Fish
Fish was the first guy in years to remind me of the fact that many men have ulterior motives. I met Fish during my senior year of high school while I was at work. I was a cashier at the local supermarket and was restocking the shelves when he approached me and started speaking sign language. I smiled and threw up both hands indicating I didn’t know what he was saying. He laughed and apologized and then said “I saw the aids and assumed”. That’s when he started asking me a million questions. “How long have I been deaf? Why don’t I speak sign language? Where am I from?” I felt overwhelmed and embarrassed trying to keep up. He looked a lot older than 22 and compared to my 17 in my eyes he was a man. For about fifteen minutes he kept pummeling me with questions. The only thing I was able to get out of him was that he was a senior in college and he lived with his deaf sister that’s why he spoke sign language. After the interrogation he asked me out on a date. Feeling slightly pressured to say yes I agreed. I gave him my home number and he said he’d call and set it up.
After he left, my best friend Money questioned me about him. I had no answers and she thought I was being evasive. The truth was he knew way more about me than I did about him. There was no convincing her otherwise. When my mom came to pick me up later that night from work I waited for her to tell me he had called and left a message. But she never did. Once at home I sighed a sigh of relief I really didn’t want him calling me. That night as I lay in bed I thought about him. He kinda looked like Levar Burton. Not “Reading Rainbow” Levar but Kunta Kinte getting captured Levar. He had a mini afro that needed a really good picking, he had swollen lips that seemed to be peeling into a pinkish purple, his skin was slightly lighter than mine, and he was dressed like Bill Cosby. “Dammit, why did I give him my number”? That night I prayed to God that he wouldn’t call that I wouldn’t see him at work and that the image of him would be erased from my mind. My prayers were answered, for about a week.