Authors: Keith Thomas Walker
“Coach!” one of them yelled. “We ain’t through drinking yet!”
“Hurry up!” Donovan shouted back. “And pack it up right! If I come out here and see
one football
on the ground, every one of you is running sprints!”
“Coach, wait!” Kevin
hollered. “I thought you was gon’ help me with my math!”
“Come to my office when you get through!” Donovan told him, and then he was too far away t
o answer any more of their questions.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
Donovan didn’t use his computer in the gym very often. He nearly had a heart attack while waiting for it to power up. He read the message on his cellphone over and over with an excitement he hadn’t felt in years.
Kyra Reynolds was alive and well
. Donovan’s smile was from ear to ear. It was an unusual sight; a burly football coach hunkered over a computer with tears in his eyes.
How many times had he searched for Kyra on
Facebook? It was impossible to count. When the networking site first hit the internet in 2004, Donovan was reluctant to get sucked in to another MySpace-like environment. He didn’t want to post private pictures of himself, and he didn’t want to be bombarded with silly updates from people he barely knew in real life.
But as
Facebook’s popularity grew, Donovan began to spend more and more time on the site. He reestablished contacts with people he met in college and with folks he knew way back in middle school. Donovan found that he actually liked to see updates from his long lost friends as well as pictures from their vacations or trips to the ballpark.
And the name Donovan typed into
Facebook’s search bar most often was
Kyra Reynolds
. In the early days he searched for her as often as once a week. Shocked that he couldn’t find her, Donovan tried just her first name, thinking she got married. But he still couldn’t find her among the hundred or so Kyra’s who did have accounts. Sometimes Donovan searched until he had a stress headache. But he never stopped looking.
Almost
every time he logged onto Facebook, Donovan wanted to know if Kyra Reynolds had a profile yet. Today his prayers were answered. Donovan was so excited when he finally got Facebook pulled up, he entered his password incorrectly three times in a row.
When he got it right, he
emphatically jabbed the button that said
Yes
he would accept Kyra as his friend.
Yes, yes and hell yes!
And finally, after a full fifteen years with absolutely no contact, Donovan saw the woman who had become somewhat of an obsession. Kyra was so beautiful, Donovan stared in awe, unaware that a joyful tear rolled down his cheek.
“Oh God, thank you.”
Kyra’s profile was new, and it didn’t offer much information about what she’d been up to since the last time Donovan saw her. But it revealed enough to make him more and more joyous at every click.
Kyra’s hometown was listed as Overbrook Meadows, and her current location was also Overbrook Meadows. Donovan assumed that was a mistake, but he prayed that it was true. He longed to see
Kyra with his own eyes and touch her and hug her. Donovan clicked some more and learned that Kyra wasn’t just beautiful, but she was a mother now. In one of her three pictures, she was holding an adorable baby girl in her arms. The child was the spitting image of her mother.
Donovan put a hand to his mouth and sniffled.
He wasn’t an emotional guy, but this was not the average Facebook encounter. Kyra was Donovan’s best friend ever since they met in grade school; Donovan in the fourth and Kyra in the third. There was never an attraction between them, and many were baffled by how thoroughly they bonded. When Donovan learned that Kyra lived less than half a mile from his house, he rode his bike to visit her nearly every day. During the summertime they would be together from sun up till sun down. They made tree houses and army forts in the bushes, and they loved to roll their pants up and explore creeks and ponds, in search of tadpoles and baby turtles.
Kyra’s home life was rough
back then. Donovan was the one person who always loved her. He never hit or talked bad to her. They became play-brother and sister, and when the abuse at Kyra’s house reached a peak, Donovan did everything in his power to save her. He was only a child himself, but he stood up to adults for Kyra. He comforted Kyra when her mom went to jail, and Donovan even talked his mother into letting Kyra live with them when they were in high school.
Finding Kyra on
Facebook was like finding his twin brother or a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Knowing she had grown into a beautiful, healthy adult was one of the greatest gifts Donovan ever received.
A sound at the door alerted
him to a visitor. Donovan wiped his face quickly as Kevin entered the office with books in hand. The sweat on Donovan’s face effectively masked the tear that he was much too manly to shed in the first place.
“What you doing, Coach?” Kevin
approached and stared over his shoulder. “Who’s that? She fine.”
Donovan chuckled. “She’s an old friend. I haven’t seen her in fifteen years.”
“Dang,” Kevin said, studying the picture more closely. “Is that why you look so happy?”
Donovan nodded.
“How you find her?” the boy asked.
Donovan gave him a look. “I guess common sense ain’t that common…”
Kevin laughed. “Oh, you found her on Facebook?”
“Yeah,” Donovan said, his eyes
still glued to Kyra’s picture.
“You can find
anybody
on Facebook,” Kevin said.
“I guess so,” Donovan
agreed. He went back to Kyra’s profile so he could send her a personal message.
“You gon’ ask her out?” Kevin wanted to know.
“Boy, go sit down,” Donovan said. “This is my
sister
. She my play-sister. We used to live together and everything.”
“She still fine,” Kevin said as he made his way to
a desk. “Y’all didn’t never kiss or nothing when she was living with you?”
“Boy, I just told you she’s my sister.”
“You said
play
-sister, Coach,” Kevin noted. “So y’all not really related. I know I wouldn’t be able to live with a girl if she looked like that – especially if we weren’t really related.”
Ain’t that the truth
, Donovan thought. “Be quiet so I can send this message,” he said. He sent a quick message to Kyra and then went and stood before Kevin’s desk. “Alright, what are you having problems with?”
