Inquisition: How much of a private person are you?
Aloha!
The past couple days, whoa.
Let me see if I can sort this out.
Wednesday.
After school, I had forgotten about band practice.
Tamika had promised to take me out to go grocery shopping, so I told Lox I’d be a little late and would meet them up at around 7:30. Tamika called, and said she’d like to go running instead (something we’d been wanting to do together for a while). I said fine, and told her about band practice, suggesting we could run, I’d go to band practice, and then meet at her house afterwards to go shopping. She agreed, and came to pick me up.
We ran for about 25 minutes.
It nearly killed me. By the home stretch I had three pains in my side and had to focus just to keep the rhythm of breathing right. But I did not stop. It was really embarrassing because I used to run cross country when I was younger. At least it made me see how badly out of shape I really was.
She dropped me off at band practice and said she was going to cook some dinner for her & Vinny and said she’d save me some.
Band practice was weird. Mike hadn’t been at the previous practice, and so Lox, Spam and I had wrote a song that was kinda funky. It badly needed a bass part, so I tuned up to a slap bass on the keyboard and belted out a hot riff.
When I showed up at band practice, Mike, Lox and Spam were trying to work out a song Mike had written. I jumped in and began trying to figure out a part for it. No lie, the song grated on my nerves. It was completely irregular, rhythm jumping from 4/4 to ¾ to 5/4 then back to 7/4… it was crazy. Mike kept looking at me like he didn’t like my part. Finally at the end of one of a run through, he turned to me.
“I don’t really like your part much.” He said.
“Yeah, I know. It’s hard to play with so many different time signatures and no solid bass line.”
“Well, maybe you can play—“
“Let me guess.” I interrupted, “Smooth and spacey, kind of like a chorus going ‘aaaaaaaah’. Right?” It was what he recommended EVERY TIME for a piano part on a song he wrote.
“uh.. Yeah.”
I shrugged. The song stayed on one chord the entire way through the song, basically, if I broke it down to the bare bones.
We started through again, and I tuned up to a section of spacey sounds that were very “Mike”, and held down ONE NOTE, a G#. The whole song.
When we were done, he turned around again.
“That was awesome! Don’t forget that.”
I laughed. “Sure. It won’t be hard. It was one bloody note!”
“Oh… …well, it sounded cool.”
I laughed again. I pulled out an extra transformer, and balanced it on the G# and danced around them as they played.
When it came time to play “Straight Down” (the funky song), we ran through it to have Mike pick it up. It sounded miserable. We stopped, and I gave Mike the notes I had been using, for him to play on the bass. It was still pretty bad. He couldn’t figure out how to do pall mutes with note changes.
Finally, Lox asked Mike to cut out and just listen, and asked me to play a bass part. I switched from the organ I had been using, and we began again. It sounded awesome. Mike seemed to get a little miffed.
I didn’t mean to make him mad. I just played the best I could…
When Lox dropped me off at Tamika’s I found her cooking dinner. They hadn’t eaten yet, but she made us this delicious Alfredo Rice and friend chicken strips. It was really good. Her and Vinny ended up talking, and then went down to watch CSI. CSI had it’s time slot moved, and so they missed it, but ended up just flipping through the channels anyways. I dozed off on the couch, and awoke to find myself alone in the basement.
I came back upstairs, and then she drove me home.
Thursday.
If you looked at , you know part of the story.
Tamika called me Thursday while I was at school. Twice.
I had asked her last week if she’d take me grocery shopping since my motorcycle had broken down, and she said she would. But every time we would try to go, something would come up and she wouldn’t be able to do it.
She had Thursday off of work, and so she was able to finally catch up on some badly needed sleep. She did a few chores around the house, and got to spend some time reading her Bible alone and praying.
And so she called me.
I got the messages when I got home from work. She apologized a couple of times for not taking me, and said she really wanted to help me out if she could, if I still wanted to, if I hadn’t gotten another ride…
I called her back and she drove over to pick me up.
She had done some painting in her room, so I got changed just in case she needed any help. Vinny came with us, and we went to the Super Wal-Mart. I was able to pick up everything I needed, then asked them if they’d like me to cook them dinner.
