A Change of Heart

Kenya turned her face toward the breeze coming through the window, enjoying the canopy of trees along the city streets. She listened attentively as four rowdy teenagers played a loud game of "Mixin Fixion" in the seat behind her. She admired the teens, the way that they were able to live carefree. Even though she was probably a year or two older than the crowd, she could never be like them; she could never live a normal life, not after what her pimp had put her through.

The bus came to a halt and the four teenagers pushed their way down the isle, bumping into a homeless man and now playing a game of the "Dozens." Kenya watched out of the window as they ran across the busy intersection dodging several cars. She wondered where they were going. She then thought about where she was going. She had $1,200 stuffed in her bra just enough to get her somewhere. She didn't care where she ended up; all she knew is that she had to get away.

She looked toward the seat next to her and viewed a man in his twenties, wearing a gold chain, baggy jeans, a diamond earring in one ear, and a backpack on his shoulder. "Typical drug dealer," Kenya thought to herself. No matter how hard she tried to escape the life she knew that it would find her. This life that was filled with drugs, prostitution, liquor, gambling, hurt and pain. Anxiously, she wanted to tell him to leave, just so she wouldn't have to look at him anymore. She wanted to find a place where drug dealers didn't exist and the people were sober. She longed for an environment where someone would think that she was beautiful, not just apiece of meat that they could buy for a few bucks.

A scrawny older man in dingy clothing, holding a forty-ounce of Ol'English in a brown paper bag, came scurrying down the isle of the bus and sat next to the guy wearing the chain.

"Hey man do you got dat for me?" the scrawny guy asked.
"You know I got that!" the man wearing the chain replied.

He unzipped his backpack, reached his hand inside and pulled out a book. Kenya couldn't believe it; he wasn't going to make a drug deal? She didn't want the men to know that she was being meddlesome, so she decided to look back through the window and listen closely as they talked.

"Hey man this book is very important and you can't lose it. I am hesitant to give it to you because you are holding that forty in your hands. But if you really want it, then I will give it to you. Just promise me one thing, you will tell your son to read it sober," he said in a quiet yet authoritative voice.

The scrawny man replied, "He will be so happy to get this book, you know Anthony don't do drugs anymore, he has been clean for 17 months now and he has changed his life. He told me that you had found the Truth a month ago and he was so amazed at how much you have changed."

"But you see this?" Said the man wearing the chain clutching the gold around his neck aggressively. "I ain't ready to give this up yet. I am still changing myself. Muslim men don't wear stuff like this."

Kenya was growing curious, taking small peeks at the men every now and then.

"I promised Anthony that I would pick the book up from you if I seen you on the bus today. I want him to be a better man than me. You see this?" He said lifting up the brown paper bag with the bottle of liquor spilling out a bit. "This right here is my religion, I can't do nothing about the man that I am, I can only help change the man that I raised. I promise you that I will give this book to Anthony and I won't let it out of my sight until it reaches his hands."

Reaching into his black backpack, the man with the chain pulled out a fresh blue towel.

"Before I give you this book I am going to wrap it up in this towel. This way, you or Anthony cannot touch it unless you have cleansed yourselves. Have him call me and I will tell him what to do before he reads the book."

He slowly, yet neatly, wrapped the book into the towel and handed it gracefully to the old man. The moment the man received the book; he looked down at the bottle in his hand as if it were poison. He put down the paper bag of booze and held the book close to his heart with both of his hands. The bus was coming to the next stop and the scrawny guy got up charmingly and began walking down the isle, leaving half his bottle of beer on the bus floor.

"Hey!" the man with the chain yelled at the scrawny guy right as the bus's doors were opening. "You can change the person you have become and your religion." The man wearing the chain immediately took the chain from around his neck and placed it next to the liquor bottle. The scrawny man looked back at him and smiled. "I already have."

Kenya couldn't believe what just happened. She was so curious to know what book it was that made that man throw down his beer like that.

"Stuff like this don't happen everyday. A wino giving up his wine; a brotha giving up his gold?" she thought.

She tugged at her short blue jean skirt trying to cover her knees. She couldn't take it any more; she had to ask him about what had just happened.

"Hey what book did you just give that man?"

"I just gave him a Qu'ran."

"A Qu'ran? Could you get me one?" she asked enthusiastically.

"You sure you want one?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I'm sure, I need to change something in my life too; and I have a feeling that you have the answer."

"Will you be on this bus tomorrow?" He asked.

"I will be now." Kenya replied.