Chapter 9
Coffee in the morning. That’s the smell that greeted Marnie’s senses first thing Saturday. She blinked then fluttered her eyelashes. Once she opened them, she saw she was in bed alone. In the past, this would have sent her into a worried tizzy over whether her lover from the night before had made his getaway during the night. The reassuring scent of freshly brewed coffee told her this wasn't like other times.
Once out of bed, she found her favorite robe in the closet, put it on and tied it tight. Walking up the hallway she could start to make out the sound of soca music. She began to slow before getting close to the living. Peeking her head around the corner she saw Nathan going through the fridge looking for something, but in the meantime dancing his heart away to the radio. She glanced over at the counter and noticed he had some sausages out and even a carton of orange juice and some bagels.
She knew she didn’t have those things in the house already, so she guessed he must have gotten up early and went to the grocery store just to get what he wanted to fix her for breakfast. She didn’t know what stunned her more; the fact that he returned after leaving or that he was actually dancing in her kitchen. She finally stepped from behind her hiding spot and let out a playful whistle.
Nathan looked over the short fridge door and gave her a big smile. “Well, good morning sunshine.”
She laughed. “Good morning. I see you, shaking your tail feather.”
He shut the fridge, sat the eggs down on the counter, and walked over to where she stood. He wrapped his arms around her waist and hers went around his neck. They gave each other two quick little pecks on the lips for kisses.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Marnie admitted.
“I’m glad I am too,” he agreed.
“So, you went to the store?”
“Yep. And stopped by the park to arrange things for later this afternoon.”
“Ooooh,” she responded. “Then, I guess we better get cooking and eat up.”
He gave her one last quick kiss and then headed back over to the kitchen. She walked around the counter and made herself a cup of coffee, which she took over to the dining room table.
As she sat there, she watched him get breakfast cooked and dance and sing. Every now and then, she’d sing along and let out an approving giggle. In between those moments, however, she was just looking at him in his happiest state.
She never thought it could be possible to not only be this happy with someone but have them this happy with you.
If someone had said to her even as early as this year that before year’s end she would meet a man that redefined for her what love is and what it can be, she would have laughed them off the island. But there he was, singing and dancing to dancehall music on her radio, scrambling eggs and looking forward to their day together. She could only wonder how he felt about having many more days together. Now, that was all that she could hope for.
*****
Breakfast was filled with some much needed light-hearted jokes between them. She made fun of how he chewed things like he was tasting them for the first time, and he pointed out how she had gotten too accustomed to dining out.
Once they were on the road to the wildlife park, Marnie felt it was the perfect opportunity to ask Nathan something she had wanted to ask since the first day they met.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” she began. “When you first met me, were you attracted to me at all?”
Nathan felt like this was such an out-of-blue thing to ask after so long he almost wasn’t sure how to respond.
“Well, actually, I did.”
“You didn’t really seem like you were,” she responded.
Nathan kinda smirked. “I don’t see how you missed it by the time we slow danced.”
She realized maybe she had asked him the right question in the wrong way.
“No. I mean—when you met me, did you just think I was sexy or did you actually find me attractive overall?”
When she asked that she could tell he finally got her meaning and nodded with a smile.
“Marnie,” he said. “I thought you were absolutely gorgeous. I was hesitant because, no offense, women like you tend to love freely. You date who you want, dance with who you want—“
“Sleep with who we want,” she said condescendingly. She didn’t want to be so snarky in what she was trying to get around to asking, but it was one of the biggest reasons she felt he didn’t make a move to sleep with her from the start. She wondered did he think less of her because of her looks and blunt behavior.
“If you’re asking me did I think you were a fast woman, no.” Nathan paused and the look on his face made it clear he knew exactly what he felt when he thought back on meeting her. “I thought you were out of my league. I thought there’s no way someone as sexy, as cute, and as flirty as you could be interested in me.”
Marnie looked at him from the passenger seat in disbelief. She burst into laughter, then quickly began apologizing.
“That’s crazy,” she said. “You’re so handsome and so comfortable in your own skin. Why wouldn’t you think women wouldn’t be crazy about you?”
Nathan shrugged but smiled. “I didn’t say women wouldn’t be interested in me. I said someone as beautiful as you wouldn’t be.”
Marnie’s laughter subsided. She looked at him a bit longer and gently reached over to rest her hand on his on the gear shift. He gave her a quick glance then his eyes went back to the road as he grinned.
