Everybody In The Church Ain't Saved

by Patti Trafton

Genres: African American Urban; African American Women's Fiction

Synopsis

Meet the members of the Love, Joy, Peace and Deliverance Community Choir, a group of young adults joined together through their passion for singing the Lord's praises—although their hearts are far from the things of God. Patrice Russell was raised in the church, but she is hell bent on living like the devil, not even trying to get help for the sex addiction she knows she has. Lorene McCall has been Patrice's best friend since childhood. When she's not singing, Lorene is cussin' like a sailor. Then she meets the man who inspires her to turn her life around. When an enemy from his past shows up to settle a score, Glen Pearson is out to win by any means necessary, even if it means violating the woman he loves. Dwayne Mitchell is battling with his sexual identity. When his mother makes a startling confession on her deathbed, Dwayne promises to stop allowing men to use his body. How long will he be able to hold to that promise? They may be faithful churchgoers, but this group proves that everybody in the church ain't saved!

Release date: August 7, 2012

Publisher: Urban Renaissance

Print pages: 304

Sample

Although it was the middle of March and eighty-five degrees outside, the combination of the air conditioner and fans made it too cold for the building. Patrice couldn’t understand why it is that, as soon as it gets warm out, people immediately turn on the AC. The fans were enough. Her eyes wandered around the huge sanctuary, with its dozens of dropped lightings, and ceiling fans that twirled so fast, the human eye couldn’t see the blades, its multi-colored windowpanes, red carpet in the aisles and one hundred and twenty red plush pews in four sections filled with people giving God the praise as the choir sang.

“When all God’s children get together, what a time, what a time, what a time,” Patrice pushed out from her diaphragm into the mic as she led the church into a shouting frenzy. “Hallelujah!” she shouted, swinging her shoulder-length locks, and shuffling into her own fancy footwork. She held her back, and jogged in place, reminding herself to save some of her energy for later, thinking about which club she, Lorene, and Faye could go to once they were done singing. She had given her life to Lord umpteen times, but at nineteen, there was too much partying to do and too much sex to have.

Patrice’s mother, Annie Ruth Russell, would often warn her daughter about her behavior, saying, “Patrice, you better stop playing with the Lord! You keep on letting the devil fool you, you’re going end up in destruction. And I ain’t gone keep lettin’ you live any ol’ kinda way under my roof.”

The words went in one ear and out the other.

The pastor gave the benediction and dismissed the service.

Patrice thought to herself, There’ll be plenty of time for me to live right, once I get my momma’s age, but tonight I’ma party like it’s 1999!

“Lo, let’s go to the FNB Club on base,” Patrice suggested as they made their way to Lorene’s car.

“Girl, you know goodness well I have to go to work tomorrow.” Lorene, the most responsible of the three, had a job working in the shipyard as an office assistant. “I’ll be tired as a monkey hanging with you.”

“Please? We don’t have to stay out long.” Patrice waved Faye over to join them.

“Where are we going tonight?” Faye asked, a wide smile on her face, swinging her hips from left to right. “It’s time to change dance partners.”

“Lord have mercy. Not you too. Y’all are not going to worry me to death about going out tonight,” Lorene said. “And I guess I’m supposed to escort y’all heifas around in my car, huh?”

“Faye, give her some gas money,” Patrice said. Without Lorene’s car, the only place Patrice could go was home.

“You give her some!” Faye shot back.

“Chile, please. You know I don’t have a job.”

“Exactly! So my next question is, how are you going to get in the club without any money?” Lorene’s crinkled forehead expressed her frustration with Patrice’s freeloading mentality.

“My mom spotted me twenty-five dollars. Shucks, I need to save that. I’m trying to buy me some shoes I saw on sale at JCPenney’s.”

“You are a trifling somebody. You’re too old to be bummin’ money off your momma. You need to get a job.” Faye sucked her teeth.

Patrice rolled her eyes at the both of them. “Okay, okay, I’ll chip in five dollars. Now can we go, please?”

Lo sighed. “All right, but we ain’t staying out all night. I was late last Monday, and I’m not going to lose my job, messing around with you two.”

“My girl!” Patrice squealed, snapping her fingers and rotating her hips. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

“Whatever. Get your crazy behind in the car before I change my mind.”

Patrice stripped out of her skirt and wiggled into a pair of extra-tight black pants. She purposely bought a size eight, rather than the ten she needed.

