Love Knows No Color Pt. 18

I know I have made a lot of requests here, but I have nothing but time on my hands. We don't hear a lot from the outside world in here. Any news of how you and the kids are doing helps me to cope with my confinement.

Thank You,

Rose

I was glad to see that Rose was making progress. It made me feel good about my decision to suspend child support. She was working hard on controlling the things that had gotten her in trouble, and if we could remove another roadblock to her ultimate success, then that's what we would do. I had previously requested the Monday off, to help Kenny get situated. Yes, Shavonda and I knew what was up with Kenny. And yes, we'd planned this, including taking Edie to Appalachia to see with her own eyes that Kenny was serious.

But now there was a change in plans. We would take Kenny to the store, where he would train under Beth. Then, we would head downtown to Family Court to file the paperwork suspending child support for Brittany and Ethan. We knew there would be a hearing on the matter in a couple of months, but with Rose unable to attend, and the fact that we were voluntarily doing something to benefit her, I doubted there would be any objection to what we wanted to do.

Later, after we all had eaten, Althea pulled me to the side. "Tell me, Jason," she said, concern in her voice, "What is going on between Shaunice and Edie?"

"Long story short," I replied, "Edie and Kenny had a spat over him living in Virginia. She wanted him to move here, and he balked. Shaunice inflamed the situation by telling Edie bad things about Kenny. She said he only wanted Edie for sex, and that he'd leave her for a white girl. Edie was listening to Shaunice, and it almost broke them up permanently. Meanwhile, Kenny didn't want to lose her, and was wrapping things up in Virginia. But because of what Shaunice said, Edie wouldn't even talk to him. We had to take Edie on a mystery getaway to my parent's farm in order for them to patch things up. Edie is mad because she realizes how close they came to losing each other."

I could see the anger in Althea's eyes as I told her what had happened. She pulled Shavonda and Edie to the side and asked them the same thing. Each one confirmed what I had said. I wouldn't have wanted to be in Shaunice's shoes that night. Even though she was 36 or 37 years old, Shaunice was on Althea's shit list now. And Shavonda and I knew how bad that could be. I only hoped Shaunice would wise up and stay out of people's business in the future. Because if she ever said anything bad about Kenny again, Edie would beat the hell out of her. It had almost happened here tonight.

With the air cleared, we sat around until about 11 pm, enjoying each other's company. It was ironic. Our families were completely different from each other, yet we felt equally at home with either family. We were more than welcome, we were wanted in either place. It was a good feeling.

Kenny and Edie left in Edie's car, which she'd left at our house for the weekend, to run back to her place for some clothing. She would be staying with Kenny in one of our spare rooms for the next week until Calvin brought Kenny's pickup to Pittsburgh. We waited up until they got back, then bid them goodnight. I am sure they wanted their privacy. They had a lot of making up to do. I know we needed ours. We had a baby to make.

The trip to Family Court was uneventful. After we left Kenny with Beth at the Carson Street store, we caught the bus downtown. We paid the filing fee for the case, and submitted the paperwork. The clerk who looked over our paperwork gave us a funny look and said, "This has to be a first. Filing to suspend child support without also filing to terminate parental rights." We explained the situation to her. She was incredulous when she heard the mother was in prison for hate crimes against us, yet we still wanted to give her a break. "I don't think I could do that," she said. "Anybody who did to me what she did to you could rot in hell, but I'd still want my money."

Shavonda spoke for us. "As a fellow sista, I understand where you're coming from. But what would be the point? She can't hurt us where she is. She's being punished for what she did. The children will be almost grown before she's released. Why make her pay the rest of her life? If the kids are the most important thing here, we can raise them not to hate. We have enough money coming in that what she's paying in support doesn't make a difference. The only reason for us to keep the support order in place is vindictiveness. And that's not what we want the children to learn."

I couldn't have said it better myself. My queen truly was one in a million.

"I guess having your children raised by the very people you hate is punishment enough," the clerk said. We were given a court date the first week in July, but knowing the case would be uncontested made us breathe easier. We'd been through far worse than this. Honestly, I could see no way what we were doing could turn against us.

