It's a Family Affair

Meantime, while Alexis Martin was experiencing one; no...the scariest and tense moments she had ever been through, on the other side of town her best friend Bonnie Powell was having a Kodak moment. Bonnie's daughter Kaycee had just given birth to her second child. It was a beautiful, and memorable event. Kaycee had a normal  delivery and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Bonnie was present at the birth along with her granddaughter Jillian (who has just become the "big" sister), her daughter's husband Devan and his parents.

At first, Bonnie had been slightly turned off at the idea of being in the room with her daughter when she gave birth, not to mention watching the whole thing with her son-in-law and his parents! It had seemed like so much like a spectator sport thing or something. Women from her generation did not invite others to witness such a private moment.

But, actually it had all occurred in good taste and it was not nearly as graphic as she had expected it to be. Kaycee and Devan were actually behind a privacy screen for the delivery, so she was able to maintain her modesty while sharing this important event with her family. Surprisingly, Kaycee's labor had not been overly long or unbearably painful. She had a natural birth, and Devan had been a loving, patient and encouraging coach. The Lamaze classes they had attended as a couple had proven to be well worth the money and the time they had invested. Proper breathing techniques, ice chips, soothing music, and having her wonderful and handsome husband right beside her had done absolute wonders for Kaycee. She  was all aglow with the whole experience, and when the baby was born, Bonnie looked at her daughter and thought that she had never looked more beautiful!

Of course, Jillian was not present during the labor and delivery. Her father's sister had taken her for the day, and when the call came that Jillian was officially a big sister, Auntie Nickie had brought Jillian to the hospital. By the time they got there, Kaycee and the newborn who was immediately given the name Sterling had been cleaned up and were sitting up in bed looking fabulous and ready to receive visitors.  And after making Jillian comfortable in a big chair near her mother's bed, the new Dad carefully laid baby Sterling in her big sister's arms. The look on Jillian's face as she held her new baby sister was one of pure joy. Bonnie and Bernadette (Devan's Mom) had both cried at this beautiful moment.

So, naturally while Bonnie was happy and joyous over the new birth, and so very grateful that God had brought her daughter safely through her labor and delivery, and given them this precious bundle...Alexis and Claudette had no intention of intruding on a family moment. No, it could and it would wait until later. By then, they would have the whole story...hopefully and maybe the shock would have worn off.

Or even better...Alexis would open her eyes and wake up from this terrible, terrible nightmare. One could always hope.

Down the Up Staircase

Within the space of a few minutes; five at the very most...all of the plans, the hard work, the anticipation, the pride in her first major accomplishment vanished. Like the ashes from a slow burning cigarette her dreams went up in smoke. Or like wisps of a fine vapor may be a more accurate description. But any way you sliced it, her world and her state of mind had turned upside down sideways...like it had stopped turning on its circular axis, and stopped on a tilted angle.

Her phone had rang as she started up the staircase, and she answered it with the same upbeat and happy tone of voice that mimicked the way she was already feeling inside. When she got the news, she sat down on the step, and she didn't remember actually ending the call. She only knew that for so long a time she had sat there on the same step where she had sank after receiving the call. Her mind was a blank for a while, and she sat staring at nothing; her eyes focused but not seeing.

The phone call had been from Abigail Vanderberry her bride-to-be. Abigail had informed her in a matter of fact way that there would be no wedding taking place for her. She had called it off in a brief conversation just prior to making the call to Alexis with her now ex-groom Bryce Meyers. The fact that Abigail was so calm and controlled was in itself chilling. She had shown no sadness, no remorse and no ; well...emotion at all. She had simply made the statement that the wedding was off. She did however, answer one question that Alexis had managed to ask her before she became completely stunned, and that question was 'What happened?' to which Abigail had spoken in an almost disembodied voice "because he's dead, and I killed him".

When Alexis heard these words, she came within a hair of passing out completely. Instead, she simply sat there in a semi-catatonic state. Minutes passed and finally, Alexis came back to her senses. Her breathing was shallow, and there was an intense pain behind her eyes that was not only hurting like hell, but was causing her vision to blur.   At last, she tried to stand by bracing her hands on either side of her. She did stand up, but when she started to move she discovered that her limbs were numb from sitting for so long. Holding onto the banister for support, she steadied herself, and took several deep breaths to restore her normal breathing rhythm.

