Flaws and All

Book 0: Flaws

by Shana Burton

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

Synopsis

Faith, family, and friendship have always been top priority to lifelong friends Lawson, Reginell, Sullivan, Angel, and Kina, but each one is about to be put to the test during one turbulent year. Lawson Kerry is a struggling single mother who has finally gotten her life together. Now, a fierce custody battle with her ex threatens to the tear apart everything she's built. Reginell Kerry is a starry-eyed singer determined to make it to the top of the charts, but will she change her tune when a chance at fame means shedding her clothes and her self-respect? Sullivan Webb is the pampered wife of a charismatic pastor with political aspirations, but she just might destroy her husband’s campaign and their marriage if she can’t control her wandering eye. Angel King has dedicated her life to nursing following the destruction of her marriage.  Can she maintain her professionalism when she discovers that her newest patient is the woman who stole her husband? Kina Battle has had enough of her husband's verbal and physical abuse. When she’s pushed to the edge, the situation heads in a deadly direction, and there might be no turning back. Nothing is sacred, all bets are off, and the lives of these ladies will never be the same. Will they have the strength to hold on to their friendships and put their trust in God?

Release date: August 7, 2012

Publisher: Urban Christian

Print pages: 320

Sample

It’s My Party . . .

Reginell Kerry sauntered into her sister’s dining room and declared for all to hear, “Contrary to popular opinion, I’m not crazy and I’m not a slut!” The cocoa-skinned beauty inserted a cigarette between her lips with one hand and dug into her patent leather tote bag for a lighter with the other. The three other pairs of eyes in the room looked up at her. Clearly, Reginell had overheard them tossing out phrases like “must’ve lost her mind” and “belongs on a street corner” to describe the barely-there zebra-print mini-skirt and black halter top covering her svelte frame.

“I said the outfit was cute. It’s just that the skirt is a little short for my liking,” explained Reginell’s soft-spoken cousin, Kina Battle. “Then again, what would I look like trying to stuff these size twenty hips and thighs into something like that?”

“Kina, you used to wear ’em just as short back in the day,” recalled Reginell. “Anyway, you hags are just jealous because you’re too old and religious to get away with wearing this.”

“Is that so?” asked Reginell’s older sister, Lawson. “All this time, I thought that it was because we were too classy and sophisticated to show our privates in public. Besides, the Bible says that women should ‘adorn themselves in modest apparel, ’ and modesty is the last word that comes to mind when I see you prancing around in zebra stripes and—” She squinted her eyes. “Are those my open-toed Mary Janes strapped around your ashy feet?”

Reginell rolled her eyes. Having found a lighter, she stared into the leaping flame for a few seconds. “When you were little, walking around in your mother’s pearls and high heels, did you think your life would turn out like this?” She lit her cigarette, took a pull, and blew out a cloud of smoke. “God knows I didn’t.”

“Let me see . . .” Spoiled housewife Sullivan Webb gazed at her butter-pecan reflection in her compact. “I’m richer than any of you will ever be, my husband is one of the most powerful preachers in Savannah, and on a good day, I can still squeeze into my high school majorette uniform. So, yes, my life is exactly how I imagined it would be!” She snapped the makeup case shut. “You, on the other hand, Reggie, chose to drop out of college, run to New York and after your imaginary music career, so you shouldn’t be at all surprised that your life has turned into the mess we all know it as today.”

Reginell puffed smoke in Sullivan’s direction to show indifference. She pointed at Angel King’s four-inch stilettos as Angel scuttled by carrying a thickly-frosted birthday cake. “Those things are going to kill you, you know.”

Angel, the resident nurse and health nut, set Reginell’s birthday cake down on the dining room table and fanned Reginell’s smoke away from her face. “And those things are going to kill you!”

“Or us, for inhaling them,” added Sullivan and snatched the cigarette out of Reginell’s mouth.

“What are you doing?” cried Reginell.

Sullivan crushed the cigarette into an ashtray. “You may think that these cancer sticks make you look all grown and sexy, but don’t suffocate the rest of us with your secondhand smoke.”

“You mean I can smoke and suffocate you at the same time?” Reginell gave Sullivan two thumbs up. “Finally, a plan we can all agree on.”

“Ladies, there will be none of that today,” sang Lawson as she punctured the cake with dainty white candlesticks. “And, Sully, cut the girl some slack, it’s her birthday.”

Reginell lit up another cigarette. “Thank you.”

