Mr. Tan

Chapter 23: Where Has The Time Gone (Sweet Temptation)

It's been a couple of years, and I am now 17 and its mid spring of 2001, late April. I am almost over with my junior year in high school. Hm, what else can I say?, oh I'm driving no thanks to Earl. It's not a brand new car, it's a classic black Pontiac gto, used of course. Earl bought it from a local guy that was selling his car. Earl bought it and gave it to me after I got my driver's license. I managed to get taller and my curves much more noticeable. I got rid of my so-called trademark wild, frizzy waist length hair. I now wore my hair cut short in a cute pixie cut but still in my natural light brown color. I have a pierced eyebrow and a cute little rose tattoo on my lower back. I have a little cute rottweiler puppy named Duke and he loves to follow me everywhere. He even tries to follow me to my car when I'm on my way to go anywhere. I still stayed in contact with my old friend Kelly Foley, she flew in to spend time with me and Adrian on Christmas breaks and summer vacations. Speaking of friends, Adrian was almost done with her senior year. Her aunt worked two jobs just so Adrian can go to college next year. Adrian just recently got an after school job at a movie theater. I often take her to work after school and pick her up since she doesn't drive nor have a car. Earl is doing great, working hard as usual. I didn't work at all cause Earl wanted me to concentrate on school. Earl always tells me " I ain't finish school, but you sure as shit will". Earl started getting reunited with his old ex-blues group buddies last year, the ones that made up "Anywhere But Home". It was some guys that sang with Earl back in the day, they all still live Cleveland. It's four black guys; Marlon Harris, who is caramel colored, short and stocky and Ezekiel Owens, who is tall dark skinned and slim, Patrick Barnes who is a medium brown man with dimples and Chuck Stokes who is light skinned with graying cornrows. On most Sundays when Earl was done working at Rhett's garage for the day, he would call the guys over and we'd have a jamming session in the front room while I sang. I'm still working on my shyness about singing in front of folks, but its getting better. To make things more comfortable for me, I sang back up vocals while Earl sang lead vocals and played his guitar, sometimes we sang duets. Both Marlon and Ezekiel both agreed with Earl about my natural singing talent while Patrick and Chuck nodded with agreement. Maybe I would be wrong in saying the only thing that started bothering me about living with Earl was the fact that I got a little jealous whenever he bought a lady home late at night. I often thought about what it was he saw in these lose scantily clad women he had flings or one night stands with. Most of them he brought home with him from his juke joint late at night. I remember a few months ago, I awoke to him kicking a woman out of the trailer when he woke up in the middle of the night to catch her stealing money from his jeans pocket. Whenever he brought a woman home, they'd stumble in drunk and towards his bedroom. Since my room was pretty much right across the hall from his, I'd hear every moan, grunt, bed spring creek and the occasional headboard hitting the wall. I usually slept with my door cracked open, but on nights when he'd have a woman in there, I'd jump up from my bed and slam my door close. Despite the fact that I was almost grown, had my own car, and was pretty self sufficient, I couldn't help but think that Earl just saw me as a little girl. I wanted to prove to him that I was so much more than the scared little girl who's ass he saved years ago. I was kinda starting to fall for him and maybe I'm wrong for having these feelings, after all he is my legal guardian. On a rainy and unseasonably cool night, I stayed up way past my bedtime waiting for Earl to return home after work.

It was past midnight and I stood up and watched TV in my white slip. I looked out of the window as I saw Earl pull up next to my Pontiac gto. The rain shower became heavier as Earl got out of his car, closed the door and ran up the steps to avoid getting too wet. The only light on was the light in the kitchen and the iridescent glow of the front room TV. I heard the sound of Earl turning his key in the lock. When he came in, his clothes were damp from the rain but not too wet. His shoes squeaked on the hardwood floor as he stopped in the hallway and removed his baseball cap and brown leather jacket and hung them on a rack outside the living room. Earl turned his head and looked at me, as if he was surprised to see me still awake.