As Lorene coasted to a stop at a traffic light, Patrice took notice of two handsome brothers in the car beside them, and used the opportunity to shed her church blouse, remove her bra, pinch the nipples of her double D’s, then tied on a red sequined halter, never taking her eyes off the men.

Filled with wild excitement, their eyes bucked.

“Patrice, please don’t tell me you back there giving another drive-by peep show,” Lorene howled.

“I’m just changing clothes. Dag! How we gonna go up in the club looking like we just finished leading praise and worship?”

“You coulda changed at my house,” Lorene snapped. “I’ma stop letting you ride around in my car, before you have some nut following us, with your fast ass.”

Thirty minutes later, Lorene circled the crowded lot looking for a place to park. The lot was filled, so they had to park close by the barracks.

The military men gawked and whistled at the ladies when they got out of the car. Lorene was conservatively dressed in a yellow sheared sundress with spaghetti straps and white high-heeled sandals. Faye, a voluptuous size fourteen, was dressed in a black mini skirt with white tube top and black pumps. The girls looked sexy indeed and strutted with confidence through the club’s entrance.

A tall, thin, heavily weaved woman stood just inside the entrance with a towering, muscular bouncer checking ID’s and collecting cover charges. She said, “Oh, y’all mammies let you come out and play tonight?”

Faye glanced at the others, a confused look on her face. “What’s her problem?”

“I detected jealousy. She probably ain’t had no ding-ding in weeks.” Patrice scoffed.

They all burst into laughter.

Patrice pulled her fake ID from her purse and flashed it, then waved her hand in disrespect. “Check the date, sweetheart.”

The woman glanced at their photos, and then looked at the trio like they stank.

Patrice threw her hips extra hard for the bouncer’s sake. Broke-down drag queen!

As they entered the dance room and found a table, a few brothers turned their heads in their direction. Just as they ordered a round of drinks, a tall, lanky J.J. Evans look-alike approached their table and asked Patrice to dance.

She thought better of it. After all, Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” wasn’t exactly the type of song to dance to with a perfect stranger, but she went against her gut and accepted.

He guided Patrice to the dance floor like a perfect gentleman, and then gently swept her into his arms. Moderately, his hips began to rotate seductively against Patrice.

Oh, he want a taste of the nana, Patrice thought as she kept with the flow of his rhythm.

J.J. pulled her closer to him, filling his hands with her behind, and allowing her to feel the solidness of his manhood. His gyrations against her suddenly became harder and more demonstrative.

Although Patrice physically enjoyed the feeling and was turned on by his erotic display, the dance floor simply wasn’t the place. Slightly embarrassed, she glanced at his face and nearly burst into laughter.

Eyes shut tight, deep wrinkles on his forehead, J.J. was biting his lower lip and looked as if, any second, he was going to have an orgasm.

Other female dancers gawked at them as they lost focus on their own dance partners, while the faces of the brothers expressed encouragement and envy, as they wished they could be the ones nearing a climax.

Patrice, now thoroughly embarrassed, wanted to pull away from the obviously horny man, but then she had a second thought. She looked at the other dancers on the floor and mouthed the words, “Watch this.”

Her lips protruding forward, Patrice snaked her body against J.J., then turned her backside toward him and bent forward at her waist, pressing against him, and adding in the sound effects of a few open-mouthed moans.

After a few wiggles and a couple of shakes, uncontrollable tremors came over J.J., and he began to go into a full-out conniption, signifying he was approaching an orgasm. Just as he reached his peak, Patrice quickly pulled away from him and headed to her seat.

“Where you goin’ girl?” he mumbled. “Fool!” she huffed over her shoulder.

J.J.’s eyes popped open to witness a crowd in full-blown laughter as he tried to gain his composure. Patrice couldn’t help but laugh herself.

“Did you enjoy your dance, nasty?” Faye asked through giggles.

“Girl, you wish you could put it down like me. Y’all ain’t never broke a brother off like that.” Patrice snapped her fingers in the air. “I shoulda charged him.”

All three ladies burst out in laughter.

Suddenly Parliament-Funkadelic’s “She Was a Freak” blared through the speakers.

“Aaaaahhh! That’s my jam,” Lorene said, bobbing her head from side to side.

Laughter in his voice, the DJ announced, “And this goes out to the lady that just put it on the brother right in the middle of the dance floor.”