We returned to the store to see how Kenny was making out, then ordered lunch for everybody. With South Side such a bustling place, we had plenty of restaurants to choose from. We ended up ordering from two separate places. Kenny, Shavonda and I opted for a pizza, and the rest wanted Chinese. I took the Cruze to pick up the food, staying with the car while Shavonda ran in to get the food. I circled the block while she did so, because parking spots were hard to come by. Soon we were back at the store. Ebony and Andre were taking turns working the register, while Beth was showing Kenny the basics of making the items we sold.

We all sat down in the back room to eat, allowing the bell on the door to alert us to any customers. Luckily, today was a bit slow. The busy period for Carson Street was usually later in the week, with Saturday evenings the most lucrative time.

After lunch, we transferred Kenny's stuff from the truck into a storage unit he'd rented, and dropped off the U-Haul truck. We also took him to Penndot to have his driver's license changed over to Pennsylvania. It was now official. Kenny was a Pennsylvania resident.

The rest of the week went smoothly. I worked my usual runs, coming in tired in the evenings. With Kenny now here, we usually played a little every evening, working on learning a couple of new songs. At Edie's request, we listened to Nikki Minaj's first album, and settled on the song, "Right Through Me" to learn. Edie was far more into hip hop than any of us, and brought a freshness to the music we performed. She would do the rap parts of the song, while Shavonda would sing the chorus. It wound up being a very beautiful song the way we did it.

It was Kenny who first brought up the idea of performing professionally as a group. I was resistant to the idea at first. For one, I still didn't think we were good enough. Second, we all had day jobs, and I didn't want our music to interfere with our livelihoods. Third, we did these songs for fun, and I didn't want to lose that. But in the end, Kenny told us about performing with Calvin as The Carbaughs. He pointed out that we could control which gigs we played, and that we could play as many or as few as we liked. Plus, it would put a little extra money in our pockets.

In the end, Kenny prevailed. He would look into getting us gigs, checking with Shavonda to make sure they didn't conflict with the festivals we had booths at. Now we needed a name. I wanted to perform as 'The Catastrophe' but I was overruled. In the end, Shavonda suggested the name 'Swirl' as a homage to who we were, two swirl couples. We took a vote and it was unanimous. Swirl it was.

Having Kenny around also meant the railroad was getting used more. Ethan and Brittany begged "Uncle Kenny" to go downstairs and play trains with them. Kenny was impressed with the extension on the layout, which was nearing completion. He instantly recognized many of the placed on the new line. Through creative design, I was able to incorporate most of the mountain climb near Waiteville, including the lower and upper horseshoe curves, the summit at KR, Ray tunnel, and the old iron bridge on the family farm. Due to the layout of the basement, KR was over the doorway to the game room, and I had to build an elevated floor so people could view it. But that worked in my favor, as the climb from the existing portion of the layout to above the doorway was long enough to fit both horseshoes in. If I'd have designed things a different way, I'd have had to settle for only one of the horseshoes.

With Shavonda helping me, and a little extra help from our regular crew, we had the basic landforms in, along with many of the trees. Shavonda had taken it upon herself to make many of the trees for me as soon as we showed her how. The deciduous trees were easy to make, but the pines were a problem. To be honest, nobody could come up with a way to make trees that had that scruffy, natural look I wanted. We ended up finding a place that custom made trees that looked just like the ones native to the ridge and valley, and ordered several hundred at considerable expense. With them, I would be able to add shale barrens in several places.

I had originally intended to make generic rock outcrops along the line, but Kenny had a better idea. He had walked and photographed much of the area we were trying to represent. We could use his photos for reference. Even better, both Edie and I had some vacation time we could use in July, and she suggested that we could stay with my parents for a week, and walk the entire section of railroad, taking photos of the actual rocks as we went. With my Jeep, and Edie's car, we'd have two vehicles to use. We could knock off 5 or 6 mile increments of the line each day, parking one car where we intended to end the day's hike, and driving the other to our starting point. I knew Shavonda was up for the hikes, but Edie really surprised me. It turned out, she had grown to love the railroad, and the mountains, as much as any of us. It promised to be a wonderful and productive week.

