Layla Morgan opened the doors to her childhood bedroom, the familiar scent of weathered wood and a faint whiff of lilac
captured her senses. The room looked just as she left it even the hole in the wall
stayed untouched with the huge stone embedded in the hole still there. Her bed lay
unmade; the green coloring was fading against the tint of her beige, white sheets. It
sat up against the wall that stood covered in pictures of boy-bands and smiling teen idols she had long forgotten.
“I figured you messed it up,” she heard her father mumbled behind her, “You clean this up.”
Layla almost laughed but instead, smiled.
Samuel Morgan was still the same – old, grumpy and just plain old.
She turned to look at her silver-haired father, who gave her a shrug. He still
wore that flannel jacket vest and his familiar camouflage, hunting hat and ragged blue jeans.
The bridge of his nose, now crooked, quickly indicated to Layla that Samuel was in a fight while she’d been gone. His tanned face was still like wrinkled leather under his customary, military-styled blonde
hair. The blue of his eyes still shone bright, mirroring Layla’s own colored
eyes.
Layla always knew she was Samuel’s daughter – it was why she opted to stay with him instead of her mother
when they got divorced.
“I’ll clean it, Dad.” Layla nodded, forcing herself not to throw her arms around him. He was never really good with touching and love – she was lucky enough to get a high-five unless it was
after one of her high school basketball games.
To Layla’s surprise, however, Samuel took Layla into his arms. It was
brief and over quickly but Layla almost cried. She blinked the tears back, choking
back the “I love you,” and just said “Glad to be home.”
“Yeah,” Samuel nodded before turning back around and heading towards the living room. “I liked you’re best-seller book, too. The recent one really
did some justice for this town, you know. I’m proud of you, turned out to be
a good kid.”
“I was always a good kid,” Layla smiled.
“With a nose for trouble, though.” Samuel said expressionless but
his voice gave way to amusement and a smile.
Layla smiled, shaking her head.
“Oh yeah,” Samuel turned back around, pointing at his daughter. “You
might wanna stop by to see that kid.”
“Kid...” Layla blinked.
“Yeah,” Samuel waved his hand as is if he’d been trying to tell her to do this for awhile. “Gary’s
kid, he’s back in town or whatever...” He kept muttering as he walked away,
waving his hand in the air.
Layla’s mind retracted into old memories she had not thought of in ages – faces, names, the river and the
stupid stone in the wall…
“She’s back in town, huh?”
Samuel looked back at his old friend, Jerry Work, before taking another swig of his beer. They sat in Paul’s Old Bar; the only bar in the small city of Gorge,
Texas which was a town so far from any city in the state that many people call
it Nowhere, Texas.
Samuel and Jerry sat in their routine stool seats, watching the Sunday Cowboys game and just talking. Jones, the bar owner, had joined in their talk as well, seeing as they were the only three in the bar at the
moment.
“Yup,” Samuel said.
Jones threw a towel over his shoulder, “She knows Gary’s boy
is back?”
Samuel nodded slowly, taking another slow sip, “told her myself.”
Jerry echoed the nod as he lowered his eyes to the bar, “I really am sorry for what happened –”
Samuel shook his head, “Don’t matter.” He looked at Jerry’s
face, eyeing the bulky, black right eye. “You always forgot I was a lefty.”
Jerry grinned, “Well, I did get to break your nose.”
Samuel chuckled, “Seems you did, huh?”
Jones watched to two men before laughing himself, “You old geezers owe me
an apology for wrecking my bar!”
Samuel and Jerry both burst into laughter, looking around at their mess. Tables
upturned with broken glass everywhere and the busted front window – the bar had been closed for a week because they
hadn’t paid yet for any of the damages.
“At least we get the bar to ourselves for a change,” his grin seemed to brighten his whole face, even the
black eye seemed to twinkle. It was then replaced with a somber look, “I am sorry,
Sam. Didn’t mean what I said.”
“I know,” Sam patted Jerry’s back.
