Three Grandmothers

Just a love story.

Three Grandmothers

 

A very dark skinned foreign student was sitting alone under an Oak tree at the end of the Green as Susan approached him with her books clutched in both arms across her chest.  He looked up at the young freshman as the sun lit up her hair from behind making it difficult to see her face.  “Hello, my name is Susan” she said, holding out her hand, as the young man quickly got up to introduce himself properly.

 

“Hello” he said politely taking the young woman’s hand as he noticed the stark difference in her skin color and his own as their hands joined.  He was a bit nervous, as back home, although it was perfectly ok to talk to white people; romantic relationships with whites were strictly taboo.  What made him nervous was that he had immediately been attracted to the beautiful woman as he looked up at her face with the sun lighting up her hair.

 

“Kintura is my family name and my name is Jensu” the interested young man realizing that here in Maryland he was the outsider; while in his homeland it would be the other way around.  “My friends just call me “…su.” He added.

 

“My friends just call me Sue too.” Susan chuckled as they both realized that they sort of shared the same name and began to call each other “Sue too” and “Su too” while their nervousness disappeared.

 

 In a few short days, the two had become best friends and although each continued to be attracted physically to the other, their relationship remained platonic.   It was not long however that the two were inseparable, on or off campus, and enjoying the attention that their friendship stirred among others.

 

In their last year at college, both of Susan’s parents were killed in a car accident back in Oklahoma and one day in the library, after she came back to school after their funerals, Jensu invited her to come with him to visit his homeland after graduation, now just a couple of months away.

 

“Only if you will come someday and visit my ‘homeland’ in Oklahoma, Mr. Kintura.”  Susan said politely as she accepted her friend’s invitation, thinking that a trip to Africa might help keep her from thinking about her parents and her home.

~

“You told your grandmother that your friend was white.” Jensu’s uncle said as he picked them up at the airport. “But I think you forgot to mention that your friend was a white woman.  “A very pretty one as well,” the uncle quipped in their native tongue as he glanced at the young woman while placing the baggage into the back of the Land Rover.  Susan blushed as she understood the comment without even knowing the language.

 

When Jensu introduced Susan to his grandmother, contrary to what he had expected, the old woman immediately embraced her and Jensu saw it as “permission” to finally express his true feelings towards Susan.  For lack of a better place, the two su(e)’s consummated their relationship in the back of the uncles Land Rover under the clear African sky filled with the brightest stars ever seen by man.

 

“You’ll have to come back to America with me now my darling.”  Susan said to Jensu the following day as they were walking in the marketplace.  When all of a sudden, an old woman holding a bundle walked up to Susan and placed it in her arms.  Susan reacted naturally and took the bundle as the old woman turned to walk away saying “He is cursed; a white man raped my granddaughter.”

 

Jensu and Susan uncovered the bundle to find a light skinned African child apparently just a few days old, and looked at each other unable to speak.  Looking up to question the old woman, she was nowhere in sight.  After a while, a local policeman who looked askance at Jensu, Susan and the baby directed them to the local police station where they were sent to one ministry after the other finding it harder and harder to return the mixed race foundling to the proper authorities.

 

Eventually it was decided that if Jensu and Susan were married and if, in fact, the baby was proven not to be theirs as they all assumed, that adoption papers would be issued so that the baby could be taken back to America where it was believed mixed race children were far better off.

 

Jensu and Susan were married in a Missionary chapel three weeks later while Jensu’s grandmother held their adopted son in her arms wondering how people could ever think that any god could ever curse such a beautiful child or his young teenage mother who was raped either.   

 

As the parents headed off to a whole new life just weeks after being students together in Maryland, they began to settle down for the long flight with their new baby in their arms.  “I don’t think we will be anymore welcomed in Kansas than we would be in your homeland, Su.”  Susan said as she took hold of Jensu’s hand.  “We should visit my grandmother, your grandmother reminds me of her.”

Reviews

[Gandré]

Yes I know this piece. Wisdom and incomparable museum of adventures and quirky stories you are. I like them all.... There is always something to learn. I like the structure, it is easy to read the way you put it up and, I discovered the rating today. horrai! Imagine... I never have seen this before.. What does it mean? My theory is right then. we see what we want to see.

[SR Urie]

Hello Sean,
The young woman, Susan, and the African 'boy named "...su" ' meet in college, and both being a bit timid to start their freshman year at school, become fast friends, a relationship that matures into true love of one another as well as one another's homeland, that grows into the blessing of an unwanted child that graces both of their lives almost as readily as they grace his. And such a happy ending, leading to the great state of Maryland.
Excellent setting and character development, and a great plot with an honest to goodness climax. I truly enjoyed your writing, sir; it's much better than most that you see on this site. Well done! BZ

[Norma M Sutton]

As always your writing never disappoint me. Sad that the same taboos are at work in all cultures and the children are the ones that suffer for it.