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Friday, April 11, 2014

"Open Spaces" by Keith Kareem Williams, Chapter 1

Out of all the novels I've written, this one will always hold a special place in my heart. It was my 2nd book and on these pages is where I believe I found my literary voice. Here is the opening chapter. Enjoy and feel free to leave comments.

Open Spaces
 KEITH KAREEM WILLIAMS



CHAPTER 1
Disturbance


“Happy birthday, dear Corey! Happy birthday to you,” sung the entire party, much too loudly and horribly out of key. Their voices boomed and resonated in the confinement of the tiny kitchen that had walls too thin to contain the dreadful chorus. Annoyed neighbors either cringed in disgust or turned their televisions up to drown out the sound.
“Now make a wish, baby,” Mika lovingly whispered in her son’s ear, as his father, Sedari, hoisted the boy onto the edge of the kitchen table.
Corey perched precariously on the edge of the table that was probably eighty-five percent compressed wood, only craftily disguised by the manufacturer to look authentic. Sedari had barely finished paying off the layaway plan at the local discount furniture store in time to have it for the party. They’d already gone almost a year and a half without one, and although it wasn’t the best quality, it was what he could afford for the time being.
Sedari steadied his son and directed him towards the red, white, and blue candle that burned brightly on top of the blue and canary yellow SpongeBob SquarePants birthday cake. Everyone remained completely silent as Corey thought about everything imaginable to wish for. For a boy his age, the possibilities, though basic enough, were nonetheless infinite. All in attendance held their breath as he inhaled deeply and prepared to make a wish by blowing out the candles. It was as if any sound or movement except for the tiny gust of air he mustered to blow would spoil the enchantment. After two laborious attempts, Corey blew out the candle and accidentally showered the top of the cake with a fine mist of spit. The genuinely joyous applause that followed sealed the spell and made the magic complete. Only the final element of the ritual remained; the slicing of the cake. Tammy, Corey’s chunkiest godmother, worked the kitchen knife with unrivaled precision without ever getting any frosting on her fingers.
Many of the party-goers and well-wishers were glad to grab their cake and escape the confinement of the kitchen; some because they were just plain greedy and others because of the anxiety that being packed in such a tight space caused. If Mika and Sedari’s kitchen had been a club, the fire marshal would have shut it down for certain. The only ones who didn’t seem to mind were the SpongeBob SquarePants party hat-wearing children who bounced their sugar-filled bodies carelessly and blissfully from room to room.
Through the crowd of guests, amidst the laughter and clamor of the celebration, Mika spotted her husband and stared into his face. A hulk of a man and standing about six-feet fiveinches tall, he was very difficult to miss as he towered above most of the guests. Mika smiled and touched her wedding band, while her grandaunt babbled in her ear about how much Corey had grown. The tips of Mika’s fingers also ran across the engagement ring she still wore on the same finger. It was not the flashiest and far from the most expensive, but bound within it was all the love Sedari possessed for her. Mika cherished the humble diamond set above the two circles of gold because it reminded her of the tears they both shed the night he proposed.
Sedari had apologized and cried, apologized and cried some more for not being able to give her what he felt she deserved. She remembered how she wiped his face as he wet her feet with tears. Mika remembered how she tried to comfort and reassure him. She thought back on how she tried to explain to him that countless women received priceless treasures from fiancés whose words and promises were as worthless as they were dead and hollow. She remembered how Sedari had tried to fool her into believing he felt better about himself, but she could still see the shame on his face like a stain. Back then, it saddened her, but she knew her man well enough to know that he would do whatever he had to, make whatever sacrifices needed, to walk through life as her husband with pride.
As her grandaunt continued to ramble, Mika slipped back to the present and nodded her head in agreement without really paying attention. Thoughts of her husband, some more sexually explicit than others, swam gracefully through pools of passion in her mind. He was like a drug to her, and she found herself wanting and needing the high he gave her. As she studied his face, the tingling that tickled her body made it impossible for her to forget why she married Sedari.
Mika knew the trouble he’d gone through to make this party special. Ever since they’d been married and on their own, money had been tight with them. This was the first time he’d been able to do anything near what he wanted for their little boy. Just as she was about to turn away to actually pay attention to her grandaunt, Sedari ensnared his wife’s eyes with his own. The couple exchanged warm, lustful looks and then continued to entertain their guests, some of whom had begun to leave. The gifts had been opened, the kiddie games had been played, almost all of the food had been eaten, and now, the cake had finally been cut. The party was nearly over.
