Balaclava

France – Present Day

"I am getting tired of this, Mummy; I want to go home to Jamaica. I've been sweating my ass off for seven years in this kitchen and kissing so many butts I have a permanent chocolate moustache."

"Jaden McNamara!"

Samantha released the air from her lungs slowly and then released a long sigh. Jaden could hear the wind whistling through the receiver.

"You have dreamed of owning your own gourmet restaurant for ever and you are extremely talented and young. Forget about the brown nosing that you have to do right now. Think about the positives. You recently got promoted to Sous Chef. Stick it out a while longer son and remember, if you want good for yourself, your nose must run. It's an old saying in Jamaica, but it still applies to you wherever in the world you are."

"Mummy you would not understand the pressure that I am under. I agree that I have grabbed the chances, worked hard and used my networking skills; but while Paris is glamorous and has provided me with the experience required to hone my skills to bring my dreams into reality, I really miss home and I need to return home to Jamaica."

"Stop the whining, boy! It's not Jamaica that you miss so much; it's that girl. If you stayed in Jamaica, you would have been dead and buried. All that has happened is your fault. Your father lost his life and the family scattered, and over what? A little girl from the ghetto. Damnyou, Jaden! Damn you!"

He could hear the pain in his mother's voice, but the ache in his chest was far greater and the words crept from his brown sugary lips,

"Mummy, some things you would just not understand."

When he heard the dial tone, he realized that she had hung up on him. He sighed and hung up as well. He had been so caught up in their conversation that he didn't notice that his friend Gustave had come into the room and was watching him throughout the entire episode.

"Shit, that did not end well," he mumbled as he felt his heart sink into his chest. Each word his mother spoke felt as if it had been sinking deeper into his head.

"Jaden, why are you so troubled?" Gustave finally spoke, letting Jaden know

that he was not alone. He sipped his glass of white wine while he waited on him to answer.

"Gustave, it's 11 p.m. on Saturday night and we are both tired after a long day; do you really have the time to listen to the Story of how I ended up in Paris, just barely escaping the clutches of the Gang in Spanish Town?"

"Jaden, you are my only friend in this city and I would love to hear your side of the story from beginning to end. After all, the night is young and we still have a full bottle of wine left. We are here on this roof top terrace with a full moon and the night is cool with very little wind. It's so romantic, don't you think so?"

"Gustave, how can I find this romantic? If it were Lisa up here with me now, sure it would be truly romantic; but with you it's just two dudes hanging out and shooting the breeze."

"What breeze, Jaden? There is no breeze at all; the night is almost still.

"It's a saying from back home, Gustave, and you just would not understand."

"So, if you are so home sick, Jaden, why did you leave home and that girl Lisa in the first place?"

"I had no real choice in where I was born or the schools I attended; how the hell could I be at fault because I grew up on Monk Street in Spanish Town, Jamaica? However, I was not fortunate enough to attend the high school that shared the same street where I lived. I, along with my three siblings, went to the upscale Catherine High School that was designated for children with financial means. Maybe if I had gone to the other high school, on my street, I would not have been in this mess. Yet, my very own mother is blaming me. They were the ones that lived in the wickedest city in the Western Hemisphere. By all means, she can blame me for making the mistake of studying at University of Papine, where I rediscovered the girl of my dreams."

"Jaden, what do you mean by rediscover?" Gustave asked.

"Gus, I watched Lisa Ann Whitman almost every day walking past my yard on Monk Street to her high school down the street. She was diminutive, curvaceous and when she smiled, it seemed as if the entire place lit up brighter than the sun."

"So, what took you so long to even say a word to this girl, Jaden? You had the charm and the charisma; and why are your eyes so glossy as you mentioned her name?"

Jaden took a sip of his wine, swirled it in his mouth, swallowed it slowly and looked up at the Parisian night sky and chuckled,

"It was not that easy, my friend; for almost 5years I tried to build up the courage to say 'hi' but I was too shy and the freckles that were on my cheek did not provide the confidence for me to face my biggest fear."

"What did you do, Jaden, to change the circumstances when you saw her on the campus of the University?"

