Synopsis of Keeping Misery Company:

Keeping Misery Company is an inspirational tale about Ruth Wilcox, the only daughter of prominent Chicago minister, Reverend Isaiah Clayton and his feisty wife, Queen Esther.  Ruth has her hands full trying to cope with mounting marital problems and the onslaught of physical changes her body is going through. Lately, Ruth and her husband, Daniel, have drifted apart like two ships passing in the night; with zero visibility between them.  The two don’t even share the same bedroom anymore.  Daniel hasn’t been happy in the marriage for some time and seeks solace in the arms of his young mistress, Lenora. He oversleeps after a tryst between the sheets with Lenora, and when he arrives home, all hell breaks loose.

Keeping Misery Company is a poignant tale about a religious family in spiritual crisis. Secrets, lies, betrayal, and forgiveness are at the forefront of this story. It culminates with a triumphing of the spirit and soul.

Except from Keeping Misery Company:

Chapter One

  Ruth Wilcox’s eyelids snapped open like a shade on a window. She stretched, then turned to her left side and peeped at the silver and black clock radio that sat on the nightstand on the right hand side of the bed. The bright red LED segued into eight o’clock AM.

  Darn it; I meant to get up earlier, she thought as she sat up abruptly, yawned and rubbed her eyes. 

  ”Danny!“ Ruth yelled her husband’s name, short for Daniel, in a raspy, just-got-up-in-the-morning voice. She rose from the bed and walked down the gray, carpeted hallway to the spare bedroom only to find it empty.

  Daniel had already left for work. The man of the house was employed as a supervisor for the Chicago Transit Authority. Earlier that morning, one of his employees had called him on his cell phone and informed him that he was ill and wouldn’t be at work that day. Daniel would have to drive the No. 6 Jeffrey Bus in place of his sick employee.

  Ruth stood in the doorway with her hands on her wide hips. The ends of her hair stood tousled over her head like a bird’s nest. Her eyes swept over the orderly room. Daniel had opened the red mini-blinds before he left for work, allowing an anemic ray of sunlight to flood the white painted room. A red and white-checkered comforter draped the corners of the bed neatly.

  His black and green plaid, worn, slippers sat side-by-side at the bottom of the bed. A corner of the navy blue border wallpaper was peeling, and lay limply away from the wall.

  Ruth looked inside the room apprehensively, as if she expected her husband to suddenly appear out of thin air, and ask her what she was doing in his room. Danny’s personality included a private streak and he’d told Ruth many times that he hated for her to snoop through his things.

  She walked over to the closet, opened the door, turned on the light and riffled through the pockets of the clothing he had worn the day before.

She found a book of matches from the bar that Daniel and his brother, Fred, frequented. Ruth removed a scrap of paper with a woman’s name and telephone number scratched untidily upon it. She held the paper away from her face and squinted at it. Her lips poked out angrily. Then she crushed the paper, stomped out of the closet and walked across the room to trashcan and dropped the offending items unceremoniously inside of it.

  As a bolt of pain shot up Ruth’s leg, she scrambled out of the room and back down the hall into the pink and black tiled bathroom that adjoined the master bedroom; Her room. She stood in front of the door length mirror and pulled her yellow and green faded, cotton nightgown over her head.

  Her dark eyes traveled the length of her body as she critically assessed it. Her face flushed rosily and her eyes dropped in dismay at the sight of her nakedness.

Why did I let myself go like this? she wondered as her gaze fell to her pouched stomach. Ruth gathered a portion of the round flesh between her fingers. ”More than an inch,“ she said to herself. She sucked in her belly. Her eyes dropped to the patch of gray and black pubic hair. Her upper arms and thighs were flabby. Her salt and pepper hair, which stopped just below her ears, was in desperate need of a rinse and perm.

  She lifted a lock of her limp hair, dropped it, and blew a strand out of her face. Her plump, brown sugar colored face crumpled as a tear trickled down her right cheek. God, I look a mess. I need to lose at least twenty pounds. She then examined her legs. But at least my legs still look good. I don’t have varicose veins or anything. Her pear shaped breasts were no match for gravity though. That’s what I get for breast-feeding the kids.

  Ruth’s career since marrying Daniel Wilcox, Senior, nearly thirty-five years ago, was that of a stay-at-home mother. Her primary job was to raise her son, Daniel, Jr., nicknamed DJ, and daughters, Sarah and Naomi.

