Original Date: 5-8-97

About a month later, I spent another weekend over Kourtnee's house. This weekend was going to be very different than the other weekend I had spent with her.

I packed my bag for the weekend. I was going to spend Thursday night through Sunday afternoon with Kourtnee. Friday was Teacher Prep day at my school. The teachers completed report cards on that day. I was really wondering how I was going to spend all day Friday with Kourtnee when she had to work, but she had that all figured out.

Kourtnee has a housekeeper. Her name is Mrs. Ramona Jean Jackson. She wasn't at the house the weekend before because she was visiting her family in Hardaway. This weekend, Mrs. Jackson, was at the house.

I ran into the house excited to get to "MY ROOM". As I ran into the house, I bumped into Mrs. Jackson. She looked at me and said, "Girl, slow down. Where are you going in such a hurry?" I looked surprise because I didn't expect to see anyone else in the house. I just stared at Mrs. Jackson. She gave me a hug. I didn't hug her back because I didn't know who she was. When she turned me loose, I ran back out into the garage and said, "Kourtnee, some lady just hugged me. Who is she?" Mrs. Jackson was standing behind me. She looked at Kourtnee and said, "Kourtnee, you didn't tell her who I was?" Kourtnee said, "No, mame. I forgot." Mrs. Jackson mumbled, "Lord, have mercy," as she went over to the car and took Kourtnee's briefcase from her.

Kourtnee started telling Mrs. Jackson about her day and how things had gone. I felt like I was intruding, so I walked into the house and went up to my room. I put my stuff down and went into the study and was looking at the book on the bookshelves when I heard two voices screaming my name. I went to the banister and yelled down, "I am up here." Kourtnee looked up and saw me. She had a look of horror on her face. She yelled at me, "Girl, quit leaning over that banister like that before you fall!" She had such urgency in her voice that I backed up. A few seconds later, I came running down the stairs. Kourtnee saw me running down the stairs, she looked nervous and said, "Stop running down the stairs before you fall." I stopped mid stride. Mrs. Jackson laughed and said, "Kourtnee, quit worrying about that child. She's alright." Mrs. Jackson walked over to me and said, "Hi, I am Mrs. Ramona Jackson. I am Kourtnee's housekeeper and cook." I said, "Hi, I am LaDawnya." Kourtnee looked at both of us. She still looked a little nervous. Before I knew what had happened, I burst out laughing. Mrs. Jackson turned around and looked at Kourtnee. She started laughing, too. Kourtnee walked off annoyed and said, "I don't see anything funny." Mrs. Jackson wrapped her arm around my shoulder and asked, "Sweetie, do you want some cookies?" I smiled and said, "Yes, mame." With that, I walked into the kitchen to a plate of the best chocolate chip cookies I had ever tasted.

Mrs. Jackson had been Kourtnee's nanny when Kourtnee was smaller. When Kourtnee grew older, Mrs. Jackson became her housekeeper and cook. Mrs. Jackson had taken care of Kourtnee all of her life. I looked at Mrs. Jackson as she cleaned the spotless kitchen and talked. She was amazing. She was athletically fit. She told me that she believes in staying in shape. She was an athlete when she was in school. She looked years younger than she really was. Her eyes kept changing colors every time the light hit them. From what I had seen of her, she was a very warm and loving person. She was very easy to talk to. She was able to get me to talk about myself. I didn't do that too often; especially with people I had just met. She had a calming voice. She was very motherly and full of wisdom. We had been in the kitchen for almost 30 minutes.

Kourtnee walked into the kitchen. She saw me eating cookies. She made a long sad face, glanced at Mrs. Jackson and said, "I don't get any cookies." Mrs. Jackson smiled and fixed Kourtnee a plate of cookies and a glass of milk. Mrs. Jackson hugged Kourtnee when she placed the plate in front of her. "You are so jealous." Kourtnee smiled and gobbled up the cookie.

Kourtnee ate her cookies quicker than I had eaten mine. She was about to go get another cookie from the cookie jar when Mrs. Jackson popped her on her hands and told her to wait until after dinner. I laid my head down on the counter and laughed. Kourtnee retorted, "You think everything is funny." Mrs. Jackson came to my rescue, "Kourtnee, leave that child alone. Go over there and sit down." Kourtnee came and sat down. She tapped me on my nose as she asked me, "What do you want for dinner?" I was about to speak when Mrs. Jackson said, "She can't come in here making requests. We are having pork chops, macaroni and cheese, and green beans for dinner." I almost screamed. That was my favorite meal in the whole world. Mrs. Jackson finished, "We are having strawberry cake for dessert." I screamed excitedly, "Are you serious?" Kourtnee looked at me, winked, and smiled, "Yep. I heard that those were your favorites." I grabbed Kourtnee so tight around her neck that it knocked her off balance. I apologized and she said, "It's ok." Mrs. Jackson gave Kourtnee a little push. "All this love is wonderful, but ya'll need to get out of my kitchen if you all want to eat tonight." As Kourtnee and I walked out of the kitchen, she said, "Mona has this thing about people being in the kitchen while she is cooking or cleaning. She thinks someone is going to steal her secrets." "I heard that!" Mrs. Jackson resounded from the kitchen.

