Black, White, and Suddenly Red
I have never seen a color. No one my age has, not since our race evolved. I guess our genes got tired of us falling in love with the wrong people, so they figured out a way to make sure it didn't happen anymore. Now the entire world is black and white, until you turn 16. Then, you start to finally see the colors. The different colors come at different times, depending on how close you are to your soulmate. It starts with one color, when you first see them. Then the more time you spend around them, the more colors you see. I don’t know how, but somehow when you see the colors you’re supposed to just know which is which. I wonder what color comes first. I guess I'll find out…
??
My eyes burned from the harsh light above my bed. "Come on, Parker. Time to get up girl,” my mother’s rattled me awake. “Birthday breakfast in five.” Oh, right, I remembered as my brain slowly shook off the sleepiness, I turn 16  today. Finally it’s time to see the colors. I slowly sat up and rolled out bed. Too tired to care, I threw on the first clothes I pulled out of my closet. A shirt with too many stains and pants with holes in the knees. Worst possible look for the best possible day.
Today is the day that the planning finally ends. My entire fifteenth year was spent booking hotels, buying plane tickets, writing packing lists, shopping, and writing itineraries. Nothing could have been worse than spending every minute of every day with my mother and older sister, Lauren. They insisted that it was the most essential time of my life, but I disagreed. I thought those twelve months between my fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays were the most mind-numbingly boring ones of my life.
But today, it gets interesting. At long last, it’s time to begin. Tomorrow I leave for Africa. I’ll spend three days there, and if I don’t see a color by the end of the third day I’m off to Asia. That goes on, from continent to continent, until I see the color. I don’t know which one comes first. I hope it’s blue. Blue is supposed to be the deepest, most beautiful, most calming color. But who knows what color it will be? Who knows when I’ll see it? Maybe it’ll be tomorrow, maybe it’ll be in three weeks. The sooner the better, I guess. I hope it’s tomorrow.
??
Let me tell you one thing about Africa. It’s hot. Like, all the time. I wasn’t warned about that, so my wardrobe is horribly inappropriate (as usual). I was sweating through my cashmere sweater as I wandered through the streets of Nairobi, waiting for something to catch my attention. I eventually wandered out of the urban uptown and into the residential suburbs. There were kids on bicycles and scooters, and adults sat on lawns having light conversations. I guess I was too busy paying attention to what was around me and not paying enough to what was right in front of me, because I ran right into one of the local girls. “Sorry, my bad,” we both mumbled as we struggled to get around each other. After a few failed attempts, the girl grabbed my shoulders and held me still.
“Okay, this obviously isn’t working. My name’s Amani. What’s yours?” she said, in perfect English. That’s surprising, I thought, everyone else I meet has spoken Swahili.
“Uh, “ I stuttered, recovering from my original shock concerning the lack of a language barrier, “Uh, Parker. My name’s Parker. It’s nice to meet you, Amani.”
“So what are you doing here? You seem lost,” her hands were now off of my shoulders and shoved in her pockets, indicating she was planning on continuing this encounter.
“I just turned sixteen. Africa was my first stop on my search, so here I--” I stopped short. A guy had just walked past us. A cute guy.
And he was wearing red shirt.
“Hey! Yoohoo! Parker, you all right? You just spaced out for a second. Parker?” Amani voice snapped me out of my momentary trance.
"Yeah, yeah. Just…do…do you know that guy?" I asked as I gestured towards Red Shirt.
"No, never seen him before. Why?" she replied. There was a slight hint of worry in her voice, but I could also hear the curiosity.
"Because his shirt is red."
??
"Spill." Amani commanded as she threw me down on her bed. Somehow we had ended up in her bedroom, which was not what I was expecting. Amani was wearing a worn-in pair of shorts and shirt that was faded beyond recognition. Her fashion sense told me she was laid back. Her room, however, told a different story. The bedspread was piled high with pillows, and the floor was covered with a shag rug. Her walls were covered with framed pictures of her and another woman. I suppose I wasn't one to judge, though. My room was the same way. I wore almost exclusively hand-me-downs, and my room back home looked like something straight out of a PBteen catalog.
"I already told you. It was red. Like, red red. I don't know what it means." I had explained the situation twice on the street before she dragged me to her room. I wasn't lying though. I really didn't know what it meant, and that was starting to freak me out. "Do you think it means I'm supposed to follow him? His shirt was the only thing that had color. Maybe that's a sign. Maybe he's meant to lead me to my soul mate." My voice rose with panic, as I started to freak out. What if I missed my chance? What if I don't get another one? Did I just ruin my entire life by hesitating for a second? Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod…
SMACK! My face burned and it took my eyes a second to refocus. When they did, I realized Amani had slapped me. "Hey! What the heck was that for?!" I exclaimed, with only just a hint of anger in my voice.
"You were freaking out. I had to do something. You can thank me later," she said over her shoulder as she dug through her closet. She threw an old sweatshirt at me.
“What’s this for? It’s like 95° out there. I’ll melt in this thing.”
“You won’t be saying that tonight. It can get really cold once the sun goes down.”
“Tonight? What’s happening tonight? Why are you packing a bag?” I had just noticed that Amani now had a duffel bag lying open on the floor, and she was stuffing clothes into it. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know yet. It depends on where your mystery man goes.” She checked her watch and zippered her bag, “We’d better get going if we don’t want to lose him. We can stop and grab your stuff later.”
“Hold up a sec. Just calm down. I just met you, and now you’re suggesting that we go on some crazy adventure together to follow some guy we don’t know just because there’s a chance -- a very small chance -- that he might lead me to my soulmate?” There was no use in trying to hide the concern in my voice.