This time, Lawson swiped it. “Girl, are you crazy? You know I don’t allow smoking in my house.”

“I believe this is Mama’s house,” Reginell snidely informed her sister.

Lawson raised an eyebrow. “Well, she left it to me when she died, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, ’cause you and Namon didn’t have nowhere else to go when your rich baby’s daddy kicked you to the curb,” grumbled Reginell, setting her lighter on the table.

“Reggie!” scolded Kina in a harsh whisper.

Lawson flung her wrist, dismissing Reginell’s remark. “It’s all right, Kina. There ain’t a soul in this room who doesn’t know Mark was a one-night stand who left me barefoot and pregnant when I was sixteen, so I don’t know who she thinks she’s hurting by bringing it up now.”

“Yes, but just because we all know about it doesn’t mean we all want to be reminded of it,” noted Sullivan as she swept her lips with a coat of lip gloss. Her eyes zoomed in on Kina’s chubby fingers stealthily removing one of the candles from the cake. She licked the residual frosting and eased the candle back in place. “Kina, that is disgusting! Take that thing out!”

Kina seemed to crawl inside herself as all eyes shifted to her, caught in the act. Her olive skin turned beet red, and her hazel eyes fell downcast. “I was hungry,” she whimpered. “I’m sorry, Reggie.”

Sullivan exhaled. “Kina, if you’re not going to stick to your diet, why keep going through the trouble of working with Angel? That’s time she could be spending on patients who are actually serious about losing weight.”

Angel smiled and gave Kina a tight squeeze. “Sullivan, chill out. It’s just a little frosting. Pressuring and insulting her isn’t going to make the weight come off any faster. And, Kina, while I know it’s tempting to cheat, you’ve got to stick to that diet regimen I gave you. Kenny needs his mother healthy. We can’t lose you over something as preventable as being overweight, got it? Nurse’s orders!”

“The nurse needs to order her to get that germ-infested candle out of the cake,” interjected Sullivan.

Reginell sat down in the designated birthday seat. “Dang, Sullivan, why do you have to be such a witch all the time? It’s my party and my cake. Kina can lick every last candle for all I care.”

“While it’s no secret that you’re not too particular about who or what goes in and out of your mouth,” Sullivan spitefully retorted, in reference to Reginell’s serial dating, “some of us tend to be a little more selective.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Reginell balked.

Sullivan gave her the once-over. “Do you honestly believe that there’s anybody in this house—anybody in this state—who doesn’t know you sleep around?”

Reginell narrowed her eyes. “And is there anybody in this city who doesn’t know that you’ll sell it to the highest bidder? We all know that’s how you landed Charles and the church’s hefty bank account.”

Lawson clapped her hand over her sister’s mouth. “Hey, watch out now. I can’t have you two fighting in here. You know I just had these floors stripped.”

Reginell slung Lawson’s hand away. “I get so sick of her always coming in here trying to start something. You’ve got one more time to say something disrespecting me, Sully, and it’s on!” threatened Reginell.

Sullivan spread a cloth napkin out over her lap. “You do an excellent job of disrespecting yourself without any help from me.”

Reginell pounded her left fist into her right hand and backed away from the table. “That’s it!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” barked Angel, holding Reginell back. “I’m not about to be mopping up blood from the two of you on my one day off. Go back to your corners!”

“Sully, why do you have to say things like that?” whined Kina, cradling Reginell in her pudgy arms. “You know she’s sensitive.”

“Kina, Reggie is a big girl. In fact, that’s what we’re here to celebrate, right?” asked Lawson, lighting the candles. She smiled. “Wow, my baby sister is twenty-one years old today.”

“Okay, who’s going to sing?” asked Kina, hoping to be nominated.

“Let’s just skip the song and go right to the birthday wish,” said Reginell.

Lawson clasped her hands together. “All right, baby girl, make your wish!”

Reginell closed her eyes. She couldn’t endure another year like the one she’d just gone through. Good things were bound to happen for her this year. She crossed her fingers underneath the table and blew out all twenty-one candles, praying that this time, this year, would be different. The ladies all applauded and cheered.

“So, what did you wish for?” probed Kina, already carving out a huge chunk of cake. She cut her eyes toward Angel, whose gaze was convicting enough to make Kina put half of it back.

“The same thing I’ve been wishing for since I was old enough to talk,” Reginell replied. “I wanna sing.”

“You can do that in the shower,” said Sullivan. “Isn’t it about time you started wishing for a real career?”

