This si a story of a man falling in love with his son's black wife.
I gazed at her with a lump in my throat, she is so heart breakingly beautiful, her soft angelic cherub like face, even elfin when she is in a cheeky mood, but today, like some other's before this, her face was crumpled. I knew what she was thinking.
"Why is he treating me like this, I don't deserve it, I hold myself for him, only him."
I had only met her once a year ago, when I came back to this country for her wedding. That too had been a surprise because she was/is black, it turns out her great grandparents were servants to a Royal Naval attaché in Kenya and he brought them back with him, but things turned out badly and they ended up on the streets trying make a living. Somehow they got through it. Now I was home between jobs, one was on for a month's time to start, and it is in South Africa, so I had plenty of time for a holiday at home, one I hadn't had for some years.
She is Roberta, or Bobbi to me and others, her husband of one year was my son. I'm divorced from his mother so have only seen him a few times in the last 4 or 5 years, he is twenty now, and Bobbi is nineteen. What on earth possessed her to marry my son will forever remain a mystery to me. But there again maybe not, she could have been trying to improve her life style and that of her parents, I wished her well!
He is so much like his mother, and again I ask myself what on earth possessed me to marry her those twenty long years ago, I don't know either. I suppose it must have been because she told me she was pregnant and I was the father. I was too, but I tried to be a good dad while he was growing, but when he got to nearly sixteen, I broke up, moved away, got work overseas, and then divorced, and I have never been happier.
Danny, my son, never got to hear my side; I was blamed as the bad guy by his mother, a terrible father for abandoning my son and her. He never has known of what she was like, a domineering person, wanting everything, and giving little in return. He, Danny of course was brought up in his mother's image; I could never quite get my face in.
So when I left, I fit the bill for his mother down to a tee. Danny had been given everything by her; I at least tried to be more strict without being bossy or nasty. But I got painted that way, and that's the way he sees me. He is a spoiled brat to put it bluntly, everything all his life was done for him.
But in my heart I want him to be a success, how I don't know because his grades at school left a lot to be desired, I even got him and opening with me in Dubai, he lasted two weeks. "Too hot, too dusty, the work is too hard, I miss my mom, I don't like it here." He called his mother; the next thing he was in a taxi to the airport, and that was that.
I know he is only young to be away from home, but he had me looking out for him, but he just flatly refused to give it a go. I never heard from his mother about it. I called him 3 months later, he was okay, never apologised, he never even mentioned his injured pride at having to work for a living.
I think the biggest problem was the fact that his mother had money, lots of it. All gained from very rich grand parents, good luck to her is my attitude, but I refused to be a kept man. I had my own pride, oh don't worry I had the holidays, and the cars but it was all with a cost.
"Don't you forget who paid for that!" she would remind me, I put myself through college, got my masters in engineering and I was up and running, after 5 more years was well paid, and well thought of. After the separation became complete I moved away for good. I tried to keep up contact with Danny, but I was wasting my time. Then out of the blue I received an invite to his wedding.
I of course accepted, I was told what to buy, what to wear, which hotel to stay in, all I had to do was buy my air ticket! I went to her house on the Friday night to speak with her, I asked if there was any thing I could do, no matter how small, suffice to say, I wasn't needed in that regard.
She did in fact tell me that she was paying for everything, Danny's wife to be was from an impoverished background, and his mother had taken it all away from her parents, who lived in council accommodation. I wondered how they felt about that and made a note to myself to find out.
Danny was there too, he greeted me with an, 'hello' and nothing else. I felt like already the proverbial spare prick at a wedding, his bloody wedding! I asked his brides name and where was she from all that kind of thing, I was genuinely interested. I was told her name was Roberta Carol Jennings, just turned 18 years of age, which surprised me more than I could say. So young to be getting married, I thought.
I asked if she from this town or elsewhere, Danny told me she lived on an estate called Netherwood, I knew it, so now I knew her name and also where she was from. I checked the phone books and there were two families with that name from that area. I hit pay dirt on the first call.
I introduced myself as Danny's father, I could almost hear the 'OH,' down the phone, I quickly explained why I was calling to put them at ease, and asked if I may call to see them. Fortunately they agreed, and around I went. I knocked and waited, the door opened, and I was greeted by an ordinary looking man, well, I suppose we can all be ordinary, can't we?
He invited me in to a not so well furnished small council house, but it was sparkling clean. I could see that they were not well off, but I could sense the pride within. I liked them both immediately. Without going into too much detail, I learned they were on benefits, but he was ill, and his wife cared for him. I had a lovely afternoon and I saw eventually where Bobbi got her looks from, her mother had the same hair, long sleek and jet black, the arched eyebrows, the full lips, the hauntingly beautiful face, yes, she was her mother's daughter okay.
He told me they had cashed in their insurance policies, but Danny's mother had refused to acknowledge it or them. It was her do, and it would be done her way, bitch! I thought. I could see the hurt in their eyes. I confided in them that my ex wife treated me and everyone else the same, as lesser beings. He turned out to be an ex car mechanic, and from his wife, I learned he had been better than anyone there is alive.
I made a couple of phone calls, and soon I had him placed as a technical advisor to apprentices at the local technical college, learning the car mechanical trade, no hands on, just expertise. The friend I arm twisted allowed me to pay, unknowingly, his first months wage, and then if he proved any worth he would take him on. It's another story now but it worked a treat and their lives are improving immeasurably.
I was staying at an hotel, but didn't like it, I asked the receptionist if she knew of any short term lettings for an apartment nearby. She looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening, and gave me a phone number to call. I did, I went to see this apartment over looking the river, and took it right away, it was a beauty!
The wedding was two days away, I was at my son's house, I didn't even like calling it a home. I tried to gain an interest in the upcoming day, but I found it difficult, she more or less ignored me, and he just wasn't interested in anything I had to say. I learned through normal gossip in the house that Danny thought he was jack the lad, since becoming engaged to Bobbi he had treated her badly. Not physically, but by doing and going to wherever and whenever he wanted, I also learned he was messing about too. Why the fuck was he getting married, and why was this dark beauty letting him?
Let me describe her, she is about 5ft 7" tall, elegantly styled in her manner, demeanour and grace, your eyes lock on to her when she walks, or slides and glides on her tiny feet. Her face is astonishingly beautiful, extenuated by her fabulous silky black hair that reaches past her slim shoulders, she is slender, yet has an almost voluptuous body, but what she has is all girl like, and certainly all woman, even if she is still tender in years, she is sensual, sexy and very feminine.
Having worked abroad I know how sexy black women can be, they give their man everything, love, heart and soul. I guessed this what Bobbi was trying to do with Danny, but he didn't care about that very much as far as I could see. What a fucking idiot, I said to myself. He ought to have her at his side, day and night!
So here I was, sat in my ex wife's house, just me and Bobbi. I asked if she was alright when I knew she wasn't. I imagined she was utterly gob smacked by all the goings on, the whirlwind that was to be her new mother in law, the idiot she was marrying, and the arrangements of which she was taking no part in, even though it was supposed to be her own wedding. The hurt in her eyes was palpable.
"What's happening tonight Bobbi, are you going out, staying in, going back to your parents, what?" I asked.