Jones sighed, “You know, Layla was just a whole different person than Gorge was.
But, it’s a good thing.”
“Yeah,” Jerry shrugged, “She was never like the rest of us –”
“And she wasn’t so ignorant,” Jones pointed out.
“Hey, I was there. I was trying to help her,” Jerry growled, “and
I ain’t ignorant, Jo – “
Jones raised a brow and Jerry sighed, “Yeah, Jo is right. I was ignorant
and so are all these other folks in Gorge. Even if it is 2003, we still gotta work
on some stuff. Especially you old folks – us younger generation is a lot better.”
Jones turned back to Samuel, pulling out another beer from under the bar and handing it to him. “She did this town some good, ain’t no one made us look at ourselves the way she did.”
Jerry looked at Samuel, “I had no right saying that shit about Layla. I
don’t know how many times she brought me food the year Rachael died – I was just mad that she had fallen in love
with him, you know? I ain’t used to it!”
It felt like minutes before Samuel answered. “He was never a bad kid, Jerry.”
“I know…” Jerry eyes went blank, “I ain’t used to it, that’s all.”
Samuel finally smiled, “It’ll get better. You’re right, you’re
not and neither is anyone else used to it but my Layla…” He paused, “She
don’t see him like we do so we gotta do the same.”
“Even after what happened six years ago,” Jerry asked, “She still say’s she wants to stay here?”
“Like Jones said,” Samuel smiled, “My kid don’t see like we do – we gotta do the same.”
Then the three men nodded, drinking their beers as they watched the Cowboys score a touchdown.
“Just remember I broke your nose,” Jerry added.
They all burst into laughter as they cheered to a good fight and a good touchdown and to Layla.
The Dale River outstretched over
most of Gorge’s west border and also, there laid the differences from the two sides: east and west. The east side was more suburbs while the east was covered in forest with shacks and old homes.
Layla crossed the old gravel road, just as she did as a child, and entered the wooded Eastern Gorge forest. The familiar stone path lay before her and she followed it, memories filling her once again…
Little Layla hopped onto the floating log to cross the bank. Her pocket was filled with stones and bark for a cabin she wanted to build back at her house. Just as she set foot on the bank, Layla heard a boy shout.
“Hey! What are you doing here?”
Layla jumped in surprise, all her stones falling out of her pockets. “Oh, crud…” She told herself then looked around for
the voice.
“Why are you scaring me?” She shouted
out, “Jones, if that’s you! I’ll rip your apart!”
“I’m no Jones,” said a voice, “I’m Michael.”
Layla blinked when she saw a young boy and girl about her age, walk through the bush. He was tall, lean and dark-skinned with a beautiful white smile and the warmest, brown eyes
she’d ever seen. The girl was the same color with beautiful, thick hair in braids
and the same pearly, white smile.
“I’m sorry if I scared you,” Michael pointed to Layla. “I’ve
just never see a white girl on this side.” The little girl stood behind Michael,
peeking every now and then at Layla.
“White?” Layla looked down at her tanned,
browned arms, “I ain’t white! I’m brown!”
She heard the little girl laugh a little and watched the boy blink before laughing, “If
you say so but I’m pretty sure you’re considered white.”
“How old are you?” Layla said haughtily. “If I’m older, what I say goes!”
“Eleven.”
“Crud, I’m ten.” Layla growled
but then smiled, “Well, you want to play?”
“I’m ten!” The little girl shouted,
“I’m Sarah, his sister.”
Layla smiled back at the girl, waving at her.
Michael frowned, demonstrating thought as he played with the stones in his hand.
Before he could answer, Layla asked another question.
“You building a house, too?”
“What?” Michael blinked before following her gaze to his hand. “Oh, no! I’m gonna throw these stones.”
“What fun is that?”
“They’re lots of fun!” Michael
laughed, “Come on! I’ll show you!”
