“I Know You Are”
Part 2
By: CaspHer
November 29, 2018
After telling Cory about her experience with living in a haunted three-bedroom apartment in Minneapolis, he continuously questioned why that happened to her.
She was always a cool and warm person to be around and she was the last person they’d expect something like that to happen to.
Cory asked, “Why you? Why did this happen to you? There’s nothing about you that brings out anything negative at all.”
“I would like to know why that happened to me as well,” they sit on a leather couch with the sun beaming downward on them from the sunroof.
She did not want to draw any more attention to herself by explaining about her suseptability to such energies around her. She wanted to feel and appear as “normal” as possible. Too bad, she would never get to feel normal for as long as she lived.
She only confided in her friend who spent the night at her apartment to keep her company. He was a religious man and she respected that while being a down to earth spiritual person.
Cory continues to try understanding what happened, “Well…you’re a cute chick…I could see why that ghost guy talked when you were trying to sleep,” he breaks into a teasing laugh.
“Well, that shit isn’t funny, Cory,” she gets up from her seat and picks her fedora hat off the coffee table. She is dressed casually and ready to hang out at Gay90s for a while. She then drapes her military scarf around her shoulders after moving her arms-length dreadlocks out of the way.
“You give off an artsy vibe, nothing bad or weird about it and you have a light that comes off of you,” he continues musing and trying to make sense of it all.
“I would expect that to happen to your obnoxious neighbor Barron. He’s a jack-off he talks too damn much,” he continues as she sprays some Prada products on her neck.
She goes over to her cane collection and asks her friend which style of cane should go with her tonight.
He spins around in his seat and says, “I don’t think you would want to go to a gay club with a straight white cane,” they both laugh together. Now, that was hilarious. She decides to use her folding NFB cane while he sits back with his cane down and folded at his feet.
On the front steps of her apartment, she orders an Uber while he stands beside her wearing his fedora hat as well.
A victorious red car pulls up in front of them as the driver offers to help. They politely decline her assistance and get into the car. A very friendly driver begins their adventure to Gay90s. The sun is beginning to set as the sky becomes a deep blue-ish yellow. Cory sits up front and she sits in the back of the spacious car.
“You always get the sexy cars when you order Uber and Lyft,” he says.
“Well, I don’t choose the cars. They come to me,” CaspHer says as they all laugh in unison.
The driver asks, “What are you cool folks up to tonight?”
Cory answers, “Me and my cool friend here are going to Gay90s for some fun and drinks”
Linda says enthusiastically, “Oh…my…gosh. I love that place. I used to go there during my party days as a student at the University of Minnesota! Y’all will have a blast.”
Linda says to Cory, “I hear a Southern accent, where are you from?”
Cory says, “Oh, I’m from Atlanta Georgia. Born in the Peach State and raised there too.”
“And you back there lookin all cool. Where are you from? I don’t hear an accent,” she turns on Hennepin avenue yet is still a ways away from their destination while getting caught in traffic.
“I’m from Miami Florida but I grew up in Boston Massachusetts.”
“Oh my…that’s a huge jump. What are y’all doing in Minnesota with all of this cold weather?”
Cory answers, “Well, sometimes it’s nice for a change of scenery and that’s what we both wanted. I didn’t meet her until I came to Minneapolis,” they’ve reached their destination parked in front of Gay90s.
As they bid their friendly driver a good rest of her evening, they hopped out of the car and headed for the entrance to Gay90s. As CaspHer and Cory walk in, she felt the whole energy shift from tense to relaxed and calm with a hint of party time on the rise! She made no mention of what she felt to Cory as they both found a seat at the restaurant side of the establishment.
“One thing I will say is that I love how folks here in Minnesota are so damn friendly. So much so that it feels weird. I’m from Boston and I’m used to rude folks,” she adjusts her fedora hat while Cory searches through the menu with his Optilec pocket magnifier.
“I would have to agree. You seemed pretty shocked to have someone being nice to you in that car,” Cory says with his face down in the menu with his magnifier still scanning the page.
