SEASON 1 PART 27

LOCATION: SACRAMENTO, CA
DATE: 11/7/19
TIME:2:20 PM

Helen had just arrived to the air upon seeing Paulette who she greeted with a hug. There were tears, laughter, lots of questions regarding what she had been doing. It had been about 11 years before they had seen on another. While waiting on her luggage, Paulette asked about the girls. "Three of mine are educators now while one's a social worker, and one's a lawyer"

"That's such a blessing. You've raised some fine young ladies"
 "I really did" Helen said nodding in agreement. "I'm proud of all of them. What about yours?"
"Well, Denise is a news reporter. Julius owns a construction business. Axl is a pharmacist. I recently retired from the doctor's office so now I can enjoy spending time with my great-grandkids"

Once she retrieved her luggage and the arrived to Paulette's home, which could be described as a nice cottage painted a light blue with the inside interior resembling that of one you'd see on the coast. She wasn't into ornate or elaborate decor and when it came to scents, she preferred plug-ins over candles.

HELEN-"You've got a lovely home"

PAULETTE-"Thank you"

PAULETTE-"Can I get you some sweet tea?"

HELEN-"Yes PLEASE! This takes me back to when we were girls. That was one thing mama liked to do at every meal. She loved that sweet tea."

PAULETTE-"Did you go to Anna's funeral?"

HELEN-"I did, at my age, I'm kind beginning to long for my family again. Mom is far more tame now that she's in her 90s. She had a temper growing up and was part of what drove me to leave so young."

PAULETTE-"I last went down to Lake Charles about 15 years ago. I'd go every few years. My kids have been down there, however my grand kids haven't"

HELEN-"Y'all moved pretty early on. We were teens when y'all left"

PAULETTE-"Mom just said she had had it. She always knew she wanted us to spread our wings, even if she never left. But you know? We followed the footsteps of many who left during the great migration. Daddy had an architect business, in a step of faith....he took his business on the road. It was tough at first, until he designed a home for another client of our background."

HELEN-"Creole? Black Frenchman?"

PAULETTE-"You already know. Out here, people thought we were white. Anyway, that man begin referring him. Until he eventually designed planned communities for other developing companies"

HELEN-"How's Taj?"

PAULETTE-"She's doing good. She's out here. She's running the old architect firm now. Daddy paid his child support faithfully. She went to Grambling State. Majored in Business. She kept in contact with dad. Her mama never got in the way of that. Once she got her degree, she got her MBA years later. When daddy retired, he left her with handling the firm. I had already been established, married, working for a doctor, while she had just been laid off from a retail company"

HELEN-"Wow. How about Dexter?"

PAULETTE-"He found some partners of his, they went to an early day game. Still married girl. He'll be here later"

While drinking ice tea, a honda accord pulled up in the front yard and out was a young woman, dark skin, nice shape. "That's my granddaughter. That's Denise's oldest. She's got her son and fiance with her."

HELEN-"Latino?"

PAULETTE-"Yes, he's Guatemalan."

HELEN-"How old is her son?"

PAULETTE-"9"

HELEN-"So a year older than my grandson, Quincy"

PAULETTE-"She's living with us right now. You see? She had Perez when she was 19. She had to drop out of college. The relationship between her and her parents was strained for a while. She went back to school and she's got a couple of years until she gets her Criminal Justice degree."

HELEN-"So the guy she's with, is he the Daddy?"

PAULETTE-"Yes to that, he is. He's a bit older than her, he was a graduating senior when they met. He's a civil engineer. They had broken up for a while, but got back together after seeing him at a party."

HELEN-"Girl, these kids"

PAULETTE-"You said it!"

While Paulette went to open the door, Helen went to attempt to begin unpacking her bags,

"Come on in, there's someone I want you to meet" Paulette said as they headed to the kitchen, Helen begin to walk out. "You don't know her, but this is my first cousin Helen."

HELEN-"Hi ma'am."

