The One

#TheOne

She tripped and fell down. A disgusting fall it was. So disgusting that the ground got hurt. It should have; how could such beauty meet the ground with a thud and it pretends not to feel anything: even angry, or glad, or sweaty, or plummy? How?

Her handbag and all that was in it fled from her arm and filled the whole ground in front of her. Her hair brush, her lip gloss, her clutch bag, her book (The Four Loves by C S Lewis), her phone (which unceremoniously got split into three pieces - back cover, the body and the battery), her handkerchief (now embodying onto itself the color of earth), her earphones (which loosed themselves carelessly in front of her - the ear pads and front cases separating themselves from the main frame... plentifully neglecting each other) all scattered themselves before her mud-splashed face.

Her pen seemed to be the only thing that remained sane in its entirety: all naive, refusing to be dirtied by the gloom on the ground and seeming to smile and glitter in the fullness of day.

Yes, there they were right before her - all her items lay there with their helpless mistress - being grasped in her bewilderment and within a worm's eye view. Waiting to be redeemed. It was as if the ground on which she now lay was a masterpiece scrapbook, a work of art, a painting by a glorious artist - all dirty and beautiful at the same time.

She winced. And groaned. And gasped. And cried. A little. And spit out grains of sand from her mouth. She pulled off with her right hand the black scarf that clenched so tightly on her neck, recklessly begging to strangle her to an ultimate feeble weakness. She pulled it and wiped her face with it. Her hair too was a mess: it seems the mud was waiting for her to embrace it; it had wholesomely embalmed the left side of her head.

"I ain't gonna make it. [Liquid pause.] I ain't gonna make it to that meeting", she smirked.

She was going to miss out on an opportunity. Irredeemable it seemed. *Phew!!* That day was going to be indelible. Utterly indelible. She was going to play it over and over again in her mind like a song. And dear to her as it was, or should have been, she was never going to forget just what was happening to her.

******************
As she groped to start collecting her paraphernalia, she felt a tiny pain in her back. But she clenched closely onto her stuff, picking it up one by one. Hand on her left knee, she tried to lift her painful self up...

Then something happened.

She felt someone watching her. A deep sense of another person's eyes dwelling on her painful self haunted her. She looked up. She looked up bringing her eyes steadily to the object in her presence.

"Eeeeh, miss, can I, with your permission, help you up!? "
.
.
Remember that day she fell in love with television, 9pm news? That day she heard this dude, eeh Wilson, debut on the 9pm news? (Damn dude made her raise her eyebrows and smile by calling Dorah, "Dolah"). Remember how she felt her tummy was full yet she had been from the fridge just a few minutes back and had cussed all she could after finding it empty? Remember how she forgot all that food nonsense until 10.30-ish when the news were finished and she (o what a glorious day) even read the TV Station contact details after the news? Remember that? Remember how her mom thatchered her up: "Kwani umeanza kuona news lini, wewe?" and she had cared less because this guy was her ultimate TV darling?

Yes honeybunch, that's how she felt when those words, "Eeeeh, miss, can I, with your permission, help you up!?" came rushing to her ears.
 

It was as if the ground on which she lay had become an ocean... That she would want to swim and float on it all day long. It was as if the mud on her left side was a puddle and she was five again, and she wanted to play and dance until she was hungry and was running to her mom for food. It was as if the tiny dust particles in her mouth were dancing - dancing in ultimate mockery of this blissful moment. It was as if her eyes were bound, and her scarf was wool, and her stuff was drooling...

"Uuum, fine. I'm fine...! I'm doing just fine," she replied

"But, miss, you seem to be hurt. Please allow me to at least get you up!"

With every bit of his presence there, and his deep voice, she was feeling intoxicated in a good way. She seemed to breath faster now. She could feel the warmth of her breath on the back of her hand which was now steadily clamped to her left knee. She felt blood rush down her right arm that was still fasted to the ground.

"Um...it's okay..."

He then held her by her left hand, lifted her up, gave her a handkerchief to whisk off the dirt, unwound the scarf from her neck, and helped her tidy herself a little.

"My name is Adrian... I just thought you needed a little help, you know. I hope it is okay with you miss."
"Eh, um, it's alright. I'm Dolah, eh, nope, Dorah."

The pounding of her heart astonished her. It was almost crushing her chest.

"Not noooow!! No, not now 'Dolah'" She said to her inner self. "Please stop pounding. Pleeease darling." She continued.

He stared at her. I mean, he really stared at her...

"Can I help with something, eh, anything?"
"No, maybe just the earphones and the phone. I'll pick up the rest..."

So as he bent down to pick up and try fixing the two, she also was picking up the rest of her things, wiping dirt off each item and putting them back in her handbag.

And they both got thinking about this turn of events...