She wanted to know, and the answer he gave was not what she expected at all. There had even been times where she felt maybe she had pushed too far, flirted just a little too hard, dressed just a bit too sexy. But no. He wanted her not because of her charms, but because of all of who she was whether she threw herself at him or not.
When they arrived at the park, it had barely been open a little over an hour so it was not yet crowded. Before they even set out for their date that day, Marnie asked him where were the picnic things they were going to be bringing. He told her they wouldn’t need them for today.
It never ceased to amaze her how he kept surprising her time and time again whether it be by his words or his actions. It was one of the qualities she loved about him most. She couldn’t wait to get to the entrance gate and see what he had to hurry up here soon as they opened for.
There was no need to stop by the ticket counter as there were no special events going on that day. The park was quiet with the exception of a few other visitors. The sun was bright and skies were clear. The temperature was even moderately warm. Marnie followed Nathan’s lead out onto one of the open fields and the treasure hunt began.
“So, in the surrounding area of this field,” Nathan said. “I have hidden eight notes.”
Marnie gave him a sideways glance and raised an eyebrow. What had she gotten herself into?
“I have a list here of eight different clues that will tell you where in the park you can find the piece of the greater puzzle, the big reveal.”
“Ok,” she said as she took the list from his hand.
“I didn’t make them too difficult, but if you get hung up I will happily walk you to where the clue is.”
“Okie dokie, then. Can I start now?”
“Absolutely,” Nathan insisted. He stuck his chest out a little. Marnie wondered was he more proud of the fact he put all this together or was it the surprise at the end he was proud of.
With his approval to get things underway, she read the first clue.
“To river or watering hole or hose find the first place where water flows.”
She looked up and over at Nathan who gave her a big toothy grin. Marnie rolled her eyes and laughed aloud. “Ok, ok,” she said and began scanning the area with her eyes. She remembered they had just passed a water fountain and turned around to head back up the paved trail to it. When she reached it, she didn’t see anything at first but leaning down looking under the edge of the concrete bowl-shaped water fountain she saw a noted neatly folded and taped there.
Pulling off the note she carefully unfolded it and began reading.
“Slither and slither, wiggle and crawl I’m sneaky like a snake sliding along a wall.”
Nathan stood there silent. She instantly knew that was referring to the snake house enclosure, in the reptile portion of the wildlife preserve. It was a good long way to walk so she started off with Nathan right beside her.
Along the way, she asked him how long he had thought all this through.
“It only took me a day. I knew I wanted us to have some time together but for me to get to the overall point of why we’re here,” he explained. “Thus, the reason the clues aren’t that challenging, but they are spaced out a bit.”
Marnie shook her head with a chuckle. “I don’t know whether to think it’s sweet that you made it where we have time together or aggravating you’re making us do this much walking.”
They both laughed as they entered the reptile exhibit house. It was designed to look like a cave with glass enclosures that house every type of reptile both exotic and domestic. Marnie started letting her eyes take careful observation of the every wall, corner and edge as the walked. The rather small exhibit space had a tunnel at the end that led further up the paved trail, but you could also turn left to go out another open pathway.
It was when Marnie's eyes glanced at a painted on mural of a large python on a wall there that she saw something behind a wastebasket. It wasn’t on the ground but taped to the end of the python’s tail that snaked downward toward the floor. She knelt down and grabbed the note.
“You’ve made the dance. You’ve made me swoon. You even made me howl at the moon.”
This little rhyme was so cute she found herself doubled over in slight embarrassment and amusement. “Aww, Nathan. Okay, that’s cute.”
He blushed a little.
“Well, it’s true,” he said. “So, based on that where do you think the next clue is?”
Obviously, the poem was referring to the wolf enclosure. They made their way out of the reptile tunnel filled exhibit and followed the sign pointing to the mammal enclosures.
When they came to the high up the paved walkway, there were a few other visitors looking down across the wide man-made exhibit where the wolves lived. High fences prevented anyone from falling in and railing was also there for extra precaution. Marnie could not imagine where in this area he had placed her next note.
“Ok, I need a hint,” she turned and said to him as she looked out at the beautiful creatures resting below.
Nathan cleared his throat. “Well, one of the key words in the poem was ‘moon.’ Maybe that’s somewhere you can look.”