EBONY-"Hello, I'm Ebony. This is my fiance Ramiro and my son Perez."

HELEN-"Hi, honey."

PEREZ-"Hi."

RAMIRO-"Hola, ?como esta usted?"

PAULETTE-"We were thick as thieves growing up. But she's just as stubborn now as she was then. I finally got her to come and visit me."

HELEN-"I'm not a fan of long drives or planes."

PAULETTE-"Uh huh..................."

EBONY-"So, you grew up in Louisiana too?"

HELEN-"Yes, me and your grandmother. Our mom's Val and Lucy are sisters. Her mother is my aunt and my mom is your great aunt."

Perez sat in the corner listening to the conversation, trying not the chime in but the curiosity got the best of him when he asked if he could look at the photo album pictures with them. "So is this who are we meeting in Colorado this Christmas?"

"Looks like it" Ebony said. Looking at some of Helen's vacation photos.

PAULETTE-"Awww look at us right there."

HELEN-"We must have been in our late 20s in this picture."

PAULETTE-"We had taken a girls trip to Vegas."HELEN-"Yeah, you won yourself some money. Enough to pay every meal we ate after that night."

EBONY-"Who's that?"

HELEN-"Those are my girls right there."

PAULETTE-"All grown up now."

HELEN-"Oh yeah. And they’ve all done well for themselves.No arrests, no encounters with the law."

PAULETTE-"Do you think they would have had the same luck in Louisiana?"

HELEN-"Maybe in Baton Rouge or New Orleans."

PAULETTE-"Right? Not in that racist ass town we came out of"
Perez, bit his lip trying not to laugh as the sound of profanity was amusing to him. Probably because of the context it was often used in, and he couldn't say those words in front of his mom and dad.

EBONY-"Maybe it's changed since then, but the two of you being of the lighter complexion, probably got better treatment than I would have."

PAULETTE-In some ways yes, but in other ways, not quite.

HELEN-A nigger is a nigger is a nigger, to them it doesn't make a difference.

PAULETTE-That's what it was.

HELEN-I saw it coming more from my own once I got out there.

PAULETTE-Our aunt! Once she left for Rhode Island, she pretty much disowned her family. She had no problem going visit them, but they better not come out to California. She was so worried about her cover being blown.
HELEN-Aunt Marla?
PAULETTE-Yes. I can remember us going up there to see her only to turn back around because she wouldn’t receive us.
HELEN-But Rhode Island? What the hell was she doing out there?
PAULETTE-Married a white man, kids white passing. They all married white. You know the story.
RAMIRO-I grew up in a pretty liberal household as far as race relations go. Perhaps I'm different, but I don't get the shaming of black Latinos. That could be more of an east coast thing and more prevalent in communities such as the Dominican and Cuban communities.
PAULETTE-Like where the hell do they think slave ships landed first?

Perez, had a tan complexion, looking like a nice mix of his moms complexion paired with his fathers bright skin tone. He could be described as an athlete, playing soccer and basketball. He also like to swim. On the other hand, he also enjoyed video games, wrestling, and laser tag. His vocabulary was mature for a kid his age, in fact, his mother described him as a 9 year old going on 25. He's bi-lingual speaking both English and Spanish, learning the latter language from his grandparents. That probably came from spending so much time with other adults. Even when not in the presence of adults, he often overheard their conversations and when there was a word heard that he didn't recognize, he tended to look them up. He wasn't so much a bookworm, but he had a fascination with the dictionaries.

Helen, took out her phone and went to her Facebook page. They looked at her daughter's page, where she talked about them and what they were doing. There were pictures of the grand kids that caught their eyes. "That's Dominic right there. He's a sweetheart. He's had it rough".

PAULETTE-"What's wrong?"

HELEN-"He is a hemophiliac."

PAULETTE-"Oh no."

HELEN-"He thrives though. His mom is more worried about him than he is. He has some nights where he's woken up in the middle of the night and she's had to bring him to the ER, yet he doesn't want to be seen as a charity case. His baby brother has sickle cell anemia. Gabriel. He's three. Mia is the only one of Azalea's kids that don't have a blood disorder."

