All day Solomon sat in the Carleton University library, wondering how in hell he was going to extricate himself from the mess his life had become. He owed the school over two grand, and even though he qualified for a reduction of twelve hundred bucks, due to an international scholarship, they just told him he missed the deadline. It was too late for him to file for the reduction in fees. Mid-August and he still wasn't registered for September classes. And he only needed four more classes to graduate from the criminology program. Damn.
When night came, he went home, took a brief shower and put on his black and blue security uniform. Then he endured the hour-long bus ride to the west end of Ottawa, where a certain supermarket hired him as overnight security. The big and tall young black man was intensely aware of the stares he got as he neared the mostly white suburban area. You don't belong here, the sea of white faces around him seemed to say silently. Sighing, he grabbed his backpack and made his way through the parking lot. Once inside the store, he looked for a clerk or cashier. A short white gal with mousy brown hair told him the manager had already left. Awesome, he told himself.
He went to the washroom and took a leak, then washed his hands. When he came out, he was greeted by the same short chick from before. The assistant manager will see you now, she said evenly. Nodding, he followed her to the office upstairs. Hello I'm Bill, said a chubby white guy in his mid-fifties. Hello Bill I'm Solomon, he said as he shook the older man's clammy hand. The assistant manager told him that the store closed at eleven and from eleven to seven he'd be on deck, patrolling the floors and aisles while the cleaners did their work and then left. We just want you around just in case something happens, Bill said. Your workplace is in safe hands, Solomon told them with a wry grin.
He went to wait on a bench by the washrooms as the minutes ticked by. At ten fifty three all the shoppers were gone, leaving behind only the cashiers. The last one left at eleven ten. Solomon breathed a sigh of relief once he realized he was alone. He liked it better this way. He'd been working as a security guard ever since 2010, when his parents sent him to study at a university in Ottawa, Ontario. Why they made him leave his beloved Boston, Massachusetts, for the most boring town in Canada, he'd never know. One bar fight with some bigoted white dude who called him by a slur and his conservative Haitian parents got scared. He wasn't even charged. The case was dropped once the cops reviewed a tape of the bar owner's racist son calling him the N-word in front of his friends. Boston, the town where Barack Obama studied law, and where Deval Patrick got elected Governor of New England's flagship state, didn't tolerate blatant racism. They preferred it covert like the polite New Englanders they were. All this fuss that night at the bar because he was a young black man dating a white lady. Racism is everywhere, he told his parents. Yet his folks still felt Boston wasn't the right place for him. You need to get a grip on your temper and some fresh air, they told him. Apparently, fresh air and anger management meant Canada.
Solomon sighed, and thought of all the odd turns his life had taken. When he went out with Deborah that night he never imagined it would change his life forever. He'd known her since his days at Hyde Park Academy. The tall, red-haired and green-eyed white chick who was "down with the brothers". When he ran into her at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, he was thrilled. They renewed their friendship, and lo and behold, it turned into a mutual attraction. They began dating, and they were actually volunteering in the early efforts for Barack Obama's re-election campaign when he took her to that bar near campus. When it rains it frigging pours, Solomon thought sourly. Walking through the empty supermarket in Ottawa's west end, he wondered what Deborah was up to this very moment. They hadn't kept in touch since he left Boston. Sometimes they emailed each other on Facebook, that was it.