She gave him a confused glare, then just past him the sign that let people know they were specifically in the wolve’s enclosure walkway had a crescent moon on it. She walked over to it in disbelief that he had managed to reach the nearly seven-foot sign and post anything up there, but there it was on the backside of the sign, secured with tape.
She honestly started to wonder how he had been allowed to go all over the part with a roll of tape and just plaster notes all over without getting into any trouble with park attendants and staff. Nonetheless, she knew she couldn’t reach it and ushered him over.
He nearly pranced over there and when arrived by her side she was eager to see how he got it up even higher than his own arms reach. He stepped just a little past there to a section at the end at the end of the walkway.
There was a small boulder sitting there that was apparently more lightweight than it appeared because Nathan picked it right up. Placed next to the sign post, then stood on top of it to give him the extra reach for the note he had stuck previously.
Besides a few strange glances, no one seemed to care about his feat of chivalry to give Marnie her next clue. She shook her head as he handed her the note. Upon opening it, this clue had an illustration rather than a poem inside.
“What is this?” She chuckled aloud.
“It looks like a bee buzzing around until lands on the thing I drew that could or could not be a flower.”
Nathan’s crudely drawn picture lead them to the botanical garden east of the mammal area of the park. They walked beneath huge oak trees that eventually lead them to an area that had several smaller river birch trees. The landscaping soon becomes that of nothing but flowering trees, particularly white Bradford pear trees and cherry blossom trees.
The petals rustled from their limbs and cascading around Nathan and Marnie as they walked. She had always wanted to come out to the wildlife reserve this time of year to see these in bloom and just never bothered. She figured it was too beautiful to enjoy them alone. Now here she was enjoying them with someone who hadn’t even realized a peaceful walk this underneath them was something she always wanted to do some day.
“Your next clue should be right over there.” Nathan pointed to further up the pathway that meandered out to the winding sidewalk of the botanical garden.
Marnie looked at Nathan like he had lost his mind. “Where out there? You don’t expect me to search the whole entire garden, do you?”
“No, of course not,” he said. “I will give you another hint, though. Bees are most attracted to flowers that are kind of pinkish-purple.”
Marnie gave him blank look and eventually said, “Just take me to where the note is.”
Nathan laughed but happily began walking with her to the next clue.
As they stepped into the botanical garden, they heard the familiar sound they hadn’t heard in months and that was the sound of a picture being taken. They both turned in the direction of the sound to see a couple a few years younger than them. The young blonde had her camera held up, but quickly jerked it down when she realized the two of them were looking directly at the couple.
Rather than feel offended, Nathan reached down and held Marnie’s hand, and as he kept walking, he gave a polite wave and nod to the now flustered couple. Marnie also waved and the young duo happily waved back as they walked on in the other direction.
It wasn’t until Marnie turned her head back in the direction they were headed that she realized her and Nathan were still holding hands. This was something they had never done openly before, especially when they first started seeing one another and the media turned every outing they had into a photo shoot. She gently squeezed Nathan’s hand, to which he looked to her, kissed her temple, and squeezed her hand back.
They arrived at their next destination: a small green park bench. Marnie had a knowing look on her face and instantly walked up to crouch down and look underneath for her note. There was none.
“Wait, what?” She shot back up straight and looked at Nathan questioningly. He had a sneaky grin on his face.
Without saying a word, she slowly walked to behind the bench to see if the note was maybe stuck to the back of the seat. Leaning over, she saw none there either. Now she looked to Nathan a bit aggravated.
“Where is it, really?”
He pointed behind her to a large concrete planter filled with a purple lavender. She looked back at Nathan with a smirk and then turned to walk over to the planter. Bending over slightly, she began inspecting and soon saw the white note nestled down in the stems of the plant. Luckily it wasn’t wet or dirty, but she still stood up and looked at Nathan in disbelief.
“Inside the plant?? Really?” Nathan could tell she was genuinely a little frustrated and walked over and wrapped his arms around her. She hugged him back and had to laugh at herself. After their little hug-it-out session, she opened the note and it was back to the cryptic poem approach to treasure hunting.
The next four clues were easy enough to find, and Marnie was glad of it. Their adventure through the park was fun, but she was ready to figure out this mystery surprise she had to discover and how all these clues tied in.
