“Alright, now. Bless you, too. And
may God rain his mercy and love upon you.” Laverne pressed “end call” and
reclined in her office chair with her phone on her lap. Growing up in the ‘60s,
she would have never imagined this to be her life: trapped in her two bedroom -
one bathroom - one office apartment with no companionship besides her plants.
It was nearing year two of the quarantine, and the air itself was a risk to
anyone above a certain age. Laverne thanked her benefits package - and of
course, the Lord - that she was able to retire early three years ago. She was
mostly settled into the (still new to her) gated community. Though most of her
neighbors were her age, she didn’t particularly care for them. There was also
no true way to tell how seriously they took this quarantine, even at this
stage. Some people just couldn’t bear to have their privilege slowly stripped
away.
Her solace during those years was the prayer line. Even as a minister, she had no interest in stepping foot in the sanctuary. God would protect her, but God also gave her sense. Luckily, the congregation agreed. So, every day around noon, she would field calls from her church members and prayer with them. Occasionally, if she was close with the caller, they’d take a moment to catch up or she’d listen to a small bit of church gossip until she felt the devil creeping in. But this only lasted an hour, 90 minutes at best. It was now 1:08PM.
Laverne stood up, phone still in hand, and walked out of her office into the living room. She inspected the bottle of water still on the coffee table and decided it was full enough to ease into her good living room chair. She already knew there was nothing good on TV, but she turned it on anyway. A rerun of a 00s black sitcom that she lightly remembered played. If she didn’t watch this then who did? A quick process of elimination gave her an answer and how to preoccupy herself throughout the afternoon.
She checked her messages to see if her son finally responded to her 9am good morning glitter greeting card text. “Howdy,” the phone displayed. She didn’t know where he got the idea to be southern from; he was living in Baltimore these days. They exchanged pleasantries about the weather and their days, which she knew he had no interest in, but it was a good excuse to stall for a topic even if she already had one. Consistency was key.
“Do you remember that one show with that girl you used to like?” she included the thinking emoji for good measure.
“With the father and the nice but kinda messy apartment?”
“Yup.”
“Oh, you’re watching One on One! So you’re finally watching the old shows on Netflix like I told you. I woulda thought you’d go for Girlfriends.” He must have informed her about them six times over the last three months but forgot everytime.
“Actually, no. I was just flipping through the channels,” she admitted.
“Ah,” her son responded. “You know, I had a crush on her blonde light skinneded boyfriend, too.” He liked to spell words out like he would actually say them.
She chose to ignore him. “So, what have you been up to?” He mentioned he finished lunch and was about to head back to work. She pried into his eating habits to see if he was eating decently. Even if he lied, at least he knew what he should be putting into his body. “I haven’t eaten anything yet. I’ve just been too busy.”
“No you haven’t. You just don’t feel like getting your kitchen dirty yet,” he teased.
“I am gonna make some salmon and brown rice with sauteed spinach later,” she teased back.
“Just remind me of my ailments, why don’t ya? Bad enough I’m around all these crabs as it is. Sounds healthy though.” Laverne got caught up in what turned out to be a “very special” episode of the show. By the time she remembered to check her phone, Trevon had started a new topic. “By the way, I’m doing another drag show if you wanna tune in tonight. Shirley Turner would love it you even got some of your friends to tip her.” He added a winking emoji.
She sighed and then smiled. It was nice that he was starting to let her back in after her mistake almost a decade ago. Still, she wasn’t fully comfortable with it. But for the sake of keeping her son in her life, she’d play along. “You and your hobbies.”
“Hey, it’s not like I quit my day job or anything… yet.”
Trevon Marquise, she thought, you better stop playing. “[Frown emoji] Well… if you do, just make sure you have insurance or another reliable job lined up.”
“Mmm hmm. Sure, mum.” His texting voice was multi-dialected. “Anyway, let me get back to work before I get out of the mood. Working from home is funny that way.”
She knew he was lying to get off the phone, but she has done enough pushing. “Alright, well have a good day, alright. And maybe we can facetime later?”
“It has been a while. ...I’ll check with my secretary and get back to you?”
“Sure, my son. I love you, and God bless you.”
“I love you, too. Byeeee.”
Laverne laid her phone on the arm of her chair. By this point in the episode, she was lost. With her stomach starting to churn, it was time to get up anyway. She flipped to her usual gospel music channel on cable. With the remote still in her hand, she stopped before she stepped into the kitchen. Checking the channel guide, she selected the disco channel. She could live secular again for a day.
Word
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