They looked at Miriam's page, "She's in school right now, she's studying to be a nurse".
"Let me get her page info" Ebony said. "I'd like to add her. Hopefully she sees some mutual friends and accepts me."

HELEN-"It would be nice for you two to connect". You know? We are at a time now, and I believe this. It will be more important than ever to know who were are. Our history in this country, our family, and our worth."

PAULETTE-"Amen."

She then told Helen, that she wanted to take her to a few antique shops in town. "I'll show you where I get some of the stuff in this house."

HELEN-"Yeah, I need some ideas for my house. I'm trying to create a garden in my backyard and I'm stuck"

PAULETTE-"You still work in your yard"

HELEN-"Oh yea girl, it's therapeutic for me"

They conversed about everything from gardening to event planning. Lucinda also came up in conversation. "Your mama could be a handful"

HELEN-"Why you think I enjoyed being at your house so far"

PAULETTE-"Me raised as on only child, well my sister , but she didn't live with me, I enjoyed having you all over."

HELEN-"Mom had a temper."

PAULETTE-"Last time I went, she was so ugly, I said it'd be a damn good while before I went back"

HELEN-"She definitely could be difficult to deal with, but when your marriage was already rocky, it's no surprise. I think she resented us on some level as long as we've been alive. That is until Marcus was born."

PAULETTE-"How about Bessie?"

HELEN-"Poor Bessie.....she could never get her drinking under control."

EBONY-"Who's Bessie?"

HELEN-"My sister"

HELEN-"After mama made her give her child away, she sank further and further into depression"

PEREZ-"Where is she now?"

PAULETTE-"Deceased"

HELEN-"She was only 47"

Perez, interested in the conversation regarding the family history, had to be escorted from the kitchen by his dad. "Gonna go run a quick errand, Perez c'mon". They headed out the door when the conversation resumed.Helen bought up why the marriage was so rocky. "She never wanted to marry daddy. She liked someone, however her folks weren't going for that"

PAULETTE-"Where'd you hear that at?"

HELEN-"I've heard the stories. You know we couldn't get in grown folks business, but I'd overhear them when I was in the bathroom during bath time. I'd pretend to be soaking, when in reality I soaking up the knowledge of the family dynamics. I've heard her arguing with her parents regarding it. The marriage was a business marriage. Thought I don't know what kind of business, we were both dirt poor. In turn, I think that because she didn't want him but he loved us, she resented us and the relationship that we had with him. I left as soon as I could because I was tired of her temper. I never knew what kind of mood she was going to be in. I jumped and married the first guy that I met. I barely graduated high school before I married my husband and we flew the coop out to LA and I've been living out there ever since."

PAULETTE-"Really, neither of them loved each other. The marriage was set up by the parents."

HELEN-"Drink to that."

PAULETTE-"I'm gonna grab my purse and we can head out."

While they looked through a few novelty shops, some arts and crafts stores, as well as a coffee shop. Additionally they visited Axl before heading back to the house.
"Dexter? Let me have a hug!"

"You look good Helen. How've you been?"
"Busy, Enjoying my grandchildren. I got 8 of em. You still working?"
"Yes, waiting till the day I can retire. Still teaching Chemistry classes at CSUS"
"Two of mine are professors as well, one's a high school teacher working on her doctorate, another is a social worker and my youngest is a lawyer."
"Wow!"
"It's a blessing. You know? You always want your children to do better than you did and I would say mine did. They've all graduated high school. They have advanced degrees, and one is trying to get into some extra work. Anita, my youngest. She's the attorney, but she's also in the process of trying to obtain a real estate license."
"Ain't a lot of us out there"
"She’s so good at math. I don’t know where she got it from she she didn’t get it from her mama."
"Does it feel like we are living through our children?
"I think all parents do that to some extent. Guilt of not achieving as children but then there are those like us who wanted better for ours than we had"
"And we got it."
Paulette popped a bag of popcorn and opened up a second bottle of wine while looking at the same photo album from earlier. The page they were on had a picture of Marla in a hit that shielded her face from the sun. "As hot as it was"

"You already know why" Paulette scoffed. "Didn't want those features to be too obvious."

