Thanksgiving Weekend has come to the City of Ottawa, Ontario. This means that with many stores closed on the upcoming Monday, everyone is cramming into local stores in a shopping frenzy. For the local Walmart's cashiers, customer service personnel and the like, this would be a difficult day spent haggling with short-tempered customers. For Souleymane Baabur, the store's security guard, this day would be pure hell. Hence why he was killing time by chatting with Hawa the cashier, who came by on her break...
"Hawa, there are things about me that you just wouldn't understand," Souleymane Baabur said, and the big and tall, dark-skinned Mauritanian Muslim security guard sighed, wishing he could explain himself to the Hijab-wearing young Somali Muslim woman standing before him, but sadly he couldn't. Ah, the tragic life of the bisexual Muslim man, Souleymane thought to himself, lamenting his fate.
"Like what?" Hawa asked, and the young Somali Muslim woman, barely twenty, looked at Souleymane with a fearless tenacity beyond her years, demanding answers from the taciturn brother standing in front of her. Before Souleymane could answer Hawa's question, however, something seemed to catch his attention. A certain big-booty White woman clad in leather pants walked into Walmart, and the security guard's eyes locked onto her ample derriere.
Figures, Souleymane is a Black man after all, the fact that they love a big ass is well-known, Hawa thought to herself, shaking her head. Following Souleymane's gaze, she saw that while it definitely lingered on the big-booty White female shopper's posterior, it did not stop there. A construction worker, burly, muscular, and practically shirtless, walked out of the in-store McDonald's restaurant, and Souleymane's eyes seemed glued to the man's abs for the briefest of moments.
Oh my, Hawa thought, and a sly smile crept onto her face. For a long moment Souleymane's eyes followed the construction worker's progress as he exited Walmart, meeting up with his buddy at the entrance. Only after the guy disappeared from view did Souleymane turn to look at Hawa. Apparently, he'd forgotten that Hawa existed...at least just for a little bit. Pursing her lips, Hawa fixed her gaze on Souleymane's face, reading his temporarily dazed expression.
"Well, Hawa, I have certain passions which most people wouldn't understand," Souleymane said, and he smiled at Hawa, and then focused on a customer who was exiting the store. Said customer had a huge television set on a cart, and the whole thing was beeping. Souleymane excused himself and then went to deal with the customer, politely asking for a receipt. The customer, who happened to be an old White man in a cheap suit, turned argumentative.
"White privilege is definitely a thing," Hawa whispered to herself, remembering her sociology professor at the University of Ottawa, as she watched the back-and-forth between Souleymane and the customer. The two men couldn't be more different. A big and tall Black man with dreads and facial hair, in a dark blue security uniform, facing a short, suited and bespectacled old White man...and a very irate one at that.
"Sir, when an item beeps, I have to ask for a receipt," Souleymane explained to the customer, who kept going on and on about how he hadn't done anything wrong. Exasperated, Souleymane waved the old man off, and the sneering old dude walked out, apparently feeling victorious. Shaking his head, Souleymane grumbled something which Hawa found distasteful, but she kept mum about it. Truth be told, her mind was wrestling with something...
"Hmm, must be so frustrating," Hawa said, as she stepped closer to Souleymane, who stood there, still flustered after dealing with the irate old customer. Souleymane looked at Hawa, a curious look in those chestnut eyes of his. Hawa smiled slyly, and bit her lip, something she often did before saying or doing she knew for sure ought to remain unsaid or undone. I've got a smart mouth and don't apologize for it, Hawa thought, smiling wickedly.
"What do you mean, Hawa?" Souleymane asked, and the six-foot-six guard leaned against a cart which he pressed against the wall between the entry and exit door of the Walmart store. The brother stroked his goateed chin thoughtfully, and watched as Hawa stepped closer, until she was less than a meter from him. This little Somali chick is spunky, Souleymane thought, somewhere between annoyed and wryly amused.
"Well, my dear Souleymane, I think I know a thing or two about your unique passions, you like big butts on females but you also like nice abs on a dude," Hawa said softly, and she watched as Souleymane's facial expression went from puzzled to shocked in the blink of an eye. Now he was looking at her as though she were an alien from Mars, and Hawa found that both amusing and alarming...
"Interesting, and you know this how?" Souleymane replied, his voice remarkably calm, given the circumstances. Hawa grinned, sensing his discomfort, but pleasantly surprised that he didn't resort to lying. Souleymane considered the short, curvy, Hijab-wearing young Somali gal standing before him. From the coy smile on her lovely face to her confident posture, she looked very much like a woman who thought she had the upper hand.
"Souleymane, come on, you swing both ways, I'm very observant, and before you start panicking, your being a switch-hitter doesn't bother me in the least," Hawa said, and as the big man pondered that, she walked away. Souleymane watched Hawa as she walked back to her work station, her break having evaporated during their talk. Nosy gal's figured out my secret and dammit she sure has a nice big butt, Souleymane thought to himself with a nervous smile.
