After Dee settled for a wide window sill as her seat at the tenants meeting, the landlady decided to start with a cut short introduction about how blunt her words would be, since she understood that many of these young adults had jobs to keep. Dee grabbed the edge of the sill to keep her balance, and resist laying her back onto the cold glass pane. Her long legs pressed together.
“I know we’ve been talking renovations for months but in a few days painters are coming in to fix up the main foyers. Some drywall construction will follow, so I’ll need you all to be patient with the noise and temporary chaos. As per usual you’re expected to abide by EH regulations, your leases…”
Furman paused after witnessing what she knew she was going to see in front of her. Few individuals causing a scene to express how uninterested they were. A rather bold move on their part, but she tolerated it. This may have not been their first tenant meeting since they've been here. Since she was new, Dee was trying her best to listen to the landlady's plans to improve the apartments, but she also had dancing on her mind. A recital coming next Saturday and she had to practice all she could since she reduced her daily work hours for this day. She couldn't practice consecutive mornings last weekend because of moving to Empire Heights.
Dee used her 20/20 vision to glance around the room, observing the new tenants of the house. A colorful crew the Empire Heights had under its roof, including Dee herself, and a variety of body languages. Dee's “judging the book by its cover” habits were kicking in the double doors. She could honestly see herself communicating with them, but not on a friendly basis. Some seemed too flamboyant. Others seemed too cynic and anti-social, especially one of them, sitting with a cold blank look on his face. His entire frame was small. His medium brown hair combed to the back of his head. Dee wondered who this individual was. He seemed like someone from a glooming background.
Dee, however, shifted her attention from him to everyone else, trying to seek for comparisons. The obvious one being ethnicity. Only very few minorities within this group of career and thrill seekers. One man in particular, with a darker skin complexion than Dee, pushed his way onto a pair of women sitting on the couch together. Ever since Dee went to New York she had seen many men like him flirting with the blondes who could make it in a covergirl commercial. Not that Dee actually minded this behavior. She just found this amusing, since this wasn't such mainstream activity in Belleville. Everyone liked anyone they could connect to. The hair and skin color was never a preference. In New York, or better yet U.S.A., statistics were involved. She didn't understand this until her sorority sisters educated her. Bad idea. Let's just say that the word “privileges” are involved.
And this girl he was pushing his appeal on was not the only blonde in the lounge area. The majority of girls were blonde, whether born or dyed. Even bleached to rich platinum. One of the blondes in the back of the lounge had a boyfriend she was clinging to. So much that she could constrict him if he ever mistreated her, but from how much of a gentleman he seemed by the way he looked into her eyes before going in for a quick kiss, arguments would never occur between them. How this blonde stuck out to Dee? Her extravagant fashion sense. Name brand clothing from all around Europe. With how this blonde carried herself into the front of the lounge, Dee would assume that she took a trip or two there.
This woman and her boyfriend went up to the front of the room to introduce themselves to the new tenants, but based on some of their reactions, they were familiar with her. Some more than others. Dee reminded her of a blonde in Belleville who was at a house party once for one of the football players. The dirty blonde was slipping and falling in every room that day, including their garage. She remembered a brunette hanging around with her. The brunette was at a worse drunk state than she was. She wondered what ever happened to them.
Back to the tenants meeting, this particular blonde, who Dee now knew as Jaylene, invited the new tenants to a party she was hosting with her boyfriend that the new tenants, including Dee, could be interested in attending.
“I usually don’t do this kind of thing, but I’m busting open a huge deal for my agency and we’re having a banger at Manhattan Tower tonight. Everyone has to pay a cover charge but I’ll let you all in for free because honestly, I’d just love not to be surrounded by anorexic models all night.......”
By that time, Dee's cellular phone vibrated on her palm, nearly causing her to jump in fright. She wondered who would give her a message at this time, but since her friends and sorority sisters are all working in jobs or careers in the morning, it was no surprise that one of them would contact her. She proceeded to investigate, needing her ears to multitask.
“You've received a video message from: Erica”
Dee smiled to herself in delight. Her best friend from high school. The one that was cautious about her little “cave trip” in honor of Mordicai. After high school graduation, they split separate ways: Dee heading to the United States, and Erica moved to Toronto to pursue a career in Criminal Justice. Dee hadn't heard from her best friend until her senior year, thanks to social media. After giving Erica her number, they talked for three hours that day, reminiscing on old memories and sharing new ones.