"Last I heard, she was still living in Rhode Island, Jackie kept contact with her, but she always had to be careful about the language she used in public as she didn't want to blow her cover."

HELEN-"Chances are her husband already knew. Unless she burned every pic from childhood. At the most, she could pass for Indian."

HELEN-"I talked with Jackie about five years ago via phone. I kept contact with her mainly through IM when that was popular."


The conversation continued until about 2:00 am. They talked about the family history, how they would up out there. Paulette left with her family earlier on, Helen escaped by marrying young. She had tried maintaining a relationship with her sisters via Anna, who kept tabs with everyone. Memories of going to the theater on railroad avenue crossed their mind as well as the church picnics that on the fourth Sundays.

HELEN-"If it wasn't for Anna, I wouldn't know anything right now. Anna helped me out a lot. Having her was a blessing, I sure miss her. I wish I had gotten to spend more time with her. It was a blessing that my kids got to know her."

PAULETTE-"Why the hell ran you off like that though? You sent your kids down there but you didn't fool with them?"

HELEN-"I regret it everyday. Not going. I think about it every night. Here I am talking about our aunt when I did something similar."

As late night arrived, Helen began to doze off. "Girl I'm gonna head on to bed."

PAULETTE-"Goodnight. I'm gonna fix me a bite to eat. I'm hungry."

[DATE: 11/8/17]

The following morning, Helen woke up around 9:30 am to the smell of a pot of coffee brewing. At the breakfast table, Paulette and Ebony were sitting down reading the paper while Dexter and Perez were still sleep.

"Good morning" Ebony said as she pulled out a chair.

"Good morning. Coffee smells incredible."

"Gourmet. It's a creme brulee flavor."

On the table was an assortment of creams, sugar, as well as a sugar substitute. While waiting on the coffee to brew, they were reading the news about the possibility of a strike among the Sacramento city district teachers due to low wages and poor working conditions.

HELEN-"It's the same story in Los Angeles. My daughter Deja is a high school teacher, 30 plus kids to a class, the pay is a joke for what she deals with. Even on her off days, she's never off. Her summers aren't really free either because she's always in a training of some sort."

EBONY-"What does she teach?"

"English. In college, she went for English Education and History. She eventually got an MFA."

After 15 minutes the coffee had finished brewing, they chatted over coffee before Perez and Ebony left for school. Perez grabbed his bag and a clip board while Ebony fixed some coffee in a coffee cup to go. "Let me get some of this caramel creamer right here."

"Have a good day you two."

HELEN-"He's so cute."

PAULETTE-"He's a beautiful person inside and out. Really. He does volunteer work wherever he can. He's a sharer by nature and he feels whatever emotion you feel. He can since sadness from the other side of the room."

HELEN-"That'll take him far in life. Malachi, my grandchild, is similar. He loves like a puppy. When he makes a friend he does all in his power to hold on to them. I don't know where it came from. He must have gotten it from my dad. He got that from Amos. Amos was a gentle soul."

After a refill on coffee, they chatted. Dexter headed off to work while the two of them went to an arts and crafts show. "I need some ideas for my house"

"Well this show usually has pretty good stuff" They looked at a few tables purchased some paints, some fabric, etc. "Denise, got me hooked on Pinterest" Paulette said. "You can get some great ideas there"

"Deja uses that too. Normally we have something at the house for the kids on Halloween. She's done things I've never even seen. The kids seem to enjoy it. I'll be like "Where'd you get this idea?". Her response? "Mama you already know."


 Around noon they had lunch at a nearby cafe, light lunch.  Helen ordered a club while Paulette had a grilled chicken salad.  "This place has some of the best iced tea."

