Brody Visits Professor Warren

It was lunch time and Professor was on his way to his office when Brody Harper approached him. He was surprised to see him. “Hello, Brody.”

“Hello, Professor Warren.” They shook hands.

“Congratulations on your career as a lawyer.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you here to see your mother?”

“Actually, I’m here to see you. I need to have a word with you.”

“Oh. All right. Let’s go to my office.”

They went to his office. He closed the door and went to sit behind his desk after inviting Brody to sit in the one opposite.

“So, Brody, what’s on your mind.”

“Kalisha.”

Joe’s eyebrows rose. “Kalisha?”

“Yes. Mother told me that you and Kalisha are romantically involved.”

“Yes, we are.”

“How long have you and she been involved?”

“Since August 2017.”

“So, you weren’t seeing each other when she was still in a relationship with me?”

“No.”

“Somehow, I don’t believe you, Sir.”

“And why is that?”

“I noticed that things had changed between Kalisha and me during her last year here at the university. I didn’t want to believe it but I suspected that there was someone. I had no idea who it was. I was afraid to ask her. Then, in July, she broke up with me. My mother told me that one month later you and she were seeing each other. I can’t help thinking that you and she were seeing each other before.”

“As I said before, Kalisha and I started seeing each other in August, two months after she graduated. I would never have gotten t involved with her when she was still a student at the university. That would have been unwise. Besides, she was already in a relationship.”

“Yes, she was until she met you. If it weren’t for you, she and I wouldn’t have broken up.”

“I know that what I’m about to say might be painful for you to hear, Brody, but Kalisha didn’t love you.”

“She might have grown to if you hadn’t been in the picture.”

“Even if I hadn’t been in the picture, sooner or later, your relationship would have ended. Kalisha would have found it hard to continue to be with you, knowing that she didn’t feel the same way about you.”

“When Mother told me about the two of you, I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock.”

“Shock? Surely it must have occurred to you that sooner or later she would date again.”

“Yes, it did but when my mother told me whom she was dating, I was shocked. I was shocked that it was you, of all people.”

“Me of all people?”

“Yes. You’re old enough to be her father.”

“Is that what really bothers you–the fact that she’s with me?”

“Yes. If it had been someone younger, then, I wouldn’t have such a big problem with it.”

“Why is my age should a factor? Isn’t this a type of discrimination? Isn’t it as bad as if someone were to object to our relationship because she’s African-American and I’m white?”

“It isn’t the same. You should be with someone your age and it doesn’t matter what her race is and she should be with someone her age, regardless of his race.”

“I’m sorry, Brody but I disagree with you. She and I should be together because we love each other. Love is all that matters–nothing else–not race and not age.”

“I think it’s disgusting when a man has relations with a girl who is thirty years younger than him. Thirty years, Professor Warren. Kalisha is younger than the years of difference between you. Why couldn’t you find a woman your own age? Why did you have to set you sight on Kalisha?”

“Look, I didn’t set out to fall in love with Kalisha. It happened.”

“And I supposed she didn’t set out to fall in love with you either but it happened.”

“Yes.”

“That’s the same thing my father said to my mother. He too didn’t mean to fall in love with a woman who’s half his age but it happened.”

“I thought that you and your step-mother were getting along.”

“We are–now but when my father left my mother for her, I resented her. If it weren’t for her, they would still be married.”

“Your father didn’t set out to fall in love with another woman but it happened. Neither he nor I should be made to feel like we are criminals or that we have committed the unpardonable sin because we fell in love with younger women.”

“Women young enough to be your daughters. Have you thought about when you’re old and wrinkled? And what about her? She’ll still be young and desirable with needs that you would be too old to satisfy.”

Joe rose to his feet. “Look, I understand that you have a hard time accepting that Kalisha and I are in a relationship but I refuse to sit here any longer and have you insult and disrespect me. This conversation is over.”

Brody stood up, his face flushed and his eyes flashing. “Fine. I’ll go. But, you know as well as I do that there will come a time when your age will become a factor when you can no longer satisfy your much younger girlfriend. Goodbye, Sir.” He turned and promptly left the office.

Joe sat back down. He was about to reach for the phone and call Marianna to let her know what had just transpired between her son and him, but he decided not to. Instead, he ate the lunch which Kalisha had packed for him that morning.