Diamonds

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[Johnny be good!]

That was great.

[LoveMrsG]

Originally Posted by Johnny be good!

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!

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.

[LoveMrsG]

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.