"I always saw myself as being such a good friend."
Kiesha looked at her watch. 1 Am. Another 5 hours and she could go home to get some rest. It's wasn't that her job was overly demanding, although she did have to deal with some cranky patients at times. She just needed some time to adjust to her new hours. She certainly wasn't going to complain. Dr. Thomas was a much nicer boss than what she was dealing with before and she would do what she could to stay on his good side by being a good employee. Besides, he liked to tell funny jokes and seemed like a generally nice guy. Even though he was her boss, just above the shift nurse, she didn't see him much during the first week of her new job, as he spent some time working on the other floors. However, after a few days she noticed that he was around on her floor more often. That was fine with her, as she had started to hope that maybe he could give her some free advice (maybe even a free consultation or two) on what to do about her mother's worsening condition. She fingered the plastic teddy bear bracelet on her wrist and made a silent wish that things would really work out that way. In her own naive thinking she really didn't realize that her attentions could arouse the appetite of a much older white man. Her flirting was by no means obvious, but in some ways she was deceiving herself about just how good natured she really was.
The next day she slept in and then woke up to do her morning house work, and to help her sick mother. It had been two years since Tonya's health had started to decline. Kiesha had tried for a while to understand why Tonya had come home that day crying and disturbed, looking like she had just been beaten, except with no bruises. After a long period of denial Kiesha was finally able to get the truth out of her mother about what had happened that day with Todd. Tonya was fairly honest about how Todd had used his position to extort sexual favors from her, in a not so subtle attempt to warn her daughter to prepare for something similar someday. Tonya knew that, like herself, her daughter had a body that would get her into trouble someday, and that she would not always be around to protect her little girl. Kiesha was a bit traumatized by the news and didn't quite know how to process such a violent new emotion. She didn't realize the world could be so cruel. She was too young to remember much of her father's abuse, and since that time Tonya had worked hard to shield Kiesha from the "cruel world". However, she got her first taste of it at her local church, about two years after Tonya's incident with Todd.
Kiesha had attended this particular church for a few years, and particularly enjoyed the youth group. It was a mostly white congregation with a white preacher, which Kiesha felt uncomfortable about at times, but Tonya wanted her to expand her social skills and practice fitting in with white people; it was a white world and she would need to learn that sooner or later. It was one of the bigger and richer churches in town, and she was only able to fit in at all because she had good fashion sense and was attractive. She tried to hide her mother's condition, for fear of ridicule, but word got out in the local gossip circle that Tonya had contracted HIV, especially after her condition worsened, so Kiesha dutifully went in front of the congregation each Sunday during the prayer request time to ask for prayers for her mother. It happened one day, just before church services, that pastor Trenton Dilworth asked to speak with her privately about her mother's condition.
Pastor Dilworth was a very prosperous white man with slicked back white hair. He always dressed in very expensive white suits, white shoes, and drove a white Cadillac. He looked very holy and carried himself in a way that looked like he was in touch with God at all times. When preaching he always pronounced his "s" in a long dragged-out way like, "God lovesss you", as though he was very passionate about what he was saying. In fact, it would be totally fair to say that he was as smooth as snake oil when he preached. He had never done anything to make her particularly dislike him, except the time that she was being baptized. He put his hand on her chest to push her backwards down into the water, but while submerged, it slipped over to her left breast and squeezed for a second before moving again when he brought her back up. She was sure that it was an accident but tried to avoid any similar situations with him in future, just in case.
Now she felt a bit of hope that perhaps the pastor had some kind of revelation or special news. He invited her into his immaculately clean and furnished private study where he asked about how she was holding up, and about Tonya's condition. Despite his smooth appearance, Pastor Dilworth had a deep gravelly voice which could be used in loud bellowing thunder claps to dangle people over hell fire, or in a soft tiger's purrrr to sooth and comfort. He used the latter with Kiesha now as he explained about how God was able to do all kinds of miracles and that he really believed God could do a miracle for Tonya.
At this point he came to stand directly in front of her. As he talked about various examples of healing and comfort from the Bible he placed his hands on her shoulders and began to gently rub. He talked for a few more minutes about examples of healing and comfort from the Bible, before moving his hands from her shoulders to her upper arms, rubbed a bit, then quickly in to cup and massage her breasts through her thin white flowery T-shirt, just as he completed his speech about how he was willing to help her, if she was willing to help him. His breathing had become raspy and beads of sweat broke out on his forehead. All appearance of Godliness was wiped away as he stared like a zombie, rubbing her perfect black titties.