They readily agreed, and so I made them a creation I made up myself. It was a phenomenal success, so here’s the recipe if anyone wants it.
1 box of Linguine
Half a jar of Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesan Pasta Sauce
1/4 of a green pepper
1 lb. of baby shrimp (the smaller the better)
Extra Virgin Oil
Vegetable Oil
Baby Peas
1 tsp. of butter
Garlic Salt
Oregano
Chili Pepper
Chopped Parsley
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Grated Mozzarella Cheese
I put the water on to boil, adding a little vegetable oil and a sprinkle of Garlic and Oregano to flavour the pasta water.
I some of the oil in a pan and sautéed the baby shrimp on high, taking care not to burn them, and put them in a bowl to let the excess oil drain. I put the peas on to boil, and added the pasta in the boiling water and turned it down to medium while I was sautéing.
When the pasta was almost ready, I drained the peas and added some chili pepper to the peas (2 shakes) and some garlic salt (3 shakes) with the butter and mixed them up.
I sautéed the sliced green pepper until they were a little brown around the edges, and set that in the bowl with the shrimp.
I drained the pasta when it was tender, and poured it into a large serving bowl. I added the shrimp, sauce, cheeses, oregano, parsley and green pepper, and tossed it until everything was coated and the cheese was melted.
And then we ate it. 🙂 It was sooooooo good. I love cooking for people; it’s when I cook the best.
Afterwards, Tamika and I went to her room, so she could show me the work she’d done on her doors while I was cooking, and that’s when I showed her the drawing.
She showed me some of the drawings she’d been working on (I’d persuaded her to take up the old hobby and to do more with it) and then gave her some tips on how to get proportion right. I sat there and sketched something quick as she watched, showing her how to outline the skeletal system and then add the muscles and clothes slowly on.
Her father had told her about last weekend when I had been down in their basement and was beating the stuffing out of his karate punching bag. He had given me a few tips on how to keep my balance and curve my foot in for the most impact, and had asked me if Tamika was still going to teach me. I told him no, that she said she didn’t have the time.
Well, apparently this made Tamika a little miffed. We decided at her suggestion to draw up an agreement. I would give her drawing and web design lessons, if she would teach me karate and go running with me, and we’d also do Bible Studies together as a middle ground. I think it would be really cool, if we both can live up to it. It might be difficult at times seeing as how were are busy a lot, but I think it will be really good for us.
Friday:
It was beginning to be that time of the month.
Tamika called me as she was coming home from work, and asked if I would like to come over. I said sure, and we drove to Blockbuster to check out the movies. Tamika was feeling moody, and so I was tender with her, and did my best to cheer her up. We picked out a couple of movies; Godsend and Japanese Story. Neither of us had seen them, so we thought we’d try them out.
We came home and Vinny was feeling a little miffed about some things, and after a quick spat, Vinny went to bed and Tamika and I went down to watch one of the movies. They were just both tired, I suppose.
We watched Godsend. That movie was very freaky. Not the scariest I’d seen, but definitely up there.
I tend to growl deep within my chest when I’m uneasy. It’s something I’ve always done, and as caught up as I get in movies, I growl sometimes during scary movies, when I feel something is about to happen. She didn’t like it, so I did my best to suppress it. But what I found is that the growling made me fell better, and I found myself struggling to calm myself down.
I scooted my chair over next to hers just to be close.
After the movie, she was really scared. We ran upstairs, and she told me about the lady who had previously owned Vinny’s house who had been killed in a car crash. We got to talking about ghosts, and the ones I had seen as a kid on the reservation after a house had burned down with a man inside. Tamika stayed in the room that the lady used to own, and she told me that before she went to sleep, she would see some lady when she closed her eyes. She told me it happened every night, and freaked her out.
She asked me if I would stay, and I said I would.
I lay out some couch cushions on the floor, and she let me use her sleeping bag.
We talked long into the night.
At the end, we were really getting deep, and she confessed to me some things she had done that she wasn’t very proud of, that she wished had never happened. (I’m not going to talk about them here) She began crying.
