The Beautiful Now by M. Leighton

Author:M. Leighton [Leighton, M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: M. Leighton Books
Published: 2017-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

2004

32 Years Old

Chapter 22

I’m sitting in the sunshine on the front porch, taking a break and sipping a glass of sweet tea. As my eyes scan the fields, I see the very tip of the barn roof, the only part that can be seen from this angle and this distance. Of course, it reminds me of Dane. It would have anyway, but since meeting with Lauren, I’m even more curious about what he’s doing and what’s happened in his life over the course of the last fifteen years.

Impulsively, I get up and start down the driveway. Celina just began her algebra, so she’ll be busy for a while. Momma is doing whatever it is she does during the day. So right now, it’s just me and the fields and a brain full of questions.

When I step into the wheat, I think back to those early years of my life, how afraid I was that my love for Dane James might be discovered. I never once came down to this barn. I knew better. Seeing Dane and his father out in the fields, or out in town and speaking was one thing. That was called being cordial or polite. But I knew better than to approach the barn where they lived.

The wheat stops suddenly, like a line has been drawn and it knows better than to cross it. A gravel lot extends from that line to the bar, which looms in front of me like a physical representation of all the questions I have.

I pause in front of the entrance and look straight up. The main doors are closed, as is the single large one above it. I wonder if Dane James ever opened that door and looked out at the night, or if our rock was the only place he could really see that there was life beyond this town.

A shiver passes through me. Being here is like being close to Dane James himself. It’s like being at ground zero for a haunting the place where the bones are buried. The bones that keep the spirit tethered to this world.

I shiver again.

I’m getting ready to see a part of Dane I never knew. And after fifteen years of being without him, I wasn’t really prepared for how it would feel to be close to him again.

I tug one of the barn doors. I half-expected it to be locked, but it isn’t, so I step inside. The interior is dark but for the stripes of golden light leaking through the slats in the wood. The floor is hard-packed dirt and the back wall is littered with all kinds of scary looking tools. It appears that this particular barn hasn’t held any big equipment for many years, probably not since the foreman lived above it. He probably just kept the truck in here. That old farm use truck that I remember so well.

I glance to the left, to the staircase that leads to the second story.

I’ve come this far. No sense backing out now.

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