When the storm comes

Snakes in the Church

Disclaimer: I do not own the Clark Sisters.

Notes:
A couple of the church members are being quite disrespectful about Karen's whereabouts.

I thought this song fit. 💅🏾

Y'all can play the song anytime.

It was now, Wednesday night Bible Study as the topic was now on "Providing." Drew welcomes some of the members into his he thought it was time to rotate the service location again. But when he opened the door, Big Mouth Tammy made her way through. The Bishop tried not to roll her eyes at Tammy after she was the catalyst that made his wife want to leave knowing that she wasn't ready to perform in church yet. But he couldn't ban her from coming to his house at least not yet. He thought to himself. As bible study was coming to an end, the Bishop closed them out in prayer asking if anyone had any questions.
"Yes, I have one." Tammy said, and Dorinda wanted to roll her eyes in fact she did while sucking her teeth making sure that Big Mouth Tammy heard her. "Okay ask away." John said not knowing what he was going to be in for. "So, how is Karen doing?" She asked and Jacky knew she was fake concerned about Karen's well-being. But she just bit the inside her lip trying not to get mad at her since it was Bible study. "I mean cause she hasn't been here in years. Did she just walk out leaving y'alls children without a mother?" Tammy asked knowing good and well something traumatic happened to Karen. And Drew squinted his eyes at the no good woman. "What kind of a woman does that to her family and she's out here singing secular music and didn't y'all try to help her put her in rehab in something or was it?" Tammy asked creating more rumors. And Dorinda felt Jacky jumped at Tammy at the mention of rehab knowing damn well they never sent her there it was just at a hospital facility so she could get therapy.

"I'm not saying that therapy is wrong but I mean we're black right and we black folk don't do that unless you're crazy." She said pursing her lips and shrugging her shoulders not caring about what she said while knowing very little of what actually happened because the Bishop kept it hush hush. Because he knew if the church found out what happened they were going to be blaming Karen and not the man who did this to her. And he wasn't about to have that. "And she was so selfish for leaving that beautiful little girl and boy here alone without a mother to help nurture and raise them." Tammy said fake caring about Kierra and J.Drew knowing that Kierra would purposefully, get on Big Mouth Tammy nerves because Kierra saw how she treated her mother.

"Hold up, Tammy don't speak on my sister or my niece and nephew again. Now, I'm tryin' not to jump across this table and punch you in your throat but I will if I have too. I'm warning you now you got one more time to disrespect my baby sister like that. And you know I'm not playing with you." Jacky said nearly getting into a brawl with Tammy once before because she made Karen cry when they were teens saying that she was unlovable and that's why no boys liked her. The rest of the members sat around quietly looking the other way not wanting to get between Jacky and Tammy. Because when that brawl happened in the past, Dorinda had to break them up. But Doe took the chance and hit, Tammy instead always wanting to do that and since then she's never said anything about her weight but now she was talkin' about her mental state knowing nothing of what actually happened.

"Disrespect my wife like that one more time and you will no longer be welcomed in me and my wife's home." The Bishop said tired of Tammy talkin' out the side of her neck about Karen. He wasn't going to threaten her because she was a woman and he didn't want to have the board down his throat and for the fact that he don't hit women. But he would sure enuff let all three of Karen's sisters do it and hit her if Tammy needed it.

"Now, Karen did not walk out of our life." He said, "You all must understand that my wife had experienced something very traumatic and it ended up changing her life forever." He told them. "So, I would appreciate it if the church would stop asking questions about what happened to my wife because quite frankly and I'm saying this in the nicest way that I possibly can that...It's nobody's business about what happened to my wife and why she stopped coming to church. It's something that the whole family is helping her deal with. So, what I need for you all to do is to respect me and my wife's privacy and to just pray for us as we're going through a rough patch in our marriage." The Bishop said not playing about Karen because that's still his baby. "And please show some sympathy." He said annoyed with them ready to dismiss bible study early.

It had been a couple of weeks since, Deacon Roy had made his return to church and oddly enough he was on his best behavior. The Bishop sensed that something was off about him but he couldn't hold it against him since the man had apologized to him after what happened with Karen in front of the board. Now the Bishop didn't want to let him back in but he was out voted in his own church. So, he had to let that one go.
But he was still hesitant to let Deacon Roy back into the church as a deacon. They didn't per say strip him of his title because they couldn't just straight up do that without good reason even though they knew they had one too many. But to the other members of the church it probably would've seemed like the family was bitter and was sticking together for Karen.

When they were back in church the Deacon Roy sat with some of the other Deacon's who he would normally talk too and the discussion was about last week's bible and how Jacky was ready to fight Tammy. They had never seen Jacky be that mad over one of her sisters before so they knew it had to be something serious that happened with Karen since the Bishop didn't take the term, "Trauma" lightly and he did finally open up to the church about Karen. He just asked them in prayer to "Pray for his wife as she's going through some major life changes while we're still working through our rough patch" after hearing her new music on tv and seeing how she said, the old her was gone in a few of the interviews that she did. But he wasn't sure if they would ever hear him give a testimony on what actually happened in detail.

All the Bishop knew was that it was not his place to tell the church unless, Karen was to come back home and reveal it herself and even if she did do that. The board would still look at her differently over something that she had no control over because they weren't sensitive to mental health issues like he was. So, when Deacon Roy listened to the Bishop talking and listened back to the other Deacons he accidentally let it slip that he was still there even though he was supposed to have been gone. By saying that "she ran like hell from that last song" and the men looked at him wondering how he knew.

"How'd you know about Karen being out and running on that last song?"
One of the men asked from the church as they sat down. "Yeah you haven't been here in a while either." Another guy said and then the first guy who questioned him on how he knew about Karen's whereabouts and he started putting two and two together. "I mean it just goes through the grapevine when you still have friends from church." Deacon Roy said quickly trying to cover himself especially since Big Mouth Tammy told him everything and was the one who told him that the Bishop was gonna be out of town for a conference. Hence how the attack happened.
If Tammy wouldn't have said anything to Deacon Roy he never would've known and none of this would've ever happened. But they let that slide seeing that Tammy was everybody's friend and no ones friend at the same time. She was more of a frenemy.

To be continued....

Notes:

How y'all feel about Big Mouth Tammy being a catalyst for Karen's attack?

Because even though Deacon Roy was coming onto Karen beforehand he knew not to take it that far. But the more Tammy talked about Karen and made up rumors the more he wanted to be near her. Like he wanted some but he knew he was never gonna get it. But Tammy gave him the "okay" to make a move on her saying that Karen would like it and it didn't matter that she was married.

So, in Tammy's twisted mind she made up rumors that Karen was easy and told Deacon Roy that knowing that Karen didn't want to be around him. Because lowkey, Tammy wanted revenge against Karen because everyone liked her and what not. So, she tried to make Karen's life hell the best way she knew how. But the sisters don't know this...

Do y'all think it was a setup, an innocent mistake or that she wanted something bad to happen to Karen but not this horrible?

Y'all think she's going to feel any remorse if Karen ever tells the church what happened?

It's about to be something in the next couple of chapters!

Thoughts or comments?

Thanks for reading!