Page 3 of Saved By A Small Town Country Boy
In Magnolia Falls, we have the biggest farm. We grew and raised all of our food. We didn’t have a reason to go to the grocery store whatsoever. Khali loves it. She gets out here in the dirt every chance she gets. It teaches her discipline and responsibility. I love the fact that she’s able to learn that she has to work for what she wants instead of thinking that shit supposed to be handed to her. That’ll take her far in life. She’d never have to depend on no man for shit, and that’s one of my main goals.
Khali is my six-year-old daughter, who I have sole custody of. When her mama, Simone, died from a drunk driver hitting her head on, on her way home, I ended up having to raise her. That’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life. Losing Simone was hard for me. Simone was my high school sweetheart. We’d been together for nine years. That was my soulmate—the person I thought I was gon’ spend the rest of my life with. God gave me one of the greatest gifts and decided to take it away. For two years, I’ve been so angry with him. I stopped talking to him like I normally would. I stopped going to church. The connection I had with him was severed.
Simone was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known. She worked her ass off and took damn good care of me and our daughter. She didn’t bother anybody nor did she ever get involved in mess. I’ll never understand why she was taken away so tragically.
For two years, no one else has ever been able to get close to my heart. I have no desire to ever date again. What I had with Simone was once in a lifetime. I doubt very seriously that I’ll ever find anything like that ever again.
Women tried their hardest to get close to me. They throw themselves at me on a daily ’cause everyone in Magnolia Falls knows that I’m a meal ticket. At twenty-seven, I got my life together. I’m the wealthiest man in town. Outside of me notwanting to find love again, I didn’t trust a soul ’round Khali. Not that I have to worry ’bout anyone doing anything to her, ’cause everyone knows I don’t play when it comes to my family, especially my daughter.
Stopping at the stable, I hopped out the truck and grabbed the hay off the back. I carried it inside and tossed it. Beauty poked her head out to see what I was doing. I stopped at her stall and gently brushed her mane with my hand.
“Gotta make sure you’re fed, or else Khali will have my head.” Snot sprayed from her nostrils as she shook her head. Beauty got her name because Khali said she was one of the most beautiful horses she’s ever seen in her tiny lil life. Beauty was solid black from her mane to her eyes to her coat. When I took Khali to pick out a horse, she ran straight for Beauty. I thought she would’ve wanted the white one, that’s what some of the lil girls normally go for, but nope. My baby girl just had to be different. Beauty cost a bit more, but I didn’t mind dropping a bag on her. Whatever Khali wants, she usually gets without effort.
I finished unloading the truck, made sure she had enough to eat, and jumped back into the truck. Driving ’round the huge pond in our front yard, I drove up to our black and gray barndominium and parked at the garage door. Soon as my feet touched the concrete, Khali ran out the side door and stopped at the railing of the porch.
“Daddy, look!” Her black eyes beamed at me as she stood there with a snake hanging in her hand. Judging by the shape of the head, it wasn’t poisonous, so it didn’t bring any alarm. Bobbi stood with her back firmly against the wall and eyes wide. It didn’t matter that the snake wasn’t venomous; she wanted it nowhere near her.
Bobbi is Khali’s babysitter and tutor. Her family stayed up the road from us. That’s the only reason why she ended up getting the job in the first place. Bobbi was nothing but eighteen.She worked well with Khali, and I knew her pops, so it kinda worked out for me.
I’ll never understand how the hell Bobbi was scared of everything when she was from the country. Khali would pick up bugs and all sorts of animals and run her ’round the yard with it. I remember one time I heard Bobbi screaming so loud that I thought someone was tryna kill her. She had me running out here with my assault rifle and shit just to find out that Khali had picked up an aquatic snake down there by the pond.
“Is it dead?” I asked her, not seeing it move since she lifted it into the air.
“No. See.” She loosened her grip on it, and it wiggled. “Can I keep it?”
“No. Go back out there and release it,” I told her as I shut the truck door. Her lips curled downward. Turning, she ran with her pigtails flapping in the wind off the porch and out toward the huge oak tree in the middle of the yard.
Bobbi finally peeled away from the house and smoothed out the wrinkles in her white floral dress. I stepped up onto the porch and watched Khali as she leaned down and released the snake.
“For the life of me, I’ll never understand why she does that,” Bobbi finally spoke. Bobbi’s skin is so rich, and she has a smile that’s bigger than the sun. Normally, her black curly hair would be pulled up into a ponytail, but today, it’s free, resting at her shoulders. Her brown eyes searched mine.
“She’ll grow outta it,” was all I offered, and I removed my cowboy hat from my head before entering the house. I can feel Bobbi’s eyes burning a hole in my back as I tread over to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of Eternal water. Popping the cap, I turned it up and chugged the entire bottle. Since I work out there in the sun all day, I stay hydrated with water, Gatorade, or anything else that has electrolytes in it. The last thing Iwanted to do was fall out in that sun. Ma would have a fit if she knew I wasn’t taking care of myself.
“Daddy, what’s for dinner?” Khali asked soon as she stepped through the door. I wasn’t the chef. Simone did all the cooking while we were together. It wasn’t ’til she died that I had Ma teach me how to cook. I never knew I was gon’ have a reason to. In two years, I learned how to cook anything that I wanted to with the help of Ma. If there’s something Khali wants to eat and I don’t know how to make it, I’d call and ask her for instructions. There isn’t anything in this world I wouldn’t do for my daughter.
“I don’t know. What do you have a taste for?”
“Uh, pizza!” Her lil eyes lit up as she stared at me.
“Homemade or you want to order out?”
“The Barn Oven!” she shouted. I can’t even lie, they made some of the best pizza there is.
“Bobbi, can you call and order that for her? I’m gon’ head upstairs and hop in the shower. It’s almost time for me to leave.”
“Okay.” Bobbi picked up her phone off the counter and swiped the screen.
“Do you really have to leave?” Khali batted her long eyelashes at me. She hated whenever I went somewhere without her, but tonight, where I’m going, she wasn’t allowed there.
“Got to or else Uncle Creed is gon’ be angry. You want him to be mad at me?” Lowering her eyes, she shook her head. “I’ll make sure that I come in there and tuck you in before I leave. Okay?”
“Kay.”
I swiped my hat off the island and trotted down the hallway toward my bedroom. Today is my best friend Creed’s birthday, and he’s having a party at Boots & Bottles. I promised him that I was gon’ be in attendance tonight even though I didn’t really feel like being bothered. I’m not the party type. The only reason I wasgoing was ’cause it’s his birthday. I’d make exceptions on special occasions.
Boots & Bottles is one of the local bars in town. I lived about fifteen minutes outside of Magnolia Falls. It’s best that I didn’t stay in the city limits for various reasons. Plus, I liked living on the outskirts. One could step outside and see all of the stars lining the sky at night. Stargazing is one of Khali’s favorite things to do. Sometimes I can take her out there and just let her lay on a blanket and she’d stare up into the sky for hours ’til she falls asleep.
Stopping at my double wooden bedroom door, I gripped one of the handles and slid the door to the side. Darkness greeted me. It’s the exact thing that greeted me every single night ever since Simone died. Sometimes, I hated even coming into this bedroom ’cause it didn’t feel the same now that she wasn’t in it.
