A Walk in The Woods

A Forbidden Love

Back in the days, in the 1930's, I was 25 years old. My family was rich and powerful in the USA; my father owned a big oil company, which was very popular in the whole country. I was young, happy and at this time, I thought nothing bad could ever happen to me. I thought.

Things changed when I met a man, Johnny. He was 25 years old too and worked for my father when he could. My father didn't like him a lot but in our small town, Johnny was the only one who could repair tools and objects useful for my father's company. Our friendship began one day, when I had to get something in my father's office.

I ran into him on my way to the office. He greeted me and gave me a small smile. I always knew him as someone who was very polite with a lot of self-confidence. I remember the first complete conversation we had. My perception of him changed that day. I discovered that he was really more intelligent than what he seemed to be. I started to enjoy talking to him and then being with him. We even used to walk together in the woods behind the factory after his work. I didn't understand at first why he had to have a small job like he had. He had the intelligence, determination and self-confidence to have a more influent job, a more important one.

Days passed, years too, and my friendship with Johnny began to be more than that. We build it up and made it stronger. We both liked each other a lot. I knew my father didn't like the fact that I enjoyed talking and being with him. But I didn't care at this time. Johnny was on my mind 24/7, and nothing could have stopped me from being with him, not even my dad or my whole family. I knew they were against our relationship. Being together wasn't good for my family's reputation. But as I already said, I didn't care. You know how it is, I suppose. When you're in love, you get really happy and nothing else seems to matter except the person you love.

Things got complicated when my father tried to keep me away from Johnny, and then forbid our relationship. He said Johnny wasn't good enough for me, that I can have someone better than a boy like him. As you probably know, I got mad at him and still continued to see Johnny.

One day, I met Johnny at our usual spot, near the forest, and I found him in really bad shape. He told me to not worry about him, that he was fine and that he just got mad at his brother and that it went wrong. It happened more than one time. And I believed him everytime. But I shouldn't have.

I saw Johnny for the last time fifty years ago, at his funeral. I was the only white woman there. Everyone else was dark-skinned.

It's only years later that I understood everything. My family didn't like Johnny for one reason. He was black. He wasn't par of the course to them. My father expected me to stick to his rules; to forget about Johnny. It didn't make sense at all to me. I discovered that my father paid men to beat him up. They forced him to avoid me. He refused and paid the consequences for it. He ate crow everytime.

They killed him, he killed him. Because he was black.

I've never seen my dad again. He broke my heart and fifty years later, it is still broke.

Stop racism. It breaks people.