it could all be so simple...

(i'll get back to the collab series after i finish this up. some shit went down this weekend i've gotta get out)

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i should have known saturday was gonna have yet another one of those 'moments'. you know, the moment where your past shows up in your present trying to impact your future.

i had been at my apartment for a minute when i got a call from my girl candice.

"girl, you gotta come out here!" she was yelling into the phone, the music in the background so loud i could barely make out her voice.

"come out where?!" i asked, raising my voice a few decibels to compete with the noise interference on her end.

"the old school party!" she responded, still yelling.

"what?? old school party? where is it??"

"it's at earthlink live, girl! you gotta come!" she exclaimed, excitement threaded through her voice, "they're playing all the old school jams AND there are some fine brothas out here!"

candice and i had hung out the night before, first stop was at the first friday function at fort gillem before we headed to the carribean joint, vibes. frankly, i was still recovering from that long night, not to mention i had just spent a couple of hours at a bar hanging with friends. i was a little tired.

then i heard biggie's one more chance blasting in from behind her. that was enough to sway me to go out again.

"is that biggie in the background???" i asked her as i started to get a little excited myself.

"YES! they've been playing stuff like this since i got here! you coming?"

i was already stepping into a pair of heels and grabbing for my purse.

"HELL YEAH!", i said, "i'm walking out of the door right now!"

"call me when you get here!"

my legs were a little sore from all of the dipping i'd done the night before. for those of you who don't know, if you're dancing to calypso or reggae, you gotta be willing to 'drop it like it's hot'...ALOT. i flexed them in an attempt to ward off the soreness a little, did a couple of stretches, then walked out the door to my car.

when i got to earthlink live, parking was a bitch. it took me about ten minutes to find a spot. that just made me even more eager to get up in the cut cuz there were cars EVERYWHERE, which meant plenty of folk, plenty of opportunities to check out the fellas, and plenty of possible dance partners.

after a minute of trying to hook up, candice and i finally met at the top of the stairs in the entryway. i was looking around, soaking in all the beautiful people standing around in an atmosphere conducive to getting to know each other better. the lighting was low, which of course is the equivalent to having beer goggles cuz everybody looks attractive in low lighting. the walls were covered in red velvet and the entryway was a long hallway curved around the theatre located in the middle of the building. there were small enclaves in the walls with soft, overstuffed velvet couches lining the inside. very romantic.

the music was thumping against the walls as we walked around. it was muffled, but not too muffled where i couldn't make out the lyrics.

"I know that we've been here before
The candle light and you walking softly through my door..."

what the fuck? mary? 'what's the 411' mary??? OH SHIT...

i was ready to get on the dance floor RIGHT THEN. too bad at the same moment, candice was stopped by a brotha who evidently was supposed to be a good friend's recommendation for a possible love connection. one look at him and i knew it was a bad move. it wasn't that he wasn't attractive, but my girl candice is particular when it comes to the type of brotha she's willing to date. unfortunately, he didn't fall in that category. after i watched her do the equivalent of the "step off dance", we made our way to the bathroom where we freshened up.

we stepped outside of the bathroom doorway.

"I can see you standing there like an angel
Oh boy, oh reminisce, reminisce on the love we had..."

i started moving to the music, a strut in my step as i headed straight for the entryway leading to the theatre where the music was being played.

"don't you know that you remind me
of a love that i once knew, yes you do oh..."

more mary? this was beginning to be too much! i was damn near RUNNING down the stairs to the dance floor by the time greg enn.eye.cee.eee started dropping his lyrics on the track. the adrenaline was bursting through me, the euphoria of being again draped in memories of past moments clinging to my skin in tingling traces.

candice and i met our other girlfriends down there. danielle and deborah were already in their element, moving their bodies in time with the rhythm and rhyme. i thrust my hands into the air and was dancing as i ended up in front of them. we exchanged hugs and then got straight to the dancing, a circle of four sistas totally emersed in the music, not giving a fuck about whether or not we had a brotha dancing with us. alot of times i really prefer dancing alone, cuz then i can just do my thing and not worry about whether or not he's keeping up with me.

the lighting in there was much darker, the crowd on the floor a gathering of moving shadows and accumulating sweat that left a pungent smell hovering in the hot air. there was an indigo hue draped across everything, casting the whole room in a 'blue lights in the basement' mood as bodies clung together, tied close by the notes flowing in combined chords around them.

"any early 70s babies up in here?" the dj's voice sounded like a p-funk riff in between the beats. the crowd started roaring as most of the folk put their hands in the air.

"what about you babies from the 60s?? any of you up in here?" more roars and hand raising as people got hyped about hearing their decade mentioned. oh yeah, only grown folk up in the cut THIS night.

"remember when ya mom made you clean your room on saturday morning? she told you you couldn't go out to play until it was done?"

everyone was nodding in agreement, smiling faces lit up the darkness like flickering candles as people remembered back to the time when life was simpler and all we had to worry about was cleaning our rooms so we could go outside and play.

"remember how your mom put on the music while she did the saturday morning cleaning??"

"love And happiness
something that can make you do wrong, make you do right..."

AWWWWW SHI...

folks started getting hyped when they heard preacher al's voice come through the speakers in plantive declaration.

and then the famous eight note guitar introduction fell and everyone started yelling loudly and jumping. the dance floor, already crowded to ridiculous proportions, became even more tightly packed. the dj went from al green's love and happiness to the stapleton singer's i'll take you there to king floyd's groove me baby without missing a beat. i was getting my groove on at this point, shaking my ass, my hands in the air as i stayed hyped from track to track.

the dj was taking us all down memory lane, playing the classics from kool and the gang, the commodores, parliament, la belle, heatwave, brothers johnson. i had relived my childhood all over again with that soundtrack, my mind swimming in a reverie of remembered reels...green machines and easy bake ovens and scraped knees from playing football in the street and red kool aid stains on summer white t-shirts and the echo of a looping mr. softee song as the ice cream truck made its way through the neighborhood to my street.

my eyes were closed, my body riding the notes of each song as i smiled dreamily and thought back to the good old days.

someone placed his hands on my hips and i felt his body moving in close behind me. his dick was hard as it pressed into my ass.

what the fuck??? i frantically pushed his hands from my hips and turned around.

"who the FUCK do you think you are..." i yelled as i looked up and tried to make out his face in the low lighting.

"hello, nik."

i gasped as the voice from long ago re-entered my mind. the voice that sang alongside mine through many of the songs being played by the dj. the low timbred sound that was a lover's lullaby for me many years ago.

"long time no see," he added as his eyes held mine and he stepped in closer.

i sighed and lowered my head and sighed again as my heart started beating faster at hearing that voice.

his voice.

leron's voice.
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story of leron, pt. one...pt. two

tomorrow's installment: but you'd rather make it hard...