Chapter 5 #2
“What’s happening at your booth?”
The spring festival kicked off at noon on the Friday following Easter. Jackson Falls and the neighboring city Chinook Woods both seemed to basically shut down for the event. Locals and tourists descended on the downtown area ready to partake in everything the vendors had to offer.
Bright’s booth was all about promoting his construction business.
He offered on the spot consultations to everybody who walked up.
Because the Strong family was a pillar of the Jackson Falls community, Bright’s expertise was highly sought after.
Most of the locals who walked up to speak with him were surprised to have the opportunity.
I watched him in his element advising potential customers.
He was knowledgeable, professional, and most importantly to me, polite.
He had them forward him pictures of the room or rooms they wanted to remodel in their homes.
He would enter the picture into a software program and walk them through a mock-up of what could be done.
A few times, he even asked me to come over and comment on paint selection and other details.
“I’m not boring the hell outta you with this, am I?” he questioned when there was a lull in foot traffic.
I was shocked he would ask. “No. Not at all. I’m having fun. I like watching you turn what they have into what they could have. I like giving my input about paint colors and built-ins and stuff.”
“You have a really good eye for color and design details.” He eyed me seriously. “If you were to consider moving here, I would definitely ask you to consult periodically.”
“For real?”
“Yeah.”
I turned that thought over in my mind. “I would take you up on that.”
“Then you should consider relocating here.”
I chuckled, because I wasn’t Alisha. I wasn’t sure I was brave enough to pick up my entire life and move it .
. . even when it was falling apart at the seams. Relocating just seemed like another humongous change in a list of ever-growing changes in my life.
“And on that note, I’mma get something to eat.
I’m starving. You want something from Brewer’s booth? ”
Bright gave me his order. I walked down the street, weaving between couples holding hands, children running, and groups of girlfriends or sisters laughing and chatting.
One thing I couldn’t help noticing was that everybody seemed happy.
The vibe of Jackson Falls was super laidback.
Nobody was in a hurry to get to a specific destination.
People seemed like they were enjoying exactly what they were doing—strolling through the town’s spring festival.
It was so different from Chicago. And I liked it, but I wasn’t sure I liked it enough to leave the familiar for the unknown.
At Brewer’s booth, I selected the Dungeness crab cakes, truffle fries, and fresh-squeezed lemonade. As I turned to walk away after receiving the food, I almost bumped right into Collins.
“Hey.” I gave her a huge smile and a one-armed hug. “How’s it going at the Posh Moments booth?”
Before she met Beckham and relocated to Jackson Falls, my sister was the owner of an upscale salon called Posh Moments in Chicago.
After a fire destroyed everything, she met Beckham and his family while on vacation at the lodge.
Mrs. Strong asked her if she would be willing to reopen the defunct salon at the lodge.
Collins agreed, naming the salon Posh Moments at The Manor at Sienna Sunset.
I loved my sister’s story. It was hella romantic to me.
Her dream burned to the ground. While she was mourning the loss, she found a new dream and a man who loved and cherished her.
“Good. Good. Thank God for Perkins and Malaysia. They’re holding it down. Your niece has been cutting up in there all day.” She rubbed her belly lovingly, though she was staring at it sternly. “I had to stop doing actual demonstrations and just start verbally explaining the hairstyles.”
“You think you might be getting close?”
She nodded. “I’m thirty-six weeks and six days. She’s full-term now. She can come at any minute and she wouldn’t be considered premature. She might be ready, but I’m not.”
“Then sit down somewhere and stay off your feet. I can’t believe Beck is even letting you do this booth. You should be sitting down somewhere,” I fussed.
“I am. I am. I just came to get some food. This pregnancy’s made me greedy as hell.”
I eyed the sister who was closest to me in age. The one that I knew as well as I knew the back of my own hand. “Collins.” She started laughing before I could even get the sentence out, because she knew where I was going. “Don’t be blaming my niece for your greediness. You’ve been greedy.”
“I know. I know.” She guffawed, barely able to catch her breath. “I just wanted to see what it felt like to say that.”
And that made me guffaw.
As the sun sank lower in the Jackson Falls sky, turning it from a clear pale blue to a canvas of muted oranges, pinks, purples, and yellows, a popular old school R&B group took the stage in the makeshift bandstand.
The Strong and Kingsley families co-mingled, dancing and singing along with the familiar refrains of the choruses of songs we all knew.
Soon, as the sky grew darker, the band switched from their up-tempo songs into soulful love ballads.
I looked around at almost all of my family members coupled up and swaying to the easy tenor of the lead singer’s voice.
Beckham and Collins.
Mr. and Mrs. Strong.
My mom and Bayliss.
Even Church was swaying with some young man whose name I was going to make sure to get in the morning.
