Gold, Fire & Refinement

Chapter Nineteen

"Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real." ~Tupac Shakur

For a moment, the motionless image of thirty-four-year-old Dinah Arlene Pettigrew, as it appeared in the windows of her pool house, looked like an exquisite statue of her, instead of a live person. Feeling astonished, she was sitting near the swimming pool in the backyard of her grand estate in far North Jackson, and she was dumbstruck over a phone conversation she just had with her ex-husband. She had been sitting outside enjoying a second glass of pink lemonade that afternoon when the surprising call came in. Now, minutes after hanging up, she felt frozen in place. Staring at her reflection, she kept whispering two questions to herself, silently. "God, is this you? Are you trying to make up for all the ungodly abuse you let me go through when I was a child?"

Not even an hour had passed since she had a poolside soiree and brunch with some of her closest friends. They had all left before she got the call, and she was sitting alone, basking in the afterglow of another emotional unburdening session with people she loved. Wearing her favorite two-thousand-dollar Alexander McQueen long-sleeved crewneck dress in a black and white Jacquard print, enjoying her newfound calm, she knew she looked magnificent that day. The dress had a sculpted silhouette that hugged her curves and she accessorized it with a pair of $3,000 red patent leather, sky-high Gianmarco Lorenzi stiletto slingback peep-toe sandals. They were runway shoes. The style and color that made her legs look a mile long and terrific. And the dress. It had a fit that showed off her tiny waist, flat tummy, and her sensational butt—all the stuff she had that a lot of women could only add unnaturally, or wish they had. She knew she was looking good, but still needed to hear her friends say it. And even though they all said it many times during brunch, it was still hard for her to believe she would ever feel like pursuing happiness again. And then she got the phone call from her ex.

As soon as he hung up, she felt life seeping back into her body. Now she knew, without a doubt, things had changed for her. For good and forever. She didn't know how she knew it or how it would happen, but she knew. Because of that phone call, her life would never be the same again. Something deep inside nudged her, whispered that another one of her dreams was about to come true. Harvey Evan Wilson hadn't just called, he needed her. Her ex-husband had asked her to do him a favor. He wanted to know if his grandmother, Mrs. Bettina Beauregard McNeese, could come to Pinehaven to stay a while. Not just for a brief visit. For as long as it would take, he said, for him to restore her Mississippi Delta antebellum mansion. The home of her good friend, her former grandmother-in-law, had suffered extreme fire damage.

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Dinah started feeling stronger. More alive. The way she felt when she was in her prime. Like it was time for her to reclaim her lost verve. She rose and walked closer to the pool-house windows. Checking her full reflection, she smiled. What her friends told her was true. She still had it. She was still a very young woman, and she was a beauty. She had full and lustrous, long dark curls and smooth alabaster white skin. She had a sun-kissed tan that day that was sprayed on, but it looked entirely natural. She was toned, had gorgeous legs, and a natural beauty mark on the upper right side of her naturally full lips. Men always found her to be irresistible. Harvey Evan Wilson once found her to be irresistible.

The fact that she still looked good had been a good part of the conversation she had that morning with her friends. All of them, including her, could be self-absorbed and vacuous at times, but when one of them needed the others for empathy and understanding, they were always there for each other. All members of the same social clubs, boards, and organizations, they were all the centers of their own worlds, yet knew how to revolve around one another when the situation called for it. On this day, her situation had called for it and the troops had rallied. They comforted her at a time when she needed it by pulling her up from the depths of despair. First by convincing her she still looked terrific. And next by making her believe the man of her dreams was on his way into her life. Because of them, she started to heal from weeks of emotional turmoil. She was mourning the loss of a second pregnancy, and, after that, had suffered through another painful breakup with another man. Her affair of ten months ended after she had a second miscarriage since undergoing a reverse tubal ligation. Her friends had helped her see that no matter what, she was still an exceptional woman who would surely enjoy life again one day. Because any man in his right mind, they said, would be blessed to have her as his own. In just a matter of time, they predicted, she would meet the right man, and would fall in love. After they left, she was sitting alone near her pool hoping they were right, and that's when Harvey Evan called. And that's how she knew her friends were right. Things had changed and the future was about to give her something amazing and wonderful.