Life Matters

By The BookClub Seattle

In a compilation of short stories, members of an all-female, African American book club share original tales inspired by real-life experiences that cover a wide range of relatable themes that include: Dealing with life threatening illnesses and exploration into ancestral ties; Encouraging parishioners to continue struggles in the segregated south and a church going con artist; Neighborhood relationships brought about by a car and family relationships as seen through the eyes of the young and younger; Challenging life after Jim Crow and Black survival in corporate America; A young child’s escape from abuse and a military adolescent’s transition from Europe to the states; and explorations into the myth of love at first sight and a casual girls’ night out. We wrote about the things and people that matter in our lives.

Life Matters shares short stories that interweaves diverse characters and situations to provide a glimpse into different eras and challenges within African American history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The BookClub Seattle
• Release date: Nov 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463264782

The BookClub Seattle

We are "The Book Club", a group of 12 African-American women who decided to get together 25 years ago in Seattle Washington to talk about books by African-American authors. "The Book Club" has been featured in newspaper articles on both coasts and was interviewed on Cheryl Robinson's "All About Books" Maryland pod-cast. In the recent past, we received recognition from J. California Cooper in one of her last works of fiction "Life is Short but Wide" as people important to her. We are very active mothers, grandmothers, retirees, career women, entrepreneurs, empty nesters, stepmothers, single parents, single women and childless by choice. We have the experiences and the complications of being wives, lovers and friends. We are successful paralegals, consultants, social workers, managers, executives, directors, HR specialists, accountants and teachers. Some of us have been friends for over 60 years. We love the meetings. They are an escape from our day-to-day rigors and guarantee a good time with good friends and good food. We create an atmosphere which fosters the power of positive thinking. We can let our hair down or take it off. We can remove the masks we show the outside world and just be ourselves. We have had local and national Black authors attend our meetings. Just as we enjoy our meetings, we also enjoy other activities. We have traveled to Martha's Vineyard, The National Black Theatre Festival and NYC. We've hosted forums for other bookclubs and residents to discuss readings like "The Help" and "On American Soil." We have attended numerous local readings, plays and musicals.

Book preview

The BookClub Seattle

Life Matters

A Collection of Short Stories

First published by The BookClub Seattle in 2018

Copyright © The BookClub Seattle, 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

The BookClub Seattle asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Second edition

ISBN: 9780463264782

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

Find out more at reedsy.com

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Contents

Ready To Unfold

Reviews

To Edna

Preface

Acknowledgements

If it is to be

You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do by Helen Harris

In three words

Holidays by Doris Hill

Of all the blessings

The Best-Laid Plans by Harriet A. Slye

When I was a child

Southern Discomfort by Patricia Tanner

Dessert

Dessert by Carol-Flanagan-Frank

You are learned

Such a Clever Girl by Harriet A. Slye and Edna C. Nunn

Invictus

It's a Poor Cook Who Doesn't Eat (Motherwit to Help You Survive in Coporate America) by Jackie Roberts

I'm a stranger

Welcome Back to the USA by Elizabeth Causby-Miles

My beloved spake

The Trip by Valerie M. Dominique

Do not stand

Letters to My Friend by Elaine L. Pearsall

You're not more than

Driving Ms. Crazy-stickered Volkswagen by Claudia Scipio

The most important things

The Discovery by Patricia Coleman

All to myself

Sweet Mattie Banks by Vanetta M. Arnold

He who asks questions

Portland is Better by Sylvia Bushnell

We wear the mask

Oh, freedom by Edna C. Nunn

About the Author

Ready To Unfold

Stand back and watch me

I’m getting ready to unfold!

I’ve decided to let my spirit go free

I’m ready to become the woman I was meant to be.

I’ve either been somebody’s daughter, mother or wife

And now it’s time for me to take charge of my life.

I’ve been pondering all this time trying to decide just who I am

At first I thought it depended on whether I had a man.

Then I thought that simply just because

Others had more seniority; they could decide who I was.

