The Decks and the Road
book 1- Freeborn
Chapter 1
Nathan- My father was a serious man. He never appeared to fully relax. His eyes always seemed to be following the
movements, actions, and even the thoughts of the people around him. I got the feeling that he hadn’t achieved all
that he’d thought of achieving in his life.
Yet, he stood so tall. He held
our family up with a tight grip, and my brother and I were never really more
than an arm’s length away. In the
evenings, we sat around the table waiting for him to pour out his wisdom. My mother never sat around though. Perhaps she’d already heard all he had to
say. I remembered a lot of what he said,
but I hadn’t quite found the opportunity to share any of it. My family looked somewhat like ours did back
then, but there were secrets that seemed to keep us from gathering. I mostly just kept my head down, and saw to
it that we had everything we needed. I
had managed to keep the business my father handed down to me afloat. Actually, I had done a little better than
that. The shop and the family name
remained well respected in our community.
Everyone it seemed knew who we were, and just the same, I assumed they
knew our lies. It made me quiet, and a
lot serious; like my father I guess.
The most notable thing I could
remember my father telling me, was not to give away the family name to just any
woman, and so I didn’t. I tried to honor
her despite; still I could see her hurt.
But I was also hurt, and although she didn’t know it, I knew it. I’d lost my father’s approval on account of
my love for her, and I still loved her, but these days, someone else had caught
my attention. Yet, that was all I could
afford. I would only take glimpses at
her when she came into the shop, but I was never the one to assist her. I made sure of it. That was one of the things I’d gotten from my
father. It was one of the non-verbal
wisdoms I’d freely taken. Yeah it was
all around him; wisdom. It came from his
pores, and even the guys in the shop always wanted to be around him. Whatever he was working on, he never had to
ask for help. Help came at the chance to
pick up a thing or two. Thinking of
those days is tough for me. They remind
me of Vance; my brother. We haven’t
spoken in just about twenty years now.
He’d worked hard, and he’d expected to take over the shop, but my father
decided on me. In my mind I questioned
it a lot, but in my heart I knew I could handle it. Furthermore, I trusted my father’s
judgment. Vance did too, and that was
the hardest part for him. I'd welcomed
him to run it with me, but I think he assumed I’d known all along. Anyway, he faded away shortly after our
father died. It was a strange
thing. At first I thought, perhaps I
hadn’t read enough books, but later I learned, I just needed to walk a little
bit more. Over the years my mother swore he never
called or came by, but I knew he loved her, so I walked a little bit more.
Chapter 2
Derek- I couldn’t bring myself to believe I
didn’t deserve her. I knew I’d made a
mistake, but there was no way I could have seen her coming at the time. We’d already captured a picture of our future,
and we’d begun to pay into that future. So
I dropped my pride, and I followed her.
Against her pleas, I held on to everything we wanted, and brought it
with me. I held on to it for us
both. I held on to it for our
children. I held on to it for the future
that was welcoming us, and mostly the parts I knew she could not perceive at
the time. Life with all its curve balls
was probably intended to make me doubt those things, but I could already see a
stir. I could see pieces of our legacy frolicking
together, and they summoned me. So, it never
bothered me that her presence was larger than mine. I carried my manhood securely into the future. Still, the first two years were rough; being
apart. I still wonder at times if those
years did anything to change our outcome at all.
Chapter 3
Tayeton- There are things in life that we can
never quite understand. How me and my
mother both ended up with HIV I would never understand. It broke my heart when she told me her secret,
and I understood why she shared it with me, but I could never stand to break
her heart with my truth. Her heart was
already broken. I could see it in her
face. I can still remember when her face
changed. It came at the point when she
understood that her story had carried on without her. That was the fork in her road that didn’t
represent decision, but rather separation.
In the last eighteen months of
her life, we became like glue. After she’d
let me see her bare truth, there was nothing to stand between us. I mostly felt grateful to know in time to
make our last days memorable, but at night when she would sleep, I was
angry. I didn’t understand how to carry
this compounded wound. I didn’t
understand a lot of things about where I was standing, but it felt as though
something in me was saying, “Don’t give up.”
By the time I learned about Kayla and Kaylin, and the request my mother
had made, I too saw a fork. I thought,
what in the devil could create two such circles in my life at the same
time. Surely, I had accepted
responsibility for my diagnosis. I knew
I had been careless about my life that way, but I couldn’t help but to feel
like somehow I had ended up on the devil’s radar. Then I learned that Kayla had denied my mother
her last hopes. Yet, my mother made me
promise to notify her at her passing.
That I accepted rigidly. Both Kayla and her father now had no life in me. My
heart even without my approval was hard to the two, but I kept her information along
with the promise I’d made. It was all
just a speedy upbringing. It wasn’t that
I wasn’t in driver’s seat of my life, but now I had a passenger to take
along. I didn’t know how I would
fair. I couldn’t see far enough in front
of me, but now I knew for sure I couldn’t give up. She was innocent in all of this, and her
young life was about to undergo a facelift I hoped she could endure.
Read the synopsis of Freeborn
To get the history of this story line, read A Better Pair of Shoes, a novel
FAQ:
Answer: A Novel that has its contents released in a suspended manner, according to the schedule prescribed by the author or publisher.
"What is a Suspended-Release Novel?"
Answer: A Novel that has its contents released in a suspended manner, according to the schedule prescribed by the author or publisher.
Purpose: To engage the reading audience with an interactive book publishing and book release event. Learn more: http://thedecksandtheroad.blogspot.com/2017/10/welcome-to-decks-of-our-lives.html
Freeborn, a novel
Freeborn
© Grace Call Communications,
LLC
Copyright © 2017
by Natisha Renee Williams
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