Before Patrice could join in with singing the lyrics, three brothers were lined up wanting to dance with her. Sizing them all up, Patrice picked the finest of the three. “Sorry.” She shrugged at the other two, leaving them at the table with Lorene and Faye. She turned back to the guy of her choice and said, “If you put your hands or your dick on me, I swear I’ma shoot you.”

“Oh, nah! I wouldn’t disrespect you like that, lady,” Glen Pearson immediately replied, hiding his disappointment. He was actually hoping to get a little bit of what she had given her last dance partner. That’s all right, he thought. I’ll just use my natural charm to get up in them drawers.

The DJ kept the groove going, mixing in Flashlight, and received cheers of approval from the crowd. Glen showed off his best moves, impressed with Patrice’s ability to keep up. She’d been so lost in her steps that she hadn’t given Glen much eye contact, but as the music slowed just a bit their eyes finally caught.

Good gracious, he is fine. Patrice’s eyes absorbed every inch of his six-foot frame, defined chest, flat stomach, and narrowed waist. Even through the sweat, she could still detect the cool, masculine fragrance of his cologne. The skin on his face was flawless, and beneath the club’s lights, his eyes almost glowed in the dark.

They danced through two more songs, but when the music’s tempo decreased to a slow jam, Patrice made her move to exit the floor. There ain’t no way in the world I’m going through that mess again. “Thank you for the dance,” she said politely before turning away.

Glen pulled her back gently. “Please don’t walk away. No hands, I promise,” he said, putting up his hands in mock surrender.

Patrice found it hard to resist the gorgeous eyes staring at her and hesitated for a moment.

It was all Glen needed to continue. “My name is Glen, and yours?” He lightly took her hand and led her into a simple two-step.

“Patrice.”

“Patrice,” he said slowly.

Patrice felt warm inside hearing him say her name. In her nineteen years of living, never had her name sounded so sexy before.

“It’s nice to meet you, Patrice.”

It was during Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon in the Sky” that Glen pulled her close to him, and held her around her waist, mindful not to let his hands roam. Seconds later, Patrice draped wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling chills going up her spine. When the song ended, he kissed her hand and escorted her back to her seat.

“We’ll be right back. We’re going to the ladies’ room.” Faye stood to her feet and smoothed her skirt with her hands. “Watch our drinks.”

“Was it something I said?” Glen joked, moving aside to let Lorene and Faye pass. “Patrice, I just wanted to thank you for the dance. If you don’t mind, may I have your phone number so I can call you sometimes?”

“No, not at all. It’s 555-1675.”

He quickly scribbled the numbers down on a torn napkin. “Actually, I’m getting ready to leave right now. I have to get up bright and early in the morning for work. Are your friends coming back, or will you be needing a ride home?” he asked with suggestive eyes.

“I’m sure they’ll be right back, but to be honest with you, I am kind of tired and I’m ready to go right now,” she lied. She wasn’t tired at all and was hoping that he would offer to take her to a much quieter place.

“If it’s okay with you, I’ll take you home. Where do you live?”

“I live off of Clare Lane,” she revealed, standing to take his hand.

Her conscience was screaming, “Patrice, you are crazy as hell, if you let this man take you home,” but Patrice liked to live dangerously.

“Downtown Newport News?”

Patrice studied his face when he asked. She was a little embarrassed to tell him the exact location. Then again, what the hell! “Yeah, the projects.”

“Aw shucks now! Patrice done found her a fine tutey.” Lorene leaned over the countertop toward the mirror to examine her makeup.

“Oh my God, did you see that girl on the floor? She can be embarrassing sometimes,” Faye said, fluffing her curls with her fingers.

Lorene nodded her head as she applied more color to her thin lips. “Yeah, she can be embarrassing. I feel like cussing her ass out sometimes, but I’m used to her acting like a fool. I’ve been knowing her ever since we were kids, so I ain’t got nothing but love for her.”

“Yeah, I love her myself. The girl is crazy, though.”

“Girl, I can’t believe it’s one-thirty A.M. already. I’m going to be all to pieces tomorrow at work. My boss warned me several times about the errors I’ve been making, and if I don’t tighten up I’m out the door.”

“For real, Lo? You didn’t tell us about that.”

“Girl, you just don’t know. I have to deal with a lot of shit.”

“Well, try to cheer up. It will be all right.”

Lorene sighed. “Yeah, hopefully it will. Come on, let’s get back out there before she make her way on top of the speakers and start stripping.”

