduates from high school, we talk to her about college and she says to us that she doesn’t see why she should have to get a college education because we never did and we’re living perfectly secure off the wealth the good Lord has allowed us to have, she would have a very real point. We didn’t have enough money to go to college back when we were young, but we have it now. And if we decide not to use the wealth God has blessed us with to get a college education, wouldn’t it be rather hypocritical of us to ask Hannah to do something that we clearly aren’t willing to do ourselves?”
“Yeah, but we’re old now, Weez. I mean, not old-old, but let’s face it. We ain’t teenagers anymore. College is for the young.”
“Uh huh, and do you not realize, George Jefferson, that if I had taken that very same attitude a couple of years ago, our Hannah wouldn’t even have an existence right now? Because starting a family is supposed to be something that’s especially for young people, too.”
George let out a chuckle and admitted, “Yeah, Weez, you got me there. You’re right. But college ain’t just for the young; it’s also for the smart. Lionel was always very intelligent. We could both see that the first moment we laid our eyes on him, and we could see it in Hannah when she was first born too, and in Jessica. But whenever I get a good look at myself in the mirror, Weez, I do not see the word ‘intelligence.’ I’m sorry. I mean, sure, I’ve learned how to take care of a business. I can manage our stores. I can make financial decisions, but I cannot understand all them big, fancy words in college textbooks. I can have a good business mind, but when it comes to college and textbooks and all that, my good business mind turns to mush. I’m simply not smart enough for it.”
“George, that’s a bunch of baloney and we both know it. You are a very clever and intelligent man. You never could have turned Jefferson Cleaners into the big success it is today if you weren’t. And if you’d simply been given the opportunity to finish high school, you would have done just fine. It wasn’t your fault you had to drop out so you could go to work and help support your mother when you were a teenager. I don’t know, sweetheart. Maybe I am being silly. Perhaps I’m making a big deal out of nothing, but what Tom said yesterday kind of got to me a little bit. Hannah means the world to me, George. I love that little child more than I can begin to describe, and I just want to make sure I’m setting a good example for her. That’s all. I don’t want her to be turned off by the idea of going to college just because her parents never did.”
“Weez, you worry way too much. Tom was out of line yesterday, big-time, and you know that every bit as much as I do. You know how things have always been between him and Allan. He always gets angry and upset whenever he talks about him, and he says a bunch of stupid things he doesn’t really mean that he ain’t got no business sayin’, and I believe he knows that deep down. Florence was right when she put him in his place yesterday. I may have been goin’ on a little while ago about how brutal she had been with him, but even though she was pretty tough on him, she was absolutely right, and it’s high time somebody came along and gave old Tom Willis a swift kick in the behind about the way he treats his son. The only thing in the world he’s doing is throwing an old-aged temper tantrum because his son didn’t turn out just exactly like him like he’d hoped he would. It’s about time he started to grow up and get over it and stop throwing a tantrum about it, acting like he’s Hannah’s age. He may not have realized just how insensitive he was being when he was cutting his son down in front of Florence, but really, he should have known better. He should have stopped and really thought about what he was saying and who he was saying it in front of before he opened his big mouth. I sure do wish I would have done that more through the years, myself.”
“I can’t even begin to imagine what Florence is going through right now,” Louise said soberly, and George’s grip on her hand tightened.
“Neither can I. But I think she’s right about everything she said. I for one never even thought about it before yesterday, when Florence really brought it to our attention, but since then, I’ve realized that a part of me actually did used to think that a miscarriage wasn’t as big of a deal for parents as the death of a child that had been born, that they had gotten to know. But hearing everything she said to Tom yesterday, seeing the tears streaming from her eyes, seeing just how raw her grief still is for her…I don’t know, Weez. It just breaks my heart.”
“It breaks mine, too. I wish I knew what to do for her, but I just feel so helpless because I know that in the end, there really isn’t anything I can do to help ease her pain. I was pretty heartbroken all those years that I thought I’d never have another child, but it’s just not the same thing as actually losing a child of your own, whether he’s been born into the world or not, so I know I can’t really relate to her in this. I’m not about to do something so stupid as to walk up to her and try and tell her that I know how she feels, because while I have some idea of what she must be going through, I don’t entirely know what it feels like to lose a baby. I couldn’t have loved April any more if she’d been my own flesh and blood, but it’s still not entirely the same. In some ways, I actually had it easier than Florence because even though losing April really did rip me apart inside, at least I got the gift of being able to get to know her. A miscarriage robs parents of that gift. Florence never even got to hold her son. I can’t even imagine what that must have done to her, what it’s still doing to her inside every day.”
“I know. That’s why I don’t try to mess with her and give her a zinger nowadays. I’m still not the greatest Bible scholar in the world by a long shot, but I know it says in Ecclesiastes that there’s basically a time and a season for everything. There’s a time to do things, and a time not to do them. Florence has always been like the sister I never had. I’ve always loved that about our relationship, the way we pick on each other and give each other insults, because we both know deep down that they come from a place of love, that we’re just kidding around in fun. And even someone as stupid as I’ve been most of my life can see the wisdom of those Bible verses. Sure, there’s a time to mess with Florence and hit her with a good zinger and wait for her to hit me back with an even better one, but there’s also a time to just shut up and love her and be there for her, and it hardly takes a rocket scientist to figure out which time this is. Florence’s baby has just died. This is not the time to hit her with insults.”
“It makes me very proud of you to hear you say that. I’ve noticed how warm and loving you’ve been towards Florence whenever she’s come over here. I don’t think she’s really in a place in her life where she can express it right now, but I believe all your kindness towards her means a lot more to her than she’s able to let on.”
“I hope I make her feel a little bit better, somehow at least. I keep hoping that if we all just keep reminding her how much she’s loved, it’ll make it easier for her to start moving on.”
“All the love and support I received from you and everybody else back when we lost April and Simon is one of the biggest things that helped me to really begin to move on with my life again. I’m sure it’ll help Florence to start moving forward with her life again too if we simply keep loving her and reminding her of how much she’s loved.”
“I’m hoping you’re right, Weez.”
“Well, what do you say we go back to bed and give sleeping another try?” Louise asked after she took her last swallow of tea.
“Sounds alright to me,” George agreed, and then he took his and Louise’s cups and set them in the sink and followed Louise back to their bedroom.
The following evening, Allan rushed over to his parents’ apartment because Tom had called him that morning and asked him to come over and see him the very minute he got off from work. He’d left Rose with Jenny that day as he often did, since Jenny was still a stay-at-home mother and usually spent her days at home, and he knew Jenny wouldn’t mind if he was a little late that night, so he immediately went over to his parents’ apartment after work. Tom almost never wanted to see him or spend much time with him unless he was with Rose, so Allan couldn’t help but be curious as to why his father was suddenly so anxious to have him come over. He half-way wondered if his father had been diagnosed with a terminal disease.
After Allan rang the doorbell, Tom opened the door several seconds later and instantly grabbed him and pulled him into a big hug.
“Uh oh,” said Allan as he was still trapped in the tight hug. “Now I know there’s something wrong.” After Tom finally released him from the hug, Allan said, “Dad, are you dying or something?” At that, Tom laughed out loud.
“No, of course not, son. Come on in. Sit down.”
“Well there’s obviously something really strange going on around here,” Allan said as he walked into the Willises’ living room and sat down on the couch, and Tom sat down on the couch beside him. “You never call me ‘son’ unless you’re actually pleased with me.”
“I know, son,” Tom sighed. “You’re right. Ever since you came back to live in New York, I haven’t acted like I was very pleased with you. As a matter of fact, I haven’t shown you an ounce of warmth or caring at all. I’ve even been downright hostile towards you.”
“Uh…yeah, Dad, that about sums it up.”
“I didn’t even see it until yesterday, how awful and unfairly I’ve been treating you, perhaps because I didn’t want to see it. I think I knew the truth about myself and the kind of father I was being to you all along, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it. But yesterday, a good friend forced me to. You know that a couple of months ago, Florence and Harry were expecting a son, and of course you know all about how they just lost him in a miscarriage.”
“Of course I do,” Allan responded.
“Well yesterday, I got to talking about you, or rather, I got to foolishly complaining about you for no reason, and Florence called me on it. She made me realize how stupid I’ve been all these years. Before Florence told me off yesterday, I honestly had no idea what a precious gift a child is, what a precious gift a fine son like you is. I’ve wasted so many years taking you completely for granted. Florence made me start to really think about just how painful and empty my life would be if I’d never had the gift of a son like you. All my life, I had all these dreams for a son. I dreamed of having a son who would look up to me and want to be exactly like me. But when you came along, as you grew older, you seemed to want to be the exact opposite of me, and that really hurt me and disappointed me and made me angry. But after Florence gave me a swift kick in the behind yesterday, it made me realize what an uppity, stuffy, rigid old man I was becoming, that in fact, I wasn’t behaving any better than my own father did when I first asked your mother to marry me. Sure, I wanted you to graduate from the same college I did and I wanted you to have the same kind of career I did, but I didn’t even realize that by not doing things exactly the same way I did, you were exhibiting the quality I admire the most in another person, and that’s being yourself, no matter what anybody else tries to tell you. You stood up to me, Allan. You went out into the world and made a life for yourself, doing the things you loved to do the most. You didn’t let me intimidate you into trying to be something you truly weren’t inside. I’ve been so stupid all these years. I’ve been a selfish, foolish, stubborn old man just like my own father was. Oh, I’m sorry, son.” Naturally, the instant Tom’s words of apology left his lips, they hugged. And unbeknownst to them, Helen was silently watching the scene unfold…with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Well, you’re not entirely like Grandfather was, Dad. Even if he ever realized he was wrong to treat us the way he did all our lives, he’d never admit it, and he’d certainly never apologize.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Well, maybe there’s hope for old geysers like me yet, huh?”
“Yeah, Dad, there’s plenty of hope for old geysers like you,” Allan said in a small laugh, through tears of his own.
“I’m so sorry because I know I never said this enough, but I’m proud of you, Allan, and I always was.”
“You were always proud of me, Dad?” Allan said in pure disbelief.
“Very proud, son. I was just too stubborn and too stupid to admit it before now. Deep down, I always respected you and admired you for always being your own man the way you were, for not letting me intimidate you into being somebody else. And I came to admire you and love you deep down in my heart more than I ever have before when you adopted Rose. And I admire you and respect you so much now when I see you with her today, when I see what an amazing father you are, how patient and tender and loving you are with your little girl.”
Again they hugged, and they cried together for quite a while. It wasn’t long before Helen joined them and cried with them as well.
Several hours later after all the crying eventually stopped and Allan finally left to go pick up Rose, Tom got on the elevator and rode it down to the twelfth floor and when it arrived, he got off and rang the Bentleys’ doorbell.
“Hello, Tom,” Harry said rather seriously.
“Hello, Harry,” Tom said in the same tone of voice. Tom could see that Harry was standing there in his robe, pajamas, and slippers. “I’m sorry to come here so late. Has Florence already gone to bed?”
“No, Florence is right here,” Florence said as she walked up beside her husband, also in a robe and slippers. “What is it, Tom?”
“I can see you and Harry are about ready to call it a night, so I won’t be long. I just came down here to give you something.”
“What’s that?” asked Florence, and then Tom bent and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you, Florence,” Tom told her after the kiss.
“Wait a minute…after the way I totally bit your head off yesterday, you actually want to thank me?”
“Yes, I do. You finally got it through my stubborn, thick-headed skull what Helen’s been trying to get me to realize for ages. It was because of you that I finally started admitting the truth to myself about my relationship with Allan. It was because of you telling me off the way you did that I finally began to realize what a stupid idiot I’ve been all these years and what a fine young man I have for a son. After all these years of me being stubborn and stupid like my own father was, thanks to you, I’m getting a second chance. It was because of that swift kick in the behind you gave me yesterday that I swallowed my pride at last and apologized to Allan and have gotten a second chance for a real relationship with my son.”
“Well whatever you do, don’t waste it this time,” Florence cautioned. “If there’s anything I can promise you, it’s that the blessing of a good child, whether it’s a son or a daughter, is not something that comes along in your life every day. Don’t take it for granted.”
“Never again, Florence. Never again,” Tom assured her, and then Florence reached out and gave him a big hug. “Friends?” he said just before the hug ended, and after it was over, Florence gave Tom a smile and a nod, and he smiled in return, and then said goodnight and returned upstairs.

Chapter Twenty-Two
A week and a half after Tom finally made peace with Allan, Louise came down with a head cold. She didn’t make a very big deal out of it, but quite naturally, George made a fuss over her like he typically did when it came to anything regarding Louise’s health. Although George tried very hard to convince Louise to take some time off from Zion, she insisted she was still perfectly capable of doing her volunteer work despite the fact that she was sick and to George’s dismay, she continued to push herself. And unfortunately, as she kept on pushing her body too hard, she quickly became sicker and sicker, until a week after Louise had first come down with the cold, even she had to admit that she needed medical help.
At about eleven o’clock on a Wednesday morning in January, after a meeting with all the Zion staff, Louise looked up into George’s and Marco’s eyes with a fear in her own that they’d never seen before. Thankfully, they both knew Louise well enough that she didn’t have to try to muster up energy to try and explain to them what was going on. Both George and Marco could clearly see that something was wrong, up to the point that the usually strong and brave Louise was actually becoming frightened, and they didn’t hesitate to take action.
“George, I’m going to the clinic and getting one of the doctors over here,” Marco said quietly, and George responded with a simple nod and Marco quickly walked out of the empty conference room. Then George walked up to where Louise was sitting and knelt before her so he could be at eye-level with her.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s gonna be okay,” George lovingly whispered as he put his hand on Louise’s shoulder. “Marco’s going to the clinic to get one of the doctors over here. We’re gonna get you some help. Everything will be alright, honey. You’ll be okay. I promise. I’m right here. We’re gonna take good care of you. Don’t worry.”