I played all the roles that were expected and

I seldom asked why I’ve had my wings closed up,

but now I’m ready to fly

I’ve been awakened and I finally see the light

I’m about to make some changes

and set a few things right.

With my new attitude and the knowledge I possess

I might create a whole new world order

and clean up all this mess!

Stand back and watch me

I’m just getting ready to unfold!

Mona Lake Jones The Color of Culture II

Reviews

I wear a button that says My Black Friends’ Lives Matter. And some of my black friends wrote a book of short stories titled Life Matters. These touching and vibrant stories provide insights into these thoughtful and reflective women’s lives, exploring all the ways their lives matter – to them and everyone else. They share stories about childhood impressions, pain and learning, and about family roots and relationships. They explore challenges and successes in male-female relationships, and in health, friendship, and career. Their stories are sometimes about prejudice and inequity, but always about choice and personal fortitude. These new authors share their vulnerability, but frame their lives around hope, goodness, and resilience, and you come away loving them and knowing how deeply their lives matter.

Dr. Louise Wilkinson, Wilkinson Intercultural Consulting

Reading Life Matters is like being in a jazz club listening to the bass converse with the piano while the sax wails and the drums swing. Each story is a solo that speaks of life’s pains and pleasures, all the while inviting the audience to respond with shouts of recognition. Writers pay tribute to characters, both real and imagined, whose lush harmonies and aching dissonance make these stories so rich and varied. The feeling lasts for a long time after the music ends.

Nancy Rawles, Playwright, novelist and teacher

What really matters about making life joyful turns out to be the simple choices we make. These first-time authors do a splendid job of providing us with readings to support the notion that we are sisters still traveling life’s road, finding our way, and enjoying the journey.

Mona Lake Jones, The Color of Culture II

To Edna

Life Matters is the direct result of our founder, Edna Nunn, who was the engine to this book. She made us put our money where our mouths were. She heard us say too many times, We could have done better than that! And so she challenged us to try.

Thanks, Edna, for whipping us into shape and making this project a reality! We appreciate your being our engine with the "I know I can" attitude.

Although you made your transition, we know you are still with us in spirit, championing this project.

Preface

The BookClub celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2016. The members started as friends who were all avid readers. For years we shared with one another our discoveries of books by African American authors. We often exchanged books, titles, and ideas informally. We had various venues by which to share: on the job; at lunch; at parties; at each other’s homes, where we often visited as friends; on skiing trips; at tennis matches; and at family dinners or shared vacations.

One day someone said, Let’s meet and talk about books sometime. Most of us had such busy lives that the last thing we wanted was a formal structure, rules, or regulations. Therefore, we said, The BookClub will be our name. We don’t need anything fancy. We know who we are. The club has no officers and no dues. We decide on the books by simply suggesting titles and agreeing on which ones we would like to read. Our meetings are held in our homes on the last Sunday of each month, and we take the summers off. The only formal rule is that all the books we review are by authors of African diaspora.

The BookClub is composed of everyday women who are faced with everyday issues. Some of us have been friends for more than sixty years. We have been members of each other’s bridal parties, celebrated wedding anniversaries from one to forty-seven years, commiserated during divorces, and celebrated again on second and third marriages. We have been there for one another through births, deaths, sicknesses, and healthy times. Three of the members are related to one another. We are of two generations. We all have intricately woven relationships with one another. We are godparents, aunties, great-aunts, and mentors to each other’s children. We’ve had professional relationships with one another as customers, suppliers, vendors, mentors, and bosses.

We are mothers, grandparents, great-grands, empty nesters, stepmothers, and single parents, and some of us are childless and unmarried. We have the experiences and the complications of being wives, lovers, parents, and friends.

We love our meetings. They are an escape from our day-to-day rigors and guarantee a good time with good friends and good food. We create an atmosphere that fosters the power of positive thinking. We can let our hair down or take it off. We can remove the masks we show the outside world and be our authentic selves.

