Free Abide with Me by E. Lynn Harris

all my kids. You know I’ve been tellin’ them about you, Nicole, my Broadway diva friend. I know they git tired of me talking about people they ain’t never met. A couple of them even heard of you. I got this child—you know, she a
translation
, you know a man wanna be a woman. But she’s some kinda beautiful. I told her all about you and she knows who you are. Her stage name is Miss Kitty Cotillion and she’s a mess.” Peaches laughed to herself, then pulled out a pack of cigarettes from her off-white waitress uniform.
    “I look forward to meeting her,” Nicole smiled. Suddenly Nicole remembered Peaches in Kyle’s apartment with a cigarette in one hand, a drink in the other, encouraging Nicole to read Bible passages to Kyle while he rested. When Kyle fell asleep, Peaches would tellNicole to read them to her. She loved Nicole’s theatrical reading of the Scriptures.
    It was Nicole and Yancey’s plan to come to Harlem to help out with the weekly Sunday brunch Peaches cooked for HIV-positive patients in Harlem. It was just one of the things an organization called More Than Friends did for patients in the Harlem area. The small organization also made sure patients on their client list got some kind of cheerful card every two weeks and they didn’t let a birthday or holiday go unnoticed. Peaches was also working with GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis) to ensure people in Harlem had access to the new AIDS drugs and rides to their doctor appointments.
    More Than Friends had been set up in the memory of Peaches’s son, Kyle Alexander Benton, who had died of AIDS almost six years earlier. Nicole had been a close friend of Kyle’s and had met Peaches during the last months of his life. She fell in love with the quick-witted Kyle moments after Raymond introduced the two. Nicole also fell in love with Peaches instantly, since mother and son shared a wonderful sense of humor. Not even AIDS could get them down.
    Though it was a small organization, More Than Friends had a big heart. Its board consisted mostly of Kyle’s family and old friends, like Raymond, Jared, and Nicole, and some new friends Peaches had met once she decided to move from South Jersey to Harlem. Peaches had said she needed to be in New York to be closer to her son’s spirit during his happy times. Kyle loved New York City. Besides, without Kyle’s monthly visits, Peaches felt she had nothing to look forward to in Jersey.
    Raymond, who was instrumental in getting the organization off the ground, had offered to hire a full-time administrator once he and Trent moved to Seattle, but Peaches wasn’t having it. She was determined to keep her promise to Kyle, a son she liked, adored, and loved with her whole heart.
    Raymond had done all the paperwork in creating the nonprofitorganization, and Jared had taken some of the funds from Kyle’s insurance policy and invested some and put the remainder in a trust. Jared had also written proposals for funds for which he thought the organization might qualify. But it was Peaches who made it work. She didn’t depend on funds from the trust, but used her lottery winnings for an operating budget. She only called on her son’s friends when she needed business advice. Nicole had put on a couple of small benefits before she left New York, but had lost contact once she moved to Atlanta.
    Not only was Peaches the driving force behind More Than Friends, but she also had her own small business: she was part owner of Cuts ’n’ Cobblers. She was the cobbler part, being the head cook in charge of baking some of the best peach, apple, and blueberry cobblers to ever come out of Harlem. Add to that the special nutmeg-spiced coffee Peaches prepared and suddenly Harlem had a new institution. Mornings were a madhouse with the lines out the door for the coffee and thick-crusted cobblers Peaches prepared. She sold them in the front part of the establishment. Peaches was proud of her double-shelved, refrigerated showcase. A couple of