Okay folks, I just finished Chapter 22 so it's only right that you have this. I know Nina and Pollock-centric fics or storylines are few and far between so they dominate this chapter and I think rightly so. I'm glad to write an ensemble fic and all your reviews and passion fic are and have been amazing. This one and Chapters 21 and 22 will cater to everyone so all the storylines and characters will get some attention. So Imagination-On-The-Loose, dretti, EndlessDreamer1024, BlindLoveFreeSpirit, Alison, Story101 and every reader; this is for you.
Chevy Chase, Maryland
"So kids, what should we do?" Pollock rubbed his hands together because he didn't have a clue on how to entertain them all at once especially for a whole weekend.
"Laser tag." Chloe suggested, knowing it was the only thing they could and would agree on.
"Great." They sensed he was trying too hard but they humoured him. Deep inside he wanted to win them over, even though he and Janice would share custody, he wanted to be their favourite. That's why his new house was only a couple of miles from them and their school and had an air hockey table and a pantry full of junk food. In his mind, he could fill them up with preference and establish himself as their first choice but never knew where their loyalties lay.
Annapolis, Maryland
"Are you okay?" Calvin asked as Janice sat on a stool with her head between her legs. "You said you loved sailing."
"I do; I've never been this seasick." She sat up. "I'll be fine."
"So much for a romantic date."
"It is romantic, I don't know about the 'date' part though. That's not to say I don't enjoy spending time with you, it's…"
"…complicated. I know." She went to the edge of the boat and leaned over slightly. He joined her. "The good thing is the world we start to see you as I always have."
"And how is that? As your client?"
"As Janice Richardson; a beautiful, talented, charismatic woman who can recite Metamorphoses without thinking and Chaucer with an accent."
She laughed. "All that sweet talk will get you nowhere."
"It's the truth. You're very accomplished; I didn't take English Lit at Duke."
"It was my passion."
"And what's your passion now? Before you answer, it can't be anyone else. It has to be a thing that belongs to just you."
"Poetry."
"So do it, pursue it, follow it and make something of it."
"Easier said than done."
"Why? You don't back down from a challenge. You've sparred with me for a year now."
"I have a degree but no experience, John and I married after he left the military and a year later we had Michael."
"Well Janice Richardson's dreams don't have to take a back seat to anyone else's."
"Janice Richardson has to plan a birthday party for her eldest son, get said eldest son into a good university despite his indifference, keep her temper with her daughter and give her youngest the attention he needs. She also has to adjust to sharing her children and no longer being John Pollock's wife despite it being her identity for the past eighteen years."
"Where does poetry fit?"
"On the laundry list of other things to do."
"Is that enough for you?"
"I read the Feminine Mystique and I know what you're doing."
"I'm just asking."
"I chose this life and I'm not ashamed and yes I do want more but I also know what it means to be selfless; whereas you probably don't."
"You're right. I apologise. I shouldn't prod."
"There's so much on my mind and I never get the chance to say it; that's why I came to you and look at where it got us."
"In love?"
"Yes." She said guiltily. He pressed his lips against hers and the stiffness in her jaw softened. So sensitive was she to his touch that any physical contact made her feel like the thermostat had been turned up even if they were on a boat in a wide open space. He kissed her to the light waves of Chesapeake Bay and gently sucked her upper lip to the backdrop of the sun and sky. Knowing she couldn't have him unless at the expense of her principles so lost herself in his kiss. His hand stroked the back of her neck and she remembered John before he became Pollock. At that time she thought no-one else could make her feel that way, free but protected, willing but aware, in love and open; but that wasn't how she felt with Calvin. He was her new lease on life, her new perspective like shiny spectacles and her second chance at getting this love thing right. So she substituted the kiss; in her mind he undressed her where they were standing and counted down the remaining months with every touch.
Washington, D.C.
Nicole was working yet another Saturday when Nina unexpectedly stopped in. "So Toussaint left huh?"
"You say that like I never come here." Nicole waited. "Yeah, he left yesterday. That sweet-talking bastard." She said with a smile. "You'll never guess what he did,"
"If it involves skin I really don't wanna know."
"You're no fun."
"Ma, boundaries."
"Killjoy. You haven't bought my groceries in weeks, what's going on?"
"Nothing, I'm just doing my job. There are so many people to meet, plans to make, I don't know how he managed to keep all these balls up in the air."
"He didn't, hence the divorce." She replied tactlessly. "Speaking of which; make sure you don't forget your husband."
"Thank you, Mama Joe. Ahmad, Teri and Bird will bring the cornbread on Sunday."
Nina rolled her eyes at her. "At least you got my sense of humour. You know I've been thinking; taking five meds a day is the least of my problems."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I could have had a rash or Herpes or something else that stopped me from looking this fabulous but I don't." Nicole laughed at her vanity and the charm of it. "Look at me; I'm Nina Chambers damnit and Nina Chambers doesn't lie down and die for anyone, let alone some test results."
"That's my mama."
"Nina Chambers also knows when she's got a good thing in her life and nothing's better than my big-shot, Assistant Director daughter." She slapped a box on the table. "Four inch, peep-toe Elvira stilettos."
"Get out! They're not even out yet."
"Only the best for the best."
Nicole could have hugged her or thanked her but the shoe-lover inside lifted one of the shoes like a crystal egg and smelt it. "I love you" she told the shoe and her mother by default.
"And" Nina said loudly enough to get her attention. "I tried to contact Will."
"How?"
"I called Clarice." That name was an instant suppressant to her buzz.