About Ms. Shields

I spent the first part of Friday with Kourtnee's mother, Ms. Anna Adams-Shields. Mrs. Shields was a 50ish year-old lady that had a fullness of life. She was strong black woman with an attitude to match. Her smile gleamed like she had just stepped out of a dentist office. She knew how to dress. The royal blue suit she wore showed her nicely kept figure and made her look even younger than she already was. When she spoke, there was an authority in her voice that caused the people around her to obey.

She looked me up and down, and then she smiled at me and began talking 70 miles an hour. She spouted out orders to the staff working in her office in between carrying on a conversation with me. Ms. Shields was the director of the Adams-Shield Foundation. She founded the foundation in 1984 after her son Thomas Shields, II and her husband Thomas Shields died in a car accident. The foundation did a lot of charity work, including giving out scholarships and grants to high school and college students, establishing after school education programs in Dorinda, and a host of other things.

She worked a little while, and then we went to lunch. We ate lunch at Café Pessels, a quaint upper echelon café near her office. When Ms. Shields walked in the café, all eyes were on her. Everyone was speaking to her as the hostess led us to our table. There were a lot of famous people at the café. The mayor of Absanie (a neighboring city) was even there.

We sat down as our waiter brought two glasses of water to the table. The mayor of Absanie walked over to the table and kissed Ms. Shields' hand. He just kind of looked at me out of the corner of his eyes. He pulled a chair over to the table and began talking to Ms. Adams-Shields. He just ignored me. Ms. Shields interrupted the Mayor and introduced me. He just smiled and then went back to talking to Ms. Shields. She politely asked him to leave our table after about five minutes because she wanted to spend some time with me. He got agitated and walked off. Ms. Shields smiled, "That's that. Do you know what you want to order yet?" I replied, "No Ma'am. Can I ask you something?" She said, "Yes, what?" I paused for a moment and then I asked, "Why does Kourtnee go by Adams instead of Shields?" Ms. Shields looked and me and smirked, "You would want to ask me that. Have you asked Kourtnee?" "No Ma'am, I haven't. Do you want me to ask Kourtnee?" I answered. She said, "No, not particularly. I was just wondering why you haven't asked her."

She stopped talking as the waiter stopped by the table to take our orders. Ms. Shields ordered a watercress turkey sandwich and I ordered a ham sandwich. After our waiter left, I asked, "Are you going to answer my question?" Ms. Shields looked off to say hi to someone and then she said, "Why don't you ask Kourtnee when you see her." I shrugged my shoulders and mumbled, "Uhh huh." We talked through out the meal. Actually, Ms. Shields talked, I mostly listened. In between, people kept coming to the table talking to Ms. Shields. She had to know everybody who was anybody in the city of Dorinda. I didn't think that her foundation would ever run out of money because people kept promising to send a check to the foundation. When we were getting ready to leave, I asked Ms. Shields if she would drop me off at Shimmers, Inc. and she did.

At the Shimmers Plant

I finally got to see where Kourtnee worked, at Shimmers Incorporated. The land that Shimmers sat on was called the Shimmers' Complex. There was an office building, the production plant, a fitness center, and a gift shop. There was also a building where the day care facilities and classrooms were housed. This section of the complex included a playground. The plant was pretty big.

The Shimmers office building had 12 floors. The first floor housed the reception area. The reception area had places to sit, several telephones, and rest rooms. Kourtnee worked on the 7th floor. This was where some the offices were. There were several offices on this floor. One office belonged to Kourtnee. Another office belonged to the vice-president, whose name was Felton Price. The rest of the offices belonged to the other VPs of the company and their secretaries.

The Shimmers production plant sat towards the back of the Shimmers' Office Building. The plant was huge. The plant contained a production department, a product testing department, and a research and development department. The plant also contained an employee lounge that had vending machines, couches, and video game machines.

Some of the products that the Shimmers plant produced are hair relaxing kits and a curl relaxer kit. Shimmers also produce the products that helped to maintain these relaxers. Shimmers also produces shampoos, conditioners, and other hair care products, such as hair grease, wave gel, and combs and hairbrushes, as well as bath, body, and skin products.

