An unexpected affair is engendered as a devoted Christian, is forced to keep her affinity with a Dancehall artiste a secret because of the fear of it being scandalous. This is a story of the collision of two worlds, a detailed account of how two sou...
A few weeks later, I had to relocate to my home town. The pandemic revolutionized the norms of the country. Thus, I was closer to Marquise. My desire was to not coincidentally bump into him again in the streets. Avoiding him had become a new hobby of mine by ignoring his frequent text messages bursting with compliments whenever I posted absolutely anything. Therefore, seeing him would literally be devastating.
I was home for about two weeks, and I was already homesick. I loved the thrill of outdoors and a pandemic certainly dimmed that. One Wednesday, at midday, while scrolling through Instagram, I realized that Marquise had sent a message a few days earlier.
**Instagram conversation**
Shadow King: Hey. Not seeing you online much. Yuh good?
Nature_Lover_Leah: I have been busy.
Shadow King: Well, I was just concerned and wondering if you were ok. I know the pandemic can cause people to be depressed. I just hope yuh really good mentally.
Nature_Lover_Leah: I really appreciate this. Thanks Marq. 💙Truth is, I just can't stand the fact that there are so many restrictions. If this pandemic would just be over already!!
Shadow King: Well, we jus haffi wol di faith. Just take care of yuh mental state.
Nature_Lover_Leah: Sigh. I am going offline ok.
Shadow King: I am here if you wanna talk.
**conversation ended**
I actually smiled. I am not sure if he was simply being a gentleman by being oncerned about my welfare, or he was trying to be closer to me. However, his gesture of kindness made me flushed with guilt for avoiding him for weeks. He seemed polite enough to reach out to me and for a guy like him, I was quite astonished. I did not want to seem judgemental by labeling him negatively due to his career choice, because truthfully, there was a void of ten years. Thus, I did not thoroughly know the man. So, his identity on social media still did not give me a valid reason to judge him. After all, nobody is perfect. However, I had no intention of falling head over heels for him. I was adamant about not getting close to him for several reasons. One of which was that I refused to be added to the eminent unwritten statistical data of good girls having a thing for bad boys. Definitely not!
At nightfall, he sent a voice note on WhatsApp. I listened to him saying, "Hey. Jus a wanda if yuh good. Hope I am not being too weird but you didn't seem ok today so I am just checking in". How thoughtful! Still, not knowing his true intention for being this nice and uncertain if his act was that of a facade, I responded with a simple voice note. I said, "I guess I will be alright". Then, to my surprise, he sent a message, asking if I wanted to talk about what was happening to me. Well, he was simply a friend from my childhood anyway so I said yes. Then I waited for what seemed like a minute, but was just probably ten seconds, for him to call. The phone rang.
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"Hey", he said calmly but with his addictive deep voice. "Hi", I responded. "What is really wrong?" he asked. "Well,", I said, "I would love to at least go to the beach, but beaches have been closed by the government". I paused as I waited for him to say something else but he did not. He simply remained silent, as if he was intentionally allowing me to vent. He just listened without any interruption as I proceeded to ramble about how annoyed I felt being at home. "Staying home all day, just working, feels like complete torture. I need to get out and go far, even just for a day", I continued. I sighed when I was through speaking and then he asked, "Are you through?" "I am". "Well, you are a woman of faith. So, ask God to give you peace in the midst of the chaos you are feeling", he said. His suggestion surprised me because he was not a Christian but yet he could be mindful enough of my beliefs to respectfully include them in his comment. Gosh! What a gentleman!
If this was a test specifically designed to see how much of a gentleman he was, then he certainly would have passed. It was the way he was keenly attentive to everything that I had said and the way in which he spoke to me that night. The conversation continued for about three hours and I enjoyed every minute. His jokes made me laugh and we shared a few of our high school experiences. He made me comfortable talking to him. He described his passion for music and the desire to be successful in the music industry of our country in such a way that although, I was not fascinated by his choice of career, I greatly admired his ambition. I love a man devoted to the cause of improving himself.
Talking to him, felt like just talking to a regular guy with big dreams. I had totally forgotten the image he portrayed on the outside. I was more focused on his deep voice, the sound of his laughter, his silly jokes and how much he was striving to improve his life. Although, initially, he would be deemed questionable because of his choice of lifestyle, I somehow believed he had a heart of gold. I know it had only been about two months, but he had not said or done anything that would make me question his intentions.
Eventually, the call ended as I had a few tasks to complete, but the night was not spent badly. I placed the phone to charge, took a shower, then had dinner and did some work. At twelve that night, I was preparing myself for bed and I went online to check my messages. Apparently, he saw that I was online because he immediately sent a text message via WhatsApp. It read, "I hope you are feeling better than how you were today. Goodnight. Sweet dreams". In response, I found myself smiling. I closed my eyes and whispered to my pillow, "Sweet dreams Marquise".
