BIG DAN & BIG DEE: LAGBAJA

There are friendships. There are relationships. And then there are those strange little arrangements between two people who swear they are “just friends” but somehow behave like two people who have forgotten to tell everybody else that they are dating. Big Dan and Big Dee may just have entered that third category. Nobody knows exactly when it started. Nobody knows who started it. And, most importantly, nobody knows what the hell it is. But something is going on. Big Dee knows things about Big Dan that people who are merely friends should probably not know. Big Dan, on the other hand, has developed the peculiar habit of explaining Big Dee even when nobody asked him to. “That's just how Dee is.” “Dee didn't mean it that way.” “You don't understand Dee.” Brother. We didn't ask for a Dee documentary. And that is where the investigation begins. Because why is Big Dan always defending Big Dee? Why does Big Dee seem to know when Big Dan is pretending to be okay? Why can she read the silence behind his words? And why does Big Dan suddenly become a philosopher whenever someone asks him what Big Dee means to him? “It is complicated.” Ah. There it is. The most dangerous sentence in human relationships. It is complicated. Complicated usually means there is a story. Sometimes it means there is love. Sometimes it means there was love. Sometimes it means two people have been dancing around the truth for so long that even the truth has become tired. And then there is the chemistry. That irritating, invisible thing. You cannot screenshot chemistry. You cannot put it on a DNA test. You cannot submit it as evidence in court. But everybody can see it. Big Dan and Big Dee have conversations that sometimes feel like two people continuing an argument that started three years ago. They tease each other. They challenge each other. They understand each other's moods. And occasionally, they say something so innocently intimate that everybody else in the room suddenly becomes a detective. “Don't worry. I know you.” Excuse me? Know him how? Know him as in “I've read your work”? Or know him as in “I've studied the man behind the madness”? Because there is a difference. A very dangerous difference. Then there is Big Dee. She doesn't exactly help the situation. She has mastered that particular feminine art of saying absolutely nothing while somehow saying everything. Ask her about Big Dan and she smiles. Ask her if something is happening and she laughs. Ask her if she likes him and suddenly she remembers she has somewhere else to be. And Big Dan? Big Dan becomes worse. He starts speaking in metaphors. Now, anybody who knows Big Dan knows that metaphors are dangerous territory. A man who says, “She's just a friend,” is one thing. A man who says, “Some people are homes you don't live in, but somehow you always find your way back to them,” is another matter entirely. Sir, we asked if she's your friend. Why are you building a cathedral? And perhaps that is the real controversy. Maybe nothing is happening. Maybe everything is happening. Maybe Big Dan and Big Dee are simply two people who found an unusual friendship in a world where most friendships are shallow. Maybe they are emotionally attached but too stubborn to give it a name. Maybe one of them caught feelings. Maybe both did. Maybe neither did. Or maybe the entire TwoCents family has simply become too nosy. Esther thinks there is something there. Faye thinks Big Dan is hiding something. John has decided he doesn't want to get involved. Which, naturally, means he is the most interested person in the entire matter. And Big Dee? Big Dee remains suspiciously calm. Big Dan remains suspiciously defensive. And everybody else is watching. Because sometimes the most interesting relationship isn't the one where two people say, “I love you.” It is the one where neither person says it... but everybody else can feel it. So, Big Dan and Big Dee What exactly is going on? Because at this point, even the village elders are asking questions.

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