Chapter 11

Shaun sat down next to her husband and rubbed his tensed shoulders and then she leaned against him and placed her head on his shoulder. His arm folded around her and pulled her in tight while his other hand rubbed her belly.

"I love you so much Shaun. I don‘t want my children growing up in a world where there is this much hatred."

"Baby, this is the world that we‘ve both grown up in. We have to teach our children what to expect. They have to know that it exists in order for them to be protected against it."

His arms tightened around her as if trying to shield her from the dangers that they were discussing. "I don‘t want to do that. I don‘t want them to see this ugliness. They are so innocent and they shouldn‘t have to know that just down the street someone is going to call them a nigger or an injun or some other stupid word just because of their race."

Shaun sighed. "I had to learn it. You had to learn it. And unfortunately, so will our children."

He didn‘t say anything for a long time. "Do you see now why I fired Riley?"

She sat up so that she could place her lips on his cheek. "I don‘t agree with what you did. Riley‘s always been a hard worker and he‘s got to take care of his grandmother because none of those other sorry ass Prangers are going to do it."

Bodie frowned. "I could give a shit about Miss Jewel. She‘s a peckerwood too. She‘s a white supremacist like the rest of the Prangers-"

"When you hired Riley you told me all about his family history. But you also told me that he wasn‘t like them. That he didn‘t use those words and you never saw him join in with his cousins to pick on people. He isn‘t Sully, Bodie. He‘s not Sully."

He didn‘t respond and then he kissed her temple and got up and headed for the stairs to go to bed. Tomorrow was going to be another busy one. He was definitely going to need some help. He had three cars that he was working on simultaneously because the owners expected to drive a twenty-year old car as if it wasn‘t worth more to just scrap. But that is what he did; he pieced together scraps so that his customers could get as much use out of them as possible.

"Bodie?" Shaun said from her seat on the couch.

"Sorry honey, I need to get some shut-eye."

"What about Riley?"

"Riley can kiss my ass." His frown deepened. "This is a new time in our history. We don‘t keep doing the same things and treating them like a dark dirty secret because that only perpetuates wrong. The only way to make this world better is for whites like Riley or even me to speak up and take a stand. I told him that I don‘t trust him and I don‘t. If he can‘t take a stand against the wrong he sees in his own friends and family then how can I expect that he won‘t allow something to happen to you or to my children, that he won‘t take a stand against that? Fuck him. Sorry for the language but that‘s how I feel." He went upstairs while Shaun stared until he disappeared.

Yeah, honey. But what if you just pushed him into being just like the rest of them?

~*~

Stella read the letter with a slight smile on her face. It figures that she would hear from Pranger after she had left a deposit on the beach house in South Carolina. It was a nice place, too. Right on the beach with a screened in swimming pool--not that she or her son swam; not in pools or oceans even though the house was just steps away from the sea. There was no amount of water too small or too large that she‘d enter that had ever graced another‘s feet or ass. Swimming was one of many things whose appeal she just didn‘t understand. To her it was akin to sitting in someone‘s used bathwater.

She read the letter once again, noting his weak apology and that he hadn‘t offered to pro-rate the amount or invite her to extend her stay two weeks into July. She sighed. She was just going to have to pay the penalty for breaking her contract at the Outer Banks. Still, she was excited that he‘d finally accepted her offer.

Unexpectedly, she felt a strange tension in her belly. This was full circle. She had to do this even if she felt like she was about to give a speech in front of a group of strangers.

She pushed the feeling back, silently reminding herself that she was bold and fearless. She scrolled through her smart phone searching for the telephone number to the vacation rental when it began to vibrate in her hand. The name Evan flashed across the screen. She rolled her eyes already knowing why he was blowing up her phone. This was the third call of the day that she hadn‘t answered and it was barely noon. She had intentionally ignored them because his morning calls were becoming a habit now that it was summer.

He‘d understood when she told him not to call in the mornings while school was in session because she was either getting ready for work or already at work. But now that it was summer he was starting a habit that she didn‘t want. She did not want to talk to Evan every day. He was not her boyfriend. He was not her man.

"Hello," she answered making every attempt not to sound annoyed.

"Hey, beautiful. Everything okay?"

Why did she even answer the phone? That question was enough to push her annoyance level up a few more notches. His real question was, ‘Where have you been?‘ ‘Why haven‘t you answered my calls?‘ Evan was the type to probe about something or leave open-ended questions waiting for her to fill in the blanks because instead of just being straight-forward he had to try to guilt you into giving him information.