Character Sketch

9/11/1974

***

DeAndre patted his hair into place. He knew he looked good. He was getting ready for church. It was a cold day in January, 1995. He was excited because it was cold enough to wear his black leather trench coat. It had not been cold enough to wear it before now.

He was going to Parkridge Pentecostal Church. His cousin, Jasmine, had been raving about the church every since she started going to the church. She was getting on his nerve. Jasmine was like that, once she got excited about something, she usually never stopped talking about it. She kept telling DeAndre that the church was a place where they could start over and be whoever they wanted to be. That was appealing to DeAndre because for so long, people had been asking him was he gay. He could not help it because he was good looking, knew how to dress better than most women, and always smelled good. He just liked to look good. He did not mind spending money to do so either. He had been raised by women and he had a bunch of female friends, but he was not gay. Okay, so he was 20 and did not have a girlfriend, but that did not mean a thing. It was hard to figure out why the church wanted him to get married. He was single and a hard working Christian man, you would have thought that the church would have found a way to put him to work. They were always complaining that there were not enough workers in the vineyard. With all the workers being married and tending to their families, a single man had to be a commodity, but church folk were always trying to marry him off. It got on his nerves, too. It was even worse for his cousin, Jasmine. She was forever telling him that some old hag from the church had cornered her and asked her, “When are you gonna get married and have some kids?” Jasmine would usually just smile and walk away. DeAndre always told her, “You need to just curse one of them old ladies out and then they will leave you alone.” Jasmine would respond, “That’s all I need is for those old ladies to go tell the pastor that I cursed them out. I would never hear the end of that.”

DeAndre laughed as he thought about his cousin. She was a cool person. She was understanding, patient, and always willing to give everyone a chance. That was the total opposite of him. He would cut a person that hurt him off so quickly that the person would never realize that they had been cut until two days later when they were in the hospital for a blood transfusion. He had been hurt so much in his life by church folk, that he had no patience for them. Church folk could be mean, brutal, and conniving, especially preachers. DeAndre had no love for church folk who acted like saints on Sunday and did dirt the rest of the week. That is what made him such a fire and brim stone preacher. DeAndre had preached a number of hell fire and damnation sermons since becoming a minister a year earlier. He was rarely ever invited back to many churches. What was it that made people not want to hear the true word of God? People only wanted to hear about what God could do for them, instead of what God expected them to do. Did not Paul the Apostle write in II Timothy 4, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” Why did folk act like that was not in the Bible?

DeAndre stopped the sermon that was running through his head and put the finish touches on his three button gray suit. He had dressed conservatively today because he did not want anyone to say anything crazy about him. He looked good in his Italian suit. His classic double reverse pleated trousers had a crease in them that would cut butter. His purple shirt was accented by his gray and purple tie and handkerchief set. He wore his light purple shoes with the suit, even though he had a pray of gray shoes that would have went with the suit just as nicely. He had to add a little flair to his outfit, so he went with the purple shoes. He also had a purple watch that went with the suit.

DeAndre took a step back and did his best model pose. He looked fabulous. He went to his closet to select a cologne to wear. He had the most expensive colognes that money could buy in his collection. He mostly purchased his cologne from Neiman Marcus. He did not like to smell like everyone else, so he had to make sure that he did not shop where everyone else shopped. He decided to wear Egoiste Platinum By Chanel. He strategically sprayed in the cologne in the right places. He walked back into his room and took one last look at himself in his full length mirror before he grabbed his coat and walked out the door to go get in his car and go to the church.