HELEN-"I'll take your word for it, I'll get a cup of that with lemon"
PAULETTE-"Do you remember our grandmother having ice tea at pretty much every meal?"
HELEN-"Yep. Daddy would have three cups of it at lunch and dinner."
PAULETTE-"Sunday afternoons. After getting out of those hot church clothes...I miss that kind of eating. If I lived down there, I'd be in some trouble."
HELEN-"I do miss that about Louisiana. But I don't miss the mindset of so many of the people down there though. My girls always had a great time when they went. It was fun to listen to their stories when they'd return. They like the adventure of going down to the south before school started."
PAULETTE-"Y'all all ran to get the hell out of there."
HELEN-"If you lived with us, you would too. You know I recently reconnected with Clarisse."
PAULETTE-"Really? How'd that come about?"
HELEN-"Well, you know Anna died a couple of months ago right?"
PAULETTE-"Yeah, I know about it. Pete told me."
HELEN-"We'll her son and the girls were always close. Deja and Yvonne have been keeping James contact with James and he mentioned Faye who lives in Los Angeles. Through Facebook, she reached out to her. Found out who her mother was next thing you know, they're at my daughter's house for dinner."
PAULETTE-"How was that?"
HELEN-"Emotional. Very much. It was healing. Her daughter works for a cable company, she had four kids."
PAULETTE-"Married?"
HELEN-"Divorced."
PAULETTE-"That's one hell of a child support check."
HELEN-"Right? Anyway, the kids got along great. Come to find out moved out there around the same time."
PAULETTE-"She's been out here for a while. Remember, she came out here a while back. Faye wasn't even a teenager yet."

The stopped the conversation about five minutes before their food arrived. After they ate and paid the bill, Paulette suggested that they go get desert later on. 

"There's a place out here, where you can get some of the best red velvet cake. I wanna bring you later on. Dexter's probably gonna go play golf today so we're on our own for dinner"

PAULETTE-"You all are going to love Colorado. It's beautiful out there in the winter."
HELEN-"I bet. I'd imagine it's far nicer than Los Angeles."
PAULETTE-"Well yeah, Colorado gets a real winter. The kids will love the snow"
HELEN-"Gotta make sure they have the right clothes."
PAULETTE-"Well sweats, maybe some casual khakis, long socks, beanies, mittens. It's gonna be cold."
HELEN-"Think of it as a mini reunion as well as new beginnings. Relationships being revived as well as new ones being formed."
PAULETTE-"I invited a friend over from down the street. You're gonna love her. Her name is Susan"

Fifteen minutes after they settled in the home, Susan arrived at the door. She could be described as a white woman in her 70s. She like to garden. She was in the same gardening club as Paulette.

"Hey ma'am. This is my cousin Helen."

"Hi. I'm Susan. It's nice to meet you."

Susan brought over a few of her gardening magazines. "I love southern living." She said as she sat down. "Would you like something to drink? I got wine."

SUSAN-"Sure"

HELEN-"I'm gonna sit here in listen to this, I need some ideas for my yard."

PAULETTE-"Be our guest"

The meeting lasted about two hours. Leaving the home for about 5:00 pm, the arrived to their destination 30 minutes later.

"I'm really not even that hungry." Helen said.
PAULETTE-"Me either girl, just an outing for dessert."
HELEN-"I gotta try this red velvet cake that you raved about earlier."
PAULETTE- "You won't regret it"
PAULETTE-"So what'd you think of Susan?"
HELEN-"Love her. It's as if I've known her my whole life."
PAULETTE-"She raved when she found out you were coming. You knew she was gonna have a ton of questions."
HELEN-"I figured she would, I'm sorry I didn't have more to give as far as answers."

Their desserts were delivered. The red velvet cake was pleasing to the eye. Very moist and laden with a cream cheese icing. It was served with a cup of warm milk.

"Sometimes doing something simple this"

PART 28 to follow.