Layla watched Michael turn to the river and take one of the stones in his hands and throw
them across the river. To Layla’s amazement, she watched the stones skim the
waters surface, as if it were a bird flying.
“Wow! I wanna try!” Layla turned to
her pile of fallen stones and grabbed a large round stone, threw it the same way Michael did but instead, it fell straight
down.
“It didn’t work…” Layla pouted.
Michael laughed, “That’s because you gotta have a flat rock or stone. Here,” he handed over one of his to the little girl.
“Try it again.”
Layla took to it aimed and then let it fly. She
jumped in glee as she watched it fly across the river water, “Wow! Yeah, I did
it!”
Sarah laughed as well, jumping along with Layla. “Yeah!”
“Michael!”
Layla shook away her thoughts when she saw a little boy with dark skin, black hair and a pearly white smile gazing
up at her. He looked about four years-old wit bare feet, reminding Layla of someone
else…
“Michael! Where are –” A young woman burst through one of
the bushes but automatically stopped when she spotted Layla.
Layla watched the woman’s face mirror her own, transforming from confused to acknowledgement. Layla felt her heart warm as a smile crossed her face, “Sarah…”
“Layla! Oh, Layla!” The young
woman, Sarah, laughed and the two women threw their arms around each other. “I
thought I’d never see you!”
“Neither did me!” Layla hugged Sarah close, “I just got into
town when –“
Once again, someone broke through the bushes yelling for Michael again… this time it was a man. Layla’s stopped all breathing as she gazed into those warm, brown eyes that were filled with confusion.
“Hello Michael,” the blonde softly said.
“Hello Layla…” He slowly nodded towards the young boy, “I’d
like you to meet my son, Michael Jr.”
Layla smiled, turning back to Michael Jr. “Hello, Michael Jr.”
“Hello,” Michael Jr. smiled. “So you know my daddy!”
“I do. For a long time,” Layla found herself saying as she melted
back into Michael warm, brown eyes like she always did.
It was Sunday morning and Layla sat aggravated and angry in a red-cotton dress, watching
her Uncle Jerry switch out the tires. They were on their way to church when the tired
blew out from under the car and now, for over an hour; Jerry had been trying to change the tire.
“Uncle Jerry! I can move faster than you
can! Let me switch the tire!” Layla shouted
impatiently.
From the passenger side, Layla’s Aunt Rachael popped her head out the window. “She’s probably right, Jer.”
“I’m the man and I can do it!” Jerry growled before muttering curse
words at his black truck.
“You folks need help?” A white car pulled behind Jerry’s truck.
Jerry, Layla and Rachael looked at the car to see a large, black man get out from the
drivers side. On the other side, a young fourteen year-old Michael came out as well.
Layla’s face brightened, “Michael! Hey
there!” She jumped towards the boy, who gave her a winning smile. “Hey yourself, Layla.”
“Gary! Ah, you saved our Sunday!” Rachael beamed, getting out of the car.
“Hello there, Mrs. Work.” Gary smiled, nodding
his head. “My son and I thank you for that pie last week!”
“You’re welcome and it’s Rachael,” Rachael pointed out. “I ain’t that old!”
Jerry sighed, standing up to shake Gary’s hand.
“I’m so glad to see you!”
“You know young Miss Morgan could’ve done this in a minute,”
Gary said before starting on the wheel.
Rachael laughed as Jerry mumbled something about men needed to be men.
Layla and Michael sat back on the hood of his white car when Layla asked Michael something. “Like the dress?”
Michael grinned, “First time I’d seen you in one.”
Layla rolled her eyes, “Yeah, Rachael is trying to make me a lady. I told her it was nineties and girls wear pants now but then she attacked me and strapped this crappy dress on
me.”
Michael smiled, “Well, I think you look you really pretty.”
Layla blushed, lowering her eyes to the ground. “Shut-up…”
After a few minutes (adding another five for Gary to explain the basics of changing a tire),
Layla and her Uncle and Aunt were on their way. As Jerry was mumbling to himself about
stupid tires, Rachael turned towards her niece.