Louise nodded and leaned forward and put her hands on George’s shoulders and kind of braced herself up against him while she struggled to breathe. George and Marco had instantly noticed in the meeting earlier how careful Louise had been to try to express herself in as few words as possible so she could focus on getting enough air. Being the composed professional that she’d been all these years, she was able to keep her physical condition and difficulty breathing hidden from the other volunteers relatively well, but George and Marco knew her well enough to be able to figure out how she was struggling that day. Louise had gone to see one of the doctors at the clinic in Zion a couple of days after she first got sick in order to appease George, who had obviously been nagging at her to go, and he’d given her the age-old advice of getting plenty of rest and fluids and sent her on her way. Because of so many people getting over-medicated with antibiotics and not finishing the medicine they’d been given after beginning to feel better, and thus creating strains of stronger, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the doctor Louise had seen did not believe in prescribing antibiotics for his patients unless it was practically a life or death situation. George had been outraged, of course, and had pleaded with Louise to go to another doctor, but Louise refused because she felt so silly going to see two different doctors over a simple head cold, and even though George ranted and raved against the doctor Louise had seen, she told George that she could see this doctor’s point. While George agreed to disagree with Louise about the whole issue with the doctor and his views on prescribing antibiotics, he continued to worry himself sick as Louise’s cold grew worse and worse, and Marco had started becoming just as worried as George too when he saw how ill Louise had gotten over the past couple of days before today. But no matter how badly they worried and how much they pleaded with her to see another doctor, Louise was certain that her body would fight the cold off in a few days and that she’d be just fine. Now, however, even Louise was beginning to see that that was not going to be the case.
“Sweetheart, is there anything I can do to help you right now?” George asked gently.
Louise shook her head and answered in a raspy voice, “Just don’t ask me to talk now. I need to breathe.”
“You need to focus on breathing. I understand. It’s alright, Weezy. It’s alright. I’d never ask you to try to talk when you’re having so much trouble breathing. Just try to relax, sweetheart. Just breathe. Just try to breathe as easy as you can.”
In that next moment, after what felt like an eternity to George, one of the doctors from the clinic finally came into the room along with a nurse pushing an empty wheelchair for Louise. Ordinarily Louise would never agree to being pushed around in one, but since she was now having such a hard time with every breath, she actually found herself feeling rather grateful at the sight of it because she wasn’t sure how she’d be able to make it to the clinic otherwise. She was also grateful for all the assistance she received from George, Marco, and the nurse in standing up and getting into the wheelchair. They had supported very nearly all her weight for her, and Louise didn’t know what she would have done had they not been there to give her so much help.
George constantly kept a firm but gentle grip on Louise’s hand as they rushed her to the clinic. The nurse that pushed her didn’t run because she wanted to remain calm in front of Louise and avoid adding to the tension she knew she was probably already feeling, but she along with all the others could easily see what distress Louise was in and how serious the situation was getting, so she walked at a speed that was very near running as did everyone else. After they got her in one of the rooms and lifted her from the wheelchair onto the hospital bed, the doctor immediately started her on a breathing treatment and on oxygen and an IV, and he quickly confirmed that Louise’s cold had progressed into pneumonia. Fortunately, this doctor was not the same one Louise had seen before and he wasted no time in starting her on antibiotics after confirming that her pneumonia was bacterial and not viral.
Thankfully, the breathing treatment and the oxygen mask quickly helped Louise a great deal and in about twenty minutes or so, she found breathing to be much easier. She now said nothing and made no attempts to communicate as she lay still in the hospital room of the clinic that afternoon. It had begun to rain about ten minutes before, and Louise simply kept her eyes closed and rested and relaxed as she listened to the rain. Even though they were underground, since they were still on Zion’s top floor, they could sometimes hear it when there was a thunderstorm. Louise was glad she could hear the rain today because the sound of it really soothed her, as did the gentle stroking of George’s hand on hers. After the doctor had run all his tests and given her the breathing treatment and started her on the oxygen and IV fluids, he left the room and told George it was okay to go back to where Louise was. Once he came into the room, he whispered in her ear that it was him, that he was there with her and wasn’t going anywhere, that he loved her, and finally, that he didn’t want her to try to talk, that he just wanted her to rest. Louise greatly appreciated him telling her that, but she still returned his communication, although it was not verbal. She responded merely by giving his hand a squeeze, and then George brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it, which made Louise give a small smile. She was now so grateful that she could at least somewhat breathe normally, and knowing how much George loved her and that he was right there with her gave her great peace.
A while after Louise easily dropped off into sleep, George finally tore himself away from her side, planning on calling the rest of the family from his mother’s quarters and letting them know what was going on. However, Olivia had already taken care of that chore for him, and he was met in the small waiting area by her and by Helen, Florence, and Jenny. Tom, Harry, Lionel, and Allan were all still at work but they had been notified by the women of the situation and were all planning on coming to be at the Zion hospital with Louise and George as soon as they were able to leave work at the end of the day.
“Oh, hey everybody,” George said to them in a serious voice, and all the ladies stood up to hug him, starting with his mother, naturally.
“How you doing, son?” Olivia asked sympathetically.
“Oh, don’t worry about me, Mama. I’m okay. Just worry about Louise right now.”
“Well worryin’ won’t do any of us any good, child,” Florence told George as she hugged him. “We just have to hang in there and trust in the good Lord to bring her through this, just like He did for me a few weeks ago, and just like He did when she had her heart attack. Don’t worry. God’s always faithful to take care of His own.”
“I know, Florence,” George said in a still deep and somber tone of voice. “It’s just really hard not to be scared now.”
“I know how you feel, George,” Helen said, and then she hugged George as well. “But I know that Florence is right. I know Jesus won’t let anything happen to her. Louise is going to be just fine.”
“I believe that, too,” Jenny said softly, and then she, too, gave him a hug. “God is watching over her now. I just know it.”
“I know, ladies,” George sighed. “I know. I’m trying to be strong for Weezy right now, to trust in God and not be afraid. I know how much she means to Him. It’s just hard.”
“I know it is, honey,” Florence said very lovingly. “But you can do it. You’ve always been strong for your wife in times like these. And I know how frightening it all is, but you’re doing great. You really are.”
“I hope so,” George sighed again, and then he sat down with all the ladies and discussed the overall state of Louise’s condition with them for the next few minutes.
“George, aren’t you going to get back to Louise?” Olivia asked after George had finished explaining everything to them about what had happened with Louise earlier that day.
“I don’t think so, Mama. Not for a little while, anyway. When I left, Weezy had fallen asleep. I don’t want to disturb her. It’s important that she gets some rest.”
“I hardly believe Louise will look on you being there with her as any kind of disturbance, George,” Olivia said. “On the contrary, when she wakes up again, we all know you’ll be the first person she’ll want to see.”
“I didn’t even think about that, but you’re right. I should get back to her. I’ll see you ladies later,” George told them, and then after they said goodbye to him, he got up from his seat and starting walking back to Louise’s room. Once George left, the ladies hung around the hospital for a short time longer, and then they split up. Jenny returned with Olivia to her quarters and spent the next couple of hours with her before leaving to go back home so she could be there when Jessica got out of school, and then she was planning on returning with Lionel later that evening after dropping Jessica off with the babysitter. Ordinarily Jenny would have been looking after Rose for Allan, but Allan had told her that he’d wanted to give her a break for a few days since she’d taken care of Rose for him day after day for ages, and he’d left Rose with a babysitter that day as well. And while Helen had returned to the Help Center, knowing that there was nothing she could do for Louise while she was asleep, Florence had decided to stick around. Even though she and George had always taken great pleasure in mercilessly picking on each other over the years, it was abundantly clear that the relationship and brother-sister type of bond they shared had grown much deeper since Louise’s heart attack. It was also plain to see that the bond of love and affection Florence shared with Louise had become incredibly stronger too, and because Florence had begun to feel very protective of the Jeffersons since Louise’s heart attack, she wasn’t about to go anywhere, even if the only thing she could do was sit outside in a nearby waiting room.
But after sitting in the waiting area alone for forty-five minutes, Florence finally became too bored and restless to simply remain there twiddling her thumbs, and so she decided to walk around the small hospital area of Zion and do a little exploring. And about a minute or two later, she quickly found herself regretting that choice, because she walked past one of the hospital rooms that had its door opened enough for Florence to see inside, and when she walked up to that room and her eye caught a glance of what was happening, it rubbed salt in an already intensely painful, unhealed wound. There was a young, slightly overweight nurse with long brown hair and green eyes, who was sitting in a rocking chair, holding and rocking a newborn infant. While part of Florence told her that she should just let it go and keep walking, her curiosity got the better of her and so she cautiously took a couple of steps inside the room and started talking to the nurse about the baby.
“Excuse me,” Florence said as she hesitantly walked inside.
“Yes? Is there something I can do for you?” she pleasantly asked.
“No, not really. I’m just curious about something. I didn’t know you guys took care of babies here.”
“Well, it is true that we don’t usually have many babies to take care of here,” the nurse confirmed. “But sometimes, the young girls that have been rescued have actually gotten pregnant by their attackers. And when that happens, we do everything we can to offer them support and help them through their pregnancies and deliveries, and then we help them to make the decision of either keeping and caring for their babies or placing them up for adoption. Sometimes they make the difficult choice to let another couple adopt their baby, and sometimes they decide that they can’t take the pain of being separated from their baby, and so they decide to keep their child. If they decide to do that, then we do everything we can to help care for them and to assist them in caring for their babies.”
“Where is this baby’s mother?”
“Sometimes, the girls we rescue have not only been raped, but drugged. That was the case with this baby’s mom. She actually was not brought here because of one of Zion’s rescue missions. The police had caught the men who were raping her in a drug bust. They actually didn’t know that they were involved in the raping and forced prostitution of several young teenage girls. Once the police found the imprisoned girls a week ago, they were sent here, including this baby’s mother. She was around eight months pregnant, and because of the way she’d been neglected and drugged, she was also pretty underweight. It was actually rather hard for us to see it that she was pregnant. And because of all the trauma her body had experienced during the pregnancy, not long after she was brought here, she began going into premature labor. Our doctors tried, but they weren’t able to stop it. Thankfully, the poor girl was unconscious the entire time. Shortly after the baby was born, his mother passed away. Whoever his father is, obviously, he’ll never be able to claim him because he’s going to be behind bars for a really long time for everything he’s done.”
When Florence looked down into the little baby boy’s face after hearing his story from the nurse, to say the least, her heart broke for him, as well as for his poor mother.
“That’s so tragic,” Florence gasped. “Was he hurt by all the drugs in the mother’s system? Is that why he’s here in the hospital now?”
“Unfortunately, yes. This poor little guy’s in pretty critical condition. It happens to a lot of babies whose mothers take drugs during the pregnancy, although we’re all quite certain that this little baby’s mother didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. I don’t blame her for any of this by any means, but as for mothers who do have a choice and choose to get stoned all throughout their pregnancy, it just infuriates me. When babies like this little boy are born, their poor little bodies have already become addicted to the same drugs their mothers were using, and when they cry, they aren’t crying for milk or a diaper change; they’re crying for drugs.”
Tears came to Florence’s eyes the moment she said that, but she quickly took a moment and composed herself again.
“Is rocking supposed to help soothe them somehow?” she asked a few seconds later.
“It can, but a lot of pediatric nurses have discovered over the years that whenever an infant is very badly sick or addicted to drugs like this baby, the more love and warmth and attention they receive, the more likely they are to recover. Rocking may help to soothe sick babies, yes, but the main reason many nurses believe in doing it like I do is because it’s one of the best ways of letting babies know they’re loved. Just knowing that there’s somebody there who’s willing to take the time to give them some love can make all the difference in the world and give them the will and the strength to keep fighting.”
Florence closed her eyes and let out a long sigh and continued fighting off tears for several more moments, and then she asked the nurse, “Has anybody given him a name yet?”
“No. It’ll be up to his guardians to choose a name to put on his birth certificate.”
“You mean the people who adopt him?”
“Uh huh. And here’s where it gets even sadder. Because of everything that’s happened, he’s pretty likely to have some health issues. Mental retardation is also a possibility. That’ll make it very hard to find a family willing to adopt him.”
“But why? I’ve always heard that the reason it’s so hard for people to adopt a baby is because everybody wants to adopt infants a lot more than they want to adopt older children.”
“No, everybody wants to adopt healthy infants more than children of any other age group. Typically, most people don’t want to adopt special needs babies and children like this wonderful little guy. They want the perfectly healthy babies who aren’t physically or mentally delayed in any way. It seems that practically nobody ever has any room in their hearts for babies like these.”
And you, Florence? Do you have any room in your heart for a baby like this? God suddenly spoke to Florence’s heart in that moment.
Before Florence could answer, the baby suddenly started to cry, and the nurse tried unsuccessfully to calm him down over the next couple of minutes.
“Let me try,” Florence suggested, unable to believe that those words had just come out of her mouth. She’d been planning on getting as far away from that small hospital room as she possibly could once her conversation with the nurse had ended, but yet, as she listened to the baby cry, she felt a tug on her heart she simply couldn’t bring herself to resist.
“It’s worth a shot,” the nurse said, and then she got up and let Florence sit down in the rocking chair in her place, and then she carefully placed the baby in Florence’s arms. Amazingly, the moment she did that, the baby’s crying ceased. “I think he likes you,” she told Florence after he’d settled down.
And he may have taken an immediate liking to Florence, but the word “like” couldn’t even begin to describe the depth of the feelings Florence was experiencing as she was looking down into this baby boy’s sweet little face and holding him in her arms for the first time. He was a black baby with dark eyes and a little bit of black, fuzzy hair growing on the top of his head, and the second Florence looked into that face and into those big dark eyes, to say the least, she fell in love.
Florence spent the rest of the afternoon with the baby and helped the nurse to look after him, and while Florence and the nurse had their hands full with the infant, George had his hands full in a different respect. He was hardly as busy as Florence and the nurse were, but he was still dealing with an awful lot from an emotional standpoint. Through the rest of the afternoon and on into the evening hours, Louise mostly slept, and George quietly sat by her bed and watched her. Yes, it had been quite dull for him, but boredom was the least of George’s worries. He’d been fervently praying for Louise all day as he sat in her hospital room, and while he’d been trying not to let his intense feelings of fear get the best of him and to trust that God would take care of Louise, for the most part, he didn’t succeed and he remained terrified of this bout with pneumonia damaging Louise’s health, or even worse.
