Chapter Eight - Jeremy

I felt like I’d drunk six cups of coffee. My head was literally reeling as Marsha lay breathing lightly against my chest. I planned for this, and yet I couldn’t believe it had actually happened. Not only was I dating the most beautiful girl in the North Bronx, but now I was the first and only man to make love to her. I looked down and ran my fingers through her soft black hair. She had really gone all out for their date that night. I’d never seen her hair professionally done, and her outfit really complemented her shape. As we strolled to our seats at The Palm, I hoped that everyone thought we were some Black celebrity couple. I hoped that I put on an air of importance and that they believed Marsha was a model. I hoped we looked like more than a struggling law student juggling his family’s semi-legal businesses and a schoolteacher. While I lay holding Marsha, I certainly felt like I was more. I wished that all the girls who made me feel bad about myself back in Miami could see me now, laid up with “the light-skinned Naomi Campbell.”
I really wanted to sleep, but I couldn’t. My mind raced, remembering every moment of the evening. Marsha said that she was a virgin, and once all her clothes were off, I knew she wasn’t lying. She trembled innocently when I’d barely touched her, but her body seemed to become more alive with every kiss. It was like the closer we pressed against each other, the more parts of her would awaken, as if her nerve endings had been in a coma. I bit my lip as I felt myself rising under the soft cotton top sheet. I could go for a round two, but I didn’t want to wake her. I could tell she was in a significantly deep sleep. I wrapped my arms tighter around her, telling myself this would not be our last time. I would feel her again and again, because she was my forever.
I could tell that she wanted to please me, but her innocence limited her. I knew she didn’t understand that the mere fact that it was her was what pleased me more than enough. She literally had a reputation for being beauty and brains, and yet she remained deeply humble. Her naivety and modesty enraptured me. I wanted to be the one to show her and give her everything she’d never had before. At first, I thought that would be hard to do, but as I got to know her, and especially after her disclosure about her past, I knew I still had a lot to offer her.
I chided myself for sometimes being harsh with Marsha as she adjusted her limbs that were entangled with mine. She’d bared her soul to me that night, and I realized she didn’t always deserve my coarse reactions. She didn’t understand how hard it had been for me, being from the wrong side of Hispañola, living down in Miami, and then a big, scary Black man in The Bronx. I knew I’d have to guide her out of her bubble carefully so that she would understand me. The more she understood me, the more she would love me, and the less likely she would be to leave my side.
Now that everyone knew about us, I felt like calling someone and telling them what we’d just done. I chuckled inwardly. The last time I’d felt like that was after I’d lost my own virginity as a teenager back in Haiti. As soon as I could, I told my boys. As much as I felt I would burst with joy and conquer, I couldn’t do that with Marsha. Our intimate moments were beyond physical and weren’t for broadcasting. The feeling passed as soon as it came, and finally, I, too, drifted into a sound slumber.