But she couldn't decide whether to go the rest of the way upstairs, or to go back down the staircase.
She stood there hesitating and her cell phone rang again. She looked down at the phone still in her hand as if she held a foreign object in her hand. While she stood hesitating, the ringing stopped before she could even look at the caller ID display. It immediately rang again, but this time she did press the talk button and in doing so, it was like spurning herself into motion. She went back down the staircase as she spoke into her phone. It was one of her best friends on the other end...Claudette Richardson.

Claudette was calling to check on her and to make sure her anxiousness hadn't taken over her and to get all of the last-minute details about the Vanderberry-Meyers shindig. Immediately, Claudette could tell something was terribly off key here. She had to call Alexis' name at least three times before she was sure Alexis was actually there. She held on and listened in silence as she received the update she was calling to receive although it was definitely NOT the content she had expected.

After Alexis had relayed all of the information that Abigail had shared with her, she suddenly remembered something, and spoke it out loud...Oh my God! What should I do? I've just been the recipient of a murder confession; should I call the police? Claude...what should I do?

Stay tuned.

Coming Soon!

Hello Readers and Followers of The Real Grandmothers of Charlotte...Keep it Real! We are excited to announce to you (our loyal reading audience) that during the month of August, we will be heating up the stories with some "muy caliente" posts! Since August is the hottest month of the year, its only fitting that we up the temperature here too.

Each of the grandmothers will be revealing a never before known story about themselves and things from the past. In a "ride or die" dare, the fabulous ladies will let you behind closed doors, and make you privy to some of their most daring truth or dare stories.

Appropriately, this series will be called "True Confessions" and we guarantee you will be hooked!

Join us next week for the first post in our mini series as we look into the secret closet of our four fabulous ladies!!

First He Lies, Then He Cheats...

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive! And if you tell one lie, you’ve got to tell another…and another…till even you don’t know the truth. Well all of this is so true, and whether or not Mr. Cheater gave a second or even a first thought to any of it when he came face to face with Alexis. Literally, it was not face to face because they were several feet away from each other when he came out of one of the private rooms all hugged up with another woman. But something had charged the atmosphere causing him to look around and when he did he looked smack dab in the face of his “one true love”.

Ever hear the expression “time stood still”? I think it’s supposed to describe something totally different than what was going on here though. It’s supposed to refer to to when two people who meet and immediately discover a mutual attraction for each other; in a good way of course. This situation was anything but beautiful but it sure was memorable!  Alexis looked at Frank, Frank was looking at Alexis, (Raquel who is Alexis’ friend) was looking back and forth between Frank and Alexis while the unidentified playmate with Frank just stood there wondering where to look.

Nobody moved for a full minute. Thankfully, Raquel had the sense to make the first move. She gently but firmly took hold of Alexis’ elbow with the intention of steering her into the next room; where they had originally been heading. She quietly urged her to come along and not cause a scene that would only make a bad situation worse. 

At first, Alexis resisted the movement, but when she did allow her friend to lead her away, she moved on, but was continuing to look over her shoulder at the retreating backs of her boyfriend and the stranger he was still hugged up with and now he seemed to be whispering something in her ear.

Here’s a little back-story to catch you up. Frank had called Alexis earlier on this Saturday night and begged off on a date because of car trouble. He had said that he would get the car fixed by a friend who could only do it right then and afterwards he’d call her. She was none the wiser, so she had settled down for the evening when her friend Raquel called and persuaded her to accompany her on a night out to have drinks and maybe get into a card game. This is how they ended up at Abe’s’ Place.

It goes without saying that the evening that had begun as a fun time had definitely lost its’ flavor for Alexis. She couldn’t concentrate; she was upset and still couldn’t believe what she had seen. Worst of all, she had a pain in her chest  brought on by realizing that Frank was just like the many men who had hurt her, lied to her and cheated on her in her past. There was no use in her staying here now. There was no way she would be able to concentrate on the card game. And she didn’t want to make conversation with anyone else right now, so she asked Raquel to drive her home.

