Black is the Color of Beauty

Chapter 20

Bo's POV

Rural China ( outside of the city limits of Shanghai)

Late July 2019 

     " Come on Bo, let's dance," the brown skin beauty grabs my hand and pulls me to a makeshift wooden floor. Where are we? We are surrounded by soft lights, tables and lush green grass. A garden maybe? My train of thought stops as I feel something warm and soft against my chest. I look down to see that she buried her face into my chest. Her arms are wrapped around my waist and she is swaying back and forth. To what though? Then, I hear a melody playing in the background.

  " I know you've been hurt by someone else,

     I can tell by the way you carry yourself,

     If you let me, here's what I'll do,

     I'll take care of you,

     I've loved and I've lost."

This song is by Rihanna and Drake. For some odd reason, this moments feels oddly familiar. Rihanna's crooning voice triggers something in me. Where is Lei? I search around for a familiar short figure with inky black hair. After a few moments, I begin to panic and without thinking I pull away from my dance partner and start running. The tightness is my chest grows with each passing second of me search the garden.... where the fuck is he? Then, suddenly I am standing before Lei and a faceless woman. He's wearing traditional Chinese clothes and her a dress. " I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you, Mrs. Hai," then he leans inwards and cups her face. My faces begins to grow hot. I need to get out of here. For some reason, this seems like an incredible intimate moment that I am not meant to witness.  I feel a tug on the back of my shirt. I turn around to see a short, curvy, brown skin woman with a wild curly fro.. But, her face was missing. No mouth, nose... just bleeding eyeballs. I yank my body out her grasp and open out my mouth to let out a scream.

   " Damn it Bo, wake up. We need you here." I faintly hear. I feel an immense amount of pressure on my chest. Its pushing. Pushing. Pushing. Pushing. Then stop. " I need help." the faint voice say. I look around to see that I am still in front of the faceless woman with the bleeding eyes. I feel a pulse thump throughout my body. The woman reach for me, but again I take a step back. Another pulse runs throughout my body. " Please, wake up," another faint voice say inside of my head, but this time its raspy. Another pulse jolts throughout my body. I look back at the faceless woman, to see that her bleeding eyes has now changed to dark brown soft eyes. Her tears of blood, are now tears of water. Why is she crying? As if reading my mind, she points down to my right arm. It is shimmering, almost translucent. Then, I look down at my legs and see they too are also shimmering. Am I fading away? Am I dying? I look into those dark brown eyes again. Those brown eyes were begging me to stay, and for some reason. I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay with the stranger with those kind brown eyes. I walk reach out to cup her face with my hand, but before my hand makes contact....

     "He's alive." a voice states. My eyes are filled with black bubbles in its line of vision. Why can't I see? Then after a few moments, my eyes begin to adjust as I see three blurry figures standing above me. "Lei," my voice croaks out. " I'm right here," a raspy voice replies. His voice sounds so different. As if its cracked, raw.... as if his been drowning in sorrows. What's wrong? I want to ask him, but I can't find my voice to speak. After a few minutes, my vision completely clears up. I sigh in relief. I tilt my head to the right and see three figures standing there - Lei, a short black guy and a local drug dealer named Kevin. I have so many questions, but I don't allow my confusion to take over my happiness. " It was all just a bad dream," I say out loud and crack a smile. Silence, I continue on. " I had this weird dream that I was in a garden somewhere with this black woman dancing, but she was faceless. Weird right. You were there too Lei," Lei stiffen at the mention of his name. Again, I decide to ignore this. "So anyways, in the dream, I was dancing with this random black girl, I panic. You know Lei, because of my anxiety. So, I ran to start looking for you. And, I found you... you were dancing with a black woman too. But, she was faceless. Then, you told her you couldn't wait to spend the rest of your life with her. I think she was your wife, but that's weird because you're not married. Yeah... so the black woman I was dancing with found me and I realize that she was faceless too except for the bleeding eyes and....."  And, she was crying and I wanted to stay with her. I say this last bit to myself. " Crazy right?," I say in Lei's direction. Nothing. I look over to at the three guys. The black guy is staring sadly out of the window. Lei's face looks like he aged twenty years, his skin a sickly white color with dark circles under his eyes. His cheeks slightly hollowed inwards. Kevin's face was buried in his hands. What the fuck is going on?  " You don't remember," the black guy say to me. " The girls are gone," Lei replies softly. His words hit Kevin like a ton of bricks. Kevin crumbles to floor and begin to cry. His painful wails fills up the room with grief, anger and sadness. For some reason, a sharp stabbing sensation ripples through my heart. But, for the life of me I can't understand why am I sad over some strangers being missing.