Ties That Bind by Debbie White Page A

that was left behind. It even smelled that way, old and musty – as if it needed a good airing out.
    “Pull up a chair. Coffee, tea, water?” She asked politely.
    We both answered coffee at the same time. Seemed she’d mellowed out, and we liked what we saw and heard.
    Over coffee, we found out her name was Louise Bowman-Jefferson, and her brother, Jessie was not only Lyle’s friend, but they were also cousins.
    “So let me get this straight. You, Lyle and Jessie were cousins?” Charles asked.
    Louise nodded her head as she took a sip of her coffee. “Our daddies were brothers,” she informed us.
    “Mary and I were friends. She’d visit and it seemed she was always timing it for when Lyle was here. One thing led to another, and soon they were a couple. Quite a scandal them two,” she added with a grin.
    “Why a scandal?” Charles asked.
    “The age difference was one concern, and the second one was because he’d been married before.”
    “I was close to my daddy’s sisters, and of course, Whitey, but now you’re telling me Daddy had other relatives too.”
    “Well…Whitey was the son of your Aunt Margie’s husband from a previous relationship. He wasn’t blood kin to you,” Louise said dropping yet another bombshell on my head.
    I never asked how I was related to Whitey. I was always told he was a cousin and that’s what I’d refer to him as. Seemed there were a lot of second wives and husbands in my family’s past.
    “Was Aunt Margie’s husband married to Whitey’s mom?” I asked, already knowing the answer. He’d been a womanizer all during their marriage so I was sure it wasn’t something he’d just started doing.
    Shaking her head, Louise confirmed what I already knew.
    “I don’t recall seeing any strange women hanging around. Who was she?”
    “Well, that’s another mystery, dear. You see, he never would confirm who Whitey’s mother was. I’ve heard different names throughout the years, but I don’t know for sure.”
    I thought back to the time Whitey and I had gotten into an argument, and he blurted out that my mother was a whore. It now appeared his mother may have been one as well.
    “That’s so odd that Aunt Margie never told me that Whitey wasn’t her real son. That tells me she was good at keeping secrets just like the whole family. Maybe even the one regarding who my real parents were.”
    “Well, since you didn’t know about that little detail, you probably don’t know that you also have a half-brother named Thomas,” she blurted out.
    My palms were getting wet and I could feel my face burn with redness. The burning feeling you get when you’re extremely embarrassed or shocked about some news you’ve just received. I swallowed hard before I asked the question.
    “This brother, was he Teresa’s brother or a brother from another mother?” I said, not purposely trying to create a rhyme.
    She said grinning, “Different moms. Teresa’s mom was a fat pig. Plain and simple. I don’t know what Lyle saw in her, but they were married and had Teresa,” she confirmed.
    “Thomas was several years younger than Teresa. Your daddy sure had some children,” she said looking at Charles.
    I cleared my throat. “We have to locate Thomas or his mother. That could lead us to my biological mother.”
    I told Louise that Teresa was never kind to me, and, in fact, showed a lot of hatred toward me. I told her at one time I even thought she could have been my mother, but knew that wasn’t the case since she called Lyle Daddy.
    “You know dear, back in the day, it was common for kinfolk to take on babies of unmarried family members and raise them as their own. I don’t know if that is the case with your story, but it could be. I don’t know why Irma or Teresa was so evil to you, but I had heard through the grapevine that Lyle worshiped the ground you walked on. Maybe they were jealous of his love for you.”
    “I thought that at first, but something just doesn’t add up. If