“I don’t know how to graph these functions,” Kevin said
. He dug his math book from his backpack.
“That’s what I helped you with last time,” Donovan recalled. “Why do you need help with the same thing?”
“I forgot how to do it, Coach.”
Donovan frowned at him. “You smoking weed, Kevin?”
“Nope,” the student said right away. “I don’t smoke weed, Coach.”
“I know your brother smokes weed,” Donovan said. “And your cousins do, too. You getting high with them
, Kevin? Don’t lie to me.”
“I don’t smoke weed,” Kevin stressed. “I don’t smoke cigarettes or Black & Mild’s or
nothing
. I don’t do nothing that’s gon’ take my breath away.”
The
take my breath away
comment was something Donovan warned his students about all the time. But Kevin maintained eye contact when he spoke, and Donovan believed him. He pulled up a chair next to his mediocre defensive end.
“I hope some of this starts to come back to you really quick,” Donovan said. “I don’t want to be here all night.”
“Why, you got a date with Miss Murphy?” Kevin joked.
Donovan frown
ed again. “If you say one more thing that’s not related to math, I’ma make you do so many pushups, you won’t be able to lift your arms tomorrow. You understand me?”
“Yes, sir,” Kevin said,
his smile gone, his nose down in his book.
CHAPTER TWO
AUNT RUTH
Two days later Kyra was still struggling to keep a positive attitude as she cleaned the blinds and windows in her bedroom on what was actually a beautiful Saturday afternoon. At bedtime Kyra’s room was cramped with herself, her two year old daughter and her eight year old son, but it wasn’t the crowded conditions that had her fighting off a wave of depression. It was her new landlord that made Kyra wonder if maybe she should’ve stuck it out in Arkansas.
When she reached out to her aunt two weeks ago, Kyra didn’t think Ruth would take her in. Fifteen years ago when Kyra’s mother went to jail, everyone assumed Ruth would be the one to
step in for her sister’s kids. But they were wrong about that. Before anyone even had time to ask her, Aunt Ruth said she was too busy. She had too much going on to be burdened with three rugrats that weren’t even hers.
Kyra’s brother Duke and her sister Jackie
were sent to Arkansas, where most of Kyra’s family was from. The only reason Kyra stayed in Overbrook Meadows was because Donovan begged her mom to take her in. But that didn’t last long. Soon Kyra was shipped off to Arkansas as well, and for a long time she hated her aunt for being so cold-hearted. Kyra would’ve given up a kidney to stay with Donovan in Texas, but fate had other plans.
When Kyra
summoned the courage to flee Arkansas fourteen days ago, Aunt Ruth was her absolute last resort. Kyra had her finger poised over the hang up button when she called her, and she was blown away when Aunt Ruth told her, “Of course you can come stay with me, child, until you get your life back together. I’ll help take care of your kids. You been gone a long time. I miss you Kyra. If you need somewhere to stay, I’m here for you.”
Within a week Kyra took her aunt up on the offer. She spent
her last dime on bus tickets and packed all of the clothes she could carry in two huge suitcases she got from her brother. Duke wanted her to stay with his family, but Kyra knew she had to leave Arkansas entirely. She had troubles with her ex, the police and Little Rock’s child protective services. But Kyra wasn’t fearful when she got on that bus. Aunt Ruth’s offer of food and shelter was a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
T
hat light dimmed very quickly.
Kyra’s first surprise
when she arrived in Overbrook Meadows was that Aunt Ruth’s three bedroom home actually had only
two
bedrooms. The third one was filled with junk that Aunt Ruth was in no hurry to remove. Kyra offered to clean it herself, but Aunt Ruth said she didn’t want anyone going through her personal stuff. Kyra accepted that.
They decided to let Quinell sleep on the couch while Kyra and Kat shared the one bedroom, but that only lasted one night. The next morning Aunt Ruth complained that Kyra’s son was a lot bigger than she thought he was.
She said Quinell sleeping on the couch was messing up her cushions. He’d have to sleep in the bedroom with Kyra and Kat instead. Ruth offered Quinell an air mattress to sleep on but insisted he spread it out in his mother’s room rather than clutter up the living room. Kyra accepted that, too. Unfortunately it was only the beginning of Aunt Ruth’s tyranny.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
After cleaning the windows and making her bed and putting Quinell’s air mattress away, Kyra was lured out of her bedroom by the sound and smell of frying bacon. She found her son in the living room sitting quietly on Aunt Ruth’s precious sofa. The TV was tuned in to Saturday morning cartoons, but Quinell was distracted by the good smells coming from the kitchen. He was a fair-skinned boy with large hands and feet and a small mouth that was almost always closed. He countered his quietness with watching and listening, and Kyra knew he was formulating his own opinions about what was going on in their new home.
Kyra found her daughter Kat
sitting quietly on the outskirts of the kitchen, like she knew it was something good going on in there, but for whatever reason she couldn’t get close to it. Kyra hefted her daughter and went to speak to her Aunt for the first time that morning. Last week Kyra greeted Ruth with a hug and a kiss. Today she gave her a guarded, “Hey, Auntie.”
“Hey,” the head of the house said without turning away from the stove.
Aunt Ruth was fifty-six years old. She was tall with golden brown skin and short hair that she preferred to keep curly. Ruth wore large glasses with thick lenses. She had a burgundy robe pulled over her night gown. From the back, Kyra saw that the heels of her feet were ashy and calloused from too much time spent barefoot.
“If y’all want something to eat, I got some peanut butter in the cabinet,” Aunt Ruth said.
Kyra didn’t take the bait. She put Kat down and went to the cabinet to retrieve the peanut butter.