Limelight

The Limelight

April 1976
Friday

The sun took its time emerging across the horizon and once its light set on the sky-scraping buildings, the entire neighborhood ceased to sleep no longer.

More vehicles appeared on the streets, business owners flipped their signs from closed to open, and RadioRic from the Soul4Real station greeted them all with his liveliness.

" Good morning my brothers, sisters...and other lovely people, I hope you all had a good night's rest cause it's now time to rise and shine. This is RadioRic with Bill Withers's Lovely day. "

Delilah

The dreadful sound of my alarm woke me from my slumber, and once my eyes glanced around to see the sun peeking through the curtains, I buried my head into my pillow to muffle my groans.

It took me a few minutes to talk myself into moving but reluctantly I managed to get out of bed.

Mornings like this ,well technically every school morning, I regretted my decision to set an alarm ten minutes earlier than Alyssa's and Junior's, but it was either that or I'd have to wait at least thirty to forty minutes for them to get out the bathroom. And due to past situations,  I wasn't having that.

My eyes, still heavy and worn, glanced to the right of me to see Alyssa still sleeping.

Alyssa was now nineteen with a job at Barbra's, a beauty/barber salon down the street from our home, She had the opportunity to leave high school junior year to attend cosmetics school. Although she didn't want to - she did and in return she earned her beauty license during May of last year.

The little rascals, Junior and Damon were finally finishing their years of being middle schoolers, and the pessimistic Devin couldn't wait to be a Senior.

It was as if life was passing us by for the past two years.. I was already in my last month of being a Sophomore...who knows how different things could be in the next two years.

I sauntered down the hallway and soon a smile plastered across my face at the sound of Bill Withers heard from the kitchen–telling me that my mother was woke and by the smell of it, cooking breakfast.

Upon passing my parent's room my father appeared, his eyes downcast as he adjusted his tie with focused eyes.

I smiled. " Morning Pops."

" Oh–" He smiled as he nearly bumped into me. "Morning Honeybun." He kissed my cheek, and I almost grimaced due to his facial hair scratching my skin.

" Daddy don't you think it's time to...you know shave?" My question resulting in a deep chuckle from him.

" What? You know how I feel about my facial hair babygirl." He rubbed his face with pride.

" Yeah okay whatever you say." I responded with a slight frown as his attention converted back to his tie.

When entering the small square shaped bathroom I prepared my things along the sink counter, brushing my teeth instantaneously to free the abnormal morning taste from my mouth.

And once fulfilled, I grabbed my face towel– lathering it with cleanser while observing myself in the mirror. Like each morning my eyes were somewhat puffed but once I caught a glimpse of my hair my eyes grew immediately in size. It totally escaped my mind last night to wrap it.