Louise had done everything she was supposed to do, everything all her doctors had told her to do, ever since coming home from the hospital after her heart attack a couple of years ago. Although she’d still had a tendency to push herself and to work too hard at Zion, she had slowed down in her work considerably and had given Marco more responsibilities to deal with, despite the fact that she had remained in charge. She had also made the difficult, not to mention extremely annoying decision to abide by the diet her doctors wanted to put her on, as well as making the effort to exercise more, and she’d diligently taken her blood pressure medication as she was supposed to. Since her heart attack she’d been doing everything right, and up until that point in time anyway, the results had been obvious in all her doctor’s visits and check-ups. Her cholesterol levels had improved and her high blood pressure had come back down to normal, and Louise had been able to tell the difference. She’d felt renewed with increasing energy and she’d felt better than she had in ages. Over the past couple of years, Louise and George had become totally convinced that all her health problems and issues with her heart were a thing of the past. But now, after coming so far and doing so well since then, it seemed that they were right back to square one, with Louise critically ill, and George feeling agonizingly helpless to do anything about it.
Olivia had been taking care of Hannah that morning as she very frequently did while Louise and George were at work there, and after she’d heard about Louise becoming ill, she’d gotten one of the volunteers to look after Hannah for her while she stuck around the clinic for a little while, waiting for some news. Then after talking with George later on, she and Jenny returned to her quarters once Olivia had picked up Hannah, and the two of them had spent the rest of the day watching her for Louise and George before Jenny left later that afternoon. Shortly after Jenny had gone, Marco stopped by and offered to watch Hannah for her while she went back to the hospital area to spend some time with Louise and George if she wanted to, and naturally, she agreed. And when she got there and went back to Louise’s hospital room and got a good look at Louise, utterly exhausted and asleep, with an oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth, hooked up to an IV and machines monitoring her vital signs, Olivia was painfully and vividly reminded of how similar it all was to Louise’s heart attack several years ago, and she instantly felt as bewildered, frightened, and helpless as her son did. Olivia pulled up the other chair in the room that had been sitting at the right side of Louise’s bed and sat down closer to where George was sitting, and she tried to give him a few quiet words of reassurance and comfort, but neither one of them took those words all that seriously. All they could do was stare the scary sight of a very sick Louise in front of them and feel the deepest anxiety. George could easily sense it from Olivia that she was every bit as frightened as he was, and vice versa.
Later on that evening, once the workday was finally over with, all the rest of the men of the family arrived, and it was painfully obvious that their reactions to the sight of Louise perfectly mirrored those of George and Olivia, and none more so than Lionel. It was plainly very difficult for him to see his mother so seriously ill once again, and while he tried his best to hide it and remain strong for all the others, especially his father and grandmother, everyone could easily see the ache and the fear in his eyes.
George clearly remembered what it had been like the last time he’d seen that exact same look in his son’s eyes over two years ago. It had been a couple of days after he’d read Louise’s old diary and learned the real truth about his and his wife’s past and knelt in prayer with his mother and truly given himself to Christ. Shortly after George had finally had the record set straight by his mother, he’d known that he simply had to do the same thing for his own child. It might have been painful, but he as a parent knew that he owed his son nothing less than the complete truth. While Lionel had always thought well of Louise and had shown her at least some degree of respect all his life, it had also been fairly obvious that deep down in his heart of hearts, he was a daddy’s boy and had constantly seemed to have a higher degree of respect for his father than for his mother. In Lionel’s mind, it had always been George who had been the hero, George who had worked and clawed and fought and struggled to keep food on the family table and to provide him with an education and to get their family out of Harlem, while Louise had merely been an average, ordinary woman, a typical wife and mother who had loved and supported her husband and son as a woman was supposed to do, nothing all that spectacular. Yes, he’d always appreciated her motherly love and affection and concern for him, but as so many young people and especially young men are often prone to do, he’d really taken both his mother and his mother’s love for granted and had seen them as merely average, ordinary things that he was supposed to have in his life. Even though Louise had worked every bit as hard as George to support their family and help them survive and get them out of Harlem, and had taken care of a home in addition to holding down one and sometimes even two housekeeping jobs at once in order to do it, it had always been the man of their family who had really gotten most of Lionel’s admiration and respect. And Louise, a mere wife and mother, had largely been in the background and taken for granted by Lionel just as she had been by George, and both George and Louise had always known that deep down. George had never rubbed it in Louise’s face or anything as would usually have been the case for him because basically, he’d been raised to believe that that was the way it was supposed to be, that as the man of the house, he was entitled to the highest degree of respect, so it was something between them that may have always been known but it was never mentioned. And Louise, too, had just accepted it as an inevitable fact of life, that young men constantly tended to have far more respect in their hearts for fellow men and for their fathers than they did for women and for their mothers, even if that supposed fact of life did really hurt her.
But after reading that diary and getting to know the true Louise for the first time and how remarkably she’d always shined as a diamond for so many years with him being utterly blinded to it, he wasn’t about to let both his and his son’s very flawed way of thinking go on for a single second longer. Lionel deserved, and downright needed, to hear the real truth about his mother, to learn who the real hero of their family actually was and why. Thankfully, while Lionel did have some chauvinistic tendencies that he’d picked up from his father over the years, his overall attitude towards women and their struggle for genuine equality was not nearly as horrendous and clueless as George’s had been, but those few chauvinistic ideas in his mind still did exist. And fortunately, George now finally understood that they had to be dealt with and done away with once and for all. It was high past time for the true credit of their family’s success to be given where credit was due, to God first and foremost of course, and then to Louise. And it was high past time for Lionel to start truthfully respecting his mother, and for that respect to no longer be eclipsed by his feelings of favoritism for his father. As a matter of fact, in George’s mind, he now actually would have preferred it for the tables to be turned and for Louise to be the parent enjoying the bulk of their son’s respect for a while as he had for so long. George had been so miraculously, completely transformed, as a matter of fact, that he now felt more than happy to trade places with Louise and take a backseat to her as she had always done for him through the years, because he knew no one deserved it more than she did.
And after Lionel finally finished reading Louise’s old diary that day, to say the very least, he was shocked and heartbroken. Just as Olivia had done, George had asked Lionel to meet him in her Zion quarters, and after Lionel finished reading his mother’s old diary, George explained the rest of the story of how both the city of Zion and his business had come into being.
“Why?” Lionel said with tears in his eyes after the longest period of silence once George was done explaining everything to him. “Why all the pretense? Why all the lies? Why on earth would she pretend like she’s just an ordinary businessman’s wife when she’s so much more than that? It’s like I never truly knew who my mother really was all this time. Why on earth didn’t she ever say anything? Why wasn’t she honest with us about what she was going through?”
George shook his head in response and replied, “It was never your mother who was the liar, son. It was us. It was your grandmother, and it was me. You were just a child when all of this was happening. There was no way your mother could have confided in you about any of this. No, son, Mama and I are the ones to blame here, not Louise, never Louise. Don’t you ever think that. We were the ones who lied. We were the ones who saw the burns and the bruises on your mother’s skin, who noticed her taking shower after shower after shower, scrubbing her skin raw every single day, and we were the ones who lied to ourselves about what we both knew was happening to her. Just how easy do you think it is for Vietnam vets, for example, to talk about the kind of hell they experienced during the war? Your mother went through the exact same kind of hell, son. It’s more than understandable that it would be so hard for her to really talk about it, except with all the other women in the neighborhood who were going through the same kind of hell she was. It was simply too hard and too frightening for her to reach out to us. No, we were the ones who should have had the moral integrity inside to be honest, with God, with your mother, and with ourselves about what we could all see that she was going through, and we, your grandmother and I, should have been the ones reaching out to Louise to help her. But we didn’t. We knowingly chose the road of selfish cowardice, and we both made the decision in our hearts and in our minds to abandon your poor mother to endure this unspeakable hell all by herself. We knew, son. We knew, and we did nothing, absolutely nothing, to help her.
“Any way you look at it Lionel, all these years, I have been believing, and I have taught you to believe the exact opposite of the way things truly are in our family. I’ve had the audacity to tell you all these years that our family’s story of success was all about me and all thanks to me and all thanks to my years of determination and hard work. That’s a lie from the pit of hell, son. Yes, I may have worked very hard for a lot of years to help get our family where it is today, but for one thing, your mother worked alongside me and she worked even harder than I did. She not only held down a housekeeping job, sometimes two housekeeping jobs at once to help make ends meet, but she took care of us and she took care of our home all at the same time, and Lionel, you know it as well as I do that she certainly never got an ounce of help from either one of us in that department. And on top of all of that, she was enduring the closest thing to hell there was on earth so that you and your grandmother and I wouldn’t be harmed.
“Now yes, it is true that your mother did tell us a lie about where the money to get the business off the ground came from, and I’m not saying that it’s ever okay to tell lies, but your mother kept the truth from us out of her remarkable love for me. It was because she loved me, Lionel, that she went to such great links to keep this chapter of her life hidden from us, and I believe she did it out of her enormous love for you and for Mama, too, because she knew that learning the truth would be almost as painful for you as it has been for me. She only did it because of that gigantic heart of hers, because she wanted to spare us pain, even if it meant keeping all of her own personal pain to herself and going through it all alone.
“Son, I really owe you a big apology, here. I’m sorry, Lionel. I am so sorry for raising you up to believe so many lies all your life. I am so sorry for teaching you so much utter crap and garbage, like this idea that the man, the husband, is the driving force in the marriage because he makes all the money and pays all the bills. I really did raise you with the mentality that husbands are above their wives, that husbands are better than wives, that men are better and more important than women, and therefore, are entitled to have more respect. I believed all my life that because the man is supposed to be the breadwinner, his word is ultimately law, that whatever he says goes and that he has the right to rule over his wife’s life like some kind of tyrant and that he never has to show her one ounce of respect or consideration. I am so sorry I raised you up to believe such insane, stupid nonsense.”
“Oh please, Pop. You know I never took any of that seriously. I always knew that deep down underneath all that chauvinistic nonsense, you really loved Mom an awful lot.”
“Yes, I did and I always will, but in the past, my love for other people, even my love for your mother, has been so messed up, son. God recently taught me that love is so much more besides a mere emotion, that in reality, love is an action, Lionel. And we can claim to love somebody all day long ’til we’re blue in the face, but just how sincere can that love possibly be if our actions towards that person don’t back it up?
“On the one hand, I used to like to make the claim that deep down in my heart, I loved Louise more than the business and more than all our money, but on the other hand, most of the time through the years, my actions have never truly backed that up. Sure, my words claimed that I loved Louise more than the business, more than all our new wealth, and more than myself, but my actions usually said that I had far more love in my heart for myself and material gain than I ever had for Louise. I was constantly breaking promises to her, telling her lies, and cutting her down with insults and mean-spirited words. One time, Weezy even told me that she was so hurt by all the promises I’d broken to her that if I broke the last promise I’d made, which was to not open any more stores and to slow down and start spending more time with her, our marriage would be over. Now you’d think that if I truly loved Louise at all, then surely I’d put my relationship with her first before my own self-serving desire to go out and open another store and make more money when we were already perfectly secure financially. But you know it as well as I do that that is not how I responded. I put my self-centered desires and my lust for more money, my unending greed, far ahead of my wife and my marriage in my heart, and I went out and opened another store and lied to her about it. I actually risked ending my very marriage to your mother over a dumb cleaning store and more money. Just how much love is there for his wife in the heart of a selfish fool like that that would behave that way? I was always putting myself first before others and especially before my wife and my marriage. Weezy was constantly coming last and being overlooked, forgotten, insulted, disrespected, and completely taken for granted. I used to just assume all the time that Weezy would always be there waiting for me whenever I wanted to go and spend some time with her, after I finally got tired of spending my entire life at the office.
“Now, thanks be to Almighty God, I’ve finally woke up and come to my senses and realized that each and every day with Louise is such a precious gift. I wasted so much time, Lionel. I wasted so many days, so many chances to genuinely spend time with Louise and share her life the way a husband is supposed to do. I actually used to see spending time with your mother as some kind of a burden, instead of what it truly is – an incredible privilege. And I used to see it as a burden because my heart wasn’t genuinely with Louise as it should have been. My heart was zeroed in on one person, and one person only: me. And because I was the only person I really seemed to care about, the one place I wanted to be all the time was in the office, so I could make more money and land more big accounts so that the rest of the world would think of me as this big hot-shot business executive.
“Heaven knows that’s certainly the way I used to think of myself, but now, I finally get it. I finally understand the truth, and the truth is, I am not nearly as big of a deal as I always thought I was. I may have worked very hard to get our family out of the old neighborhood, but what I did can never even begin to hold a candle to how hard Louise worked, and more importantly, how badly she suffered. We both owe our very lives to her, Lionel. We owe the fact that we’re both standing here breathing right now to every single scratch, scrape, cut, bruise, burn, and act of rape Louise willingly subjected herself to in order to keep us safe.
“And now, I just want to say that I know that you’ve always respected me and looked up to me as your father, as an example that you wanted to follow. And I also know that just like so many of us foolish males are prone to do, you, too, have had a tendency to think of your mother as taking a backseat to me. Just like I’ve always done, you, too, have gotten in the habit of taking your mother for granted and thinking of all the love and support she’s given us as ordinary and something to be expected because she’s the woman of the family, almost like it’s something that she owes us, instead of seeing it for the precious gift it truly is. Let’s face it, son. When it comes to taking a good woman for granted, we men are the world’s worst. Because I took all the glory for myself and supposedly got our family out of Harlem all on my own, I was the one who got the most admiration and respect from you. Being the typically foolish males we’ve both been all our lives, we’ve made the mistake of believing that that’s the way it’s supposed to be, with men being in the spotlight and women being taken for granted in the background.”
Lionel let out a long, serious sigh and finally said, “You know something? I think you’re right. I had no idea who my mother actually was, what a remarkable human being she’s always been, until now, until reading that diary. I used to just see her as a typical wife and mother and nothing else. I had no idea just how strong she always was, what a great leader she’s been all this time, how brilliant, how creative, so much so that she actually established an entire city, practically a whole unique culture here.
