As Salaam Alaikum, dear friends. My name is Suleiman, and I'm a Haitian Muslim brother living in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. You don't find a lot of Haitian Muslims out there but I am one of them. I converted back in the summer of 2015, from a Christian background. Life has been okay in the few years since my conversion. Just a big and tall young Black man trying to eke out a living in the Canadian Capital, you know?
No matter where I go, drama seems to follow me. At my new job at a big box store in the environs of Laurentian, where I work security, I have my share of haters, including a little old white lady named Helen whom I think likes to put stuff in co-workers food to make them ill. I suspect Helen of being something akin to an Angel of Death, like in those crime shows. I can't prove it. The security camera dude says he hasn't seen her do anything wrong. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait and see...
At my school, Carleton University, I seem to have the wrong opinions on everything according to some people, especially the gender politics crowd. Go figure. That's what a brother gets for not being one of those who follows the crowd. At home I have to deal with my Pakistani landlady and her weird strictness, but she's not all bad so I learned to deal. Life is like that, I guess...
The other day I went by this big box store located at the Ottawa Train Yards area, where I used to work security. One of the things about working security is that you see it all. The racist men and the racist women. The psychopaths. The entitled ones. The crazy ones. They all come into Walmart, Winner's and Loblaw's and other local stores to shop, and if you're the uniformed guy at the door, you can bet your sweet ass that they're going to be coming for you.
I was about to enter the photo lab, where a certain friendly old Arab man whom I am acquainted with works, when someone called out my name. I turned around, hoping it wasn't one of those mean-ass employees whom I couldn't stand. I left my security gig at this big box store because one of the customer service managers, a chubby Arab fucker named Ahmad, sent four of his thug-ass friends after me. I had to fight them off. I asked my manager to transfer me to another store not long after that.
"Suleiman, I thought that was you, don't you remember me? It's Marie Bemba," came a female voice, and I turned around to face the source of said voice. A tall, chubby, dark-skinned and short-haired Black woman in her forties stood before me, a big smile on her face. The lady looked indeed familiar. I vaguely remembered Marie, the big-booty sister who would come in late in my shift because she was part of the store's overnight crew.
"Hello, Marie, happy holidays," I said, feeling a bit funny about saying those words. Is it okay to say happy holidays on December 27? Or does the holiday season extend until the first of January? I don't know. I smiled at Marie and held out my hand for her to shake, and she batted my hand away and gave me an impromptu hug instead. I don't like random people hugging me but if I said I minded feeling Marie's curves against my body, I would have been lying...
"Happy holidays, Suleiman, I know you're Muslim but I hope you had a good holiday," Marie said, and I saw that twinkle in her brown eyes and smiled. The lady looked me up and down, then licked her lips. This gesture definitely registered with a certain part of my masculine anatomy, if you know what I mean. I returned Marie's smile and checked her out, then nodded almost imperceptibly.