Just Wanna Testify by Pearl Cleage Read Free Book Online

collaboration. Soon after she had predicted that Regina would meet Blue in Atlanta, Abbie met Peachy at their engagement party and the two had been inseparable ever since.
    Peachy had a house in Savannah that he had shared for twenty years with his late wife, and they both had carte blanche at Blue and Regina’s Tybee Island beach house. The four of them regularly gathered there, with Sweetie in tow, begging her father to build her a sand castle. Two years ago, Peachy had opened a small restaurant on the island, called it Sweet Abbie’s, found an amazing chef in Louie Baptiste, formerly of New Orleans, and now had so many customers that you needed reservations even during the off-season.
    Abbie’s work often kept her in the city, but Peachy shared her love of their independent lives, as much as they cherished their time together, and both were thriving. When Blue called, she told him she was driving down to Tybee that afternoon, but when he told her what was going on, she agreed to meet him immediately.
    When he arrived a half an hour later, she had calmed herself and greeted him with an affectionate hug. “You okay?”
    “Absolutely,” he said.
    “And how’s your beautiful daughter?”
    He smiled and nodded as she closed the door behind him. “Fine.”
    “Gina?”
    “Fine, too. She’s out with Aretha on the shoot.”
    “Does she know?”
    Blue shook his head. “Not yet.”
    He followed her into the living room furnished simply in white wicker with lots of bright pillows. The white walls were unadorned by design, since Abbie felt that a person could more easily access her own dreams and visions without the presence of paintings, posters, or other artwork. Although it looked a little bare at first, its very neutrality was somehow more soothing than the dramatic walls of the ocean room.
    Blue liked this room and they often talked here as confidants. When Regina first brought Blue home to meet Abbie, they had greeted each other like old friends, and so they were. She took a seat in a small rocking chair. Blue sat down on the love seat and placed his hat beside him.
    “Aretha doesn’t know either?”
    “Neither one has any idea.”
    Abbie had so many questions, she didn’t know where to begin. “Are you sure?”
    “I’m positive,” he said. “One of them came by the West End News. When I confronted her, she admitted it.”
    “How did you know?”
    “I’m not sure,” he said slowly. “I must have run across them before, but I can’t remember when. There isn’t any doubt in my mind, though. These women are the real thing.”
    “Are they dangerous?”
    “Not anymore. Seems they’ve been able to substitute tomato juice to quiet any problematic cravings.”
    “Tomato juice?”
Abbie sounded as incredulous as Blue had been when Serena first said it to him a few hours ago.
    He nodded. “I know. It sounds crazy, but she seemed to be on the level.”
    “Can you read her clearly?”
    One of Blue’s gifts was a talent for mind reading, but a small frown flickered across his handsome face. His eyes, which changed colors as often as his mood, were now a deep gray. “Not as clearly as I’d like to. I knew what she was, but I can’t seem to access what they’re really doing here.”
    “I thought they were doing a fashion shoot for
Essence.
”
    “That much is true,” he said, leaning back and crossing his legs. “Regina negotiated the whole thing.”
    Abbie smiled a little at the pride in his voice despite the seriousness of the topic. “Based on what I’ve heard, she got a pretty good deal, too.”
    Blue smiled back, his square, white teeth almost as startling as his eyes in that Africa-dark face.
    “Go on.”
    “They got here yesterday. Aretha had dinner with them last night, and first thing this morning the leader of the group shows up to pay her respects.”
    “Do you think she knew that you had been here before?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know. She seemed surprised that I knew so much