Finding Sweetness (Sweet series)

by Lewis, Rika

  Finding

  Sweetness

  Prologue

  Why are we moving? Ten year-old Alton asked as he looked up at his dad's furrowed brow. I thought this was our home. You said that nothing could ever make us leave.

  Without looking at his son, thirty eight year old, William glared at his wife. Blame your mother for this she is the reason why.

  Ann rolled her eyes at her husband. Her fault her ass! She had not wanted to move. If he had not wanted to play high school games, they would not be in half the mess they were in now. They were not only leaving family and friends; they were leaving all that they had worked hard for. The small town of Greenbrier Tennessee had had a massive layoff. He had been one of hundreds that was slapped on the back, handed his severance pay, walked to the front door and kicked the hell out after 14 years of service. Her husband had fallen into a depression that she had tried pull him out of but could not, that is until a clan of Nazis waltzed into town and brain washed him and a few other idiots that had wanted to belong. Her husband had allowed himself to believe that what the “brotherhood” quoted made a lot of sense. They had promised him a high-paying job as a structural engineer making around 70,000 a year to start. All they had to do was pick up and move to Nashville, TN. However, the most saddest and heartbreaking thing that had broken Ann’s heart was that she had been forced to leave behind something that she would never forgive her husband for all because of his pride, and a brotherhood that thought being white was right and all other races would burn in hell. She closed her eyes. She could not believe her husband believed that white power bullshit! She despised that racist hate group for thrusting the almighty dollar sign in front of her husband's face knowing that he needed a job, but that job came at a price and of course, that was joining their Hitler loving community. She was no racist and nor would their son be. She had fought her husband tooth and nail to keep their son away from the brotherhood, but as time went on he became abusive mentally and physically. He had beaten her so bad that she had no other choice but to let her son go with his father because she had passed the hell out. When she woke up her entire body was wracked with pain. The bastard had even left her lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood once. She had crawled from room to room searching for her son but he was gone. She would never forget the look on his face while his father beat her to the ground. She had begged William not to do in that front of their son; he had laughed and told his son that this is how you make your wife submissive. If she had had any strength left in her body, she would have clawed his eyeballs out. By the time they arrived back home she had managed to crawl to the bathroom and locked herself inside not wanting to let her son see the scares and bruises on her body. The man she had once known, as her husband had become a lying, cheating, and cold hearted, womanizing, manipulating monster! She had had every intention, of leaving him. She had tried to sneak her and her son out while William had been asleep but he had woken up when he heard the car start up and hauled ass outside. He broke out the driver side window and yanked me out of the car, which was when he had threatened to take their son away where she would never see him again if she tried to leave with him again. She knew he meant it the way his cold calculating eyes glared at her. She tried to pull away from him to make sure her son was all right but he grabbed her, yanked open the back passenger door unbuckled their son and told him to go inside. He then forced her to the backseat of their car where he preceded to rape her. She didn't dare scream out because she didn’t want her son or the neighbors to hear her and come outside or worse call the police. While he raped her, she allowed her mind to drift off into a place where it was just her, her son and the secret that only three others knew about. She shook her head trying to clear the painful memories and headed towards the house. God when would all this end? All the lies that had been told, the lives that were ruined had weighed her down heavily. Her life may be over but that did not mean her son’s life had to be. She would find a way for her son to be free even if it meant her life.She and her husband had always had black friends and they were the nicest people you would ever want to meet. Until recently her husband hadn’t had a problem with black people, now not only was her husband saying racist things, their son was now saying words that he’d never said before and that angered her most of all. Every chance she had alone with her son she tried to undo what that evil organization, her husband included had instilled in her baby. She would tell her son that not all people were bad, and that he could be friends with any race, creed, or color he wanted, and never let anyone change him into something he did not want to be. She reminded him of his friends Tony and Tori whom which happen to be black that lived down the street. Tori was the cuties little girl with beautiful brown eyes. “They are your friend’s right”? Yes mom Alton said looking down as if he was ashamed, and they have been nice to you right? He shook his head yes. Therefore, you see baby not everyone is as the Nazi’s say there are. You see your dad takes you to these meetings in hope that you will follow him…to one-day take over the plans he is trying so hard to bring to life. In time, you may love to do what your father does for a living as an engineer, but not this racist group that he has taken in as his so-called family now. They do not care about anything but themselves, their color, their race only baby… you are better than that! Do not let them change you no matter what; okay Alton … promise sweetheart, that you will not let them change you. He looked at her with big whisky brown eyes and said, promise mommy. She smiled and kissed the top of his head. She sent up a silent prayer to lord above to watch over her son and not allow him to become tainted by the evil that had its claws in her husband, because at this point her husband’s mind could not be changed. They both had a secret that they had kept for years now, she prayed to the lord almighty to forgive them for what had transpired and hoped that it would not send their souls to hell for it. That secret was another one of the reasons why they were moving, however if that did not send them to hell this Nazi group was a one way ticket straight to hell in a hand basket. She smoothed her son’s hair out across his head; go on baby… go play now before it gets to dark, I will start dinner.

