Juliandra
Page 3
CHAPTER 1 – THE DAY BEFORE
It’s Friday, July 11th, 10:30am, and twenty-nine year old Juliandra Lee is interviewing a potential client at the Foundation House, a local drug rehab center where she began working after helping her brother overcome his addiction to cocaine.
Across from her sits a very thin, older man, in his late forties. He’s there seeking help because of continuous pressure from his only daughter. The man, Danny Davis, is unable to remain still but is doing his best to answer some questions.
“Mr. Davis, I know this isn’t exactly what you want to be doing, but can you tell me how often you use the crystal you get ahold of? Mr. Davis, how many times a week do you use crystal? Once? Twice?”
“I need it a lot, Mrs. Lee. Without the fire, I can’t bear to go on each day. It keeps me going.”
“How often do you use, Danny?”
“Every day, Mrs. Lee… Every damn day!”
“Okay, Danny, can you to tell me when you first started using drugs?”
“Well, it’s been a long time. A long time since I first used something, something to take my worry away.”
“Do you think you can remember when?”
“Well, Mrs. Lee, I’ll try… I don’t know exactly the day but I know I was fifteen. My boys brought me some weed, and it helped me relax. I smoked that for years until I got ahold of some fire. Man, it got me.”
“So, you’ve only tried marijuana and meth?”
“Oh no, I tried lots of ‘em, but I didn’t know what they were. The boys always had something, always something for me to try. Some of this, some of that. All I knew… I needed it.”
Meanwhile, at Rudy Smith’s Accounting Services, one town over, thirty-two year old Thomas Lee is sitting in a large office chair, working to resolve a computer issue before his next appointment.
“Damn it! Where the hell are you hiding?” Thomas blurts out, pounding away at a keyboard. “Stupid spyware crap, I‘m gonna terminate your ass!”
At that moment, a sprite middle-aged man walks in while combing his hair from left to right with his fingers. He approaches the desk where Thomas is working. “How’s it going Thomas?” He asks, “Did you get the systems all fixed up?”
“Oh, I’m workin’ on it Rudy. I’ve found and cleaned up everything except one last process that seems to be hiding from me at the moment, but I’ll find it. Should be another thirty to forty-five minutes before this gets done, if all goes well.”
“Really, what do you think happened?”
“Well, seems like you might have landed on a website that injected malicious code into your operating system through the web browser. I don’t recognize the infection, but that only means I haven’t seen it before.”
Rudy grabs a file from the desk and starts making his way towards the door before stopping a moment and turning back. “I do a lot of research on the internet and can’t afford to have this happen all the time. What can we do to stop this from happening again?”
Thomas, still seated, spins towards Rudy, takes his hands and places them together, fingertip-to-fingertip, just below his lower lip.
“Well, it’s like this Rudy. Think of the Internet like you would the world. There are some places in the world you just don’t want to be. Places where you might get sick from drinking the water, or mugged because you look out of place, or maybe even kidnapped or killed. If you want to avoid these types of places you should only go where you know it’s safe, places you trust. It’s easy to take a wrong turn on the web, just like in real life, and end up somewhere you don’t want or need to be. All the Internet security software in the world isn’t going to help you if you keep visiting places that are hostile and you basically invite the attackers in. It’s really a matter of using the Internet in a smart way, rather than being carefree, going from place to place.”
Back at the Foundation House, Juliandra sits in a break room eating lunch before a group counseling session with several clients at 1:30pm. The chicken noodle soup she brought in for lunch is steaming as she holds a spoonful in front of her and blows on it. After getting her first taste, Juliandra lowers the spoon back into the bowl, stirs it around while checking her cellphone then stops to compose a text message to Thomas.
SMS: ‘I can’t wait for this weekend with you. Just us ’
After hitting ‘SEND,’ she scoops up more soup as a coworker walks into the room and asks about Danny Davis.
“Juliandra, what’s up with Mr. Davis? Is he being accepted to the clinic today? He’s telling me that he needs to go and get his fire. What the heck is his fire? What should I do with him?”
“Keep him here until Doctor Fiave arrives.” Juliandra replies, “I called him before lunch so he should be here any time. Mr. Davis is addicted to methamphetamines and we need to get him assessed immediately by the doctor. I think he needs a prescription for Desoxyn so we can get him calmed down and gradually wean him off what he’s been using.
