Louis for reading this and encouraging me and all that mushy stuff. Thanks love :)
Jill, who is the other half of Shalisa and lives in Wansted at the top of the gap where Tariq *lives*
Monique for her creative ideas
JT for being the original Tariq Taylor and not knowing it
And finally:
Scott Haartman and all the BOWsters who got me writing after a long case of writer’s block.
“Shalisa Downes, you’re one of the most cruelest, stuck up bitches I’ve ever met.”
Shalisa refused to give Greg Dumas the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She knew that her boss had been on her case about trying to get her to sleep with him for the last month or so. She didn’t even dream that he would haul her into the office and dress her down like this.
“What’s your problem, Greg, Donna stopped talking to you? Or the two of you stopped sleeping together?” she retorted out of wounded self-defense. Once said, she could see her unintended barb had hit home. *That* explained why Greg had been so short with her lately.
“Shut -- Shut the fuck up!” he snapped. “I can’t believe I ever liked you!” he moved out from behind his desk in his tiny office and faced the silent black girl sitting before him. “I really don’t believe that I actually liked you.” He repeated, his handsome face contorting in fury.
“If I remember correctly,” Shalisa countered, somewhat calmer, “I told you I didn’t want you. You’re married to my best friend. I have a boyfriend. I don’t deal with married men and I don’t horn my boyfriend!”
“Really? Since when you become so damn self righteous?” Greg snapped right back. “You let me buy you lunch, drive you home, all kinds of stuff!”
Shalisa shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Had she led him on by doing that? No, she quickly decided. She’d always made her intentions known, it was Greg that had the hidden agenda.
“Greg, there’s a difference between friendship and sex and you obviously don’t know it. You’re nothing but a jerk!”
The temperature dropped considerably in the administrators’ tiny office.
Shit, Shalisa thought, I think I just lost my job. No problem. She felt a strange sense of liberation and she stood up, surprising her still angry boss.
“Greg Dumas, you’re making my life uncomfortable, you’re giving me a hard time at work and I absolutely refuse to sleep with you. I have a healthly respect for your wife and myself...so I’m taking the best possible option for us both -- I quit.”
Greg stopped in mid stride, shock visible across his dark features.
“Shit, no, Lisa, you’re one of my best workers!”
“Shoulda thought of that before you tried to jump into my pants.”
With that, she got up and left. She could see the curious stares of the secretaries in the office. She knew they’d heard muted raised voices and like the malicious bitches they were, they were dying to know what had happened. Well, they certainly wouldn’t hear it from her...
She walked into her tiny office, just off the secretary's pool and to her desk, picked up her bag and coffee mug, checked the desk for any missed personal items and left, never looking left or right, her head held high. She made it to the parking lot before her bravado gave out.
She sat at one of the lunch tables, head in her hands, contemplating her options. It was only 9:30 am. Home was out of the question. Her parents weren’t home but some fast neighbour would inform them that she had come home only an hour after she had left and her mother would make a major production out of it. Donna and all her other friends were at work. That only left Tariq. He was on vacation right now, so he should be still home...
She walked out of the gate of the white washed building and started up the long side street that led up to the busy main road.
Shalisa looked up. The sky was filled with fluffy white, high clouds, with wide gaps of blue between them. Perfect beach day. Maybe she could persuade Riq to go.
About half way up the road was a phone booth. After checking that it was working, she called Riq.
“‘Ello” he said sleepily.
“Riq?”
“Hi sweetie!” she could hear the smile in his voice.
“You going out?”
“No, why?”
“I want to come across.”
“No prob.” His voice changed to one of concern. “You okay, Lise?”
“Yeah...I think.”
“Want me to come and pick you up?”
“Thanks. I really can’t face that bus ride through Bridgetown right now...but I don’t want to wait at work either.”
“Wait at the bus shelter at the top of the gap -- give me fifteen minutes, love.” He stopped then added as an after thought “You sure you’re okay, you sound awful. You sick?”
“No, but please hurry.”
“No prob.”
As Shalisa replaced the receiver and started the three-minute walk to the top of the road, a smile crossed her face. That was one thing that she could count on Tariq for. Not to ask any unnecessary questions. Right now he would he more than ready to lend his broad shoulders for her to cry on. As boyfriends went, he was pretty special. A Trinidadian by birth and Barbadian by relocation, he had his own ad agency in the prestigious Belleville area. At 27, Shalisa knew it was no mean feat. To succeed against agencies that were established and had their own specialized clientele was something in itself.