Kourtnee took me on a tour. Everyone treated me as if I was a regular tourist. I received sample products. The sample included a small bottle of shampoo and conditioner, a comb, a small package of wave gel, lotion, and bubble bath.

After the tour, Kourtnee and I went back to her office. When we entered Kourtnee's office, Paula was sitting at a desk. She said hi and handed Kourtnee a bunch of papers, memos, and other stuff like that. Felton Price walked in the office and started talking to Kourtnee. Paula talked to me while I was waiting for Kourtnee to get through. Finally through talking, Kourtnee and I went through a door and there was Kourtnee's desk and other office equipment.

Kourtnee had a large marble and glass desk in her office. She had plants, paintings, and other things decorating her office. She also had a computer in her office on a table next to her desk. She told me to sit down and she picked up the phone, dialed a number, and began to talk. I sat down in a chair near the computer because I wanted to play with it. After a few minutes, I asked Kourtnee could I play with the computer. She said, "Yes." That was all I needed to hear.

I turned the computer on. It was a Packard Bell®. It had a hard drive and an internal and external disk drive. The printer was a laser printer. When the menu came up, there were a lot of programs on the screen. The computer also had Microsoft Office® on it. This is a word processor, spreadsheet, and database program, among other things. There was also some other business programs on the computer that I didn't know anything about. For about fifteen minutes, I played with the computer.

When Kourtnee finally got off the phone, we talked for a little while. She told me that any time I needed some Shimmers products to tell her and she would get them for me. I had to explain to her that I didn't use the products at the orphanage.

I told her that I had used Shimmers products at the orphanage like everyone else. After awhile, my skin began to get dry around my hairline and a rash would develop. No one could figure it out. After about two months, I went to the doctor. He suggested that I change hair care products. After that, I never used Shimmers products again. "What do you use?" Kourtnee asked. I told her the name of the product I used and she could have fainted. Then she said, "Don't tell my grandparents what you use!" We both laughed.

She asked me if I knew what I was allergic to in the product. I told her that I didn't know. She said that we should try to find out because other people could be allergic to the same thing.

Kourtnee asked me if I wanted to go to the mall. I asked, "For what?" She replied, "To go." I said, "Okay." I asked her if she could just leave her office on a workday. She said, "Yes. I can. I'm the boss. Who's gonna tell me, I can't go?"

We left the office building. When we got to the parking lot, a guy stopped her. He said he needed to talk to her. We stopped and Kourtnee talked to the guy. After a few seconds, Kourtnee handed me the keys to her car and told me to go get in the car. I walked slowly to the car ALL BY MYSELF. When I got to the car, I got in and looked at Kourtnee talking to the guy. I was actually jealous. I really hated being pushed aside like that, but I was on Kourtnee's time, so I just over looked it for the moment.

Kourtnee finally came to the car. She got in and we left the parking lot. She put a CD in the CD player. A song began to play. It was the worse song I had ever heard. I asked Kourtnee if we had to listen to that song. She said, "You don't like the song." I said, "No!" She told me to put the CD I wanted to hear in the CD player. I looked through the CDs that were in the CD case. I chose the CD by the group Double D-OJ. I put the CD in the CD player. I fast-forwarded the CD until I got to the song entitled "Tell My Heart." Kourtnee laughed as the bass line of the song filled the car. We rode down the street singing as the CD played.

At Falcon Mall

When we got to the mall, we walked around the mall for awhile. We looked in stores that contained all kinds of stuff. The stuff ranged from shoes, clothing, hats, socks, containers, books, to pets. We went and took some pictures at a photography shop. We took about four different pictures. After we finished at the photography shop, we went and ate lunch. (I didn't tell Kourtnee that I had eaten with Ms. Shields. Kourtnee never asked, so I never told.)

After we ate lunch, we walked around the mall for a little while longer. We went into a pet shop, a bookstore, and a container store. After some begging, we went into a record store and looked around. She bought me a couple of CDs. After we left the record store, we walked around for a little while longer. Kourtnee's pager went off. She used her cellular phone to call the person who had paged her. She told me that she had an emergency at the plant. We left the mall to go back to her office.

Back at the Shimmer's Plant

When we got back to the plant it seemed as if all hades had broken loose. Before Kourtnee even got in the building good, people were rushing to her. Some guy pushed me aside and rushed to Kourtnee. I became a blur in the mist of all the chaos. I moved aside and sat down on one of the couches in the reception area. I felt abandoned.

