Reverend Feelgood Read Online Free Page B

use your words to provide an answer, Mama, but I don’t want to be disrespectful.”
    “Go ahead, girl. Tell the truth and shame the devil. It’s puss ’n boots, baby, the man of God’s ultimate weakness. From David to Sampson, Adam and every Thicke who’s ever approached the throne of grace. You forget I been a preacher’s wife for nigh unto fifty years. Married one and raised another. Now, it’s many a saint who’s been splayed by the split. And those Noble hussies are Satan’s soldiers. You don’t have to tell me, chile. I’ve been there. I know.”
    For Mama Max, the Noble name had been a curse word for most of her adult life. The acrimonious origins harkened back to a challenging time in Mama Max’s marriage to her husband of almost half a century: the Reverend Doctor Pastor Bishop Overseer Mister Stanley Obadiah Meshach Brook Jr. She could remember the incident as if it had happened yesterday. Where: Dallas, Texas. When: 1963. What: the National Baptist Convention. Who: Katherine’s mother’s sister, Dorothea Noble. Why? Mama Max had finished a long day of conferences and teachings, and had foregone a dinner invitation with her husband in favor of a good night’s sleep. She’d gone back to the hotel right after service and was already snoring when the phone rang.
     
    “Sistah Brook,” an unfamiliar voice had whispered into the receiver. “I don’t mean to be nosy or rude, but I just saw your husband come into the lobby and I don’t think he’s headed to your room.”
    “Who’s this?” Mama Max had demanded, suddenly wide awake.
    “You can just say I’m my sister’s keeper.” Then the line went dead.
    Mama Max jumped out of that bed as if lightning hit and started praying in tongues. “Give me the spirit of discernment, Holy Ghost,” she intoned as she paced back and forth and around the room. After about fifteen minutes a number came to her clear as day: 915. Without hesitation, Mama Max slipped on her caftan, pulled on her slippers, and checked her always perfectly coiffed hair in the mirror before leaving the room and heading for the elevator. When she reached room 915, she knocked on the door. After a moment, a quiet voice asked tentatively, “Who is it?”
    “It’s your worst nightmare!” Mama Max had explosively responded. “Wife of Bishop Stanley Obadiah Meshach Brook and mother to his four children: King, Queen, Daniel, and Esther,” Mama Max yelled for the world to hear. “Open up this door, you two-bit hussy. I think you’ve got something that belongs to me!”
     
    “Mama Max? You still there? Hello?”
    “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. Memories just took me down hell’s highway. Now what were you saying?”
    “I was asking you to pray for Nathaniel, and this decision he’s made. I think Destiny’s got a good heart, and strange as it seems, I think she’s God’s choice for him, but she’s still a child.”
    “How old is she?”
    “Almost seventeen.”
    “Almost? Lord have mercy, Jesus, son of Mary, brother of James, Savior of nations. That boy of yours is playing with fire. Nate best be sure his sins don’t find him out.”
    “I’m praying for mercy,” Nettie responded.
    “Well, pray without ceasing,” Maxine replied. “Because the devil is sho ’nuff busy, and if that slew-footed horned scoundrel has his way? Chile, I get the feeling your son’s gon’ wind up needing more than mercy…a lot more!”

5
Duty Calls
    Simone Noble allowed herself the luxury of stretching her five-foot-nine, one-hundred-forty-pound frame toward the ceiling. She had been tense for two weeks, ever since her mother’s visit…and the news. Except for the previous weekend when he’d been swamped with meetings and putting out church fires, Nate had been out of town since Katherine told her about his intentions—that he would not only cover her daughter, Destiny, but marry her as well.
    Any other mother would have been thrilled at this news. Nathaniel Thicke was a prime catch,