🏰Read the First Chapter of Soul Matters by Yolonda Tonette Sanders #FirstChapter
Author: Yolonda Tonette Sanders
Publisher: Yo Productions LLC
Pages: 360
Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction
With a successful husband, a fulfilling teaching career, and a baby on the way, Wendy Phillips seems to have it all. She’s certain God is on her side. After all, the woman she’s become wouldn’t exist without the strength of her close-knit family or her own determination to be a model daughter, sister, and wife.
But one phone call shatters Wendy’s illusion of perfection, turning her carefully crafted life upside down. Suddenly, everything she believed about herself, her family, and her faith is called into question.
As her marriage crumbles and her faith wavers, Wendy finds herself needing more support than she ever imagined. Her journey to healing will require a sister’s unexpected strength, a mother’s surprising honesty, and a truth Wendy never saw coming.
Now only God’s grace can help her confront the pain she didn’t expect and discover the soul-deep freedom she never dreamed possible.
Soul Matters is available at Amazon and Walmart.
It was ten minutes to three, and Wendy was eager to leave work on time. “Start cleaning up now,” she said to her first grade class. They had crayons, markers, and books all over the place. “Be sure to put everything back where it belongs. After you finish, line up at the door and wait until the bell rings.”
Much to Wendy’s surprise, her instructions were followed with little resistance. A few students mumbled about not being able to finish what they were doing. Still, even they cooperated without her saying anything else. Maybe they could sense that something was different about her. Toward the end of each day, the children usually had exploratory time and could choose between various activities such as reading, coloring, playing educational games, or anything else that Wendy deemed appropriate. She usually walked around the classroom and interacted with several students during that time. However, she sat at her desk like a watchdog this entire week, responding only when needed.
“Just a few more days . . .” Wendy murmured to herself. Next Wednesday, the school would be closed for Christmas break, and as much as she hated to admit it, she was looking forward to having some time off. Although only seven weeks pregnant, she was beginning to feel the effects of this pregnancy on her body. She used to have the vitality of a three year-old, but lately, she felt like she would lose in a walking race against Methuselah. She was convinced that the term “morning sickness” was deceptive. If the feelings of nausea, vomiting, heartburn, and headaches were only confined to a few hours of the day, it would make the first trimester of her pregnancy much more bearable. Instead, she was liable to experience morning sickness at any given moment of the day. While the children were cleaning up, Wendy was on the edge of her seat, waiting for the bell to ring. Thank God it’s Friday. She didn’t think she would be able to make it another day. She was going straight home after work. She would not leave the house until it was time to go to church on Sunday morning. After service, Wendy planned to go over to her parents’ house to celebrate her father’s birthday. Wendy hoped to feel better by next Friday when she and her husband, Kevin, were scheduled to go to Philadelphia and visit his family for the holidays. The Ohio native would rather spend her Christmas vacation recuperating from her ailments in the comfort of her own home, but there was no way she could back out of the trip now. Her mother-in-law was ecstatic about the pregnancy and could not wait until they got to Philly so she could show Wendy some of the things that she had already bought for the baby.
“Keep your hands to yourselves,” she said to two boys who were shoving each other.
“He started it!” David stated, pointing at Jeffrey. “Nuh-uh, he did!” Jeffrey pointed back at him. “It doesn’t matter who started it. Both of you knock it off,”
Wendy replied sternly. Secretly, she knew that David probably was at fault, but she didn’t feel like investigating the issue. David was bigger than the other first graders in both height and weight. Jeffrey was one of those children who looked like he had been born premature, making him an easy target for David. Even though David was sometimes a bully, Wendy liked him, probably because he reminded her of herself.
Wendy had never been a bully, but she had been heavy and tall as a child. She used to feel awkward standing next to other children in her class. It irritated her when adults would ask how old she was and then say, “You look like you should be older than that.” It wasn’t until the summer before her freshman year of high school that she began to thin out. In her adult years, Wendy managed to remain a size eight, but she had to work hard at it, contrary to her younger sister, Kim, who naturally wore a size six.
