Take Me to the Water

PART 12 // David

It didn't take long for Leah and I to become best friends—especially after Uncle Calvin left. A few days after the fight, he put a note on the kitchen table that said 'be back in 3 months,' and just like that he was gone.

Leah and I were both happy to see him go and we became closer than ever. We clicked like there had never been any distance between us, and for the first time in my life I finally felt like I had a big sister.

Every night she and I would sit out on the front porch and she would read the Bible to me and would try her best to talk to me about scripture and about God, but none of it really made sense to me. To me, it was just an interesting story. I had a hard time buying into God's love and goodness.

Leah would also talk to me about our childhood and our parents. She knew so much more than I did about our history, and anything that I asked her she told me.

"How long have you known this house was ours?" I asked one night as we sat on the porch swing wrapped in a blanket. I felt like a little girl as we drank hot chocolate and looked out to the river.

"Since I was 14. One day, I was looking through Uncle Calvin's room for stuff..."

"What stuff? I said, intrigued.

"Anything," Leah laughed. "I was planning to run away. So while he was at work I went into his room to try and find anything valuable to take with me, and that's when I found the deed. It was in a box underneath his bed, and the box had daddy's name on it."

"Wow." I smiled.

"But that's not all. There were tons of savings bonds in the box with both our names on them. Daddy and Mama had been buying bonds for us since we were babies. Worth thousands of dollars now."

"Really?"

Leah nodded her head yes and then her face changed. She looked somber. "There was also a letter from Daddy to Uncle Calvin."

"What did it say?"

"Just that he bought a house in Michigan and that if anything happened to him to please take care of us. He told uncle Calvin where he had money stashed and that it would be enough to get us to Michigan and get us on our feet. You remember when Uncle Calvin made that quick stop before we made it out of Columbus?"

I nodded my head yes. I remembered exactly what she was talking about. After my father was shot, uncle Calvin drove to this construction site that he and my father worked at. Leah yelled 'why did you stop!' and he didn't say. He got out of the car, ran inside and ran back out with a box. Leah said that the box was full of money and important things to my father.

"I don't know when he put it there, but I think he knew his time was coming. Daddy didn't want to live without Mama. He loved her too much."

I exhaled. I never really felt love, but hearing her say that made me fear it. I didn't want to love something so much that I would be willing to lose my life for it. I had grown up thinking my father was crazy for how he acted that day he was killed. He looked like a mad man and love did that to him, and the thought of becoming just like that scared me.

"I never want to be in love," I said looking out to the water.

"Love ain't nothing to fear Eve. Love is beautiful. God is Love."

Leah had a look of peace on her face. I wondered if she loved the dean of her school, or maybe another man, but I didn't want to upset her so I didn't ask.

"How do you still believe in God?" I asked, instead.

Leah sat up and looked at me, concerned.

"Easy. God is the only thing in life that makes sense to me. If it weren't for God, I don't know where I'd be. Why do you ask?"