The main road was busy; it led out of the capital Bridgetown toward the south coast and its many hotels, like the one Shalisa had just left. She bided her time by watching the different forms of transport that passed her; the large predominately blue government owned buses that were noisy and sometimes unreliable, the smaller yellow mini buses that undermined the government buses and the even smaller white and burgundy Z.R.s, so called for the first two letters on their license plates. The Z.R.s were plentiful, like ants around a sugar jar. One could always get a ZR, no matter what time of day or night it was. Then of course were the numerous cars, cycles and to Shalisa’s delight, even a donkey cart ambled by, the elderly driver looking as if he didn’t have any particular place to go, the back of the wooden cart piled high with fodder for his cattle. He made an incongruous sight among the more modern forms of transport, a defiant stand against the twentieth century. So intent on the cart, Shalisa almost didn’t notice when Tariq’s black custom painted Jeep Renegade pulled up in front of her.
“Hey stranger, need a ride?” he smiled, showing even white teeth contrasting against dark chocolate skin. Shalisa always melted at his smile.
“Hi” she replied, getting up, smoothing down her skirt and getting into the jeep.
“A kiss for the pretty lady?”
“Not ‘bout here. It’s a no parking zone an’ knowing your luck, the police will pass and give you a ticket.”
Tariq grinned. “That means when we get home, you’ll have to compensate me.”
Shalisa smiled as Tariq put the jeep in gear and drove off.
As they passed through busy Bridgetown on their way to Tariq’s West Coast Wanstead home, he asked her “You sick?”
“Sometimes I think so.”
Tariq raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”
“I quit my job.”
“Oh ho. I guess Greg finally went too far. Do I kill him for laying a hand on my totally innocent girlfriend?”
Shalisa laughed. “No silly, Greg didn’t touch me, although if he had, I would have screamed blue bloody murder. He just propositioned me.”
“Just?!” Tariq gave a sardonic grin as they entered the scenic Spring Garden highway that paralleled Brandon’s beach, a popular local bathing spot.
“Yeah...I couldn’t do it to Donna, you or me. I couldn’t horn you with my best friend’s husband.”
“Thank you Lise.” He said quietly.
“You’re welcome.”
“You ate yet?” Tariq asked after they had climbed University Hill in silence and were heading past the University of the West Indies and towards Tariq’s hilltop home.
“No, I’ve been with Greg since I got in to work.”
“Good, cause I haven’t either. I just got up and left.”
“I see,” Shalisa grinned, taking in his outfit of baseball cap -- backwards, of course, silky black football shorts and nothing else. Tariq had a beautiful muscular body she could never get tired of looking at.
“You know, you bear a striking resemblance to the cute black fella in the Hugo Boss ads.” She told him.
“You mean Toni Braxton’s dead lover in her last video? The one who fell off his bike?”
Shalisa laughed outright. “Yeah, that’s him.”
“I didn’t tell you that’s me?” Tariq kidded.
“You had Toni Braxton and didn’t tell me?”
“I was afraid you’d get jealous, love. But she means nothing to me.” Tariq laughed and swung into his driveway, rolled to a stop under the deep covered garage and killed the engine.
He leaned over and kissed Shalisa slowly, detonating fires that started in the pit of Shalisa’s stomach and mushroomed their way upwards. She responded, knowing that eventually this was going to end up inside on his bed, or as it had more often than not, in the kitchen of his home. One hand splayed across his neck, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss and the other trailed long fingers over his muscular back, feeling the interplay of muscles as his hands were busy pulling her shirt out of the waistband of her skirt, and slipping skilled fingers inside. Tariq trailed kisses down her neck to the hollow at the base of her throat where he knew that she loved to be kissed the most. She let out a soft whimper and the fingers at his neck clutched it convulsively.
