Chapter1

Fatalism—a doctrine that events are fixed in advance for all time in such a manner that human beings are powerless to changethem.

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. I guess I should be grateful that nothing occurred while my daughter, Olisa, was out of the country. However, it did transpire at Venice Beach on the Fourth of July days after she returnedhome.

It was early evening, and our soul food restaurant was packed. A twenty-minute wait increased to sixty minutes as couples and families with restless and hungry children waited for atable.

My sister, Wilma, scolded one of the new waiters in the kitchen about his billing mistakes, while I was absorbed in my own concerns. It didn’t look like I’d ordered enough chicken for the night. Meanwhile, the phone begged to be answered. Valerie, our hostess, called in late, so we were alsoshorthanded.

Gently lifting the phone I wanted to rip out of the wall, I affably answered, “Soul ofVenice.”

“Unc, is that you? Aww, man. . . you didn’t answer your cell phone! I’ve been trying to reachyou!”

“Gumbo? Anybody tell you it’s the Fourth of July? We’re shorthanded and things are insane! What’s up? You need to talk to yourmother?”

“No, no, Uncle Joe, I gotta talk toyou.”

“You sound like you’ve been running the decathlon. Everything allright?”

“Yeah, well, no. . . Uh, I mean everything is all right now, except. . .” He trailedoff.

“Alton, I can’t understand a word you’re saying. Speak louder! What’s goingon?”

Wilma stood impatiently next to me, a hand on her hip as she waited for the authorization machine to clear a Visa card. She mouthed, “What’swrong?”

I shrugged my shoulders and covered my ear with the other hand to muffle the cacophony of voices, and clanking plates andsilverware.

“Unc, you stillthere?”

“Yeah, Alton, ’cept I can barely hear you. Where are younow?”

“Your house. . . withOlisa.”

Right away I felt riddled by a surge of panic. “Sheokay?”

“Oh yeah, she’s fine. She’s asleep rightnow.”

“Atseven?”

“Well, that’s why I called, Uncle Joe. . . Some stuff went down at the beachtoday.”<