CaspHer nudges Cory, “Hey, never mind the eye strain. Just get that delicious fried chicken burger with pepper jack cheese and fries. With that, I would recommend a nice long island iced tea. Something about the drinks here will push the need to dance into you pretty fast,” He looks away from the menu, “Oh hell yeah…anything you suggest is bound to be amazing,” he pockets the hand-held magnifier quickly and puts the menu down.
The waitress comes over to their table and introduces herself, “Hi, I’m Candy and I will be working with you today. Is there anything I could get you both?”
CaspHer says, “Oh yes. Nice to meet you. I would like to start off with the fried chicken burger with pepper jack cheese and fries,” she writes down CaspHer’s order.
“And you, sir?”
Cory replies, “Ah yes…I’ll have what my friend is having…it sounds really good and nice to meet you, Candy,” Candy removes the menu from their table.
Before she walks away, she gets their drink orders down, “As for drinks, what do y’all have in mind?”
Both replied, “Long island iced tea”
“Alright, I’ll have your meals ready in no time. Kick back and relax while waiting,” she fades away into the distance while the pair sit at a round table chatting away.
They finish up their meals and sit there with full bellies basking in the glass full of long island iced teas in front of them.
“Well, Cory. This is where I come to de-stress and dance the stress off,” she sips her drink and places it back down on the table.
“Oh shit, I cannot wait to get up there on the dancefloor and dance the night away,” he whirls his wrists in the air.
After paying the bill for their meals and tipping the waitress, they make their way over to the party section of the night club. Cory is behind CaspHer to her right and she has her cane in a pencil grip to carefully and gracefully navigate without tripping anyone.
There are lounge chairs one small step above the dancefloors with small drink tables in front. The purple and blue strobe lights flutter softly as they sit there with the view of hundreds of bodies swaying and swirling to heavy dance music.
“Hey Cory, I usually sit here for a few minutes to check out the vibes of the dance floor and then I blend in shortly after,” he was already chatting away with a girl who had a blue mohawk and music notes tattooed on each side of her head.
CaspHer folds her cane and stows it under the couch with Cory’s and ventures onto the floor of dancing bodies. As she makes her way down, Cory grabs her hand and dances around her in circles while the music pulsates through every part of their bodies. She literally pulsating through her feet and chest and it feels damn good. It feels like fun and happiness!
The pair calls it, “Thumpa thumpa”
CaspHer stands in the abyss of dancing bodies swaying to the heavy thump of music and someone comes up from behind and rests their head on her shoulder, “Hey, you look really cool in that hat, where’s your dancing partner?”
“Oh? Who are you?” she spins around to face the mysterious person. It was her friend in drag that came up to surprise CaspHer.
“Ah…yes…Pickles, it is great to see you again!” they both hug one another. CaspHer introduces Cory to Pickles.
CaspHer is dancing with Pickles and Cory on the dancefloor and they all have their drinks in their hands enjoying the night. Everything is going smoothly, and people are pretty cool as usual and that’s a normal thing.
“Well dear, I have a show upstairs and I’m performing as Beyoncé and we have some others performing too. You’re more than welcome to come watch and dance with us,” Pickles says to CaspHer and Cory.
“Hey, Cas do you want to go see the dancing upstairs?”
CaspHer agrees to go watch the show upstairs after their third long island iced tea.
Up they go to the second level of Gay90s where the stages are lit, and the audience waits with anticipation. CaspHer and Cory have front row seats by the run-way.
CaspHer excuses herself from the event to use the restroom. She unfolds her fiberglass white cane and navigates through the chairs in rows successfully to the restroom. On her way, someone clasps onto her shirt sleeve just to tell her she looks sexy in that hat and her hair is gorgeous. More and more women flock to CaspHer after four of them surround and the numbers grow.
“Don’t act like you don’t know you’re sexy!” someone randomly shouts at her. One more person shouted, “Yes, you with the white cane and fedora hat!”
She politely unhooks their arms from hers and finishes her route to the rest room to freshen up and return to her show.
Cory said, “If I were your girlfriend, I would totally be snatching wigs off. All them chicks randomly flocking to you like that? I wouldn’t even let you go here by yourself,” CaspHer sits down beside Cory and the show begins. Incredibly phenomenal dancers come out in there drag attire and take the show away.