“Yep, pretty much. Come on, Parker. It’ll be fun! Just like in the movies!” Amani was already out the door, and I had no choice but to follow her.
??
After several hours of searching (and quite a few stops to buy water bottles), we finally found Red Shirt. He was sitting in a coffee shop reading the paper, as casual as could be. It had been pretty difficult to find him. He had changed shirts since we last saw him, and sadly this new shirt was not red. After we found him and the difficult part was over this so-called ‘adventure’ really did become fun. Amani and I would pretend to be spies, and sneak around corners or duck behind walls as we tailed Red Shirt through the city.
He seemed like a relatively normal guy. He made stops at a grocery store, a library, a bank, a mall (that actually got pretty interesting. We lost him in the shoe store, but found him an hour later in the food court.), and his final stop was his house. When we got there, I found myself wondering whether house was even the right word. Mansion was more like it, or maybe a small castle. Whatever you want to call it, it was huge. Like, has-its-own-zip-code huge. By the time he was inside and we couldn’t see him anymore, it was already dark and starting to get cold. Amani and I booked the cheapest room we could find at a hotel nearby, and agreed to take a look at the house through the window every hour to make sure we didn’t miss him leaving. However, that plan didn’t work very well. We were both exhausted from a long day tailing Red Shirt, and we were out like lights before the first hour was up.
I woke with a familiar burning in my cheek, “You have got to stop slapping me. Seriously. Not cool. What time is it, anyway?”
Amani spoke with a mouthful of toothpaste, “Iths theven inthe morn,” she stopped short when she saw my confused face. She spit into the sink and continued, “It’s seven in the morning. His car is gone. We missed him. I can’t believe we missed him. All that time, wasted! We put so much effort into -- Parker? Hey, Parker--” I quickly snapped out of my trance, hoping to avoid another slap. No such luck.
“Does that lamp look strange to you?” I asked, rubbing my doubly sore cheek.
“Dude, how many times do I have to tell you. I get it. You can see colors and I can’t. Will you just stop reminding me of,” she broke off her sentence and gaped at the lamp with wide eyes. “Woah,” she whispered, “Is that…”
“Yep,” I replied just as quietly, “That’s red. And something else. Can you see it? I think…I think it’s blue.”
??
“How come I’m seeing colors? This is supposed to be your soulmate we’re following. I don’t even turn sixteen for another month! And now you’re seeing blue too? We’ve only been following him for a day, and we didn’t even get that close to him! I mean, for the past day and a half, we’ve only spent time around each other!  A whole month! It’s happening a whole month early! Ooff!” Amani groaned from the floor where she’d landed after I’d pushed her off the bed. “What was that for?!”
“I figured it was my turn,” I answered with a shrug of my shoulders, “Plus, you need to snap out of it. You’re freaking out even more than I did. And what are you even worried about?
Amani stuttered, looking thoroughly exasperated, “What do you mean, ‘what are you worried about’?! I am seeing colors a month early. I feel completely justified in my freak out.” she said defiantly.
“Oh, come on. Is that it? Everyone knows that the sixteenth birthday thing is just an estimate. People start seeing the colors earlier or later all the time,” I explained with a sigh, “But if it’s really freaking you out that much, we can stop following Red Shirt and I’ll take you home. Will that make you feel better?” I surprised myself with that last part. In the two days I’d known her, I suddenly cared a lot about this girl.
Amani nodded, and we began to pack up. As we shoved all of our things (plus a few of the hotel's) into our bags, I continued to think about what Amani had said. How her birthday wasn't for another month. Seeing colors early was rare, but not unheard of. The scientists who study those sorts of things said that it only happened early if the two people had a really strong connection. That was the most confusing part. While we were following Red Shirt, we'd had time to get to know each other. We talked about friends and family, and Amani said that the only person she had was her mom. I guess that was the woman in all of her pictures. So if she doesn't have any close friends, then who could she have such a strong connection to? According to her, I was the only other person her age she'd hung out with in years. Just me…no. It couldn't be. I shook the thought out of my head as fast as I could. No way it was me who was making her see colors. I'd only known her for two days for crying out loud! It is the only reasonable explanation…I mean, it's the only thing that makes sense. I had to stop thinking like that. It would only get me in trouble. It's not like it's never happened before. I should tell Amani. How bad could it be? I mean, I know this whole LGBTQ is still sort of weird, but if she freaks, I'm out of here tomorrow anyways. If she doesn't freak, I trade in my ticket and stick around here for a while. See if anything develops. If not, it's on to Asia. Nothing could go wrong.  "Hey Amani! I've got this crazy theory…"
It was an hour later, and Amani was still staring at me. If her face was any indicator, she was in shock. I should have expected that, after all I did just suggest that we were soulmates. If someone I had only known for two day suggested that to me, I would be pretty shocked too.
“Um, Amani? You ok? Do you need some water, or more time, or what?” I asked, quietly.
Amani snapped out of her trance, “Yeah, yeah I’m ok. It's just, this is kind of a big thing you just sprung on me," her face suddenly looked concerned, and she hurriedly added, "Not that I don't like you or anything! I mean, it all makes sense. And I really do like you," her face softened as she added one last thing, "If you're up for it, I would really like you to stick around and see if any more colors show up. Will you, you know, stay?" She looked away, and I could tell she was blushing.
I moved to sit next her on the bed, and grabbed her hand softly. "Of course I'll stay. I really like you too."
The End