When the bell rang, it was music to her ears. “Okay, let’s go.” Wendy jumped up and escorted her class to the pick-up area. Once there, another staff member stayed with them until their bus or a parent came to pick them up. When they reached their destination, Wendy said goodbye to her students and headed back to her classroom.
“Attention, all teachers and staff: Mrs. Phillips, please come to the office. Wendy Phillips to the front office, please,” she heard Donna Burchett, the office secretary, announce over the PA system.
For what? Maybe I should go ahead and leave. No one would be able to say for sure that I was in the building during the announcement. Wendy was only a few doors away from her classroom, so all she had to do was grab her stuff and head home. However, she reluctantly turned around and walked toward the office at a medium pace. Her shoulder-length hair often bounced as she walked. Today, it was pulled back in a ponytail. Wendy hated ponytails and only wore her hair in that style when she worked out. However, since she had been experiencing morning sickness, she devoted less time to her appearance. She even had her glasses on, and Wendy normally wouldn’t be caught dead in a pair of glasses.
“Wendy Phillips, please come to the office,” Ms. Burchett repeated.
Coming! she wanted to yell. I hope it is something simple like a signature needed on some paperwork that I filed. She dreaded the possibility of a parent waiting to speak with her about a child’s behavior.
“Hi, you paged me?” Wendy inquired as she burst through the door into the administrative office.
“Yes, dear, you had a telephone call,” Ms. Burchett replied, exposing the gap between her stained teeth resulting from years of smoking.
“A telephone call? From whom?” Wendy asked, scrunching her eyebrows to indicate confusion. No one ever calls me at work. Her friends and family knew she taught and was unavailable during the day. “It must be from a parent. I’ll take the message, but I’m not calling anyone back until Monday.”
“No, honey, it wasn’t from a parent. Someone called from Dr. Korva’s office.”
“Oh,” she said nervously, trying hard to keep her composure and not panic.
“I wrote down the number.” Ms. Burchett handed Wendy a piece of paper and pointed to the phone on her desk. “You can call from here if you’d like.” She carefully studied Wendy’s response.
“That’s okay. I’ll wait and call later since I’m getting ready to leave anyhow.”
“The lady didn’t tell me why she was calling, but it sounded important.”
Wendy could tell that Ms. Burchett was fishing for information. Odds are, she had already tried to gather as much as she could from the person who called. Wendy hadn’t told anyone at the school about her pregnancy yet, and now was not the time to make that announcement. “Thanks so much, Ms. Burchett, but I’m sort of in a hurry, so I’ll call back from my cell phone on my way home.”
“Okay. I just hope everything is fine,” she said with narrow, bluish-green eyes peering from the top of her glasses. “Are you sick, honey?”
“No, ma’am,” Wendy said honestly. Her mind was so boggled with getting to a phone to return Dr. Korva’s call that the feelings of morning sickness had been temporarily suppressed.
“Then why would someone from a doctor’s office call you?”
As much as Wendy wanted to tell Ms. Burchett to mind her business, she couldn’t. The woman was at least in her late fifties or early sixties, and Wendy couldn’t strike up the nerve to tell her off. If only I were a little more like Kim, she thought, because her sister would not have wasted any time putting Ms. Burchett in her place. The two sisters had similar characteristics with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and dimples. However, Wendy’s complexion was just a little lighter than Kim’s, and she was also a few inches taller than her younger sibling. Both ladies favored their mother, but Kim had been blessed with a high metabolism and the ability to speak her mind audaciously. Wendy wasn’t as outspoken. Besides, she generally liked Ms. Burchett, although this interrogation tested her patience. “I’m not sure, but I’d better run so I can find out, huh? You have a good weekend, Ms. Burchett,” she said, backing toward the door.
“Okay, you too—and I’ll talk to you on Monday.” Not if I can avoid it, you won’t! Wendy walked out of the office and raced back to her classroom. She was so disturbed by the call that she rushed past several of her co-workers without speaking. Why did Dr. Korva call me at work? She didn’t know, but she was desperate to find out.
When Wendy returned to her classroom, she grabbed the cell phone out of her purse only to discover a message waiting. That was nothing unusual because her phone stayed on vibrate during the day. A lot of times, Kim called her from the hair salon where she worked and left messages when she was between clients.