Juliandra rises out of her seat with the remaining soup to place it on the counter top behind her. As she turns, the bottom of the bowl hits the counter’s edge, causing it to drop and break, sending soup everywhere.
“Ahhh!” Juliandra grumbles, “I wanted that soup for later. It’s my favorite soup. Well… Gimme a couple of minutes to clean this up Diane, and I’ll be out. Keep Mr. Davis occupied for me, please.”
A few miles away, Thomas finds himself standing in a checkout line inside Groupard’s grocery store, waiting to pay for his lunch before heading to his next appointment. A chicken salad sandwich and small cup of fruit sit in front of him on the mini conveyer belt, moving closer toward Jay, the cashier, who’s trying to help an elderly woman figure out the credit card terminal.
Without skipping a beat, like a well-programmed robot, the awkward looking teen hands the woman her receipt, tells her to have a nice day, and then immediately turns to Thomas. “Hi, sir, did you find everything you were looking for today?”
Thomas, unable to help himself and wanting to break up the perpetual repetition the poor kid was clearly trapped in, immediately replies.
“No, I didn’t! I came in here to find hot women, and I only saw one in aisle four, and she was already in someone’s cart.”
The cashier looks stumped for a moment, taken off guard by a very unusual answer to his very standard and well-rehearsed question. Slowly, a smile breaks across his face and he apologizes to Thomas. “I’m sorry sir. I’ll let the manager know that we’re all out of hot women and that we should order more right away. Your total is $6.79.”
Thomas smiles and hands the awkward teen a ten dollar bill. “Well, I guess I’ll have to settle for this sandwich for now, but I’m very disappointed, young man.”
Still smiling, the cashier places the money in the cash tray and stops to stare at the screen in front of him before handing Thomas his change. Thomas heads out to the parking lot and walks around like a tourist trying to remember where the heck he put his vehicle. After walking down the wrong row of cars, he finally spots his truck one row over, doubles back, and passes a family loading groceries into their minivan. As Thomas walks by, a small girl no older than three, sitting in their shopping cart, smiles and waves to him; Thomas raises his hand and gives a little wave back. Just as he passes the cart by only a few steps, he hears the little girl ask her mom a question. “Mommy, why is that man’s nose so big?”
Thomas laughs as he continues towards his truck and mumbles under his breath: “If adults were that honest to each other, the world would be so different.”
Once inside the truck, Thomas hears a chime from his cell phone and reaches over to the passenger seat to pick it up. Checking the screen, he sees that Juliandra has sent him a text message. A huge smile forms on his face as he quickly replies, ”YES!! ,” before starting the vehicle and getting back on the road.
1:00pm rolls around as Thomas drives into the parking lot of the Clear Pools Company, where he’s scheduled to fix some wireless networking issues. He quickly finishes eat
ing his sandwich, gets out of the truck, and wipes crumbs from his clothes before making his way to the front entrance.
Half an hour later, Thomas finds himself stepping down a wooden stairway into a basement at Mainly Law Offices, through an old counterweighted floor opening. After reaching the bottom and walking a few feet towards a wall containing the company’s communications equipment, the entrance suddenly slams shut.
“We got another one!” Someone screams from upstairs.
Laughter ensues from above, and with a smirk, Thomas yells back.
“Hah! You got me guys, very funny!”
At this point in the day, Juliandra finds herself in a large meeting room, standing between two men engaged in a heated argument and ready to come to blows. Juliandra calls out to the staff for help, steps back and asks them to calm down and sit in their chairs.
“I know you took it!” one man bellows, “I know you stole my paper! You’ve been plotting this heist ever since I got to this hellhole. What kind of person are you to take my property?”
“I didn’t take anything from you, Asshole” replies the other man. “You’re crazy and don’t even HAVE a paper!”
“Shut up and just admit it or I’ll turn you into paper right now with my fists!”
“Stop it!” Juliandra shouts. “I need for both of you to sit down now! Sit down and we’ll find out what happened to your paper, Tony. Just sit down.”
Three extra staff members rush into the room at the moment Tony screams and lunges towards the other man, Ryan. “I’ll sit down when he gives me my paper back!”
