Chapter 2

Late one Friday afternoon, there was a knock on my door. I was in the middle of getting ready to go out for a bite to eat, so the unexpected visitor was kind of a nuisance.

I looked through the peep hole and saw a gorgeous young woman who looked to be bi-racial. Her skin was a light golden brown; her hair was long and curly, and a nice shade of dark brunette. There were a few well-placed blonde highlights that made her hair look alive. She looked like she was maybe seventeen or eighteen, but still, she was the most beautiful girl that I’d ever seen. I quickly opened the door.

I said, “Hello there, pretty lady! What can I do for you?” She answered.”Well, that depends. Is your name Ric Hayes?” I answered in the affirmative. She then asked, “Did you ever know a pretty Black woman named Felicia Simmons? This would have been around eighteen or so years ago.” I told her, “Well, let me think ... uhhh ... no, that name rings no bells. Why do you ask?” She narrowed her stunning eyes, which I just now noticed were a piercing shade of green. She said,

“Felicia Simmons was my mother. She unfortunately passed away a month ago. Leukemia” I told her that I was really sorry for her loss. I then asked, “What’s this got to do with me?” Then she asked, “Did you ever play in a heavy metal band called “British Preist”? Again, I said, “Like I just asked you, what are you getting at, young lady? You seem to know a lot of information that may or may not pertain to me. But I grow tired of these questions. Please get to the point.” She then asked if she could please come inside. It was hot outside, I guess, and my air conditioning was blowing cold. I motioned for her to enter.

She said, “Maybe I started out on the wrong foot. Hi, I’m Chancy Simmons. I assume that you are, in fact, Ric? Ric, my mother was a huge fan of Judas Priest, believe it or not. Kinda rare for a Black chick to be into heavy metal, huh? Well, anyway, being that she was a Priest fan, she also followed a tribute band named “British Preist.” She was especially interested in one of their guitarists. She said that he had really long wavy hair and the prettiest green eyes that she’d ever seen. She also said that he was built really well and hung like a Clydesdale stud. Ric, if you look closely into MY eyes, you’ll notice that they too, are green. Also kind of rare for a Black chick. Wouldn’t you agree?”

I said, “Woah, Woah, Woah, little girl! Just exactly what is that you’re saying? What, that I’m your father? What do you want? Are you saying that I owe you money? Is that what this is all about? I’ll never agree to a D.N.A. test!” She put up her hands and said, “Easy Ric. If you are in fact my daddy, I just want to get to know you. Look, I’m not looking for a pity party, but since my mom died, I’m all alone in this world because I have no other family. Mom’s parents passed away a long time ago. If you aren’t at least somewhat interested in letting me get to know you and you, me, please tell me now. I don’t think I could stand to lose TWO parents inside of two months.”

I thought for a moment, then said, “You come knocking on my door just a few minutes ago. I don’t know you from Adam or Eve, and now you’re asking me if you can just move in with me? How do I know that you’re not some scam artist, or worse yet, a theif just waiting for me to close my eyes so you can rob me? I have some very expensive guitars and amps in my home recording studio. If you know that I’m a musician, then you’ve probably figured that out, and now you wanna steal my equipment to pawn and make a quick buck? I don’t think so, little lady.”

Chancy looked like I’d stung her pretty badly. She said quietly, “Maybe you’re not my daddy. Mom often ... REALLY often actually, spoke very highly of that guitarist. She said that she fell in love with him. She said that their relationship was short but extremely exciting. Said that, not only was he gorgeous and an amazing lover, but also very sweet and caring.”

I looked into her beautiful green eyes, then said, “Did you say her name was Felicia? I do remember a very pretty Black girl named Felicia, now that I think about it. She really said all those things about me ... umm ... that guitarist? What else did she say?”

She responded, “Do you still have that really awesome black Chevy van, the one with the aluminum wheels and raised white letter tires? The one that had a very comfortable queen size bed in the back? Mom told me that you and she had many a memorable night in that van. She told me just about everything about you two. She was in love with you, Ric. She said that you two just couldn’t work it out to be together permanently. She was really unhappily married to the man that I thought was my dad. Things sort of went south after I was born. He’d suspected that I wasn’t his daughter because of my lighter skin tone. And then the older that I became, the greener my eyes were. Of course, she denied everything, but when I was old enough, she started to tell me about this wonderful white guy that she’d had an illicit affair with. One strike against making it more permanent was that both her parents hated white people. They would have disowned her if they had seen you two together.”