Gold, Fire & Refinement

Chapter Fifty-Three

"Love is the only gold." ~Alfred Lord Tennyson

When Harvey's private jet landed at the Providenciales International Airport around 10 p.m., the newlyweds were still excited, but very tired and sleepy. For the entire plane ride over, they got reacquainted—in the biblical sense. Soon after take-off, feeling safe and secure in their love, trusting each other completely with their hearts, being together in the most intimate way seemed more caring, more passionate, and more explosive than ever.

After they landed, a thirty-five-minute boat ride took them to Parrot Cay, a Turks and Caicos private island in the northern Caribbean where Harvey arranged for them to have a luxurious home on a private beach with an infinity pool, a maid, a cook, and a butler. Everything that happened in France led the newlyweds to choose a new honeymoon destination, and Turks and Caicos had always been one of their favorite vacation spots, along with the French Riviera.

The first week, when they weren't making love, the newly married couple were exploring the island's luxurious beaches and lush tropical landscapes. The lovers took long walks every morning, and in the afternoons they played in the sparkling turquoise waters of the northern Atlantic. Some evenings they read poetry to each other while lying on pristine white-sand beaches, squashing their toes in what felt like the softest sand imaginable. In the middle of the second week, they explored the ruins of Cheshire Hall, a 1790s plantation house built by Loyalists—American colonists who remained faithful to England during the Revolutionary War. Since both of the newlywed journalist-slash-magazine publishers loved American history, visiting the ruins helped them renew their vow to keep fighting for economic and social change in the world, for black people. It felt right for them to renew their commitment in a place like where they were enjoying their honeymoon. A place with a history that echoed the "opposites" theme of their wedding. The colonists who came here in the eighteenth century abandoned their holdings in America, but brought their slaves here with them. Using slave labor, they built grand plantations and grew Sea Island cotton—the kind preferred by England's expanding textile industry. The plantations' slaves, eventually, became the ancestors of many of the current residents of North and Middle Caicos and Providenciales.

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Near the end of the second week, the newlyweds were on the beach enjoying a champagne and fresh fruit brunch, naked, lying in a cabana bed with privacy curtains. They made a toast, which was a vow to continue using their love to repair and to heal, to help end both the overt and the hidden results of systemic racial inequality and prejudice against descendants of American slavery, in Mississippi and wherever else they could. They vowed to help The Keepers in their brave mission, starting with helping Josie, EZ, Daniel, and Eva Pearl work to bring training in business ownership, jobs, and commerce to black people in struggling communities—within and beyond the region where Zarah and her siblings grew up. 

After making their vows, the couple expressed their love to each other in the way they both loved best, and, after that, while they were relaxing before a naked swim in the infinity pool, Zarah got a call from her sister. Josie apologized for calling, but said what she had to tell them couldn't wait. 

Grandma Frieda, who lived in Georgia, Josie said, was staying a while with her in Pleasant Valley. "She saw that guy, that Clarence Edward Stringer? He stopped his great-aunt from rising during your wedding to protest your marriage. Right after the preacher asked if anybody had any objections, that ... woman tried to stand up, and it was her great-nephew who stopped her. But that's not even the reason I called. Zarah, if Harvey's there, I want you to put me on speaker, okay? He needs to hear this too. I think what I have to say is a wedding gift."

"I'm right here with my dear," Harvey said. "Right where I belong."

 "Good," Josie laughed. "I want y'all to know I talked to Clarence Edward for an hour after the reception, and I asked if I could interview him for my book on generational curses. You know, since racism is one of my main topics, and is a horrible generational curse. Well, after asking for time to think about it, he called me today. And not only did he consent to be interviewed, he asked and got his great-aunt Betty to consent too. And she told me Dinah is willing to join us too, if I want. So, we have set a date, and I wanted you two to know I'll soon be talking to the three of them, together."

"Hah!" Harvey said. "Maybe there is a reason for us to have hope for Grandma Betty and Dinah. After all."

Zarah cocked her head to one side. "Hah! After all the two of them have done to us? I can't believe I'm sayin' this, but. Maybe my husband is right."

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After nourishing and renewing their love and their spirits for two whole weeks, the newlyweds returned home to Wilson Manor. Their third week back, after feeling nauseous and throwing up for three mornings in a row, Zarah became suspicious. Not wanting to get her or her husband's hopes up unnecessarily, after her third sick morning, after work, she brought home three different brands of early pregnancy tests.

When Harvey got home that evening, she hugged him tight and told him she was pretty sure her official wedding gift—to him and to them, would be arriving in about eight months. Before allowing himself to become overjoyed, he insisted they visit her gynecologist, together, the next day, and her doctor confirmed it. Zarah was, indeed, about five weeks pregnant. That night, after a romantic, candlelight dinner, her husband surprised her with a candle lit, rose-petal strewn romantic bedroom: a fitting place for them to celebrate the good news with love.

Before making love, they laughed a long time about why they were sure conception occurred during flight, on the way to their honeymoon destination. After that, they read poetry to each other before settling down for the night. As the new wife ran her fingers through her husband's curls, the new husband caressed and kissed his wife's tummy while softly singing along with their home's sound system the chorus to Patti LaBelle's "Somebody Loves You Baby."

Savoring her husband's beautiful and deep baritone voice, and the feel of his lips, breath, and hands on her tummy, with her eyes closed, the wife said, "I think they're right." When the husband asked who was right, she said, "The Keepers and Alfred Lord Tennyson. It's true what they said. And now? I finally know it for sure. Once everything else is said and done? In life? Love really is the only gold. It's the only gold ... that really matters."

The End.

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But ... The Color of Love collection continues. Be on the lookout for Book three, Eva Pearl's story: Brown Pearl, The Prodigal Girl Returns.