Juliandra continues to back away and waits for the staff to separate the two men as they swing fists with no regard for poor Trevor, a newly hired employee who receives a blow to his nose while trying to intervene. Blood pours from Trevor’s nose as the three employees move the arguing pair out of the room and into separate areas of the center. Juliandra lets out a huge sigh, lowers her head, and tells the rest of the group to take a break so she can clean up the mess before continuing their discussions.
After putting on some gloves, Juliandra grabs a bottle labeled ‘bleach’ from a nearby locked cabinet, begins to spray it over the floor and starts wiping up the blood from Trevor’s nose. She mumbles, shaking her head back and forth in disappointment at the utter chaos people can cause. “Man, if every adult just blurted out what they were thinking all the time, the world would not survive a single day.”
Still working in the basement of the law office, Thomas checks the time and notices 4:30pm came fast. He realizes that he needs to work faster if he’s going to finish and still have time to lift weights before teaching two taekwondo classes later that evening. Hastily, Thomas begins to wrap things up and then makes his way to the first floor to brief the owner, Samantha Stevens, on the best practices for workstation security.
While at the center filling out paperwork for Danny Davis, who has just been admitted after an examination, Juliandra receives a call. She picks up her cell phone, sees that it’s her mother, Regina, and drops her pen before answering.
“Hi Mom, how’s your day going?” she asks.
“Juliandra, are you and Thomas coming over this weekend?”
“No, this weekend is ours. We came over last weekend for the barbeque. We’ve been planning this weekend for the past couple of months but maybe we can come over next weekend.”
“Well, you know this weekend I wanted to get my hair done and you promised to do it,” Regina replies.
“I will, Mom. I’ll do it next weekend, okay? This weekend Thomas and I are going to spend together. It’s been so long since we’ve had a quiet day all to ourselves. I hope you understand.”
“Say no more, Juliandra. I’ll just look like a fool out on my date Sunday with a nappy head of hair. I understand that your mom, who brought you into this world, and gave you everything, isn’t worth the time to help with something as trivial as a haircut.”
“Mom! Don’t try to guilt me into this! Besides, you don’t even have a date! And if you did, who is it?“
“There’s a new mechanic down at Frank’s Auto and he gave me The Eye a few times.”
“New mechanic! Are you for real right now mom? That new mechanic is Frank’s dad, and he’s just helping out Frank for a couple of weeks.”
“Well, he gave me The Eye and I know he wants me, so we’re going out Sunday.”
“Does he even know he’s going out with you? Does he even know you at all, Mom?”
“Well, he will on Sunday, when I show him what…”
Juliandra quickly interrupts. “Mom, that’s really gross, and I have to go, but I’ll see you next weekend. Okay… Bye mom…”
Back at Mainly Law, Thomas is checking his phone every minute while he waits for the owner to print out a check. Finally, he makes his way out of the building to his truck so he can travel to the YMCA where he exercises and volunteers. As soon as Thomas sits behind the wheel, his cell phone rings. Juliandra, he thinks while scrambling to find his smartphone. Where is that thing? The ring tone continues to play, until he finds it in one of the pockets of his laptop bag. A quick glance at the caller ID and he answers.
“Hey, man!” Thomas says.
“Hey, it’s David,” a voice replies.
“What’s up?”
“Oh… You know, the daily grind trying to make enough money to pay the bills.”
“I hear ya, Man, we gotta do what needs to be done. Are you guys doin’ alright?” Thomas asks.
“Yeah we’re fine, I’m just calling to give you a heads up that Ray has been drinking a lot again, and Joanne is talking about leaving him.”
“Here we go again! You know what? That’s it David. One of two things is gonna happen; either we have some kind of intervention to get Ray some help, or I’m gonna write him off. I’ve got zero tolerance for that crap nowadays.”
“I know man. I just wanted to let you know that most likely Joanne’s gonna leave him if he doesn’t stop drinking. If she leaves him, he’ll just drink more, and then his liver is shot.”
“Why do people do this?! You know, after Mom and Dad got divorced when we were kids and you got sent away to live with Dad in Maine, I was surrounded by people who drank every hour of the day, did drugs and robbed everyone. It’s shocking that I didn’t take up drinking or drugs or stealing.”
“You’re preaching to the choir, Man. I mean, I did a little drinking but never really got into it like Ray. I don’t know man, I think some people just need help to get them to relax or maybe forget about life.”