In response, her fingers trailed lower, to the sensitive spot right at the base of his spine. She rubbed it lightly, almost not touching it, causing him to shiver and moan. She knew just how to turn him on and how to do it fast. Her fingers glided around his trim waist to encircle his warm shaft, inside his shorts. He cried out then, his fingers involuntarily clutching a handful of her skirt. She stroked the head gently, feeling drops of precum coat his warm, velvety organ. Wordlessly they broke apart and slipped out of the jeep. In front of it, next to the steps to the kitchen door, was a pile of packing crates. Tariq pulled Shalisa in front of them, directly in front of the jeep, passion making their movements economical. He put his hand on the small of her back, exerting a slight pressure, and she bent over, knowing exactly what her lover wanted. He quickly pushed down the waistband of his shorts with one hand while hiking up her skirt with the other. His brain briefly registered the lack of underwear before moving directly behind her and launching into her with one fluid stroke. He knew that she would be ready, even without feeling her. Shalisa almost cried out from the sheer pleasure of it. She knew that his closest neighbour was a housewife that had a habit of dropping by unannounced. The jeep hid the couple, but it didn’t block sound.
Tariq started up a fast pace, jackhammering into Shalisa, knowing exactly how she liked it. He kept his hands on her waist, anchoring them. Shalisa whimpered, trying to keep herself from screaming out. He could feel her muscles tightening up, and her orgasm start. She felt so tight and hot and wet...he could feel himself swelling in response, and Shalisa gasped, feeling his reaction. That was one of the things he loved so much about making love to her, she was so sensitive and responsive.
“Riq, I--” was all she managed to get out before she came, triggering Tariq’s explosive climax. He stood there for a couple of seconds, getting his breath back and fixing himself, then straightened Shalisa, pulling down her skirt and gathering her into his arms.
“Greg ought to fire you more often if I can get this kind of response out of you.” He murmured into her ear, causing her to laugh. She broke away, and sat on the steps and waited patiently while he got the keys out of the ignition of the jeep and opened the kitchen door. Holding hands, they went into the airy house. Perched on the top of a hill, it commanded a view of the West Coast and the peaceful Caribbean Sea. Shalisa loved watching sunsets from Tariq’s back porch.
“Riq, I’m going to grab a shower.” she told him
“Want company?” He asked.
Shalisa looked him up and down. “You looking for a repeat performance?”
“I was going to say that I wanted to pamper you, but if you want a repeat performance...” he finished suggestively.
“Maybe later.” She replied. “The sex that is. If you want to bathe while I do, then no problem. It cuts down on water.”
Tariq laughed. “Ever the administrator.” They walked through his bedroom to use the master bathroom that adjoined it; the shower was bigger in there. Tariq undressed his girlfriend with care, then himself, and led her into the bathroom.
“Today I get to pamper you.” he said.
“You always pamper me.”
“Well, pamper you more then.”
Tariq turned on the hot water tap and let the warm water flow over her. He reached for the bottle of scented shower gel on the shower caddy and a sponge. He poured some onto the sponge and started to massage it on her wet body, starting with her back and working his way around her. “I could get to enjoy this.” She sighed in contentment.
Tariq had worked his way to her front. He leaned his back against the wall and she leaned up against him, her head lolling back against his shoulder, warm water cascading against her chest.
“I was thinking, Riq, maybe we could go to the beach.”
“Batts Rock?” He asked.
“Sure. That bikini I left is still here, right?”
“And who do you think would take it?”
“Toni Braxton?” She asked promptly
He laughed, a deep rumble against her back. “God, woman, you *are* jealous!”
“Hmmm.” She replied, sleepily. “You’re putting me to sleep.”
“So I hear.” He turned her around to face him and just held her.
They stood there, under the waterfall of warm water, oblivious of the constraints of time and space. “Lise, do you have any idea how much I love you?” He asked her finally, his chin resting on the top of her head.
“If it’s anything close to how much I love you, then yes.” She replied. They lapsed back into silence. There wasn’t anything left to say.
Tariq had known Shalisa for seven years now, since they had met in university. He had been in his second year, she in her first. They had been friends for their first year together, and then Shalisa had entered into a series of self-destructive relationships that had hurt him as much as they had hurt her. Finally, at the end of his final year, they had realised that they liked each other and had tentatively started to go out with each other. Like had turned to love and they had been together ever since. He couldn’t imagine life without Shalisa Downes...maybe it was time to do something about it.
