My Ward My Woman

I’d shown up straight from a late night meeting, still in a business suit, my tie long gone and the first three buttons of my shirt undone. I was tired and just a little angry because the shit I wanted done was going to take a little longer. I’d been accused lately of becoming a veritable ogre at work. I had to work off what the fuck was going on in my life somehow, and since I wasn’t about to tangle with her hormonal ass they were it.

I walked into the noise den, my eyes peeled for her in the crowd of about a hundred dancing screaming teenagers. I don’t think I’d known twenty people when I was her age. Leave it to my girl to be this popular. How could she not be? She was smart and sweet; kind, with a heart I sometimes marvel at.

Until she had turned into my main source of torture and torment, she had been the one constant in my life. That one last bit of innocence that I myself had lost a long time ago. When I looked at her I saw all that was good and pure in the world. I knew her inside out and the girl was a total fucking gem.

I saw mom standing near a wall by the windows with a few other parents who were there as chaperones, but I hadn’t seen my Alex. Then mom caught my eye and pointed and I followed her gaze across the room. I didn’t know who the beauty in the too short dress was at first. There was a familiarity, but I couldn’t place her. Though my heart knew before my mind accepted.

The face was round with a touch of baby softness left. Her eyes were wide deep pools of blue-grey, which I couldn’t see that well from that distance. Her hair was parted down the middle and caught at her nape with something that let it fall gracefully at the sides of her face before flowing down the middle of her back.

She wore some sort of chain around her hair that rested on her forehead with some kind of gem in the middle. That’s when I remembered the theme was Cleopatra or some other Egyptian thing she’d blabbed on and on about for the past month.

She turned back to her friends, she hadn’t seen me, and that’s when I realized who she was. I was moving across the room, my jacket off and in my hands ready to throw over her shoulders, when mom met me halfway.

“Don’t do it Sol, don’t embarrass her in front of her friends.” I looked at her as if not seeing her, her words barely penetrating the haze. The music piped through after the ringing in my ears stopped and I gritted my teeth. The room was full of teenage boys, half of which seemed to be in her vicinity or thereabouts.

I nodded my head slightly at mom to let her know I heard her before walking the rest of the way to Alexandra. Her friends saw me first as I approached, and the one, Cindy I think the name is, just stared up at me. Damn girl always went dumb deaf and blind when I walked into a room, why should this be any different?

I stopped behind Alexandra with my hands behind my back so that I didn’t take the jacket off again and cover her the way my mind was screaming at me to. I looked over her head at the opposing wall and after the first hint of her scent, held my breath until I got myself under control.

“Alexandra.” She gave a little yelp and flew around, flinging her arms around my neck. My hands automatically went to her waist to hold her since she had to get up on her toes and I looked down into those pools of unusual beauty and my heart stopped.

I pulled away as if burned but she seemed not to notice. I couldn’t tell you what she said then; something about thanks I think. My world had just stopped and restarted like an old record that had got stuck. That night was the first time I accepted that my little doll had grown up. It’s when I realized that something had shifted between us and things will never be the same again.

3

Solomon

“She was supposed to spend the night at a friend but she wasn’t there when we checked in.” Ralph’s voice penetrated my trip down memory lane. I looked at him without seeing for a few seconds as the memory of that night slowly faded away.

“Friend’s name and number.” He held out his phone to me with the number already dialed as I headed for the door. A young girl picked up on the other end. “This is Solomon Magna, where is Alexandra?”