We started this book of short stories in 1999 and named it Life Matters. At that time, the publishing industry required agents, publishers, contacts, and lots of money, time, and patience to get a book published. Self-publishing and online books were relatively new concepts. All our members were busy with their careers and families. No one had the time or resources to shepherd this project. Now seventeen years later, with many of us retired, we decided to resurrect our book. We have all been faced with new experiences and challenges. The name of the book, Life Matters, is still the same. We felt the title encompassed all our thoughts, ideas, and stories. Our selection of books has expanded to include social justice and political issues. In addition, we still read romance, historical fiction, suspense, and mystery.

Our stories contain subjects of civil rights, coming-of-age, career situations, vacation reflections, family relationships, love, and more. It is interesting how the current-day movement of Black Lives Matter is a mantra of a call for equal justice. Yes, life still matters, and to us, Black lives especially matter.

All our life experiences are woven together in complicated, loving, caring interrelationships. These experiences are the fodder for the stories and the pattern for the quilt.

Acknowledgements

We’d like to extend our appreciation to our families and friends who supported our efforts to write these stories and finally get them published. A special thank-you to Tamishia Garrett for creating the quilt used for our cover and to Brenda Little for helping with the images throughout this work.

If it is to be

If it is to be, it’s up to me.

—traditional proverb

You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do by Helen Harris

The clock says four fifteen. I know by the bus ticket in my pocket that I must leave soon in order to make the four forty-five to Los Angeles. The house is full; everyone is excited about the beginning of summer vacation and the new red ’63 Chevy parked outside. I’m excited too— anxious, really—not only about summer vacation and the new red car but also about what I’m getting ready to do. How am I going to get out of the house? What if I’m caught? Exactly where is the bus depot?

Around four thirty, I walk through the kitchen toward the backdoor. I pick up the garbage pail and mumble, I’m taking out the garbage. Bertha is standing at the stove by the back door but doesn’t say anything. As I walk across the backyard to the garbage cans, my heart is beating so hard I think it’s coming through my chest. When I get to the cans, I look out of the corner of my eye to see if anyone is watching me. I can’t be sure, but I don’t think so. I actually empty the pail and then set it down and just start running! I can’t be caught, and I can’t be seen by anyone who knows me! I must make that bus! Down one street, up the other. On this side of the railroad tracks, there are no sidewalks and the roads are not paved; the gravel hurts my feet and makes me stumble. I cross the tracks and stop. Which way?

In the distance, I can see the big greyhound on the depot sign—not far now. My throat is dry; my chest hurts, but I keep running. Just as I turn into the depot, the bus pulls out. No! It can’t leave without me! I can’t go back! I’ll never be able to explain where I’ve been. I stop—just for a second—and then run in front of the bus. It’ll just have to run me down! The bus skids to a stop, and the driver opens the door. I get on, hand him my ticket, and try to show him the other papers I have—the papers from my mother’s attorney that say I’m en route to her in Seattle from Texas via Los Angeles and no one should stop me.

The driver says, Sit down. I’ll get that later if I need it.

As I walk down the aisle, all the people, mostly white, stare at me in amazement. I know they’re wondering, Who is this skinny little colored girl with no luggage who ran in front of the bus? I sit down and begin to look out the window for that red car. They must know by now that I’m missing, and they’ll be looking for me. If they find me, I’m dead! I shouldn’t have run away, but I had no choice. I should have had a better plan, but this has got to work. I’m dead—I know I am. But what other choice did I have? I’ll be okay. They won’t know where to look. I’ll never make it. Yes, I will! I have to … I have to! What did Daddy always say? Oh yeah: Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

They are Daddy’s friend-from-the-army’s family that I’ve been living with for the last eighteen months. Daddy. Poor Daddy. We really didn’t know each other, and now we never will. He left me and Mama when I was a baby. Mama said he was a good man—when he didn’t drink. She said that when he drank, he got evil and mean. But he was always nice to me. Every time we talked on the phone—twice, just before he took me—he was always real nice.

That day he came by to see me, he brought the prettiest doll. Thinking about it now will make me cry because I had to leave it with them. They would have known something was wrong if I took it with me. Anyway, the week before that, he called and talked to Mama for a real long time. Then Mama told me to get on the phone. He said he had something to give me for my birthday