Jeremiah's Decision

Jeremiah had his camera ready and he quickly checked to make sure all was in order. The girls were dancing in the program as well as his newly discovered nephew Justin. He had arrived early to get a good seat. Camille was in the back of the theatre helping the girls to get ready. As the time approached for the program to start, he noticed Angel come in with Sophie and Theresa. His mother was there also with Bradford and he saw her waving Angel over to some seats she had saved for them.

He waved at them and they waved back. Camille came and sat next to him. "All's well?" he asked.

"Sure." She replied. "They should be starting any minute."

"I've got to get some pictures for Bobby." Jerry said checking the camera for the tenth time. "I'm going to try to get some video too. He's only called me ten times to remind me."

Just then Mrs. Evans came out on stage and the audience quieted down immediately.

"Good evening everyone and thank you for supporting the Detroit Inner City Theatre where we know you will have an enjoyable evening. We have the best of the best here in Detroit and you are about to witness something special. Everyone has worked extremely hard for this performance and I know that you will enjoy it."

Everyone clapped and the lights went down.

The younger children came out for the first dance and Jeremiah had the camera ready as Daniela and Amelia did their part.

Justin was a part of most of the numbers. He had to change outfits several times. He danced with the little ones as well as the teenagers. There were only three boys in the dance troupe and most of them danced in every number. There were several types of dance and Jerry was surprised at just how good Justin was. There was ballet with the girls, African dance, even line dancing where Justin was dressed up like a cowboy. Jerry was impressed and tried to catch as much of it as he could with his camera. When it was over everyone gave them a standing ovation.

"Did you get most of it on film?" Camille asked clapping loudly.

"I sure did" Jeremiah replied.

"Good. I'm going to get the girls" Camille said after the lights came up.

Jeremiah walked over to Angel who was talking to his mother. "Did you enjoy it, Ma?"

Evelyn looked at him grinning. "It was wonderful! Justin was magnificent and so were the girls. I'm so proud of all of them. "

Jerry nodded at Bradford.

"You must be very proud." he said. Jerry noticed that he had his arm around his mother, but didn't comment.

Jeremiah looked up and saw Charity and Julianna approaching them. He noticed immediately that Julianna was ignoring Theresa and Theresa kept her eyes glued to the floor. He watched as she tried to stand behind Angel out of Julianna's view. Jeremiah wondered what was going on between those two. Weren't they best friends?

Justin came from out back and everyone began hugging him and congratulating him. Jeremiah noticed that Theresa kept her head down and backed away from the group. He wondered what was going on. He watched as she backed slowly away and went into the hall. He looked around for Camille, but she still hadn't come out with the girls.

Out of curiosity Jeremiah followed Theresa wondering where she was sneaking off to. He found her standing by the exit door dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

"Hello, Theresa" he said to her.

She jumped; surprised that he had followed her.

"Hello, Mr. Mercer."

"I noticed you and Julianna are not talking. You didn't even speak to anybody and that's not like you. Why are you lurking out here by the exit? Is everything alright?"

She looked out of the glass door. "Everything's fine. We're not friends anymore…that's all." She said.

"Oh really?" Jeremiah replied. "Anything I can do to help?"

"No, there's nothing anybody can do." She looked at him. "I appreciate you checking on me, but I'm fine. I've accepted the fact that our friendship is over. Life goes on. " She would not look at him but continued to stare outside. "I'll just wait here until my aunt is ready to leave. You go on back. I'll be fine."

Jeremiah saw her eyes tear up even as she said this. "Theresa, obviously you're hurting. You need to talk to somebody-"

"I'm tired of talking" Theresa snapped angrily. "I've accepted the fact that I'm just no good. My mama was no good and like mother, like daughter. Now if you'll excuse me!"

She turned and pushed the exit door open and walked outside leaving Jeremiah stunned.

He was about to follow her, but then Daniela came running out into the hallway with Amelia and Camille following close behind.

