Read and review! Done to India Arie's Good Man.
A Good Man
By: Amber Watson
Forty-five year old Jazmine Dubois walked onstage with a soft smile on her lips. Her curly tawny locks were pulled out of her face and into a low pony-tail at the nape of her neck, and her green eyes glittered as she made her way to center stage for the tenth time that night.
Fans both young and old screamed her name holding up various posters from her past albums and waving them for her to see.
"Is everyone having a good time tonight?" she called. The massive crowd grew louder and her smile grew.
The Apollo Theater, every musical artists dream come true, and yet here she was, and it wasn't her dream come true. There was only one thing she wanted and that would come much later.
She raised her finger to her lips quieting her audience immediately.
"My final song tonight is in honor of someone very close to me," She glanced around her audience, "this one is for you Huey."
She sat on the stool in the middle of the stage and pulled her guitar from around her shoulder. Her slightly callused yet feminine fingers began to move across the strings creating a slow meaningful tune.
"La, la, la… La, la, la…ah…La, la, la… La, la, la…ooh.
I remember the first day I met you,
We were so young."
When they first met Jazmine was nine years old. Light, bubbly, and naïve, were words often used to describe her. That's why none expected her to befriend her new neighbor, deep, sarcastic, and intelligent Huey Freeman, her complete opposite in almost every way.
Whenever they would talk she would leave feeling insulted and educated on one thing or another. He would always know what to say to make her feel idiotic but then again make you rethink some of the dictions you made that you were once proud of.
Yet, somehow… she fell for him by the time she was thirteen.
"You were a blessing,
There was no guessing,
You were the one."
They began dating when she was fifteen and he was sixteen, their junior year, during their lunch period to be exact. The memory was still fresh in her mind.
Flashback
"Jazmine?"
Jazmine turned from her group of friends hearing her name being called. A smile split her face when she saw just who it was.
A teenage Huey Freeman is a HOT Huey Freeman. Tall, milk chocolate skin, and he finally tamed his "Fro" enough to pull it back into a pony-tail at the nape of his neck, his muscular body was slightly hidden under a plain white tee shirt and dark wash jeans. Combat boots donned his feet and a Black Panther belt buckle peaked from under his shirt completing his look.
"Hiiii, Huey!" A chorus of giggles sounded behind her.
Most wouldn't have noticed the slight twitch of annoyance in her eye as every single girl around her fawned over him, but Huey did. A light chuckle passed his lips, making the girls sigh, as he stepped forward.
"Hey Huey." She smiled, "did you need something?"
He didn't say anything; he just took her hand and led her out of the lunch cafeteria and into the deserted hallways of Wuncler High School.
"What's up?" she asked standing in front of him as he leaned onto a locker.
He closed his eyes seeming to steady himself for what he was about to say.
He cleared his throat "Jazmine…we've known each other for a while now… and I was… wandering…"
"Yes?" she urged.
"If …um…" Were her eyes deceiving her or was Huey Freeman flustered?
"Hurry up nigga! I aint got that much video on dis thing!"
Anger flashed in the elder Freeman's eyes, "Riley! What the hell do you think your doing!" he was about to make his way over to where he knew his younger brother was hiding when a small feminine hand reached out and grabbed the collar of his shirt. Before he could ask her what she was doing her lips were on his. He was shocked at first but eventually melted into it, enjoying the feel of her soft lips against his own.
"To answer your question, yes I will go out with you." She said breaking the kiss.
Shock crossed his features, "How did you-"
"I heard you talking to Caesar."
"Aww yeah! Ma brotha's finally gon get some!"
Jazmine smiled …Three…two… one…
"Riley!"
End flashback
A smile played on her lips at the distant memory. She and Huey dated from that point on, and when they graduated from college he asked her to marry him. Even after all of these years that passed the memory was still fresh in her mind. Their wedding, the honeymoon to the five places they always wanted to visit: Egypt, Nigeria, France, England, and Hawaii.
He protested eternally about how France and England was a bunch of stuck up white people who would treat them just like Americans did, but she insisted that they wouldn't treat them that way because they were bringing their country money, tourists was a major part of their country's income. That shut him up long enough for him to enjoy himself.
He took her virginity on their wedding night in Egypt, and it gave her the most wonderful feeling: that it was him she gave it to. He was the only one she would share those intimate moments with, Huey and only Huey.
"Love is so crazy
We had a baby, and said our vows."
On the final night of their honeymoon he held her close to him, nothing sexual, he was just enjoying being close to his new wife.
Flashback
"Jazmine?" Huey asked pulling his face from his wife's neck and resting his chin on her shoulder. They sat on the balcony of their honeymoon suit looking out over the beach and the sunset in awe, Hawaii was a truly beautiful place, and a wonderful way to end their honeymoon before they would start their lives together.
"Hmm?" she hummed shifting in his lap so she was looking into his eyes. They held conflict in their wine depths. Curious she raised a hand and placed it on his cheek rubbing it with her thumb, "Are you ok?"
"Jazmine you know I love you right?"
She blinked, "of course I do! Would I have married you otherwise?"
He sighed, "I guess not." There was a strong silence, the type where you know something was going to be said that you needed to hear but never wanted to.