I just held her arm, and listened quietly as she poured out her heart to me.
I spoke to her gently, and reassured her that things were not so bad, and that she’d be all right. She had special gifts God had given her, and if she took care of them, she would see it would be all right.
She sobbed, and I gently wiped the tears from her cheeks as they trickled down, and prayed as she spoke.
She gradually got quiet, and curled up in a little ball.
“Tamika, are you going to be ok?”
She sniffed. “uh huh.”
She was quiet for a while.
“Thanks, Benhamean.”
I smiled “No problem.”
I leaned over her, and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. The first one I’d even given her.
“Bonne nuit, Tamika.”
“Bonne nuit.”
I rolled over on the floor and went to sleep.
Saturday:
I awoke to Tamika’s cell phone.
She was up, and before she went to work, she drove me home.
I worked on the motorcycle a bit, and then drove it to the motorcycle shop to set up an appointment to get the bolt removed from the oil screen cover.
We had band practice again, but Mike and Spam didn’t come. Lox and I really worked well together, hammering out “Straight Down” and “Open Letter to Pamela Anderson”. Both songs are coming together well. We also worked on “Believing is Seeing”, which is a song I wrote.
When I got home, I went downstairs to get a drink, saying I’d call Tamika to see what was up and if she wanted to go to Church.
The answering machine was hanging up as I got back to my room, with a message from her on it. J Spooky.
We talked for a bit, and she said she’d meet me at 9:25 to go to Wesley Union AME Zion.
Sunday:
She was late, but we got to church on time ok.
Jeff, an older guy she had met who had kind of gone after her was there. She stuck by me, and I could see him sizing the both of us up. He was a big man, and an assistant pastor on top of that, but the savage in me kept making me think about what it would take to take him down if he did anything dumb. Tamika had gotten so paranoid that she had stopped calling him and ignored his calls.
I felt bad for him a little, but he had been pretty creepy.
The sermon was actually really good, though, talking about James 1:12-15 and temptation. Reverend Thomas (our old choir director from Messiah) wasn’t there, but it was delivered by an assistant pastor.
Twi was supposed to come with us to church, but woke up late. He appeared at the door just as we were walking out of our pew, smiling as he always does. Tamika has asked him to join us, just for a little added protection.
Jeff rushed down the center aisle to the back, eyeing me as if he was thinking Tamika and I were together, and took his place out in the hall to shake everyone’s hand rather than inside the sanctuary. There was no way out of the church except to go by him..
Twi gave Tamika a big hug and warmly shook my hand. It was the first we’d seen him since he’d been back to Messiah for the Fall Semester. He’d grown a bit over the summer, and now towered over me by a couple inches.
We led Tamika out like two bodyguards. As we passed Jeff, he held out his hand in a sort of “What’s up”, despite the fact that Tamika hadn’t talked to him in quite some time. She shook his hand politely, then hurried on.
He held out his hand to me. “How y’doin’, brotha.”
I gave him a strong grip and smiled. “Good morning.” I said, surprised at how deep it came out.
Twi and I looked at each other out of the corners of our eyes, and formed a 6 foot wall with our backs turned to Jeff and escorted Tamika out.
The three of us went to Cracker Barrel for brunch, and just talked. I felt so bad for Twi, he’d just been through a very bad breakup and when he got back to campus, a rumor that one of his friends was going out with his ex came through as truth to him in a rather bad way. I decided I would go and visit him as soon as I get the chance. He and I talked for quite a bit about his breakup before I graduated, but the summer swept us both away. It was so good to see him.
Afterwards, Tamika was feeling moody again, so I went with her to Gabriel Brothers and I spent the afternoon with her just shopping and helping her pick out some clothes. It was nice.
We went back to her house afterwards, and Vinny made us a spaghetti dinner. It was delicious.
I was going to give Tamika a drawing lesson, but before I got a chance to ask her, her and Vinny decided to go over to a friends and play X-Box. I was a little miffed, but I suppose it was really my own fault for not saying anything.
.:Yawn:.
I got to get to bed, must get up early for school tomorrow.
Tamika said she’d like to meet tomorrow after band practice maybe.