Sunshine Valley

More tears

     Dillon searched all over for Evie. He knew she knew he was here. But she wasn’t answering the door. He could have used his code to get in the house. But he had this naggin’ feelin’ that she wasn’t in there. 

     Evie was piled up on her mother’s grave sobbing.

     Dillon thought he shouldn’t be here. He should leave her alone. But he couldn’t stand it. He knelt with her putting his hands on her shoulders. She fell into him, continuing to sob. 

     His Evie had been broken and it was more than he could bear. 

     She lunged out of his arms screaming, pounding at the hard earth. “You lied to me. Everything you ever told me was a lie! LIER!” Dillon laid his hand on her back. “She lied to me.” It came out a whisper among sobs. 

     She had on the nice outfit he assumed from church. Dillon knew he needed to get her in the house. 

     “What did your parent’s lie to you about?” Big tears glistened in the moon light. 

     “Dad told me I was useless and lazy. One day he found out I could play the piano. He dared mom to feed me.”

     She snubbed, “I’m sorry.”

     “There are a lot of things about my childhood I wish I could change but I wouldn’t trade parts of it for all the gold in the world.”

     “She was always tellin’ me I wasn’t feminine enough. No man would ever love me. In her eyes, women needed a man to be complete. And I was unloveable. Less than a woman. I should have had men and boys lined up from here to your house when I was 16. It was a great shame to her that I didn’t. When I got married, late better than never, it would make me whole. Perfect. Life was mine for the taking. SHE LIED!” Evie started beating her grave again. “She lied. Stuffing me in her damn lace. And those uncomfortable shoes. Stand up straight. Smile. Be attractive. Spend hours fixing your hair and putting on makeup. Useless. She lied. I ran away because of her.”

     “So, if I’d got a couch or 5 and set them on fire in the middle of the road to stop you, you would’ve plowed through them and left anyway?”

     Evie sniffled, just staring at Dillon. “You didn’t want me to leave?”

     He mashed his lips together, flattenin’ them out, “no.”

     “Why didn’t you say something?”

     “I was too scared.”

Sunshine Valley