Church Folk - Michele Andrea Bowen [48]
"But Theophilus—"
"I'm not discussing it with you here," he interrupted. "Why don't you go back in there and tell your mama that we're leaving for dinner? I'm going to get the car."
Essie did as he said, slipping back into the church to whisper to her mother that she was leaving with Theophilus.
She was gone by the time Coral Thomas got back, still as puffed up with anger as a charging bull.
D.S. looked at her face, raised his eyebrows, and silently asked, "What's wrong with you?"
Coral threw him a look saying, "Too mad to talk now."
D.S. made it clear with his eyes that he expected to get the whole story once they got back home.
Chapter Nine
THEOPHILUS DROVE UP IN HIS 1961 MIDNIGHT BLUE Buick, parked, then got out and came around to the passenger side so that he could help Essie into the car. When he slid into the driver's seat, he noticed that she was practically clinging to the passenger door.
"Are you planning on jumping out of the car?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"What I mean is that you're sitting on the edge of the seat like you might need to make a quick getaway or something."
"I don't think it looks right for me to sit too close to you in your car."
"Look right?" he said. "Woman, it'll look like we're riding in the car, which we are."
"No, it'll look like I'm your after-service woman."
Theophilus began to pull out slowly, then glanced over at Essie and said, "My what?"
She folded her arms across her chest and said, "You know.
One of those women some preachers sneak off with when they come to these conferences."
"If that is what you think, then stay your little self on over there. And while you're at it," he said, patting the seat irritably, "put your purse right here between us. That way I won't be able to slide you over here by me, in case I forget myself and start acting like the after-service man."
She gave him a "Negro please" look and moved half an inch closer to him.
They rode in silence for the next seven blocks until Theophilus told her, "There's a stop I want to make."
He pulled up in front of a medium-sized church, with a lovely white frame house with brick-red-colored shutters standing next to it.
"This is Greater Hope. And that white house is the parsonage. Just thought you might like to see my church and where I live."
"It's very nice," was all Essie could bring herself to say.
"I like it," Theophilus said, amused by her nervous air, and restarted the car.
They traveled about three miles, and then he turned into a gravel parking lot, alongside what looked like a former warehouse. Over the door was a soft white neon sign that read MABEL'S KITCHEN.
Despite its plain exterior, Essie was surprised to find that inside Mabel's Kitchen was quite elegant. She could see into a dining room that was painted off-white and had silver-trimmed, off-white curtains at all the windows. The tables were draped with soft, off-white linen tablecloths and decorated with silver-bowed clay flowerpots, filled with artificial moss and off-white silk carnations. The high-backed cane chairs that surrounded each table had off-white and silver-striped seat cushions.
"I had no idea Mabel's Kitchen was so fancy," Essie said, looking around the room.
"This dining room is nice but I think you'll like the one upstairs even better."
The second-floor dining room was decorated in gold, black, and ivory. The curtains on the windows were silk, and they matched the gold, black, and ivory striped seat cushions of the same high-backed chairs as downstairs. There were ivory linens on each table, gold-plated silverware, and shiny gold goblets filled with fresh ivory-colored roses. Beside each rose-filled goblet sat two gold candles that gave the tables a warm romantic glow. There was a small dance floor and a stage in this room, on which a Negro combo was playing very softly.
Theophilus took one of Essie's hands and tried not to sway to the music while they waited to be seated. The headwaiter, dressed in a tuxedo, led them to a cozy table near one of the windows. He left them with menus, then returned to