Chapter 22
KENYA HIRED an Uber to drop her off at the Hope Springs Community Center. She needed to process yesterday’s meeting with someone else who wasn’t Solomon.
Adanne ushered her inside when she hobbled up to the propped open doors, and within minutes she had produced two cups and a twenty-ounce bottle of soda from the break-room fridge.
Kenya held the cup, looking around at the community center that had changed so much over the years. A couple college students hovered over computers in the corner. A toddler fiddled with the play set on the far side of the room while his mother completed some paperwork.
Adanne motioned for Kenya to sit on one of the padded stools lining the raised front desk, then took a seat behind it. “We missed you at our community brunch last Saturday. Salome showed up to help.” She winked.
Kenya pressed her palm to her forehead. “How did I miss that? I don’t forget things.”
Adanne laughed. “Cousin, it’s okay. I was mostly joking. We did miss you, but you obviously had a good reason not to be there. I hope that means you are letting your foot rest and recover.”
Kenya rolled her eyes. “Not exactly. I was so bored that morning, I started organizing my closet.”
Adanne took a sip. “That doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. I consider you to be an organized person.”
“Because I have alarms and lists and reminders.” She looked through the open door into the gym, itching to get out on the basketball court where a group of teens were practicing. “I was about to start color coding.”
Adanne gasped. “Now, that is not you. You like things to be a little wild.”
“Exactly.”
Kenya kept her eyes on the court. The sound of sneakers hitting the wood made her want to slip her own sneakers on and run up the bleachers, down the street, up a mountain, something.
She turned back, releasing a breath in frustration.
“You’re ready to be done, aren’t you?”
Kenya ran a hand down her pants. “Yes, and then no. I mean, this time of slowing down has been good in some ways. But the less I’ve done on the outside, the more I want to explode in here.” She pressed a hand to her chest.
“Is that why you called to meet me?” Adanne hopped off her stool and made her way around the desk to help Kenya down.
Kenya followed Adanne into the gym. “If I had actually made an appointment with you, I would’ve had to wait through one million calendar conflicts and a thousand of your community commitments just to sit down for coffee.”
Adanne shook her head. “The level of your exaggeration knows no end.”
“Don’t tell me that what I’m saying is not true.”
They turned the corner, walking down the long right side of the gym.
“It may be close to it, but I have a life.”
“Yes, one that we had to force on you.”
Kenya did her best to keep up with Adanne’s pace. Her cousin’s legs were longer, but she walked deliberately, slowing down enough for Kenya to keep up but moving fast enough to stretch her muscles a bit.
“Listen, since my spouse—and yes, it feels good to say that—does well financially, I can be a bit more flexible with my schedule. I am still working here at the community center, and I still love to do makeup, but I have more freedom to respond spontaneously. Drink some soda with my cousin. Sounds like she’s got a lot on her mind. ”
They started down the far wall, the path putting them close to the hoop the girls practiced at. Adanne waved and turned her attention back to Kenya.
“You usually have a lot going on. But it usually doesn’t weigh you down, like now.”
Kenya sighed. “I’ve got so much to figure out in so little time with my job, and this ankle recovery doesn’t help. But as of yesterday, I’m trying to think through this whole situation with Solomon and his mother.”
“Isn’t this supposed to be a pseudo relationship, more for convenience than anything else?”
“Yes, but it’s obvious I have a crush on him. Since—”
“The hospital.” Adanne finished her words.
Kenya grinned. “Our conversations and meetings have been really sweet and fun. Adanne, he even took me to the library.”
“That was fun?”
Kenya recalled the headiness that was soon followed by her heavy thoughts. “It was, but then I went into this meeting with his mom so insecure. I thought because Auntie was Nigerian too that maybe you had some insight on how I needed to maneuver. Is there something culturally I’m missing?”
Adanne was quiet for a few minutes. They rounded the corner and walked halfway down the other long side of the gym before she answered. “Well, you probably have as much experience as I did.”
“Maybe. I just can’t figure out Solomon’s mom. She seems very nice and regal, even, but I am not sure that she likes me.”
“Why do you say that?” Adanne’s words came out with a laugh. “Everyone likes you.”
Kenya shrugged. “I don’t know. It was just the way she looked at me, like I’m talking to a queen and I’m this little peasant trying to win the heart of a prince.”
“So, no more pretending, at least for you.”