“Well, I don’t want to forget about life at all. We lost Dad to cancer, Mom died a week later from hepatitis, you almost died after falling from that roof last year, and I nearly died when I wrecked Tim’s motorcycle. Life seems pretty damn important to me.”
“Ray’s gonna be next if his drinking doesn’t stop soon. His liver can’t hold out much longer. He and Joanne are coming back from some campground Monday.”
“Perfect. We’re having an intervention with him Monday then. You and I are gonna go over there and get him some help. We need to get him enrolled in AA. There’s one in Ellsworth and we’re going whether he likes it or not. I’m sick of losing my family members.”
“Sounds like a plan to me. I’ll take off work, and we can meet at his house first thing.”
“Alright, Monday, first thing. I have a few appointments to change, but I’ll be there and, I swear, if I’ve gotta tie that man up and drag his ass to get some help, I will. Can you chat with Joanne and let her know what we’re gonna do?”
“I’ll call her right now and let her in on the plan. Just relax this weekend and try to enjoy Saturday with Juliandra. When Monday comes, we’ll get Ray to Ellsworth. I’m gonna call the AA office out there also and make sure they know we’re hopefully coming out.”
“Thanks man. Let me know if anything changes or comes up.”
“10-4, talk to ya later.”
“Alright, later.”
Thomas ends the call and tosses his phone into the passenger seat, then hits the steering wheel in anger. “What is wrong with people?!” he yells out. “Ahhh!”
After a brief pause, Thomas grabs his keys, starts the truck, and proceeds to the YMCA. Once he gets there, he goes to the locker room where he tries to quickly change before having to witness the usual immodest behavior of the naked older generation. Unfortunately, he ends up being scarred, once again, when he’s forced to watch a 70-year-old man apply medicated powder to his groin. Thomas picks up his pace and pretends not to notice the old guy, who has now asked him about a basketball game while slapping powder on his genitals, two feet from his face. He explains that he really isn’t into basketball then quickly rushes out and down a stairway leading to the weight room. After walking through the gym entrance, Thomas mumbles, “Finally!” He sees three friends who are already working out and makes his way towards them.
“What’s up, Losers?” Thomas says as he walks passed them on the way to an elliptical machine. His friend, Richard, turns towards him, flexes his right arm, and replies, “Bullet proof is what’s up, Homo. You know you want this but can’t have it!”
Thomas and his other two friends, Terry and Jeff, start laughing and carry on. A few minutes later, Thomas finds himself doing squats, grunting loudly, holding a barbell loaded with 365 pounds on his back. Terry is spotting him, spewing out his typical words of encouragement. “Come on, drive it up, Loser! My little sister could do twice this weight and not cry about it.”
One last, loud grunt and Thomas finally drives the weight upward and places the barbell onto the safety hooks. He wipes the sweat from his forehead and peers over at Richard who’s staring at himself in a mirror, flexing. Thomas goes out of his way to walk over to where Richard is standing and stops to stand right next to him. “Why don’t you just go rub one out and get it over with, Man? You love yourself way too much.”
Richard turns to Thomas. “That’s right! But I’m too sexy for just myself, so I’ve gotta share with the ladies.”
“You mean with the other guys in the sauna? Ohh! Does it hurt? Hah!”
“Only when you look at me during!”
“Well then, on that note, I will leave you alone with your fantasies, sir. Please stay out of society for a while so we all can feel safer. I have to go. See you guys tomorrow. Time for my class… Later!”
Another stop in the locker room and Thomas finds himself again shaking his head, as the older generation seems to have no problem with parading around unclothed talking about politics and money. He quickly swaps his gym shorts for the long white pants that make up the lower half of his taekwondo uniform then rushes out the door to a lower level studio where he teaches.
Meanwhile, Juliandra left the center and was on her way to Revel High School, where she works with girls through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. Today, she had a small group of five girls scheduled to play basketball and discuss teamwork. Juliandra arrived and got all the girls to circle up. Without any hesitation, she begins.
“OK, my lovely ladies, today we learn more about teamwork. I’ve got the power to take five young women to see Wyatt Keith’s next concert at the Civic Center. And I’m thinking that I want to take five girls who can work as a team.”
“Wyatt Keith!” one of the girls yells out. “Are you serious? That man’s gonna be the father of my children. Awww!! I love ‘Don’t Stop My Love,’ that’s my favorite song.”
