"Lenora"

(Check out my blog on 5/14/11 for background information on Lenora! Thanks for reading my blog!  If you enjoy it, give a heads up to your friends and invite them to join!  Enjoy!)

          It was hard for Lenora to concentrate on the new book that the Book Woman Club was reviewing,
The Color Purple, because Lenora was mad!  Not at The Color Purple, but at Onondaga County!  The county was cutting the Onondaga County Library System's budget again!  She couldn't believe it!  In this county where the city school district had a 55% high-school drop-out rate?  This city who's literacy rate was below the national average?  It was a crime!  And it was a personal tragedy! 
          The county was talking about closing the downtown branch...where Lenora worked!  She had 20 years on the job and now they were talking about letting her go!  In addition, they were going to reduce staff in all branch libraries, and she just missed the seniority level that she needed to guarantee her job.  "We have librarians who have twenty-five plus years on the job!"  Her supervisor's excuse for her probable lay-off lay false in the churning pit of Lenora's anger! "How many of those old biddies, in all those branches across the whole library system, could have more years than I?", Lenora asked herself.
          And she had asked the same question, using a better word than "biddies", of her supervisor's supervisor, and of her union rep, and of a condescending assistant to the County Executive!  They all told her that there was nothing that they could do.  The County Executive refused to see her, saying that she needed to take the matter up with her union representative!  "I'll be damned if she ever gets another vote from me!", fumed Lenora!
          Lenora was jerked out of her mad by the calling of her name.  Everyone in the room was looking at her!  Carol Jean said her name again, "Lenora, are you with us?  We were asking you to give us your take on the relationship between Celie and Shug Avery.  You know how we count on your literary expertise as a librarian in these discussions!  Now stay with us child!"  "I'm sorry, Miss Carol Jean.  My mind was wandering.  Now what was the question?"  "Lorrie says that Celie and Shug Avery were lesbians."  Carol Jean and the the group turned to look at Lorrie, who herself was of some literary notoriety.  Lorrie was the only published writer that was a member of the Book Woman Club and her opinion, like Lenora's, had weight.  Khadi-jah spoke up, "Oh, get over it!  Lesbian's are a part of our society and deserve the same rights as everyone else!  If the State Legislature does the right thing, the just thing; if we stand up and join in solidarity, the cause of our LGBT brothers and sisters, they will be given the rights of full citizenship and will be allowed to enjoy state sanctioned marriages! "  Everyone in the room turned to look at Khadi-jah in confusion as Carol Jean gently said, "Now, child! Where did all that come from?  No one said anything about the rights of Lesbians!  We were just trying to clarify whether Celie and Shug Avery were lesbians or not!  It's a little confusing with Celie and Mister having sex, then Shug Avery having sex with Mister, and then Celie and Shug Avery being under the sheets and all..."
          "It's an abomination!  I don't know why you so-called Christian women would choose this piece of literary filth to pollute your minds with!  There needs to be a cleansing...a book burning!  Let these sinful pages written in Sodom and Gomorrah burn in hell!"  Glory "Amen" Johnson jumped up, shouting and waving a huge black Bible, blazing with religious fever and righteousness!  She began speaking in tongues, tears streaming down her face!
          Glory had refused to read The Color Purple, this book that she said was full of sin and sinners!  She had brought her bible as a protest.  (Actually Glory always had her bible with her at the Book Woman Club meetings, and always had something to protest concerning the books reviewed by the women.  Usually is wasn't such a large Bible!)  During the discussion three meetings ago, when the group had voted to do a nine week review of books that featured women in transformation, she had bitterly protested The Color Purple's presence on the list and had lost.  They had voted to add it to the list.  Although the Book Woman Club members had been a party to Glory's protests before, they had never before witnessed her in full Christian regalia!  She had never jumped up and down like this, nor had she ever spoken in tongues!  This was something new and way over the top, even for Glory "Amen" Johnson!
