I ripped this excerpt straight from the pages of Be A Man. The first conversation Walton and Rachelle have with each other. If you like this and want more, click here and pickup your digital or hard copy today.
One cold December night after Christmas, I was playing poker with my mother and Marcus’ girlfriend in the kitchen at my house when Montell called me on three-way with another person on the line. After realizing what was going on, Montell told me that he was going to have that other person call me back. When the phone rang, I answered it. The next thing I heard was one of the sweetest but most Southern voices in the world say, “Walton, hi, it’s me!”
“Who is me?” I asked the young lady over the phone. I knew who it was, but I was a little too nervous to really say anything more.
“Don’t play with me, boy. You know who I am,” the young lady stated with force.
“Ah! Yeah, I remember that voice. No one other than the Southern belle, Rachelle,” I replied as I collected my winnings from a hand of poker.
“Who is Rachelle?” my mother exclaimed with a funny look on her face.
“Walt-baby done got him a girlfriend, Gina,” Niecy, my brother’s girlfriend, quickly said while shuffling cards together. I looked at both and silently begged them to be quiet. I do not like to be called Walt-baby around people who don’t know me. Knowing my mother and Niecy, they don’t get quiet for anybody, especially me.
“Oh, is this a bad time, Walton?” Rachelle asked over the phone. “Because I can call you back if you need to.”
“Oh no, it’s not. We’re playing a little poker,” I told Rachelle. “You’re just fine. I’m going to play one last hand, and then I’m all yours.”
“Listen to this nasty fool. He gets a phone call and wanna run with all our money,” my mother said about me. “This girl better be cute.”
“She is! Trust me!” I interjected. Then Rachelle let loose a little chuckle. “Rachelle, you don’t mind holding on while I play this last hand, do you?”
“Go right ahead,” she replied. While I had Rachelle on the phone, we were playing five-card draw. I didn’t really know what I was doing at first, but I quickly caught on. After receiving my first three cards, I knew that I was not going to win that hand. Something told me that I should continue playing. In the end, I beat my mom’s hand. She had four nines. I had a royal flush, the best and rarest of hands you could ever get. I walked away from the table with about fifteen dollars’ worth of quarters, nickels, and dimes. The beauty of the entire thing was that I only started playing with about two dollars’ worth of change.
After collecting my winnings and celebrating, I went off to my room with the phone. Rachelle was still on the line, and she was waiting patiently. When I got to my room, I closed the door and asked her, “You still there?”
“Yeah, I’m still here. It sounds like I ruined all the fun,” Rachelle stated as I placed my money in a peanut can that I turned into a “piggy” bank.
“No, you didn’t mess up any of the excitement, Rachelle. The party is just starting,” I told her. She let one of her little giggles out again.
“Your cousin warned me about you,” Rachelle said. “He said that you are one weird cookie. You march to the beat of your own drum.”
“I don’t know about all that, but I will tell you that when they made me, they had to have broken the mold. Everyone has always told me that I’m one of a kind,” I replied.
“Well, I would say the same thing about me, but I have an identical twin sister, so that wouldn’t work,” Rachelle joked. “But I will say that Brielle and I are two of a kind though. To play on the card theme, I’m the queen of hearts and she’s the queen of clubs.”
“That sounds cool. Hopefully, you got room for a king of hearts to join you at the top,” I joked. She let loose another one of her little giggles, and it helped me calm some of the anxiety that I was starting to have. “So what I want to know is what’s up with you calling me,” I told her. “Are you trying to stalk me or something?”
“No, I ain’t trying to stalk you. You ain’t all that,” Rachelle joked. “I was just calling because Montell told me that you thought I was cute, and I wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth.”
“Well, you already heard it when I was in the other room with my mom and my brother’s girlfriend that I thought you were a cute young lady. So now what do you have to say about that?” I confidently asked Rachelle.
There was another slight giggle and then a long pause. “Well, I wanted to tell you for a long time that I thought you were cute too ever since the day I saw you at the block party, but I never saw you around since then.”
“Well . . .” I paused. “I never thought you would think that. I guess I should hang around my cousins more often. Actually, I’m shocked.”
“Don’t be. If you’re a cute guy, you’re just a cute guy,” Rachelle replied.
“Even if I am a band geek who makes straight As, walks funny, and is basically a typical, boring nerd?” I asked her. “I mean, hell, that day, I was a little hurt. I was wearing a back brace and just skin and bones.”
After a short pause, I felt bad. For a moment, I thought that she did not like me. She then said, “What if I like clarinet-playing guys who are smart and are as plain and boring as me?”
“Really, you had to go there, huh?” I asked her. “What else did Montell tell you about me? Did he tell you that I eat with my tongue hanging out of my mouth as well?”
“No! Oh my god, you don’t do that, do you?” Rachelle asked.
“No, I can’t do that. I don’t think anyone could do that,” I said.
“I was finna say,” Rachelle said, using one of her country words with the Southern accent. “How could a guy as cute as you eat with your tongue hanging out of your mouth? You would have to bite your tongue every time you chewed.”
“Don’t worry, I’m pretty normal when it comes to something like that,” I told her. “And stop calling me cute. Babies and puppy dogs are cute. I’m a grown-ass teenager!”
“Oh yeah, we shall see, Mr. Big Shot,” Rachelle said. “If you’re going to hang around me, you’re going to be anything I want you to be.” After she said that, I was content. I had no argument with her.
In fact, Rachelle and I stayed on the phone for about four hours. The conversation went greater than expected. She was pleased by my ability to hold a steady conversation and ability to discuss a variety of subjects. All that reading really helped me out through the years with having conversations with Rachelle. I was amazed by how many things we had in common. We both enjoyed playing the clarinet and basketball. Her twin sister, Brielle, had the same back operation that I had as well. The big kicker was the fact that she was on the A honor roll as well. So I was talking not only to a beautiful young lady but also to a smart girl. I liked our conversation. Talking to her was easy. I thought when she first called me that I would be certainly nervous, and for a split moment, I was quite puzzled. After I broke the ice with her, I was not nervous at all.
Be A Man Universe 