Jocelyn's River

Jocelyn's River: Chapter 4

Nature felt my burdens and succeeded in calming me. I focused on the feel of it. This connection with nature surely had something to do with the Native American ancestry on my father's side of the family. His grandmother's mother was a Cherokee Indian and her father was a black slave who traveled with the Indians to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears.

My skin was being nourished by the rays of the sun and the river's water cooled and calmed me as I swam. My eyes shut and I mellowed in the water. The sound of birds chirping and buzzing bees encircled me. Cars passing could also be heard on the other side of the woods. This was exactly what I needed. I had to get away from my house and my family.

After our movie theater experience, Denise and I were stuck together. I hated it as much as she did. She would make plans, her father would find out, and he'd demand that she confront me with a call as long as her plans sounded like something he could trust her in doing. Likewise, Daddy stayed on my case. I could not decline her offers, even if I tried.

Denise and Ray decided to go for a swim in the Tennessee River. Isolating myself from them, I found my own little spot where I could not see them intimating. Even though I was hesitant because this place would only make memories worse since I had met River here and attempted suicide, I came with them. Of course, Daddy made Denise promise to not let me out of her sight.

Time failed to help me to forget River. If he had already exiled me from his mind, then I wanted to do the same. That night, at the movie theater, verified that he lived a life of unfaithfulness and I could not be a part of it. River was from the wrong side of the tracks and befriended the tainted. Oh, but how I wanted him! My summer vacation started as a tragedy and had turned into an uneven romance. It's been a week since I saw him last and his absence from my life only made my desire burst to flames.

Once I realized that I was thinking of him again, I opened my eyes and dived into the water and lingered under for a minute. When I was ready, I swam back up for air but I was restricted. Something had my foot tangled. The captivity of my foot hauled me under the water whenever I tried to reach fresh air. Over and over again, I struggled to keep my head above until I finally lost energy and descended into the water. I had given up and began to believe it was in God's plan for me to die this time.

****

I gasped for air and uncontrollably coughed up the water I had consumed. I opened my eyes and they beheld River who was staring at me with all the care in the world. He was sitting on the ground with me lying across his lap and I realized that he had just saved my life by pulling me out of the water and performing CPR. We lost ourselves in each other's eyes. In his eyes, I was peacefully drowning in a bottomless sea of dreams.

"Well," he whispered with a kind smile. "It looks like I done saved your life for the second time."

A horrific female scream reverberated and disrupted us. Our heads turned in the direction of the noise.

"What the devil was that?" River mumbled to himself.

"Denise," I gasped. The sound of my words were vague. I tried to get up, but pain shot through my ankle and I fell back down into River's lap.

"Whoa, there, darlin'," he said as he caught me. "Your ankle is sprained from bein' caught in some rope. It was stuck under a heavy rock in the water."

He slid an arm under my legs and the other supported my back. He stood up and scooped me into his arms at the same time. Drops of water from River's tousled and drenched hair dripped down on my stomach. A chill ran through me. His bare and wet skin was touching my own wet flesh. I could feel the damp hair on his chest grazing against my arm. His irregular shaped birthmark was completely bared to me and I found myself yearning to touch it.