         "Sit down, Glory!" Bessie Davis Hudson's "don't challenge me" tone accepted no disobedience, even from somebody as old as Glory!  To every one's surprise, Glory did not sit down!  She continued speaking in tongues, her jib-jabber words tumbling over themselves, her lips moving faster and faster!  Bessie rose to her feet, making a second demand for Glory to sit down!  Still, Glory did not sit down!  She started to dance, and while her feet beat out their frantic rhythm on Carol Jean's well worn carpet, Glory began to scream! She turned and pointed her bible laden hand at Thunderbird, who's eyes widened as Glory shouted, "Oh, Lord in Heaven! Deliver me from this evil!  Deliver us all from this Dark Angel of Hell!"  Thunderbird's mouth dropped open as she and everyone else, except Lenora, rose to their feet; some frightened, some confused and some, well, just plain mad!  Erica began to back away from Glory, her cafe-o- lait skin pale and sweating as she fainted!  Khadi-jah, who was standing next to her, caught her before she hit the floor!  "What the hell!"  Khadi-jah grabbed one of Carol Jean's crocheted dollies off the back of one of the living-room chairs and began to fan Erica with it.  "What the hell is going on?"  "You watch your mouth in my house, young lady!", Carol Jean shouted at Khadi-jah.  She tried to match the beat of Glory's tapping feet as she began to circle around behind her.  Carol Jean wore a white nurses uniform every Sunday at the Most Holy of Holiness Baptist Church on the south-side of Syracuse.  She knew how to take care of her sisters and brothers in the faith, who's bodies were taken by the Holy Ghost!  She reached her arms out for Glory, ready to cradle her to the floor, and to minster to her after she had finished her dance.  But Bessie, who was a Methodist, felt that there was only one course of action.  She stepped in front of Glory, drew her arm back as far as she could and slapped her face!  Carol Jean's living-room resounded with the sound of flesh meeting flesh, as Glory fell backwards from the force of Bessie's blow, and hit the floor!  The rest of the Book Woman Club member, those standing, fell back into their chairs, as if Bessie had slapped each and everyone of them too!  "Girl, you didn't have to do that!", Carol Jean said, as she gingerly lowered herself to the floor, arthritic knees creaking.  She cradled Glory's head in her lap, like Glory was being rocked in the loving arms of Jesus.  "Yes - I did!  She was out of control.  Nia! Go get Carol Jean some ice out the kitchen for Glory's face!"  Nia jumped up and ran to the kitchen, looking over her shoulder, her face as dazed as those faces sitting in the book circle.   Bessie walked over to Erica, and saw that Khadi-jah's frantic fanning had brought her around.  "Looks like she's going to be alright."  Bessie frowned as she heard Erica's barely audible praying.  "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want...".  Bessie sucked her teeth and shook her head.  "Lord have mercy!"  She took the kitchen towel covered ice from Nia, and sent her back into the kitchen to get another one.  Glory began to weep from where she lay on the floor, and Carol Jean began to softly sing to her.  "O troubled soul, be still.  Fear not, thy Father's arms enfold thee.. " "Here", Bessie handed the make-shift ice pack to Carol Jean.  "Put that on her cheek and take her on into your sitting room and give her some time to rest and pull herself together!  Carmen!  Take this little one home.  I think the poor thing has had enough excitement for one night!"  Bessie handed Carmen the second ice pack that Nia had just pressed into her hand, thanked Nia, and then helped Carmen get Erica to her feet.  Nia zombie walked over to a chair and sat down.  As Carmen lead the still praying Erica out the front door to her car, and Carol Jean took the weeping Glory "Amen" Johnson into her sitting room, Bessie got the discussion back on track.  "That's the second time in a month that Glory has interrupted one of our meetings and has kept us from finishing our review!  I won't have it!  Now, lets get back to the book review and get it finished, so we can eat!"  The women of the club picked up their books, smoothed their skirts and tucked their shocked expressions away.  They knew that Miss Bessie did not play!  "Lenora!  What were you going to add to this discussion?"  Bessie sat down, adjusted her bottom on the chair's soft cushion and looked expectantly at Lenora.
           Now, Lenora had gone back to worrying about her job when Glory begun her rant, and had tuned out Glory's performance and Bessie's dramatic response.  After accessing all of her options, Lenora had decided a plan of action.  "They better not mess with me!"  She thought.  "They better not try and take my job!  They don't know!  They just don't know!"  While Lenora knew that the county could take her job, she knew that there was something that no one could take from her.  Knowledge!  Experience!  Once you learned how to do something, no one could take that knowledge away!  No one!  Lenora smiled to herself, her lips curving slowly upward.  Once you knew how to make a bomb, you never forgot!  Besides, she still had her copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook!
          Lenora pulled herself to the edge of her chair, and sat up straight.  Good posture was very important for a librarian.  Lenora cleared her throat.