I looked at Bright. “Let’s get some of those salmon tacos from Brewer before he shuts down.”
Once we had our tacos, chips, and Brewer’s famous guacamole, Brighton found us an empty table in the clearing to sit at.
“Bright.”
“What’s up?” He took a large bite of the soft-shelled taco.
“Why’re you single?”
He gave a carefree, easy shrug. “I don’t know where my girl is, but she ain’t in Jackson Falls.”
“What?” I chuckled. “What do you mean, she ain’t in Jackson Falls?”
His shoulders bounced in a second shrug.
“I grew up here. It’s a small town. I know the vast majority of these women.
They ain’t it.” He paused. “No shade. They just aren’t it.
I went to college at Hale-Williams in Virginia.
Thought I might meet her there, but I didn’t.
I guess I’m still looking. Probably gonna end up having to convince a tourist to relocate here or some shit. Like Beck did with Collins.”
“Yeah.” I shot him a fake mean look. “I feel like all of your brothers are stealing my family members. Are you gonna try to get with Perkins?”
He laughed. “What? Nah. Perkins is busy raising her girls and before you throw her name out there, Church is way too young. Your sisters are safe with me.”
“So what do you do for female . . . companionship?”
He was silent for a second. “Ohh.” Realization of what I was asking dawned on his countenance. “Yeah, I fuck up on tourists. I typically bag women that are staying at the lodge.”
My mouth dropped open. “No! Not you using your family’s business as your hunting ground for coochie.”
“Nah. We listen and we don’t judge.”
“I never agreed to that. I’m totally judging you, Bright!”
“Then you need to stop. It’s a mutually beneficial exchange. There are no lies told. No promises made. All they want is vacation dick and all I want is tourist pussy. Fair exchange ain’t no robbery.”
Since he had a point, I tried to school the expression on my face and reminded myself to have an open mind. He and the women were consenting adults just looking to enjoy each other physically for the night . . . or the weekend. There was nothing wrong with that.
“Can I ask you a personal question?”
I figured since I was all in his business, he had every right to get into mine. “Go ’head.”
“What brought you to Jackson Falls? I mean, besides the fact that your sisters and your mother are here. They’ve been here for a minute. What brought you here at this specific moment?”
I hesitated for just a moment before answering him.
“Life. It just got so unbearable. So overwhelming.” I took a deep breath.
“In late January, I lost the baby I was carrying.” I wasn’t sure how I expected him to react to the news.
It was the first time I’d shared it with anybody.
I mean, my family knew, Xander’s family probably knew, and my job knew. That was it.
“On January 21st?” The words traveled to my ears on what almost felt like a whisper.
“How’d you know?”
“One time you told me that you haven’t been good since January 21st. When I asked you what happened that day, you played me off.”
“I didn’t play you off. Talking about it made my lungs close up. I never talked about it, because I couldn’t breathe when I talked about it.”
He nodded.
“I knew the baby wouldn’t make it to full-term.
The baby’s alpha-fetoprotein test, it’s a blood test you do when you’re pregnant.
The baby’s numbers were skewed. More tests revealed severe anomalies.
I was prepared to lose him . . . but at the same time you’re never really prepared to lose your baby.
It was a stressful and traumatic period of my life.
And instead of supporting and helping me, my soon to be ex-husband turned against me.
The baby’s issues became my fault. He didn’t want a damaged baby or a wife who only created damaged babies. ”
“Damn. Was this the second or third time you had something like that happen?”
“No. He accused me of being damaged because we’ve been married for five years and it was our first pregnancy.”
“Damn, Bailey baby.” He picked up my hand from the table and laced his fingers through mine.
“Damn, baby. Even if it was the fifteenth time that something like that happened, you didn’t deserve that treatment.
It was fucked up and immature as hell of him to take his emotions out on you instead of handling them like an adult.
I get that it was devastating and disappointing, but what’s the point of trying to destroy your wife, too? ”
“Everything was my fault. He didn’t want anything to do with me or our son.
Once we found out that the baby was a boy, I asked him if he wanted to name the baby after him.
He told me that he didn’t want a dead baby named after him.
He wasn’t even there when I delivered. My mom, my dad, and my sisters flew to Chicago to be with me. ”
“What’s your son’s name?”
I smiled through watery eyes. “My married last name is Eckhart. Since my mother gave all four of us our fathers’ last name as first names, I decided to do the same. I named him Hart. Hart Kingsley.”
“That’s what’s up.” He nodded his head.
I touched the locket hanging from the chain on my neck. “My mom was so sweet. She had these lockets made. Now each of us has some of Hart to carry with us at all times.”
His eyes lit up with wonder. “Straight up? I like that idea. Can I touch it?”
I nodded.