  Alton hugged his mom and ran out of the house with his bow and arrow in his hand. Once outside he saw Tori and her brother skating in the street. Hey, can I skate with you?

  Tony stared at him and said no… if you didn’t like us black folks why should we play with you?

  Shut up, Tori yelled at her brother. Don’t mind him, you can play with us.

  No Tony said; “you can play with him” I am going in the house I won’t be seen with someone that hates our color.

  I do not hate your color Alton said in a low voice.

  Oh yea Tony taunted then why have you and your daddy been attending the clan meetings in town?

  I do not know; my father makes me go. I don’t really want to.

  Tony, Tori their mom said it’s time to come inside. Alton honey it’s getting late you need to start heading home okay.

  Just then Alton’s dad pulled into the driveway, do not tell my son what to do! Don’t you ever… he pointed his finger at Ms. Johnson; tell my son what to do understand?

  Ms. Johnson stepped outside and walked right up to him, quietly she asked him what has gotten into you? We all use to be friends; we have all la…

  William grabbed her by the throat however, he did not squeeze, and he leaned down so that his lips were almost touching her ear. Her perfume wafted up to his nose and he closed his eyes suppressing whatever it was he was feeling. Do not ever let our little secret slip out of lips or not only will you come up missing Ann, “my wife” will too.

  Yanking away, she whispered… you bastard, you may try to threaten me, but
we all know you cannot hide the fact of what has been done. Ann does not deserve this treatment from you, she held you down while you were out of work; she held your family together, you have taken something as precious as your son away from her. Your son will never know he has a…she bit her lip…I hope you rot in hell for all the pain you have caused Ann, your son and my family! She turned and walked away quickly.

  You fucking bitch! You watch yourself or you will be sorry! Ms. Johnson rolled her eyes while slamming the door in his face.

  William yanked his son by the arm, hauled him inside, and all but threw him on the couch. His dad had a murderous look on his face. If I ever catch you standing, playing, talking or even laughing with those niggers across the street or any nigger for that matter I will beat you do you understand me son.

  Alton did not answer. That got him his very first slap across his face and it hurt!

  His mother ran in and tried to block her son but his father wanted his answer.

  He slapped her and pulled her by the hair, grabbed her throat squeezing hard and chocked her.

  Alton jumped up and started kicking and hitting him for hurting his mother but his dad was stronger than he was. He dad backhanded him so hard he knocked him unconscious.

  Alton slowly started to wake up. He was on his bed, his head was hurting, and his jaw felt like it was on fire. There was an ice pack behind his head and a cool towel on his forehead. He tried to sit up but he immediately felt dizzy and nauseated, he closed his eyes and called out to his mom. She did not respond or come to him. However his dad did. He threw another wet rag on the nightstand and told him to clean up and get ready for dinner but before his dad walked out; he fixed his eyes on him and repeated himself as he had in their living room.

  ” Do you understand me son in a “try me if dare tone”. Y…yes I understand Alton stated biting the inside of his jaw.

  Good, keep that in mind the next time you decide to hang out and play with niggers! Oh and just to let you know we will be moving in a week instead of at the end of the month. Pack your room up I do not think your mother will be able to… she broke her hand. Smiling Sr. walked out of his son’s room whistling. At that very moment, Alton hated his dad even more so now. He would never forgive him for hitting him and beating his mother. He made a promise to himself that when he got older and stronger he would make sure that his dad would get his come up in’s as his mom sometimes said; and his hand would deliver it.