  She sighed heavily, because somewhere along the way, she had carelessly abandoned her role as a loving wife.

  Ruth turned away from the mirror and stepped into the steamy shower. Hot, gushing water washed away her tears, but not her thoughts as her mind wandered to her husband, who she was estranged from in her own house.

Daniel had moved to the spare bedroom two years ago when Ms. Menopause came knocking on Ruth’s door; and she was still an unwelcome visitor. Ruth experienced many of the physical discomforts of middle-aged women, night sweats, hot flashes and weight gain. Her sex drive had also tapered to almost naught.

  The last few times she and Daniel had relations, as Ruth calls lovemaking, was painful. The area between her legs ached when they were done, and her breasts were sore for days. They had come perilously close to divorce when the mood swings kicked in. Daniel jokingly began calling her Ruthie, his nickname for her alter ego.

  Ruth was an active member of the Baptist church she belonged to and volunteered for many committees. She was the church secretary and occupied a desk outside her father’s, Reverend Isaiah Clayton, who was the pastor, maple paneled office three days a week. Initially Ruth worked without pay, but as the membership rolls swelled, the church decided to pay her a salary.

  But somewhere between raising children and church activities, Ruth lost sight of being Mrs. Daniel Wilcox. And the oversight had severely damaged her marriage.

  After Ruth showered, she dressed in a black pleated skirt and a white peter-pan collared blouse. She hastily brushed her hair into her usual mushroom hairdo, the same style she’s worn since high school.

  She patted her hair one last time and walked down the hall to her red and yellow kitchen. White curtains with strawberries appliqués hung brightly at the kitchen window. Red canisters gleamed on the black and white faux marble counter. A red floor mat lay in front of the kitchen sink.

  She put a pot of coffee on the stove to brew. Before long, the strong aroma

filled the kitchen. The telephone jangled, breaking the silence.

  ”Hello,“ Ruth answered.

  ”What’s up, Mama?“ Naomi’s voice boomed loudly in Ruth’s ear.

  Ruth clicked on the speaker button of the white cordless Bell South telephone and set it on the table while she turned down the stove burner. ”Nothing, baby girl.  How are you doing? Shouldn’t you be in class or something?“

  ”Naw, I have forty-five minutes to spare before my first class.“

  ”And you’re up already? I remember when I had to call you at least four times before you’d get out of the bed in the morning.“ Ruth and Naomi chuckled at the memory.

  ”That was then, this is now. Although, I have been late to class a couple of times,“ Naomi confessed, feeling slightly chastened.

  ”I hope you aren’t failing any classes, Naomi Wilcox. ‘Cause your father will hit the roof,“ Ruth said, sitting down at the kitchen table. ”You know he was adamant against you going away to college anyway. It took me three months to convince him to let you go to SIU.“

  Naomi, the youngest Wilcox child, was a freshman at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. Daniel felt spending money on a college education for her was a waste of time and money. Her grades and belligerent attitude towards him when she entered her teen years was tantamount to throwing away his hard earned money as far as he was concerned.

  The youngest member of the Wilcox family adjustment to college had been difficult. Naomi has few friends, so she and Ruth talked on the telephone at least twice a day. Daniel felt that was one time too many, which added another bone of contention between the couple and drove his point home that his wife puts their children’s needs over his.

  Naomi was a pretty, plump, honey colored young woman with shapely legs like her mother’s. Her hips were widely rounded and her waist small. She wore micro braid extensions in her dark wavy hair and had a standing appointment for a pedicure twice a month.

  Ruth would sneak and send Naomi money without Daniel’s knowledge. She spoiled the couple’s youngest child rotten, and hasn’t been able to cut the imaginary apron strings. Her rearing of Naomi produced a sometimes lazy, immature girl, but Ruth wasn’t worried about her daughter’s character. She attributed the traits to her daughter being a teenager, and assumed that in time Naomi would outgrow her character flaws. Daniel, of course, begged to differ.

  Ruth took a cup out of the cabinet and poured herself a cup of coffee and sipped it while she and Naomi talked. Ruth and Naomi chatted a few minutes longer on the phone before Ruth brought their conversation to an end. She didn’t want to give her daughter an excuse for being late to class.

  After Ruth finished her conversation with Naomi, she sat thoughtfully at the kitchen table. Her chin was propped on her left hand as she listlessly stirred the remaining coffee inside her cup. Under the florescent lights in the ceiling, the white and silver appliances sparkled brightly. 