Sedari started thanking everyone for coming, while Mika hurried back and forth to the bedroom to gather the guests’ outerwear they had stored on their bed for lack of closet space. Sedari felt fortunate to have so many good friends at Corey’s party. Many of them he grew up with, but through various means, they had since left the dirty apartment buildings and noisy streets behind. Now they only remembered the hood like a bad dream. They would have never returned to this part of town if not for their love of Sedari and his family. He understood this and loved them for it.
There were also other friends present who were from totally different walks of life. The perceptions of their parents were still imprinted firmly on their psyche, and they learned to fear what they saw and read in the news. Still, they loved Sedari because they knew him, but that love didn’t carry over to the strangers outside that shared his surroundings. Sedari could see in the faces of some of his friends that, now that the party was over, they wanted nothing more than to get back to safer suburban streets. The hood was definitely not for them.
As the last of the guests put their jackets on and said their final goodbyes at the apartment door, the doorbell began to ring wildly. Sedari and Mika exchanged puzzled looks before he opened the door cautiously.
“Sorry I’m late,” Desiree slurred, as she rudely brushed past the last of the guests who tried to make their way politely out.
Unmistakably intoxicated, Desiree grabbed Sedari in a bear hug and kissed him on the cheek, close enough to his lips to put an instant frown on Mika’s face. The longer Desiree held onto Sedari and the deeper she dug her French-manicured nails into the back of his sweater, the more Mika’s frown transformed into an appalled scowl.
“Glad you could make it,” Mika said, hoping her voice would be enough to make Desiree take her arms from around her husband’s neck.
It didn’t. Instead, she held on tighter and mischievously glared at Mika.
This bitch! Mika thought to herself, as she tried to maintain her hostess demeanor and composure. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to let Desiree know how jealous and annoyed she really was, so she continued to project as pleasant a vibe as she could.
“I almost didn’t make it,” Desiree whispered, alcohol heavy on her breath as she took her hands off of a visibly uncomfortable Sedari. He looked like someone with a bomb ticking in his back pocket.
“Thanks for coming,” Sedari told her, taking a few steps back to put more distance between them.
Desiree smiled, unbuttoned her full-length brown leather jacket, and arrogantly handed it to Mika. Sedari tried not to gasp or let his jaw go slack when he saw what she was wearing underneath. Mika noticed this but still said nothing. Desiree’s outfit was too scandalous for even some nightclubs and definitely inappropriate, not to mention tasteless, for a fiveyear-old’s birthday party.
“What the fuck?” Antoni, Sedari’s older brother, mumbled to himself while walking over to greet Desiree.
Ant, as his friends affectionately called him, which was an abbreviation of his name that also doubled as a reference to his lack of height, couldn’t decide what to ogle first. Her tan blouse was cut so low that the thin material barely covered her nipples. Her long legs and silky thighs were barely covered by a black skirt no bigger than a handkerchief.
“What’s up, Dee?” Ant greeted Desiree from a distance.
“Ant? Come gimme a hug,” she told him, staggering into his arms.
He realized just how drunk she was when she kissed him full on the lips. Ant didn’t notice that she kept one eye fixed on Sedari as she did this, but Mika did.
“Damn, Desiree, I thought you stopped drinkin’?” Ant whispered in her ear while hugging her.
He held onto her for a while, more to keep her from falling over than out of affection. When he felt she was steady enough, he guided her to the sofa as she dragged a monstrous Toys “R” Us bag behind her. When she sat down, her knees knocked together awkwardly; this was the only thing that kept everyone in the room from knowing what color her panties were. Just as Desiree righted herself, Corey appeared out of his bedroom in a crisp pair of new pajamas he’d received as a birthday gift from one of Mika’s sisters. He rubbed sleep from his eyes and grinned when he saw Desiree and the size of the bag beside her.
“Hi, Dee! What you got for me?” Corey asked and jumped up in her lap.
Desiree stared at the boy with a deep, long-buried sadness in her eyes. Only Sedari noticed the look in her eyes and the change that came over her. She seemed to sober up momentarily.
“You know I wouldn’t forget my favorite man in the whole world,” Desiree told Corey and kissed him softly on the forehead. “Sorry it’s not wrapped up, baby. Last minute shopping, you know,” she explained and pressed her lips affectionately to his cheek.
Her breath reeked of liquor, and Corey turned up his nose when he caught a strong enough whiff of it to make his eyes burn.
“You stink, Dee,” Corey told her without malice, but rather with the unpredictable honesty that all children possess. As he climbed down from her lap, his sleepy, burning eyes focused on the bag that undoubtedly contained some gigantic toy.
“Well, excuse me, sir,” she comically begged his pardon. “Take your toy to your room. Tomorrow, make Daddy put it together for you, okay?”
“Okay, Dee,” Corey answered without a fuss, then dragged away the bag which was almost bigger than him.