One of the dancers come down from the stage toward CaspHer and does a seated dance in her lap with the spotlight on them. The dancer who performs as Beyoncé gives Cory a slight hug and peck on cheek. She dances her way back up to the stage and the audience cheers them on.
Cory asks, “How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Awww…don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about”
“No…what are you talking about?”
“Damn…Cas…you get people flying to you like that. You need a bodyguard or something,” Cory explains.
“I’m painfully oblivious to flirting. As my friend, you should know that Cory,” both laughing at the very obvious fact.
“They weren’t flirting. They were literally throwing themselves at you, Cas,” Cory explains.
He continues, “The girls by the bar and back of the room literally swooped over to you and you’re all coy about it,” he laughs.
The show is halfway done and CaspHer lets Cory know that she’s going downstairs to the dancefloor section to be a part of both levels of fun. She reassures him that she would be fine and that he could stay up there and enjoy the show. She checks her phone for the time and it’s only 10:45pm and they’ve been in there since 7:30pm. Not bad. All of that time was spent having fun.
CaspHer is in the middle of the dancefloor and surrounded by many dancers swaying back and forth to the deep pounding music coursing through every limb on her body. Her cane is stowed away and out of reach from anyone. She is under the feathered fedora hat enjoying herself while the purple and blue strobe lights go at a faster tempo, following the rhythm of the music. Tiny white lazar lights zip around the audience also following the music’s thumping rhythm. She’s loving every bit of the heavy music pounding, surrounding her entire being. There’s no other place like a room full of heavy pounding music that she’d rather be at this moment. Stress levels lowered, and happiness fills her body by the minute!
A few steps away, there is a woman watching CaspHer from the top of her glasses, scanning her very closely. CaspHer is totally unaware and unbothered and is in total bliss with the music. She scoots through the bodies and makes her way over to the perfectly content CaspHer.
“Hey, I like your hair and hat,” she says over the loud thumpa-thumpa in the room to CaspHer.
“Uh…yeah…thank you,” CaspHer responds without stopping to pay much attention, still holding a new drink in her hand and dancing.
“Are you here alone?” the woman asks through the music.
“Nah…I’m with my buddy. He’s up watching the drag show while I’m here releasing stress on the dance floor,” still unbothered, CaspHer continues dancing and sipping. She keeps her hand over the cup to prevent anything from getting slipped in or anything spilling out.
“I like your swag…I mean your style. It’s very unique and anyone can spot you through the crowd,” she continues to try carrying out a conversation with CaspHer.
“Wow…that’s nice…thank you,” CaspHer is now finished with her drink and put the cup down on a nearby table and gets swallowed into the dance crew of hundreds of swaying bodies again.
“Honestly, it’s literally your long hair and butt that makes it obvious,” this woman blatantly confesses to CaspHer.
“Well then…I guess it wouldn’t be hard to locate anyone with really long hair?” CaspHer asks. She was pretty certain that this person wanted her attention, but she preferred to enjoy the music.
“Yup, you might think this is rude but I’m going to be straight up with you and ask you for your phone number,” CaspHer literally stops and moves further into the crowd away from this woman.
CaspHer retrieves her folded NFB cane from the hiding spot and navigates through the increased crowd of bodies in the night club. There were more people in there that night. The majority of folks moved out of her way without hesitation and allowed her up the steps to the show. CaspHer stops by the bar for something refreshing and Cory approaches.
“So…did you get any numbers?”
Cory sips his water through the straw, “Nope. There were a bunch of old men who could only be sugar daddies and none more,” CaspHer laughs.
He asked CaspHer, “Did you get any numbers?”
“Nope. I just wanted to feel the music pounding through me with a few strong drinks. Some lady told me I had a big booty and she wanted my number. I wanted to laugh but I decided to just walk away,” CaspHer was also drinking a tall cup of iced cold water.
There was a piece of paper stuck to CaspHer’s blazer, but she hadn’t noticed it. Cory takes it off and notices a phone number attached. With his hand-held magnifier, he begins reading the name and number attached.
“Well, CaspHer, it looks like you didn’t have to give anyone your number because they slipped you theirs instead,” he shows her the paper and puts it in her hand.