Lorene and Faye found their way back to the table and Patrice was nowhere in sight.

One of the brothers who was dancing with Faye earlier came back for another dance. He noticed that the girls were scanning their eyes around the club, trying to find their friend. “If you are looking for your girl, she bounced out of here a couple of minutes after you ladies went to the bathroom.”

“With who?” Lorene snapped, mad that first of all Patrice left without saying a word, and secondly, left their drinks unattended. Having heard too many horror stories about stuff getting slipped into drinks, Lorene wouldn’t even think about taking another sip.

“I dunno. She was with some cat with his arms around her waist.”

“Well, hell, you saw all of that and you don’t know who it was?”

The brother frowned. “Look, don’t get all huffy with me. I’m just letting you know that your girl is gone.”

Faye patted his arm to try to make peace. “We’re sorry,” she offered. “Thank you, though.”

“No problem.”

In an instant Lorene’s eyes became as red as fire. She quickly got up from the table. “Come on, Faye!”

Lorene was walking so fast, she seemed to be in a race. Faye tried keeping up with her, but she had to trot a bit to do so. “Lo, slow down, girl. You got my heart jumping rope.”

“Hurry up then! I’m sick of this shit. Every time we try to go out and have a nice evening, this ho mess it up! I told her about that. She’s going to mess around and have someone kill her ass.”

When they got to the car another vehicle had just pulled in the parking space beside her. The person on the passenger side swung the car door open so wide that it bumped and scratched Lorene’s car.

Immediately Lorene was furious. One thing she didn’t allow people to mess with was her car. It was her pride and joy. “Bitch, what the hell is your problem! I just got my car painted.”

The girl had on a red mini skirt, white halter-top, and red pumps. Her hair was matted to her head. “Who you calling a bitch?”

“You, you nappy-head heifa!”

“I think you better get in your car and drive away before you get your ass kicked.”

Lorene stepped in the girl’s face. “You and what army?”

Without warning, the girl shoved Lorene so hard that her back slammed into her car. Like a rubber ball, Lorene bounced back, grabbed the girl by the throat, and began landing blows repeatedly to her face.

“Lo, stop!” Faye tried pulling Lorene off the girl, who was flailing, gasping for air, and trying to find her balance. Faye looked at the other girl, who just stood paralyzed by shock. “Will you help me break them apart?”

The other girl would not move.

Finally Lorene let her go.

The girl in red coughed for air. When she had enough breath to talk, she pushed out, “I’m gonna kill your ass! You better watch your back, ’cuz I’m gonna kill your black ass! Then she landed a large, slimy wad of spit onto Lorene’s car.

Lorene started to jump on her again, but this time Faye was able to stop her. “Lo, let’s go please. Get in the car,” Faye said.

Once they were in the car, Lorene was cussing up a storm. “See, this shit is all Patrice’s fault! If she would have kept her fast ass in the building, I wouldn’t be going through this shit. She gets on my damn nerve. Wait till I find her. She better hope I don’t have enough strength to kick her ass.”

Faye gave Lorene a please-spare-me look. “You know goodness well you ain’t kicking Patrice’s tass. That’s your girl.” Faye was careful not to use actual cuss words.

“Yeah, you’re right, but I am going to cuss her out.”

They caught eyes with each other for a moment then broke into laughter.

“Girl, you tore that girl’s tass up.”

Lorene and Faye drove the avenues looking for Patrice. While driving, Lorene’s mind drifted back to how her nasty attitude started.

When she was in elementary school, kids used to tease her a lot because she didn’t have a mother. Her father did the best he could, trying to comb Lorene’s hair, but was awful at it. The children would call her “motherless spook baby,” “knotty-head china doll,” and on and on.

The worst of all was Joanni. Joanni would catch Lorene in the restroom and make Lorene fondle her own breast, punch her in the back until Lorene lost her wind, and after school when Lorene came out to play, she would make Lorene and another female child hide behind a tree and grind each other.

One day at school, Lorene was sitting at her desk, trying to do her school work. Joanni kept pulling Lorene’s pigtails very hard. Lorene felt a warm tear strolling down her cheek.

All of a sudden she turned around and swiped her pencil across Joanni’s face. Joanni held her cheek as blood dripped on her desk. The children and the teacher gasped. Of course, Lorene was suspended from school, but Joanni along with the other children never bothered her again.

