Fried Yellow Plantains – Chapter 1: First Peek (Part 3)

Written by @cerebralace and Illustrated by @deveerei

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The Tagged mobile app was a no-go from the beginning. It crashed every time Jake opened it and wouldn't even allow him to create a profile. So he fired up his laptop when he got home and began creating his profile on Tagged. Jake filled in an alias, just in case there was anyone from the university who might recognize him, and put in a fake birthdate to reflect that he was older. He quickly scribbled a description, something about “living life to the fullest” before he started picking his pictures. Since he had no intention of finding nor talking to any girls online, he picked up two random pictures saved on his computer and pasted them to his profile. In a little over half an hour, Jake was finally done with his Tagged profile.   

He wasted no time in changing his location to Santo Domingo and began the arduous task of searching for the taxi driver online. He searched through pages of Dominican men, very careful not to open any of these profiles, until he finally found Jose. Jake chuckled as he saw that even his profile name indicated that he was a cab driver: “Jose the Driver.” As he browsed his profile, he saw that it was nothing more than an advertisement for his taxi cab service, his phone number and pictures of his run-down taxi plastered all over the page. After 2 quick minutes, he sent him a message:  

Hey Jose,  

This is Jake Calloway from GWU. I'm a friend of that crazy guy who was always bumming rides to the metro every night. I'm planning a trip to Santo Domingo this December so I was wondering if you would be available to drive me around and show me the city. I will update you on my dates and flight times as soon as I have the ticket.   

Look forward to hearing from you soon,  

Jake  

There, he had taken the first step. As he laid back in bed, wondering how long until the next step, Jake heard a sharp ping from his laptop and he sat up to see that Jose had already responded.  

Hey,  

My rate is 50 dollar a day. Let me know when you fly in and I pick you up from airport and show you around town.  

Jose  

Having no idea about taxi rates in Santo Domingo, Jake thought 50 dollars for the whole day was a bargain. He would realize later that he couldn't have been more wrong. But nevertheless, he was exhilarated before he had even bought the ticket. Jake was finally taking a vacation! Just what in the world he would do when he finally got to this Santo Domingo he had no idea, but he was glad to be doing something exciting and out of the ordinary.   

Perhaps in response to this query, Jake received an interesting little surprise on Tagged later that night. At first he thought that the driver had changed his rate and was messaging him to deliver bad news. He was ready to groan and roll his eyes when he checked his messages. But he saw no new messages. What Jake saw instead took him completely by surprise. It was a profile view from a girl in Santo Domingo. Not only that, she had been viewing his photos too.   

Jake was curious. As a natural reflex, he opened her profile and was blown away. She was absolutely gorgeous. She had long dark hair that fell down to her butt, round, almond shaped, expressive eyes and creamy white skin that made him think of white chocolate. She was extravagantly adorned in each photo with a different, dazzling outfit that jumped out at Jake with every click of her photos. Her visage was as exotic as her name alluded – Blankita Princesa de Persia - but what intrigued him the most about her was something else. 

Her profile was only filled with photos. No description, no birthdate, no interests, only photos. And what was most interesting about her photos was how similar her expression appeared from photo to photo. There was almost a sadness, a feeling of longing that he noticed in her face in each photo.   

Jake was mesmerized by her. And she had been viewing his profile. His chicken scratch of a masterpiece with two mediocre photos? He was hypnotized by those eyes. He had to say something to her. So Jake summoned all of his high school Spanish and finally crafted her a winning message:  

Hola como estas?  

Jake walked away from his laptop, as confident as a three-point shooter in basketball who turns away as his shot swishes through the net. He returned an hour later and saw that she was online. She had also replied to his message.  

Si hola  

Right away, he knew he had a shy girl on his hands. He wondered if she only spoke Spanish.  

Hablas ingles tambien o solo espanol?  

Very quickly, he saw her responding back.  

Espanol

He didn't know how long they would go back and forth with his questions and her short responses. So he decided to get her number and talk to her on Whatsapp.  

Vamos a hablar mas en whatsapp  

Almost immediately she replied back Si with her number scribbled underneath. Jake did a little dance as he entered her number into his phone. When he saw that he didn't see her on Whatsapp, he looked up the country code for the Dominican Republic (+1) and added that to the front of her number. That did the trick. He now had her as his only contact on Whatsapp.

As Jake drifted off to sleep that night, his trip to Santo Domingo suddenly seemed less daunting and more life-changing. He had nearly forgotten about the driver and was now thinking more and more about his Blankita Princesa.   

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Chapter 1: First Peek (Part 1)

Chapter 1: First Peek (Part 2)

Until next time, keep acing life!