Kenya had already admitted her crush, but it seemed too palpable to say again. “It’s obvious that Solomon thinks very highly of his parents, and I don’t wanna make the wrong move, especially with this wedding coming up.”
“I still can’t believe they invited you to the wedding. That seems like a huge move.”
“And there is more riding on this. His parents are connected to the guy I need to talk to from Blue Horizon. I’ve already messed up twice. I can’t afford to get this last chance wrong.”
Adanne paused to look at her. “Kenya, any mom or dad would be blessed to have you getting to know their son. You infuse joy into whatever room you walk into, and you make everyone smile and feel better just by being you.”
She locked arms with her and they continued walking. “Being me got me in trouble at your wedding.”
“So what? Walk into the room with your high-heeled—or maybe ballet-flat—shoes. I think you should just be yourself and not worry about what others think. Have fun! And, oh my goodness, you’re gonna eat such good food.
And the music, girl. If your ankle was strong, I would tell you that this would be the wedding that you need to get your dancing shoes on for. ”
Kenya agreed. “From all the reels and posts I’ve seen on social media about Nigerian weddings, I honestly cannot wait.”
“All the colors in the patterns. The way everyone just glows. From expert makeup application, I’m sure,” Adanne added. “Honestly, I wish I was going with you too. But who knows, if all this goes well, you might have a Nigerian wedding of your own one day.”
They laughed. Kenya was excited, but she still couldn’t shake the niggling thoughts. Being herself was great textbook-level advice. But how could she be herself when who she was seemed so inadequate, especially now that she couldn’t do the things she was skilled to do.
They walked one more lap around the gym and then headed back to the front desk. “I need to go. I’m supposed to get measured for my dress.”
“Yes, queen!” Her cousin grinned and gave her a hug. “Remember, you can do this.”
“I can do this. I’ve always been ready for every risk, right?” Her neck ached from the tightness in her shoulders.
Adanne placed her hand on top of Kenya’s, which was gripped in a fist she didn’t know she’d formed until now.
Her cousin’s voice softened. “Maybe this is more than a risk. Maybe it is more of a step of faith. I know what it feels like to be scared to let go, afraid of the things that will fall apart if I do.”
Adanne sighed. “I think maybe you’re afraid that you are the one who will fall apart if you don’t have something to hold you together. But maybe falling apart is necessary to be put back together the way God wants you to be.”
Kenya blinked, swallowed. The ache in her neck tapering a little.
Adanne’s words were like the back-and-forth spin of a combination lock—start at zero, then three to the right, left, right again, and click, there it is.
A breath leaked out, the tightness in her chest diminishing. “Maybe it’s okay to start at zero,” she whispered.
Confusion flitted across Adanne’s gaze. “Is that what I said? Wait . . . never mind.” Her mouth tilted. “That’s what you heard.”
Kenya gave her cousin a wobbly smile. “And exactly what I needed.”
Adanne walked with her out the doors. Her eyes scanned the parking lot. “Um, you need me to drop you off?”
Oops, she’d forgotten to send for an Uber. “Yes, I guess I need that too.”
A few minutes later, Kenya opened the door to the alteration shop where Favour wanted to meet her. Bells chimed at her arrival. On the wall just inside the entrance was a framed cross-stitch that said “For glory and beauty—Exodus 28:2.”
The words resounded in her mind, echoing like the bell that had announced her entrance.
The small woman sitting behind the glass counter looked up. “Can I help you?”
“I’m here to meet someone.” Kenya scanned the small shop. Solomon’s mother wasn’t there yet, unless she was in the back.
“What time was your appointment?” The woman looked through a memo pad.
“Um, 4:30 p.m. with Mrs. Anruchi.”
“Oh yes, Fay Fay! She’s always here when she’s in town. Come in the back. I’ll get started.”
Kenya glanced out the door and back to the woman with a pincushion already in hand. “Are you sure I should start without her?”
“Yes, yes! I’m Helen, and Fay always sends people to me. And if she’s in town, she is sometimes late.”
Kenya followed Helen to an adjacent room, curious about how well Helen seemed to know Fay Fay, as she called her.
She stepped up on a platform in front of a tall trifold mirror, favoring her foot so she wouldn’t trip.
“Take off your outside shirt,” Helen demanded.
Kenya did so without hesitation since the shorter woman wielded fierce-looking pins.