Black Coffee (Tara's Dream)|Dearest Diary, - Book 1 (unedited)

XX

Dearest diary,

Sometimes men can be pretty clueless. I am not aware of your gender, but please…if you're one, don't take offence at that. I mean, what part of I need time can't one understand? Is it so weird for me, a woman, to want to have time so that I can heal and work on myself? Is striving for independence such a mad idea that it's outrageous to even think about it? Surely, how does my wanting space culminate into me playing hard to get? Oh, how I wish diary. How I wish that I had my way...Then I would accomplish what I desire and no one would stand in my way. However, as of now, that is not entirely possible. We share a daughter between us and there's that new resolution that requires me to actually acknowledge my family and not despise them or ignore them like I used to do.

***

"Look at that, an avocado tree!"

"And another and another..." David responded as he pointed at two more huge trees that were appearing beyond the high rise of banana plantation.

"And another and another..." Troy said as he came to stop beside me.

"You know, just because Nana approved of you, it doesn't mean that you have to keep following me around looking like a lost puppy."

"You wound me Attara." he placed a hand quite dramatically over his chest. "I follow you around because I adore you and I have nothing else better to do." he said with a cheeky grin.

"In that case, let's go exploring. I hear that there’s a waterfall somewhere around here." David suggested as he began to strut over to where we were.

"That's fantastic. Let's go then." The man that was beside me said too eagerly and I found myself frowning at him. Not that I was not up to it, but there was something that was still nagging me lingering at the back of my mind and I couldn’t quite put a finger on it.

"What about Bri?" I said as I finally figured it out.

"She's with the ladies. They are playing dolls with her hair." Troy replied and David gave him a quizzical look that made me laugh since I was aware of what Troy was going on about.

"I bet Shea was more than happy to free you?"

"It's not like that Attara."

"You should know better.” I started off with a reprimanding tone. “Where she's concerned it's always exactly like that."

"Okay…you two are being so cryptic that it's weird that you are not together." David told us as he began the long descent to the bottom of the hill. I shot a hard glare at him, but it was pointless seeing that his back was towards me and was no longer paying attention. Seeing my expression, Troy chuckled and began to follow after David. I was left alone and since I had no other choice, I followed him too.

"Hey, slow down. Some of us are not as tall as you are!" I called out as I ran after them. The two men slowed down to a stroll and I was able to catch up with them just as a crop of tall Napier grass came into view. As I slowed down as well, I noticed that we were on a path that was cutting through a wide man made terrace and it was sseparating a crop of bananas plants from the crop of Napier grass that I just seen. On the next terrace, a section of coffee bushes rose up to meet us and I feasted my eyes upon the rows of sweet potato vines that had been planted on the edges of the much smaller terraces that were separating one row of coffee plants from the other.

"Why are there so many terraces here?" Troy asked as he continued studying the same phenomenon that I was.

"Since the land is sloppy, it helps curb soil erosion. I also think that it helps with sectioning the land into paddocks and allows for crop rotation to happen." Both Troy and I nodded at David's answers as we continued with our walk down the hill mesmerised by the view that kept on greeting us. "This is tea." David said as he pointed to the raised carpet of green that started and continued to flow endlessly before us. "It grows well here due to the high attitude and cool weather. It is also able latch on well especially on very steep slopes such as this one."