Chapter 4 In my Life
I woke up to the sound of a motorcycle engine running. My alarm said 8:30 a.m.
"Seriously who would wake me up this early?" I jumped out of bed and look out the window to see where to commotion was coming from. There he was, shining up his Suzuki Burgman 400 in his driveway. It kind of got me thinking what exactly does he have planned up his sleeve for me today?
"Hmm, he doesn't seem like the type of person to hang out with a bike gang or motorcycle gang, or whatever you call them. Then again I'm talking about Huey here. Just like his unlimited quotes of wisdom he's full of surprises."
"Good morning mother."
"Good morning sweetie, I have breakfast for you on the table."
"By the way mother you still never told me about your Spain trip."
"Oh sweetie it was wonderful. Your father and I went parasailing. It was so romantic minus your dad screaming bloody murder the whole time. And that night we went dancing under the moonlight."
"Dad…dancing? Mom come on."
"No seriously you know that's how he won me over right?"
"I always thought he sung that song "Sarah Smile" out your window when you were in high school."
"Oh no. He woke up the entire neighborhood, and my grandpa even called the cops on him."
"He didn't go to jail did he?"
"No of course not, he did cry like a baby. Talking about if he goes to jail…his anal rectum being violated it was hard to understand underneath the snot bubbles and tears. I thought it was punishment enough actually."
"Oh poor daddy…so… he won you over by dancing with him."
"Oh Yes! It was in college and my sorority was having their annual party with our brother sorority. A few weeks back I had just had a bad break up with my boyfriend and I was feeling really down about it. Around that time your father and I had became really good friends but I never saw him as more than friend until that night. I was watching all my friends dancing with their boyfriends when your father had asked me to dance with him. Before I knew it I was in love."
"You think that would actually work on someone?"
"Well it worked on me. Do you have someone you want to try this on?"
"No! I was just…asking. I got to go work on my project for school. Thanks for breakfast."
I ran out of my house as fast as I could to avoid anymore questioning from my mother. I then ran into my dad talking to Mr. Freeman.
"That boy Riley is going to be the death of me."
"Have you tried talking to him Robert?"
"Talking to him won't work, beating him don't work, taking him to jail don't work. I actually think he wants to end up in jail."
"Oh no, ending up in jail is probably the worst place you could end up." Just then I noticed the mail man walking up interrupting the conversation.
"If you ask me the little nigglet should be shipped back to Africa where he belong, as well as all the other darkies in here. Yall come up in here with slang, and wide hips and big lips taking all our white women, our jobs, everything the good white man brought to dis here earth."
"Really Ruckus come on now."
"No. no. Keep talking I want to hear what else he's got to say," interrupted Mr. Freeman. Just before my dad stopped the quarrel between the two, a motorcycle came up the driveway nearly hitting Mr. Uncle Ruckus (no relation)
"Hiya doin Huey."
"Hi Mr. Dubios. Are you ready?" He directed his gaze at me.
"I'm riding on that?"
"Yeah,"
"Is it safe?"
"No, but if you hold on real tight you might not fall off.
"If it's for the project…"
I took a deep breath as I swung my leg over and sat down on the seat. When I felt the motor vibrate beneath me my heart started to pound a mile a minute. Before I could catch another breath we were flying down the street.
"Where exactly are we going that's outside of town?"
"A protest,"
"A what?"
"A protest,"
"No, I heard what you said. I…I don't know if it's a good idea for me to go."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because something bad might happen, I may get arrested or shot at." The expression on his face was puzzled, as almost if he was about to laugh at my excuses.
"This isn't that kind of protest. Don't worry."
Riding of the bridge that led outside of town, I looked behind to see the buildings getting smaller the further I went. I had never been outside of Woodcrest before. It was like he had broken the box that was keeping me inside. I smiled at thought. It was nice riding alongside him, not knowing exactly where he was taking me. I linked my arms tighter around his waist and rested my head on his shoulder blade. I think he knew what I was doing because he flinched a little at my action, but didn't say anything. I mean he should be ok with it right? He's a guy. Guys like it when girls warm up to them.
We stopped at an open field filled with people dressed in tie dye and rainbow shirts, drag queens and cross dressers, and people holding up signs reading "Love knows no gender." and "straight for gay rights." I looked over back at Huey.
"I would've never thought you supported LGBT."
"You and plenty of other people,"
"Huey over here!" said a man running across the field. "Thank God you made it. I can't seem to liven up these people enough."
"Well you have some people singing Elton John's Circle of Life."
"Yeah, but that's the only thing they will do. They afraid to really put themselves out there and I've done all I can think of to try and get these people to really fight the cause, but a lot of them lack inspiration I guess. "
"Well then what the hell are they doing here? They need to get off their asses and start fighting for what they believe in!"
"Yeah you see that's where you come in. I was hoping you can say a few words maybe give them a push in the gay direction."
As Huey grabbed the microphone and walked away, I made an effort to introduce myself.
"Hi I'm Jazmine."
"Well hello. I'm Darian. So glad to see you come out here today."
"Well I'm glad to be here."
"So…how do you know Huey?"
