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“Do you like her?”
“I do, but she doesn’t talk much and not to worry. She has promised not to talk about you.” This is what my life has become. My younger sister is protective of me. I nod.
“Maybe you need to invite her over more often and you can get to know her then.”
“Maybe I will. Hopefully, she says yes.”
“She will if you try to be her friend.”
“Thanks, Nas.” She gets up, kisses my head, and rushes out. I smile, and just like that, I know Jade will be back and she has promised me a dance. Now I need my bones to heal.
JADE
Igentlyknockonthe door. I’m eager, however, I’ve tapered my excitement. Taimani said he’d requested to see me. She’s certain that’s a good thing. The school required community service hours. Since I joined the school in January, my hours were reduced. I did not know where to complete my hours. Taimani suggested that visiting her brother would count towards the hours “Better than cleaning the beach,” she’d joked.
I took the paper home for my aunt and uncle to sign the permission slip. Aunty Lara didn’t like the idea of me going to sit with a man, but my uncle reminded her it was better than me sitting at home and crying. She then said, “A beautiful young girl and handsome man is always a recipe for disaster. I can almost see it.”
He’d replied, “He can’t kidnap her and Jade spending time with someone healing may give her purpose. It’s better than her returning home after school and crying in her room alone.” That was a surprise to hear. I didn’t know they heard me crying. Many a night, I’m reminded of my loss, and I cried myself to sleep.
Aunty Lara then said, “Fine, I’ll sign but not without noting that I can see the writing on the wall, and you better be ready to deal with it when it comes.”
All I heard was they were signing the permission slip for me to see Naseer daily. I didn’t care about anything else. I just want to sit with him and laugh with him.
Now here is my heart drumming again. The nervous looks and snide comments from the nurses don’t help. I’m scared he might become a person from the last visit. Still, I straighten myself and put up a bold face.
“Come in,” he bellows.
Exhaling, I put my big girl pants on and gently opened the door.
“Hi, Gent.” I nervously say, not sure what else to say.
“Hi, Lady,” he responds with a smile. Relief washes through me. I smile back. “Come and sit with me, lady.”
I get closer to the bed, and I pull out the chair I’d sat on the last time; it looks like it was waiting for me. Which is, of course, silly.
“Taimani said visiting me will help with your school’s required hours of social service.”“Yes and thank you for agreeing to let me visit you. I’ll be here after school with Taimani on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday if that’s okay with you.” I state, avoiding his eyes. I thought it was a fluke the last time they pulled me in. It wasn’t a fluke. There’s something about him that calls to me.“I don’t have any visitors, so that should be fine.” I nod in response.“Would you like to watch a movie?" he asks.“Sure, maybe we can make a chart of movies we would like to watch.”“A chart?” he says quizzically.“I like to plan. The better planned and prepared you are, the less chaos.”
“This should be interesting. I didn’t plan in the past. I go with the flow, but we can try your way,” he casually says.“How do you prepare if you don’t plan?” He sounds strange to me.Who doesn’t plan?
“The flow is better and more intriguing.”
I roll my eyes; this should be interesting. Unfortunately, for me, I’m now stuck with him and can’t change my social hours selection because once the head mistress signs you can’t change your selection.
Week over week, my routine became visiting Naseer. We talk non-stop about everything and nothing. I got so comfortable laughing with him that I told him, I’ve never kissed a boy. His first look was surprise, then he reminded me not rush about kissing a boy. He tells me more about the places he had traveled to and his friend, Brian, who he was competing with when he had the accident was cousin to his college roommate Ken, but he and Brian were closer. Josh was the fourth guy who was Brian’s roommate and they all got along well. Now he has refused to see anyone of them. Even his close cousin Raheem. I didn’t like that, but I kept quiet.
And tell him about Tito and me, how we have been friends since kindergarten.
Most days I’m eagerly waiting for Taimani’s to ride with her. Naseer and I watch movies and eat together. I make him watch Sci-fi movies with me which he doesn’t like. We have created a chart of all the movies we want to watch together. I have gotten to know more about his likes and dislikes.
He has names for his two nurses. One is sloppy, and the other is efficient. I’ve found him to be quick to anger. His first outburst scared the living daylights out of me. I sat quietly as he unleashed his beast on his nurse because she relayed a message. The next day after his outburst, I made an excuse about having to finish some homework and didn’t visit him. Honestly, I didn’t want to return for fear he might lash out at me.
When I didn’t show up on the third day, he called and I didn’t have any excuse for him, so I showed up on my next scheduled day, which was five days after seeing his outburst.
“Why didn’t you show up last week, Jade?” I can hear the false calm in his voice.
“I didn’t like the way you yelled at your nurse; I feel you might do that to me,” I’d said, looking straight at him. I don’t hide from his eyes anymore.
“I would never shout at you like that.”