He reached out and turned off the taps, and wrapped Shalisa up in a fluffy towel that was hanging over the shower rail. He led her into the bedroom and toweled her dry. Slipping a T-shirt over her head and wrapping the towel around his waist, he pulled her onto the bed and lay her down next to him. They curled up together, spoon like, Shalisa in front, backing Tariq, his arms tight around her.
“Tell me everything that happened. From the beginning.” Tariq said softly.
Shalisa took a deep breath.
“It was about a month ago...no. Donna and Greg got married two years ago. You were at the wedding, you remember what it was like, y’know real romantic and stuff. Donna and I have been friends since primary school, and I was her maid of honour. Greg had always been friendly toward me, and I just figured it was because I was her closest and oldest friend, and he’s family to me. Hell, I introduced them. Then about a month ago, he started to drop hints. Sexual hints. At first it was nothing overt, a little harmless flirting, you know how it is. Nothing specific. I wasn’t bothered; he flirted with all the women at work. Then he started to drop hints that I would have to repay him for all the nice things he had done for me. I wasn’t too sure what he meant by that, and it scared me, remember, I came and told you about it.” Shalisa could feel the movement behind her as Tariq nodded and she went on. “Then last week he started to snap at me for any little thing that I did. No matter what. Personal or professional. And this morning, he called me in the office, I figured it was to talk about a report I was supposed to hand in on Monday, and at first he demanded that I hand in the report today instead of Monday, then he started on me, calling me names and basically telling me he was fed up because I wouldn’t give out. In the end I just got annoyed and told him to shove his job. And that’s it.” Shalisa sighed. “I still can’t believe that I did this.”
“Did what?”
“Walk away from a good paying job. I was Facility Administrator!”
“You can always get another job. You’ve made enough contacts in the hotel business to get something else.”
Shalisa was silent. Her mind was obviously somewhere else.
“Mother is going to kill me.” She said after a while.
“Lise, you’re 26 years old. You’re not a child, Your mother shouldn’t have any jurisdiction over what you do.”
Shalisa rolled over to face him. She looked miserable. “She’s going to say it's my fault.”
“For what, love?”
“Leading Greg on.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“Try telling Mother that. Greg’s her nephew. She thinks the sun shines outta his ass. She’s gonna kill me.”
“Lise--”
“Riq, you know my mother. She thinks I don’t know how to run my own life. She thinks I can’t pick a decent boyfriend, a decent job, nothing. To her, this will only prove her right.” Shalisa said bitterly and rolled back away from Tariq.
“Lise, I’m sorry”. Tariq replied, hugging her tighter.
“Daddy believes in me, but he doesn’t -- can’t stand up to her. I guess he’s a hen-pecked husband. Poor daddy. She’s so forceful.” Shalisa’s voice was wistful. In the silence that followed, they could hear Tariq’s housewife neighbour singing off key to a popular song on the radio.
“Sometimes I hate her.” There was a pregnant pause. “Actually it’s all the time. I hate her all the time. I hate the fact she tries to run my life, that she tries to tell me what to do, that she thinks that you’re not good enough for me.” Shalisa’s voice got more passionate with each word and suddenly Tariq realised that she was crying. He couldn’t say anything. What could he say? Nothing was adequate.
“She made Mikey go away. He said he got a good job offer in England, but I know she ran him out! Her own son! I wish I had the guts to go too!” she sobbed brokenheartedly.
Finally her sobs tapered off, and she lay in Tariq’s embrace saying nothing. Ultimately, Tariq sighed and told her: “You know what you need to do. I can’t run your life for you. But you need to do what you feel is right. What makes you happy.”
Shalisa said nothing, she didn’t want to face facts; reality was just too painful. Painful as it was, though, she knew what she had to do.
“I’ll talk to her tonight.” She said at length, rolling back to face Riq.
“Want me to come?”
“Yeah, I might need you hold me back if she goes too far.” Shalisa joked feebly, giving a watery smile.
Tariq leaned across and kissed her tenderly. “That’s for being a brave girl.”
Shalisa looked at him. “Can I get another one?”
Tariq thought seriously for a moment, then one of his slow sensual smiles spread across his face. “Only if you answer my question.” He answered slyly.
“Which is?”
“Look at me.”
“That’s not a question.”
“No, but I want to see your expression when I ask you.”
“Oh? I guess you’re going to beg me for money, right?” She joked.
