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5- Healing the love and the promises

The trees sway with the wind, the leafy branches with green leaves bend like a sugar cane. The birds fly and brush against the highest leaves with their wings. Jade walks along a sandy path with stones piled parallel to the way. Everth is at the entrance of the dance school, sitting on a wooden step next to Jhan Paul, who is smoking a cigarette. Three steps behind them is an open wooden door, with the glass of the window framed by a rosebush of pink and white flowers. The threshold of the door is also decorated with the same flowers. Jade walks toward them with a wide smile, leans over Jhan, and hugs him.

  • "My love! I missed you!" says Jade, filled with enthusiasm and joy.

"I missed you too, love," Jhan Paul replies.

Jade and Jhan Paul hug, and then Jade leans up to kiss Everth on the lips, who takes her by the waist.

"Salam aleikom, Habibi," Jade greets Everth, kissing him tenderly.

"Aleikom salam," Everth responds.

"You're tan," Jhan Paul points out, looking at Jade and stroking her arm.

"I know... I always forget the sunscreen. Now tell me... how was Mexico?" Jade asks.

Jhan Paul walks up the stairs, holds onto the muscular wooden handrail, breathes out with a sparkle in his eyes, and smiles.

"It was great. We brought two trucks full, and it's the good stuff," he says with a tone full of pride.

"Did you try it?" Jade asks, her eyes full of curiosity.

"Of course... you sample the goods before taking them home," Jhan explains. "It's just like choosing a girlfriend; you want to make sure she behaves well, has good values and virtues, is faithful, and if you decide to marry her, will take good care of your kids, that the sex is good and makes you happy in bed."

"Brother, I'm surprised you talk about women so domestically," says Everth, laughing.

"It's easy to see what men are looking for in women to start a family, especially when you live for a while in Mexico, such a macho country."

Jade laughs.

"I don't think all men in Mexico are machista; it's like saying all Arab women are submissive. We should never generalize," Jade asserts, raising an eyebrow.

The three laugh. Jade dances around Jhan Paul, moving her shoulders and clapping. Suddenly the atmosphere fills with joy, and the birds sing.

"I'm so happy! I can't wait to travel with the girls! Leave this behind and go far away... I can't wait! We’ll take the girls to the best dance competitions," says Jade.

"Umhum... and it's still three months away; don't let the excitement get to you," responds Jhan Paul.

"As soon as we deliver all the drugs and herbs, they'll pay us, and we'll travel freely around the world, it’s a fact," says Jhan Paul, exchanging a serious, intense look with Everth.

Both look directly into each other's eyes, seriously, intensely, as if sealing a deal with their word of honor just with that look between men.

Jade observes how her boyfriend looks at his best friend, intrigued and with an angry tone, she asks: "Three months?"

"That's how long it will take for the new herb to be ready, habibi," Everth explains.

Jade blinks slowly. She narrows her eyes upward and stares at Everth, slightly furrowing her brow.

"The new herb? What do you mean?" Jade asks. Then Everth takes her by the waist with a gesture of love, but she frees herself from his arms and looks him straight in the eyes. Her black eyes are filled with fury, with intensity.

"You said you were going to get out of this black mafia business and drug trafficking, which is so dangerous. You said it doesn't align with our values for the life we want to have," Jade says.

"Habibi, and it's true, this will be our last deal," Everth says.

"A deal that will last three more months... oh sorry, I meant you've been in this business for five years, the same business for five years and three months. It's like a marriage, but what a hassle to do the paperwork to separate, right?" Jade retorts angrily.

Everth sighs. "Habibi, I promise this will be the last time we do this kind of business," explains Everth. His tone sounds pleading; he deeply loves his Lebanese storm and doesn't want to argue with her.

But Jade is exasperated and doesn't listen to her boyfriend's explanations. "You said they were looking for this package in Mexico, and we wouldn’t sell to Mexico anymore."

"Ay Jade... it’s not that easy to get out of Nando's business. He ordered us 10 kg to distribute in the USA, and after we deliver it, he'll be happier," Jhan explains softly, walking toward Jade and taking her face, looking at her with deep sweetness.

"It’s dangerous. It’s dangerous. That man is dangerous, and you want to sell him more weed. He’s fallen in love with us!" says Jade.

"Habibi... love... Jade, trust me..." Everth repeats.

"Do you want to die?" she says in a voice that sounds sad, very sad. "Do you want them to kill us all?"

"Ay, don’t be dramatic..." Everth says, sighing.

"Dramatic... drama? You think it's drama; it’s not drama. I’m going to oppose if you want to kill us all."

Jade brings both hands to her temples, brushing her hair back. Everth presses his lips together until his chin reddens, looking down and diverting his gaze from Jade. She lunges at Everth, and Jhan Paul holds her by the chest with one arm.

"I will oppose; I will oppose if you want to kill us all! You will kill us all!" she screams vehemently, with a tone of fragility.

"Jade... calm down. Relax. Steady. Just steady," says Jhan Paul.

Jade releases herself from Jhan Paul's arms, shoving him aside with her elbows, adjusts her green bra, and brushes her hair away from her face.

"Ay Jhan... you don't realize what Everth is doing. From his greed... Oh God! Don't you see he's using you as a pawn?"

Rolling his eyes, Everth approaches her, then looks at her with disdain, yet finds her irresistibly attractive: "It’s impossible to talk to you, gazella... You don't understand anything. Jhan tried to get out, but he had no option. Nando was already counting on us for this quarter of the year. If he had backed out, he would have decimated all his businesses, and that's when he would kill us without mercy," says Everth.

"He will also count on us for the next four months. Ay Everth... it pleases him that you are so good-looking, so professional, that you have no record... But I'll tell you one thing," Jade says.

Jade points at Everth with her index finger, lifts her chin, and swallows hard. She speaks again, breathing calmly.

"If you keep with him, you'll have a record faster than you can imagine. He will turn us into his mules; he wants to turn me into the doormat of a drug dealer, a murderer, and I won't allow it. Never. That will never happen."

Everth lets out a sigh and brings both hands to his face.

"Oh God," reproaches Everth.

"When we started this, you said there would be no violence; there would be none. We make money to help others, to support one another and fulfill our dreams... not to throw our luck to the wind. I won’t accept it. May Allah help you find a way out of this. For the prophet! Because if not, you will drag us all down. You will drag the school, the kids, and the animals with you. We won't save anyone's life if we can't even keep our own safe," says Jade.

"It's not possible to make you reason. You talk as if this were my fault. You can't talk to you," Everth reproaches, pain evident in his gaze.

"It is your fault, Everth; it is because you gave your word and didn't keep it. You said we would go to Ireland," says Jade, and at that moment, she raises her gaze to the sky and sighs deeply.

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