Gym Strength and Intimate Spells: Cyril and Liora's African Love Affair

“I can tell you have a lot of potential,” the old man said.

I hated when people told me that. It wasn’t something I was particularly interested in hearing.

“Yes, yes, thank you. So, my friends and I are going to go to the beach tomorrow night, if it’s okay with you?”

The man nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yes, of course! We never put any restrictions on our guests. You can go anywhere you like as long as it is safe.” He looked down at his training schedule and then back up at me. “You will be staying for another week?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I was thinking about going home after this week but I don’t think I can make it out of bed tomorrow morning so…yeah, yeah probably just gonna stay here for another week.” The man laughed and handed me my schedule for the next day. “Thanks man, see ya tomorrow!” He waved goodbye to me as I turned and walked away from him towards my hut.

* * *

My friends were all sitting outside their huts when I arrived. They greeted me happily as I plopped down on the grass next to them and leaned against a tree trunk.

“Hey guys! How was your day?” I asked them in a cheerful voice.

They all groaned in response except for James who laughed and said, “Cyril had an awesome day! He successfully made it through a whole week without being hospitalized!” Everyone else looked annoyed at this statement but James continued laughing until they joined in with him. I scowled playfully at him and he quickly apologized before finally calming down enough to speak again. “So what happened today? What did that weird guy tell you today? What did he say about your potential? Because you know he doesn’t mean anything by it because you don’t have any potential! You are just naturally muscular!” He finished by pushing his thumb into my bicep for emphasis and everyone laughed again except for me; I couldn’t help but smile though because deep down he was right about everything he said.

I sighed as I rolled my eyes at him; it was true that I didn't exactly have much muscle potential but whenever anyone called me out on it, like James did now, they didn't really know how bad things really were between my mom and dad growing up or why they got divorced back when I was 15 (that's why I'm still 20). My dad always complained that we didn't have enough money to afford food sometimes so he used to take pills to increase his strength so he could work harder and provide more food; but then one day he got caught stealing pills from a pharmacy and went to jail for 6 months (which is why he's in prison now).

When he left us, he took most of my mom's money too, so she had to get two jobs while trying to raise us kids herself. She ended up eating whatever extra food she could find in the garbage cans behind grocery stores during her breaks which caused her to gain weight and made her moody all the time; especially towards me because she wanted me to be strong like my dad. Instead of taking pills, I decided to work out, which made her even angrier because she wanted me to use drugs like my dad did (so she wouldn't be fat anymore), but since she couldn't afford them anymore, she attempted self-harm every other weekend (which is why she's in the hospital now).

* * *

As I shared my story, my friends stared at me with sad expressions on their faces, but no one tried to argue otherwise because they knew they couldn't understand what it felt like until it actually happened to them. They let me finish talking before making any jokes or asking questions that might annoy all of us even more. We sat quietly, watching the sunset together until it was time for dinner, where we all ate our vegetables before going back to our huts. Everyone went straight to sleep, except for James, who stayed up with me until 3 am talking about my childhood. We both fell asleep on opposite ends of his bed and woke up early the next morning, grateful that there were people who cared enough to listen when someone needed to talk.

The days at the fitness camp passed on a routine of eating together, working out, and supporting each other as needed. The experience made us realize that life could be beautiful if we opened our eyes wide enough and appreciated everything right in our lives, despite the hardships we may have faced.