“Hi, Wendy, this is Susan, Dr. Korva’s nurse. She would like you to come into the office today, if possible, to discuss your test results. She’s leaving around four this afternoon. If you can’t make it before she leaves, then you need to come sometime early next week. Please call the office and let the receptionist know what works best for you. The number here is 555-3794. We hope to see you soon.”
Wendy’s heart sank. Dr. Korva told me that they take blood and vaginal swabs to run tests on all expectant mothers. The only reason they would call was if something came back abnormal.
She looked at her watch. The time was now three fifteen. It would be a stretch to make it from the southeast side of Columbus to the northern suburb where her gynecologist’s office was located. Such a trip would take forty minutes this time of day, at the very least. Still, she tried to call the doctor’s office anyway, hoping that, with any luck, they would squeeze her in.
Shaking and short of breath, Wendy wiped her sweaty palms on her clothing and dialed the number. “Hi, this is Wendy Phillips,” she said, trying to hold back tears. “I’m returning a call to Dr. Korva. Will she be able to see me today? I can be there in about half an hour?” She altered her traveling time, hoping to increase her chance of being seen.
“Oh,” she said solemnly when the receptionist said Dr. Korva was running behind schedule. Wendy couldn’t be seen until Monday morning. “Well, can you tell her I’m on the line? Maybe she can just tell me the results over the phone.” She crossed her fingers, praying that she would be transferred to the doctor. No such luck. Dr. Korva preferred to talk in person. “Okay, I’ll be there at nine on Monday,” she said, confirming the time of her appointment before hanging up the phone in despair.
How am I going to make it until then? She dreaded going back to the office and arranging for a substitute through Ms. Burchett. Forget it. I’ll just call in, she opted. Sure, not submitting a request for a substitute beforehand was inconsiderate and unprofessional, but she didn’t care at this point. Her main concern was finding some way to make it through the weekend without losing her mind.
Wendy got her stuff and headed for the car. She tried to talk herself into remaining calm, but it wasn’t working. She felt lightheaded. What if my baby has a mental disability? What if it’s deformed or has some kind of genetic defect? She tormented herself. She was afraid of what the doctor would say. She knew it was bad news. Her fear turned into anger toward Kevin. I told him that his smoking could cause damage to the child, but he didn’t believe me. If Kevin just smoked cigarettes, she could probably deal with it a little better, but he sometimes smoked marijuana, and Wendy couldn’t stand it.
Whenever she complained about his recreational activities, Kevin got upset. He would tell her that he was not doing anything that she wasn’t aware of before they got married. True, Wendy knew about his smoking when they were dating, but it was different then. She was attracted to his street-but-sweet personality. She had never dated anyone so successful, yet a little rough around the edges. Plus, he was very pleasing to the naked eye. He reminded her of a Denzel Washington wrapped up in a Barry White voice. He was the perfect package: sexy, successful, and single.
Kevin’s accomplishments intrigued her most of all. He worked hard for everything he owned and built his real estate business from the ground up. He was very successful and made well over six figures a year. He didn’t have parents who could afford to pay for his education. He paid for it himself. He didn’t grow up in the suburbs of some major city but lived in various ghettos of Philadelphia. His father left home when Kevin was only three, and his mother raised him, his older brother, and his sister with money she received from the federal government. He didn’t let his life’s circumstances prevent him from making something of himself, and Wendy respected that.
Foolishly, she convinced herself that Kevin would change the things that she didn’t like about him once they married, but he hadn’t. Now, nearly six months into the marriage, the honeymoon was over, and reality had settled in. If something is wrong with the baby, I know it’ll be all his fault, Wendy told herself.
About Yolonda Tonette Sanders
Yolonda earned her doctorate in organizational leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University and is certified in emotional intelligence. She enjoys teaching, mentoring, consulting, and helping others discover their own voices through writing. When she’s not creating or consulting, you’ll likely find her spending time with her husband or enjoying heartfelt moments with loved ones.
Her latest book is the contemporary Christian fiction, Soul Matters.
You can visit her website at www.yoproductions.net .
Watch her YouTube channel!
Connect with her at X, Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads.
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