The girl starts to sing the lyrics while swaying back and forth.
“I’m gonna make it, then break it, and get me some… I’m gonna check it, then wreck it, and have me one… It could be tonight… Yeahhhh! It could your night… Yeahhhh! Don’t! Stop my love, don’t! Stop my love…“
“Oh really,” Juliandra says, “I believe you need to meet him first, don’t ya think? So, here’s the deal ladies, you need to keep this basketball in the air for ninety seconds, like a volleyball, without letting it hit the ground. And… all of you have to be involved. None of you can hit it twice in a row. If it falls, you start over until you reach ninety seconds.”
“Ahh, that’ll be easy Mrs. Lee,” one girl says.
“No problem, let’s do this,” says another.
Juliandra immediately throws the ball in the air and yells, “Ready go!” All of the girls run towards it at the same time, smashing into each other like a terrible multi-car pileup on the highway. Juliandra laughs, tells them to work out a plan, and walks over to the bleachers to watch.
“This is where you all must collaborate as a team,” she calls out.
The girls gather together and begin to argue about the order in which they’ll hit the ball upward.
Back at the YMCA, Thomas is tying on his black belt in a basement level studio, as kids begin to fill the room, asking questions.
“When can I test for my green tip Mr. Lee?” asks a nine-year-old boy named Steven. “I want my tip so bad, and everyone else is a higher rank than me.”
Thomas looks at Steven and smiles. “It’s not about your tip or your belt; it’s about who you are, what you know, and how you act.”
“I know Mr. Lee, but I want the tip and then I want my green belt too, everyone else has theirs.”
“Soon, Steven, soon… And no, everyone else doesn’t have theirs, and those that do have them, had to earn it. Be patient and re-tie your belt the correct way because it’s not right.”
“Okay…”
“Okay?” Thomas says.
“I mean, Yes, sir…”
“Alright, let’s go and get ready to line up.”
Inside the gym over at Revel High School, five teenage girls are working hard as a team to keep a basketball in the air for ninety seconds. After failing 7 times already, it seems they may have gotten into teamwork mode on the eighth attempt and are very close to reaching a full minute. The group had finally settled on remaining in a circle pattern and swatting the ball upward and over to the person standing to their right, so that it would simply go around to each of them over and over.
Juliandra is looking at a stopwatch in her right hand while it counts up. Seventy seconds, eighty seconds and then ninety seconds go by. She just smiles, says nothing, and lets them continue. The timer reaches one hundred and twenty seconds and Juliandra can hardly contain herself while the girls keep the ball bouncing in the air. The timer reaches one hundred and eighty three seconds before the ball escapes the group and falls to the ground. All of the girls look over at Juliandra, who’s clapping her hands, and ask, “How long this time?”
Juliandra yells out, “Three minutes!! You guys got it and did it for double the time! Guess where you’re all going?”
The girls scream out with joy, jumping up and down while Juliandra gets up from the bleachers and walks towards them.
”Now, who wants to play some basketball?” she asks.
Thomas’s youth class has ended at the YMCA and now he’s part way through the Adult class, demonstrating a practical use for an exercise they did during the beginning warm-up called a ‘hip heist.’ Thomas is on the ground with a student who’s acting as an attacker that has tackled him to the floor. He explains that if you get a chance it’s possible to raise your hip with one leg and one arm then kick towards your attacker with the other leg to gain enough space to try and stand up.
Thomas raises his hip off the floor, as explained, and proceeds to push away the student with his right foot. As soon as Thomas creates some space between him and the student he quickly stands up and delivers a mock blow to the students face with his right knee. He notes afterwards that circumstances vary so much, that it’s impossible to teach exact defense for every situation, therefore, it’s up to them to practice the basics and improvise on the fly.
“Whatever you do, try not to end up on the ground in the first place; but if you do, get up as soon as you can. Now, everyone grab a partner and practice.”
8:00pm hits and Juliandra lets her group know that the game of hal
f court they’re playing will be the last for the evening. After the final shot’s made, she tells them that it’s time to get changed and head home. Before leaving the court, each girl attempts to make one last shot from the three-point line, a tradition started by Juliandra when they first started playing. Three of the five girls make it in before Juliandra steps up to take her turn. She grabs the ball, spins around with her back to the hoop and tosses the ball over her head. It goes in without hitting the rim and makes that sought after infamous swoosh sound. Juliandra turns with a surprised look on her face then bows to all the girls clapping loudly as they make their way to the locker room entrance.
