The Tithing

Jones Marilyn

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Sujets

• Marilyn Jones
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 31 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669837152
• Langue: English

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THE TITHING
MARILYN JONES

Copyright © 2022 by Marilyn Jones.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-3716-9

eBook
978-1-6698-3715-2
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.
 
 
Rev. date: 07/14/2022
 
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Malachi 3:10 (KJV)
 
*****
 
“No person was ever honored for what he received.
He was honored for what he gave.”
Calvin Coolidge
 
*****
 
“What you do not sow, cannot grow.”
Lailah Gifty Akita
 
*****
 
“A man there was, and they called him mad. The more he gave, the more he had.”
John Bunyan, English Puritan Writer and Preacher
 
*****

I thank YAHWEH for all He has done for me.
CHAPTER 1
Tyrone Kenneth “Kenny” Fleece waited impatiently for the tall, old, ragged light-skinned woman in front of him in the lottery line to finish guessing what numbers she would play that day. Then for a moment, just to amuse himself, he began to count the knots of hair protruding on the upper back of her neck from beneath the cheap mixed-gray wig she wore. As though she guessed that he was secretly making fun of her numerous protruding knots, she turned slightly and stared briefly at Kenny with an “evil eye” and then turned back around to face the Chinese lottery machine operator (as she suddenly recalled the number her niece said she had a dream about two nights before that day). If Kenny had still been the mischievous twelve-years-old boy he had been twenty years before that day, he would have stuck his middle finger up at the old lady. The thought amused him. Instead, he just fought off the urge.
Kenny needed to go to the bathroom pretty badly too. So he was more than happy when the old lady in front of him finally finished playing her lottery numbers and moved from the line. Kenny took a big step up to the lottery window. He hadn’t needed to write the three lottery numbers down that he would bet on. The first was his address number (1225). He had had a dream the night before about his old deceased buddy Calvin; so Calvin’s old address number (9550) would be the second number Kenny would play. Kenny had earlier that day promised his Aunt Norma Fields that he would play her pet number for her (3334). So Kenny played those numbers for $3.00 straight/$3.00 box each, payed $20.00, gotten his $2.00 change back from the Chinese lottery clerk, and was ready to walk briskly from the lottery line. But he hesitated. He stepped a step back to the lottery window and played 3334 for an extra $2.00 straight and payed the lottery clerk the $2.00. Then he hurried out of the liquor store to his truck. Once Kenny was in his old beat-up-looking red truck, he hurriedly drove to his Aunt Norma’s house.
When he reached Aunt Norma’s house, and in a few minutes after arriving (and after going upstairs to use her bathroom), Kenny was back downstairs in the house seated at Aunt Norma’s dining room table drinking a tall glass of lemonade. Kenny was tempted to sing along with the old 1970’s music that was filling the house from the living room radio. Aunt Norma loved that radio station that played those old songs. Then the next song on the radio was nearly twenty-years-old. Kenny remembered almost every word of that song because his mother Gloria often sang it.
Aunt Norma walked from her kitchen and held her hand out to Kenny.
“Give me my tickets,” she said. “I want to check my tickets now because last week, when Tank Morgan played my number for me, he got the number wrong; and the number almost came out that Wednesday. It came 3332.” She shook her head.
“Why do you keep having that Tank doing favors for you, running errands for you anyway?” Kenny asked. “He seems a little off in his head sometimes. Plus I don’t trust that guy. I saw him hanging around Mabel’s son Eric and those druggies last week when I stopped by here.”
“Tank is alright. I don’t think he does drugs. He just acts a little slow sometimes,” Aunt Norma answered. “I’ve known Tank since he was a little boy. He ain’t got no job. He lost that job he had, got layed off I think; and his momma’s crippled. I just try to help them out.” Norma shook her head again.
Kenny shook his head too as he reached into his pants pocket for his wallet. He took the lottery tickets out of his wallet and handed Aunt Norma her lottery tickets.
“Helping him or not, I know you would have been pissed if that 3334 had come out!” Kenny said.
“More than pissed,” Aunt Norma almost shouted and laughed as she shook her head again.
Norma knew that she had to get into the kitchen so she could turn the fried chicken over in the frying pan. She tucked the lottery tickets into her apron pocket and hurried into the kitchen. Kenny watched her and wondered (as he always did) how a woman could remain as skinny as Aunt Norma was while seeming to be always cooking and eating!
After turning the chicken over, she returned to Kenny in the dining room.
“Yeah,” she said as she sat in the dining room chair next to Kenny. “I wish I could hit the number big so I can move out of this neighborhood. It’s getting so bad around here. And them young gang teenagers don’t have no respect for older people like me. No respect at all.”
Kenny shook his head and thought for a moment.
“So where would you move to if you could get away from here?” he asked.
“Senior citizen apartment,” Aunt Norma answered. “I like that senior citizen place over on Coldspring Lane near Falls Road.”
“Yeah,” Kenny answered. “It looks real nice, real modern. But wouldn’t you rather move to that one out on Frederick Road near Catonsville where Miss Abrams is or that one out near Cedric Road where Miss Jefferson is?”
Aunt Norma wildly shook her head so hard that her mixed-gray curls bounced.
“Oh no!” she exclaimed. “Nope! Both Val Abrams and Wilma Jefferson get on my nerves. I just talk to them and tolerate them just to have folks to talk to. Plus I mostly feel sorry for them. Val is so lonely because she runs everybody away from her with her snotty, know-it-all attitude. Jefferson is always talking about money money money and about her latest shoplifting adventure!”
“Shoplifting adventure?” Kenny asked as he laughed out loud and almost choked on his lemonade.
“Yep, shoplifting,” Aunt Norma answered as she shook her head and laughed. “Wilma Jefferson steals all of the time! She goes to different dollar stores and thrift shops and steals everything she can, different dollar stores and thrift shops. She gets away with it because she looks so old and honest! She grins all of the time and always be talking religious and friendly and gets the store people to trust her I guess. It’s like a hobby to her! It might be like an adventure to her! It’s a wonder she hasn’t gotten caught yet!”
Both Kenny and Aunt Norma continued to laugh. Still laughing, Norma got up from the chair and went into the kitchen again. After quite a few moments, she returned to the dining room carrying a big plate of fried chicken legs.
“You want some chicken?” she asked after setting the big plate almost in front of Kenny.
“Sure do,” Kenny answered. “But were you fixing it for somebody?”
“Nobody special,” Aunt Norma answered. “I just wanted me some fresh fried chicken. Get a paper plate off of that tray in the corner,” Aunt Norma said as she pointed to a tray in the corner of the dining room. “Get me a plate too. I’ve got a cup here. You still want lemonade? I’ve got some cold brew in the refrigerator.”
“I’m good,” Kenny answered as he shook his head. “The lemonade is fine. Do you have any hot sauce?”
“I sure do,” Aunt Norma replied.
Kenny did get up and get the paper plate. Aunt Norma went into the kitchen and returned with a half loaf of white bread and a bottle of hot sauce. She sat down and she and Kenny got chicken legs and bread to eat together with the lemonade that they both drank and enjoyed.
After she finished eating one of her chicken legs, Aunt Norma said, “Yeah. I’m serious about getting out of this neighborhood. I have a little money saved up. I’ve been putting my name on a couple of senior citizen ap