Chasing Happy

Chapter 12

Carnival weekend approached at the end of August. It was an occasion that Kieran and her friends attended ever since they were eighteen. Amelia, too, was joining them. It was one tradition that Kieran hadn't left behind with her single life. For her, it was a time when she could party the entire weekend and not worry about anything. She and Corey had taken the twins to the children's carnival the day before. She was glad to be out of the house. It made the pain easier to deal with when she was occupied.

The occasion coincided with Christina celebrating passing her exams with flying colours and securing a teaching post at a primary school. Her relationship with Courtney was developing, and that was another excuse for a celebration. Of course, she had given him hell about Rome; from what Christina said, Kieran deduced that Courtney had only known Rome about six months, and he didn't talk much about his personal life.

Chantelle, in a show of solidarity had not spoken to, or seen

Luke even though he tried numerous times to contact her. Unfortunately for him, once he confirmed that he had known about Rome's situation, Chantelle wanted nothing more to do with him. "Birds of a feather," she reminded Kieran. Once they relayed their findings, neither of them mentioned Rome again. Rome continued to text her asking to meet on several occasions. Kieran stubbornly refused.

It had been three days since she had last heard from him. She would not allow him the chance to make a fool out of her again. She put on a brave face and threw herself into work pretending that the episode was a meaningless holiday romance.

What she still couldn't understand was why he had lied when she had been honest with him. At least she knew she wasn't crazy. The weird facial expressions that she couldn't identify, his mind wandering, refusing to accept Kieran calling him perfect, it all made sense to her after the fact.

Kieran hadn't broken up with Darren as planned. She was not ready to deal with any more stress. She, however, was distracting herself with Joshua. As long as she didn't have to think about Rome, she was content. She would survive.

She and her friends arrived at Westbourne Park station. As expected, swarms of people in amazing colourful, eye-catching outfits added to the carnival atmosphere. Kieran saw a blur of the familiar carnival colours, red, green and yellow. She smiled in recognition, as those were the colours that represented Guyana.

Kieran disliked crowds and carnival wasn't an exception. It was estimated that almost one million people attended every year, although the numbers decreased over the years due to violence. This made Kieran quite sad because the carnival could have been bigger and better every year but due to those odd few who ruined it for everyone else it seemed to be going the opposite direction. She walked along Portobello Road, a popular street market. The distinct market sections included antiques, fruit and vegetables and fashionable shops. It was an attraction for both Londoners and tourists alike. The road stretched for two miles and was busy at the best of times, let alone during the carnival weekend.

After an hour's stroll taking in the feel, sights and sounds, Kieran grew hungry. The intoxicating aromas of West Indian food tickled her taste buds. She found a food stall and sticking with her Guyanese tradition, Kieran ordered lamb curry and roti. The food was nowhere near her grandmother's recipe, but it was tasty. Chantelle, Christina and Amelia ordered ackee and salt fish with fried dumplings, jerk chicken with rice and peas and stew chicken with rice and peas respectively. They washed their meals down with a large glass of Guinness punch each.