“I didn’t know you and Michael knew each other!”
“Yeah,” Layla shrugged, “We always hang out after school and stuff.”
“It seems you have a little crush on him –”
“Ew! No!
He’s like a brother to me!” Layla shouted out.
Jerry turned to Rachael, “What the hell are you two talking about?”
Rachael gave Layla wink. “It’s nothing – just girl business.”
Layla blushed and quickly looked away.
Layla sat across from Michael and his son, Michael Jr. They sat in the small
kitchen of Sarah’s home while Sarah cooked in the kitchen. They sat in silence
as Michael Jr. told Layla about his day at school when they heard Sarah call for Junior to her.
Layla and Michael finally found themselves alone but neither knew what to say. “He’s
beautiful,” Layla smiled, gesturing towards the singing child in the kitchen.
“Thank you,” Michael smiled, “He’s a lot like his mother.”
“Is she here?”
“No, we separated a long time ago.” Michael sighed softly, “Just
differences.”
“Oh.” The young woman gave a sympathetic look, “I’m
sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Michael smiled, “She wasn’t the motherly type.”
They sat in another fit of silence before finally, Michael said, “Heard you’re an author, huh?”
“Yeah,” Layla smiled. “I’m an okay writer.”
“Number one in the best-sellers for two weeks,” Michael shook his head, “Doubt that.”
Layla’s heart skipped a beat, “So you read it…”
“Yup...”
Layla nodded, hopping he would say more but he didn’t. Instead, Michael
looked away, up at a photo on the wall.
Layla turned to look at what he was staring at and her heart broke when she spotted a picture of Gary. She couldn’t take it so she stood up, “I’ve got to go…”
Confused, Michael stood up as well. “What – Layla! Layla!”
Layla was out the door before he could stop her.
“Layla! Get out of there! Come on!”
Fifteen year-old Layla ran through the forest as she heard men yelling around her. She just kept running towards the sound of her father’s voice.
“Where’d he go?” One of them shouted angrily causing Layla to run even faster.
Up ahead, Layla could see the back of his bare feet, running just as fast as she, towards
her father’s voice. Her old, denim overall were ripped to shreds from the branches
she ran through and her shoes were lost somewhere behind her.
“Layla!” Her father kept
yelling, “Michael! Michael! Michael…”
Layla felt arms grasp around her but was relieved to see it was just her Uncle Jerry. “I’m so glad to see you!” She wrapped
her arms around him until Jerry pulled her away.
“Layla, you okay?” He asked.
“Yes! I don’t know what’s going
on but some men are after Michael –”
Jerry’s eyes were dark and circled, been that way since Rachael died a year ago. His eyes focused dead center on Layla, “Did he touch you, Layla?”
“What?” The confused blonde blinked,
“Uncle Jerry, what are you talking about?”
“Did he hurt you, Layla? Did he force himself
on you?”
“Uncle Jerry! What the hell are you –”
“Layla! What did he do?” Jerry was now yelling and Layla was in a fit of tears.
“He didn’t do anything! We were talking
and I kissed him and someone saw and now all these people are chasing after us, yelling for Michael!”
“Baby girl,” Jerry growled, “He ain’t the kind to kiss. He is not you’re kind! Don’t tell
anyone you kiss him, understand?”
“No!” Layla cried, breaking from her
Uncle’s grasp. “I don’t understand what is going on! I just kissed him, that’s all!”
“That ain’t your kind!” Jerry
shouted even louder and angrier. “I can’t help him anyways! Let’s get going!”
“Aunt Rachael never told me this! She said
Michael was a fine boy! That it was good to have feelings for such a good and smart
young man!”
“Do you see Rachael here? Huh?” Jerry shouted, “She didn’t know what she was talking about! She said she was fine and then she died! You think she’s right about
this, too?”
Layla kept crying as she turned and ran away, her Uncle shouting for her to come back. She kept going until she fell into a clearing to see a group of shouting white men with
flashlights beating and kicking Gary who lay frigid on the ground.