“I wish you’d get off my back. How about doing that?” uttered Reginell.

“And I wish you’d stay off yours!” returned Sullivan. “Try doing that.”

“Lawson, can’t you stop them for going on like this?” asked Angel in an exasperated plea.

Lawson helped herself to a slice of cake. “Girl, I can’t control what’s been almost two decades in the making. They’ve been like this ever since Sullivan stepped on Reggie’s Easter basket when she was three and crushed all her eggs.”

“I remember that,” recalled Kina with a laugh. “Reggie cried all weekend.”

Reginell drove a fork through her slice of birthday cake. “Crushing eggs, crushing dreams . . . it’s all the same to you, isn’t it, Sully?”

“Pipe dreams, like eggs, are made to be broken.”

“It’s not a pipe dream!” countered Reginell and sucked her teeth. “Why do I even bother talking to you?”

Sullivan concurred, “My sentiments exactly.”

“Can you stop fussing long enough for us to open the presents?” asked Lawson.

“Oh, you better get used to all this bickering now that you’re going to be dealing with it on a daily basis, Miss Teacher,” piped in Angel.

“Please! It’s either teach or go back to bagging pregnancy tests and toilet paper at Pick-n-Pay. Besides, I expect high school students to be emotional and high strung.” Lawson pointed at Sullivan and Reginell. “Only God knows what their excuse is.”

Reginell sulked. “See? Nobody ever criticizes Lawson for following her dream of being a teacher, so why do you all have to crap all over my dream of becoming a singer?”

Angel touched Reginell’s hand. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting a career in music, but the reality is that very few people actually become platinum-selling artists. Pursue something that’s within reach. Dream big, but dream feasibly.”

Kina nodded, cosigning on Angel’s statement. “Look at me. The only dream I ever had was to be E’Bell’s wife and Kenny’s mother. I knew that was something I could do, and I did it.”

Sullivan was baffled. “Are you bragging or complaining?”

“Sully, Kina’s a wonderful wife and mother, and that’s enough for her,” said Lawson.

“Well, even E’Bell’s a step up from the felons that Reggie has dragged in over the past few years,” replied Sullivan.

“Please, not again!” pleaded Angel. “Break out the prayer cloths . . . or the liquor!”

Lawson pulled out a bottle of Merlot from the buffet. “Here. Maybe if they’re tipsy enough they’ll stop arguing.”

“At the very least, if we’re tipsy enough, we won’t care.” Angel popped off the cap and filled her glass. “Drink up, Reggie. You can do it legally now.”

Reginell passed her flute to Sullivan. “Sully, will you do me the honors? I want my first drink to be poured by someone who’s no stranger to emptying a bottle of wine.”

Lawson issued an ominous glare. “Reggie . . .”

Reginell smiled wickedly at Sullivan. “What? We all know that Sullivan has never met a drink she didn’t like.”

“The Bible says that a little wine is good for the belly,” rationalized Sullivan. “There’s nothing wrong with having a social drink every now and then.”

“Yeah, it’s when you drink every day like you do that it’s classified as a problem,” contended Reginell.

Angel groaned. “I can see where this is going. Was I the only one paying attention to Charles’s sermon last week when he reminded everybody that the Lord instructed us to live peaceably with one another?”

“Amen,” said Kina. “Try to get along for the next couple of hours, at least. This is supposed to be a party, remember?”

Lawson wiped her mouth. “And we can’t celebrate this joyous occasion without giving thanks and praise where it’s due.”

“To God be the glory!” acclaimed Angel.

Lawson stood up. “Come here, li’l sister. Let us pray over you.” The ladies all circled around Reginell and pointed their hands toward her with bowed heads. “Lord, we praise and uplift your name, and we come today thanking you for your many blessings and for everyone in this room.

“We come right now asking you to look down and bless my little sister, Reggie. Thank you for covering her with your blood for the last twenty-one years. I pray that you will continue to guide her and order her steps according to your will. Let her seek you first, so that all other things may be added onto her. Let her discern your voice from that of the enemy’s. Keep her under your hedge of protection.

“Lord, I speak life, peace, and favor on Reggie and everyone gathered here today. We thank you for every good gift, and we have faith that we will receive whatever we ask in your son Jesus’ name. Amen.”

“Amen,” seconded Angel as the ladies broke the circle and took their seats.

Lawson raised her glass. “We should make a toast to friendship and prosperity.”