“And unfortunately, I think you may be right about me always putting Mom in the backseat to you in my mind. I had no idea the kind of brutality, the kind of sheer hell she’d put herself through for us. I’ve always appreciated Mom, but I’ve also falsely believed all these years that she didn’t do as much as you did to get our family out of the old neighborhood and that she even had it easier than you did because she’d always had a husband to support her. And because of that, I always saw you as the real star of the show, and Mom as the supporting character in the background. And I didn’t just want a supporting role; I wanted to shine and be the big star in the spotlight like you’ve been all my life. In my own arrogance, I guess, I believed that what Mom did for our family wasn’t as meaningful and important as what you as the man of the family did. I’ve always had respect in my heart for women and sympathy for their struggle for equality in society and all that, but I’ve got to admit that deep down, there’s also been a part of me that’s believed that because it’s usually the husbands and fathers of families paying all the bills, that made women weaker and less significant than men. It’s painful to admit it, but I think I’m beginning to see it that in some ways at least, I haven’t treated Jenny all that much better in my own marriage than you treated Mom in yours.”
George knowingly nodded and said, “I understand that, son. Unfortunately, you’ve followed in your arrogant, chauvinistic father’s footsteps. Thanks to God and thanks to your mother, you did turn out a lot better than I did, but sadly, you also picked up on a lot of my bad habits and attitudes.”
“I know. I can hear the Lord in my mind convicting me about it all right now. You know I went to church with Mom a lot as a kid, and I did get saved. I gave myself to Christ when I was twelve, and Mom sat down with me a lot as I was growing up and read the Bible to me and taught me about Jesus. But then when I became a teenager, it wasn’t ‘cool’ to be a Christian, and because I wanted to fit in with my friends, I decided to put a lid on it when it came to discussing my faith. And then when I started college, I didn’t dare bring up the fact that I was truly a born-again believer in Christ because I would have been the laughingstock of the whole school. I never would have heard the end of it from my buddies and especially my professors. But in the back of my mind, I kept hearing God’s voice nagging at me to come back and start really living out my faith again as I did when I was younger. I kept putting it off. I kept telling myself I’d get back to studying the Bible and going to church regularly and start focusing more of my life on the Lord again one of these days.”
“And what’s God trying to tell you about all of that now?”
“That if I keep on going on like I’m going, I’ll make the same mistakes you made. He’s telling me that I’ll keep solely living my life for myself and not for Christ, that I’ll keep putting off getting close to Him in our relationship again until one day, my life will be over and it’ll be too late. He’s also telling me that what you’re saying is right, that I have picked up a lot of your bad habits and attitudes. He’s making it clear to me that the reason my marriage has suffered the way it has over the past couple of years is because when Jessica was born and Jenny had to focus so much more of her time and attention on her than on me, I was immature and petty and selfish about it and got jealous, that like you, I foolishly believed that my wife’s entire world was supposed to revolve around me and me alone. Sure, I whined and griped to Jenny that she wasn’t paying me enough attention, but was I willing to give her an ounce of help with the baby or around the house to help lighten her load any and give her the chance to rest and relax that she needed? Of course not. In my heart and mind, it was always supposed to be all about taking care of me; it was never about me being there for Jenny and doing anything to help take care of her and meet her needs. He’s telling me that as a husband, I have been nothing but a silly, childish, immature, spoiled little brat. He’s telling me that while I may have grown up in some aspects of my life, you know, finishing college, starting my engineering career, etc., in other ways, like in my marriage to Jenny, I’m still a child who’s been refusing to grow up. Man, Pop…I honestly had no idea there was so much immaturity in me still, even after all these years.”
“Like father, like son,” George soberly agreed, taking a similar painful assessment of his own heart, life, and marriage up to that point in time. “Lionel, I feel the good Lord pulling at my heart right now too, leading me to ask you something. Son, why did you accept that assignment and agree to be transferred all the way over to Japan? I know how strongly I encouraged you to take that position, but you’ve always been strong enough to tell me no in the past whenever I wanted you to do something and you didn’t agree with it or felt it went against your principles in some way, so I know you saying yes to that transfer couldn’t have been because I pushed you into it. There had to be more to it besides you simply wanting to please me. What was it?”
“I was running away,” Lionel admitted at long last, after many months of fervent denial inside. “When Jenny and I got back together after we were separated that time, I told myself that Jenny was going to change, that I’d finally gotten through to her and that she’d heard me and understood my needs and was going to stop focusing so much of her life on Jessica and more of it on me. And she did try for a while, and things were semi-better between us, so to speak, but after a couple of months, things went right back to being the way they were before. And before we even knew it, once again, we were constantly at each other’s throats. And then, I was offered this important assignment overseas, and in my selfishness and pettiness, I thought that if Jenny wasn’t going to give me the time and attention and respect I rightfully deserved as the man and the breadwinner of the family, I’d just leave her and Jessica and go over to Japan for a while. I thought that would surely teach Jenny a lesson. And now, come to find out, it looks like I’m the one who really needs the lesson.”
“I’ll say it again: like father, like son. You sound just like me, and to my shame, that is not a compliment.”
“I know it isn’t. When I accepted that assignment and left for Japan, at first, it was only supposed to last a few weeks. It wasn’t supposed to take all that long. But as I began to realize that it was going to take an awful lot longer than I’d thought, I knew I had to make a choice: Jenny and Jessica back here in the States, or myself and my career overseas in Japan. And because I was petty and stupid, I had my underwear all in a wad and I told myself that if Jenny was going to choose our baby over me, I was going to choose my career over Jenny.”
“Are you listening to yourself, Lionel? Are you really listening to yourself? Do you even hear what you’re saying? It almost sounds like you want your wife to love you more than she loves your own daughter. Just how does Jessica fit into any of this, into your mentality? It almost sounds like you don’t care about your own child at all, like she isn’t very high on your list of priorities, and like you don’t want her to be very high on Jenny’s list of priorities either.”
“And whose fault is that?!” Lionel snapped, and again, George’s heart became shattered at the realization of the painful truth.
“Mine,” George admitted in an emotional gasp. “I have always loved you, son, and you know that. But you’re right. You know just as much as I do that while I did and always will love you very much, for the most part, you were just a part of my life that remained in the back of my mind while I was slaving away at work, trying to make my own dreams come true. Yes, I worked my butt off to get you and your mother out of Harlem, but for the most part, I was the person I was constantly working my butt off for, because I wanted glory for myself. I wanted people to go on all the time about what a great, hard-working, intelligent businessman I was and look up to me as being the hero who beat the odds and got his family out of poverty. I always wanted it to be all about me all the time. And so, I made it all about me all the time. I let my greed for more money completely take over my life, even back before we moved to the East Side. Money and my dreams for starting my business were the only things that ever seemed to be on my mind all day long. It was me, and it was work and making more money first, and the members of my family second, if I bothered to make time for my family at all. Lionel, the way you and your mother were always being put on the back burner by me all these years…just how did that make you feel?”
“How do you think it made me and Mom feel? Like we weren’t important to you, like we didn’t mean as much to you as your career did…like you weren’t very interested in being a part of our lives because you didn’t care enough about us to be there. Oh sure, on the surface, I was happy to play the role of the good son who was always proud of his dad, and it’s true. I was always proud of you, Pop. But deep down, I also really resented it that work always seemed to mean so much more to you than spending time with me did. It made me wonder just how much I really meant to you.”
“And I made your poor mother feel exactly the same way. And here you are today, not acting much better than your father at all. As Jessica grows up, do you really want to be an absentee father to her like I was to you? Oh sure, I never left you and your mother physically, but what’s written on the pages of that diary you just read is proof that I totally abandoned you and your mother emotionally and spiritually. And yes, I do admit it, and I apologize, both to the Almighty and to you with all my heart and soul for being such an absentee father all these years. I’m so sorry my heart and my priorities were always zeroed in on me all the time and not on you and your mother. I know how badly I did you and your mother wrong in my constantly being so self-centered, and I regret it with all my heart, Lionel. I really do. And with all my heart, I do ask you to forgive me. I realize what a poor and terrible example I set for you. I’m so sorry I wasn’t a very good role model for you, son. I’m so sorry that through my example, I taught you to be immature and self-centered and inconsiderate of others.
“But even though I didn’t live out my life as a very good or Godly example for you as you were growing up, I’m admitting the truth about it to God, to myself, to you, and to all the other people I’ve wronged, and I’m trying to accept responsibility for it now and ask for forgiveness from all those I’ve hurt over the years. And in the same token, you have to accept responsibility for the way you’ve sinned against God and against others, especially your wife and child, by confessing it and going to them and asking their forgiveness, and by doing whatever’s necessary to heal the damage your selfishness has done to all the relationships in your life.
“Being a man is not about having some kind of right to rule over the life of your wife like some kind of macho, egotistical, chauvinistic tyrant like I did to your poor mother all the time. Truly being a man, especially a man of God, is not about demanding our ‘rights’ from our wives and families and acting like dictators. Having a Y-chromosome does not give you the right to demand that your wife constantly focus all of her love and attention on you twenty-four-seven and never on your daughter or anybody else. Truly being a man, and especially being a man in a relationship with the Lord, means just the opposite, Lionel. And after all these years, I’m finally beginning to get that fact through my stubborn, thick-headed skull, and if I of all people can finally get it, I know you can. If you want to call yourself a Christian man, son, which is basically what you were just claiming a little while ago that you are, then truly being a Christian man means serving others, especially your wife and child, and putting their needs before your own, and loving them far more than you love yourself, even up to the point that you’re willing to give your life for them if necessary, just as your remarkable mother was constantly putting her life on the line for us. I may not have been much of an example to you in that department, but that does not mean that you have to repeat my mistakes. Don’t repeat my mistakes, Lionel. Do not take any more lessons from my stupid and selfish example any longer. Do not be like I was. Do not listen to me. Do not be like me. Listen to your wonderful mother. Respect her. Learn from her, Lionel, not from a selfish and chauvinistic jerk like me. You don’t have to be like I was. You can be so much better than that, and I’m begging you son, please, be better than that. Be more, be better than your father was. Don’t be petty and self-centered like your grandmother and I have always been. Be smarter than that. Be better than that. Listen to God when He’s correcting you about sin in your life like He’s doing right now. God’s been nagging at my conscience for years, but I just simply would not listen to Him and heed His voice until Louise was lying on our apartment floor clinically dead. Don’t wait for two or three more decades before heeding God’s instruction to you and Jenny’s lying clinically dead on your floor from a heart attack that you helped to cause from all the years of marital stress. You still have so much potential, son. Yes, because of my terrible example, you ended up making a lot of mistakes in your marriage, but you can still turn this thing around. You don’t have to go back to Japan. You don’t have to keep putting your wife and child on the back burner in your mind any longer like I did.
“And you need to learn something else in all of this, too. You need to realize that just because Jenny needs to focus a lot of her time and attention on taking care of little Jessica right now, that doesn’t mean that she’s stopped loving you or that she loves Jessica more than you. It’s not an either-or situation, Lionel. Jenny is perfectly capable of having plenty of love in her heart for both you and your daughter.
“And on top of that, if you would stop whining and complaining, acting like you’re Jessica’s age, and start growing up as a husband and handle this situation like a mature adult and start truly being there for Jenny by lightening her load some, you’ll probably find that she’ll find it a lot easier to spend more time with you. You have to stop and think for a moment about just how much work goes into caring for a small child. What if engineering was never a nine-to-five type of a position for you? What if you couldn’t just go to work in the morning and come home and relax and do whatever you want to do in the evening? What if, from the very moment you woke up in the morning to the very moment you went to bed at night, you constantly had to be working at engineering, that you never got to take any breaks from it? Now, think about what it’s like for a stay-at-home mother like Jenny. How many breaks does she get to take from being a mother? Jenny is always at work, son. Sadly, I raised you with the idiotic and misguided notion that it’s not genuine work if you’re not getting paid for it, but that’s a big, fat lie, and I think deep down, all foolish men like you and me know it. Jenny may not be getting paid to stay at home and take care of little Jessica, but she is working her butt off every day. Instead of trying to hit her over the head with even more demands on her time and energy, why not be thoughtful and considerate and try and help her out a little bit? Why not take care of the laundry or the dishes or the dusting for her while she’s taking care of Jessica? Or why not take care of Jessica for her for a while and give her a chance to lie down and rest if she needs it, and come on, Lionel. What young mother of a baby doesn’t need a chance for a good rest? But if you continue to remain insensitive to her needs, how can you possibly expect her to want to be sensitive to yours?
“I haven’t told anybody this, but a couple of days before Weezy had her heart attack, I had a very upsetting dream. I dreamt about the future, and in that dream, I dreamt that both our marriages ended. I dreamt that you came back here from Japan a few years later, and that when you finally decided to return to your life and your family back here in New York, you and Jenny realized that your absence did so much damage to your marriage that you didn’t think you could save it, and you and Jenny decided to get a divorce. I also dreamed that some time after that, I made enough money in some big business deal to open a whole other chain of cleaning stores over on the West Coast. Just as Jenny was dead-set against leaving the rest of the family here in the U.S. to go overseas with you to Japan, Weezy was also dead-set against the idea of the two of us moving out to California for me to manage my new chain of stores. But I was stubborn and determined to go through with it regardless of how your mother felt, and I basically told her that it was either New York or me. And yes, your mother chose me…at first. But over time, she felt so much hurt and resentment over the way I’d forced her to leave you and Jenny and Jessica and the Willises, our entire family, behind just for the sake of me expanding the business, that it really tore our marriage apart. We even went to some marriage counseling sessions, but in the end, my self-centeredness over the years had done way too much damage to my relationship with your mother, and she finally couldn’t take it anymore and she filed for a divorce. In the rest of the dream, Weezy actually used my alimony checks to put herself through college, and she studied psychology and became a trained counselor. She became financially independent, and she realized there was a lot more to life besides simply being Mrs. George Jefferson…or maybe I was the one who finally realized it. Jenny went on to start a promising career as a fashion designer, and both she and your mother fell in love and got married again, and Jenny had another daughter with her second husband.