  Chapter 1

  Years later and now sixteen years old, Alton and his family had lived in Nashville, TN. The school he attended was Cane Ridge High School. He was now in the tenth grade. MS. Bell his English and Science teacher was boring. He had been drawing pictures of guns inside a swastika symbol when in walked the cutest girl he had ever seen. He had to shake his head and do a double take of her face. She had a beautiful smile, exotic brown eyes, she wore her hair pulled back in a tight long ponytail, he looked down at her feet, she had on what he’d heard the other girls call Mary Jane shoes, dark blue skinny jeans and a crisp white collared shirt, and did I mention a beautiful smile? Damn was it getting hot in here? He took his jacket off. His hormones had been going haywire here lately and all he wanted to do was touch girls, “white girls” that is however, his brow furrowed, there was only one problem, this particular girl was a “black girl. Oh, he had many black girls in his school but he hadn’t been attracted to any of them and rarely did he ever talk to them. He’d been known as the stuck up racist white boy that only hung out with his own kind. She glanced around the room then what seemed like a gut punch to the stomach her eyes zeroed in on him and held for a split second then she looked back at the teacher. She made him sit up straight though. Her eyes roamed the classroom once again looking for a seat he supposed, when her eyes landed back on him her smile increased just a little. His heart kicked a few speeds into overdrive. Nate leaned over snickering and whispered who is darky looking at? Now on any other day he would have shrugged his shoulder and pretended to laughed with his so-called Nazi friends just to play along but he did not like that name one little bit. It really sickened him to act like someone he was not. He’d been teased once when he first arrived here. Up until the other kids from the Nazi organization, here in the school scooped him up, shaved his head, and threw a Swastika shirt on him and everyone started to see whom he hung out with, they never really fucked with him again. Since then his father had taken the lead here in Antioch and now at school all the boys looked to him as the leader of their school clan. Since then he’d grew his hair back out while half the others kept their heads shaved. They didn’t have wear Nazi clothing to school anymore which was a good thing. His father at the least had the smarts to change that. He turned his head away from Nate that needle nose prick this time though. Not even acknowledging what the idiot had said. Ms. Bell interrupted the class to introduce their new classmate, “class this is Yazmine Carmichael. Yazmine would you like to tell us a few things about yourself.

  She looked around again then straightened her back and held her head up high. Hello, as Ms. Bell stated my name is Yazmine Carmichael I am from Franklin, TN where I attended Franklin high School. My family moved to Nashville because my father is in the National Guard here in Donaldson, and they thought it was best for us move closer to his job. My mother opened up her own daycare center here in Antioch. I really love kids and I help my mom after school. My favorite hobby is reading and writing; I practically live at the bookstore. I also like to sing and dance just for fun, although I do not think anyone would like to hear me sing… my brother says I sound like a broken record so I mainly sing to myself, all of the classroom chuckled at that with the exception of the skinhead boys in the back of the class. She continued…I listen to all types of music. I also like to go to the movies. She looked up at the teacher; shrugging her shoulders… well I guess that’s it.

  Ms. Bell smiled at her; you did a great job welcome to our classroom Yazmine. Now if you will, please have seat by the young man seated next to the window his name Alton Laurenitis. Alton, would you please raise your hand so she will know which one you are?

  He frowned, there are other seats there,” he pointed and there… could she not sit in one of those seats?

  Alton she will sit next you and for that you will be her lab partner as well.

  He glared at Yazmine, he really did not want her to sit by him, if his father ever showed up; and saw her sitting with him he would probably flip out on him, his teacher and Yazmine and he did not want any harm to come to either of them. His dad may have thought he had taught him how to be a racist but his mother’s words still rang loud and clear in his head.

  Yazmine sat down then leaned over to place her backpack against the wall next to his. Her perfume smoothly wisped up to his nose and he turned his head and closed his eyes memorizing it. When she sat up he opened his eyes and stared right at her, out of the corner of his eye Ms. Bell asked everyone to go around the room and introduce themselves to Yazmine, of course that took forever… by the time they made it back to him his palms were sweating. She looked at him and gave a warm smiled.

