Dark Chocolate, White Diamonds
By Dixxy
Chapter Seven: House Arrest
(Keisha)
After Grams brought me and Evan home, the real nightmare began. She refused to let us leave the house for ANYTHING. No school, no shopping, not even a breath of fresh air. We were trapped inside of our own home. Grams wouldn't even let us leave to attend the funeral.
"It would have been too much for you two to handle," she had said when she got back. She took off our coat and gave us these cold, uncaring looks. "You would've cried to see them like that." She then walked upstairs to her room and shut the door. We didn't see her for the rest of the day.
Well, isn't that part of going to a funeral? Crying? Letting your emotions spill? I was reasonably angry at Grams over the funeral issue. That was supposed to be our last good-bye to them. And she took that AWAY from us! Why did she do that! Dear God, didn't she know we were hurting enough as it was? Why this?
Though I can't say I'm surprised at what she did. Grams had gone psychotic on us and obsessive with us staying at home. She isolated us. She confiscated our car keys. She disconnected the phone (which I think was stupid- who's to say the murderer wouldn't come back for the rest of us? Then how would we get to the police?). Grams even took away the Internet cables on the computer. We were totally isolated from the rest of the world.
On the first Friday of our imprisonment, I was looking out the living room window. I saw Mike's car pull up, Kento behind the wheel. I perked up, happy to see my boyfriend. Kento's here! my instincts told me. I wanted to see him so badly. I wanted to tell him how psycho Grams had gotten on us and how badly I wanted to get out of that house.
"Keisha!" I heard my grandmother screech. "Go to your room. NOW!"
"Can't I say see Kento first?" I asked.
Grams gave me the stink eye. "No," she said. "You shouldn't be seeing that boy anymore."
"What? Why?" I asked, getting upset. "Did Kento do something to get you angry?"
"NOW!"
Seeing there was no use arguing with her, I ran upstairs, stopping at the top of the stairs. After hearing multiple knocks at the door, I heard Grams and Kento start a little conversation that ended with my grandmother kicking Kento off the property after explaining that we couldn't date because of our different races.
I froze at hearing that. How could she say that? Did the color of my skin really matter in my relationships? It couldn't have mattered! Just because Kento was Chinese didn't prevent him from loving me, just like me being black didn't prevent me from loving him. Why was she saying such things? Didn't she see how much he cared about me? About how much I cared about him? What was she doing to us?
I went into my room, shocked and almost embarrassed at what she'd said. Yes, people had commented our differences before, but it had never come from our friends or family before. My parents and my brother embraced Kento willingly. Maybe it had to do with the armors, I don't know, but our backgrounds had never ONCE made them so much as question our relationship.
My grandmother came into my room. "Keisha, how did you get involved with that boy?" she asked.
"A mutual friend," I said. Well, it wasn't a total lie. Anubis had been a mutual friend. . . just one that we'd met through rather unusual and supernatural circumstances, that's all. I looked up at her with frustrated eyes as I sat on my bed. "Grams, why are you doing this to me?"
"You need to be with your own kind," she said plainly. "Black men is what you need. If he wants a girlfriend he should be going to Chinatown like other oriental kids his age. It's not natural, it's not right, and I won't allow it! What's with you, Keisha? Why aren't you looking for a nice boy of your own kind?"
I stared at her in disbelief. "What does our ethnic backgrounds have to do with anything?" I asked. I stood up, staring her down. "We both shed salty tears and red blood, don't we? We breathe the same air, we eat the same foods, and I don't see what difference our skin color makes."
"But he is not like you," said my grandmother, taking my hand. She traced circles over the back of my hand, emphasizing the shade. "Look at your hand. It's a beautiful, dark chocolate brown in color. His is a pale peach color. You should look for someone with the same kind of skin you do, honey."
"So what? Our skin tones aren't a perfect match, big deal," I said. I started to pace back and forth in my room, shooting her the occasional hurtful look. "Grams, I know that we're all affected by what happened to my parents, but why don't you want me to see Kento? If it wasn't for him I don't know how I would have made it through the first few hours after it happened."
"Because he isn't your type!" Grams yelled.