"Daddy! Why are you out here? Did you see us perform?" she said running and jumping into his arms.

"Of course I did, Pumpkin" Jeremiah replied picking her up. "You guys did a great job."

"What's going on?" Camille asked looking around.

"I'll talk to you about it later" he whispered. "Right now I need to talk to Angel."

Jeremiah walked back in the theatre and looked around for Angel. He spotted him talking to Charity and walked over to them.

"Justin had a great performance, Charity" Jerry said laughing. "I caught it all on camera. I promised Bobby I'd send it to him ASAP."

"I know" she replied. "He told me to remind you."

Everyone seemed to be ready to leave and Angel turned to him. "Have you seen Theresa? She was just here a minute ago."

"She ran outside" Jeremiah said not wanting to elaborate in front of the kids.

They walked out to the parking lot and Angel spotted her standing by the car.

"There she is" Sophie said. "I'll go over and see what's wrong."

Jeremiah grabbed Angel's arm as he was about to follow Sophie.

"What's going on?" he asked his brother.

"I can't get into it right now." Angel replied.

"Well you and Sophie better handle that situation. I think Theresa's a powder keg about to go off. She just said that she was no good like her Mama. Where did she hear about that? Didn't Felecia die when she was just a baby?"

"She was two or three, I think. After that, she went into foster care until Isabelle was able to claim her." Angel said surprised looking over at Sophie talking to her. " Felicia wasn't living here and Isabelle didn't even know her daughter had died for four or five years. Felicia had run off a couple of years before Theresa was born. She and her mother had started talking again and Isabelle knew that she had a baby, but after a while she didn't hear from her anymore. It seems like Felicia was traveling through Florida when she died. She got mixed up with some guy who got killed over drugs. She was there and she got killed too. Since Theresa was a baby, they didn't kill her so she was turned over to social services and Theresa got lost in the system."

"You mean it took that long for them to find her family?" Jerry asked in disbelief

"I guess so." Angel replied. "They didn't even notify Isabelle of her death for several years! When she asked about Theresa, she kept getting the run around. Isabelle had to hire a lawyer to get things rolling and that took time. Sophie said that she's been with them since she was about six I think."

"Well you and I both know what the foster system is like!" Jerry said. "I think she needs some help. Somebody has put it in her head that she's no good! I doubt if it was Sophie's mother. You all need to check that out."

"Thanks" Angel replied. "We will."

"Maybe I can help. I knew her mother and so did Bobby. She went to school with us." Jerry said. "Felecia wasn't a bad person. Theresa's father was crazy though. I think he used to fight her all the time. I wonder where he is?"

"Angel! Come on!" Sophie yelled from the car.

"Look, we'll talk later." Angel said walking towards Sophie.

Jerry went back to the car and got in.

"What was that all about?" Camille asked.

"I'll tell you later" Jerry replied pulling into traffic.

Jerry sat in the den looking at the video that he had made. He decided to burn a copy and overnight it to Bobby.

Just then the phone rang and he looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Bobby.

"Bobby!" he said.

"How was it?" Bobby asked.

"It was great. Look Bro, do you remember Felecia …you know Sophie's sister."

"Yeah, I remember her. She was a little more sane than Sophie. Didn't she hook up with that crazy Emilio Hernandez?"

"Yeah" Jerry replied.

"What about her?"

"Well it seems that your daughter and Theresa are no longer friends. I don't know why, but I questioned Theresa and she said that she was no good just like her Mama. That comment took me totally by surprise."

"I thought she was a baby when her mother died? Someone must have told her that her Mom was bad, I guess. Do you think that's why Julianna cut her off?"

"Maybe. But something has happened. She's walking around like she's depressed. She's too young for that shit. I told Angel somebody needs to talk to that girl."

"Julianna hasn't mentioned to me that she and Theresa had a falling out. "

"Maybe she didn't want to talk about it."

"Believe me, Jerry. That girl talks about everything!" Bobby said laughing.

"Maybe Justin knows something." Jerry replied.