Sullivan hoisted up her glass. “I’ll drink to that!”

“You’ll drink to anything,” mumbled Reginell.

Kina joined them. “To Reggie . . .”

Sullivan grunted.

“To my sister,” said Lawson, putting her arm around Reginell. “And to all my other sisters standing around this table. I love you. To friendship. . .”

They clinked glasses with one another. “Here, here!”

“And to living out your dreams,” stated Reginell, “no matter what it costs you.”

Kina closed her eyes and quietly recited, “You, Lord God, are my protector. Rescue me and keep me safe from all who chase me.” Then she turned the doorknob, bracing for what was sure to come next.

“What took you so long?” barked her husband, E’Bell, the moment Kina stepped into their cramped apartment. He hurled the remote control across the living room, narrowly missing her head.

Kina closed the door behind her. “I’m sorry, baby. I just—”

“It’s after eight o’clock!” roared E’Bell. “Didn’t I tell your fat self to be here by seven-thirty? Didn’t I tell you I had somewhere to be?”

Kina eased into the room, scrambling to find the right words to justify her actions and keep E’Bell’s temper at bay. “I know you did. It’s just that I got to talking with the girls and sort of lost track of time.”

E’Bell put his six foot, nearly 350-pound frame against hers, pressing her into the wall. He shoved a finger in her face, filling her nostrils with his foul hot breath, which reeked of beer and smoke. “So, you just didn’t care about what I had to do, huh? I guess nothing could be as important as you shooting the breeze with them same nosy broads you talk to every day as it is.”

Kina bowed her head. “We were celebrating Reggie’s birthday, and I forgot to keep up with the clock.”

He grunted and cracked his knuckles. “Maybe you need something to help you remember that you got a husband at home while you’re out partying with your friends. Maybe I should bust your head wide open to help you remember that next time.”

Kina’s mind flashed back to the last time E’Bell sought to “help her remember” something. It resulted in a detached retina and a swollen lip. That time, like the times prior that he’d gotten physical with her, she kept to herself and concealed it with makeup.

“Baby, I’m sorry. Please forgive me,” begged Kina. “I’ll make it up to you; I swear. Just tell me what I have to do.”

“Do what I tell you without all the complaining and excuses. All I asked you to do is bring your tail home at a decent time, and you couldn’t even do that right.”

Tears leaked from her eyes. “E’Bell, I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me.”

“You’re about an hour too late for that!”

“I swear it’ll never happen again. You know how much I love you.”

He dug his index finger into her temple. “You call this love, Kina? Look at how you just disrespected me by coming home late. I knew you were stupid, but I did give you more credit than that.”

Kina wiped her eyes. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sorry I let you down. ”

E’Bell turned away from her. “You see, this right here just proves I should’ve left you back in high school when I had the chance. Instead, I let you trap me into watching you get fatter every day and spoiling any chance I had of getting out of this dump.”

“I never tried to trap you, I loved you. You’re the only man I’ve ever loved.”

E’Bell snatched up a pillow from the sofa, squeezing it between his large hands the way he used to hold a football. “I was the all-city football champ with a future just waiting for me to reach out and grab it. You took that away from me, Kina, and you don’t ever take a man’s dream away from him.” He threw the pillow across in the room in frustration. “This ain’t the life I wanted or the one you claimed we would have.”

“I’ve always tried to make you happy and be a good wife to you,” she wailed.

“You need to try harder.” He grabbed his car keys. “I’m going out.”

“Where are you going?” she asked timidly.

“You know better than to be questioning me like that. And you better not call me all night, either, whining about what time I’m coming home. I’ll be here when I get here.”

She looked down at the frayed carpet. “What about the baby? Is he asleep?”

“Kenny ain’t no baby. He’s eleven years old, but you’d never know it by the way you smother him all the time. He’s too feminine as it is, all that crying he do. I told you I ain’t raising no sissy.”

“He’s just a little sensitive, E’Bell.”

“Yeah, and who’s the one who got him like that? I swear you can’t do nothing right.” He pushed her aside and bolted out the door.

Alone in the room, Kina thanked God for sparing her from E’Bell’s fists. His departure was almost a relief to her. The insults she could handle; in fact, his words hardly bothered her anymore. Years of experience had taught her when and how much to cry to make E’Bell feel like he’d gotten the best of her. The physical abuse was something else, though; something she could never get used to.

