SOULFUL

My friend Karen* was a pretty, smart and promising young girl when he met Jay* the new kid in town. With his slightly slanted eyes and dimpled cheeks, Jay was adorably cute. However, his looks was his only redeeming quality as he was known to be a problem kid since he arrived in our town. Needless to say, but he was involved in numerous brawls for the past 6 months.

Karen was perfectly aware of this so she was completely surprised the first time they got a chance to talk. Jay seems to be nice and friendly. He was polite and, as far as Karen’s assessment was concerned, one sincere guy.

Karen asked a lot of things about Jay and he answered truthfully. She learned that he grew up in affluence, but because of his father’s illness, all of their possessions were sold. After his father’s death, he and his mother were forced to come back to his mother’s hometown, ours. He has also been honest to admit that because of abundance in money, his brothers used to be addicted to marijuana and other prohibited drugs. As for himself, he didn’t deny that he he uses it as well, though not as much as his brothers did. Karen also learned that Jay is a black belter in Taekwondo and can take care of himself, or of both of them if the need arises. Karen was touched. He was so honest and endearing and he knew that Karen was out of his league. She was, as he put it, too straight.

But when love hits, it hits fast and right to the target. The young people fell in love. But as expected, the relationship became too controversial for them to handle, after all, they were just kids, barely 20 and not yet out of college in Karen’s case because Jay was still struggling his way to finish high school. I, for one, was against it, though I didn’t voice it out very vehemently, I made my point and the decision was Karen’s to make. I knew Karen was just being fair to Jay, she loved the guy and she wanted to give him a chance to prove himself worthy of her. But it proved to be so difficult because Jay couldn’t stay away from trouble. I believe he was trying but the odds were against him. Even if he was telling the truth, nobody believed him because of his record.

Karen wanted to keep him, to give him more time, to fight for the love she knew was right. But it was Jay who made the decision for both of them. He just loved her so much it was agony to see her suffer. He broke up with her because that’s what he thought was right, to let her go and let her find a better person.

That was 21 years ago. Now, Karen and Jay are both in my friends list in Facebook. I checked their profiles and I’m happy to know they are both settled. I wonder.. No, I don’t need to wonder, they were never meant to be.. Still, who knows..

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