  Alton’s tongue felt thick. What was wrong with him? Get it together AJ stop acting like a wuss he said to himself. I’m Alton Laurenitis he said showing the brightest set of pearly whites Yazmine had ever seen. Her stomach fluttered. It’s nice to meet you Alton, the teacher coughed, oh… I mean all of you, sorry. Ms. Bell raised her eyebrow as if to say watch it or something. Hmm… she shook it off and opened her book. Boys should be the last thing on her mind. Back home she had friends that were either pregnant or already had one child and pregnant with number two, some had even had abortions; that would not be her, she glanced at her new lab partner… my, my , my he was a looker, however not even the handsome Alton would be able to sway her. She smiled at him then turned to face the front of the classroom. He had to establish a distance and a barrier between them now or else there would be no way he could make it through the year with sweetness here so close to hi
m. He wouldn’t be able to keep his hands to himself and being that she was pigment challenged, one slip up and it would cripple his whole plan in deceiving his dad and the brotherhood that he wasn’t all about the white power BS. He leaned over to her and said… just so you know we will never be friends, buddies or pals. His words wiped the smile on her face away. Had she heard him correctly? This time she glared at him, excuse me she whipered? You heard me I hardly doubt anything is wrong with your ears. She glowered at him; I don’t want or need to be friends with you she said matter of factly. Good he sneered back, keep it that way, I don’t like your kind. My kind? Oh, that ate at her. He was either gay which was fine by her, to each its own on that one; or he was an f’ing raciest! She kept her composure but she was her mother’s daughter through and through and that meant this stuck up egotistical little snot nose jerk needed to be put in his place. She leaned in as close as she could get. She watched his eyes widen as she whispered “Are you gay? What the hell… No! I’m not gay! Well then he must be racist she thought. She went for “the let’s play stupid roll “and asked him why they couldn’t be acquaintances. She had plenty of those but no one she could really call a friend. Look he said clenching his teeth… he held up his swastika drawing so she could see it. That was plenty confirmation enough for her. Now it was time to return the favor. I can read you. You are a stuck up white boy probably pretending to be someone you are not. Your parents probably would die if you ever brought a black girl home because umm… let me guess, that was not how they were raised and neither were you; but let me tell you one thing, we all bleed red no matter what color we are, and whether you don’t like “my kind “or not I will continue to be nice to you because you have probably never been with a black girl a day in your life, so honestly… you really don’t have a reason to not like just our kind nor do you have no reason not to like me! Huh I can tell by the look in your eyes that you’ve thought about it but was probably to chicken shit to do anything about it, know this… you couldn’t handle someone like me and so your right I don’t want or need to have you as a friend. That white power BS that was ingrained into your head is all a bunch of redneck racist lies to cover up what I can guarantee members of your group have and probably will always continue to stick there white dicks into black pussy. That’s why your white women want to keep their legs spread for a black man’s dick, so you keep that in mind when you are trying to sleep tonight. I hope it eats at you! Now run home and tell that! She smiled and straightened. Jeez, what was his deal? Alton’s jaw flexed, His boys were looking at him wondering why he was even holding a conversation with her and why the hell was he leaning so close her. Her smell was intoxicating to him. He had not even realized he had inched closer to her. Everything she had said was true, she had read clearly. Alton stood up Ms. Bell I need to use the restroom please. Hurry back she said giving him a puzzled look. Alton left and never came back because the bell rang a few minutes later. After class, two girls approached her and asked her to join them at their lunch table. I gladly accepted the invite and headed to the cafeteria with them. I’m Kim and this is Azari we started here about a month ago it’s not so bad. Kim pointed to six tables; you have your popular rich and or cheerleader girls, then you have your big bully girls, then you have your sports jocks, the nerds, band member squad, your skin heads and goths, then last but not least you now have the rest of us normal people; all three chuckled. She turned and stared at “the skin head table” because jerk face hotty in her science class that she’d sat next to was sitting at that skin head table. Darn… she knew why he had an attitude, being nice to him really may have gone straight out the door. However, she would try to be nice to him until he slipped up and said the “N-word” to her! Being called the N-word really didn’t bother her, she had every race color and creed in her family. Her family reunion was the color of a rainbow and then some. Her brother dated white girls, her aunt had biracial children, and her dad had a son from a previous marriage that was also biracial. When her eyes landed on him, he was staring at her as well. Her heartbeat sped up a little and she turned around. She looked back at her two new acquaintances; okay then… good to know she said. She would not dare allow him to see how affected she was by the look he’d just given her. The rest of their lunch they sat and half ate their lunches while laughing and talking. She liked them a lot. They liked the same things that she did, and that was an A+ in her book. The bell rang and they went their separate ways to go to their next class.