“Jacob, where did you just go?”
“Nowhere, I’m still here.”
“Man, I asked you a question minutes ago, and you haven’t flinched. So…where was your mind?” Paul asked.
Not wanting to admit he was thinking about a woman that might just be his imagination, Jacob hesitated in answering. Paul had known him too many years so he would have to come up with something Paul would accept and not push any further.
“I have to decide if it is time to move from here.”
“This has always been home and you more than anyone I know always never wanted to live anywhere else.”
“I know, but there’s an itch to see someplace else.”
“Jacob, I don’t buy that for a moment. The look on your face was not about moving. It was about a person. What gives?”
“Do you believe in ghost?”
“Did you see someone you thought was dead?”
“Something like that. Maybe home is not what it was anymore.”
Paul began to walk away. A quick look over his shoulder at his friend. “No I don’t believe in ghost, and neither do you.” He left Jacob was still holding a bottle of beer that he had never opened.
Long after Paul had left Jacob sat, staring in the direction he had seen her. He didn’t know her name, but everything about her seemed so familiar. He had never dated black girls, and once he was grown, he had been married to the same woman for forty years until she died. So why was this woman taking up so much of his time? Well not his time but occupying space in his mind.
Jacob continued to rack his brain for some piece that spoke to him about her. She walked past, gave him a smile and kept walking. It wasn’t as if she had spoken. So he didn’t know the sound of her voice. Maybe that would have helped him place her.
As he sat, he started down the memory lane of his life. No, he knew she didn’t go to school with him. His elementary, junior high and senior high schools were all-white. Then he had to think about college. As far as he could remember there weren’t any black students at his college. If there were he would have remembered them. He was the big man on campus in those days. He knew everyone or at least everyone knew him.
Then he thought of his work life. Maybe he had seen her in court. There were too many cases in forty years, but something about her said he should remember her. She was unforgettable. Was it her smile, or her walk he asked himself.
His stomach growled. The sound was the reminder he had been sitting for hours and had not eaten. The beer still unopened sat on the table. His body creaked as he stretched and rose from the chair. He had been sitting in one spot too long. That was the horror of getting old. There had been a time he could bounce out of the chair and not feel the aches and pains of his body.
The house was quiet. This was the new norm. No one to nag if he left the door open. Yes, there would be flies inside or maybe a mosquito or two. The kitchen was still a mess from his attempt at breakfast many hours ago. “Yuck, something smells awful in here.” He began to clean the kitchen even as his stomach grumbled and growled.
After washing the dishes and throwing away the food that had been sitting on the counter all day, he made a sandwich. Then he remembers the bottle of beer still on the patio. With his sandwich, he headed back to the patio. A buzz climbed up his spine. It was the same feeling he had had earlier in the day. Then he saw her walking up the beach once again. She smiled and kept walking. Once again she didn’t speak. He watched until he could no longer see her.
Who is she and why does she seem familiar?
© 2019 Ivy Jade