"Oh well we have sociology class together and we're kind of working on a school project. How do you to know each other? "
"Oh I'm a member of the Black Revolutionary Underground Heroes, or Bruh"
"Bruh?"
"Yeah Bruh."
"Wow. To be honest with you I never would've know he was so involved with black community if it wasn't for this project. I'm not saying that I know all about African American struggles but since my dad is black I do know he had to go through a lot to get where he is today."
"Oh so YOUR Jazmine."
"Yeah I already told you."
"No. You're the one Huey talks about. You live across from him."
"He talks about me? What does he say?"
"Well…He's really honest."
Honest…what's that suppose to mean? I guess it's good, nor bad. I can't be mad though because I talked about him, very bad. Little did I know it only took me a couple of hours to see that I was completely wrong about him. I watched him as he took control and gave the protesters some inspiration. Speaking of how it wasn't just about LGBT but equality for everyone everywhere. The sad part about this moment is, is that not one of kids at school would believe me unless they witnessed it for themselves. No word of mouth could persuade them otherwise.
"None of my friends would believe this."
"You might as well dump them sweetheart. It may not be today or tomorrow but that guy is going to change the way we look at the world."
We rode back into town while the sun was setting into night fall.
"Hey turn left up here."
"Why?"
"Because it's now my turn in the sociology project,"
We turned and parked into the 15th Annual Ed Wuncler Carnival. I stopped in my tracks when I saw he was still on his motorcycle looking up at the banner of Ed Wuncler with a scowl on his face.
"Come on Huey." All he did was scoff at me. "You'll lose 20 points off your grade if you don't do this."
"I'll risk it."
"No you won't I won't let you. Now come on."
"No seriously. I don't do carnivals and I definitely don't do Ed Wuncler."
"HUEY FREEMAN GET YOUR ASS OF THAT DAMN MOTORCYCLE BEFORE I PULL YOU OFF BY YOUR ENORMOUSLY LARGE AFRO!" He scowled at me and I did the same to him back. I had seriously had enough of him whining about power and justice and just start to relax and have fun. They I had an immediate realization that maybe he didn't know how to have fun. Then I felt bad for yelling at him.
"Look will you please come, for me?" He let out a huge sigh and got off his motorcycle.
"Ok so what do you want to do first?"
"That isn't a question for the project."
"Oh so now you care about the project Mr. I'll risk losing 20 points!"
"Yeah, Whatever."
I took out my notebook and pen as we sat down away from any distraction.
"So where did you take me today?"
"A gay rights protest right outside of Woodcrest."
"Ok. What significant part does it have to do with your life?"
"What significant part does it have to do with yours?"
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I mean,"
"Well it doesn't have much to do with me? I'm not homosexual."
"Yet you're wrong. It has everything to do with you and has everything to do with me."
"I don't understand."
"What you fail to understand is that it's much more complex that a man getting to marry another man, or woman choosing to live the rest of her natural existing life as a male. It's about equality. Regardless of all the triumphs of the great preachers and prophets before us we still live in a world where people are still not treated equally."
"Well you have to admit we have come a long way since segregation."
"Ok, but what about when you were younger, and your friends treated you differently because you have interracial parents, and what about the majority of ridicule my family and I get at school because we're different, because I'm different? One person could make all the difference in the world if they just listened."
"You could talk to them."
"They'll never listen to me."
"Then those will be the people who just never learn I guess, be stuck in their ways. You can't expect everyone to be on your side right?"
"Well then what's the point of talking if no one ever learns?"
"Well I know for a fact that some people will listen to you."
"And who would that be?"
"Me." I reached out to grab his hand and give him a heartwarming smile. It didn't bring him to a smile however; I did manage to take the unhopeful look off his face.
"Ok. Now it's officially my turn." I lead him to the middle of the carnival where they had music and a dance floor.
"I don't dance."
"Well you're going to have to." My favorite song began to play as soon as we walked on the dance floor. I grabbed as hand and wrapped it around my waist and took my hand in his.
"Don't worry we'll just move from side to side. This is my favorite song and it's really slow." By the way for all of you people who want to know what my favorite song is, it's called, "When the Right One Comes Along." By Clare Bowen & Sam Palladio. Look it up! Anyway we started to move left and right as the music began. I don't usually start to lead unless the guy completely didn't know what he was doing, and Huey definitely was a bit clueless. He started to get the hang of it when the song hit the chorus. So I could relax a little. The more comfortable I got dancing with him the more I became slowly entranced in this wonderful moment that I hadn't had in a long time. I had to admit it to myself that I was falling for him. He didn't even have to make an effort for me to feel this way about him. He was just himself, as he'd always been. I would've have never thought that I could ever fall for someone so deeply that all I want is to be wrapped in his arms, and if he ever lets go of me I would break into a million pieces. I rested my head on his shoulder. He didn't flinch, he didn't do anything, and I was so happy he didn't.
When the song was entering it last chorus I lifted my head up to look into his eyes. You think you know what you're looking for, until what you're looking for finds you. We looked into each other eyes. Right when the song ended….he let go of my hand and said, "We should head back home."