Free Destiny Lingers by Rolonda Watts Page A

mother— again. I pick up my pace in hope of stopping what could quickly turn into World War III.
    “ What?” I hear Garrett exclaim. “Oh, don’t go there, Barbara!”
    I bang on the apartment door, hoping to interrupt this long-distance battle between Harlem and North Carolina.
    “Hold on a minute, Barbara— just hold on!” Garrett shouts, and I hear him storm over to the door. He swings it open with such an angry force that I feel a cool breeze. I stand in the doorway, frozen.
    “Hey, baby.” He blows a deep sigh of exhaustion as he greets me, shaking his head. “It’s your mother. That witch is c razy !”
    I grab the phone from Garrett and cover the receiver in my chest.
    “Don’t call my mother a crazy witch!” I snap, even though I know how difficult she can be. In fact, both she and Garrett can be difficult, stubborn, and proud.
    Garrett throws his hand in surrender to me, and still shaking his head in disgust, he storms off to the bedroom.
    I take a deep breath. “Mother?” I speak into the phone.
    “You tell that son of a bitch you married to go to hell!” Mother barks.
    “Mother, what’s going on?”
    All I hear is her heavy breathing on the other end of the phone. I wait as she tries to compose herself.
    “We are worried sick about you, and for some reason that idiot husband of yours just can’t see that. Does he have one bit of concern for you? It could have been you who took that bullet! We want you to come home, DeeDee!”
    It isn’t often I hear such desperation in my mother’s voice. I can tell she and the rest of my family are truly worried. There’s nothing more my mother wants to see than my winning that Emmy or going network one day so she has even more to brag about in her social circles—but not if my life is threatened in the process.
    I also know deep in my soul that there is no place else I’d rather be right now than my beloved Topsail Island. I am emotionally shot, my marriage is hanging on a loose hinge, and I miss my aunt Joy and our special time at the beach together more than I ever realized. I need my family right now.
    “We’ll catch the first thing out tomorrow morning,” I say to Mother.
    “Good.” Mother has rested her case, finally satisfied. “Your father and I are driving down to the beach house to meet Aunt Joy tonight. She’ll be thrilled to hear that you are finally coming home. I’d beg you to leave that jackass you married in New York and just come yourself, if Joy hadn’t insisted the whole family be together so much. She is getting old, Dee. She has this urgency about everything.”
    “Well, you know how she is about keeping us all together,” I reply. “She just wants us to be one big happy family.”
    “We all want that, as difficult as it is—”
    “Yes, Mother, I know— with that man I mar ried.”
    “Well, yes. You said it.”
    “Good-bye, Mother. See you in the morning.”
    “Get in by brunch time,” she adds. “I’m cooking salmon croquettes.”
    “Mother, you know Garrett doesn’t like croquettes.”
    “Yes,” she replies. “I know.”
    I hear the click of her receiver and then turn to see that Garrett has been listening to the conversation at the bedroom door. He does not look happy.
    “Did you just tell your mother that we are going to Topsail Island tomorrow morning?”
    “Yes. I did,” I confess. “I really want us to be there with the family. They sound worried about me. Plus, believe it or not, Garrett, Grossman actually gave me the time off. I need it, baby. We both do.”
    “How could you make the decision without talking to me first, Destiny? Jeez! I promised the guys I’d play golf with them tomorrow, and then I thought we could figure out something to do.”
    “ Figure out something to do ?” He’s so insensitive tonight. “Well, I just did, Garrett. Golf can wait. This is a special time—a whole long weekend—for us, for our family. And it’s been forever since we’ve been to