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Chapter
15: Reminiscing
Faith emerged from her apartment complex later on that morning, her school bag
on her back and her purse to her side. She could feel her legs strain under the
tremendous weight she was carrying. Barely making it half a block down the
street to the café at the corner, she plopped down on a chair inside and
ordered her usual, a caramel frappuccino. As she sat there, her eyes wandered
around the room from one person to another. They settled on someone that looked
vaguely familiar, a woman sitting in the back with her nose inside a book. As
she flipped the page, she looked around the room and caught Faith’s gaze.
Their eyes locked for a long moment. The woman stood up, her five foot four
frame walking towards Faith’s table. “Faith Somers, is that really?” she
asked, her voice shaky.
“Morgan?” Faith squeaked as she eyed her cautiously.
“Oh, my God! Faith!” Morgan shrieked as she wrapped her arms around
Faith’s neck and hugged her as she sat in her seat. “It’s been so long!”
“I know! What brings you here to Chicago? I though you were in Connecticut so
you could go to school,” Faith said as Morgan sat down beside her.
“I am, I’m just here on break to see my family and hopefully find you.
I’ve wanted to talk to you ever since you walked out on all of us in LA. What
happened to you? It’s like we couldn’t find you anywhere. We looked
everywhere, but you were nowhere to be found. Did you go straight home or did
you just keep traveling?” Morgan questioned.
“Well, I kept traveling then I went home in September so I could move out here
and start school,” Faith answered.
“You look awful, you know that. Where are you living, some crappy
apartment?” Morgan kept interrogating.
“I live in a very nice apartment in the Gold Coast District. I think by now
you’d know why I look like shit.”
Morgan looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “It came back?” Faith
merely nodded. “Oh, no! Are you getting treated?”
“No, I can’t or I’ll lose my baby,” Faith said as she stood up, her
drink already finished. Morgan gaped at her when she saw how large her abdomen
was.
“You’re pregnant?” she asked, still staring at Faith’s abdomen.
“Yeah, I’m due next week.”
“Next week! Are you at least taking time off of school?”
“Nope, I’ll miss too much if I do.”
“Who’s is it?”
“Darren’s.”
Faith began walking out of the café with her book bag on her back and her purse
around her shoulders. Morgan quickly followed with more questions running
rampant in her head. “Darren? Is that another reason why you left like that?
Are you taking anymore heroin?”
“Yes and no,” Faith simply answered, stopping at an intersection and waiting
for the light to turn red so she could cross.
“Darren is the father of your baby? Did you even tell him?”
“For the last time, yes, Darren is the father of my baby, and no I haven’t
told him. I don’t even know where he is. Besides, why should I tell him? Why
do I need to go and hurt him again? He doesn’t need me to come barging back
into his life and ask him to help me raise my baby.”
“You’re doing it alone?”
“Yes, honey. I’m an independent woman. I don’t need a man to help me raise
my daughter.”
“It’s a girl?”
“Yeah, and her name is going to be Hope.”
“Wow, I still can’t believe it.”
“You and me both.” Faith saw the light changed and began walking across the
street to her school. “Look, why don’t you meet me here in an hour and a
half? That’s when my class ends. I want to talk to you some more. Okay?”
“Okay,” Morgan called as Faith disappeared into the building.
* * *
Darren sat down in the corner café only minutes after Morgan and Faith left. He
had been living in Chicago for the last three months since he stopped touring.
Wondering what it was all about and if he would ever find Faith, he decided to
pack up and leave San Francisco for a year. His year was already a quarter
finished, but no sign of Faith anywhere. Was she even in Chicago was the
constant question that ran through his mind. He knew she had to be there since
she was going to Columbia to study film.
Sitting there in the café and staring out the window, he saw a familiar figure
walk down the street. He stood up and ran after the short, black haired woman,
calling, “Morgan! Morgan!”
Morgan heard the calls and immediately turned around to see where they were
coming from. Behind her, she saw a man running towards her, his golden blond
hair bouncing around as the wind filtered through it. She smiled and yelled,
“Darren!” Catching up to her, his arms immediately wrapped around her body
as he picked her up and swung her around on the sidewalk.
“I’ve missed you so much!” he said as he put her down.
“I can see that,” Morgan replied as she giggled. “So, what brings you to
Chicago?”
“I just wanted to try living somewhere else for a change,” Darren answered.
“And I bet you’re also looking for Faith,” she said.
Darren shyly nodded as a smile curled up onto his face.
“Well, guess what? I just ran into her a few minutes ago as she was heading
off for class. I’m supposed to meet her in an hour and a half,” Morgan
informed him.
“She’s here? She’s really here? Can I come with you?” Darren begged.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. She didn’t sound too happy when
I mentioned your name,” she lied.
“I don’t care. I have to see her. I have to talk to her.”
“You will, just give her some time. Don’t rush her. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later. Hey, give me your number so I can call
you when I need to.”
Darren quickly scribbled it onto a sheet of paper and handed it to Morgan. She
graciously took it and said her goodbye.
* * *
“Faith!” Morgan called from across the street when she saw her friend emerge
from the building an hour and a half later.
Faith walked over to her. “Hey!” she said.
“Come on, let’s go to lunch. I have a lot to tell you,” Morgan replied as
she led her down the street to a small American restaurant. After being seated
at the table, she said, “Boy, have you been out of the loop for a long
time.”
“So, what’s happened since I left?” Faith asked, eager to hear the details
of her friend’s life.
“Well, Ben and I have been going out for nine months now, and just a few weeks
ago, he did the most unexpected thing,” Morgan answered.
“What? What? What?”
“He proposed!”
“Oh, my God! No way! I wanna see the ring!”
Morgan held out her hand to show Faith the half karat diamond ring. “We’re
getting married in July,” she bubbled with excitement.
“Congratulations! I’m so happy for you. What about Karl and Spaz? How are
they doing?” Faith replied.
Morgan’s excited grin soon turned into a painful frown. “Faith, honey, I’m
sorry to be the barer of bad news, but Spaz died four months ago in a car
accident,” she explained, her eyes tearing up.
“What?” Faith whispered as her eyes also began to water. “No. That’s not
possible! She can’t be dead!”
“Yes, she is. She was hit by a drunk driver and killed instantly as she was
going home.”
Faith’s head sank into her hands as she began to sob uncontrollably. “I
never got a chance to talk to her. I never got the chance to tell her I was
sorry. I never got to hear her side of the story. I can’t believe this,” she
cried as Morgan put her arm around her neck.
“It’s okay,” she mumbled. “It’s okay.”
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