| By Romila BoodramBritney Daniels was one of those little girls who dreamt of their prince charming coming to rescue them on his white horse-or more appropriately, in a Prado.Britney and KevinBut for her, prince charming did not appear on a horse or in a car-he fell through the roof of a Chinese restaurant.Britney is a beautiful 21-year-old girl who is admired by many, but like most typical Indian girls, she was not allowed to explore the world beyond the grocery store next door to her grandmother’s Canal, West Bank Demerara home.Britney and I have been friends since nursery school. She is the only child for her now deceased parents and very much spoilt. She was very troublesome and still is. She once ‘cuffed’ one of our classmates in nursery school,Brock McGinn Jersey, splitting his lip.When she was confronted by the teacher for her action, her excuse was that she suffered from Multiple Personality Disorder. She was pardoned.In 2002, when she was 10-years-old, her life took a turn for the worse. Her parents, who had gone to Suriname to celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary died in a car accident.Britney was forced to move from her four bedroom home at Supply, East Bank Demerara, to her grandmother’s one bedroom apartment at Canal.“Life there wasn’t easy at all. I had no friends. My grandmother had to work to support me and my 16-year-old cousin. She (my cousin) never used to talk to me because I was spoilt and I didn’t know how to do chores… so my grandma made her do everything,” Britney related.She recounted that there was a mortgage on her parents’ home at Supply and it was repossessed a few months after they passed away.“As a child I never liked living in Canal and at one time I used to hate my grandma. I hated her so much that whenever she was asleep I used to open the gate and chase away the ducks and chickens that she reared. One time I even poured bleach into her milk and my cousin would always be blamed for my actions.”When Britney was 19, she went to Corentyne Berbice to spend some time with her father’s sister, Indranie. It was there she met her prince charming in the strangest of circumstances.“This is funny. Although I was so old I had never gone into a Chinese restaurant before and my two cousins used that against me to play a prank and sent me to buy fried fish and rice. So there I was at the counter of a Chinese restaurant, ordering two servings of fried fish and rice.”“The owner of the restaurant looked at me and asked me to have a seat while he fried the fish, (he thought I was making a fool out of him so he probably decided to make a bigger fool out of me). The restaurant was extremely old and as I was about to take a seat, an old guy jokingly advised me that I would be safer outside the restaurant than within. The owner chased him out, telling him he was drunk.”Britney related that she called out for the owner to ask how long she had to wait.“He was about to reply and then suddenly I heard someone giggling and then I heard a loud bang, and a part of the old roof came tumbling down along with a man,” Britney smilingly recalls.Six men rushed into the restaurant to rescue the man squirming on the floor.“The roof wasn’t that high, and when he came tumbling down, he grabbed onto a bar on the window and then fell on the wooden flooring so he didn’t suffer from any severe injury,” she explained.“When I saw those men running in, I hid under a table and peeked. I found out later that the one who fell was a detective. His name is Kevin and he is now my boyfriend”“Apparently, the officers were staking out a business place two houses away from the restaurant. The owner of the restaurant had warned Kevin about the roof but I guess when he heard someone ordering fried fish from a Chinese restaurant, he had to peek,” Britney giggled.Kevin cheerfully related to Kaieteur News the turn of events leading up to his now ‘infamous fall.’ “I was on the roof in the hot sun just praying for the day to be over and then I heard someone ordering fried fish and rice. That was just funny. I had to see who it was and as soon as I tried to stretch my body to peek through a hole, I heard a sound and then ‘bang,’ there I was on the floor.”“I wanted to play brave and when my ‘squaddie’ run in, I was trying to signal them that there was a girl under the table but they were like, ‘is suh when yuh like play hero. You want play Jackie Chan. Ah tell you to leh me go there, yuh chicken.”“I was so embarrassed… and the worst part was when I tried to get on my feet, I fell down and one of the boys grabbed me and I was literally in his hands, like a baby in its mother’s hand.” Kevin said after a hearty laugh.On Christmas morning, four days after the incident, Britney was helping her aunt in the kitchen when she met Kevin again.“We were making chicken pie and someone was shouting at the front of the house for one of my cousins. so my aunt asked me to check who it was.”Britney posited that as soon as she opened the door, she was greeted by Kevin, who she still playfully calls “the roof man” whenever he gives her a hard time.“There he was standing next to the flower pot with two boxes in his hand, telling me, “the Chinese man just done cook the fried fish and rice” I was laughing and blushing at the same time. Apparently, Kevin and my older cousin were friends and when I told her about the incident, she suspected it was him and had called to confirm.”Kevin spent that Christmas with Britney and her family.“It was a lovely day. We talked, we made jokes and they teased me a lot but I didn’t mind at all. That day was a blessing for me. From that day, to now, I haven’t spent a day without talking to her,” Kevin said.Today, at 11:00hrs Kevin will ask Britney for her hand in marriage.Good luck guys…. |
