Chapter 2: Marilyn
Marilyn is a beautiful African girl who lives on the mountain of St Marys, a town where everyone knows everyone. Marilyn is very beautiful with the most glowing ebony skin in the whole town. Her long life dream is to travel to the city and become a model for the top modelling houses there. But, as a girl growing up in this town, that dream felt too far fetched. Yet, she never gave up.
Everybody in town loves her. Whenever she goes to the market with her mother, there are eyes always staring at her. She has had suitors coming for her hand in marriage. Some came even when she had just turned sixteen. But, she turned all of them down because she wanted to achieve her dream first.
At the age of 23, she still had her beauty and men still would not stop trooping to her house even though they knew very well that they would be turned down. It's not like she does not like the attention she gets from them. She really did like some of them, especially Kelly, the baker's son.
Kelly is a mulatto boy. His father is an African while his mother is white. His father's bakery is the biggest bakery in all of St Marys. He is the town's richest baker and everyone loves him just as much as he loves everyone he comes into contact with. Kelly, on the other hand, is one of the respectful young men in town. His parents trained him in one of the best schools in the city, and when he came back home, he decided to help his father in his business.
At 21,he had already completed his education in the university. Unfortunately, most of the people from St Marys do not have the luxury of sending their children to school, much less to the university. Most of the young men and women who managed to go to school, normally looked down on their friends who were not literate. Some even went as shunning their families and moving away to the city. But Kelly was not like that. He loved his town and wanted to come back to it.
Marilyn loved Kelly for that. He was educated more than she was yet, he was so humble and respectful towards the people of the town. One evening, Marilyn went into the market to get some food for the house when she passed by the bakery. Kelly was standing by the counter, looking as handsome as ever in his dark, short curly hair and beautiful plain white apron, which hung down from his neck to his knee. When Marilyn saw him, she smiled at him and Kelly smiled back. She walked towards the bakery and placed her basket on the counter.
Kelly was smiling shyly at her. Whenever he saw her, he just did not know what to do. Sometimes, he would just stand there and have this sheepish smile across his face which kind of worked sometimes. This time, he was smiling but not like he used to do.
"Hello Kelly," Marilyn greeted him.
"Hello, Mary. You are going out to the market?" Kelly asked with the shy smile on his face.
"Yeah. Mother wanted me to get some food stuffs for dinner. So, I wanted to rush there before everything runs out of stock." Marilyn explained.
"Well, you should hurry then. You know the market normally closes at 7. Would you like me to come with you? It would be a pleasure to accompany you," Kelly offered, still smiling.
"No, no. Don't worry about it, Kels. I will just go ahead. You watch your father's bakery. Maybe I might come get some bread on my way home. You know how much I love the bread you make," Marilyn said.
Kelly smiled brightly, flushing out his white set of teeth. Kelly has a beautiful smile which makes everyone around him smile too when he smiles at them. He is wickedly handsome, and the girls of the town were falling head over heels for him. But, he had his eyes on the ebony girl, Marilyn.
"Well, I should get going now. I will see you later," Marilyn said and picked up her basket.
"You really don't want me to go with you? I really don't mind," Kelly questioned sadly.
"Maybe next time, Kels. You are alone here and I don't want to be the reason why you would close up your store. OK then, let's do this. The next I come by, I will let you escort anywhere you like. How about that?" Marilyn asked.
"That sounds like a plan. I would really like that," Kelly's smile returned back to his face.
"Very well then. See you later, Kelly," she waved at him and walked out the door as Kelly waved back.
He looked at her till she was out of sight before he went back door to check on the number of bread they had.
Marilyn skipped all the way to the market, humming a happy tune and smiling to herself. Marilyn knew she had the body of a model but she also could sing really well. Anyone who heard her sing was very touched by her voice and compared her voice to the singing tunes of the beautiful birds of the sky. Singing was her life. But, she liked to do that as a hobby. What she really wanted to be, was a model. And nothing could change her mind about that.
Unfortunately, Marilyn is one of the people whose parents really had no money. Marilyn's father was late. She remembers little of him because she was just a child when he died. Her mother told her that her father was a shoe maker. He made lots of beautiful shoes and everybody in the town loved the shoes he made. They were affordable and of high quality. He made lots of money out of his shoe business until he died one day. That was when they ran into debt and her father's business collapsed.
Marilyn was able to attend school. But she only attended till junior high and had to drop out due to the lack of funds. It hurt her mother deeply that she could not train her to the university like the other rich girls. But that still did not stop Marilyn. She knew what she wanted and was out to get it. She had faced a tough life but she was willing to let that define her.
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