The Way of Love is an adult romance novel about Marlene Lewis, a young African American woman who pulls herself up from humble beginnings, rising above the hardship of a broken family life and disastrous marriage to eventually find the love she has been searching for.
Marlene shook terribly from apprehension as much as from the chilly hospital temperature as a male nurse wheeled her down the corridor toward surgery.
“Are you okay?” the tall, hunky, Caucasian nurse leaned over the handle bar and kindly asked.
She groggily answered yes, although she was far from feeling okay. She realized the male nurse was so sympathetic because he understood her sense of desolation. He was present that morning when her husband Bill left her at the hospital, refusing to hang around even after the surgeon asked him to at least stay until after the surgery. The bastard didn’t care enough to hang around, and I lied to the doctor for him. What if something goes wrong, she worriedly thought on the way to the operating theatre. She even wondered if she’d made the right decision while hoping with all of her heart the operation would be a real changer.
* * * *
“You might look a whole lot better if you had breasts!” Bill Crawford crudely remarked as he walked off.
“Bill, you once deeply cared for me. You were in a hurry for us to marry. What happened to those feelings?” She sobbed as she stood in the elaborate living room, stunned and alone, her demeanor exuding hurt and confusion.
With tears falling, she had wondered how it had come to this. Certainly she hadn’t changed that much since they met four years ago. Then, he was pushing her to be with him. He’d even told her she was the most captivatingly beautiful African American woman he’d ever seen. Now it seemed her very presence repelled him. He belittled her no matter what she did. At this point, she felt helpless to change her failing marriage.
“I don’t need somebody telling me how to run my life or marriage!” he’d shouted at her when she brought up the idea of counselling. She wondered how he’d gotten through Law School or any college since he took such a hard stand against being lectured to.
She’d seen herself in the magic of life, waiting to be recognized and loved, and couldn’t believe this dark, dark place she was in. At that point, deeply unhappy and wondering what she could do to make a difference, she thought, I’ll have my breasts enlarged and he’ll see me in a whole different light.
* * * *
“Maybe you need to stop bothering me and stop asking what’s bothering me, but no, you just nag, nag, nag,” Bill said, once again blaming Marlene for their marital problems and storming out of the bedroom.
Sadly, the breast implants failed to change matters. She’d examined every aspect of their relationship in an attempt to identify what had flung her from the arms of love and happiness and came up with zero. Nothing was effective against his criticism, rejection and total disrespect. Feeling encased in a bubble of rejection and dark shadows she decided that it was time to take the path to recovery and rediscovery. It was time to reconnect with that powerful sense of inspiration that once glowed inside of her. Her feelings inspired a poem.
