The Kindest Lie(86)
“Adam and Eve believed the lies of a snake. Rahab prostituted herself. David committed adultery. Reuben slept with his father’s concubine. Solomon had a sex addiction. And Moses murdered a man.”
With each example, Pastor’s voice rose and so did the people, leaping to their feet to applaud and shout amen and glory and hallelujah. They did what Ruth couldn’t always manage to do in her measured, analytical life; they gave themselves over to something more powerful than themselves.
While everyone closed their eyes and bowed their heads in prayer, she looked around again, scanning the congregants for Corey. The room was nearly full, but she couldn’t see any boys who looked like the one she’d seen playing with Midnight that day at the rec center. Sweeping her gaze back the other way, her eyes landed on that same white man she’d seen earlier with the pastor, his arms folded, frowning. Their eyes met and she looked away, embarrassed that she’d been staring. He wasn’t one of her old teachers, so where did she know him from?
Keisha joined three other children and five adults at the baptismal font, each wearing long white robes, their heads cocooned in white turbans. As the organist pounded the keys to “Take Me to the Water to Be Baptized,” Ruth saw Eli rush up the aisle, his eyes wide and expectant. He was late, but at least he showed up for his daughter.
Suddenly, it came to her how she recognized the man. It was from the photo in the Indianapolis Star. Stanley DeAngelo, the shady lawyer who got out of prison last year. When she turned to look at the pew where he’d been sitting, he was gone. Had she imagined it? No, she had seen him, she was sure of it.
While the congregation sang, Ruth nudged Natasha. Under her breath, she said, “That man I saw earlier talking to Pastor was Stanley DeAngelo.”
“What? How do you know it’s him?”
Surreptitiously, she dug in her purse for her cell. Being an old-school church, Friendship Baptist didn’t allow the use of phones during service. Hiding it in her bag, she quickly did a search and found the article about DeAngelo’s arrest. When his photo finally loaded, she leaned over to Natasha and said, “I knew it. That’s definitely him.”
Why had this convicted felon shown up here? What had he been discussing with her old pastor? Her mind raced, and a memory surfaced of Mama saying she’d taken the baby to Jesus. Had she brought Corey to Pastor Bumpus?
The Cunninghams’ absence from church began to make sense. They likely knew she’d be here today with her family. Maybe Pastor tipped them off that she was in town.
After performing the marriage ceremony for her and Xavier, Pastor Bumpus had encouraged them to start a family. It was entirely possible he’d always known the truth about her son. She’d never suspected, but she hadn’t been looking, either. He had a history of coloring outside the lines, making legally questionable decisions for what he considered good reasons, like the funding of the recreation center. Dozens of church members had left the congregation after he’d mishandled their donations.
A hush fell over the sanctuary and she forced herself to focus on her niece gingerly descending the steps to stand in the water. Pastor held a white handkerchief over Keisha’s nose and mouth and then dipped her in the baptismal pool. The congregation’s singing and clapping drowned out Keisha’s sputtering cries. Mama threw her head back and lifted her hands in praise. “Thank you, Jesus,” she murmured.
The immersion in water, the cleansing of one’s soul, meant you were burying your old life, with all its malevolence and mistakes, to rise into something new, something better. As much as Ruth wanted to believe that better days lay ahead, she left church more confused than convicted.
Thirty-One
Ruth
Back at the house, she took off her suit and wriggled out of her bra and pantyhose, needing her body and spirit to be lighter, unrestrained. In the bathroom, she stuck her head under the faucet and let the water fall over her freshly flat-ironed hair until each strand shrank back into its natural state.
She took out her phone and began composing a text message to Xavier. You won’t believe what just happened at church. I saw this crooked lawyer who may have worked with Mama on Corey’s adoption. I think Pastor’s in on it, too. Her thumb hovered over the button to send it, and her held breath felt hot in her throat as she imagined Xavier reading it.
Then she remembered that he had no idea who Corey was because she’d neglected to tell him about her son’s identity. Too much needed to be explained. Shaking her head in frustration, she deleted what she’d typed.
The smell of mushrooms and onions filled the house, and she could hear Mama and Cassie clanking pots and pans getting Sunday dinner together. They would eat as a family to celebrate Keisha’s baptism. The kids kept bumping into Ruth’s closed bedroom door and she figured they were playing with their Christmas toys. The house literally hummed with their happiness, that unrestrained bliss of youth. Someday life would chip away at the bliss and make the children as guarded and jaded as she’d become.
After some time had passed, she heard the kids watching videos with Eli in his room, and that’s when she quietly stepped into the hallway and walked a few paces to Mama’s room. She closed the door behind her.
Her body moved in an automatic gear, outpacing her head. She had no idea what she was looking for exactly, but there had to be something that traced the adoption, illegal or not. And perhaps linked Mama to DeAngelo.