CaspHer takes it and leaves it behind on the table, “Well…it’s nearly two in the morning. We may as well go ahead and go home. I’m kind of tired or should I say…needing to save some energy for tomorrow at the Saloon.”
Corry says, “Ready when you are. I’ll call an Uber to your apartment and we’ll go together,” he walks over to the exit door of Gay90s and starts a request for Uber on his iPhone 6+. Both of them are Voice Over users and have their speech rates pretty fast for comfort due to experience.
Their car arrives and CaspHer takes the back seat and Cory takes the front seat. The ride to her apartment was rather quick as the driver treated this Uber session like a Nasar race.
Both get out of the car and bid the driver a good rest of his morning/night.
Cory enters after CaspHer and she puts her fedora hat on the empty coat rack by the door as Cory does the same.
“Damn…I am so tired…like not physically exhausted but tired. I just want to sleep fully clothed. I danced most of the night and had few drinks,” She stood in the mirror over the sink removing her right prosthetic eye. She wore an acrylic prosthesis with a music note in place of her pupil because she loved music that much. CaspHer was born with a rare eye condition that caused her to be born without an eye or socket. That condition is called “Anophthalmias” (an-uff-thal-mos).
Cory applied his eye drops for his Glaucoma in each eye, keeping his head tilted back on the arm of the couch until all of the liquids ran through his eyes.
“Well, CaspHer you looked like you had a fun time. I certainly had a blast watching the ladies onstage and that meal you suggested was fabulous. Call me over any time you want to hang out,” Cory clasped the bottle of eye drops closed and zipped them back into his overnight bag.
Next, she unhooks her hearing aid from her left ear and places it inside the box on her nightstand near her bed. As she pulls it out, it makes a whiny noise before she pops the battery door open for the night to prevent battery drainage.
Cory is now in the guest room and CaspHer is out of the shower and prepared for sleep in her queen size bed. She pulls the covers over her body and begins to doze off into sleep land. CaspHer feels like she’s spinning in circles while trying to sleep after a long night of partying, but she manages to fall asleep either way.
Meanwhile, Cory is in the large guest room in the queen size bed alone, slowly drifting into a light sleep. He too felt like he was spinning in circles after all of that dancing and partying.
Just as he goes into a light sleep, he hears a snapping sound. He tries to move and is unable to move any part of his body at all! He can only make a grunting noise but not take deep breaths at all, is only limited to half deep breaths. He begins to feel the end of his bed dip as if a 500-pound person had sat down near the foot of his bed. A sudden wave of fear takes over his body as he still tries to move in his sleep and yell for help. Cory can only see through his central vision and tries to look around. He spots something dark looming over him directly in his limited view. He feels his energy draining from his body and feels helpless at the same time. Cory instantly begins to pray the fearful sensation away. During the start of his praying, everything stops, and he regains control over his body again and can take big deep breaths again. His heart racing, he sits up in his bed and looks around. Everything is still in place and nothing seemed out of order.
He climbs out of bed and goes over to CaspHer’s room and sees the door slightly open. He peeks in and sees her sound asleep in the middle of her bed.
Cory goes back to his room and sleeps with the lights open and his bedroom door wide open in case he has another episode again. Sleep finds him and he’s off to a dreamless sleep at last.
It’s 12:30 in the afternoon and CaspHer finished making a late breakfast meal for her and Cory. This breakfast lunch consisted of turkey bacon omelets with blueberry beagles and orange juice.
Both of them seated at the table eating and still feeling tired but well rested at the same time.
“Cas…I had a weird incident happen to me earlier this morning,” he bites into his bagel.
“What happened?”
“Oh…I was trying to fall asleep and I suddenly felt like I could not move at all. It was like I was paralyzed and felt like something was on my chest,” he explains with left hand over chest.
“Cory, you had an episode of sleep paralysis. That’s what it was. It can be triggered by extreme fatigue and or stress levels along with anxiety being really high,” CaspHer explains and reassures him that everything is okay and that nothing bad was after him. To make him feel comfortable during his visit, she sage her apartment and his room that he slept in. Perhaps it was time to clear some energies off anyway at her house.