“And you want to know where we were and what we were doing, Lionel? We were both wasting our lives in our offices, living for our careers because it was the only thing left in our lives we felt we had to live for. Now some pretty insane things also happened in that dream. I dreamt that your mother sometimes acted almost as dumb as I did and made a fool of herself in a lot of different ways that I won’t get into, and I dreamed that Willises acted like they lost almost all of their intelligence as well, so I won’t try to completely attribute this dream to God. I think a lot of the blame for it lies with Florence’s dinner the night before, but I do believe that Jesus was working with my sub-conscious mind, in the midst of all the insanity of that dream, to try and send both of us a very real warning. Son, I really do believe it with all my heart right now that if you and I stay on the roads we’re on, we’re going to pay a terrible price for it – our marriages. And I am not risking losing a remarkable woman like Louise just so I can get my hands on a few more lousy bucks. Are you really willing to risk losing Jenny over a temper-tantrum that sent you running off to Japan? And whether you like it or not Lionel, we both know, if we’re brutally honest with ourselves, that that’s exactly what it was – a silly, childish temper-tantrum. Are you really willing to keep refusing to grow up and to run back to Japan in another temper-tantrum because you think Jenny isn’t paying you enough attention, despite the fact that she’s constantly caring for a two-year-old and a home and running herself ragged in the process? Are you really willing to repeat my mistakes and be a physically absent father as well as an emotionally and spiritually absent one, only seeing your daughter once a week, twice if you’re lucky, because Jenny couldn’t take your selfishness and immaturity anymore and got a divorce from you?”
“No,” Lionel admitted, with tears streaming down his face. “I don’t want that.”
George then immediately hugged him and told him, “I know you don’t. I don’t want it either. I know how painful it is to face all of this, but we’ve got to do it if we’re gonna get back on the right road, son.”
“I know,” Lionel agreed, still crying.
“I know how hard this is because I’m going through the same things you are right now. I know how much it hurts to face the truth about all the agony your mother went through and the terrible way we’ve behaved all our lives. I know it’s hard, but I promise you, we will find our way back to the right road that we’re supposed to be on, and we’ll find it together. God’s going to help us. I know it. And I’m going to help you, and I know you’ll help me.”
Lionel nodded, and again clung to his father as more sobs hit him, and while George had usually been all macho in the past, now, he was entirely unashamed to hold onto his son and hug him as he cried.
About a week later, after just barely managing to maintain his composure while Louise was in the hospital, the day they brought her home, once all the others had left and he was finally alone with her, he just completely lost it as Lionel and Olivia had. George was going to give Louise the biggest, most meaningful and heartfelt apology ever for all he’d put her through over the years, but when he was finally in her presence at home and had some privacy with her, there were no words in the English language that could remotely begin to cover it. He had already apologized to her in the hospital for wanting to go into business with the very man who had raped and tortured her, as well as for the way he’d always acted, but Louise knew it that George was fighting desperately hard to hold all his true emotions back. He promised her he would never abandon her again and that he would truly share his life with her from now on and do everything he possibly could to help her care for the city of Zion, that she wasn’t alone anymore, but even though he was determined to start depending on God to help him do better, he still couldn’t imagine forgiving himself for everything he’d done. He was still completely devastated over it all, and once he was finally alone with Louise, he couldn’t keep it in any longer and he totally broke down and cried and sobbed in Louise’s arms…for days.
Two days after Louise came home from the hospital, George would never forget it when Louise had come into their bedroom carrying a breakfast tray for him. He didn’t see her carrying it in because he was lying on his side with his eyes closed, but he did hear her soft footsteps walking around to his side of the bed, and he heard her set something down on his nightstand. Then he felt her gently touching his shoulder, and it was only in that moment that he opened his eyes at last.
“What is it, Weez?” he asked in a rough whisper. Because of all the crying he’d been doing recently, he was now completely hoarse.
“Sit up, dear. I made you some breakfast.”
“What?” George gasped in utter disbelief as he sat up in bed and Louise put the breakfast tray over his lap.
“Bon appétit, George.”
“Let me see if I understand this correctly, Weez. You submit yourself to the most unspeakable acts of cruelty imaginable to save my sorry butt, then I act like a rotten jerk towards you for all these years, then you have a heart attack because of all the stress I added to your life, and you just now begin to recover and come home, and you brought me breakfast in bed?”
“Well, had you rather I grab a two-by-four and bang you in the head with it?” Louise joked.
“No,” George answered as he shook his head. “I’d rather you grab a lead pipe and hit me in the head with it. It’ll hurt more.”
Louise let out a little sigh and said, “Oh, George,” and then she sat down on the side of the bed. “Well if that’s what you want from me, you’re in for a big disappointment, because I am not hitting you over the head with this.”
“Why not? It’s exactly what I deserve.”
“Yes, it is what you deserve, but I’m an imperfect, sinful human being in need of salvation and redemption through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ just as much as you and every other member of the human race, and I deserve to have our Lord bang me over the head about all my sins just as much as you may deserve it from me for the way you’ve treated me over the course of our marriage. I’ve committed sins in my own life too, George, but yet thanks be to God, He doesn’t rub it in and hit me over the head about it despite the fact that He clearly has every right to. Instead, He treats me with remarkable grace and kindness and understanding every day of my life, and I know that He expects me to treat you and everybody else the same way, regardless of how they’ve treated me. I have no right whatsoever to ask Jesus to forgive me of all my sins if I’m not willing to forgive the sins of others. So therefore, I forgive you. Now sit up and cheer up and start eating. You haven’t eaten or drunk anything for over two days, and if you keep this up, you’ll really make yourself sick.”
“No, no,” George said as he continued shaking his head. “Weezy, I can’t. For one thing, I feel too sick at my stomach to even look at food, and for another, this just isn’t right. After everything you’ve done for me and the way I made you suffer, I don’t want to see you lifting a finger around here anymore, and especially not for me. I’m the one that needs to be bringing you breakfast in bed, not the other way around, Weezy. This just feels too wrong to me.”
Louise responded simply by picking up a fork and scooping up a bite of the scrambled eggs she’d cooked for him and holding it up to his lips, practically forcing him to eat it, and then she told him, “Too bad. Look at it this way, George. I have just had a heart attack. I’ve just spent two weeks in the hospital, getting my chest cut open and my heart operated on, and being in critical condition in the ICU. I’ve been poked and prodded and sliced open and had blood drawn and IV needles stuck in my arm and hooked up to oxygen, the whole nine yards. Now do you really think that on top of all that trauma and drama, it would be very fair for me to have to come home and worry about a sick husband?”
It was then that what Olivia had tried to tell him really clicked inside his brain. George’s mother had told him that because of the way Louise had never allowed herself the option of buckling underneath all the pain from her past and had constantly kept going, working to take care of the city of Zion the way she did all these years, her fine example had inspired her to do the same. Regardless of how painful it was to realize the truth about the horrible way she and George had treated Louise, like Louise, Olivia never allowed that pain to cripple and paralyze her, and she kept on going, continuously working alongside Louise in Zion, helping to make a real difference in children’s lives there.
And just as Louise’s shining example had inspired her mother-in-law years before, that day, it really began to inspire her husband as well. George finally realized that she was not going to get all caught up in the pain of his hurtful actions and words towards her over the years, and she was not going to continuously hold it against him, nor was she going to use it as an excuse to stop being a wife to him, even though he certainly would have understood if she had. And she hardly was going to use all her pain as an excuse to stop truly living, herself. And in that moment, George knew that if she was going to keep going and keep living, he had absolutely no right not to. He made up his mind from that moment on that he was going to live and love hard as he could every single day for the rest of his life, and that he was going to put everything he had into their marriage and be the best possible husband he could be to Louise, as she’d been doing for him all along.
And just as Louise had thoughtfully and tenderly cared for George in that time in their lives, George now just as thoughtfully and tenderly cared for Louise as she battled her pneumonia. The rest of the family came by pretty frequently to check on Louise’s condition and to make sure George was still holding up alright underneath the stress of it all. Lionel spent quite a lot of time in the Zion hospital area with his parents, and although he’d hardly been very vocal about his Christian faith in the past, now he and the rest of the family clung to it and remained persistent about praying together for Louise and George. But while Lionel did try to hide it and be strong for his parents, George could easily see the fear that had remained in his eyes since the first evening he’d seen his mother in the Zion hospital, and Lionel could see a lot of that same fear in his father’s eyes too.
A couple of days later, while Louise’s overall condition had improved somewhat, she was still terribly weak and exhausted. One of the doctors there actually told George that he was worried that if they didn’t start getting Louise to wake up enough at mealtime to eat more, they’d have no choice but to insert a feeding tube so she could get all the nutrients she needed. Naturally, after the doctor had told him that, he made certain to always be with her when her meals were brought to her room so he could wake her and make sure she stayed awake long enough to really eat. Just as Louise stubbornly but lovingly made George eat that day, now, George certainly didn’t hesitate to return the favor.
Mercifully for George, after Louise had been hospitalized for about a week and a half, she finally recovered enough from her pneumonia to be able to return home. But even though the antibiotics had eventually helped her immune system to fight the pneumonia off, Louise’s doctors gave her some news that she found to be pretty devastating. They told her that they believed that the reason her simple head cold progressed into pneumonia so quickly was because of the fact that she was under constant stress due to all the heavy responsibilities she was always dealing with at Zion, and that that continuous stress was weakening her immune system, so they obviously strongly recommended that she leave her work there behind. They made no bones about the fact that if she continued her work at Zion, there was an extremely good chance that she would have recurrent episodes of pneumonia and other forms of illness since chronic stress was clearly taking a toll on her immune system.
Three weeks after Louise got out of the hospital, she really wanted to spend a little time with the rest of the family, so she invited them all over to the apartment one evening to eat dinner together. Lionel and Jenny had left Jessica with their babysitter before they came over that night, and Hannah was sound asleep in her room by the time they all got there and started eating. And it did not take them very long to sense it that everybody else had something heavy on their minds. George had sent out for Chinese that night, and he, Louise, Lionel, Jenny, and Olivia were all sitting together at the dining table, and Tom, Helen, Florence, and Harry were all sitting around the coffee table with their food. Everybody really started digging in and enjoying their dinner for a few long, quiet moments, but then Louise finally broke the silence and started talking about some of the heavy stuff.
“Everybody, I asked you all to come over here for dinner tonight because…” Louise began, and then she reached out and took George’s hand, “well, George and I have something we need to say. And this isn’t going to be very easy. As a matter of fact…this has been the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my entire life.”
“Well what is it, Mom?” Lionel asked.
“Just before I came home from the Zion hospital, my doctors there told George and me that the reason my cold progressed into pneumonia so easily is because they believe that all the stress I have to deal with caring for the city of Zion every day has severely weakened my immune system. And, they told us that my health simply wouldn’t permit me to remain in my position there any longer, that I had to start taking it easy from now on. So, for these past few weeks, George and I have been doing an awful lot of thinking and soul-searching and praying to the good Lord to give us some guidance as to what He wants us to be doing next.”
“And after all that praying and soul-searching, Weezy and I believe that we finally know what Jesus wants us to do. Some time before Weezy got sick, we both got to thinking and talking about the possibility of going to college. At first, I was against the idea of going to college, myself. I thought I was really too old for it, and I didn’t think I was smart enough. But one day at Zion a few weeks ago, I got to hanging out with some of the kids there like I often do, and all of the sudden, I just started getting this feeling or idea, whatever you want to call it, tugging at my heart, and it wouldn’t go away or let go. I simply couldn’t get it out of my mind. And, it’s recently dawned on me that it’s actually way more than just an idea; it’s God calling me into something. So, with the good Lord’s help and Weezy’s help, I’ll be studying for my G.E.D., and after I get that, I’ll be going into education. You guys know that I know how to act cool and everything, and that makes it pretty easy for me to relate to teenagers.”
“You’re right, George,” Jenny agreed. “You’ve always been pretty cool.”
“The coolest,” said Lionel. “Hey Pop, I think that’s great. I think you’d make a great high school teacher.”
“So do I, George,” Helen said with a big smile. “I think it’s perfect for you.”
“I think it is, too,” Tom said. “You’ve always had quite a way with young people.”
“Oh son, I’m so proud of you,” Olivia beamed. “I think it’s a marvelous idea.”
“I think that’s terrific,” Harry said.
“I may have always gotten a pretty big kick out of picking on you over the years, but I think everybody else is right,” said Florence. “I think teaching a classroom full of teenagers is a very special, but very difficult calling. But I think that if there’s anybody on earth who’s got the perfect personality to relate to teenagers, it’s you.”
“Thank you, Florence. Thanks, you guys. It really means a lot to hear all of you say that.”
“And as for me, Jesus has made it abundantly clear that whether I like it or not, I have to follow the advice of my doctors. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but I know now that health-wise, I really don’t have much of a choice. I’m stepping down from my position at Zion, and I’m handing it over to Marco now. It really tears me up, but I know it’s time for me to leave. And, thanks be to God, I know I don’t have to worry. Marco’s the best, and I know I’m leaving the city in very capable hands. I know he’ll take very good care of everyone.
“And speaking of taking care of people, while I won’t have an entire city to take care of anymore, I’ll still be moving on to something very important, and that’s taking care of my little girl and my husband. If there’s any one thing about leaving my volunteer work behind that I’m actually looking forward to, it’s getting a chance to spend more time with my baby. But even though I’ll be staying at home with Hannah now, in a few years when she gets older, I’ll be going to college, too. I’ve always loved all the volunteer counseling I did at Zion and at the Help Center, and in a few years, I’ll be going to college to get my degree in psychology. George and I believe that God wants us to work together in concert, just like we did at Zion. A few years down the road, I hope to be working as a school counselor at the same school where George will be teaching, Lord willing.”
“Mom, I thought you were going to be taking it easy,” Lionel teased.
George chuckled and said, “For your mother, that is taking it easy, Lionel!” Everyone laughed in agreement, and it was quite true. It was pretty obvious that God had given Louise far more energy, strength, and stamina than a normal man or woman had because He’d known how badly she’d need it in order to take care of an entire city like she did for so many years.
“So what does all of this mean for your business, George?” Harry asked.
“Exactly what you think it means. I’m calling it quits with Jefferson Cleaners. I’m selling the business to Blue Sky Cleaners, but I only agreed to sell to them as long as they agreed not to lay off any of my employees. They’ll be taking over management of the stores at the beginning of next week.”
“In a way, George, I’m almost sorry to hear that,” Helen said.
“Yeah, I think I am, too,” said Lionel. “The business has been a part of our family for years. I’m kind of sad to see it go.”
