It had been twenty-four hours since Curtis had watched Trina record messages for Amber and Eric, but he was just as heartbroken as if she had done so today. Now he was sitting in Jason and Trina’s family room again, waiting for Denise to help Trina finish getting dressed and ready to record a video for Jason. Curtis knew speaking to Amber and Eric had been hard, and he couldn’t imagine how saying her good-byes to Jason would be any different. Still, Curtis was glad she’d asked him to help her with this whole process. All he was doing was setting up her phone and starting and stopping the video, but Trina had been right about this giving them a chance to do something together—one of the last things they would ever be able to do as brother and sister.
Curtis picked up his cell to see if he had any important emails, but most of the messages weren’t very urgent. Then he thought about Curtina and how glad he was to see that she wasn’t texting boys, talking about sex, or visiting web sites that displayed the wrong kind of photos. With the way she’d been acting, he’d half expected to learn that she was, so he’d been monitoring everything she did daily. Actually, she seemed a lot happier, and although she’d recently told him how much she missed her biological mom, she appeared to be on much better terms with Charlotte. Just yesterday, she’d come downstairs to have breakfast before Curtis, and when he’d gotten home last night, Curtina had come to their bedroom and hugged both of them good night. It had been such a long time since she’d done that, Curtis couldn’t remember when she had. So maybe this was a sign of change and proof that better days were ahead.
“Hey,” Trina said, slowly walking into the family room, her arm held by Denise, and Curtis could tell she was much more tired than she’d been yesterday. She still looked good for being as sick as she was, though.
“Hey, good morning.”
“My plan was to be dressed and ready before you got here, but when I woke up I didn’t feel well. It might have something to do with the fact that Amber and Eric were here until midnight.”
“That was definitely pretty late.”
Trina sat down and Denise left the room. “We were watching Eddie Murphy movies.”
“Which ones?”
“Trading Places, Coming to America, and Harlem Nights.”
“Three of his best.”
“Yes, and I haven’t laughed like that in a long time. And for six hours straight.”
“The kids must have come right after I left.”
“They did. They got here around five thirty.”
Curtis usually tried to stay until Jason got home, but yesterday he’d gotten off a little early. So Curtis had left at five.
“Well, I think I’m situated,” Trina said, smoothing back the sides of her hair.
“Ready to roll?”
“Yep, I think so.”
“Okay,” Curtis said, reaching over and turning on the recorder.
“My dearest Jason. The best man I know. The love of my life. Well, I guess I should start by saying that not in my wildest imagination did I ever think I’d be leaving you a message like this one. Not at fifty-seven years old, anyway. Because I don’t think anyone expects that they will say good-bye to the people they love at such a young age. And isn’t it funny how when we were married nearly thirty-five years ago, we thought fifty was old, let alone fifty-seven? Yet now I don’t personally consider anyone to be old until they’re ninety,” Trina said, laughing, and Curtis agreed with her. “But here we are, and all I can think about is how in love I’ve been with you for so many years. We married not long after graduating college, had Amber two years later, and then Eric came along. We’ve been through so much, but even during the toughest of times, we stood by each other, supported each other, and encouraged each other. We are husband and wife, but we are also best friends, and that has been the biggest blessing of all. I used to wonder why our marriage worked so well, but now I know the reason. It’s because we don’t just love each other, and we’re not just in love with each other, but we also like each other. And that makes so much of a difference when you’re married. Even more so when you’ve been married for more than three decades.
“I have also spent these last few months thinking about the way we met, how you treated me like a queen the whole time we were dating and then took Mom to dinner to ask for my hand in marriage. And you wouldn’t let me go with you,” Trina said, laughing. “I still remember wondering what in the world you could possibly have wanted to talk to her about, because not once had you and I had a real conversation about getting married. As a matter of fact, we’d only been dating for six months. But as it turned out, you proposed, and we were married six months later…and Jason…I want you to know that marrying you was, by far, the best decision I ever made. My childhood wasn’t good, and to better describe it, it was a nightmare. But then you came along and showed me a whole different way of living. You showed me how to love and how to be loved, and as much as I loved my mom, Curtis and I never saw that in our home. So my first real example of a great marriage was when I met your parents. They laughed and talked the same way I did with my girlfriends, and I’d never witnessed anything like that before. And then if that weren’t enough, they’ve always loved and treated me like a daughter. Even now when your mom calls me, she rarely uses my name and always refers to me as ‘daughter.’ And I so appreciate that. I’m very grateful to have been blessed with a second set of parents.
“Then there are the two beautiful children we brought into this world. To me, when we got married, our lives were already great, but when Amber and Eric came along, it made our entire world complete. We couldn’t have asked or prayed for better children, and I’m glad that they are the kind of loving, compassionate children who will be there for their father. They love the absolute ground that you walk on, and you have been the perfect example of what a father should be. You are a strong, true man of God, you exemplify great integrity, and you’re always willing to do whatever you have to for your family. So while my hope was to be able to celebrate another thirty-five years of marriage with you,” she said, pausing and swallowing tears, “I’ll now have to settle for quite a bit less. But Jason, my dear, my joy, my love…know that I love you with all my heart and from the very bottom of my soul. You have certainly given me the best years of my life, and I am forever grateful to you for that. I will also be with you from now on. Maybe not here on earth, but I will be with you in every other way possible. And finally, thank you for contacting my dear brother. Thank you for calling him and inviting him to our home, because these last three weeks allowed Curtis and I to make things right. It allowed us an opportunity to spend brotherly-sisterly time together, something we never would have been able to do had you not taken matters into your hands. So thank you, my dear. Thank you for just being you, and I will love you always.”
Curtis turned off the recording, and tears streamed down Trina’s face. She cried with her body heaving, and Curtis sat next to her, holding her again, the same as yesterday. He didn’t say anything, but soon he cried just as hard as she did—as though she had already left them.