*****


Jeremy paused as he exited the jetway, causing the passenger behind him to bump into him and grunt.
“Sorry,” Jeremy said nervously, but continued to stand in the way. “Sorry, sorry,” he repeated to other passengers rushing by.
“Yuh sorry, den move!” said a busty woman with waist-length box braids.
Jeremy finally eased himself to the side as he tried to get his bearings. His eyes darted around in search of his Uncle Marvin. Finally, he decided to start walking. For the first time in his young life, he was truly terrified. He didn’t know a thing about New York. He’d only visited Uncle Marvin twice when he was little. He didn’t remember anything about JFK Airport or traveling from Queens to Brooklyn.
The night his father kicked him out, Jeremy packed as much of his stuff as he could into several duffle bags and went to stay at a friend’s house. That night, they stepped out to get something to eat, and there was his girlfriend in the corner store, looking as if everything was normal.
“Yo,” Jeremy said, drawing her attention away from the rack full of potato chips.
She and the young lady next to her looked up at him, and her eyes brightened. “Jeremy, what’re you doin here?” she asked.
“You know your father is lookin for you?” Jeremy asked, ignoring her question.
She rolled her eyes.
“He came to my house,” Jeremy went on. “He’s threatening to have my family deported, so my dad kicked me out.”
“You?” she asked, stepping away from her friend.
“Yes,” Jeremy confirmed. “This is all your fault, talkin about runnin away and shit. Ya father thought I knew where you went, and threated us, so my father blames me for dealing with you in the first place.”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly.
Jeremy sucked his teeth. “Go home,” he said.
She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “We could go away together,” she said. “We have money. I don’t have to go back to my mom. Your father put you out—we could find somewhere to stay together.”
Jeremy shook his head.
“I’ll be outside,” his friend said, reminding Jeremy that he hadn’t gone to the store alone.
Jeremy nodded and turned back. “We can’t do that. We would get into a lot more trouble.”
“How?” she asked. “You’re on your own. You can do what you want.”
“The world doesn’t work that way,” Jeremy explained. “Look, I can’t be seen with you. We can’t make this worse than it already is. I told you, if it’s meant to be, we’ll find each other again. I have your number. Go home. I’ll call you in a few weeks.”
The girl’s lip quivered.
Jeremy didn’t want to see her cry, so he repeated himself and walked away. “Go home.”
Now, as he found himself lost in JFK Airport, he wanted to cry too. “Get it together,” he mumbled to himself and looked around for a payphone. When he found one, he put in a quarter and dialed his Uncle Marvin’s number. The phone rang about five times before the answering machine picked up. Jeremy slammed the phone on the receiver and stared around the airport. First things first, he thought to himself. Find your luggage.
He stopped a young maintenance man, dragging a mop and bucket, who looked to be around the same age. “Scuze me,” he said, “you know where the baggage claim at?”
“Sorry?” the guy asked, struggling to understand Jeremy’s muddled Haitian-Floridian accent.
“Baggage claim, for the luggage?”
The guy chuckled a bit and nodded. “Yeah, it’s that way.” He pointed and turned away.
“Thanks!” Jeremy called out and walked in the direction the guy had pointed to. He saw signs that led to the baggage claim, and he eventually found his own abandoned luggage. He dragged his luggage toward the door, but something told him not to exit just yet. He decided to find another payphone and call his uncle again. Again, no one answered. He then called his mother collect.
“Halo,” she answered after accepting the call.
“Mummy,” Jeremy croaked, trying not to reveal his vulnerability.
“Jeremy,” his mother whispered. There was some shuffling, and then she was speaking clearly again. “You made it to Uncle Marvin’s?”
“No. He didn’t come to pick me up. I been callin him and he’s not answering.”
“Oh bondye,” she groaned. “Maybe he’s on his way to get you. Just wait.”
“My flight landed over an hour ago Mummy. Maybe he forgot.”
“No, he didn’t forget. New York always having the traffic. Maybe it’s that. Pa enkyete w. He will come find you. Call me when you get there, but if I don’t answer its cuz your father is around. He’s not ready to deal with you yet.”
“Can you call Uncle Marvin for me?” Jeremy pleaded.
“I could, but it’s not like he can call you to find you. Pa enkyete w, son. He will be there. Go back to your gate and wait there.”
Jeremy sighed. “Okay, Mummy. Thank you.”
“It’ll be okay, son.”
Jeremy found his way back to the gate he’d exited, but it was crowded, and there was nowhere for him to sit. He would have to walk several gates away for a seat. For all that he figured, he’d go back and sit near the exit. On his way there, he saw the same guy he’d asked about baggage claim.
“Yuh ‘till here bwoy?” the guy asked, now out of uniform.
Jeremy shrugged.
“Yuh people nuh come fa you?”
Jeremy shook his head.
“Yuh call them?”
Jeremy nodded.
The guy sighed. “Yuh cyan stay here all night. No place to sleep.” The guy chuckled. “Maybe I can give you a ride.”
“Okay,” Jeremy agreed, thinking he was running out of choices. The guy seemed cool. He talked with what sounded like a Jamaican accent, so he was Caribbean, and that gave Jeremy some comfort.
“I’m Steven,” the guy said, offering Jeremy a handshake.
“Jeremy.”
“Cool, where yuh people live?” Steven asked.
“Brooklyn,” Jeremy said.
Steven snickered. “Where in Brooklyn? Brooklyn a big place.”
Jeremy shrugged.
“Yuh know the street?”
Jeremy shook his head.
“Damn,” Steven said, shaking his head. “Alright. I’ll wait for yuh people wit you. If nobody comes by ten o’clock, you can jus come stay by me until you get in touch wit them.”
“You sure about that?” Jeremy asked.
Steven looked Jeremy over from head to toe. “Mi nuh fraid uh you. You in my town. Yuh look lost ah rass. Where yuh from?”
Jeremy swallowed. “Miami,” he said, downplaying his accent as much as he could.
Steven cocked his head to the side. “Where you really from?”
“Haiti,” Jeremy admitted.
Steven laughed. “Yeah, mi should be fraid uh. Haitians crazy ah rass. But—” Steven’s voice trailed off as a young lady with a big rear passed by. “Look, like mi say. Mi ah go wait wit you. If yuh people nuh reach, jus come stay by me, and we figure it out. Okay?”
“Okay,” Jeremy agreed.
The next morning, Uncle Marvin finally answered the phone. He had indeed gotten his dates mixed up. ​