“Believe it or not, you guys, I’m actually not sorry to be selling the business at all. Yeah, it’s been a part of my life for a long time, but I think we all know that it’s high time for a change. I think you all know that this has been a long time comin’. The business really meant a lot to me at one time in my life, but my heart’s just not in it anymore. I can’t get over this need in my heart to do something more important with my life besides just tryin’ to make more money. I already have plenty of money, more than I’ll ever spend for the whole rest of my life, so to keep worrying about making even more just seems like a complete waste of time to me now. But if I can actually work with Weezy to make a difference in young people’s lives, I’d much rather be doing that.
“Right now, though, after Jefferson Cleaners becomes Blue Sky Cleaners, Weezy and I are going to have another important project to work on before we get started on college. We’re going to Hawaii for a little while…to look for a house there.”
“Look for a house? What are you talking about?” asked Tom.
“My doctors think that all the New York City smog helped contribute to my pneumonia, and they suggested that we move to someplace out in the country where the air is clearer,” Louise explained. “And while I’ve always loved New York, I detest the cold winters we have here, and all my life I’ve dreamed of moving away to some tropical paradise.”
“And that’s exactly where Weezy and Hannah and I are moving to – one of Hawaii’s nice and secluded tropical islands,” George said dreamily as he pictured what life over there was going to be like.
“And we’ve asked Mama to come along with us,” Louise added.
“Hey, that’s great, Olivia,” Tom said happily. “I’m so happy for you. And I’m happy for you and George too, Louise.”
“Thanks, Tom,” Louise told him.
“While Louise is going to be helping George with his G.E.D., and then with college later on, I’ll be helping Louise with taking care of Hannah,” Olivia explained.
“That’s very nice, Olivia,” Helen said. “I’m happy to hear it that you’re going to live in Hawaii, too.”
“Speaking of moving, there’s something Helen and I need to tell you guys as well,” said Tom.
“Are you two moving to Hawaii with us?” Louise joked.
Tom laughed a little and answered, “No, Louise, Helen and I aren’t moving with you to Hawaii, but we are leaving Manhattan. Ever since Florence called me an uppity business executive, I’ve really been thinking hard about the direction of my life. It may have hurt for me to hear you say it to me back then, Florence, but I want to thank you now because I’ve realized recently how right you are. I took a good, long, hard look at myself and at my life after that night, and I realized that in so many ways, I wasn’t living my life any better than my snobbish, stuck-up father had lived his. I realized that I’ve become just like every other uppity, wealthy snob in this world, that I’d forgotten so many of the things I’d wanted to do with my life when I was younger and how I wanted to use my life to really make a difference.”
“And having little Rose in our lives is a constant reminder of the fact that there are so many abandoned baby girls in China who need our help, not to mention the fact that there are so many people there who need to hear the Gospel. For so much of our lives, even though we’ve always loved Christ, we’ve also constantly put Him on the back burner of our minds through the years, and we’ve finally come to our senses and realized that we don’t want Him to be on the back burner anymore. If Tom and I are going to call ourselves Christians, then we’ve recently realized that we’ve got to start putting our money where our mouths are and start genuinely living out our faith, instead of just keeping it in the back of our minds. And being a Christian does mean not only believing in, but proclaiming the Gospel and living it out, not just thinking about it in a church sermon once a week.”
“As you know, Allan did go back to the commune where he was living for a short while after he left New York the last time, but then he joined up with some missionaries from our church and spent a few years with them in China. And in a couple of months, Helen and I are doing the same. I’m retiring from my publishing career, and I’m getting out into the world and I’m going to start really trying to make a difference with my life again. We both are. I’ve finally figured it out that instead of wanting my son to be more like me, I’d be a lot better off if I started following the example of my son.”
“Wow, Mom, Dad…I can’t believe it,” said Jenny. “I can’t believe both you and the Jeffersons are leaving. Don’t get me wrong. I think what you guys are doing is really wonderful, but I’ll miss all of you so much.”
Lionel put his arm around Jenny’s shoulders and said, “Jen, you took the words right out of my mouth. I’ll really miss you guys, too.”
“Thanks, Lionel,” Louise said gently as she put her hand on top of her son’s. “And I will miss you and Jenny and little Jessica so much. That’s why we’re not going to be living in Hawaii all year-round. George and I have decided to keep our apartment here, and we’re still going to be spending our summers in New York, and the Christmas season.”
“And we’ve asked Allan to move in here with Rose after we leave for Hawaii to take care of the apartment for us while we’re gone,” George explained.
“After all, George and I remember how hard it was for us to make ends meet when we were first starting out in life and first became parents, ourselves. So I know moving into an apartment where all the other expenses are paid will really make things a lot easier on Allan financially, although I know he’s always done a great job. And besides, we can’t miss out on watching our only grandchild grow up.”
Lionel and Jenny looked at each other knowingly for a long moment, and then everybody else began to pick up on the vibes between them.
“Lionel…Jenny…why are you both looking at each other like that?” Louise happily asked, but of course, she and all the others already had a pretty good idea.
“We were going to tell you later on tonight,” Jenny began to explain. “A few months ago, Lionel and I started really talking about the possibility of having another baby. And, we decided that we wanted to start trying to get pregnant again. We didn’t say anything about it to you guys because we didn’t want to get your hopes up just in case I wasn’t able to get pregnant again…but I did!” Naturally, everyone let out cries of jubilation the moment Jenny said that. “I’m two and a half months along. I’m due on the twentieth of September.”
“I can’t believe it!” Louise happily cried out. “I can’t believe I’m finally getting another grandchild!”
“I can’t believe it, either,” George said in a laugh. “That’s incredible news, kids. It really is. I’m so happy for you.”
“We may be moving to Hawaii, but I can promise you, we’ll be back here in September,” Louise told them.
“I never doubted it, Mom,” Lionel said.
“And Tom and I will get back here to New York the first chance we get,” said Helen. “Oh, I can’t wait to see our new little grandbaby!”
“I can’t wait, either,” Tom agreed. “I’m so happy for you guys. Heck, I’m even happier for myself! I’ve wanted you two to give me another grandchild for ages.”
“I think we all have,” Louise chuckled.
“And I’ve been anxiously waiting for another great-grandchild, myself,” Olivia said.
“Well, you guys know that there was a time when Jenny and I really did have a lot of issues in our marriage that we needed to work out first,” said Lionel.
“And Mom, Dad, just like you two were talking about with your own faith a little while ago, the events of the past few years have also really made us stop and think about the way we were living out our faith as well. And, Jesus basically let us know that He didn’t like just being on the back burner of our minds, either. At least you went to church once a week. Lionel and I didn’t even go and pay God any attention that often in our lives. Lionel and I have always believed in the message of the Gospel and we’ve always respected God, but until recent months and years, we never really believed that He was all that concerned about the affairs of our daily lives. But now we know differently, and so, we’ve decided that just like all of you, Lionel and I are going to live our whole lives for Christ and not just a small part of them, and we’re going to raise Jessica and this baby to do the same.
“And thankfully, we’re not alone. We never even knew it, but our church has this wonderful ministry for young parents like Lionel and me, and also for stay-at-home mothers. The ministry they have for mothers is incredible. And it really gives stay-at-home mothers like me a chance to hang out with other women and enjoy some adult conversation, and to get away from the house and do something for ourselves for a little while so we don’t go completely stir-crazy.”
“I think God wanted to make sure I learned my lessons as a husband and a father before He wanted Jenny and me to get pregnant again. I mean, let’s just be painfully honest, here. When Jessica was first born, I was a really selfish, immature jerk. I simply was not there for my wife and daughter the way I always should have been. But Mom, when I learned from Pop and Grandma about everything you’d gone through for us, just like with Pop, it kind of left me with no choice but to stop whining and complaining and acting like I was Jessica’s age and to start really growing up. I know I haven’t really told you this enough over the years, but I didn’t just respect Pop, Mom. I have always looked up to you and admired you and respected you. And I’m so sorry for the way I used to take you for granted all the time. And I also thank you for all that your great example has taught me, especially these last couple of years. I don’t think I really could have finished growing up and started truly being there for my family if I hadn’t been given the opportunity to get to know the remarkable woman who wrote in the pages of that diary back in Harlem. I owe the very fact that I’m alive today to you, and so much more.”
Lionel’s little speech to Louise actually caused a couple of tears to come to her eyes, and she didn’t hesitate to give him a big hug and a firm kiss on the cheek.
“He’s right, Louise,” Jenny agreed. “Your example has blessed our lives and our marriage and our family more than I can begin to tell you. You’re really amazing.”
“Thank you so much, Jenny,” Louise said in a deep, emotional tone of voice, and then she reached over and gave Jenny a hug too.
“You guys,” Florence said in the same kind of tone, “Harry and I have something big that we need to tell you, too. There’s going to be some pretty big changes in our family as well.”
“Don’t tell me you two are moving away too,” George said.
“Actually, George…yes, we are,” Harry said with some obvious hesitation. He hated breaking the news about it to them just as much as Florence did.
“Just like you, Lionel and Jenny, there’s also going to be an addition to our family,” Florence announced.
“Are you expecting again, Florence?” asked Olivia.
“No, I’m not pregnant again. At my age now, the odds of Harry and me getting pregnant again is pretty unlikely. But you all know that we’ve been spending a lot of time at Zion these past few weeks with that little baby who was born addicted to drugs. And, just like with the rest of you, God has made it quite clear to Harry and me that He has some new, big plans for us. He wants us to adopt this little baby boy, and that’s exactly what we’re in the process of doing right now. Harry’s hired this fantastic lawyer who specializes in adoptions, and with all of his help, we’ve been able to cut through a lot of the red tape involved pretty quickly. He’ll be ours in a couple of months.” And as with Lionel and Jenny’s announcement, Florence and Harry’s announcement was met with shouts of joy. “We’ve decided to call him Victor, because he is quite a little fighter, and we know he’ll come out of this whole drug withdrawal struggle victorious. We’re calling him Vic for short.”
“But little Vic still does have a long way to go,” Harry said. “And since he’s still got some hurdles to overcome with his health, Florence and I have done a lot of looking and asking around these past few weeks, and we finally found a renowned pediatrician in L.A. who specializes in taking care of babies like Vic who were born addicted to drugs. When Vic is able to leave the hospital at Zion, and once the adoption gets finalized here, we’re going to be moving out to Los Angeles so we can be close to his pediatrician, Dr. Angela Ford. We’ve already talked to her about Vic and about our plans, and she’s agreed to take him on as a patient. The adoption should be finalized in May, God willing of course, and we hope to be settled in our new house in Los Angeles soon after that.”
“Man, Harry, Florence…I wish I knew what to say, but I really don’t,” George told them. “On one hand, I couldn’t be happier for you. I don’t think that any couple could deserve the joy of becoming parents any more than you do. But on the other hand, it kind of makes me sad to hear it because I’ll miss you guys so much. I mean, I know that Weezy and I are going away too, and Tom and Helen, but it just makes me sad to think about how we’re all going to be going in our own separate directions in a couple of months.”
“It makes me pretty sad, too,” Jenny agreed. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe that after all these years we’ve spent together, there’ll actually be a time when we aren’t together anymore.”
“Well everybody, we have two choices,” Louise said to them in a firm voice. “We can either spend our last weeks here together being all sad and upset about leaving, or we can make the most out of every moment and enjoy every second of our time together to the fullest. I’m not saying it’ll be easy. I’ll be just as emotional about all of us going our different directions as all of you, but I say we be happy together and enjoy each other’s presence just as much as we possibly can.”
Olivia got up then and walked over to Louise and hugged her and kissed her cheek and said, “You’re so right, sweetheart. I know that’s what I intend to do.”
Naturally, all the others said the same, and they all got up from where they were sitting and started embracing each other, and it didn’t take very long for it all to turn into one gigantic group hug that lasted the longest time that evening.

Chapter Twenty-Three
When Louise made the announcement of her decision to leave Zion, Marco and all the other volunteers were heartbroken, but not surprised, and they understood fully her reasons for leaving, and just how painful it was for her. While the children had at one time taken her absence from Zion pretty hard, they had visited her when she’d been in the hospital there, and they’d seen for themselves just how sick she’d been, and in the end, even they understood her decision. Marco was perfectly capable of taking over for Louise, of course, and he was completely ready to step into her shoes even though he knew what enormous shoes they were that he had to fill, but there was still one matter that he and Louise had to take care of. Although Marco had taken over for Louise temporarily at times, since he was now taking over her job permanently, he obviously needed to find someone to take over his own position as second-in-command. Since he was now taking over full-time, there needed to be somebody to take over command of Zion in his place should the need ever arise for him to leave his position there temporarily, as it had for Louise several times since her heart attack. For a while, Louise and Marco obviously considered the best person amongst all the other volunteers for the job, but then all of the sudden, one day the idea for someone else just hit her out of the blue, and the more she considered the idea of offering the job to that person, the more she fell in love with it. When she discussed it with Marco, he fell in love with the idea of this remarkable young lady taking his place just as much as she did. When George pressed Louise to tell him who it was, though, she refused because she wanted him to be surprised. Louise had called her and talked with her several times, and once she agreed to accept the position, she agreed to meet with Louise and Marco at Zion so they could start showing her around and start answering any questions she may have about the job. Because both Louise and Marco had made such a big deal about this young lady, George had been on pins and needles, anxiously waiting to find out who it was Louise and Marco had chosen to take over as Zion’s first officer.
And that afternoon in April, when George first walked into the conference room and saw her talking with Louise, he was utterly stunned, and he totally understood why Louise and Marco had made such a commotion about her choosing to take Marco’s place at Zion.
“Is that really who I think it is?” George asked Marco in a hushed whisper.
“It sure is, George,” Marco replied, and then Louise turned her head and saw George standing there.
“Hey George, come over here for a second,” Louise told him, and of course, he walked over to where Louise and the young lady were standing, still unable to believe his eyes. “This is my husband, George. George, I’d like to introduce Miss Blair Warner.”
Blair smiled and shook hands with George and said, “How do you, Mr. Jefferson?”
“Call me George, please, Miss Warner,” George told her, still in complete shock.
“Only if you call me Blair,” she said pleasantly.
“You got it. Wow, Weezy! No wonder you and Marco have been so excited these past couple of weeks.”