We usually ran the trains on the original section, as I hadn't fully cut over the trackage to the new section yet. But on Tuesday night, the kids had finally talked me into letting them run on the new track, and we made test runs on the new line. Kenny had taken his boxed-up locomotives and cars, and assembled a couple of 20 car test trains, and we ran them over the mountain with various locomotives, working out how many cars each would pull and marking that information in one of my notebooks for future use. To calculate pulling power, we'd start out with one locomotive and a full train, knowing it wouldn't make it to the top. We'd then drop cars until it could make the climb, and that was its tonnage rating. Ethan was our primary test engineer, and he took his role seriously. Brittany ran a train around the original track, having a blast. Friday evening, as our guests started to arrive, I finally connected the new section into the old track. We were ready for business.

As was usual when my family arrived, we divided them amongst Shavonda's family. This time, my Mom, Dad and Grandma were invited to stay with Shavonda's parents for the weekend. Evidently, they'd really hit it off. We knew about Mom and Althea becoming good friends, but I hadn't realized the close bond James had forged with Dad. And Grandma had embraced everybody with open arms once she decided to accept Shavonda as family. Calvin and his wife and kids stayed with us, while Kenny moved in with Edie. Ethan and Brittany were thrilled to death to be able to play with their cousins. My sister Sally and her husband accepted the invitation from Tamika and Brian to stay in my old house. Uncle Walt and Aunt Penny, as usual, opted to stay in a nearby motel. They were hesitant to impose upon our hospitality even though we assured them we'd make room even if it meant Calvin's kids slept with mine.

Saturday morning was spent doing last minute things for the party, such as assembling the rented canopies in the backyard, setting up tables and chairs, and a quick trip across town to Weiss for fresh meat. Edie and Kenny helped out by making a trip to Oakmont to pick up the cake. Once everybody was back, we dug out the old wedding cake topper, the one that looked like Shavonda and me, and placed it on the cake. We let the kids play in the backyard as we waited for the guests to arrive. Shortly before noon, Darren and Minnie arrived to set up their dj equipment, and we did a quick sound check. The grill was filled with Kingsford and lit, and we threw the first of the meat on the grill as the guests started to arrive.

Shavonda looked positively radiant in a tie-dyed sun dress I'd never seen before. With her dark chocolate skin tone, bright colors looked good on her, and the multi colored swirl pattern of the dress positively glowed against her skin. She wore a pair of dark brown sandals that were unobtrusive, they were chosen for comfort and the fact that they didn't draw attention away from the dress.

We were pleased to see that Beth had brought her family to meet us. We were going to miss her. She'd been an excellent employee, the only one so far to take the initiative to learn the intricate cutting and fitting required to make the pendants. She had literally learned to make everything we handmade in the stores, from pendants to candles. Whereas the other employees generally specialized in one or two items, she could do it all. More than anybody else, she'd picked up the slack last year when Shavonda cut back her hours because of her pregnancy.

Shavonda's friend Patty brought her two kids, and Ziggy brought his as well. They joined the others in the backyard, where the unfinished treehouse was like a magnet to them. Meanwhile, our dj friends had started the music, and some of the younger guests began to dance on the grass. I already had my shoes off, and Shavonda quickly kicked off hers as well and pulled me out on the grass. She looked positively radiant, her loose curls accented by a fresh rose we'd picked up on the way. She wore a form fitting red dress that came just above the knee, and showed her curves and cleavage nicely. We danced for several songs, with me admiring the way she moved. I'd never been much of a dancer before Shavonda, but now I enjoyed it because of her.

In midafternoon, Ramona made her appearance with her fiancé Thomas, who we'd never met. We were glad she decided to spend the day with us. Ziggy knew her from her work on the Pittsburgh police vice squad, and we all sat and talked for a while about her work. We found out that Officer Shoemacher had only gotten two years in prison. "What an outrage," Shavonda exclaimed angrily, and I couldn't blame her. "The woman who made the fake phone call that had him looking for us got 12 to 20."

