I woke up dizzy this morning, recalling last night’s events. I was still a little sad about my long-term crush Donovan getting married so I called to check up on my bestfriend Tamara who was on her way to spend the weekend with her boyfriend in South Carolina.
We chatted for a little bit and I wished her well and hung up. Before I could get back to my computer there was a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” I shouted, grabbing my flip flops.
“It’s the police.” The voice on the other side of the door is strong and deep.
I opened the door and said hello.
“Goodmorning,” he said and smiled at me, shuffling papers in his hand. “I’m looking for Ms. Tee.”
“That’s me.”
“I have something to give you.” He was a Black man who looked to be in his late 30’s or early 40’s and he seemed a bit sad.
“Who’s bothering you?” he asked as he took a few notes on the paperwork.
“Hmm. Probably my BBDD. He always has some trick up his sleeve. What’s that about?”
“I didn’t read it. Is that you?” he asked and showed me a copy of a picture of myself that I gave my son, my BBDD had included it in the service papers.
I laughed, “Yeah, that’s me. I just have a new hairstyle.” I smiled.
He looked at me and frowned. I glanced at the paperwork and said, “Yep, I see he’s filing for child support. I wonder if he’s filing for full custody too.”
The police officer rolled his eyes. “Some men have no clue.”
“Yeah, and it’s even worse because everytime I tried to file for child support when I had the kids, he would try to block it by filing all these motions since he’s an attorney and we never got to court until after I lost my job and he had the children. They dismissed the case. I couldn’t afford an attorney to help me so things just fell through the cracks.”
“He’s an attorney and he’s asking you for child support?”
“Yeah. He knows I live with my parents and I’m a graduate student. He knows I’m still not working. He doesn’t need it, that’s just how he is.” I shrugged.
“Well, let me tell you a story. You probably have one of your own but I’ll share anyway,” he began. “Once when my wife and I were having financial problems, we were up late one night and I was sitting there reading the paper and she was worrying. She looked over at me and got mad at me because she thought I didn’t care. I looked at her and told her that if I had the money, I would pay. Since I don’t, I can’t sit there and worry. Worrying takes away from your life, it doesn’t help the problem at all. So please, don’t worry about this. Don’t hate him either. Just keep on doing the best you can, stay on your knees and give it to God. God always takes care of us.”
“Thank you for saying that,” I told him as he began to walk away.
“Just keep on doing what you know is right.”
I appreciate him for taking the time to talk to me. Since then I have not stressed about it at all. I have my boys for the entire weekend and I have money so I plan to buy them some new shoes and have a great time.
I love spending time with them. They crack me up. They’re so smart.
The other day I went to visit my sister at her boyfriend’s house in Ft. Lauderdale. We went shopping for his birthday and got pedis together. My 7 year-old son went with us because he was supposedly “sick” and couldn’t go to school.
While we ate lunch at KFC, my son saw a sign that said 99 cent plus tax.
“What’s tax?” he asked me.
Hmmm….I thought about it for a moment and then explained.
“Well, do you know what the government is?”
“Yes.”
“It’s the group of people who make the rules and try to fix things in our country. They make us pay taxes because they need to help people who don’t have money and fix things like roads and build schools.”
“OK.”
“So, whenever we buy something we have to pay 7 cents for every dollar. So…if something costs one dollar, how much tax do we have to pay?”
“7 cents.”
“How much is it total that we have to pay?”
“One dollar and 7 cents.”
“What if something costs $2?”
He thought for a minute. “$2.14.”
“What about $3?”
“Hmm..$3.21 because 7 times 3 is 21.”
“You are simply brilliant!” I told him.
He sure is.
I’m not worried. Things always work out the way they are supposed to.
They always do.