I walked around the first floor of the office building. While I was walking around, the security guard stopped and said, "Young lady, where do you think you are going?" I stopped and looked at him. His name was Brugeon Roberts. Brug (as he is known) had a rugged good look. He looked good with his baldhead. His dark smooth skin made him very attractive. I believe that women often flirted with him. His trimmed mustache and goatee were in tact because he probably goes to the barbershop every Saturday. He had a grimace on his face. I bet he never smiled. He was very well built and muscular. Most likely, he worked out all the time.

I came back to reality when he told me, "You are going to need a visitor's pass." I wrote my name on a visitor's pass and took it from Brug. I smiled at him and then went to tour the building on my own.

I went outside to the production plant offices. I liked chemistry, so I decided to go see if I could see any experiments being done. I didn't see any experiments, but I met the head of the Research and Development department. His name was Colt Austin. He saw me walking down the hallway. He stopped me and said, "Shouldn't you be in one of the classrooms?" I told him no. He asked me who I was and what I was doing at the plant. I told him who I was and that I was with Kourtnee. He stared at me with this look like he knew a secret about Kourtnee. I started asking him a bunch of questions. He stopped me and said, "Girl, quit asking all those questions. It is not my job to be a tour guide." I gave him a sad look and he said, "Alright, I will give you a tour." I smiled. He just shook his head and whispered, "Women, ya'll are trouble at any age." He told me that he received his Bachelor's of Science Degree in Chemistry from Berkshire University. He received his Master of Science Degree in Chemistry from Caffco University. I gazed at him and said, "Caffco University." He said, "Yes, I went to school with Kourtnee." He stared at me with that look again. I had a sneaky suspicion that Kourtnee and Colt had dated at one time.

I couldn't blame Kourtnee if she had dated Colt. GQ is the only way to describe Colt. He had been blessed with smooth skin; his clean-cut features made him a handsome man. He was suave and debonair. He had to be every woman's dream. He had a very nice smile and the whitest teeth that would make any dentist proud. He had the longest and prettiest eyelashes that you will ever see.

He caught me staring at him and said, "I have a couple of pictures in my office. I will give you one if you want me to." I smiled and blushed. After we finished the tour of the plant, we went back to his office. He asked, "Does Kourtnee know where you are?" I told him no. He gave me this fatherly look and said, "Go up to her office so she won't be worried about you." I walked out of his office and started for the office building.

I was hard-headed and did not do like Colt had told me to. I went to every floor of the building. Everything was okay except for on the Information System floor. I stepped off the elevator and was met by a security officer. This officer was not as nice as Brug. He was very rude. I forgot my manners and got mad at him because he was talking to me like I was five years old. I told him who I was, but that didn't even matter. He rudely told me to leave the floor or he would throw me off the floor. I left and went directly to Kourtnee's office.

I went up to Kourtnee's office, but she didn't pay much attention to me. She told me that she couldn't talk to me because she had to go to a meeting. She told me that I could go to the employee lounge until she got through.

I went to the employee lounge and played around for awhile. Paula came down to the employee lounge to check on me during her break. Paula told me that she had gotten a phone call from the Information Systems' security guard. I looked at her and expected the worse. Paula talked to me for a few minutes. I felt horrible after she finished talking to me. She told me that I had to tell Kourtnee. I was dreading doing that. After about fifteen minutes, she looked at her watch and said that her break was over. We walked back to Kourtnee's office. When I got to Kourtnee's office, I told Kourtnee what had happened. She told me not to go walking around the building unaccompanied. I promised her that I wouldn't.

Kourtnee worked at her desk for about 15 minutes. She left the office to go talk to someone. She came back after about 5 minutes. A few minutes later, Colt walked into Kourtnee's office. I blushed when I saw him. Kourtnee looked up and saw him. She blushed too. I smiled and knew that they had dated at one time. Colt started talking to Kourtnee as if he had never met me. He looked at me a couple of times and winked. He asked Kourtnee, "Who's your friend?" She looked at me and introduced me. Colt responded, "Oh, we have met. She made me give her a tour of the plant. I couldn't resist." Kourtnee looked at me and grimaced. I shrugged my shoulders. Colt helped me out a little, "Don't get mad at her. I wasn't busy. Plus she helped me out with a formula that I had been working on." He smiled and said bye to both of us. Kourtnee turned around and looked at me. I put my head down and hoped that she couldn't tell what I was thinking about. I don't think that she could tell what I was thinking. I had another question to add to my list of questions for Kourtnee.

It was finally time to leave. After we left the Shimmers complex for the day, Kourtnee and I ate dinner at a restaurant. When we got home, Kourtnee and I watched television for a couple of hours and then we went to bed.