"Maybe. I think I'll talk to him. He's supposed to call me before he goes to bed. I've already talked to Julianna. She called me as soon as the performance was over." Bobby said.

Jerry said his goodbyes and hung up the phone and popped the disc out of the computer.

He decided to put it in the mail that night rather than wait until the morning. He quickly packed it in a bubble envelope and put several stamps on it. He knew he was guessing the weight, but he had done the same thing countless times and nothing had ever been returned to him for insufficient postage.

He drove to the post office and pulled up to the mailbox and quickly dropped the package in. He was about to pull off and a car pulled into the parking lot beside him screeching its tires.

"Jerry, my man! I thought that was you" the man on the passenger side said leaning out of the car. Jerry couldn't make out who was driving.

"Carlos! What the hell are you doing in the post office! You can't read!" Jerry snickered recognizing him.

Carlos was an old friend. The two of them hung out as teens and had graduated together.

"I'm on my way to a party, wanna come?" Carlos asked.

"Nah, I have to get home." Jerry said.

"You still with Camille? That pussy should be nice and aged by now" Carlos replied snickering.

"You watch that mouth" Jerry snapped grinning.

"Damn man. You sure is whipped!" Carlos snickered. "You can't even come and hang out with the boys for a minute!"

"Yeah? What you got waiting for you at home, homey?" Jerry replied.

"Hell!" Carlos said flicking a butt out the window. "Don't rub it in!"

"Where's that cousin of yours these days?" Jerry asked.

"Emilio? Hell if I know. Last I heard from him he was in Michigan. Ma talks to him regularly though."

Jerry cut off the engine. "Does he ever speak about his daughter?"

"Daughter? Oh you mean Felicia's kid? Hell no. Where is she anyway? I heard Fi Fi was dead."

Jerry looked at Carlos. It bothered him that he could be so cold about an innocent child.

"Forget I asked." He snapped. "Your cousin has a daughter and he doesn't even know where she is, I bet."

"He doesn't think she's his" Carlos replied. "He told me that years ago."

"Dammit, Carlos. She looks just like him! The girl needs a father!" Jerry snapped. "You could step up to the plate. She's your blood too. You and Emilo were like brothers!"

Carlos shrugged. "Not my problem. My cousin's problem. "

"She's your cousin, you could help."

"I didn't get the pussy, Em did. Not my problem, bro."

Jerry decided to pull off before he said the wrong thing and got into an argument with Carlos.

"See you later, Carlos" he said backing up.

"Look man. I'll tell Em what you said. He's supposed to be calling. What's the kid's name by the way."

"Theresa." Jerry replied.

"Damn, that's my mom's name" Carlos replied.

"You guys are a piece of work. You drop babies like it's nothing special and then forget all about them." Jerry replied eying the woman in the driver's seat. "Who the hell you're riding with anyway."

"Just a friend, man. Just a friend." Carlos replied. "Look, I said I'd talk to him. You know how Em is. He's not the father type. He's supposed to be here next week for Mom's birthday. I'll tell him to call you so that he can see her. Hell, he always wanted a boy. Girls are nothing but trouble!"

"Look , I gotta go" Jerry said pulling off.

Maybe it was best of Emilo didn't see Theresa. The poor girl became a statistic the day she was born. He didn't know why it bothered him so much. He had his own girls to think about and his own problems to deal with. It shouldn't bother him, but it did. He knew that Angel would try to have some influence over the girl, but Angel could be reckless at times himself and he was still a newlywed. Nothing could hold Angel's attention for too long and he didn't expect him to be too absorbed into helping Theresa.

Jerry sighed as he pulled up in front of his house. He was who he was because of Evelyn Mercer. She went out on a limb to help him and his brothers and he'd never forget it. Now it was his turn. Jerry made a decision that if there was anything he could do for a child that had been in the system or one that was in the system, he would. Now was the time for him to take action and Theresa was going to get some special Mercer attention whether she wanted it or not!