Denouement by M. O. Kenyan Read Free Book Online Page A

Relax.” Jessie laughed.
    “You don’t understand.” Marietta herself didn’t
understand what happened she didn’t expect Jessie to.
    “What don’t I understand?” Jessie gazed at her
concerned, “Listen we have been friends longer than you have been my boss. You
can tell me anything.”
    “I know that and once I figure everything out, you
will be the first person I tell.” She gave her friend a bear hug and walked
into the restaurant.
    As soon as the reflective glass doors opened,
Marietta’s ears were assaulted by shouts of surprise. Startled she froze for a
second and looked around the brightly lit room. She still didn’t understand
until she spotted a happy birthday banner.
    “What is today?” She asked Jessie over her shoulder.
    “It’s the sixteenth of March. You forgot your own
birthday!” Jessie exclaimed.
    “It isn’t the first time.” Marietta prepared herself
for the millions of hugs she was bound to get. The first one
from McKenzie. He put a party hat on her head and planted a big kiss on
her forehead, “Happy twenty sixth. Your future is full of greatness.”
    “Thanks.” One by one she hugged everyone and it seemed
like she was hugging over a hundred people. Sandra gave her air kisses but
Tobias kept his distance. He stood at the back of the room watching her.
    Marietta was grateful when she finally got the chance
to sit down. The tables were arranged in such a way that they were close but
not too close to each other. They were like a family and for the duration of
that movie they would be a family. The crowd of people almost filled the void
that the loss of her family had left. But she wished one person was there. She
hadn’t seen Chris in almost nine years.
    “Excuse me ma’am.” A waiter held out a wrapped box to
her.
    “Who is it from?” Marietta looked around the room
hoping for some indication as to who had sent it. She glanced at the usual
suspects, Jessie and McKenzie but they didn’t have any idea. Reluctantly she
looked over at Tobias but he shrugged and shook his head. She opened the box
and in it was a black and white picture, framed in black marble. It was a
picture of a little girl about four years old. Marietta knew all too well,
writing in the dust with a stick.
    “I call that the beginning of greatness,” a voice
hummed in her ear.
    Marietta held the picture to her chest for a second,
and let the sweet melody of memories flood her mind as the familiar baritone
voice hummed in her ear. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t believe you kept
this picture.”
    It was a picture of her when she was a child that
Chris’ father helped Chris take. That was when his love for photography started
and she was his first subject. The little girl in the picture was smiling, her
hair was shaggy and she had a little white dress on. The picture was taken
around the time when her family was complete and everyone was happy. It seemed
like a different life time.
    “You know me. I’m always trying to make you laugh in
some way.”
    Marietta turned towards the six-foot-three, well-built
black man. She stared at him for a second and just smiled. She needed to take
this moment in. This day had been going in the wrong direction until now.She stood up and stepped into the man’s waiting arms. “I’ve
missed you so much Chris.”
    “You better have. It’s been almost a decade,” Chris
muttered into her neck as he lifted her off the ground.
    “You don’t know how much I needed to see you.” She
could feel the tears spill out and soak into his t-shirt.
    “Don’t cry. I’m here now,” he whispered to her. “She
doesn’t want to share her cake.”
    Marietta broke out laughing. In Chris’ arms she was
comforted when she felt his whole body shake from laughter. His laugh was still
the same, deep and sounded more like chuckling than it did a normal laugh.
    “You are crazy.” She looked up at him wondering how it
was possible that she had survived this long without his