Page 5 of Dare You to Run
Hence the reason for so many phone calls from people who weren’t really blood related, but family all the same.
I finally caved when Uncle Bishop’s name and picture of him and I from his wedding lit up my screen. I closed my eyes and gripped the steering wheel tighter, and let the phone ring until the last second.
I tapped the phone icon on the steering wheel and took a deep breath.
“Hello?”My voice shook and if they could see me, they’d see sweat dripping down my face.
“Dagen Rayne. Where are you?”Uncle Bishop’s deep voice boomed through the speaker.
“I, uh, I’m just taking a drive,”I told him.
“And where are you taking this drive?”
I bit the inside of my cheek and said,“I’m just in Houston. At that park you used to take me to.”
“You know your mom and dad have GPS and can see where you are, don’t you?”
I whispered“shit”having forgotten about that. Then I asked him,“Well if y’all know where I am, why are you calling me?”
“Just because we know where you are doesn’t mean we know where you’re going.”I stayed quiet, the wheels in my head spinning.“So. Where are you going, Day?”
“Would you believe me if I said I didn’t know?”I asked him.
“Yeah,”he replied.“Although, deep down, I think you know exactly where you’re going.”
He was right. If I could just admit it to myself, I’d be brave enough to answer the phone when Mom and Dad called. But I wasn’t ready to face the truth.
“Give me the phone,”I heard in the background and knew I was in for a talking to.
I looked at a sign on the side of the highway and saw that there was a rest stop up ahead. I switched lanes and decided to make a small detour.
“Day. What are you doing?”Anais, a woman who was my aunt but really more like a sister, was now taking over guilt trip duties.
Anais was only six years older than me and married to Uncle Bishop…who’s twelve years older than her. And she’s also the niece of his and Dad’s best friend, Uncle Phoenix, AKA Nix. AKA, Aunt Viv’s husband. AKA, ex-MLB pitcher and one of the best to ever play the game.
When Uncle Nix found out Uncle Bishop and Anais were together, it was almost the end of our family. It was months that I went without seeing Uncle Bish and it was pure torture, for me and my parents. Mom and Dad cried a lot during that time, but they also felt stuck in the middle of their friends who had chosen sides. It hurt like hell to have a piece of our family missing.
Uncle Nix and Uncle Bishop eventually made up as did he and Aunt Viv and Anais, but it took a bit before everything was back to the way it should have always been. Now, you’d never know there was a huge rift that almost tore the Mag Creek crew apart.
“I really don’t know, Ana,”I answered, truthfully.“I’m so pissed at them. How could they hide that from me?”
The tears began to fall again but this time they were hot and angry.
“Day. Be serious. Do you really think your mom and dad would burden you with something that heavy when you were so young?”
“Well what’s their excuse for not telling me once I was old enough to understand?”
“I can’t say exactly, but I do know a parent will do anything to protect their child. Your parents love you so much, Dagen. I have no doubt that they did what they thought was best.”
I pulled into the rest stop and parked under a bright lamp. “When did you find out?”
“Well I knew your mom had died when you were young and that your dad’s relationship with her wasn’t a good one. But it was probably the end of my freshman year at Rice when your mom, Camille, told me the truth about–”
“About how I’m the product of a rape?”
Her sigh was amplified in my quiet car.
“But now you are a product of pure love. You know what Cami once told me? She said that she despises the woman who brought you into this world for what she did to your dad. But then she said that as crazy as it sounds, she was also grateful. She said that it didn’t take knowing you for very long to realize that you were always meant to be her daughter.”I felt a lump in my throat clog the sob that so desperately wanted to break free.“You are so loved, Dagen. Your story may have started as a tragedy, but it has been filled with nothing but love and laughter ever since. You have to understand that your family did what they thought was right to protect you. Be angry. Yell, scream, kick something. But when you’re done and you remember what a selfless, loving family you have, be an adult and get your ass back home and apologize to your parents for making them worry.”