“Close, but no cigar.” He turned serious and took her face in his hands. “Will you marry me?”
“Oh--my--god.” Shalisa said slowly, shock displayed across her dark features. This was the last thing she had expected.
“I want to be here for you all the time. Not only as a friend or as a lover, but as both.” Tariq said quietly and with conviction.
Someone started a lawnmower in the engulfing silence.
Shalisa took a deep breath then told him: “From the first time I met you, you’ve always been in my life. Since that first day in the library when you knocked my books outta my hand, you’ve turned my life upside down.”
Tariq smiled. “Either you setting me up for a disappointment or--” he stopped as Shalisa, laughing, playfully attacked him. She straddled him in one fluid motion, pinning his hands under her knees. “I’m going to punish you for that remark. I bear my soul to you and you make sport at me. Well, I know all your ticklish spots...” she warned him.
“Don’t threaten me woman, you ain’t answered my question.”
“Oh really?” She challenged.
“Yeah really.” He said defiantly. He started to rear up to buck her off and she retaliated quickly by tickling him unmercifully. He rolled over in an attempt to dislodge her, but they crashed to the floor. Tariq grabbed the bedcovers in an effort to anchor himself and succeeded in pulling them to the floor too. The pair fought on the floor until Tariq was laughing too hard to even defend himself properly. Shalisa dissolved in a mass of giggles, clutching her sides. “Oh god, Riq, you’re disgusting. You must be the only man who has ever proposed to a woman while laughing!” she told him. He lay entangled in the blankets; the towel that had been around his waist was partially hidden by the bed.
“And you have to be the only woman that took so long to answer.” He retorted. “Do I have to torture you to get my answer?” He reached across and slipped a warm hand under her T-shirt, caressing her stomach. He was rewarded with a sharp inhalation of breath. “Do I have to send in the heavy artillery?” His hand angled lower, feeling stomach muscles contract in anticipation. Shalisa put her hand on top of his, stilling it.
”For your kind of torture, I might just turn masochistic, but, no, you don’t have to resort to it.” She started gently, stopped, then quoted a line from a movie they’d both seen, one that had always stuck in her mind since then, it had described her relationship with Riq totally.
“You complete me.”
Tariq gave one his rare vulnerable smiles.
“Oh god, you have no idea how much you mean to me.” he breathed, gathering her in his arms and they sat there, rocking, tears of joy slipping silently down their cheeks.
Tariq and Shalisa came up the driveway of Shalisa’s home, giggling like school children. They had not gone to the beach after all, but gone into Bridgetown to buy the engagement ring. Shalisa couldn’t resist using her left hand as often as possible so that the solitaire diamond flashed in the light.
“Mother isn’t home yet. Her car isn’t here.” Shalisa remarked. Tariq looked at his watch. “It’s only 4.30, love. Too early.”
“That’s true.” Shalisa opened the door with her keys and entered the house.
“Dad? Dad? Y’home?”
“In the back, Lise.”
She took Tariq’s hand and led him through the airy wooden chattel house to the back yard, where her father was forking his flowerbeds.
Frederick Downes had worked in England on the London Transport before getting pensioned off due to disability. He’d come back to Barbados to live out the rest of his life on his native soil. As he was fond of saying, “After all, meh navel string bury heah!” He was fond of his youngest daughter; she was the only one living at home. She was his light and she could do no wrong. His only regret was that he tended to let his wife get the upper hand where the children were concerned. Theresa was dead, and Michael was living in a self-imposed exile in England, but Frederick vowed daily that he wouldn’t let his wife Eulalie force Shalisa away too. He didn’t think he was doing as well as he should.
“Daddy, look!” Shalisa squealed, letting go of Tariq’s hand and waving the engagement ring under his nose.
Frederick looked stunned for a couple of minutes, then hugged his daughter fiercely. “I’m so happy for you both!” he exclaimed. “Tariq,” he continued, letting go of his daughter and swinging to the taller man.
“Sir.” The two shook hands.
“You’d better look after her, my boy.”
Tariq smiled. “I will, I promise.”
“So, when is the happy event?”
“We’re not sure yet,” Shalisa admitted, taking a quick look at Tariq. “We were hoping to talk to you about it.”
