Chapter 42: “Thanks for the ride Miss”

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(present day)
“Thanks for the ride Miss” I said later. True to her word she had brought me closer to home. Not straight home and not all the way home, but close. We had stopped at a coffee shop for the interview. She seemed amused when I refused to go into the first one. The one with the presidential door mat. We found another easily enough. It was a strange thing to me, a juice-bar and a coffee shop combined. Oddly enough, the doormat coffee shop hadn’t looked very busy.

She started asking me questions. She began slowly. She didn’t rush things. Introductions came first.

“Like I said earlier at the police station, my name is Shaniqua Smith. I don’t believe that I caught yours.” She began.

“That’s because I didn’t throw it.” I replied. I was never much good at small talk, but I’d give it a shot.

I sipped the coffee before I said any more. I sat at looked at her over my mug. She was easy on the eyes...in fact she was downright gorgeous. She was used to being looked at, too. Perhaps she appreciated the admiration. She smiled and waited patiently.

“Shaniqua is a nice name. "I finally said.”It’s pretty.”

“It’s an African name.” She replied. "My momma was big on what she called ‘Tribal Heritage.”

“What does it mean?” I asked. This wasn’t too bad. I could get used to this.

She dimpled. "My momma told me it meant ‘God is Gracious.”

“He certainly was when he made you.” I said without thinking...”Oops...I mean...”

I was afraid she might take it the wrong way. She might think I was ‘hitting on her’.

She smiled again and said "You’re so sweet, but enough about me. I want to know about you. Your name would be a good place to start.”

“My name.” I replied. "Yeah....about my name. Well there’s a story about that.”

“Tell it to me.” she coached. "That’s why we’re here. I want your story.”

“Well it’s like this. My surname is really a last name and it’s unusual. When I was a youngster growing up and someone would ask me my name I’d naturally tell them. Nine out of ten times they’d reply with ‘Huh?’ or something similar. For a while there I thought my first name meant ‘Huh?’ "

She giggled at that. Either she was really good, and I had no doubt that she was, or she really thought it was funny.

“Go on.” she asked me.

“Then there is my last name. Many people use it as a last name. So one way of looking at it is that I have two last names. Or...I have a last name first and a first name last. It confuses a lot of people.” I told her.

She blinked, perhaps it confused her too?

“One time in school, Jr. High I believe it was. People call it ‘Middle School” today. It was the first day and I was a freshman. I had no idea how the system worked. It was much different that elementary school. I was in home room. The teacher called my name except that she got it backward.”

“She nodded.” I can see how that might be a common mistake. Did you correct her?”

“No I didn’t” I replied. "In my experience and observation at that time, it never ended well when the student corrects the teacher. It never had for me up until then. I learned from my experiences, even then, I just said "Here” like the other kids did. I was sitting in the back of the room where she couldn’t easily see me. It was a large class, baby boomer’s you know? She made a check mark and continued down the list.”

She smiled and nodded. I continued. "Pretty soon she called my name, again, only reversed. Like I said about correcting teachers. I didn’t. I just schrunched done and said "Here”
The teacher made a check mark and completed roll call.”

“How long did that last”. Shaniqua was honestly curious "before the teacher found you out?”

“A surprisingly long time” I said "When she did...it didn’t end well. Can’t win can I? When I correct a teacher I got in trouble. When I didn’t correct a teacher...”

“You got in trouble!. Yes I can see how it might be very difficult for a young boy to understand.” She laughed again, smiled again and nodded. Perhaps the smile was a bit forced.

I took the hint and continued. "My middle name is common.”

“What IS it?” she succeeded in not gritting her teeth, but I could tell it was hard. Evidently I was straining her patience. I have that effect on most people.

“There’s a story about that too.” I said.

“What IS it?” this time she did grit her teeth.

“It was in Vacation Bible School one summer. The teacher asked me my name. Well you’ve seen how that went over in the past so I thought that I’d try something different. Rather that tell her my first name and have her say "huh”, I told her my middle name. My Dad went by his middle name. Why not me?”

“What IS it.” Shaniqua repeated. Yup..definitely forced.

“It’s Dale.” I told her.

She looked at me curiously. "Some how I just know there is more to this story.”

“Oh there is! " I said "A few days later my momma said that the Vacation Bible School teacher had met her in the grocery store. She had asked my momma "How is Dale? Well it so happens that Dale was also my father’s middle name, but like I said he goes by it. Now my momma was a jealous lady so she jumped to the obvious conclusion. It seems there was a scene. When it was all straighten out my momma was very embarrassed. When she got home she took it out on me. I got a whuppin.”

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