I laid there in the darkness with my eyes half open as Christy’s head was laid on my chest. Her long black hair spread across my forearm as her caramel face disappeared in it. I brushed the side of my hand across her lips. Her nose twitched and she smiled a little bit. I wanted to reach over with my lips and lightly give her a peck on the cheek as she slept, but her head was too far away lower down my chest, and I didn’t feel like putting in that effort, or exerting that much energy. Rather, I just laid my head back and slowly closed my eyes as they drifted to the back of my head. Thoughts began to fill my head as it reclined back on the pillow. I started thinking about that day on the train tracks. What happened? Did I really jump? Why didn’t Abdul or Arnold try to help me? And most importantly, who is “Allah”? For some reason his name kept popping in my head. I knew that whoever he is, he must have a lot to do with whatever is going on. I tried thinking about him, of what he looks like. Is he tall? What’s his ethnicity? Where’s he from? Every time that I tried to think about things like that a white wall appeared in my mind and I would get a headache. So I tried not to depict his physical characteristics. But I still wanted to know who he was. But who can I ask? Nobody else was there with…
“Abdul!” He was there with me at the train tracks. He’s the one that I have to ask. I have to get answers from him about this “Allah” guy. As soon as I wake up I’m going to find him, and I’m gonna ask him. First I’m just gonna close my eyes a little bit…
My head reclined back and my eyes closed and I began to drift.
“Daddy!”
“Wake up bae.” Whispered Christy.
She had her elbows on my stomach as the bottom of her cheek was perched up on her hands. Slowly I blinked my eyes open. She was looking up at me smiling while her elbows were on my stomach.
“Bae what you doing? I miss you” She whispered.
I smiled a little bit, then I reached over with my hand and brushed my fingers against her lips.
“Just laying here bae. I miss you too.” I said, as I continued to brush my fingers against her lips.
The entire room was dark, as the lights were turned off. Christy’s face seemed to illuminate as her elbows were perched up on my stomach. I looked deep into her eyes and slowly began to smile. She looked at me and smiled back.
“What you smiling for?” She asked me.
I then began to laugh. “What, I can’t smile?” I asked her.
“No, you can’t.” She said as she flicked her long black hair behind her ears.
“So tell me mhmm, why are you smiling?” She asked me again.
I stopped brushing my finger against her lips and began to rub her face with the back of my hands.
“I’m just happy bae. Because I have the most beautiful wife in the world.” I softly said as I continued to rub her cheek.
Christy looked at me and her eyes began to sparkle.
“Awwwww!” She said.
“You are so sweet.” She added,
I didn’t say anything, I looked at her and continued to rub her cheek.
“Come here…” I called her.
Christy lifted her head on her elbows and began to climb up my chest. She placed her hands down on my heart, and then her head.
“Yes baby?” She said.
“Bae I just wanted to tell you… that you are so beautiful and I love you.” I said to her.
Christy gave a short pause as her head was on my chest and she continued to look at me.
“Bae your birthday coming up soon. What you gon buy for me?” She asked me as she began laughing.
“When’s my birthday?” I asked her.
“April 26th boy, in like two weeks.” She said.
I lifted one of my eyebrows up as I looked at her and twisted my face.
“How did you even know? Bae I never told you when my birthday was, so how?” I asked her.
Christy closed her eyes and began laughing out loud as she dived her head down. Her long black hair brushed across my face.
“I went on your Facebook bae.” She said.
“So what you gon do? How you gon spend it?” She asked me.
I thought for a moment and gave a long pause. Then I reached over with my hand and started rubbing her face.
“What better way to spend it than with the most beautiful girl in the world.” I said.
Christy continued to place her elbow on my stomach as she lifted up her gaze to stare at me. Her eyes began to sparkle as she looked at me in the eye.
“Awwww.” She quietly said.
Then she laid her entire head on my chest, and she curled up in my arms and drew the blanket over our bodies.
“Jason you better not ever cheat on me or hurt me?” She said as her head was laid on my chest.
“I won’t baby.” I said as I slowly began to stroke her hair.
“Bae you promise?” She quietly asked me as her head was still laid on my chest.