“Sure no problem. Let’s go inside and discuss it.” 5:00pm
Eulalie Downes saw Tariq’s black jeep in the driveway and scowled. She disliked the young Trinidadian and couldn’t for the life of her see what her daughter saw in him.
She parked her tiny Suzuki Alto next to the jeep and went into the chattel house.
“We were thinking about either here or Trinidad,” she could hear Shalisa saying, but we prefer here cause we want wunna to come.”
“But it would be cheaper in Trinidad, y’know, the exchange rate and all that.” Tariq added.
Eulalie appeared in the doorway. “Evenin’” she said and all eyes swung around to her. “Evenin’” they replied, then Shalisa decided to take the bull by the horns, belying a confidence she didn’t feel.
“Mum, Riq and I are getting married.” She said calmly.
Eulalie’s reaction was swift and unexpected.
“NO!”
Shalisa’s face registered the shock they all felt.
“I-refuse-to-let-you-marry-him!” Her mother bit out.
“Eulalie” -- Frederick started.
“I can’t believe you’re telling me this!” Shalisa cried.
“Believe it young lady. You’re living in my house and had better abide by my rules.”
“An’ if I don’t?”
“Then get out!“
Shalisa abruptly got up. “Thank you, you don’t know how happy you’ve just made me!” she choked out and fled to her room, crying. Tariq and Frederick looked at each other then Tariq got up and went after her.
Frederick glared at his wife.
“I hope you damn happy.” He growled. “You’ve just destroyed her life.”
“I don't want her marrying him!”
“Because he’s a Trini? And Anil was?”
“Anil has nothing to do with this!”
“Like hell!” Fred dropped his voice to a furious whisper. “Just because he left you high and dry with three children doesn’t mean that Tariq would do the same to Lisa.”
“I don’t care!”
“You’re driving her away, just like you did to Michael.”
“I did not drive Mickey away!”
“Believe what you want.”
“If she marries him, I refuse to go to the wedding. You can tell her that from me!”
“Eulalie – “
“That is all!” She spun on her heel and left the room.
“She’s a bitch!” Shalisa sobbed throwing clothes into suitcases. “I can’t believe she went so far!”
“Lise, I’m sorry.” Tariq said quietly.
“I’m still going to marry you, nothing will stop me from marrying you.”
“Lise, calm down, you need time to think, to reconsider.”
“What is there to reconsider? I told you, she hates you and she doesn’t want me marrying you.” Shalisa slammed down the lid of one suitcase and throw more things into the half empty one on the floor.
“I shoulda done this years ago, I shoulda moved out instead of thinking I owed her something. I always thought that because Theresa had died, I owed it to her to stay with her, that I couldn’t deprive her of that. Despite the fact that I hated her for trying to rule my life, I owed her a mother-daughter relationship.’
Shalisa slammed the lid on the now filled suitcase, and stiffing, started to empty the contents of her cosmetics drawer into a large black makeup bag. She carried on her conversation as if she had forgotten Tariq’s presence.
“But no, she never approved of any of the boyfriends that I had, and how I’ve got you, and I want to marry you, she gets all uptight and bitchy for no real reason. She’s never told me why she hates you, why you’re not good enough to marry me. And daddy, he can’t control her. I can’t believe I’m the product of two totally different people! I don't know why they stay together.”
Shalisa had, during the course of her monologue began stacking books on the floor, ready to put them in a box. As she finished stacking them she started to collect her three battered stuffed animals on the bed and gave the emptied room a final survey.
“Tariq, on the way home, I need to stop by Auntie Ina. You know, dad’s sister. I need a rational woman to talk to.”
Tariq got off the bed and wordlessly engulfed his fiancée in a bear hug.
“She’s not going to stop me, she’s not!” Shalisa vowed from the protection of his arms.
Ina Husbands was not surprised by Shalisa’s tale.
Tariq had dropped the quiet girl off by the house, and then tactfully left, to ‘unload your three million trunks and cases by the house.' he had joked. He had promised to return when Shalisa called.
Ina was Frederick’s younger sister. Widowed five years earlier, she was close to the 26-year-old woman. She had given the girl a stiff drink and sat her in the easy chair.
“So, Lisa, what happened?” She asked softly.
“Riq asked me to marry him. I told Dad and he was happy. I told Mom and she went ballistic. For no reason. She refused to tell me why. Dad is so passive...”
