Déjà Maybe

“You see, the crazy thing about real love is,” dad randomly lectured on as he always does, “even though there are many ‘definitions’ of the word; philosophers, poets, and artists of all forms have all tried to describe or portray their perspective of what love may be. And that’s the beauty of art! But love is indescribable, and that’s the beauty of love!!”

“Yes,” I smirked, “so insanity and beauty go hand in hand?”

“Only when your mother and I hold hands!” He bellowed over hysterically before his dad joke even registered on my end. His sense of humor often escaped me but it, more often than not, has always been my favorite thing about him. Just as he regained his composure, we hear his better half calling from the bedroom, “Taji!”

“Coming!” he sings out as he jumps out of his oversized recliner that use to make me feel tiny. Although I did have some pretty amazing intergalactic adventures in that old spaceship. The best part was feeling the vibrations from the engines right before take off, which was really just my mom or my dad being the NASA of my short lived dream to be an astronaut. But then again, they were always there for me.

I nearly lost my balance as my socks slipped on the hardwood floors while trying to turn into my parents room. After catching myself and attempting to play it off, mom stops mid-sentence to ask if I was ok, simultaneously, dad mumbles, “saw that, Taj” as we all share a laugh. You see, my dad’s name is Taji, which means crown. My mom’s name is Zuri, which means good or beautiful. They named me Tajiri, which means rich. Unfortunately, in the general sense of the word, we were far from it.

As my dad explains it however, we are in fact, the very best kind of rich. We are rich in spirit, we are rich in tradition, we are rich in well being, and most of all, we are rich in family. Or so he says. Now we weren’t exactly poor either, we never missed a meal as far back as I could remember and I’ll be turning seventeen in a couple of months.

Of course, this means that I’ve had my driver’s license for a couple of months now and today is the day that I get to look for my own car, I even saved up two thousand dollars to help get the one that I really want! Preferably something with T-tops...and tinted windows.

A familiar sound interrupted my daydreaming and snatched me back to reality; it was mother threatening to leave me as if we weren’t headed to the dealership to buy a car for me! So I rushed to the car, we rode to the car lot, I found my dream car and it took FOR-E-VER!!! But, it was so worth it. It’s a black 1988 Ford Mustang Gt with the grey trimmings and T-tops! I called her Moyo, which meant heart and I was in love.

After all of the paperwork was finalized, we all headed outside to leave and dad called out, “Why don’t you lead the way, just in case.” Of course, the irony of this was soon to follow.

Https://cameronmballard.wixsite.com/writeous/blog/

Http://facebook.com/cameronmarquis

Http://facebook.com/writeoustm

IG: @PourWriteousTeachings

Snapchat: @RastAllahFarEye