"What makes you think that you KNOW what my type is?" I said. "He loves me, okay? He was right there to comfort me when my parents died. When I cried, he held me and told me that everything was going to be all right. He told me that they'd find the bastards who did it and that they'd pay for what they did!"
Grams growled, then reached over to strike me. My head flew to the side with the contact. I stopped, taking in a few breaths through my nose. "You will no longer see that boy. Maybe I'll let you see someone like you later on, but for now, you and Evan need to stay here with me." My grandmother stood up and walked out.
I fell onto one of my pillows and started to cry.
Over the weekend, Evan slowly began to come out of his shell. He started to talk again (well. . . one word answers, anyways) and made an attempt to eat. Still, my brother ate by himself and at that, it wasn't a lot. Sometimes he sat in front of the TV, watching the news. I think he was looking for developments on our parent's case, but if there were any, we would have been notified long before the news crews were.
I was pretty much left to myself. I read a lot of books as I tried to pass the time. I missed my parents just like everyone else did, but I had come to some peace with the matter. They were gone, and nothing I could do could bring them back. If it was a Dynasty related death, I could avenge them, but if it wasn't, then I could only let the courts decide. Still, I was at a point where I could think clearly.
It was early in the evening on a Saturday that Grams did something really odd. I was in the middle of a romance novel my mother owned when my grandmother called me down. I didn't mind the call. The words on the pages were swimming around and in my mind, I wasn't reading the real name of the hero- I was reading Kento. I wasn't reading the real name of the heroine, either- I read my own name. The effect was incredibly depressing, reminding me how much I missed him.
I found my grandmother in the living room, a black, velvet box in her lap. She patted to the empty spot on the couch next to me. I smiled weakly and went over to her. I was still upset over her breaking me and Kento up, but she was STILL my grandmother. I took a seat and waited to see what she wanted.
My grandmother took in a deep breath. "I need you to try something on for me," she said.
"Try something on?" I asked. "What?"
My grandmother picked the box up and opened in. Inside was a large,
diamond ring. It glistened in the light of the room, catching my eye.
It was crafted beautifully, and was beyond a doubt a flawless cut. It
sat on a gold ring that was lined with tiny rubies. It was EASILY worth
a few hundred dollars.
"Grams. . . where. . . where did you-"
"Not important. Try it on," she said.
I gasped. "Something this expensive?"
"It IS extremely valuable, you are correct. A friend of mine loaned it to me, and I just want you to try it on. I want to see how it would look on you," she said. "I think it would look much better on a youthful hand like yours and not an older hand such as mine. Now put it on."
I took the ring in my hand and slid it onto my ring finger. It glistened in the light like it had from the box. I held my hand up, twisting my wrist to get a better look at the jewel. I shook my head, looking at my grandmother. "It's beautiful, but I don't think it looks good on me. I don't know if it's my skin tone or my hand shape or whatever, but it looks funny." I took the ring off and placed it in my grandmother's waiting hand.
"Thank you, my dear," she said, smiling. With that, she stood up and walked away. I raised an eyebrow in confusion. Something strange was going on, but I couldn't figure out what. I shook my head, almost ready to laugh at myself. Yes, my grandmother had been acting weird, but that was no reason to jump to conclusions that she was up to something.
C'mon, Keisha, this is your GRANDMOTHER. What could she possibly be up to? She's just having some racial issues right now, but with a little bit of convincing, she'll know just how you feel about Kento and before you know it you'll be in his arms again, I tried to reassure myself.
Time passed and the days rolled by. We still weren't allowed to attend school, and we weren't even allowed so much as in the backyard. Evan and I both had severe cases of cabin fever, having read most of the books in the house twice over. I think Evan started on the encyclopedia and I was working on some of the old cookbooks in the house.
One day, we heard a knock on the door. Grams was out, and, despite what she'd told us about strangers, I opened the door. Outside of the door stood Jerome, a neighbor of ours who went to school with us. He was a huge kid, weighing in at two hundred fifty pounds at a height of six foot eight. Jerome had been the most dangerous linebacker on the football team, doing twice as much damage as Kento could do thanks to his smaller size. But despite his massive strength and size, he was a sweet heart and liked to be called a "gentle giant". Like us, he was black. "Hey, Keisha," he said.