Ironically, Erica had married a Muslim Physical Therapist at the college she went to, and she was expecting a baby boy soon. The same month of graduation to be exact. The husband wanted to name the boy Kareem, which Erica found to be intriguing. She thought it was named after a grandfather of his, but it was actually named after the American basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabar.
Now to present time, Dee wondered what the video sent from Erica could be. She opened the small envelope icon. A video of baby Kareem in Erica's living room. The climax was Kareem already walking, adding his own manner of communication by waving to the camera with only his fingers. Not even a year old and he's already moving his legs. Dee's smile lit even more. Who knew something so enlightening could control her emotions, and have her day at a great start? It even calmed her tensions of potentially being late for work.
“.....would kill for a live act. I’d pay you. So, yeah. Thanks.”
That was the last she could hear from the blonde in front of her, but at least Dee got the location. She wasn't so sure about the time, since she had to work the whole afternoon to closing at night, but the day was on a weekend.
She could see a slim lower body heading her way. Someone wanting to speak to her? Who knew what this persona wanted to say? She didn't know the tenants too well, so she couldn't have them in her personal business just yet. She closed the video of Baby Kareem on her cellular phone before turning it around. Once the person was finally standing across from her, she lifted her head with a warm smile to whoever the lower body belonged to.
A young man piercing her with his dark eyes. His handsome face surpassed his eccentric sense of clothing. Comparing him to the blonde from earlier, they were complete opposites, further complimenting the varieties of Empire Heights, and after brushing his dark hair back with his fingers, he had a coolheaded charm that many women loved. He proceeded to speak to Dee, and she was curious over what he would begin the conversation with.
“Don’t I know you?”
A rather odd introduction. She quickly wanted to respond with a shaking head, but then it got even more strange when he said her name.
“Dee?”
Her narrowly gazing eyes began to widen, and by the way she had responded, this man was right. How did this man know her name? Better yet, her nickname. Only friends and family know her by “Dee” rather than “Dominique”. Maybe she had seen this man in a distant memory. The more her eyes was drawn to him, the more his appearance seemed acquainted to her. His black strands of hair sprouting wildly from his scalp, and above his eyes. The light fawn shaded skin, with hints of stubble on his chin. Before she could ask him the obvious “how do you know my name?”, he quickly gave her the answer after placing his bags down to the crowd.
“I’m Kaleb, remember I invited you out after Mordy’s...erm..yea.”
His name was only said once, and Dee felt gravely affected by it. A soft catch of her breath. Her eyes widening more. She didn't know whether to feel dumbfounded, or ecstatic over a long-lost mutual friend reuniting with her after only hearing about him once, and seeing him from time to time in high school. These past few years have been a trip to the past for Dee. First her best friend, and now her beloved and dearly departed Love and what was left of his legacy. Was this fate wanting her not to forget about Mordicai? No, Kaleb staying in the same apartment building had to be a coincidence.
These many thoughts couldn't distract her for long. She had to respond to Kaleb.
“Kaleb! Hey! It's nice to see you again.”, Dee responded in her distinctively light, raspy tone, greeting him with a handshake. From what Dee could remember of Kaleb, every part of him remained the same. Even his stubby facial hair. Only exception was his height, which was a slight upgrade. Dee was, regardless, still shorter than him.
“Sorry, I just...I knew that I knew you, I just couldn’t figure out how.” He added a laugh into the sentence that he may judge as awkward and timid. Dee could imagine how he still felt that way. Even after meeting each other for the first time, their diaries were still locked tightly to their hearts. They were not as open to each other as they were with Mordicai, and since they lived in Empire Heights together, the cliffhanger had another opportunity to raise itself up to the ground.
“What are you doing in America?”, he finally asked after a moment of muteness to gather up the letters in the alphabet to form words, and finally a sentence. That was an excellent question to ask. Of all places, they both managed to migrate to the United States. What was the fascination over the United States?
“I go to college here in NYU.”, Dee easily responded. “I've been here for more than four years now, and I'm working on getting my graduate degree.
Dee's future in dance had to involve one of the greatest schools in the country. In a location where many aspiring dancers lived, wanting to compete to the lead roles on stage, or the television screens.
So how about yourself?, Dee questioned in turn, I didn't think America was such a common place for Canadians to live.”
Dee sneaked in a lighthearted joke to mellow their awkward encounter, and secretly Kaleb's diffident mannerisms. His current status after mourning Mordicai's death was still a mystery to her. even the other friends Mordicai left behind, or rather joined him in the case of the student who allegedly succumbed to a terminal disease. From Kaleb's warm skin complexion, Dee assumed that he moved on from the past like Dee had to.