They found a place on the grass where they originally began in the picnic area of the park. As Marnie looked around, she was almost certain this was the same spot they had sat in during their movie night, but it was hard to recall considering it was so dark that evening even with the park lamps on.
She laid all the small notes out between them on the ground then look rested her chin in her hands. Looking over them she couldn’t find any kind of a hidden clue that linked all eight of them together or even made a standout phrase or sentence. She looked back up to Nathan who still had this sly smile on his lips.
“So, what am I missing?”
“Flip them over, Marnie,” said Nathan. He was now looking eye to eye, and she could tell whatever was on the other side of those notes was something he had put a lot of thought into much like the treasure hunt itself.
She timidly began turning them all over one by one in the order she found them. All she saw on the back of each one were the lines she had seen on their reverse sides when she picked them up folded. They made even less sense like he had maybe drawn one big picture and she had gotten them all jumbled up.
Yet, the closer she looked she noticed something familiar: shapes of letters.
Marnie realized he had written a bigger note on to eight different sheets of paper laid on each other, then drew separate notes on the opposite sides. But it looked like the order she picked them up in was not the order they belonged.
She began rearranging them to where one note next to the right one might for an “o” or part of what appeared to be a question mark. It didn’t take long before they were all laid out in front of her as they weren’t meant to be seen. She read the message silently to herself:
Marnie, will you come live with me?
Blinking a few times, she then looked up at Nathan, and then back down at the hidden message once more.
Her lips finally rose into a soft smile as she asked him, “Do you really want me to come stay with you, Nathan?”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t,” he said sweetly. “I can’t describe it but it’s like every time I’ve had to leave you and go back home, my house feels more and more hollow every day. I want to fill it up with all of you, and everything that comes with you.”
She wasn’t sure what to say, then she sat up on her knees and leaned over to throw her arms around his neck.
Nathan’s surprise soon melted to relief when he heard her say in his ear she’d love to come live with him, not just in Ocho Rios but anywhere he wanted her to go.
They sat there on the park lawn for what seemed like forever with their arms wrapped around one another. Marnie’s hug was also out of relief that the note wasn’t asking her to marry him. They did love each other, but she remembered their original intention to take baby steps down this road of emotions, and she was so happy he hadn’t forgotten how that first night ended.
*****
The drive back to Marnie’s home was like no other. The sun was setting. The car radio was tuned to a station that played nothing but Jamaican R&B that was soothing and grooving. Nathan had let the windows down to let sweet breezes blow through the car as they rode. Marnie knew when they made their way back to her home they were definitely going to celebrate.
Nathan had stopped at a wine and spirit place not too far from the park and grabbed a decent bottle of champagne. When they pulled up in her driveway, they sat there for a moment just holding hands. Nathan leaned back in his seat a bit and looked over at her. She was looking at him too, and couldn’t think of a time she ever felt so in love just to look at another person’s face.
“You know,” Nathan said. “We can get things rolling whenever you like. We can start first thing in the morning or next week. Or if you even want more time to think it or over or just square things away here we start next month. I don’t care.”
As simple as his words were, they touched her. There he was again with all that consideration and appreciation of her. A few months ago, any man treating her that way would have frightened her into running. Since then, she had to admit she may very well have been her own self-saboteur in her past relationships. No, the men weren’t the best men to fall for, but she now wondered had she chose them all the time secretly hoping it’d fall apart.
“Let’s start next week,” she said after weighing his words in her mind a while. “I think it’ll give me a chance to tie up some loose ends here and to get things a bit better organized and packed away, or sell some things if I need to,” she explained.
They interlocked fingers, then with a quick kiss on the lips, they exited the car and made their way into the house.
The sudden numerous shouts of “woo hoo” and clapping nearly made Marnie jump ten feet in the air. She realized the living room overhead light had been turned on and there in her house stood Dominique, her niece, and her family, and a few other family faces. It wasn’t many of them but then unexpected people in your house, when you return home, would startle anyone, no matter how few.
“Oh my God,” Marnie exclaimed. “What are you all doing here?” She looked over to a cake on the counter and the cheap noisemakers the few of them were holding. The whole thing looked so silly, she had to put her hands up to her face and just shake her head.
She felt Dominique come over and wrap her arms around her.
“We’re celebrating the text message we got that you're moving to Ocho Rios,” Dominique replied cheerfully.
That made Marnie snap her head around and give an accusing glance to Nathan. “When did you tell them? How?”