Kina took a moment to compose herself and tacked on a smile before going into her son’s room. She didn’t want him to know that she’d been crying again. She knocked on Kenny’s bedroom door and opened it to find him sprawled on the floor playing video games. “Hey, sport, what are you playing?”

Kenny smiled up at his mother. “Mario Kart. I’m up to level eight.”

Kina made her way inside. “Is that good?”

“Not as good as Cameron—he can get up to level ten—but it’s close.” He winced as his character succumbed to a mushroom, and then turned off the game system. “You were gone a long time. Where were you?”

“I went to see your cousins. It’s Reggie’s birthday, so we had a party for her.”

“I wish you had taken me with you,” he replied with a sigh.

She gathered him in her arms. “You missed your old mama, huh?”

Kenny smiled sheepishly. “I just like it better when you’re home.”

“Didn’t you and your daddy have fun while I was gone?”

“Not really. I mostly stayed back here, and he stayed in the den.”

Without having to ask, Kina knew that E’Bell had probably spent the afternoon drinking and staring at the television. Experience had taught her that too. “What did you guys have for dinner?”

He eased out of her lap and held up an empty bag of potato chips. “I had this.”

Kina shook her head. She didn’t expect E’Bell to be the nurturing caregiver that she was, but she did expect him to at least feed their son when she wasn’t there. She went into the kitchen and returned with a glass of milk, carrot sticks, and a ham sandwich. “It’s not a six-course meal, but it’ll have to do for now.”

“Thanks!” Kenny began devouring the sandwich.

“Wow, you were hungry, weren’t you?” He nodded. “Did you remind Daddy that you hadn’t eaten?”

Kenny swallowed a bite of his sandwich. “No. He said not to bother him and to stay back here. He did give me the bag of chips, though.”

Kina masked her irritation. “Kenny, come sit with me for a minute. I want to talk to you.” He hopped onto the bed and sat next to his mother. She tousled his head and kissed him on the cheek. “So, tell me what’s going on in that brain of yours.”

“What do you mean?”

“What are you thinking about? How do you feel?” He shook his head, but she could tell that he was holding back from her. “Kenny, come on now. You know that we don’t keep secrets from each other.”

Kenny looked down at his half-eaten sandwich and back up at her. “I heard you guys arguing,” he revealed. “Daddy was yelling and calling you bad names.”

Kina stiffened a little. It hurt and embarrassed her for Kenny to know how she was treated by his father. “Kenny, I know that you know better than to be eavesdropping on grown folks’ conversations.”

“I wasn’t, Mama, honest. He was just talking so loud that I couldn’t help it.” Kenny paused a moment. “I don’t like it when he talks to you like that.”

“Honey, your daddy loves both of us. It’s just that sometimes he drinks too much, and it makes him act a little crazy and say a lot of stupid things that he doesn’t mean.”

“But he scares me when he does that. Can’t you tell him to stop drinking?”

“I can’t make him stop, Kenny. He’s a man, and lots of men like to drink, especially when they have to work as hard as your daddy does. You’re too young to understand this, but your father is under a lot of pressure between working, paying bills, and taking care of us. Drinking helps him to relax.”

“Why can’t he relax in other ways? Cameron’s daddy works hard, too, but he doesn’t drink to relax. He just plays golf.”

Kina laughed. “Different strokes for different folks, baby. Mr. Nelson likes to play golf, and Daddy likes to drink. You and Cameron don’t always like to do the same things, do you?” Kenny shook his head. “See?”

“I’m just scared he’s going to hurt you one day.”

Kina shook her head. “He won’t do that.”

“But what if he does?”

“He won’t!” she stated with finality.

“He better not.”

“Or what?” challenged Kina.

“I’d kill him!” vowed Kenny. “I’d kill anybody who hurt you.”

“Kenny, you don’t mean that, and it’s a terrible thing to say, especially about your own father. You better not ever let me hear you talking about hurting or killing anybody ever again. You hear me?” He nodded. “I’m serious.”

“I won’t say it again, but I won’t let anybody hurt you, Mama, not even Daddy.” Kenny turned the game system back on. This time, he switched to a combat game. Kenny aimed at his targets and executed each shot with chilling precision. It unnerved Kina to see him shoot and kill his opponents so callously.

“This game looks violent to me, Kenny. I don’t know if I want you playing this.”

“Yeah—take that!” shrieked Kenny, striking his adversary. “Aw, come on, Mama. I’m just having fun.”

As he continued to play, Kina saw the intensity in his eyes and rec. . .