A Merry Little Christmas(19)

       
           



       

Angelique reappeared, bearing a heaping bowl of fragrant popcorn and a  fresh pitcher of iced tea. "They didn't know what else to do because I  had driven them all crazy," she said flatly. "Don't sugarcoat it, Paris,  I was hell on wheels and you know it."

She put down the refreshments and resumed her seat on the couch, curling  her feet up under her. "Lisette, I was the worst child in the entire  five-county area that makes up metropolitan Atlanta. I was possibly the  worst child in the state of Georgia. If I live to be a thousand I can't  undo all the damage I did to my family, so don't let Paris kid you that I  was some poor sad little child. I was a bad little child, that's what I  was."

With studied nonchalance, Angelique helped herself to more popcorn. She  met Lisette's inquiring gaze and gave her a wry smile. "When I was  little, I wanted to go to school so badly I could taste it. My brothers  were the smartest, handsomest, sweetest men on earth and I wanted to be  smart like them. They knew everything as far as I was concerned. When my  father died it was kind of a surreal experience for me because I was so  young. He traveled for business a lot and he was gone a lot, so I was  much closer to my big brothers than I was to him; well, I knew them  better than my father, if that makes sense." Suddenly she gave a huge,  genuine smile.

"I used to call Clay and Martin and Malcolm my daddies. If someone  messed with me, it was, ‘I'm gonna tell my daddies! ' " She laughed at  the memory. "Even Marcus was more like an uncle than a brother. We're  very close in age but he was always so grown-up, he seemed a lot older.  He never hung out with guys his age; he hung out with Clay and the  twins. All he wanted to do was be grown, like them. And I wanted to be  like them too, in a sense. They were brilliant and they could do  anything. I thought they all hung the moon and it shone just because  they wanted it to."

She stopped and took a long swallow of tea, then sighed. "Then I started  school and it was not pretty," she said ruefully. "I was okay at first,  in kindergarten and first grade, but as I went on it was just really  hard for me to keep up. I tried and tried but I always got bad grades.  It was so confusing for me. Everybody else could do the work, but nine  times out of ten, I'd be screwing something up. And I would be trying so  hard to do it right, to get good grades. The frustration was just  unbearable.

"I was so frustrated that I stayed mad all the time. I was the most  hostile, the meanest, angriest child you ever met. And I was pretty cute  when I was little, so that made it worse. For some reason people have  all kinds of expectations for you if you look a certain way. If you're  cute you're supposed to be this way, if you're ugly you're supposed to  be that way; you know how people are. It didn't take very long to get  labeled a dummy. ‘She's a pretty little thing but she sure is stupid.  Lillian better hope that child marries money 'cause she is definitely  slow.'" Angelique perfectly imitated a gossipy-sounding older woman. "I  was just mean, Lisette. I was like a wild animal at times. Paris, you  remember Lonnie Brown? He still crosses the street when he sees me  coming." Angelique gave a short laugh.

The ringing telephone put an end to the conversation. Angelique was  heard to verify that, yes, she knew how to take a relay call, and she  excused herself and left the room with the cordless phone.

Lisette looked at Paris and her confusion and sympathy was all over her  face. Paris sighed as she rose from the floor and came to sit on the  sofa in the spot Angelique had vacated. "That relay call is from her  friend Mateo. He's hearing-impaired, so this call will take a while. The  operator has to relay the information from Angel to Matt and from Matt  back to Angel. But we need to talk fast. Look, there's a lot more to the  situation than Angel is telling you. She makes it seem like she was  just this terrible person but it's not true.