“Here you go,” Mika grumbled, as she handed Desiree a steaming cup of instant coffee.
Desiree took it, half smiled, and set it on the glass center table in front of her. The loud clanking noise made Sedari cringe.
“Thanks, Tamika, but I’m good. I appreciate the thought, though,” Desiree told her and mimicked the fake smile that was plastered on Mika’s face.
“Sure, whatever,” Mika answered, then took the mug of coffee back to the kitchen. She was grateful all the guests were gone except for Antoni. She knew she couldn’t have managed to be a good hostess for long with Desiree in the same room. She wasn’t surprised that Desiree would show up to Corey’s party late, half-naked, and stinking drunk. Desiree was Desiree, and she always found new, innovative ways to solidify Mika’s dislike for her. In that, she never failed to outdo herself.
“Dee, I thought you gave up that shit?” Sedari asked, as he gathered scattered party litter to put in the trash.
“I said I gave up getting drunk which, I might add, I am far from now,” she answered slowly and deliberately, as if she had to think about each syllable in every word before she spoke. Her sentences flowed unnaturally and sounded forced.
“Sound drunk to me,” Mika added, while stuffing discarded giftwrap into a black garbage bag.
“Am not, my dear, but thank you so much for your concern. I feel so loved,” Desiree replied, her voice heavily saturated and seasoned with drunken hostility.
Mika barely looked up as she angrily tied off the trash. She stomped past Desiree on the couch and roughly handed the bulging bag to Sedari. She paused to roll her eyes at Desiree before returning to the kitchen to wash up the mountain of dishes in the sink. She clanged cups, banged down plates, and abused pots while the silent tension in the room increased exponentially. Sedari and Antoni exchanged uncomfortable glances as the quiet, subtle war between the two women continued.
Desiree was pleased by how angry she made Mika. She stretched her arms, yawned, and put her feet up on Mika’s cream leather couch with her shoes still on. This time when she raised her legs, everyone did get a good look at her pink lace panties. From the corner of her eye, she saw Mika angrily grip a wet, soapy glass and nearly break it. Desiree smirked.
“I can see the party’s over anyway, and I wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome. Now, what I need is another drink and a ride home. Sedari, you got your car?” Desiree asked.
Whether by accident or on purpose, (no one in the apartment could say for sure), Mika broke a dinner plate on the kitchen floor. Sedari nearly jumped out of his skin.
“The liquor’s done and I got my car downstairs. Let’s go,” Ant interjected to prevent World War III in apartment B3. He didn’t particularly enjoy her company either, but he was willing to make the sacrifice to save Sedari the serious trouble that was sure to follow.
“I wasn’t askin’ you,” she started to say.
“No, but I’m offering. Let’s go,” Ant cut her off before she caused much more of a disturbance.
“Sure, fine, whatever. Doesn’t matter. Tamika, would you be a sweetheart and get my coat so this gentleman can give me a ride?” she asked.
“Fuckin’ bitch,” Mika thought, as she stopped picking up the broken pieces of the plate so she could fetch Desiree’s coat in a hurry. The sooner that woman was out of her place, the happier she would be.
Desiree kept her feet up on the couch until Mika appeared out of the bedroom and stiffly handed her coat to her. Although everything in the room seemed to be spinning, Desiree stood up steadily, snatched the coat, and quickly put it on.
“Good to see you, baby,” Desiree told Sedari, as she grabbed Ant by the hand and pulled him towards the apartment door.
Sedari smiled sadly, but didn’t answer her. Neither did he move from the spot where he stood rooted in place for the sake of his marriage.
“I’ll talk to you guys later,” Antoni said, while being pulled along like a stubborn puppy tethered to its own leash for the first time.
“Always nice to see you, too, Tamika,” Desiree said, as Mika showed them out and slammed the door behind them.
“I hate that fuckin’ girl! I really do!” Mika exclaimed, locking the door.
“Dee is Dee. Can’t let her get to you like that. You know she do that shit just to fuck with you,” Sedari replied, trying to comfort his wife by wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.
Mika smiled as she felt his breath on the back of her neck, then giggled when she felt his grip tighten. His lips explored the sensitive area behind her ears before sending chills down her spine as they tickled her collarbone. She still found herself fascinated by how he could be so powerfully overwhelming and gentle at the same time. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at her husband, just a little less upset than she had been only a few seconds before.
“You tired?” Sedari asked.
“No,” Mika lied.
She was very tired, of course. However, for what she knew her husband had in mind, she would drag the strength and energy from somewhere.
“Me neither,” Sedari whispered heavily in her ear.
“You think Corey’s sleepin’?” she asked, breathless, bothered, and wanting to be bothered some more.
“He better be sleepin’,” Sedari answered.
“Yeah, he better be,” she repeated after him.
Mika spun around in his arms and kissed him passionately before she took him forcefully by the hand to their bedroom.

Copyright © 2010 Keith Kareem Williams
All rights reserved.




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