“You can say that again. I’ve still got goose-pimples just thinking about having Blair Warner taking over Marco’s old job here at Zion,” Louise said.
“Say, how are you doing nowadays…you know, with the new pump and everything?” George asked as he pointed to his chest.
“I’m doing just fine, George. Thank you. The new pump’s been working great these past couple of years.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m real happy to hear that,” George said.
“Thank you.”
“George, if you’ll excuse us, Louise and I still have some things we need to discuss with Blair,” said Marco.
“Sure,” he said, and then he quickly excused himself from the conference room and went to his mother’s living quarters to hang out with her and with Hannah for a little while.
After Louise and Marco were finished showing Blair around Zion and instructing on her what all her duties would involve, Blair and Marco ended up walking back to the conference room and simply hanging out and talking for some time. Once Marco had gotten to know Blair a little better, it hadn’t taken him long to realize that Louise had found the absolutely perfect person to take over his old position for him there.
“So, are you still a Catholic?” Marco asked her after they’d been talking for several minutes.
“Actually, no. I’m not a Catholic anymore. My best friend and her parents and I realized some time ago that Catholicism is incompatible with genuine Christianity, and we realized we had to get out of it.”
“Good for you,” Marco told her, and Blair let out a small chuckle. “No, I’m serious. You’re right. Catholicism is incompatible with true Christianity. The real message of the Bible is salvation by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and His act of mercy on the cross alone, not salvation by faith in the Lord’s grace plus works. And Catholicism is all about man’s feeble attempt to earn his or her own salvation by saying enough hail Marys to be forgiven by God. It simply doesn’t work that way.”
“One of the reasons I realized I had to leave the Catholic Church is because several priests at the church where I grew up were actually discovered having sex with young boys. I looked up to them all my life. I really believed they were men of God, but I knew that they must not have much of God in their lives at all if they could actually bring themselves to rape small children.”
“You know that I used to be a priest, myself. I saw some of the same things taking place in the church where I used to serve as well. Like you, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I suffered the same kind of sexual temptation that every single Christian goes through, and the life of a single man or a single woman living solely for Christ, especially in a world like this one, can be very lonely and difficult at times. It isn’t for everyone. It isn’t for most people, as a matter of fact. But, regardless of whether or not I was a priest, I knew all along that I was one of those few people that God had called to remain single and to dedicate my life to Him and Him alone. Now, it makes perfect sense why God would do that, because I’ve seen just how difficult and stressful it gets for Louise at times, taking care of the city of Zion and taking care of a family at the same time. We’ve all pitched in with little Hannah and helped out as much as we could, and I do believe we’ve successfully eased Louise’s burdens, but it’s still hard and I know she sometimes feels guilty and worried that she isn’t spending enough time with her little girl. So for that reason, and because of her health, I was very happy to hear it that Louise had finally decided to leave her work here and focus on herself and her family and take it easy in her life right now. But for me, I seriously doubt I could strike the terrific kind of balance between work and family that Louise has, and so I know how wise God was to call me into living a single life for Him. That way, it makes it all so much easier to devote the kind of time and attention to Zion that I need to, without dealing with the added stress of all the responsibilities that come with raising a family.”
“I understand exactly what you’re saying, Marco. I don’t know for certain yet, but I’m pretty convinced that God never meant for me to get married and have a family of my own, although I don’t dare let my mother hear me say that, of course. And I definitely do not have to worry about dealing with the temptation to have sex before marriage, because obviously, as you well know, my uncle cured me of that a very long time ago. Sex has always been a pretty traumatic experience for me, and if it’s all the same to the Almighty, it’s one I’d just assume never repeat. Now I’ll admit, it may be His will for me to get married to a Christian husband one day and to work to overcome my dread and terror of sex, and it may even be His will for me to have children, but the more I think about it these days, the happier I am about the thought of simply remaining single.”
“My dear Blair, it hurts my heart to hear how you’ve always suffered. And I think what you said is proof of why God never meant for sex to ever take place except between one man and one woman in marriage. I think that sex is such a meaningful and powerful thing that if it’s ever abused and used in other ways except between a married man and woman, it can lead to all sorts of perversion in society. That’s why I’m against pre-marital sex, homosexuality, and all other forms of sex that take place outside of one man and one woman in marriage, the way God intended it. That’s why I firmly believe that any sexual act outside of one man and one woman in marriage is a perversion of the way God intended sex to be, and that one form of sexual perversion will naturally lead to another. And in fact, we’re already seeing it. Tragically, cases like yours are not nearly as uncommon as they used to be. Women being raped and children being molested is practically commonplace these days, and it just breaks my heart.”
“It breaks mine, too. That’s why I’m taking your old position. When I made the choice to leave the Catholic Church, the Sisters at St. Mary’s turned their backs on me, and they even forbade me from continuing my work there. To say the least, that really tore me up. But when I think of living and working here, doing what you do every day, it makes me happier than I’ve been in ages. That’s why my adoptive parents are so supportive of me reducing my workload at college down to a part-time status for a while. I’ll only be enrolled in a couple of correspondence courses for the next few semesters or so while I’m living and working here. They both agree with me that the happiness and fulfillment I know I can find here in Zion is way more important than an art degree at the moment.”
“Well Blair, I think I can speak for everybody here when I say that Zion is more than delighted to have you join us. And I know your parents have got to be proud of you. Speaking of your parents, didn’t I hear something a while back about them legally adopting you?”
“Yes, that’s right, as a matter of fact. A few months after I got my new heart transplant, I sat down with my mother and father and we all really talked about it, and even though I’m not a minor anymore and it’s hardly an issue of custody, we realized how much we wanted it to be legally recognized that they’re my parents, so we went through all the proper procedures and Edna and Charles legally adopted me.”
“I think that’s wonderful, Blair. I’m so happy for your parents. They’re so blessed. I must admit, I’m a bit jealous. Even though I know God has called me to be single, I’d give just about anything for a remarkable daughter like you.”
“Well, you can be my stepfather or something,” Blair joked and Marco let out a big laugh. “There’s always room for more family members in the body of Christ, right?”
“Absolutely,” Marco said with a smile, and then he put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek.
After Blair and Marco talked a little while longer, Blair called it a day at last and returned home. Then a couple of weeks later in May, Louise had all her furniture and things moved out of her living quarters at Zion so that Blair could move in. Since Marco was now assuming command of Zion, he could easily have decided to move into Louise’s quarters and he could have turned his own living quarters over to Blair, but Marco was perfectly happy to stay where he was, so Louise decided to allow Blair to have her place.
The morning of the day before Blair was scheduled to be moving in, she, Louise, and all the rest of the family stood in the middle of Louise’s totally empty living room of her underground Zion apartment. The purple walls that had been filled with lovely pictures were now bare, and the sound of everybody’s feet on the equally bare hardwood floor seemed to echo through the empty living space. To say the least, it was a pretty emotional and bittersweet moment for all of them.
“I don’t even know what to say, you guys,” Marco gasped. “Seventeen years, Louise,” he said as his eyes locked with hers. “Seventeen years, you and I have lived and worked together in this place, trying to make a real difference in children’s lives. I can’t believe our time together has finally come to an end.”
“I know,” Louise said through her eyes, and then without saying another word, she and Marco grabbed each other and held onto one another in a tight hug, and cried for several long moments. “You’ve always been my closest friend here,” she told him as she was still crying. “I know I never could have come this far with Zion without you. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been here with me over the years.”
“That goes ditto for me, Louise,” Marco said as he, too, cried his eyes out. “You’ve always been my best friend. Nobody’s ever understood me the way you have. You taught me so much. I’ve grown so much as a Christian and as a man because of you. You’ve always been such an incredible example to me, and an inspiration. I’ve always wanted to be the best Christian, the best human being, the best volunteer that I possibly could be every second of every day of my life here because of you. You helped me become such a better person than I was before I met you. Thank you, Louise,” Marco gasped with tears streaming down his face, and then he kissed her cheek and released her from his embrace and left the apartment.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Mom,” Lionel told her in the same deep, emotional voice. “Marco pretty much said it all. I love you, and I love Pop so much, and I’ve learned so much from you. Thank you for always being such a remarkable Christian example for Pop and me all these years. Thank you for teaching us both what it truly means to be a Christian, that it’s not just being some Bible-thumper like I used to believe, that it’s sacrificing for the good of others, even when they don’t appreciate it or make it very easy for you. Thank you so much for your courage and your strength and your honesty. And most of all, thank you for putting up with me all these years,” Lionel said in a laugh, but Louise responded with a loving kiss on the cheek and a big hug. Then Louise let go a few moments later, and George hugged him and kissed him as well.
“I am so proud of you, son,” George said with tears coming to his eyes. “Both your mother and I are. You’ve really become a man. You’re a fine husband, father, and provider, and you’re becoming a fine Christian, too. Your mother and I are going to miss you more than I can even begin to tell you.”
“But we’re going to be back here again very soon,” said Louise. “And we’re going to be back here just as often as we can. I’d never want to miss out on watching my granddaughter and my soon-to-be-born grandson growing up for anything in this world.” Lionel and Jenny had decided that they wanted to know the baby’s gender, and they’d recently learned from the ultrasound Jenny had had that they were expecting a baby boy.
“And I wouldn’t want to miss it for anything, either,” Olivia agreed, and then she handed Hannah over to Louise and walked up to Lionel and Jenny and hugged and kissed them, and patted Jenny’s growing pregnancy stomach. “Your father’s right, Lionel. You’ve really become a man now, and a good one, and you’re taking care of your family and raising your children in the Lord just like we’re all supposed to, and I am so proud of you. We all are. And like your parents, your grandmother is really going to miss you,” Olivia said as more tears came to her eyes, and she quickly got some Kleenex from her purse and wiped her eyes and nose.
“And speaking of babies, here’s somebody else I’m really going to miss,” George said as he walked up to Harry and gently took baby Vic from Harry’s arms into his own for a minute. “Hey there, little Vic. It’s your Uncle George. Since you and your mommy and daddy are leaving for L.A. tomorrow, I know this is the last chance I’ll get to do this for a while, so I wanted to take the opportunity to remind you of some important things while I still could. The most important thing I want you to remember is to always steer clear of your mommy at any time in the morning before noon.” Of course when George said that, everybody chuckled and Florence rolled her eyes. “If you dare to look at her face before then, the sight of it’ll be so revolting, you’ll be sick for days! And on nights when she doesn’t get enough beauty sleep, don’t even look at her at all the next day. Just keep your eyes closed all day long. If you don’t, the sight’ll be so terrible, it could cause you to go blind!”
“Oh, shut up, you!” Florence cried out while everybody was still laughing pretty hard. “And quit corrupting my child,” she said as she took baby Vic into her arms. “Vic, baby, remember what I told you about your Uncle George. He hasn’t been the same since he escaped from the insane asylum a few years ago. He’s a total lunatic, and you can never take anything he says very seriously.” Again, everybody laughed.
“Some things in life never change, and that includes George and Florence giving each other zingers,” Allan observed. And just as Louise was holding Hannah and Florence was holding Vic, Allan was holding little Rose in his arms.
“Speaking of giving somebody zingers, Allan, I heard that you and George used to really go at it playing the dozens with each other,” said Blair.
“We sure did,” George confirmed. “And this dude really surprised me, too. For a dude that’s half-white, he’s actually pretty good.”
In that moment, there was a knock at the door and Blair answered it. She gave a bright smile when she saw that it was her mother, Edna Garrett, who had come to help her start moving some of her things into Louise’s place that day once everybody else had left.
“Hey, Mom,” she greeted her with a big smile.
“Hey, baby,” Edna said happily as she gave her a big hug and kissed her cheek. “Well, are you ready to get started moving?”
“Not just yet. Everybody’s saying goodbye first,” Blair explained, and Edna nodded. “Guys, I’d like to introduce you to my wonderful mom, Mrs. Edna Garrett. Mama, you know Louise.”
“Yes, Louise, it’s great to see you again,” Edna said warmly as she walked up to Louise and shook hands with her.
“It’s great to see you again too, Edna,” Louise responded with the same warmth and smile. “I don’t believe you’ve met George Jefferson, my husband,” she said, and then Edna shook hands with George and told him hello. “And this is our little girl, Hannah. And this is my mother-in-law, Olivia Jefferson, my son Lionel, his wife Jenny, and my granddaughter, Jessica.” Edna met her gaze with theirs and gave them all knowing nods. “And these are Jenny’s parents and my best friends, Tom and Helen Willis, their son Allan and his daughter Rose, and these are our friends, Harry and Florence Bentley and their new baby son, little Vic.” Again, Edna gave them all acknowledging nods and they did the same, not really having time to all shake hands with her.
“Anyway, George, about the dozens, how much would you be willing to bet that a girl that’s fully white would be able to do as well as Allan did?” Blair asked him with an obvious hint of mischief in her eyes.
“Are you saying you want to take me on in the dozens, Blair Warner?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, George Jefferson,” Blair said with an air of confidence.
“Alright, little rich white girl. Take me on if you dare. But we all know I’ll beat you in this game so bad, just hearing the word ‘dozen’ will give you a scare.”
“You know, you old rich black man, you really seem to think you’re the boast of heaven. But I’m here to tell you now that that’s a mighty big ego for a guy who’s only four-feet-eleven.” Of course the instant Blair said that, all the others laughed out loud and none more so than Edna.
“Uh oh,” George said with a familiar lively gleam in his eyes and smile. “Give me room, you guys. Give me room,” he told them, and naturally, everybody backed away from where George and Blair were standing, giving them more room to themselves for their latest round of the dozens. “Alright, you little prissy white girl, now hear this. You may be smart and you may be clever, but when it comes to having soul, that mark you still miss.”
“I miss the mark of having soul, you say? We’ll see who has problems with soul when the doctors from the insane asylum come to take you away,” Blair quickly fired back, and Florence instantly gave Vic back to Harry and rushed over to Blair and kissed her on the cheek, and quite naturally, everybody else completely cracked up.
“You say I ain’t playin’ with a full deck, and that may actually be somewhat true. But I’d rather be a little crazy than be a bleach-blonde like you.”
“Oooo,” everybody else responded, but thankfully, Blair took it perfectly in stride.
