The Fall is always a beautiful season in the City of Boston. This town, considered the intellectual Capital of America, is home to many, many colleges and universities. Tonight, inside the dormitory of one of Boston's smallest schools, Bay State College, located on Commonwealth Avenue, two best friends have bunked down for the night, hashing out their feelings and such. Well, actually, one originally had plans to go out, when the other came around seeking a shoulder to cry on...
"Cam, don't make me say I told you so," Kerry Landon thought to herself as Cameron Vincent, her favorite Haitian-American, regaled her with his latest tale of woe. Six foot one, broad-shouldered, long-haired and handsome, blessed with chocolate good looks seldom seen outside urban magazines, the brother was handsome. All the more so because he didn't seem to know it.
Why else would a guy as fine as Cam go after a third-rate skank like Julianna, the big-booty Haitian chick that probably every dude at Bay State College had a turn smashing? All those thoughts ran through Kerry's mind as Cam went on and on about how disappointed he felt after he caught Julianna sucking some guy's dick when he went to her apartment to surprise her with flowers...
Kerry totally saw that one coming, but was forced to be in listening mode because Cam was having one of his moments. At the age of nineteen, the slender, red-haired and green-eyed, freckle-faced young woman was mature beyond her years. If only her good friend Cameron could learn to grow up, man up, or whatever they were calling it these days...
"Dammit, Kerry, you were right, Julianna was a ho," Cameron said, shaking his head. Sighing, Kerry broke her silence by gently rubbing her friend's arm, and then reassuring him that he'd find way better than Julianna. The City of Boston, Massachusetts, was crawling with beautiful women of all hues. Unfortunately, just like he did back at their school in Brockton, Cameron maintained his bad habit of latching onto a skank while ignoring quality women...
Like most of the male of the species, Cameron Vincent, being visually orientated, couldn't help feel drawn to women endowed with certain features. Darker skin tones, ranging from equatorial black to brown and yellow. Curvy bodies. Big round bottoms. What Cameron can never resist, Kerry thought, smiling bitterly.
"Live and learn, Cam," Kerry said, gently brushing her hand on Cameron's broad shoulder, and he nodded. When he turned around and looked at her, Kerry paused for a moment. There was a smoldering intensity in Cameron's brown eyes that surprised Kerry. She'd known him her whole life, and had never seen him like this...
"I'll never learn, Kerry," Cameron said, with a sad little laugh, and Kerry eyed him cautiously. The two long-time best friends exchanged a look, and let the flow of memory take them. Back to a place called Brockton, Massachusetts. The City of Champions. The most storied locale in all of Massachusetts, yet far less well-known than, say, Boston or Plymouth. Their home...
In the summer of 2000, Benjamin Vincent, a Haitian newcomer, moved into Ash Street in the west side of Brockton with his wife Jacqueline and their son Cameron. In those days, Brockton was very much a segregated town, in spite of its diversity. The blacks mostly lived in the south side, the Latinos and others lived in the east side, and the west was mostly white, with a few Asians.
Benjamin Vincent and his family had no understanding of America's complex racial system, even in the supposedly progressive 2000s. Most of the white and Asian families living on Ash Street were cold and distant toward the Vincent family, there was one exception. A widower named Cullen Landon, formerly of Galway, Ireland, and his daughter, Kerry.
"Welcome to the neighborhood, folks, I'm Cullen, this is Kerry," the stocky, red-haired Irishman said, as he shook hands with his new neighbor Benjamin, a tall, muscular, dark-skinned man. The two men exchanged a smile, and thus two new families were formally introduced. It was to be a life-changing experience...