She was very quiet on the ride back to her house. Raquel was respectful of this, so she didn’t ply her with the usual platitudes that one dishes out at times like this. She merely touched her hand while they were driving along, and when they got back to the house and before Alexis had gotten out of the car, she simply told her friend “Call me when you want to talk. Anytime, you need me; just call”. Alexis had nodded her head and let herself into her house where only hours before she had left in such an upbeat mood.

So, she made herself and cup of herbal tea, and changed into her pajamas. Curled up on the couch in her family room, she didn’t turn on a lamp. The lamp she always left on in the dining room shed enough light into this room. Besides, she needed the dimness to frame a backdrop for her little pity party she was about to throw. 

Putting her head back against the cushions and making herself comfortable, she blew out a big sigh, and just let her thoughts free fall while she sipped the delicious pungent brew of her tea. For a moment she had considered spiking it with a healthy dose of brandy, but nixed that idea for several reasons. After her pity party, she was going to have to put some things into serious perspective and she wanted to be sober for that. She let out a wry chuckle because the mellow buzz she had gotten from her drinks at Abe’s had quickly faded away the moment she caught sight of Frank and his little honey.

Yes, it was time for a close introspection and possibly a plan of action. She knew that there had been times in her life when she thought she knew how to make the right choices, but she just knew all of that was behind her. There was only a slight issue here; should that plan of action be revenge or the decision to simply move on?

Summertime

The fabulous foursome hadn't spent any quality time together since they had returned from their vacation in Jamaica. Personal agendas had been the order of the day, and kept them busy. As usual, the summer is a busy time for most folks; what with family reunions, family visits and all. Helena and her husband Stanford had spent nearly two weeks in Montana on a Dude Ranch with their daughters and sons, their spouses and all of the grandchildren. Then they had gone to Scottsdale, Arizona to recuperate at a luxury spa.

Bonnie had hosted her family reunion this year, and another one came and went without an appearance by her sister Yvette, but everyone else had come and according to Bonnie, a wonderful time was had by all. To her surprise and pleasure, her Mom decided to stay on a few more days to just relax and hang out with Bonnie. And Bonnie's brother had let his seven-year old daughter stay along with Grand-mama.

Claudette had taken a weeks' vacation in Myrtle Beach with some female co-workers from her job, and then she and her daughter had gone on a long weekend to Atlantic City for some serious gambling and a brief stop in New York on the way back for a little shopping.

And Alexis, had hosted an old friends get-together at her home for a few of her high school classmates who were in town visiting. She also had gone back to her college reunion with another college classmate that she had reconnected with a couple of years ago. They made a stop coming back from Virginia to spend a weekend in the mountains of Asheville, NC and toured the Biltmore House and grounds. The best part of her summer thus far was when her grand kids all got together and spent a week at her house, just hanging out.

So, the ladies were all in such a good place now. God was smiling on all of them and all of their families. Life was good, and when either of them thought back to what could have happened to them in Jamaica; well let's just say they could never be more grateful for life than they were at this present time. It was a subject that neither of them wanted to discuss any time soon for reasons that were obvious to them.

The lazy, hazy days of summer were rolling on by, the Fourth of July has been celebrated and each of the friends knew that they would be spending quite a bit of the season keeping in touch by text, or phone when they had the time to spare. This was family time, and nothing is more important than family.

There were as couple of projects on hold that they would be getting involved in come the fall season. One was helping Alexis to redecorate some of the rooms in her house, Bonnie was expecting her first grandchild in October, and the other was their annual shopping trip for fall wardrobes in Atlanta, GA. All of the ladies agreed that one must always have a little something to look forward to.

So, we'll just have to check in with these gals in a few weeks and get the low-down on who did what over the summer, who got drunk and showed off at the reunions, who hooked up with who again and all of the delicious gossip that makes for an interesting coffee klatch.

And let's not forget that we must discover “who” it was that Alexis saw at Abe's Place on her night out with Gloria. It makes you go"hmm...".