Chapter 30 Memory of You, pt 1
July 24, 1983
"Hey!"
"Hey!" Called the high pitched voice of Charlene Korrapati from the edge of the one acre Galdren family garden.
"Hey, jackass," Charlene yelled from beside Jason's ear, snapping him out of his daydreams.
"What the hell!" Jason yelped as he put his hand to his ear and flinched away from the four foot eight inch girl standing, smiling up at him with her big brown eyes and pearly white teeth.
Her hair was long, very long, reaching all the way down to her wide curvy hips. Her skin was a dark taupe brown. At first glance, Jason had thought her and her mother and siblings were black folk. There weren't any of them in his little one stoplight town, so it was the first time he had ever seen anyone with skin so dark. He remembered the day he first saw Ms. Korrapati and all her children moving into the house down the street, that was six months ago, he had been joking with Calvin some racist joke he had heard at school and he had said the word, 'Nigger'. His mother was usually the personification of cool serenity, but to his horrible luck she just so happened to come around a corner at that precise moment. It had been years since he had gotten a serious whipping, but that day he got a whipping he would never forget, and then his mother dragged him out to the kitchen sink and lined up both him and Calvin and all his sisters and had them watch as she washed both his and Calvin's mouth out...with dish soap. Then their mother explained that word, 'Nigger', was a foul and belittling word used by people filled with hate and fear for what they can't explain. Or, dishonest people seeking to incite hate and violence of one human being against another only for that person's, inciting such hate, personal gain. Whether it be financial or political, it was always for power.
His mother taught them that day that if they wanted to be real men and real women when they grew up, then they would have to guard their thinking ability. That they should never take what someone says at face value, make them prove their case on facts, not truth. Truth is deceptive because a person's truth is based on their faith, and people can believe anything...even lies. Martin Luther King said it best, if you are going to judge a man, or woman, let it be on the content of their character, not of something as shallow as their skin color.
Jason would never forget that day or his incredible embarrassment, first in front of his mother and siblings, and later when he fell head over heels in love with Gabriella Korrapati.
Looking down at the waif standing beside him, one notorious Charlene Korrapati, he realized he had been daydreaming again. Staring across two acres at the incredibly beautiful Gabriella, out hoeing a vegetable line in their garden just as he was. He had been imagining his life with her, not as a farmer hoeing stupid carrots, but as a successful engineer. He would design and build skyscrapers for a living, and residential houses and submit them to the 'Home Design' magazine as a hobby.
Gabriella would look as beautiful as she does today, with black hair pulled back into a low ponytail at the back of her neck and falling to the small of her back. She wore a white linen dress today, unbuttoned for ten inches down to her magnificent bust so the heat of her work could escape her dress. Her breasts looked like large round watermelons barely restrained inside. Below her breasts, her waist was impossibly small, her dress tapering in before sweeping out over what his mother called, wide child bearing hips and buttocks, that made her body appear like a 8 from the front, and a capital-S with a line drawn through the center in profile. One day, they would have a dozen kids...
Charlene cleared her throat noisily, "You seriously didn't just slip back into another daydream about my sister did you?"
"No no," Jason denied as he shook his head and turned his back to Charlene and began hoeing again, "Besides, I wasn't daydreaming in the first place!"
She chuckled and grabbed a nearby hoe and began hoeing the next line beside him, "That's bull malarkey and you know it! You got it bad for Gabriella and everyone can see it, except Gabriella!"
"That's just not true," He lied again but it was a weak denial.
"Bull malarkey," She chuckled as she caught up to him.
He cut his eyes to look at the girl right beside him. She seemed so short next to him. He had already gotten most of his growth spurt and was a long and lanky five feet eleven inches tall, by comparison Charlene was four feet eight inches whereas Gabriella was five feet five inches tall. He liked tall full figured women, like his mother and older sisters though they weren't anywhere near as busty as the Korrapati women. Charlene's shoulders were broad but her chest was small, her breasts being nice little handfuls. He liked breasts big like Gabriella's, large enough to bury his face in. Charlene's waist was slim. That was good, he liked small waists. His mother called it the bumblebee-hourglass figure. She was so different from his mother who was a pear, characterized by a small chest and breasts, small waist, but buttocks and hips that were thick and wide as the outside measurement of her shoulders. Charlene on the other hand, looked like she was in between a pear and an hourglass.
"It's a shame," She said, after hoeing for a while before she stopped and unbuttoned the top of her white linen dress halfway down her chest.
"What is," He asked, pausing in his hoeing to look up and glance over seeing Gabriella looking back across the expanse at him and Charlene.
"That you are so besotted with Gabriella," She answered forthrightly, "You're not her type!"
"Really," He retorted, "And, you know her type?"
"Yep," She answered.
"So what is her type," He asked as he turned and looked at Charlene.
She smiled at him, her brown eyes mischievous, her skin glistening with a sheen of perspiration, "Lets just say...she likes tilling the family garden!"
He looked at her quizzically, not understanding her meaning.
"I don't get you," He finally growled as he turned back to his task, "You come all the way over here to yell in my ear, make fun of me, and tell me the girl I like isn't interested! What do you want? If I'm not her type then whose type am I?"
"You're such a guy," She sighed as she went back to her hoeing with a shake of her head, "Can't see anything but your own daydreams. Can't perceive anything but only what you want..."
"If I'm so dumb and selfish then why are you here," He asked his voice accusatory and hurt more than he thought he should be.
It was her turn to stop and look at him, her expression aggravated, "I am here, you big dummy, because you are my type! Gabriella will never give you the attention you want, but I would let you cultivate my garden any time you want. I would be the wife you imagine Gabriella being if you would just look at me. If you would just see me, and give me a chance!"
He guffawed, "But you're just a little girl!"
