Chapter 3: Keitha

Keitha’s eyes slowly cracked opened as the loud sound of her alarm clock assaulted her ears. It was set on a country music station, and Keitha groaned as she listened to a man sing about his girlfriend leaving him for his best friend.

            "Let her go. You’re a survivor," Keitha found herself saying, jolting her memory about her dream about Miss Shirley she had been having.

            Keitha hated dreaming about Miss Shirley, but had been frequently doing so as of lately. She knew Miss Shirley would not only be disappointed, but hurt by what she had become despite Miss Shirley’s empowering conversations with her. Keitha still couldn’t believe how she had ended up, even though she was fully aware that she didn’t "end up" anywhere; she had chosen to be and to remain where she was.

            Dismissing thoughts of her past before she got upset, Keitha was just thankful that she had been smart enough to pick a radio station that would annoy her out of her sleep. After the previous night, Keitha knew without the radio, she would have been comatose. Keitha sighed, stretched, then sat up, cutting off the alarm clock.

"I really don’t feel like this s**t today," Keitha said aloud. A tiny voice in her head encouraged her to call in to work, but Keitha dismissed the thought immediately. She was already walking a tight rope at work, and one more disciplinary action against her would be the difference between her ringing up items for lines of people and her waiting in an unemployment line. Keitha knew she was f*****g up at the workplace, and she refused to give the b******s any more ammunition.

            As she dragged her exhausted body from the bed, she silently cursed Blaire, her roommate, who was a bad influence the night before by pressuring Keitha to partake in the night’s activities. Sure, ultimately, it was Keitha’s choice to join in knowing she had to work the next day, but at the time, Blaire made the plans of the evening sounds so good, Keitha felt like she would regret not participating even more than not having the energy to work the next day.

            Keitha knew that her choices were her own, but she also knew her life would have taken a completely different path, and perhaps a better path, had she never reconnected with Blaire. She and Blaire had been foster sisters at Miss Shirley’s house, but the title was only a namesake for their social workers to identify them, for they were not close at all. In fact, they hardly talked to each other and had nothing in common. Keitha had been a loner, who chose to lament in the room they shared, while Blaire had been a wild child, jumping out of their bedroom window at night, and frequently in conflict with Miss Shirley. Blaire eventually aged out of the foster care system, and Keitha never saw or spoke to her again.

            When Keitha saw Blaire again, several years had passed, but Blaire still looked the same, other than she was much thinner than Keitha remembered. Blaire was not an exceptionally beautiful woman, but she had several very attractive features. Keitha was mesmerized Blaire's clear, crystal green eyes because they were unusually, yet beautifully large and round, like a Japanese anime character, and were surrounded by the longest and thickest eyelashes Keitha had ever seen. A few light brown freckles splashed over Blaire's high cheekbones, then over and down her small, straight nose.

            Blaire's naturally deep pink lips were extremely full and thick for a white person, and when she smiled, she revealed a large gap between her two front teeth, something she had always been very self-conscious about. Blaire's most beautiful attribute was her long, flowing, naturally golden blonde hair. Her wavy, thick hair had always been long, but it much longer than it was when Keitha had last seen her, now reaching past the small of her back. When in the sun, Blaire's hair shone brightly, and its natural highlights enhanced the beauty of Blaire's unique hue, seemingly giving her a glow around her head that only a halo could achieve.

            Keitha remembered Blaire being very fond of her hair, and taking painstaking efforts to maintain and promote its health.  In fact, Blaire had a daily regime that she practiced so faithfully and precisely, it Keitha would have described as compulsive.

            Blaire still wore her hair in a single braid down her back, and as Keitha remembered, Blaire has shared before that she loved the heavy weight of her hair at the back of her head. The braid, an impressive five inches across, was the same density at the ends as it was at the roots, and Blaire was proud that there were no thin areas in her hair.

            Blaire had developed a habit of bringing her hair forward, allowing it to fall forward over her small bosom, and gently stroking it when she was feeling nervous or distressed. This is how Keitha found Blaire; stroking her hair, only then, Keitha did not know what the stroking was an indicator of. Keitha was just happy to see a familiar face, and surprisingly, so was Blaire. They talked for a long time, as if they had indeed been close to one another when they lived at Miss Shirley’s home.

            Keitha paused as the memories of her first encounter with Blaire in adulthood overtook her. She felt as if she were time travelling, for she could remember their conversation verbatim. As Keitha replayed the conversation in her mind, it dawned on her that had they never spoken about living arrangements, perhaps Keitha would be in a better place in life, for during this conversation, Keitha expressed a need for a place to live, as Miss Shirley had given her notice that she needed to depart the home. Without a second thought, Blaire had offered a second bedroom in an apartment she was living in as the solution to Keitha’s problem, and with the acceptance of Blaire’s proposal, Keitha’s life began a long, downward spiral.