Her maternal grandmother could have blamed her prejudices on being from a different time, if she wasn't so cruel by nature. Clarice Mourreau, the lightest in complexion of her sisters, was sent from Brooksville, Alabama to Chicago in 1947 to support her family under the instruction that she stick to her own and keep her legs shut. Clarice chose her 'own' folk to be White as she passed as a barmaid. After falling in love and falling pregnant with Parker Jennings' child she inexplicably miscarried, after which he left her for a girl with a 'name'. Having survived for two years on her own, she bumped into Christopher Chambers on the street who handed back her handkerchief with a succinct statement, "I know what you are". She justified her interest in him with the fact that on a good day he passed the 'paper bag test' and the paranoia of his outing her. She broke the second rule for the second time, falling pregnant with Nina in late 1950 and accepted her fate, if not doom, to be Coloured less than a year later. Clarice never returned to Rockville and her own family was stunted in size and their affection for each other. She fell out of love and took her resentment and longing for Parker out on her daughter.
Naturally, when Carla developed a fondness for male attention Clarice did all she could to keep their complexion as 'high' as possible. Nicole's birth shattered her hopes completely and her rejection of the 'coffee boy' and the baby were in no way quiet, masked or discreet. The last conversation Nicole and Clarice shared contained a question, of why Clarice was not invited to the wedding, an answer, because it was a festive occasion, and enough expletives for a talk show.
"So what did the witch say?"
"William came repenting in his last days and showed up at our 'family' church. But now he's dead from "the AIDS" and if I have them too I should let her put the phone down so she can clean it."
"Bitch."
"Nikki don't…bitch." Nicole nodded in approval. "I tried. Don't let her steal your smile; you deserve those shoes and all this too."
"Thanks Ma. I can call her back and curse her out if you want."
"Next time."
Chevy Chase, Maryland
Joshua fell asleep fifteen minutes into Home Alone 2 and Chloe went off to IM Dharma-Sky leaving Michael and Pollock almost alone together.
"What do you want for your birthday?"
"I'm surprised you're asking. I thought Juvie Hall took away those privileges." Pollock recognised that defence mechanism of wit, knowing Michael inherited it from him. "I could say a car but the speeding thing kind of blew that, right?"
"Right and your mother will kill me."
"It's a nice house Dad." He thought small talk was safe.
"I want to be around and be there for all of you."
"I get that now."
"What about before?"
"Come on Dad, this is getting a bit too Cosby for me. We're not gonna hug are we?"
"I'm serious. I want to know."
"Know what?"
"What would make you turn against me like that? Why?"
"I didn't know it would get that far and become this big thing. But I wanted to see if you were capable of choosing us just once."
"I've chosen you your whole life. I've done a lot for this family."
"I know what you've done Dad and I know what you haven't. You put us in these boxes like hamsters with enough food and warmth and a wheel to entertain ourselves with but we're not hamsters. Mom got sad and fed-up and sad and fed-up again, Chloe lived in fairy land and I couldn't take it. I couldn't take being John Pollock's son without John Pollock. I though you'd find out much, much sooner than you did, explode then focus on us but you never did; until it became an issue of National Security."
"You never said anything."
"No-one did."
"Maybe we're all guilty of colluding in this lie and cowardice."
"Maybe."
"I want you to know, I need you to know, I don't want to divorce your mother. I want us to live as a family in one house. I'm your father. But it's not all about what I want and that's why I'm not fighting her on this; I've asked, I've pleaded, I've reasoned, I've prayed and I can't deny the way she feels. So I won't stand in her way but know this; I love all of you and I'm ready and willing to let go of what I want the most if it will bring us all closer." Michael nodded because there was no retort to hide behind. So he left Joshua where he was and shut himself away in his second room and without a soundtrack to mask the sound he cried for what was lost and found, what he knew and couldn't comprehend and how love and animosity swam together and caught him in their overpowering and overwhelming tide.
Pollock put Joshua in the second bed in Chloe's second room and startled her as she came out of the en-suite bathroom. "Dad." She used the signature teenage voice to stretch another syllable out of his name.
"Sorry. I'll knock next time."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"Can I stay with you?"
"Every other week that's the plan."
"I mean all the time. Can I live here?"
"Chloe, that's not a good idea. First of all, you need to live with a woman for womanly…things. Secondly I work and you need supervision and what about Joshua and Michael? They need you."
"Michael doesn't need me."
"He does, very much so."
"So that's a no?"
"For now, yes."
"But I want to be here with you. It's not fair."
He sat on the edge of her bed. "I know how hard it is for you, knowing what you've known and kept to yourself for a long time and feeling like this is your fault but it's not. We have to adjust to the way things are now."
"I don't want to. It sucks. I'd rather be here. Please."
Annapolis, Maryland
Janice unfolded her Pashmina and used it as a shawl. "It's getting late."
"I'll drive you but before I do I have to say you are so beautiful and I want you. I want to be with you tonight."
"If we start we won't stop because we can't control ourselves and I can't take that chance. My 13-year-old daughter was the first to find out about us and I can't tell you what that's done to her. She hasn't looked at me the same since and I have to earn her trust and respect back. That's what mothers do; we set examples for our daughters."
"Do you want to be with me tonight?"
"Have you heard a word I said?"
"Every. Do you?"
"Would I be standing in the cold in a day dress and a Pashmina if I didn't? I can't. What I want doesn't matter."
"When will it?"
"The day the divorce is finalised and not a day sooner." He opened the car door for her and checked her out one last time as she got in the passenger's seat.