"Hello, Jerome," I said. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, your grandma went to school today and talked to all of your teachers to get your homework. Since I live a few houses down, they sent me to deliver it," he said. Sure enough, he had several books and folders in his arms. "This is everything you two have missed and everything that you'll be covering right up until Christmas break. The only thing you'll have to make up is a couple of tests and a couple of science experiments involving dangerous materials that you couldn't bring home."
I smiled, taking the homework in both arms. I almost fell over from the weight, but Jerome helped me recover. "Thanks, Jerome." He took a few of the books back and helped me bring them inside, setting them on the floor by the coat rack. "Nice to see this is my teacher's way of sending their condolences."
He grinned a huge grin that I knew meant he was up to something. "After you divvy up the books, I got something else for you," he said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a folded up piece of notebook paper and plopped it on top of the stack of work. "The person who gave it to me told me that it was for your eyes only."
I blinked. "Well. . . I suppose that's good," I said. "I'll see you when we get back to school."
Jerome looked at me oddly. "Why aren't you in school now? You seem to be in good enough condition to go back now," he said. "I thought you were both pathetic crybabies because of your absence. I mean, your mom and dad. . . I can't imagine what I'd do in your shoes."
"I know," I said. "Grams thinks we need more time to mourn. We miss them and all, but we're starting to get back to normal. Or at least as normal as we're going to get. We're almost done the grieving process and we need human interaction sometime." I sighed heavily. "See you 'round, Jerome."
"See ya, Keisha," he said. He walked down the walkway and I bumped the door closed, then went over to the kitchen table. I pocketed the note and called Evan down to help me sort out of the homework. He came downstairs and gave me an answer in a complete sentence- a big improvement.
As we began to try and decipher what my math teacher had written for me in some form of hieroglyphics, Grams walked in through the door. "Oh, I see the homework got to your two all right," she said. "Now, you kids get to work on that if you get bored around here."
We've BEEN bored, I thought to myself. Evan eventually decided what my teacher wanted, told me what he thought the note said (which made sense and seemed to the right amount of work for the chapter we were on), and I carried the load upstairs as he brought his up to his room.
I dumped the books on the floor, closed the door, and reached into my pocket. I slowly unfolded the note, having a slight inkling as to who it was from. Feeling the note in my fingers almost told me who it was before I even saw any handwriting. Once the note was opened, I started to read it:
Keish-
I miss you. I would've talked to you a Friday or so ago, but your grandmother chased me away. I don't know what her problem is, but I want you to know that even though I can't see you anymore, I've been behaving myself (though I think Sheila wishes I WASN'T- can't she take "no" for an answer?) and I hope I can see you again. I saw Jerome collecting your homework third period and decided that I had to have SOME sort of contact with you. He's a nice guy, after all- great football player, too. So I asked him to play carrier pigeon and, the excellent guy he is, he complied. I hope this gets to you!
I guess the only thing I really want to say is that I still love you. Someday, we're going to find a way to be together again and it's only a matter of waiting for that day to come. You're one of the only things on my mind right now and it's driving me crazy to know that I can't hold you. For once I feel so powerless. I felt so powerless when I learned about what happened. I feel powerless to help you now, too, and that hurts a lot, but I know there isn't much I can do except give this to Jerome and hope it can give you at least a little comfort. You don't know how badly I want to make this all go away and make everything go back to normal, but I can't. I don't think even Anubis has that kind of power. You just have to stay strong and remember that life will always go on. Live for yourself and now, live for your parents, too.
Everyone else misses you, too and they continue to send their condolences.
With all my heart and soul,
Kento
PS- S.W.A.K.
I found myself wiping away a few tears as I read the note. He still cared. He missed me. It was the most comforting thing I'd read in days. I wished I could write back to him, but I doubted Jerome would be back anytime soon. Besides, as nice of a guy as he is, I didn't want to get him in trouble for playing love messenger.
Smiling, I brought the note to my lips.
