Strength and Mercy

Good Sense

"I always knew you liked them white boys..."

Ava palmed her face, "It's not what you think."

Mother Henson snickered and said, "There ain't nothin' to be ashamed of! Why, there was this boy right down the road from the farm back in 19---"

"Oh goodness," Ava sighed.

"Hush up and lemme finish! Now where was I...oh yeah. It was back in '43, just before I left. Johnny Prescott had the most beautiful green eyes I'd ever seen, almost as green as leaves on the trees in the summer. And when I'd walk on by and see him till that ground, my Lord!"

Ava giggled as Mother Henson fanned herself at the memory, "Did you ever talk to him?"

"Girl, do you know what era that was? That boy wouldn't spit in my direction if he had good sense," she replied.

"What do you mean 'if he had good sense'?"

Mother Henson smiled, "Let's just say when the moon was out neither of us had any sense."

Ava's eyes widened, "You didn't!"

"Of course, we kept up appearances in public but when we met up in those balmy woods there wasn't much talkin'."

Ava laughed but quickly sobered up, "What happened to you two?"

Mother Henson's face grew sad, "Life. We knew we couldn't be together so, in time, we moved on. He married some odd years later and so did I."

Ava had a feeling there was more to the story but chose not to pursue it. She couldn't imagine what Mother Henson must have felt like during that time. She chose not to imagine what happened if they ever got caught together. Though racism is alive and dangerous it's something that's, generally, frowned upon but back then it wasn't even a discussion.

"Enough about me, what are you going to do about your father?"

Ava sighed, "I know what you're trying to do but it's not right that you're forcing this on me."

Mother Henson grabbed Ava's hand, "At least hear him out."

"Mama Jane, if you keep trying to push this I'll grow to resent you. Please, respect my 'no' and let me work this out in my own time. And, no disrespect, this will be the last time I'll say it nicely."

Mother Henson sat back, " I understand. I just want you to make amends before it's too late, that's all."

"I get that but let me work it out, OK? I will take your advice about letting my anger go, I'm tired of feeling like this."

Mother Henson placed a hand on the side of Ava's face, "That's my girl."

The moment was interrupted by quick taps on the door. Before Ava could answer, Ethan bursted in the door with his laptop at hand.

"Ava, you need to see what we found!"

Ava shot up from her chair and grabbed her bag, "I'm sorry Mama Jane but duty calls."

"Alright then, but duty should not be the only thing calling 'round here."

Catching the hint, Ava kissed her on the cheek, "I will call you soon. Love you."

"I love you too, pain-in-the-butt."

Afterwards, Ava and Ethan rushed down the hallway to one of the smaller conference rooms and quickly closed the door. Tonya, Nathan, Asia, and Deshawn were already sitting at the roundtable conversing among themselves but stopped when Ava entered. Asia gave her a sympathetic look which caused her stomach to flutter nervously. Ethan set the projector up and hooked it up to his laptop. There were strings of numbers splattered all over the screen, so much of it that it looked like raw data. But some of the sets of numbers looked familiar.