Hours later after their late breakfast and lunch combo, they milled around the space and got prepared for the day’s upcoming adventure.
During and after the saging process, Cory expressed how comforted he felt at her house even before he had that episode. Still, he remained sprawled out across the large leather couch in the living room. CaspHer sat in her recliner listening to a quick email from work; some clients sending her electronic thank you cards for helping them adjust to blindness.
“Cas…that was an epic cleansing…it made me want to stay home and enjoy the peacefulness,” he goes through his phone listening to Facebook statuses for a brief moment.
CaspHer pulls out a pair of victorious maroon pants and casual shoes, “Well…I’m glad you like this process. It’s something my family has done for many years. I keep the tradition going in my house too.”
“I like your style, girl, the people at the Saloon are going to love you tonight,” he pats her on the shoulder lightly while picking out his outfit for the night as well.
It’s 8:45pm and they’re slowly revving up their party energy for tonight as well.
“Oh, Cory, there’s the restaurant in the Saloon too and they serve wonderful food there too. I want you to try them out as well,” CaspHer brushes her pant legs straight while they’re on the hanger.
“Anything you suggest, I can trust you. I like your selection.”
Both of them got ready and CaspHer is spraying her entire body once again with Prada Candy perfume for women and Cory takes a few sprays of her perfume too, “I don’t care if it’s women’s perfume or not. If it smells good, I will put it on, especially if it’s your stuff.”
“Cool by me”
They collect their folding canes and head out to the front door to call an Uber for their night out. It hasn’t even been an entire twenty-four hours and they’re back out again.
Their driver pulls up in a big maroon jeep with blue LED lights under the car. The interior design is black leather seats and tinted windows. Her Uber account was connected to her Pandora and as they get into the car and drive off into Hennepin, her favorite song “Nobody” by Kem is playing in the background. She has no selection of what plays in the car. Anything that is playing in Pandora is whatever she listens to whether in the Uber or her mobile device.
“Oh, my goodness…you with the nice cars and music,” Cory jokes.
“Yeah, I have been getting pretty good luck with nice Ubers since being in Minnesota so far,” they enter the Saloon and make their way to the back of the building until they get into the restaurant side. They find a seat by the window and the partying sounds disappear.
The waitress brings over two glasses of water before returning to take their orders.
“So, what’s this meal you want me to try out tonight?” Cory asks with his hands on the table.
“So…there’s this really good burger they have and it’s all ground turkey with pineapple slices on top with whatever you want in it. I would suggest that,” CaspHer prepares to make her order when the waitress returns.
They get their burgers and tequila sunrises in both grape and mango flavor in two separate cups each. It was the weekend and those drinks were a dollar for a few hours, so they ordered a tray full of tequila sunrise.
The Saloon didn’t close until 2am but Cory and CaspHer didn’t want to stay until that very time with it only being 11pm that night and things were getting steamy on that dancefloor. They walked past a bathing contest where they watched a guy taking a shower in front of hundreds. That booth onstage was surrounded by older men with beer bellies, the younger energetic folks were off dancing their souls off and that’s where they decided to go. Neither of them was interested in watching someone take a shower for some money. Neither of them was walking around with the luxury of 20/20 vision.
Red and purple strobe lights zipping back and forth with the music pumping through the soles of CaspHer’s feet, making its way up to her heart, she was enjoying the vibes. Cory was at the bar getting some more drinks to warm up for dancing. CaspHer was surrounded by two model-like women and got sandwiched between the two.
The one in front said to CaspHer, “Hey, we think you’re cool. Come to our private party in the other area of the club if you want,” CaspHer felt her hat get taken off as the woman behind her puts it on her own head.
“Come with us and watch the show,” Woman 1 says.
“I’m going to have to get my friend to see if he wants to join,” CaspHer removes herself from between them.
Minutes later, Cory and CaspHer are in the Retro Room of the Saloon and there’s a strip show going on. CaspHer is in the seat that’s in the middle of the room while Cory has her folded cane with his in the audience. Everyone is cheering the dancers on who flip around back and forth undulating up and down CaspHer’s left leg and in her face.
