Reminiscences on those days when they dated! They were young and carefree. Trevor was on his way up the ladder in the challenging real estate portfolio. He had been fresh from high school when he had stumbled upon a clerical post with a real estate portfolio. He decided to date a collage of lectures. That meant he faced a battery of examinations, lessons, practical on the job training and hard work. These came between him and his favourite pursuits. The number of times the board allows rewrites is limited. Qualification opens avenues to better remuneration, commission, status and possible partnership. He likes his beer, sports and fraternizing with the gentry who watch live EPL/ESPN soccer, play boozers soccer, tee off at the greens and try their hand when silver at dicing with the basket or volleyball. Then he met Naomi by a freak accident. A day when everything was going wrong is the day he met her. A day he should have been bitterly embarrassed is the day she rescued him. She appeared so cute and innocent, like a moth approaching a flame. She has the temper of a wounded she-leopard and the looks of Jezebel. His spiritual knees buckle. His mouth stays agape. His eyes lose focus when he sees her. To him she is an open sesame password to marital bliss. He has never bothered chasing after the ladies. He could easily have married the girl next door or his parents' friends' daughters. Is it all that fast and easy? They both share being children of immigrants. He wants to break the yoke of working in the mines. He has watched retired mine workers survive on stipends. Society looks down upon immigrant labour from whose pool he was born. They both want to beat the status quo and sink prejudice. It is an uphill battle. Will they grab the limelight?

Lake Of My Heart

 Trevor’s elder brother clapped his palms rising in a crouch approaching the litter of paraded females. He selected Naomi from the group by taking her right hand a metre out to ululations and whistles. He clapped his palms, bowing. He returned to his seat still clapping his palms leaving Naomi odd one out of the neat row of girls. Her dimples were showing. She kept her mouth tightly sealed trying to hide her emotions. This was culture. She was not yet ready to celebrate. 


 “Ah”, the male cousin though he knew Trevor was playing culture and it’s ethics right down to the book. “My cousin Naomi has been selected by the male family representative. I didn’t know you had reached marital age sister. Select wisely tsano. If you make a mistake, we won’t marry two of them for the price of one like we did in the 1800s. We had fifteen wives and eighty-seven children.” 


 There were ululations from the crowd. 


LAKE OF MY HEART – CHAPTER 22