“Tell your fucking nigger son to stay away from our girls!” Shouted one as others shouted the same kinds of hateful words, a few of them were still
kicking Gary.
“Noooo!” Layla shouted, running towards
the heated crowd until someone grabbed her once again.
“Stop it, Uncle Jerry!” The young girl
shouted but found herself looking at blue eyes like her own.
“No, Layla, it’s me.” Samuel
whispered.
“Dad, I kissed him! Michael didn’t
do anything! I swear it! There ain’t anything
wrong with it! I love him, Dad, I love him!”
Layla couldn’t control her sobs as they hid in the brush, her arms clinging to Samuel as she tried to hide the
ugliness her “people” had just shown her.
“Layla…” Samuel whispered, “Remember
this as something to learn… you’re right.”
Layla opened her eyes, despite the stinging of her tears, to gaze confusedly at her father. “You are absolutely right, there ain’t nothing wrong and you’d better
remember that for the rest of your life. You hear me?”
Layla just nodded her head and kissed her father’s cheek before being signaled to
stand to the side.
“Michael’s in the brush, go tend to him… I’ll be back.”
“Dad! Don’t go out there –”
Samuel just eyed Layla, quietly hushing her before walking out onto the clearing.
Layla turned around, walking back into the woods until she found Michael sitting with
Sarah, next to the Dale riverbank.
No words were exchanged or looks except for Sarah’s small smile to Layla as she
kneeled down next to them. They both watched the river move and trickle under the moon
as the woods echoed with sirens, yelling men and Samuel’s voice telling the men to stop…
The next day, Gary died in the ICU. The following month was a nonstop
media frenzy that fell upon Gorge, a huge courtroom battle was aired on TV with seven convictions to seven men of the twenty
men Layla, Michael and Samuel were able to identify. Layla wanted so much talk to Michael
but the word around town was that he had left – even Sarah couldn’t confirm to Layla were he had gone off to. The same day, someone threw a stone threw the window of her room causing Layla to go and
live with her mother in Florida, and to move away from Gorge, Texas and the incident and Michael…
That was six years ago and now Layla stood on the same riverbank that she had met Michael at, gazing out at the river
that had brought her the greatest thing she’d ever known and also the hardest, meanest memories of her life.
“I read the book and my first thought was that you were trying to cash in on my fathers death.”
Layla turned around to see Michael standing in front of her.
“Never,” Layla whispered. “I –“
Michael held up and hand, “No, I knew it was silly to think that, I know. I
knew it after I read it and I realized what you really felt.”
Water seeped from her eyes, “I’m glad.”
Standing together, side-bye-side, Michael then handed Layla a flat stone.
“I’ve always felt the same, too, ever since I taught you how to skip rocks off this river” Michael
whispered. He then began to laugh as she burst into tears of joy, wrapping her arms
around him.
“Oh… Michael” She laughed, kissing him with everything she had.
Once they separated, they heard a shout from behind them.
“Layla, you in there?” Samuel’s voice boomed through the air.
“Yeah, Dad, I’m hear with Michael.”
“Then bring that darn kid with you so we can go eat! Damn it, girly, you
always do this! Hurry up, I’m hungry…” His muttering caused both Michael and Layla to smile, “Damn kids… always getting into trouble. Damn kid better marry my kid so they’d
shut the hell up and get me some damn nephews… girls are too much to handle, damn kids…”
They then turned to leave, hands intertwined, they followed the stones they used to skip
as children and it led them towards the outside. Layla smiled as she gazed happily at Michael and laughed at how ironic that
these wonderful stones also told her life story. She laughed to herself as she thought about how strange that it would also
lead her to a new beginning. Before the reached the outside of the woods, Michael turned back to Layla "Ready?"
"Since the day we skipped stones," Layla smiled back at Michael and then stepped into their new beginning,
a new stepping stone to a new life - and love.
The End