Nathan let his eyes roll back and forth across the ceiling guiltily then back to Marnie. “Remember right before we left the park and I told you I had to run to the restroom?”
She looked at him in shock, then her face warmed to a resolute tight-lipped smirk. After the other surprise, this one shouldn’t have shocked her either. But as she had noted before, it really was one of his most endearing qualities she would never change about him.
“And you don’t have to worry about a thing,” Dominique chimed in. “I found another doula I’m friends with who lives in the area and says that she can pick up where you leave off, respectfully. She considered it an honor to have anyone who you’ve cared for come to her in your absence.”
Marnie hadn’t had a chance to talk to Nathan about her concerns for leaving her community behind. She had invested so much emotionally into the residence there she was concerned as to who would be there for them if they needed her spiritual know-how or help with a birth in their family.
“Oh Dominique,” she sighed. “You…you are just too much,” said Marnie. She now hugged her childhood friend tight and wished she could truly find the words to show how thankful she was.
“I don’t want you to miss out on your chance to be happy for real, even if just means baby steps,” Dominique said. “Baby steps are still steps and at least you have Nathan walking them with you. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you didn’t go.”
The small group of friends in the living space let out a choir of “awws” and “oohs” at this sentimental moment between friends.
Dominique’s niece also came over and gave Marnie a tight hug. She thanked her for helping bring her firstborn into the world safe and sound and although she would miss her she knew her and her husband wanted to come visit with the little one if it was okay with Nathan.
“I don’t see why not,” Nathan offered. “There’s more than enough room whenever you and your family want to come and stay a few days.”
Marnie was honestly speechless. She hadn’t expected anything that had taken place the past few months, let alone the past twenty-four hours. It dawned on her standing in her home with all these smiling faces and Nathan that when she finally stepped out of her own way the Universe had finally given her what she wasn’t ready to receive before. Now, she was more than ready. She was ecstatic.
The night ended with a small celebration where everyone got enough cake, champagne, and wine (with juice for the two kids in attendance), and well wishes to Nathan and Marnie in this next transition in their relationship.
When everyone had left, Marnie began straightening up the kitchen, tossing away the paper plates covered in cake icing and clear plastic cups with splashes of alcohol left in them. She wet a sponge to wipe down the kitchen counter when she heard music come the little stereo sitting on the counter under the kitchen cabinets behind her.
She turned to see Nathan behind her with a mischevious expression on his face. He began swaying to the song that rang from the speakers: Bob Marley’s “Stir it Up.” All she could do was hang her head in giggles. Her hands were still wet as she began shimmying and shaking her way over to him. She wiped her damp hands on her pants and slowly began two-stepping in time with him to the rhythm.
They raised their hands up and locked their fingers together as they came closer. Spreading their arms out, chest to chest, Nathan released her hands so he could land his hands softly on her hips. They were dancing again, even sweeter and freer than the first time they met.
“I’m starting to think the only reason you didn’t like to dance wasn’t because you couldn’t,” she said, “but because you just didn’t have the confidence to”.
“Maybe,” was his only response as they two-stepped in time together.
Marnie’s arms were now around his neck, and they settled into their own groove to the melody at a little slower tempo.
“So what finally helped you find your own swagger as they call it?” she asked teasingly.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Nathan said sarcastically. “It might have been a certain sultry, sexy Jamaican-American woman whose favorite lipstick color is red.”
“Mmmhmm,” Marnie replied, raising an eyebrow.
Nathan then spun her around into a dip and sat her back up. “And she wears it well, too.”
Marnie then two-stepped her way in a circle until her back was to Nathan and she guided his arms to hold her as they rocked left and right.
“Is she beautiful?” Marnie asked softly.
He rested his lips on her neck and said, “Always”.
“More beautiful than me?” she shouted.
This made Nathan and Marnie both burst into laughter, then he gave her little kisses on her neck. “Never,” he insisted.
Marnie realized she could see herself wrapped in his arms like this every night, swaying and rolling to the music, watching the sunset on the ocean’s horizon. Or curled up in his arms beneath covers after a night of making love.
She could and would spend every day and night safe in knowing both of them had found what they had kept from themselves for so long, finally. Bob Marley & the Wailers sang on. Marnie and Nathan danced some more. Life became richer and fuller in their hearts and finding paradise was never more rewarding.
The end.
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