“Yeah”. I said. Then I closed my eyes and slowly drifted.
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I woke up a few hours later. Christy had her head still rested on my chest and her eyes were closed. I slowly reached in my pocket to pull out my Samsung Galaxy Note III. I looked at the time, 6:25am. I had to get up and start getting ready. Today is Friday, which is the day that Jerry said that he was going to link up with Joe before school in the morning and smoke up. I didn’t want to wake Christy up because I knew that she was in deep sleep. So I gently lifted her head off my chest and placed it on the pillow. Then I began to lightly get up off the bed.
“Bae where are you going?” Christy asked me as I was getting up from the bed.
Immediately I froze and began to think. I can’t tell her that I’m about to start heading to school, the sun hasn’t even risen up yet and she knows the time that we’re supposed to be there. And I definitely can’t tell her that I’m getting ready to go meet up with Joe and Jerry and smoke with them.
I leaned in with my upper body to where her head was laid on the pillow.
“Go back to sleep baby, I just have to go to the library real quick okay.” I said.
Christy still had her eyes closed as she was curled up in the blanket. She slowly opened up her eyes, and then she lifted her head up slightly and peered out the window that was in front of her in her room, she saw that it was still dark outside.
“Bae but…” She began to say.
“Sshhhhh!” I said as I placed my index finger on her lip.
“I’ll see you in school okay, I love you.” I said as I leaned in with my head and kissed her on her cheek.
Christy closed her eyes and laid her head back down on the pillow.
“Okay Papi, I love you too.” She quietly said as her head hit the pillow. I continued to rub her cheek and stroke her hair, I also gave her another kiss on her cheek. When I was sure that she had gone back to sleep I slowly got up off the bed, without making any sound. Then I walked over to the bathroom in her room, I threw water in my mouth and over my face. I did that three times then I walked downstairs.
I grabbed my bag off the couch in the living room, then I opened it up, I always keep spare deodorant in my bag. I may not be able to take a shower and change my clothes, but I definitely am going to put on deodorant. I lifted up my forearm and applied the Old Spice deodorant, then I threw it back in my bag, then I gently opened up the front door and stepped out, I gently closed the door behind me.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Jerry’s number. The phone began to ring, no pick up. It rang again, no pick up. It rang again, no pick up. On the fourth ring he finally picked up.
“Yo?” Jerry’s voice came on the line as he exhaled and began to cough.
“Where you at bro?” I asked him.
“Joe’s, you coming?” He said to me.
Jerry was already over at Joe’s place, and by the raspiness in his throat and the way he kept coughing I could tell that he had already begun smoking.
“I’m at Christy’s, I’m finna come over there now.” I said to my friend on the line.
Jerry began to laugh, as him and Joe were discussing something. I couldn’t quite hear what they were saying. Whatever it was that they were talking about, it must have been really funny, Jerry could not even hear me when I told him that I was coming.
“Bro I’ll call you when I’m out back.” I said.
Jerry continued to laugh. I finally decided to just hang up the phone and begin walking.
Joe lived very close to Christy, just one town across. I took a shortcut through a back alley, then I made a right turn at a stop sign, then I made another right turn at a gas station. Then I arrived at the back of Joe’s house,
His house was located on top of an inclining hill. I began to reach in my pocket to take out my phone and call Jerry. As soon as I took it out it began to ring. I quickly picked it up and placed it against my ears.
“Bro I see you, just come in through the basement door out back.” Jerry said.
“Ard bro,” I replied.
I looked around for the white BLICO basement door, once I found it I walked up to it. Opened it up with both my hands and stepped in and began to descend down. The basement was the same as it was when I last saw it. Small, cramp, dark, the bathroom door was still open with a funny stench that was coming from it. I heard Joe and Jerry’s voice but I could not find the exact room that they were in.
I turned my head some more and continued to look.