"If you hadn't testified, he probably would have walked," Ramona replied. "Wait, what's this about the phone call? Did you know the person who made it?"

"My ex-wife," I replied. "She took offense to Von's color and caused us no end of trouble. She'd made 17 phone calls to 911 reporting a prostitute and giving Von's description."

"By the way," I continued. "See that older gentleman over there, the one who looks a bit like Von? That's her dad. He doesn't know about this incident and we'd like to keep it that way. If he'd known, he'd have tried to kill Shoemacher. Don't get me wrong, he's a good person, but he takes his family seriously. So we've kept this from him. If he asks how we know you, you are one of Ziggy's friends. Ziggy's been a good friend of mine for many years."

"Well, that wouldn't be a lie," Ramona said. "I have a lot of respect for him. You know he really stuck his neck out for you two. There are some on the force who resent what he did in calling attention to your situation. But I think he made the right call. People like Shoemacher should never be police officers. And the mentality that some have, that we need to protect our own no matter what, is what lets people like him get away with what he did. This job is hard enough without people like him making it even harder for us."

I looked around at the crowd gathered. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. It occurred to me that people were mingling without regard to race. And I realized that this was due to the influence of Shavonda's parents, mostly Althea. After our initial meeting, when I'd won her over. She, and by default the rest of the family, had accepted me with open arms. And last year, the day before the wedding, she had insisted on having a cookout at her house so that our families could get acquainted before the ceremony. Lasting friendships had been formed at that cookout. Both my parents and Shavonda's parents had become friends, Kenny had met Edie that day as well. And Grandma had hit it off with Shavonda's aunts. To Althea, everybody was a potential friend, or family member.

One thing I noticed throughout the day was Shaunice. She hung out with Danny mostly. None of the family wanted to be around her. They were all mad at her for trying to get between Kenny and Edie. I hoped she'd learned her lesson, and I also hoped the families would eventually forgive her. It had to be a lonely day for her.

I asked Thomas, who had been quiet up to this point, about Ramona's job. "How do you deal with knowing what she does for a living? I know I would be insecure knowing my wife was out on the streets posing as a hooker. No insult intended, Ramona."

Thomas thought a minute before replying. "Ramona is a strong woman. She truly believes she is making a difference out there. I don't necessarily like what she does, but I will support her 100%. I am not one of those men who are afraid of strong women. In fact, her strength is what attracted me in the first place."

I could relate to that. Shavonda was strong as well, and intelligent. And those qualities were what I had fallen in love with. Thomas and I had a lot more in common than people would think. And we both stepped back and let our women do what they needed to do, providing emotional support when they needed it. But mostly just cherishing the gems we had found.

"You two have the cutest biracial baby," Ramona said, changing the subject.

Shavonda rolled her eyes knowingly. "You just got him started," she said.

"Miracle is not biracial," I said. "I am biracial. She is triracial. I am Seneca."

Ramona took a long look at me. "Now that you mention it, I can see that."

Shavonda explained the situation for me. "Jason is a little sensitive about that. There were and still are people in his family who think race mixing is wrong. Yet they never said anything about the Seneca blood in the family. He actually had to tell his grandmother off about that, and she's a quarter Seneca."

"You mean that sweet old lady having a blast with the other older ladies?" Ramona was incredulous. "She fits right in here! I never would have guessed."

"It's cool now," I said. "Grandma always liked Von, but it took a while before she accepted us as a couple. I actually had to tell her if race mixing was wrong her whole life was wrong. It made me so mad. She could see Von was wife material, yet she had trouble accepting our relationship. But she gave us her blessing on our wedding day. But my mother's side of the family still won't accept us. Von's only met one of them, and the sparks flew."

Shavonda excused herself, and walked to the DJ table. After talking to Minnie, she took the microphone. I knew what she was up to, and quickly moved to her side.

"I would like to thank you all for coming out to help Jason and me celebrate our anniversary," Shavonda said. "Two years ago I met the man of my dreams in person for the first time, one year later we got married. A lot has happened in the last year."