From that point on, Lorene been cursing folks out. Now although she protected herself with a dangerous weapon—the tongue—she still had a lot of hurt inside.

Faye broke her out the trance. “Girl, where in the world could she be?”

“I don’t know. Let’s go home. Hopefully she would have enough sense to call somebody.” Lorene sighed.

Glen and Patrice stopped at Hardee’s Restaurant, which never seemed to close, for a late-night breakfast. Just as any gentleman would do, he asked Patrice what would she like to eat. She mentioned a super-sized sausage platter and a large orange juice.

“After all that dancing I’ve done tonight I’ve worked up quite a bit of an appetite.” She rolled her eyes and patted her belly.

“You can order what you want.”

Glen smiled and thought to himself, Baby, eat all you can eat, because you’re gonna need your strength when I tear that ass up tonight. “It’s all about you, baby.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“It simply means I have been mesmerized by your beauty all night long and I want to make all your wishes come true. So if one of your wishes is to indulge yourself in a large breakfast, your wish is my command.”

“Don’t even try it. You must think you’re gonna get some booty tonight.”

I am. “Naw, baby. What kind of a man do you think I am? I would never disrespect you like that.”

Once they were seated, Glen reached for Patrice’s hand and began to pray. “Father God, we thank You for blessing us and for this time of fellowship. Father, bless the food and the hands that prepared. And, Father, I pray that as we prepare to leave that we would arrive home safely. In Jesus name . . .

“Amen,” they both said in unison.

Patrice smiled as she began to dig in. “So, I see you are a praying man.”

“Not really, I just give honor where honor is due.”

“Do you go to church?”

“No, not anymore. I used to go every once in a while back in my hometown.”

“Oh, so you’re not from here?”

“No. Trenton, New Jersey.”

“Oh, what Trenton makes the world takes,” Patrice said, quoting the slogan on the side of the bridge that spans over the Delaware River into Trenton.

“What do you know about that?”

“Let’s just say, I get around every once in a while. So you haven’t found you a church home here?”

“No. I used to sing in a community choir, but when a lot of faggots started joining, I had to get out.” Which made Glen mad as hell. He wanted to screw every woman in the choir but didn’t have the chance.

Patrice laughed. “What? You’re afraid that one of them might turn you out?”

“Hell no. I was afraid that I was going to beat the hell out of one of them if they tried to get close to me. I’m a pussy man.”

Patrice continued to laugh. “You’re crazy. What was the name of the choir you used to sing in?”

“Love, Joy, Peace and Deliverance Community Gospel Choir. Mouthful, ain’t it?

Oh my God! Patrice almost told him that she’d just joined that choir but thought better of it and decided not to. She didn’t want him to judge her, just in case she wanted to spread her legs and give him some. “How long ago was this?”

“About six months ago.”

Whew, that’s a relief. He probably doesn’t know Faye. She just got in three months ago right after Lorene and I joined.

They were quiet for a moment. Then Glen said, “Well, other than you love to dance, tell me a little more about yourself, miss lady.”

“You’re trying to get to know me?”

“Yes.” Glen’s real thoughts were. Hell no. I just want that juice spot in between them gorgeous thighs.

“Well, really there’s not much to tell. I’m what you call a spontaneous person. I do whatever comes to my mind.”

“No order, huh?”

“I have order, I mean, to some degree.” Patrice suddenly went into silence, which let Glen know that his comment slightly disturbed her.

He used that as an opening to take his prey home. “Hellooo?”

Patrice didn’t respond.

“Listen, let’s go to my place and we can talk some more.”

Much to Glen’s pleasure Patrice nodded.

His one-bedroom apartment was nicely furnished with a beautiful cream leather sofa, glass coffee and end tables, and cream lamps. Expensive wall hangings mounted in huge frames, along with an expansive mirror, decorated the space. Against a long wall was an extravagant entertainment center with huge speakers. It was nothing Patrice was used to. She only had a small boom box with a wire hanger sticking out where the antenna had broken off. As far as the pictures on the wall of her mother’s house, there was only a picture of a white Jesus with long, silky, brown hair, embellished with roach droppings inside of the cheap brown frame.

“Have a seat. I’m going in the kitchen to fix me something to drink. Do you care for anything?”

“No, thank you.” She seated herself on the couch, crossed her legs, and started to make herself at home, picking up a frame photo of a little girl from the coffee table. She was dressed in a blue tee shirt that read, . . .