Ina sighed. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, Lisa... I really shouldn’t.”
“What?” Shalisa asked, sitting up. She realised that something big was about to happen.
“Fred... Frederick is not your father. Your father is a Trinidadian.”
Shalisa stared at her aunt in disbelief. “What?!”
“Your father is a Trinidadian. He left your mother just before you were born, and Frederick, he came back from England just after. He had known your mother before he had gone away and had always loved her, and she was willing to marry him to give you a good name. Then Theresa died, and she fell apart. Theresa was the oldest and her favourite child by Anil.”
Shalisa looked at her aunt in shock. “My father was a Trinidadian?! That’s why she doesn’t want me to marry Tariq? Because she thinks he will leave me like my father left her? Riq would never do that!” She burst out passionately. “Never!
She leaned back into the chair and looked intently at her aunt. “This is just a little too much for me to handle right now, I think I should have told Riq to stay...” she murmured slowly, shock setting in. “Why didn’t Mum tell me?”
“Anil was married to someone else. He had a wife in Trinidad and never told your mother. One day, the wife turned up on your doorstep and Anil left with her. We never knew how the wife found out from all the way in Trinidad that Anil was married and whom he was married to. It created quite a scene; your mother had to move to where you are now. She used to live in the Crane, but had to move from St. Phillip, you know how most people are. Fast and stupid. Her neighbours gave her a hard time about the whole thing. She just wanted to forget about the entire thing. She really loved him. She was sixteen when she met him, she married him against her parents’ wishes as soon as she left school and by twenty he had left her. That’s why she hates Trinis, and she can get pretty unreasonable about the whole thing.”
“So what happened to Anil?” Shalisa asked despite herself.
“He died about ten years back, an ex-girlfriend killed him. I kept tabs on him ‘cause he used to call to find about you and your mother; he didn’t really love his wife and was fond of his outside children. His East Indian wife was sterile and he really wanted children. Understandably, your mother wanted nothing to do with him and refused to open his letters, answer his calls, anything. He knew that I was a good friend and kept in contact with me.”
Shalisa could only sit there in shock and wonder when her life had turned into an episode of Days of our Lives. First her mother had gone ballistic about her impending wedding and just when she thought things could not get any worse, she discovered that she had a whole new family in another country.
“Do I have any more family in Trinidad?” she asked tentatively.
“A half sister. Camille. She’s couple of years older than you…but I could give you her address… she had written to me a couple of weeks ago, wanting to come across for a visit…”
Ina looked at her niece. “What do you think?”
“I would love to…I have to talk to Riq of course…Now that I’m living by him…” Shalisa stretched and finished her drink. “Ina, my life is just so weird, I don’t know what to do!”
Ina sighed. “I don’t know what to tell you, love. Just take one day at a time. Look at each day as a leap of faith and you will make it. Believe me, I know.” Ina replied and got up. It was going to be a long night for Shalisa.
Shalisa stood outside in the backyard of her father’s home, hanging out clothes. She didn’t have to do it, but she was just killing time before the flight to Trinidad. She and Tariq were flying out tonight to get married over the weekend. Tariq and Shalisa had decided from early that they were going to get married on Christmas Day, on his parents’ cocoa estate, in eastern Trinidad.
The last five months had been traumatic. After Shalisa had discovered the truth about her father, she had confronted her mother about it. Eulalie had refused to even see her. Two nights after Shalisa had left her mother’s house in tears, Frederick had turned up on Tariq and Shalisa’s doorstep and told them that he had left his wife. As soon as it was daylight, he was going to the family lawyer and start divorce proceedings. He told them that he realised that he had put up with Eulalie’s foolishness for too long, and that this was the last straw. Eulalie had been distraught, but refused to make up to her daughter, saying that no daughter of hers was going to marry a “Trickidadian” and that if Shalisa thought she was going to the wedding, she was wrong. Shalisa had been depressed for a long time. She was upset that her mother wasn’t coming.
The only high points in her life were her fiancé and her half sister Camille. She and the half-Indian girl had hit it off from the first time they had met. Two days after they had met, Shalisa asked her to be her maid of honour. Camille was delighted.