When he broke the silence, the words that slipped from her lips made tears come to her eyes, "You know..." he sighed, "Jazmine you know that in the business I'm in… I cant guarantee that I'll live past this year… and if something to happen to me… I want you to be strong for me."
Tears fell from her eyes, "No! no, that's not true! Were going to live long lives together just like my mom and dad!"
"Jazmine please be rational! I love you and I want you to be strong for me no matter what happens. Can you promise me that?"
Words failed her, but she did manage a nod, but it was enough. She buried her face into his neck, taking in his scent and filing it to memory.
After an hour he lifted his sleeping wife into his arms and carried her into their suit.
End flashback
" That's when you told me,
Should anything happen, I can hear you now
You told me if the sun comes up and I'm not home be strong
If I'm not beside you do your best to carry on
Tell the kids about me when their old enough to understand
Tell them that their daddy was a good man"
Jazmine gazed out at her audience, they were silent, some swaying with the lulling beat of the song. A single tear streaked down her cheek and she heard so some of them comment on it. She could care less about them at this point. Her eyes focused on the ceiling, this was about him and only him.
"La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
Another memory passed in front of her eyes. Their first anniversary he took her back to Woodcrest and up the hill they spent half of their childhood on.
Flashback
"Oh Huey." She sighed gazing at the sight before her. The tree on the top of the hill was covered in white lights, and under it a candle lit picnic was laid out in the grass. To the right a telescope stood on a tripod pointing up at the full moon.
Then a suspicious thought crossed her mind, Huey Freeman, Romantic? She looked up at the sky, no pigs in the sky… Hell must have frozen over.
"You had help didn't you?" she asked crossing her arms.
He blinked, "how did you guess?"
"As long as I've known you, you never came off as the romantic type." She smirked as he shrugged, "So who was it? Cindy? Riley?"
Huey scoffed, "As if my brother has the mental capacity to think up something like this."
"Then who?"
"…Your mom."
They shared a laugh and sat down to eat. The silence that passed was comfortable and soothing. The kind you can only get in the presence of a loved one. Soon the food, and desert on Jazmine's part, was eaten and Huey unplugged the lights in the tree and let her crawl into his lap. They gazed at the stars, pointing out constellations and even renaming some.
"Huey?" she asked looking at one star in particular, the one that maid the stinger of Scorpio's tail.
"Yeah?'
"Can you promise me something?" She turned in his lap to face him, just like on their honeymoon.
""Depends on what it is."
She smiled, "No matter where you are on our anniversary, can you promise me to take a few minutes out to look up at the sky at that star, "she pointed up at the star she was looking at before.
"Which one?"
"The stinger on Scorpio."
He nodded, "I can do that, if you promise me my daughters name will be Legacy." He said rubbing her bulging belly.
She smiled and put her hand over his, "Deal"
A deal that was sealed with a kiss.
End flashback
"First anniversary
Remember we chose a star,
But as I stand under it I cant help but wander if
You see it where you are"
More tears fell down her face but her voice remained strong. The spot on the ceiling began to blur but she kept going.
"For whatever reason we don't see the seasons
Change again
Go there with peace of mind
We'll meet on the other side
Cause true love don't end, baby."
She stopped playing and looked over at to the edge of the stage. There in all of her glory was Legacy, the spitting image of her father. The same liquid wine eyes, high cheekbones, she was a few shades lighter than him, and she had long curly hair like her mother. She had some of his personality traits too, Strong willed, political, loyal, and yet she had her moments where she was goofy and playful, but they were rare. She was twenty-two and her mother couldn't be more proud.
Legacy smiled at her mother and nodded telling her to continue.
"If the sun comes up and your not home, I'll be strong
If your not beside me I'll do my best to carry on
I'll tell the kids about you when their old enough to understand
I'll tell him that their daddy was a good man."
With a few final strokes of her guitar she ended the song and looked up at her audience as they broke out into a standing ovation.
"Thank you guys, You've been a great audience."
Jazmine walked offstage and into her dressing room, locking it behind her. This was it, she waited twenty-one years for this and now on the eve of her husband's death she would join him. She looked around the room and spotted a bottle of pain pills on her vanity.
"Perfect."
Legacy sat in her mothers dressing room tears silently falling from her eyes and dripping onto the note the elder woman left for her. They found her after her performance, dead by overdose, the note weaved between her limp fingers.
She ran her fingers across her mothers neat cursive penmanship as she read it for the tenth time that night, feeling emotion take her once again.
Legacy,
By the time you read this I will probably be getting a lecture on responsibility by your father. Don't feel sad for me sweetheart, I raised a beautiful and strong young woman, my life is complete.
Do you remember the final lyrics of "a good man?" They are dedicated to you.
Two eyes looking up at me
Pointing to the picture like, "where is he?"
Mama are you okay?
What did the paper say to make you cry that way?
It said your daddy lived for you and your daddy died for you
And I'll do the same
Now baby if the sun comes up and I'm not home
Be strong
If I'm not beside you do your best to carry on
Tell your kids about me when their old enough to understand
Tell them that your daddy was a good man.
I love you, be strong for me
Momma.
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