From Boy To Man

From Boy To Man

There are some love stories that are beyond remarkable.  You know the kind of stories that give you the chills, and make you reflect on your own personal love life. Well I was allotted to experience one of the greatest love stories ever told. Allow me Marcus Valentine to share with you a piece of my love. The sun was shining bright that Sunday morning in North Las Vegas, NV.  The year was   1988 to be exact.  I was a young 14 to year teenager boy who decided to step out on faith and approached a girl that attended my high school. I admired her for over a year but I was too shy to say anything to her.  Like any other teenage kid, I was afraid of being rejected. Well, all of that change on that day. On that day, the birds were singing a beautiful melodic melody of love. Even the ruby red roses that I held in my hand smelled like new love.  So, there I stood at the door step of the girl that I wanted to love one day and I wanted her to somehow or some way love me back too. My teenage dreams were to ask Lovely Mona out on a date to see the movie Boomerang. My heart started to beat fast, for I was nervous as all get out. I then started to sweat profusely, to the point that one would have thought it was raining outside because my brand new cross colors yellow shirt and red jeans were drench. But I had to block out all the fear from within, but in reality it was the fear of rejection that had consumed me.

My grandmother told me earlier that day to be a man and tell this girl my deepest feelings. The worse she could say is she doesn’t feel the same way about me or she shared the same feelings too. So, I slowly knocked on the old hard wooden door real soft. Nobody answered; therefore, that was my excuse to walk away, but I turned back around, and proceeded to knock on the door harder. An older lady then shouted from inside the house, "Who is it?!” And stop knocking on my damn door!" My first instincts were to turn around and run like hell, but I stood my ground like a boy maturing into a brave young man. The door then slowly open and my heart started beating even faster,  as if I was about to have a heart attack. Once the door finally opened, my dream girl mom answered the door wearing a pink robe, a blue shower cap on her head, and a white unlit cigarette dangling from her mouth. Her mother said to me, "Who are you?!" I stood there frozen for a second or two, and said, "Marcus." She replied, "I know who you is. You Liz boy." I replied, "Yes Ma’am.”  With a tilt of her head she lit her cigarette, then blew the smoke directly in my face and looked me up and down and sarcastically smiled.  I wanted to chock but I refuse to choke because chocking was a sign of weakness, and I wanted to be a man. I initially thought her mother must have been on crack, being that she gave me a look similar to the crack heads in my neighborhood, and my grandmother didn’t prepare me for this. My grandmother left out how to approach her parents.  Well none the less, her mother looked at the roses in my hand and said “Who those roses for, boy?" I nervously replied, “They’re for Mona.”  Her mother smiled and yelled, “Mona! Some nappy head little boy is here to see you! Come to the door and get off my phone! You aint paying no bills in here!” Then she slammed the door in my face real hard and walked away. A minute later the doors slowly open, and there she stood as beautiful as today is tomorrow, the woman of my 9th grade dreams. Lovely Mona was the prettiest caramel yellow girl with the sexiest soft slanted eyes from Vegas to London, to Japan, and like Roger & Zapp song said, “I wanted to be your man.”  I wanted to be her man and her future.  We locked eyes for a Bobby Brown second, as if we both had been waiting for this moment all of our lives. I immediately said, “The roses are for you.”  Lovely Mona eyes look l as if I held a diamond ring in my hand, and she gracefully removed the roses from my hand, as if she was  my Queen to be  and then she place the roses to her nose and inhaled the most beautiful inhale that I ever seen and said, “Thank you.”  I was stuck in a moment of awe, after she said thank you to me because her thank you was up there with the Lakers Championship!  Her thank you, was up there with the UNLV Running Rebels Championship too! Her thank you was the thank you of all thank you!  I mean Lovely Mona said thank you to me, and she’s the most beautiful girl in the world!  Now all I had to do is calm the blank down and ask her if she would go out with me on a date to the movies; therefore, I took two deep breaths to gather myself and said, “Hey, eHeyI was wondering if you would like to go out with me on date to see the movie Boomerang?” Lovely Mona smiled immediately turned into an instant heartbreak frown, as if I said the worst thing a young man could ever say to the most beautiful girl in the world.   At that very moment, I wanted to rewind the hands of time and ask her on a date in another way but I could rewind the hands of time, and there was nothing I could do about it.  My 9th grade dream looked at the flowers as if she wanted to cry and then she slowly raised her head to look into my eyes and said, “Marcus I’m pregnant with my first child.” My feeling was crushed to the point that I wanted to cry right in front of her but I held all my hurt inside like man.  Now I was crying inside. Lord knows I was crying inside but she wasn’t going to see that part of me. Lovely Mona knew that she hurt my feelings, so she softly asked me, “Are you OK?”  To be honest with you, I wasn’t OK. I was hurt beyond hurt and I wanted her to say that she was joking or lying, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.  With my head down I told her that I’ll be OK. There was a guilty silence that occupied the silent space that existed between her and I.  I then told Lovely Mona, “My name is Marcus by the way.  Hey, I guess we can be friends, right?”  A tear fell from her eye and she agreed to be my friend. Lovely Mona wanted to give me back my roses but I refuse to take them back because I bought them for her. I bought it for that moment via good or bad. I bought them for the most beautiful girl in the world, even if she wasn’t in my world.  Then I turned around with my head held down, and sadly walked away

I was upset with myself because if I would have approached her a long time ago she would be carrying my baby but how was that possible because I wasn’t even having sex at that time.  Yes, I was a 100% virgin.  I told my grandmother of what happen and my grandma said, “Did you cry?” I told my grandmother that I didn’t cry and I held all my pain inside like a man. My grandmother said men cry too but they cry inside. Well, that was the most humiliating moment of my teenage life.  I said to myself later on that night, “I guess all dreams aren’t meant to come true.”  That day I played New Edition song Boys to men on my radio, as I cried myself to sleep.

A few years later I saw Lovely Mona pushing a stroller down the grocery isle, and in a stroller was her beautiful baby boy.  We both smiled at each other as if this was the most opportunist time for us to be together or to get to know one another.  I asked Lovely Mona what was her baby name?  And she smiled and said, “Take a guess?”  I pulled a name out of the air and said, “Johnny.” She said, “No silly. I named him after a good friend.”  I shrug my shoulders like I didn’t know what to say because I didn’t know any of her friends. Then she said, “Marcus.  I named him Marcus.”  A big bright giant smile came across my face, and I asked her, “You name the baby after me?” She replied, “No moron, I named him after Willie down the street. Yes, I named him after you. Mr. Crazy!”

 Now fast forward 15 years later and my 9th grade college graduate dream girl from high school  is walking down the wedding isle carrying my child in her stomach.  My fraternity brothers are screaming roof at the top their lungs, as my 9th grade dream girl says, “I do.”  I got to go now because my beautiful wife and my new born baby girl, along with my older son keep calling my name. Now keep in mind,   I'm a published well know writer, a father, but more importantly my dream girl husband. That life changing experience took me   from being a boy to a man.  Don’t you just love a happy ending?

By

Marcus Webb