“Yes, I am a bleach-blonde, and that fact of my life I do admit. But at least I don’t have such a lack of hair that I take one look in the mirror when I style it and instantly have to quit.”
Yet again all the others cracked up, and this time, even George laughed out loud. Then he walked up to Blair and held out his hands, and she knowingly gave him five, and then he gave five to her.
“You win, Blair,” he conceded as he was still laughing, and then he hugged her. “Not bad, kid. Not bad at all. You’ve got a lot of soul for a white chick.”
“Thank you, George.”
Edna then walked up to Blair and proudly put her arm around her shoulders and said, “She’s got a lot of soul, period, regardless of what color she is.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Edna,” Louise agreed with a smile. “We’re extremely fortunate to have a fine young lady like you with us now, Blair. And, I thank you for accepting this job from the bottom of my heart. It’s knowing that I’ll be leaving this city in such wonderful hands as yours and Marco’s that allows me to leave in peace, without any worries.”
“Well I thank you for offering me the job, Louise. I really do. A very important part of my life and my heart has been missing ever since the Sisters forced me to leave St. Mary’s. And now, I feel like I’m getting the chance to get it back again.”
“You know Blair, I may have been messin’ with you just now when we were playing the dozens, but all kidding around aside, I want you to know that I really do respect you, very much. You are truly an incredible, remarkable young woman, and like Louise, I too am so glad that you’re coming to work here at Zion.”
“Thank you,” Blair said softly, and again, they hugged. “Anyway, listen, I know you guys still have some things to say to each other. Why don’t you let Mama and me take all the kids for you for a little while? We can take them over to Marco’s place and watch them for you.”
“That’s a good idea, Blair. I’ll go with you,” Olivia said, and Edna agreed as well, and so they left with baby Vic and Hannah and Jessica, and Allan left with them too, still carrying little Rose in his arms.
“I got so emotional, I actually couldn’t even talk a few minutes ago, but now I can talk again, so there’s some things I want to say to you, son,” Louise said in an even deeper voice than usual. “I just want to say that I couldn’t agree any more with what your father and your grandmother have told you today. You’ve become a fine Christian man and husband and father, and I couldn’t be any prouder of you if I tried. I knew from the very first moment the nurse put you in my arms when you were born how smart and how full of potential you are, and it gives me more joy than I can begin to tell you to see you realizing all of that potential. I love you so much, and even though your father and I are going to call and write and visit just as much as we possibly can, I know it still won’t be the same. You’re my first baby,” Louise said as tears came to her eyes once again. “And no matter how old you get, you’ll always hold that same special place in my heart that you know Jessica will always hold in yours. You’re the very first baby I ever loved. And I am going to miss you so much.” Louise gave Lionel a big, tight, long hug then, before finally letting him go a few moments later.
“And Jenny,” Helen said as she walked up to her only daughter, “I want you to know that your father and I feel exactly the same way. We are so proud of you, and we always have been all our lives, and we always will be. Your daddy and I are going to miss you so much.”
“Oh, Mama,” Jenny said through more tears of her own as Helen hugged her.
“I’m so proud of you, Jenny,” Tom gasped as he, too, began to cry again. “You’re my little baby girl. I watched you grow up before my very eyes. I watched you dress up like a little ballerina and dance every Christmas in The Nutcracker. I watched you walk out the door with your boyfriend from high school and your corsage on prom night. I watched you graduate from college and become a wife and a mother, taking care of your own little girl. Now your mother and I may be really looking forward to starting our missionary work in China, but even though we’ll be pretty busy with that, we are still going to miss you so much.” After Tom said that, of course, he wrapped his arms around Jenny and hugged her for the longest time, too.
“I’m going to miss you and Mama, too, Daddy,” Jenny said through all her tears. “You guys have always been the most incredible parents in the world. I only hope I can be half as good to Jessica and to my son when he gets here as you guys have been to me all my life.”
“Oh Jenny, you already are an incredible mother to Jessica,” Helen told her warmly. “And you’re going to be just as incredible of a mother to your son when he’s born a few months from now. And even though your daddy and I are going to be far away, I want you to know that if you ever need some woman-to-woman or mother-to-mother advice, you can call me right away, I want you to call me right away. Is that clear?” she asked Jenny lovingly, and Jenny nodded, and simply stood and cried with her mother another minute or two.
“Well, uh, I think we ought to be picking Jessica up. It’s been a pretty long morning and I’m sure she’s ready for lunch,” Lionel said, and then he and Jenny gave their parents, their in-laws, and Florence and Harry a series of long, emotional hugs until they left Louise’s quarters at last to go pick up Jessica.
“I guess this is it,” Florence said soon after Lionel and Jenny left. She’d come up to George and Louise to say her goodbyes to them, and of course, she too had tears streaming down her face. “You know George, Louise, I may have had more than my share of flaws as a maid, and George, I may have picked on you all the time – and I meant every word,” she teased and George laughed, “but I want you know…that I love the both of you more than I can tell you. Since my parents moved up to Canada many years ago, I’ve been living here in New York all alone without any family…until you. I didn’t always say it, but the way you guys opened up your home to me and accepted me, even made me a member of your family…it means everything to me, and I want you to know it always has. I would have been so lost without the two of you all these years,” Florence said, and then both George and Louise wrapped their arms around her and cried with her. “And I may have finally found my way,” Florence said while they were still hugging her. “I may have finally moved on up in the world and become something more besides a maid, but I know I never could have done it without you. And I also know that I wouldn’t have Vic in my life today if it hadn’t been for all your love and encouragement, the way you both supported me and helped me to start truly living again after my miscarriage. I don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t been for you. I owe you so much.”
“And so do I,” Harry said, and then they made room for him to join the hug too. “You guys know now what my family’s always been like. Before you two moved into the building, I was pretty much all alone in the world, myself. If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t think I ever would have truly known how wonderful it can be to get to be a part of a family that truly loves you. Louise, you always treated me with so much kindness and patience every day. It never bothered you that I was constantly borrowing things or talking your ear off about crazy stories I made up. As a matter of fact, I’ll let you guys in on a little secret. The vast majority of the time whenever I came over to borrow something from you, I never really needed to borrow anything. I just wanted to spend some time with you because I enjoyed being around you so much.”
“If I’d have known that, Harry, I wouldn’t have slammed the door in your face so often,” George joked, and all the others laughed through their tears. However, George wasn’t entirely joking, of course. “Anyway, listen Harry, Florence…I may have made the decision to open my home to you, but don’t thank me. Thank Louise. You guys know what I was like back in those years. You know that for the most part, the only person I really cared about was me, myself, and I. Weezy was the one who made sure I remembered to open my heart to other people. It was only her kindness and strength, teaching me the right way to treat others through her shining example, that made it possible for me to do it.
“And the fact that you two were willing to open your hearts to me too, considering the terrible way I used to act all the time, only proves what kind, patient, loving, and amazing people you are. Adding the two of you into our family was no great act of sacrifice, guys. You made my life and Weezy’s life so much better, so much richer because you were in it. You say you don’t know what you would have done without us, but I honestly don’t know what I would have done without fine people like you to call my friends. I don’t say it as often as I should, but I love you guys. I really love you, and despite what kind of garbage I used to say to you with my dumb big mouth over the years, I want you to know that I always have.”
“George is right,” Louise told them as more silent tears fell down her cheeks. “We’re the ones who should be thanking you, not the other way around. Your friendship and your love that you’ve given to George and to me has meant more to us than words can really express. Getting to know you and spend time with you all these years…has been one of the greatest privileges of my entire life. When I got up in the morning, knowing that I had your presence and your love to look forward to always made it so much easier for me to face the day. I don’t know what I would have done without friends and neighbors like the two of you. I love you both so much,” Louise said, and then she really started to sob, and the hug between them all grew even tighter.
“Harry and I love you two, too,” Florence told them in the midst of her own crying. “We love you so much. And we are going to miss you so much.”
“We certainly are,” Harry agreed as he, too, continued to cry with the rest of them for several more moments. But then they started trying to wipe all the tears from their eyes and regain their composure once again.
“Well listen, what are we standing around here, doing all this crying for?” asked Louise. “You two have just become the parents of the most beautiful baby boy. And, you’ve found a nice, lovely home out in L.A., which is every American’s dream come true, right? Owning their own home.”
“Right,” Florence sighed. “And, Harry’s been blessed with a great new career, working on the mayor’s staff as one of his interpreters. We have a gorgeous new baby boy in our lives and we’re blessed enough to be able to give him the best medical care possible. We have a terrific and very special marriage. We have our very own home. This is a time to celebrate, not cry.”
Then Florence and Harry and Louise and George finally began releasing one another from the group hug, and after they did that, the Bentleys walked into another group hug with the Willises for a few brief moments.
“You’re right, Florence. This is a time for celebration, not tears,” Helen told her. “Tom and I love you and Harry too, and we just couldn’t be any happier for you.”
“It’s true that Helen and I will miss you guys just as much as George and Louise will, but we shouldn’t be focusing on that. We should be focusing on that beautiful new baby of yours. Florence, Harry, I’m so happy for you, and you know we’ll all be praying for you and for little Vic,” Tom said.
“And we’ll be praying for you guys and for the Jeffersons, too, Tom,” said Florence. “And we’ll meet up back here in New York again just as soon and as often as we can.”
“That’s a promise,” Harry said firmly, and then at last, he took Florence’s hand and walked out of the apartment with her.
A few moments after Florence and Harry walked out the door, Louise said, “Looks like this is it. Looks like this is really goodbye.”
“Looks like it,” Helen said in sigh, and then before she knew it, she was clinging onto Louise for dear life, and Louise was clinging just as tightly to her.
“I don’t know how I could have gotten through these past ten years without you, Helen. You are truly one of the best, closest friends I’ve ever had. I would have been so lost without you and Tom.”
“I would have been just as lost without you, Louise. Our time together these past ten years has meant everything to me. We’ve done so much together. We started our volunteer work together. We watched our children get married together. We became grandmothers together. We’ve just done it all together. It’s more than words can really express.”
“I know,” Louise agreed. “Words can’t do it all justice. I mean, what can we possibly say about ten years of discussions and arguments and games and jokes and laughter and tears and hugs and…memories? What can I possibly tell you besides the fact that I love you, Helen Willis, like you were my own sister, and that not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for bringing you and Tom into my life?”
“Oh, Louise,” Helen gasped as she clung to Louise even tighter, and then she and Louise openly, unashamedly sobbed for the next couple of minutes. “Louise, I love you like you were my own sister, too. And I am going to miss you and George so much, Louise. I want you to know that. Our lives just won’t be the same without you two.”
“Our lives won’t be the same without you and Tom, either. George and I are going to miss you and Tom with all our hearts, every single day.” Then Louise and Helen finally let each other go, and Louise’s eyes met Tom’s and she just had to hug him, too.
“Oh, Louise,” Tom whispered.
“Oh, Tom,” Louise whispered back.
“Louise, I want you to know that everything Helen just told you goes ditto for me. I feel exactly the same way.”
“And so do I.”
“I love you, Louise.”
“And I love you too, Tom.”
As Louise and Tom were hugging and crying, George and Helen’s eyes locked, and Helen smiled at George and held her arms open wide for him.
“Come here, Shorty,” she told him lovingly, and George smiled and walked into her arms. “I love you too, you little runt,” she teased him and George laughed. “And I want you to know that Tom and I have seen how much you’ve grown these past couple of years, and we are both so proud of you. And I want you to know that even though we haven’t always seen eye to eye all these years, I’m proud to call you my friend, George Jefferson.”
“That means the world to me, Helen. It really does. And I feel the same way about you, too. I love you and Tom too, Helen, and I want you to know that I always have, even though I didn’t usually do a good job of showing it.”
“The important thing is that you’re showing it now, George,” Helen said.
A second later, George and Helen stopped hugging and so did Louise and Tom, and then in a very poignant moment, George’s eyes met Tom’s and without saying a word, they grabbed each other in a tight, emotional hug.
“I know how you feel about me being sensitive and touchy-feely all the time, George, but I can’t help it. I’ve just got to tell you how much I love you and how much I’ll miss you.”
“I know it, Tom,” George said as he, too, openly cried. “I may never have told you this, but deep down, I always really respected you for that. I often wished through the years that I could be honest about my feelings as you’ve always been. And I want you to know that like Weezy, I’ve learned so much from you, from your example. And I always appreciated all your patience with me and your kindness, your gentleness, your love. I know I never could have made the changes I needed to make in my life as a husband if it hadn’t been for your example, how loving and considerate you are with Helen all the time. I never could have come this far if it hadn’t been for you teaching me that it was okay to express my love for other people. And you were there for me and you taught me important things, just like a brother would. You’ve been my best friend for years, and I know I never told you this, but for a long time now, I haven’t just loved you as a best friend. I’ve loved you like you were my own brother.”
Tom hugged George even tighter than he was hugging him before, and he told him, “I feel the same way, George. I love and respect you like you’re the brother I never had. And I am going to miss you so much.”
After George and Tom hugged and cried a little while, Louise and Helen joined them and made it another group hug. Then after they hugged and cried for a few more minutes, they finally released one another from the tight embrace, and then Tom and Helen left. Once Louise and George had taken a few moments to dry their eyes and regain their composure, Louise linked her arm through George’s and walked out of her vacant living quarters.
And when Louise did walk out of her quarters with her husband, once again, streams of tears came to her eyes because practically every volunteer that had ever worked at the city of Zion was standing at attention. Louise was totally unashamed to cry as she walked past all the members of her crew who were seeing her off. And even though she couldn’t stop crying as she looked into each and every one of their faces that day, she also couldn’t thank God enough for giving her everything she’d needed to come this far, and for the knowledge that He was still going to be there for her and for George as they moved on to the next phase of their journey. Saying nothing, Louise merely gave them all a knowing nod as she got into the elevator with George and said goodbye to them in her heart.

I'm terribly sorry because I should have said this on this thread AGES ago, but one of the scenes for this story was based on the three-part episode Heartstrings on the sit-com Family Ties, and the idea for the underground city of Zion came from The Matrix trilogy, so I wanted to give proper credit where credit was due and I am SO SORRY I didn't do it before. Thank you.

All in one..... Wahoo.. thats great.. Thanks for all 13 chapter.

Opps..... 23.......