Page 43 of Rewind

“Jasmine how old are you?”

“Twenty.”

Amina shuddered in disgust. Otis Caldwell was nearly sixty. The dirty bastard.

“I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Jasmine. I don’t plan on going through with my engagement. Mark is a horrible person and so are his parents. They’re hypocrites who preach the word but I have a sneaking suspicion they’re using the church’s money to fund their extravagant lifestyles. I think they should be exposed which is why I’d like for you to come to my ‘engagement’ party as my guest.” Amina held up her hands to air quote the word engagement.

Jasmine cocked her head to the side. “Why get engaged to him in the first place?”

“Because Mark is the kind of person who won’t take no for an answer. I figure if you show up, he’s going to get the message loud and clear. What do you say, Jasmine? I’ll make sure you’re compensated for your time.”

“You’re not scared they’ll do something to you?”

“What exactly do you think they would do to me? I’m grown. They have no power over me.”

Jasmine cradled her belly. “Otis said that if I behave, he’d give me some money for the baby. I don’t know what I’d do without the financial assistance. Like I said, I’m in school fornow. I started going to Christ’s Home because I was feeling homesick.”

“I was raised in the church and Christ’s Home happened to be close to my campus. Pastor Caldwell was so dynamic, I joined as a member and I’d participate in bible study. I was having questions about my faith because I was having issues at school. I went to him as my spiritual adviser.”

She sniffed and the tears reappeared in her eyes.

Amina grabbed her purse and dug through it to find the small packet of tissues she kept on hand. She gave them to Jasmine.

“Thank you. I didn’t expect to cry today. I’ve done enough of that already.”

“It’s okay. I can only imagine what happened next.”

“I’m not completely innocent in this. I knew what I was doing but when he paid all this attention to me, I felt special. I’m away from home and he made me feel good and things just happened. When I told him I was pregnant, he ordered me to get rid of my baby.”

“I was devastated because I thought he cared about me. I was even stupid enough to believe he’d leave his wife for me. He gave me some money, actually a check, to get an abortion. I went to the clinic because what the hell do I know about being someone’s mother, but when I heard the baby’s heartbeat on the monitor, I couldn’t do it.”

“Obviously Otis was pissed and he told me he would deny anything ever happened between us. He said he’d get a bunch of men to say that I’d been with them, when he knows it isn’t true because he was my first.” She broke into loud sobs, drawing eyes from a few of the other diners.

Amina moved to Jasmin’s side of the table, wrapped her arms around the young woman and held her while she cried.

“Uh...here’s your appetizers,” the waitress interrupted from behind them.

Amina gestured toward the table, while still holding Jasmine. “You can go ahead and put them down.”

The waitress, placed the dishes in the center of the table. “Ugh, your food should be out soon.” She couldn’t get away fast enough.

Jasmine pulled away from Amina with a sniff. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you like that.”

Amina went back to her seat. “You didn’t embarrass me. It’s okay to cry. What Pastor Caldwell did to you was wrong. You say you’re 20 now, but I bet he started grooming you before then didn’t he?”

Jasmine blew her nose and nodded. “I joined his church just before I turned nineteen.”

“That makes this even worse. He was someone you should have been able to trust but instead he took advantage of you. You’re the victim here Jasmine and he doesn’t deserve to get off the hook for what he’s done and neither does his wife. Yes, they’re married but I bet she knew what was going on but turned a blind eye. He spent a lot of money on you, didn’t he?”

Jasmine nodded, dabbing her eyes with the balled up tissue. “He gave me an allowance. He said it was to help me for school. A lot of times they were checks from the church. He said that sometimes the church liked to help students in need.”

“Hmm, I doubt the congregation knows about this.”

“I’m so scared to get involved because he said that he would make my life miserable and he wouldn’t give me money for the baby. I haven’t even told my parents I’m pregnant. It’s why I didn’t go home the last few holidays.”

“Do you think your parents would turn their backs on their daughter when she’s clearly in need of help?”

“I don’t know, but they’re both heavily into the church as well. They’d be so ashamed of me. I don’t know if I can face them.”

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