Adrian was thinking:
Like seriously? How has this just happened? I mean, just this morning, I wasn't gonna be coming this way. That dude had wasted me already, you know... How could he just change plans within a period of one hour? And all for a favor! Friendships are expensive - dude demands help without considering that I have my own pile of stuff to deal with and I am with so little time!! But here I am... and I am liking what I am feeling and seeing... She seems likeable, this Dorah. Attractive even. Mud or no mud on her face, she is beautiful. Could she be #TheOne? Naaah, experts say, there is nothing like #TheOne - that it is an overrated relationships gimmick that is used to fool and dissuade hearts from true love...
Well, but I can indirectly get her number by pretending I'm testing this phone of hers to see if it broke? Call myself from her phone maybe in order to get her number? Good idea. But I also can schedule some sort of date, yes? Kinda a meet-up or something? I guess that should work... But, but, caution Adrian. You don't wanna step in too fast and be mistaken for being a member of the infamous and avaricious #TeamMafisi SACCO. No way. Play it cool dude. Play it cool like a cucumber: innocently hanging around but secretly interested...
 

On the other side, this is what was going on in Dorah's mind;
Okay Dorah, okay. Calm down darling, calm down. Analyze. Breathe in. Breathe out. Good. Okay, now let's go on... Not long ago, you Dorah (ahem), in all your amazing choosiness, had wanted to believe in something else; something else, but not love. Not love at first sight! Did you hear that? Love is overrated, Dorah. Love at first sight is even worse. That's your mantra. Love is overrated. He can't be #TheOne. No, there is nothing like #TheOne. Okay. Are you okay? Do you think you are really really okay at this very moment, Dorah? Or do you wanna see a doctor or sumthin? Your head and heart are nuts kinda right now... What's happening to your heart, Dorah? What's happening to your heart? Please pinch yourself. Do it again. Harder. Damn! It's real. It's real, Dorah. The ecstasy is real. Deal with it. You gotta deal with it darling before it gets you carried away...

"Could I take you out sometime?" Adrian asked.
"Oh, right now?"
"No, maybe Friday afternoon or any afternoon you may be free. But still, I won't mind taking you out today, and yes, right now. The mud splash ain't a problem to me. I think you look beautiful with it still. But if you please, we can fix that somewhere within town, get you a change of cloths and you'll be good-to-go."
"Oh, I am quite busy of late, and I have plans for today. I'll look up my diary and see when I can be free then I'll call you."
"But I don't have your number and you don't have mine."
"Oh, my number? Give me yours, I'll call you."

He gave her his number and handed over her phone together with the broken earphones.
"You may need to get new ones, but the phone is alright."
"Thank you. Thanks a lot, Adrian..."
"The pleasure was mine, Dorah..."

Then they would both merry themselves in some poem (each one in their world but with words that resemble the ones below) as they walked away. Each to their own direction... Each in their own bliss, while thinking and gasping with delight at what just happened;

Love is an affection of engrossment
To feel its weight, its fanciness and its joy, you need to get buried in it
You need to die a little, and live a little to feel it...

Love is another chance
Another chance to lose
But we all love it - getting lost in it...

We pain and lose, get and get lost in this thing, in this beautiful thing...

If it is real, it is real; and if it is not, it is not

There are no middle grounds with it

Love can be found in the most miserable and unlikely places.

At the most miserable points it can call.

So please don't wither away when it calls...

Because maybe you could meet #TheOne

Or you could meet just someONE

Maybe you could meet none

But give it a try.

*********************

Maybe this first meeting will be the first step to proving these words to be true. But be it as it may, they were sure that they liked each other. 'LIKE' was a good word for then... No surprises, no over-do's, just good.
But as we'll discover later: she never called and that they never went for a date... (Ladies don't call guys for first dates, right?) (Damn dating rules!!) But they met again. Under different circumstances...
Let's wait and see.
(Maybe I'll write Part Two to this post, maybe I won't. I don't know. Let's wait and see.)

*******************

I'm dedicating Jimmy Needham's version of Forever And Ever Amen to y'all who believe in love; or y'all who, like Adrian and Dorah, won't mind giving it a try ;-);

(from Jimmy Needham's 2015 album "Vice & Virtue")

Lyrics:

INTRO:

I'm gonna love ya (forever)

I'm gonna love ya

I'm gonna love ya (forever)

I'm gonna love ya

You may think that I'm talking foolish
You've heard that I'm wild and I'm free
You may wonder how I can promise you now
This love that I feel for you always will be

See you're not just time that I'm killing
I'm no longer one of those guys
As sure as I live, this love that I give
Is gonna be yours until the day that I
die, oh baby...

CHORUS:
I'm gonna love you forever,
Forever and ever, Amen
As long as old men sit n' talk about the weather
As long as old women sit and talk about old men
If you wonder how long I'll be faithful
I'll be happy to tell you again
I'm gonna love you, forever and ever,
Forever and ever, Amen

BRIDGE:
I'm gonna love ya (forever)
I'm gonna love ya

They say that time takes it's toll on the body
Makes a young girl's brown hair turn gray
But, honey, I don't care, I ain't in love with your hair
And if it all fell out, well, I'd love you anyway
They say time can play tricks on the memory
Make people forget things they knew
Well it's easy to see, it's happening to me
I've already forgotten every woman
but you

REPEAT CHORUS

Darlin, I'm gonna love you forever,
Forever and ever, Amen
As long as old men sit and talk about the weather
As long as old women sit and talk about old men
If you wonder how long I'll be faithful
Just listen to how this song ends
I'm gonna love you forever and ever,
Forever and ever, Amen

ENDING:

(I'm gonna love ya (forever)

I'm gonna love ya) x4

Official album art for Jimmy Needham's "Vice & Virtue

Bonface Morris.