"That Lonnie Brown she mentioned? The first summer I visited Angel and  her family in Atlanta, this Lonnie creature was making fun of me because  I was fat. Angel never said a word; she just picked up a rock and  decked him. Cold-cocked the evil little troll," she said with a shake of  her head. "But then she wouldn't explain why she'd done it. She got in  so much trouble! She was on punishment and missed trips to the zoo, to  Six Flags and everyplace else. She missed out on so much that summer  because she refused to say why she'd done it, and she told me not to  tell either, because she didn't want me to get in trouble. I finally  broke down and told, though. Of course she shouldn't have hit him with a  rock, but that's how she is: mess with somebody she loves and it's on,  baby. Angel will walk over fire for her family and her friends."                       
       
           



       

Lisette finally managed to speak. "My goodness, I had no idea. She  thinks she's not very bright and yet she's one of the most resilient,  clever people I've ever met," she said with wonder in her voice. "When  she used the word ‘complicated,' she wasn't kidding, was she?"

Paris put her hand on Lisette's arm. "Lisette, I hope you don't start  treating her any differently. Aside from me, you're the only girlfriend  she has. She has four sisters-in-law and she loves them like her  sisters, and she's close to Renee Cochran, who is Donnie's  sister-in-law. But friends are different-you know how special it is to  have a real friend," Paris said earnestly. "Angel has two friends from  that boarding school and she's talking to one of them on the phone. The  other one is a woman named Nicole; they were all tight in school and  they're still friends. But friendship is something that has been in very  short supply for her. Women used to pretend to be her friend so they  could push up on those fine brothers of hers. That was devastating to  her, although she pretends like it didn't bother her. She tries to be  tough, but trust me; she's not as hard as she would have you believe."

"You don't have to explain that to me, Paris, I can see that she's not  tough at all, at least not in that way. But in other ways, she's quite  something, she really is."

Angelique came bouncing back into the room with a big smile. "Guess  what? Mateo and Nicole are coming to Detroit next month, how cool is  that? Lisette, these are the coolest people in the world. We all went to  the rich dummy academy together and we were best friends." She laughed  at Lisette's expression.

"Oh, that's what we called it, the rich dummy school. It was an  ‘exclusive boarding school for creative students who needed academic  challenges not available in a traditional classroom setting.' In other  words, it was for wealthy problem children whose families had run out of  options, like my family did. Anyway, they're coming here and you get to  meet them!"

Changing the subject swiftly, she asked what the menu would be for the  Super Bowl party; standing in front of the coffee table, she tapped her  finger against her lower lip.

"We don't have long to get this arranged and it can't look thrown  together if we're going to make it successful," she reminded the two  women. She looked at Lisette and smiled. "You and Warren deserve this;  it's your turn for some extra happiness."

Lisette surprised Angelique when she got up from the sofa and gave her a  fierce hug. It's your turn, too, Angel. It will be your turn, she  thought.





Chapter Eight

The day of the Super Bowl party dawned bright and clear although it was  quite cold. Angelique surveyed the backyard with mixed emotions. There  was enough snow out there to qualify as winter, but not nearly enough  for Angelique. "When are we going to get some real snow?" she asked no  one in particular. "I thought y'all kept snow up to your kneecaps all  winter long."

This made Lisette laugh. "Sorry to disappoint you, sweetie, but I've  lived here almost my whole life and you just never know about the  weather here. I'm perfectly happy with the snow we have; we don't need  any more, if you ask me. But like they say, if you don't like the  weather in Michigan, just wait five minutes, it'll change."

The two women were in the kitchen surveying the already prepared food  and anything else that still needed to be put together. The refrigerator  held a huge pot of gumbo, which only needed to have the rice made and  shrimp added during the last part of reheating. There was also another  variation of Lillian's shrimp salad, this one made like a traditional  potato salad with the addition of cooked shrimp. The vegetables were all  washed and cut up for a big pretty tray of crudites; there was cut-up  fresh fruit for those who didn't indulge in rich desserts and there  would be cheesecake and homemade ice cream sandwiches for those who did.  Angelique had also procured some wonderful breads and rolls, with a  huge platter of sliced roast beef and smoked turkey for sandwiches. Now  they were trying to figure out if anything was missing.