Beloved

Her name is Beloved..She loved him ever since he was “Born”. Legend has it that he approached her first..On a dreary, somewhat rainy day while walking from the corner store, he saw her..Walking toward him from the opposite direction.The rhythm in her stride was a silent symphony. He had knew of her from the neighborhood, but was never formally introduced..Now was the time, he thought to himself .The tension was thick enough to pave sidewalks. Every step was used to build up courage to speak the right words to her as the distance between them lessened until they stood face to face outside of the local playground gate. He spoke “Peace.”.This was the 90’s and his aim was to “get her number”, but she pulled out a six shooter and plugged three holes in his aspirations..Which was a rather confusing experience in itself, as everything about her said “yes” except her lips..Perhaps those inconsistencies cushioned the blow of rejection, because he survived and was able to pick up the shards of his machismo and continue forward. They remained cordial when amidst each other, however nothing transpired until sometime later..He was on the regional train line going to work and saw another familiar face on the train..A newly converted Muslima named Aminah. He and Aminah were from the same hood, so the updates of the “Ni**a News” began to unfold, until she flipped the entire tide of the convo with the infamous “Guess who likes you?”. He strategically avoided the game and responded “ Who?”. She said “My cousin!!”. Now, he had no clue who her cousin was at this point, but when she dropped the name it spun a whirlwind in his brain. Needless to say, Beloved is Aminah’s cousin. “Huh? That can’t be true, because I tried to get her number and she said no”, he explained. Aminah assured him that Beloved had been interested in him even before his attempt, yet she had her reasons of not wanting to engage him at the time. He immediately wrote down his beeper number (I SAID it was the 90’s, damn!) and gave it to Aminah. That night after he returned home from work he got a page with “777” after the number. He returned the call and it was Beloved. From that day forth they spent as much time as possible talking, walking, experiencing the forgotten art of genuinely learning each other. He would teach her his newly learned principles of Knowledge of Self and she would teach him Spanish. They would sit on her steps for hours and travel inner and outer worlds until it got too cold or too late for them to be out. In short, they grew up together. There was an intimacy that was shared between them that transcended sexuality, and both of them knew it. He would often have bouts with his hormones of whether or not to explore the physical aspects of their union, but he never really pursued it. At times it was tough, cause she was FINE, and he was certain that plenty of guys were tryna get at her, however he had to set himself apart from them..he had to provide something more..something else..