"Well, I had gained about fifty pounds of muscle to my previously puny frame and I was determined that Lisa Whitman would not slip from me this time. She seemed to be an extremely popular girl being the girlfriend of the President of the Student Union. Her personality made her a hit with the men in addition to the fact that her face could launch a thousand ships. She was warm, genuine and welcoming not to mention how she looked in a pair of close fitting blue jeans pants that made my liver quiver."

"Jaden, she sounds like trouble, already, I have read about the war a girl with a similar face caused and many people died," Gustave replied.

"Gustave, you sound as if you are already jumping to conclusions; I really only want someone to listen and not comment."

"Ok, Jaden you are a piece of shit then, but it's your mouth and you have my ears, not my brain, chat away," Gustave replied.

"Don't sound so hurt, Gustave. I don't want you to be bloody judgemental, only your honest opinion and hopefully I will be finished long before you're finished with the bottle of wine."

"Me? We are both drinking it remember and who knows the more you drink, the more you may remember and the more I will forget in the morning."

"Very funny, Gustave, but it was just that I felt I never had a chance since she was always being stalked by Antonio Sharpe, the entrepreneur kingpin heir to his father's fortune. I despised and hated him, It made me squirm every time I had the chance to say something to her, but felt the burn of Antonio's eyes in the back of my head, if I ventured too close to Lisa Ann. Frustration boiled in my blood as term after term passed and she did not even notice or realise that I was alive or even existed.

I became desperate as the freshman fete was approaching and the Student's Union had the responsibility to plan and implement the social event. I had joined the Union and had been given the responsibility of public relations. Nobody knew that I secretly attended the Toastmasters club at the nearby University of the West Hampshire in order to build my self-confidence with being a public orator and learn the art of networking. There was no way in hell that I would have allowed my classmate at school to know that I was secretly taking classes elsewhere in order to develop my oratory skills. There was also the spinoff of being a regular visitor to the campus of the University of West Hampshire. It allowed me to practice and hone my skills in approaching girls thereby increasing my chances exponentially to land Lisa Ann as my girlfriend. I joined the gym used by the athletes and managed to bulk up all this time hiding my rippling muscles and abs."

"So, you bulked up and fixed your crooked teeth just to impress a girl. Sounds sexy. Do you still have those muscles, Jaden and can I feel them and see them? And the morale of this story is what?" Gustave asked.

"Focus, Gustave, focus, the wine is getting to your head already."

"Ok, Jaden, I will try," Gustave said cheekily.

"It was my responsibility to solicit sponsors and schedule the entire programme. As I was in the process of finalising the script with the Master of Ceremony, I included my surprise component that I hid from Antonio. I wanted to catch Lisa's attention and the last thing I needed was a flopped performance that would make me the laughing stock of the Union and by extension the school. I knew she would be in attendance and since Antonio was the creative genius on the council. I counted on that fact that Antonio wanted to control everything and he would be distracted with running a tight ship and therefore not have enough time to smother her. Even my little sister, Amy, conceded that her big brother was handsome and had morphed from an ugly duckling to a swan.

This made me feel proud but humbled based on the words of my harshest critic. So, my crush on Lisa had indeed made me feel better about myself and this was confirmed by the reaction of the huge crowd. When I entered the stage, there was such a roar from the girls, a shiver ran down my spine as I started to sing the piece I rehearsed in the shower several times. You could have heard a pin drop in the crowd. When I began to sing the first notes the shock on everyone's faces changed to delight as I belted out the first verse of the popular song, Temperature. By the time I sang the line: "Girl for how the time cold I want to be keeping you warm mi have the right temperature," I was so in sync with the disc jockey that it sounded as if it was being sung by the original artist. The crowd was silent for all of 10 seconds as they did a double take and then the whole venue erupted in fake gun salutes and requests for 'forwards' as some still stood in awe. Most importantly that included Lisa as she stood there surprised and spellbound.

I watched her lips as she said to her friend Donna, "What the hell! Where did he come from all of a sudden? He is kind of cute. As a matter of fact, he is hot and he has a voice to match the face and the body"

"JMac! JMac! JMac!"

The shouts echoed throughout the crowd as if it were a chorus and it was encouraging me to fire up the crowd some more.

I liked the feeling it gave, but I was mindful of not coming across as being obnoxious and selfish. However, to show my vocal versatility a little Barry White should be the coup de grace and this time I did the chorus as well. Girls all around were fainting and those who were not fainting were mesmerised not only by the almost mirror image like sound,