“In here bruh!” Jerry called out from a room in the far right corner of the basement. I started walking towards the room. I saw my two friends as they were both seated on a laid out mattress that was spread on the floor. They each had one blunt in their hand, and another rolled up blunt was laying on top of the mattress. I took off my bookbag and placed it on the floor then I went and sat down on the mattress next to Joe. He passed me the blunt that he was smoking on. I grabbed it and put it against my lips and took a slow drag. Immediately I began to cough as the smoke filled the inside of my chest. Joe and Jerry began to laugh.
“Damn bro, you got baby lungs.” Jerry said to me as he laughed.
I ignored his facetious comment and took another hit of the blunt. The smoke scratched my throat and burned it as it went down. I wanted to cough again but I managed to hold it in. I began to feel my eyes reddening as I began to look at the blunt as I was holding it in my hands.
“I love you.” I said to it.
A blinding light then appeared from up top the ceiling. It penetrated through the roof and manifested in the small room where we were at. Jerry and Joe did not see it and they both continued their conversation, I was the only one that could see the light. Arnold then stepped out of the light and began to hover slightly above the ground. Then he began floating over to my direction where I was seated at. I held on to the blunt with my right hand in between my thumb and index finger. I stared at Arnold as he approached me. He was now hovering right in front of my face. He held out his finger and slowly tapped my nose. Then the light shun on him again, I blinked, and by the time that I opened up my eyes he was gone.
I passed the blunt back to Joe. He took two quick puffs and tossed it to the side. Then he picked up the other blunt that was laying on the mattress. He struck together the matches that was on his hand, then he lit it and took a drag. I wanted to ask him how come he didn’t use a lighter, but then I chose not to. Joe passed the lit blunt to Jerry, then Jerry passed it to me, then I passed it onto Joe again. This process kept repeating until the blunt was now a roach. Joe took a final hit then he got up and started brushing off his pants.
“Come on, we out.” He said to us as he began to walk out the room.
I staggered to get up. I had to catch my balance with my hands. Joe saw me struggling and started laughing.
All three of us walked out of the house and began heading to school. When we arrived at the front of the school all three of us parted ways. Jerry had to go to the office to talk to the principal about something, and Joe said that he had to go to the cafeteria to get breakfast. I thought about going to the cafeteria and grabbing something to eat as well, but food wasn’t really on my mind. It was only one thing that I cold think about. I walked over to my first block Ms. Senknow class and sat down on my regular table. Usually Jerry sits down on the table with me, but he said that he was going to the office to talk to the principal about something.
“Okay everybody, we’re going to be continue our discussion from yesterday. Did everybody get a copy of the stem cells research paper that I printed out?” Ms. Senkow asked the whole class.
I didn’t know what she was talking about, nor did I care. Only one thing was on my mind. I quickly reached in my pocket and drew out my cell phone and began to text Christy as my head was down.
“What you doing? I miss you.” I said in the text then sent it.
A few seconds later a notification appeared on my phone showing that Christy had replied to me.
“First-block, imy2.” The text read.
“Come out back to the fence near the baseball field.” I replied to her.
After about two minutes she returned the text message.
“Why?” It read.
I stared at the screen of the phone and did not respond. I didn’t know what to say in response to such a silly question.
“NOW!” I said in the text.
Then I raised my hand up and asked Ms. Senkow for permission to go to the bathroom. She gave me the hall pass then I trudged out of the classroom. I was already on the second floor so I didn’t have to get in the elevator to go down or up. I walked over to the cafeteria and out the door at the back. Then I started heading towards the baseball field which was just outside the school, near the Lacrose field.
Christy was already standing there waiting for me. She had on black jeans that hugged her thighs and legs, with small black boots, and she had an all black graphic hoodie which had Miss Liz on it and another female rapper/singer, though I didn’t know who she was though.
“Jason what are we doing here? Why couldn’t you just wait till Lunch or something?” She said to me.
I didn’t say nothing to her. I had my eyes fixed on the pair of jeans she had on while she stood there with her hands in her pocket.
“Jason, what are we---” She began to say.
I quickly reached over with my hand and lightly wrapped my fingers around her throat and pushed her against the fence.
“I don’t want you to talk okay. Your name is Betsy.” I said to her.
Christy saw the fire that shot through my eyes and she slowly began backing away.
“No Jason, this isn’t you.” She said.