Now her day was almost here, and she was nervous. Very nervous. She was terrified, in fact. She finished hanging out the clothes and went inside. Her father was packing. He was going down on the same flight his daughter and future son in law were going on, and staying at Tariq’s parents. He looked up as Shalisa entered and smiled. After he had left Eulalie, she had helped him find a house to live in.
“Lise?” he said as she came in. “What time are you leaving for the airport?”
She glanced at her watch. “Oh, in about an hour and a half. I have to go back home and make sure that Riq is all packed, and we’ll pass and pick you up on the way back up.”
Frederick smiled at his daughter. “Sure.” He replied. She left his house and took the ten-minute walk to hers. When she got home, Tariq was pacing the floor. When he saw her, he started: “I thought you would never get here, I –“
Shalisa smiled and silenced him with a kiss. “Darling, I refuse to believe that you’re more nervous than I am.”
He smiled sheepishly. “I am.”
“Just a couple more hours and we’ll be back home.” Shalisa told him and Tariq smiled to hear his fiancée call his island ‘home’.
Shalisa sat in the bedroom that she was going to share with Tariq’s five sisters, and her half sister, Camille. She had not been able to talk to all the girls since she had gotten in the night before. They had all gotten in at different times; Margie, the oldest had flown in from Tortola to be at her only brother’s wedding. She had told Shalisa from the start that if she couldn’t get there, the wedding had to be postponed until she could. Tariq’s other four sisters still lived in Trinidad; Raquelle and Minette were married and Janelle was engaged to an American businessman living in the twin island republic, and the youngest, Bonnie, was still at UWI. Raquelle and Minette’s husbands were coming down the next day with the children.
“So tell us,” Margie said to Shalisa as the younger girl reclined on the bed, “what exactly happened between you and your mother? Ricky sent me a letter about it, but you know men, they never get the details right!” The seven women were on or around the huge double bed in the spacious room, dressed for bed in lingerie, long tees or in Bonnie’s case, just a bed-sheet.
Shalisa laughed. “Basically what happened is that I told Mother that I was going to get married to Riq and she went ballistic. I left the same night, and went by my aunt, and she told me a totally incredible story. That the man I thought was my father wasn’t. My real father was a Trini. But it gets worse!” Shalisa laughed and glanced over at her half sister. “My father decided that my mother had finally done her worst, and he left the house the same night! We were so shocked – my father had put up with my mother for so long-- we never thought that he would ever leave her! He stayed with Riq and me for a while, then got his own house and is living about ten minutes away from us. He says he’s happier now, more than he has been in the last twenty years.” Shalisa smiled wistfully. “The best part of all this has been Camille, my sister – well half sister at least, and I have another half brother somewhere, one that my aunt didn’t even know about! So, me and Camille have become really good friends….” Shalisa finished and looked around at the women in the room.
“Wow.” Bonnie said finally. “Now that is a story! Just like a soap!” She adjusted the sheet and lay back on the bed, sighing. “Now, why couldn’t my life be as exciting as that!”
Shalisa was terrified. Her father was fidgeting with his tie, and pacing the floor. She was dressed in an ivory coloured floor length lace and satin dress. It swished every time that she moved, floating around her ankles, reminding her why she was here and making her conscious of the huge step she was making. She was waiting in the vestry of the church waiting for the wedding march to start so that she walk down the aisle to her future husband. Camille was her maid of honour. She had left to collect a bouquet for Minette’s youngest daughter, who was one of the flower girls. The door opened and Camille looked around the doorjamb.
“Lise?” She asked, smiling. “There’s a cute fella here asking to see you.”
“Huh?” Shalisa was startled out of her reverie, and stared as Camille opened the door and a tall well-dressed figure in a navy double-breasted suit came in.
“Hi little sis.” He smiled. Shalisa stared in shock.
“MIKEY!!” She exclaimed and hurtled into her brother’s arms. Frederick smiled; he had orchestrated the whole thing. He had wrote to Michael in England and told him what was going on. Shalisa wasn’t sure where her brother was. She hadn’t seen him in fifteen years.
As the siblings embraced, the wedding anthem could be heard in the background. Shalisa wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at her brother.
“We’ll talk after the ceremony, huh?” Mikey promised. She nodded silently, took her father’s arm and together they left the vestry. She was ready for anything now.
© Chaynne Taylor/Shateri Jordan, 1997-2004
Comments? sexychaynne@aemail4u.com
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