Color Blind

Epilogue

So anyway...I finally said yes.

Of course, I didn't really have to say anything at all. Scott had already known from the very beginning that he had me. That's the only reason why he kept coming around the more I tried to push him away. I guess in a way, I always knew it, too. Deep down inside, your heart will tell you every time whether something is meant to be...no matter how much the feeling goes against everything that you want to believe is true.

That's how it always was with Scott and me. Because of something that I had been taught and shown at such an early age, it went against every fiber of my being to even want to be his friend. But like they say, you can't help who you fall in love with, and over time I felt myself falling more and more in love with him with each passing day.

Scott became the one thing that ever truly made sense to me.

After I graduated, I moved down to Miami to do my residency, and Scott and I finally tied the long awaited knot. We really did end up living next door to Tia and Lafayette, too. We didn't have our house built from the ground up like they did, but the couple who lived next door to them ended up getting divorced and selling their house to us.

At first I was kind of weary about living there, since the last couple that did ended up divorced. When I told Scott that it might be bad luck for us to move in, though, he just shook his head and said calmly, "Baby, it's not about luck with us. It's about fate. We can't be broken apart."

What could I say to that? He was right, we couldn't be.

I knew, because I had been the one to try to break us apart time and time again.

It was impossible.

So, a few months after he bought the house, we had the Cinderella wedding that I had always wanted, and the "pimped out" reception that Scott always wanted...and that's how I became Mrs. Prescott Masterson.

Yeah, yeah. I know what you're thinking. Tyrica Masterson. It got me at first, too. The very name that I had once hated more than any other, I've now come to know as my own. It's funny how things work out sometimes. Back in the day, I would have never been able to even conceive of the notion that the little white boy down the street would end up becoming my husband, my lover, and my very best friend.

But it did happen that way, and I guess it's safe to say that I couldn't have changed any of the things that we had to go through in order for us to finally come together.

If Scott and I - the son and daughter of the two most racist people in Mo' City - could wind up together, I suppose it's possible for anyone to. I guess, in a way, you can say that sometimes love really is blind.

Man, I never in a million years thought that I would ever think that. But heed my words. The one person that you would least expect to end up with may very well be the one person that you were meant to be with all along.

I know these words are true.

They have to be.

They're as real as the new life that's been growing stronger inside of me every day. For the sake of my future children, I have to believe in something and give them something to believe in, too. Why not make it love?

Now, I know that the world is still the same old place that I grew up in, and that it is still very much full of hate, anger and hurt. But when you look at life from the perspective that God - who is the very essence of love – might see it, it doesn't seem so bad.

I guess that's what I'll have to tell my kids. Ironically, it's the very opposite of the advice that my mother gave to me.

I'll just tell them that no matter how bad a hurt is, things are never so bad that they can't be made better. Through love, anything is possible. I would have never known that had I never met Scott. And I never would have gotten as close to Scott as I did had I not been able to eventually appreciate the obvious differences between us.

I was watching Scott teach our nephews how to throw a football in the front yard the other day, both boys – heaven help Tia if she doesn't get a girl soon! – and I started thinking, really thinking, about how much I loved that man and how little anything else mattered except for the fact that I knew he loved me too.

Then I started thinking for the first time about what a great father he would be.

About a week before, I'd found out that I was pregnant. I hadn't yet had the guts to tell Scott, though, until that very day.

"I know," was Scott's quiet response. "You've been pregnant for a while."

"Well, why didn't you say something?"

"I didn't know what to say," he answered honestly, then gave me a quick kiss as he headed through the front door to meet the kids outside.

That was it.

A little while later, though, I was standing in the window watching the boys learn the rules of football, from their high school superstar uncle, when Scott suddenly pointed to me and then turned to the little ones and put a finger to his lips. The boys both covered their mouths and collapsed into giggles. Then the older of the two put the football under his shirt and started strutting around like he was pregnant.

It amazed me how much like Tia the kids were, and when my nephew did this, I realized that I wanted our kids to be like us, too. I mean, when you think about it, Scott and I weren't such bad people.

Even more importantly, we weren't so bad together.

I guess God had been trying to tell me this all along. I just never really wanted to believe it...until then.

When Scott told the boys to look my way and blow me kisses, my heart melted. But when he came up to the window and put his hand over mine and mouthed the words, "I love you," I knew right then that I could die a happy woman.

Believe me, this is by far the corniest story that I've ever told, but I couldn't have made it up if I tried.

It's all true.

A preacher once based his entire sermon on the notion that since love is so hard to find, we should all make a conscious effort to step outside of ourselves and our prejudices and grab love, and hold on to it whenever we come across it for as long as we possibly can.

In all honesty, I refused to believe that preacher's words back then. But as it turns out, he was right. As much of my life as I had spent trying to fight off the reality of that man's truths, he was right.

So, with this little bit of once disregarded wisdom in mind, that's exactly what I did that day. I ran out of our front door and held on to my knight in shining armor as tightly as I possibly could...

And I haven't let go since.