~~Daniel~~
I wish my mom didn’t tell me who Makena’s father really was.
I wish she never told me whose blood runs in her veins. Her father took my dad from me. A part of me will never be the same because of him. But Makena is everything to me. She is stuck in my mind, and I don’t know what to do.
I wonder if Makena knows who her father was. I wonder if she knows what he did.
I don’t think she does.
She told me he was never present in her life as she grew up, and she never knew who he was. Her mother must have hidden the truth from her.
Andre thinks I am unfair. I told him everything after one drinking night when we were playing pool at his house. He thinks I am wrong for leaving Makena because of who her father was.
“No one chooses their parents, Danny,” He says. “Do you honestly think Bin Laden’s daughter should go through life paying for her father’s mistakes?”
“It sounds easy in theory,” I counter. “What would you do if you were me? What would you do if you found out that Zuri’s dad killed your mom?”
Zuri was this girl he had crushed on for the past three months, but she did not give him a chance because of his playboy past.
Andre thinks about it for a while “I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. All I know is I ain't never seen you this happy with another girl, Danny. Makena makes you happy.”
It’s true.
I miss her so much and avoiding her makes it so much worse. I find myself staring at the photos I have of her. I remember the short time we spent together and how happy we made each other then.
But at night, in my dreams, her sweet smile turns sour, and she turns to Mwenega.
“Joke’s on you,” Mwenega laughs at me. He is standing in court after the judge sentenced him to death. “Now you can’t take that revenge you so much wanted to take on me.”
Makena appears and stands beside him, and together they mock me.
***
On Tuesday morning, Dr Finley comes to my apartment for my routine check-up. It has been four weeks since my injury.
“How does it feel now?” He asks as he lightly touched my ankle.
I wince a little. The pain is there but bearable.
“It’s better.”
“Good,” He says. “Keep massaging it. Don’t put a lot of tension to it. I know you love the gym but stay off heavy weights for a while, Danny. I believe by the end of the week you should be ready to go back to practice.”
“Thank you.” I let him out. I go to the fridge to look for something to eat. Mom stopped by yesterday and brought a few snacks and groceries.
“Good thing you knew who that pretty girl was before things got serious,” She said as her bodyguard lover stocked my fridge.
Then she began crying.
“I’m sorry.” She dabbed her cheeks. “It’s just that Mwenega took so much from me…he took the love of my life. He denied my children their father. He denied you the right to a father, Danny. Your father was a good man. I wish he was here today. Everything would be so much better, you know?”
I hugged her. “It’s okay, mom. It’s okay.”
I didn’t know Dad’s death hurt her as much as it hurt me. I held her and comforted her.
“You are so much like him, you know,” She said.
I remember my dad then on a particular Sunday morning when I was young. He took Luther and me on a helicopter ride around the city.
I feared being so high up in the air, but dad had turned to me and smiled at me and promised me everything would be alright. All my fears had vanished.
He was my hero. He didn’t deserve to be killed and left in a ditch by Makena’s father.
I would be disrespecting his memory if I kept her in my life. I had started to consider what Andre had said about me not judging Makena for who her father was. I even planned to see her and patch things up, but mom’s visit assured me that being with her was not an option.
Things are best left as they are.
Makena and I can’t be together. It would be insane and sacrilegious.
I refill my whiskey glass. This is the only way I forget her, her sweet smile, her soft skin, her scent, and her voice as she moans my name.
My phone beeps. I take it from my shorts and then cork my brow.
Lynn has sent me a nude picture. She is sitting on her bed, stark naked, legs splayed apart.
“Are you around?” She texts.
I sigh and rub my forehead.
“Yup” I reply.
“See you in a few,” She messages back with a winking emoji at the end.
Thirty minutes later she shows up in a burgundy lace dress. She looks good, and she is the perfect distraction. Although the pain in my heart will never go away, and everything is always so cold now. But I need Lynn, I need to forget Makena I need to forget that I have ever been to paradise.