  Ruth became upset as she sat and thought about finding the name and number in Daniel’s room. She tried to pinpoint exactly when they had arrived at the godforsaken place they now inhabited. Originally, she thought it happened at the onset of menopause. But as her mind wandered back in time, she knew their difficulties began as far back as when Naomi was born.

  They had disagreed about bringing another child into the world. Ruth overruled Daniel’s wishes, and the wedge between them deepened as time elapsed. With many concessions on her part, they still managed to function as a family unit.

  After Naomi became thirteen years old, Daniel felt Ruth should loosen the apron strings a bit. He proclaimed that the time had come for the two of them to spend more time together, but Ruth staunchly disagreed. Naomi was experiencing self-esteem issues regarding her weight, and Ruth felt it was her job as a mother to help her child work through her problems.

  That caused another wall of distance to rise up between wife and husband. Then menopause struck, their lovemaking decreased, and Daniel moved into the spare bedroom. Ruth wasn’t sure how to bridge the gap between them and return to the other side.

  Daniel began spending more time out of the house with his single brother, Fred.   And when Daniel did manage to stay home, his body was planted downstairs in the den in front of the television, which was always tuned to a sporting event.

Ruth uneasily noted the change in her husband’s behavior. But instead of talking to him about her fears, she didn’t say anything, and hoped the problems they experienced would just go away.

  Lately, Daniel had been coming home later and later. When she asked about his activities, he’d just say he was hanging out with the fellows. If he was messing around, and the thought did cross her mind a time or two, she was one hundred percent sure that he’d never leave her and break up the family unit.

I know what I’ll do. Ruth snapped her fingers. I’ll call Dr. Jackson and make an appointment. Maybe she’ll prescribe hormone replacement therapy regiment Umm hum, that’s what I need to do. She traced circles on the kitchen table. And I’m definitely going to call Eunice and have her do something to my hair.

  She put two slices of bread in the toaster and reached inside the refrigerator for the container of butter. Ruth had just sat the tub on the table when the telephone rang again.

  ”Hello, Sarah. How are you?“ she asked, after seeing her oldest daughter’s number on the caller ID.

  ”Fine, Mama. And you?“ Sarah replied.

   ”I’m doing fine. How’s your day going so far?“

  ”Not too bad.“ 

  The Wilcox’s oldest child was employed as a customer service representative for ComED Electricity Company. She’d been employed there since she had graduated from high school. In addition to working, Sarah opted to attend a junior college part time. She was an attractive looking, shapely, kind, outgoing woman. Naomi was slightly jealous of her older sibling, because she felt Sarah possessed many of the traits she yearned to have herself.

  ”What do you have planned for today?“ Sarah asked her mother.

  ”I’m due at the church at eleven o’clock to help prepare for the senior citizens luncheon. And that’s about it,“ Ruth replied as she set her plate and cup on the counter.

  ”How’s Daddy? I guess he’s at work.“

  ”Yes, he is. I didn’t get a chance to see him before he left, so I guess he’s okay.“

  Sarah informed Ruth, ”today is report card pickup day at school and I plan to leave work early to get the kid’s cards.“

  ”I’m sure their grades are fine. You make sure education and good grades are priorities for your children, they know that and I’m sure they’ll be fine,“ Ruth assured her daughter.

  Sarah was divorced, and the mother of eight-year-old Joshua, and six-year-old Magdalene, whom the family called Maggie for short. Sarah’s ex-husband, Brian, was sometimes lax about paying his child support stipends on time. Brian’s indifference, or reluctance to pay the money in a timely fashion, would often leave Daniel to have to pick up the slack, which was usually around the children’s birthdays and holidays.

  ”Mama, my break is almost over. I’ll talk to you later.“ Sarah informed her   mother.

  ”Okay dear, have a blessed day.“ Ruth said to Sarah, and placed the phone receiver back into the cradle. Ruth finished eating the toast and replenished her coffee. After she finished her meal, Ruth washed and dried the dishes, put them back inside the cabinet and then she headed out to church.

  At ten-thirty, Ruth arrived at Jubilee Temple Baptist Church. She wiped the sheen of perspiration from her face, and rolled up her sleeves. She donned an apron as she prepared plates of food in the hot church kitchen. After the elderly were fed, Ruth decided to make a detour on her way home to visit her best friend, Alice. She always seemed to know what to say to make her feel better.