Page 93 of One More Kiss

The Wonders We Find

Laynie Bynum

Chapter1

Corbin'ssmall voice pierces through the fog of sleep, and I groan, burying my head deeper into the pillow.

"Mama. Mama. Wakey, wakey. Eggs and bakey," he says in a sing-song voice as he jumps up and down on the foot of my bed.

I groan and pull the covers up over my head, trying to block out the sound of his voice and the light filtering in through the window.

"No, mama," he says as he laughs and pulls the covers back down. "You gotta get up. It's Wonder Day."

I smile, even though my head is buried in the pillow and he can't see it. Wonder Day might not be a holiday for the rest of the world, but it certainly was for us. More important than Christmas or our birthdays. It’s a day all our own. One of the most special traditions we have.

Six years ago today, my life should have ended. Would have, in fact, if not for an angel. I’m not the religious type. That stopped the moment my hyper-religious parents threw their own teenage daughter out of the house for getting pregnant. You know, the same kind of 'sacred creation' they'd previously protested should be protected. When their so-called protection went out of the window, so did my belief in any sort of organized religion.

But still, I cannot deny that what I saw was an angel. Sure, it's very possible that it was a human and I was in no state to comprehend what I was seeing, but still. I like to believe the former.

I'd known I was pregnant with Corbin for about a month. I remember feeling so scared and alone. I had no idea how I was going to take care of a baby. At the young and venerable age of seventeen, I was homeless thanks to my wonderful parents. With no family support, no home, no job, no access to proper medical care, I was hopeless. I was sleeping on the streets, begging for money, and eating out of garbage cans. I was desperate and ready to give up.

Corbin's father was no help. The asshole manager at the pizzeria I worked at filled me with glittering promises of leaving his wife and stealing me into the sunset, but the moment I told him that we'd created life he'd immediately went back on everything he'd ever said. I'd lost my job, my lover, my parents, and my future in one blisteringly painful week.

My life was over.

There was no way out.

The only thing I could think about was the waterfall my parents took me to when I was little. It was so beautiful and peaceful there. I decided that if I was going to die, I wanted it to be in a place that meant something to me.

So, I took the last of the little money I had and bought a bus ticket to the waterfall. I didn't have a plan, I just knew that I wanted to be there when it happened.

When I arrived, I stood at the concrete barrier near the top and looked out at the water for a long time. The water was a deep blue, and the sun shone off of it in a million different ways. Through the swirling water, I could see the rocks at the bottom, and the fish swimming around. It was so peaceful and calming. I started to cry as I realized that this would likely be the last time I ever saw anything so beautiful.

With my vision blurred from the haze of tears, I scrambled around the barrier and out toward the rocky outcropping. The cold mist from the waterfall sprayed on my face and the sound of the water crashing down was so loud that it was almost deafening.

I climbed down onto the rocks, not caring that they were sharp and cutting into my hands and knees. I was too numb to feel pain. Some surface cuts and scrapes were nothing compared to the tumultuous emotions inside.

Something inside me wasn’t ready. So instead of jumping, I sat down on the edge of the outcropping, dangling my feet over the edge as I looked down at the water below. It was so deep and dark. I knew that if, or once, I fell, I would never come back up.

I'm not sure how long I sat there. It could have been minutes or hours, I don't really know. All I know is that at some point, I started to cry harder than I ever had in my life. Tears poured down my face, making my vision blurry and my nose run. My chest heaved with sobs and my throat constricted. I cried until there were no more tears left and my throat was raw from screaming. And then, when I had nothing left to give, I pushed myself to stand and prepared to jump.

Before I could though my foot slid forward on the rough rocks and I fell backward onto the rocks. A blinding pain seared through my skull as a hot, tingling sensation radiated across my head. The blood pulsed in my veins. My heart pounded in my ears. The world spun around me.

I knew it was the end. That my body would slide down into the falls and never come back up.

A tragic accident, the news would say in the morning. A terrible, tragic, accident.

The next thing I knew, someone was grabbing onto me, pulling me back from the edge. I couldn't see their face, but I could feel their hands on me, tight and strong. They lifted my body into their arms and then sat me down on the cement behind the barrier, far away from the waterfall.

I was shaking and crying, and I could barely see through the tears. But I could hear the person who saved me. They were talking to me softly, trying to calm me down as they evaluated the gash on my head.

“You’re safe.” they said. “You’re safe now. We will get you help. Don’t worry. You’ll live to see the beauty and wonder of life another day. I promise. You’re okay.”

Eventually, I started to calm down. The shaking stopped and the tears dried up, but my vision was still so blurry.

We sat there for a long time, waiting. I didn't have the mental capacity to know what we were waiting for. Time seemed to stretch on and then race forward. But then an ambulance showed up and whisked me away to the hospital before I could even gain the strength to thank the stranger.

Once they'd taken care of my wounds and concussion, the hospital staff went to work on getting me prenatal care, finding me housing, and just generally saving the life that I'd thought I didn't want.

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