Over at the YMCA, Thomas is finishing up, thinking to himself, home would be a good place to be right now. He rushes his movements and makes his way out of the building saying good night to everyone on the way. Thomas hops into his truck and rushes home to find Juliandra waiting for him on the living room couch. He plops down beside her and they both let out a big sigh.
“We made it,” Thomas says. “We made it to the weekend.”
“Thank God,” Juliandra replies. “Although, I did make an awesome shot today from the three point line. I shot without even looking and, by some miracle, the ball went in. It was awesome!”
“That was no miracle baby. That was your dad looking out for you. He knows you can’t play, so he was trying to help you out.”
“Whatever! I made that shot all by myself.”
“I know you did, and I think you could do it again, no problem. Care to bet on it?”
“No, you know I don’t bet on things. Maybe if you’re lucky and we play, I will bless you with my graceful skill; then you’ll see the miracle shot.”
“Does your brother still play or does he just mess around like at the barbeque last weekend? I’d ask him, but I don’t think he likes me much at all. In fact, he seems to hate me.”
“Brighten doesn’t hate you.”
“Yeah, he does. He acts juvenile when I‘m around and makes awful comments. It’s pretty much hatred.”
“We’ve gone over this a bunch of times Thomas. Brighten hates what you represent, not you.”
“What’s the difference? Hate is hate. And what stinks is that he sucks me in to that crap and I just make stupid comments right back.”
“Give Brighten some time to accept you; he’s a very proud person and just doesn’t like the fact that I’m married to someone who’s white.”
“It’s been four years! How much time does it take? I don’t hate him, although, he is kind of an ass all the time. I’ve tried to get him to do things with me, but he just doesn’t wanna even try.”
“Look; to him, you and I shouldn’t be; and he hates the fact that a black woman would even choose to be with a white man. That’s just how it is, and nothing but Brighten can change that. He’s gotta get over it and move on, not you.”
“Well, I wish the guy would just talk to me and see what kind of person I am, that’s all. He just makes his usual smart-ass comments and tells me how much I suck. It’s like we’re in fifth grade or something. What about your dad? Do you think your dad would’ve accepted me?”
“If my dad was alive, I think you’d be dead.”
“What?”
With a little chuckle, Juliandra says, “I’m just kidding, my father was a very forgiving person, and I believe he would’ve only shot you in the leg or something, so you wouldn’t have died.”
“Great!” Thomas blurts out while getting up to grab a drink of water. “You could be married to a gimpy white guy with a bum leg.”
“Yeah, but you know, I’d still love that poor gimpy white guy with the bum leg. I would wait for you to take your little gimpy steps while we went grocery shopping. Hey, that would actually work well I think. You could gimp around with the shopping cart while I cruised everywhere to get things. Hmmmm”
“Oh, really? Well, I guess Gimpy’s gonna have to show you what’s up.” Thomas leans over Juliandra and puts his arms around her waist, squats down, lifts her up from the couch while she giggles and screams out, “Stop Gimpy stop!”
He puts her over his right shoulder and takes her into the bedroom. As they get close to the bed Thomas leans forward, drops her onto the mattress and looks down at her. He takes a step back, reaches for the center of his shirt, and rips it open, causing several small white buttons to shoot all over the room. One bounces off the wall and another hits the nightstand before landing on the floor.
Thomas looks right at Juliandra with a smirk. “Gimpy said it’s on now!”
Juliandra bursts into laughter. “This isn’t romantic at all. It’s a comedy show.”
Thomas removes his shirt and walks over to the bathroom. “I’ll be back!” he says, just before closing the door.
Juliandra, still wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, starts to change her clothes. Suddenly, Thomas burst out of the bathroom with a serious look on his face.
“How am I so lucky to be married to you?” he says. “You accept me for who I am, and always treat me good. How is it that someone so beautiful could be with me? Do you know how much I love you?”
Juliandra’s expression changes while only part way through putting on her nightgown.
“Show me, Thomas, show me how much you love me.”
Thomas walks over and pulls her close. He reaches out to caress her left cheek, and begins to kiss her passionately.