Part 2 - Decisions
PART 2 - DECISIONS
I forget what day of the week that was. Classes were tough. I was taking Graduate level classes at Sloan with Middle Executives from Crysler, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Nortel, and super-technies from the Media Lab. I had a Problem Set due in the Fourier Series, and work piled up my ass. But I couldn’t really keep my mind on it the whole day.
It was dinner time with Sally. We were telling each other about our day, and then she stopped for a while, looked at me with concern, and suddenly made me all edgy with her motherly-ness. Man, not now. I told her that I think it’s classwork that’s really bothering me. She paused for a moment and then we talked about her classes and my research work. It was about 7:30pm when I said, "Hey we’re going to be late for Samba," and she said, "but it’s only at 8:30"… "yeah, I know, I’m usually there warming up an hour before, remember?"… so we finished dinner and made our way to the dance halls.
Dancing took me to another world. And it was no worries and a great new additions to the routine we learned last week. It was 11pm, when I packed up my stuff. Everyone had gone off an hour ago, so I turned off the lights, and before closing the door, I stood there in the stillness of the dance halls. I’m really gonna miss this a whole damn much. I went into the doors of the Number Six Club, my frat house and as I walked into the dining hall there was Jason Pinto, Trinidadian with the gift of the gab, telling another hilarious joke. Melanie had a Cartier in her hand and a glass of wine in her other. And there were other Freshmen and Sophomores with their glasses on, hair tied up, all hanging out, laughing, flirting. How these girls look so different during RUSH week when they were trying to get into the House. It was a bloddy week night and these guys live life to the max. I couldn’t hang around chilling out ‘cos there were just so many things going through my head. I walked straight past them into the Annex stairway and headed straight into my room.
I kept all the lights off, went to my desk, switched the halogen desk lamp on and lit a cigarette. I had about 2-3 hours before my body gave way, and a whole lot of work to do before my 8am with Professor Gupta at the Sloan the next morning. But I spent the next few hours just reminiscing my time with the Ballroom Dance Team this past year and a half, pictures of friends and Sally.
She had asked me about Islam a year ago, and lately she’s been very receptive to talk about converting. She was a christian, but willing. At some point, I actually contemplated co-existing without conversion. After all, religion was more about healthy living and doing good, wasn’t it?
TO BE CONTINUED
