Page 57 of Ezekiel
“Fuck it. If she doesn’t want to leave, she doesn’t want to leave,” Kai scoffed. Perhaps Kai had not been the best choice of brothers to call in a crisis like this.
“But I want her to come with me,” I muttered.
“Why?” he tossed back nonchalantly.
“I don’t know why. I just do.” I kicked the smudge of dried dirt that stuck to the bottom step of my back porch, trying like hell to find the answer to his question. It was true, I wanted her to leave with me. But I couldn’t force her. Not after everything that Zion had already taken from her. I would not steal her choice in this. But fuck! Why would she want to stay here in a place like this?
“I don’t know what to tell you, man,” Kai replied.
“Yeah, I hear ya. Hey, I’m going to find something to do to keep myself busy for now. Thanks for hearing me out, bro,” I retorted quickly, ending the call as quickly as it had begun. I scrolled through the short list of contacts on my phone, my thumb idling back and forth between Ollie’s number and Levi’s. Who to call? On the one hand, Ollie would be the most sympathetic, but he was also the one most likely to give me shit. Levi was so serious I wasn’t sure I could handle his logic. Perhaps his logic was exactly what I needed.
Then the answer came to me. Delilah.
I quickly pressed on Ollie’s contact number, the familiar jingle of digits being dialed sounding faintly in the background as the call connected.
“Hello, newly wed bro! How’s it hanging?” Ollie’s cheerful voice rang out over the line.
“Is Delilah there?” I asked, knowing full well she was.
“Always is. Can’t have the assholes of Zion fucking with my wife, now can I?” he chortled off, his tone half sarcastic and half serious. “Time for some more girl talk?”
“I actually need to talk to her, if that’s okay,” I muttered with a huff of frustration.
“Well, don’t let me stop you. Delilah?” he called out after his wife in the distance, his voice somewhat muffled as he pulled the receiver away from his face. “Here she is. Catch you later.”
“Zeke?” Delilah’s voice sounded as Ollie handed over the phone.
“Hey there, Lilah,” I greeted her.
“What’s wrong?” The concern in her voice was evident immediately.
“Why do you think something’s wrong?” I chuckled humorlessly.
“I can read you better than that. What’s going on?” In such a short time, Delilah had become my closest confidant in the family, save Malachi. Scratch that, she easily tied with Malachi. They each helped me in completely different facets.
“I think I fucked up,” I admitted, sitting in my office chair. Talia was taking a nap, or at least I was pretty sure she was. I had the door closed, regardless.
“What did you do?”
“Your conversation with her the other day, you and Ruth mentioned leaving Zion, and I hadn’t mentioned it to her yet and —” I began, but she quickly cut me off.
“You hadn’t told her!” she all but shrieked over the phone. I could hear the sound of her hand smacking against her forehead, and I couldn’t blame her. It had been a dumb move. Maybe. I still didn’t know what the right answer was, to be honest. Her voice brought me back to the present. “So what happened?”
“I got home from the church last night and everything went to shit. She was angry, and hurt, and I can’t blame her. But I don’t know how I could have handled the situation better, either. It’s not something I could have just come out and said. And now we are barely speaking to one another and… fuck, Delilah. I don’t know. Things went from heated and angry to just… sad and quiet. And I don’t know what to do.” My words flew from my lips in a rush, one of my hands tugging at my curly hair in frustration.
“I can understand that. Why do you say things are sad now?”
“Because she doesn’t want to leave.” It was almost impossible to keep the despair from showing through my voice. The thought of leaving was something I could not get off my mind for months now. But the thought of leaving Talia behind?
“And that makes you sad?” Delilah questioned.
“Yes! Fuck!”
“Why?” Her gentle tone was unassuming. She was simply trying to understand. I loved that about Delilah. There was never any judgment with her. Only the gentle desire to understand and to accept. It was why I could feel so close to her so quickly.
“What do you mean?” I pushed her question off, unsure of how to answer.
“I mean, is it because you want to stay with her?” she implored, urging the answer from me that I wasn’t yet ready to answer. I don’t think I even had an answer to that yet.
