The Beauty of Staying Together

Calvina was beginning to wonder if the church mother had been right. Where was such a Scripture anyway? Tears formed in her eyes.

I hate Duane and I hate Anita. And I hope they burn in hell.

Thoughts of hell fire brought visions of others she'd like to send there. Right on Duane's and Anita's heels would follow her daddy, Calvin Robertson. Namin' me some stupid name like Calvina. Like that was gonna' make me be a boy. His no good behind wouldn't have stayed around even if I had been a boy. Why couldn't he just want me--a daughter!

Before Calvina could sentence anyone else to that lake of fire, she found herself back in Louis and Bonnie's living room. Edgar was calling her name for the third time.

"What!" Calvina snapped.

For all the schoolmates who had teased her for being tall, Edgar had just saved them from being the next ones to take the fiery plunge.

"Listen. It's simple," Edgar said. "This thing ain't hard as we makin' it out to be. Tell the bastard you leavin' him." Edgar was a very dark skinned man with a chest and arms that revealed his faithfulness to weight training. He moved his six-foot-three frame with the confidence of someone who was sure of his every move. It was that confidence that had attracted Calvina to him in the first place--that, and the fact that he seemed to accept her as she was, all five-feet-ten inches.