Black Sisters, Epilogue

Image of a cottage with blue windows and door.

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Deedra realized that no matter how much her students liked some of the things she did with them,—like reading “The Sound and the Fury”—she was never going to make enough money to remain in her house. She and Matt had found a condo that they liked on the water in Southwest D.C. and Matt would not have to change schools. She was packing some boxes to put in the car to take over to the place when the phone rang.

“Hello, Deedra? This is Tim”

(Tim was a congressman who had been friendly to her when she met him while she and David were out.)

“Tim, how are you?  I haven’t heard your voice in a long time. How is Krista?”

“She is good. I just found out that David was once shot on the job and wondered why neither of you had told me”

“No. There must be some mistake.”

“No. Several people have confirmed it.  A lot of people were shot.  They were trying to arrest some people when their car was assaulted. Sadly, though, David was the most seriously injured and it was expected that he would not live. It was around Easter time.”

“It must have been when the kids and I were vacationing in LA. He must have made a remarkable recovery. He didn’t have a scratch on him when we got back to D.C.”

“Maybe if you couldn’t see his bandages, you wouldn’t know something was wrong.”

“He was walking slowly, saying he had twisted his ankle. But the doctor said it would be alright.”

“Didn’t the hospital contact you?  He was out about an hour and a half and guess who was standing over him when he came to?”

“I don’t know.  Hope, his new employee?”

“Yep. Maybe they tried to reach you and didn’t know where you were and once he came to, he said no to disturb your vacation.”

“Maybe so.”

“You know, if you became my mistress , we could share what we hear about David.”

“No thanks. David is moving on and so am I. I could never be a mistress to a married man, anyway.  It wouldn’t be right.”

She finished her packing and laughed as she thought of the nice, supportive man who always came over to chat at dinner and cocktail parties, and asked her to dance at dances.  Washington could be a cold city, but Tim had made being a government big shot’s wife a lot easier.  She suspected that he was the reason Krista had been so friendly, too.  In a way, she would really miss them.

Matt and Deedra loved their new condo in Southwest D.C. It was near the subway and looked new, even though it was not. Deedra felt a little unsure about ending her marriage. Her mother, Evelyn, thought that David probably had explanations for all the innuendos. That possibility worried Deedra.

Then one day she and Matt were having dinner. Her voicemail said a man named Anthony Green had called. He was a straightforward guy who had always made Deedra feel that he was direct and had nothing to hide. She liked him. They always talked eyeball-to-eyeball and he seemed to like Deedra.

The voicemail said that David’s supervisor wanted to speak to him.He had just gone over a bill and he couldn’t understand why he rented a helicopter for him and his new employee, Hope, the day she was hired.  He wondered what David was thinking when he couldn’t even use a car to take his grandmother to the doctor.

Deedra knew she was happy then. She had no guilt. Wherever she and Matt went, life would be good. She could already picture a handsome foreigner that would be better than the FBI agent she’d stayed married to for so long. Maybe the handsome foreigner had a dream but was an illegal immigrant. Or maybe he just wanted more encouragement for himself. Maybe he wanted a child, too.

Life would be good, but she, of course, would have to be careful.

Deedra had shared many happy days in the old house with her family, until her black sisters and their stories.

The End

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