The Lady In The Creek, The Story Of Joy

Chapter 4

That was a year ago. Daron, Tracey, Jay and Pam are married living in their houses. Jay and Pam are expecting a baby at the end of the year. Mica and I have been courting and everything seems to be going well. Until tonight.

Jay and I are walking down the road and I’m deep in thought of that day at their house. Then I look over at Jay and ask him “ why aren’t you at home with Pam?” “ Doesn't she need you with her tonight?”

Jay looked at me and said “ She’s at her parents' house. I went back home when you passed out to let her know how you took the news and she said that I should stay with you tonight. She knows that we have a special bond and that I would be the only one that would be able to console you.”

I gave him a half smile because it was true. We knew how to console each other like nobody else could.

I tell him to thank her when he gets home the next day and he nods his head.

We turned off to start walking through what we considered a park. It has a creek running through it and families stopped here to have lunch and let the kids run around. There’s a small bridge over the creek so you could get to the other side. It’s really nice during the day time but I had never been through it at night, especially this late at night, and it was kind of creepy. 

There are two bridges that you can cross. One leads up the road with the creek running under it and the other one also leads across the creek into the park.Some people even love to swim in the creek or just walk around in it to cool off. And you can get nice size bluegill from the creek.

Next to the park is the Wilson’s store. I look at it and in my head I can see Mica standing there putting bags of grain in someone's wagon and wiping his brow.

I love the way that the water flows. It flows in an S shade.It comes from up a ways and then flows down and has a small bend in it and stays straight for a few minutes then it bends again and then flows. It actually flows all through our town. You'll find people swimming and fishing in different areas. Each area is just as peaceful as the park.

Both sides have beautiful flowers on both sides but the ones on the other side always seem to be more beautiful. Like someone planted them. There are plenty of trees to sit under and get shade. There’s room for kids to run around and have fun while their ma and pa’s are sitting relaxing. You can hear the birds chirping and animals running through it.

Later in years when someone said where they lived they will refer to it across the creek. And depending on which side of the creek you lived on determined on how much money you had. This side of the creek ended up being the low to medium income and the side that I lived on was the side that had money. But at this time it’s reversed. I live on the poor side ( even though we have money my family doesn't live like it) and Mica lives on the side with money.

In the winter time the only thing that you’ll see in the park are animal tracks. Once in a while you’ll see human tracks where someone had to walk into town for groceries or to see the doctor. But being Michigan the winters get bad, so you won’t see a lot of people coming out. 

The park is kind of creepy at night when everything is quiet. All you can hear is the water running. It is kind of soothing at the same time too. But tonight it’s more on the creepy side. You can barely see anything even with a full moon because there’s a weird fog that’s out which I’ve never seen before but this fog just doesn’t feel right. 

I feel like there’s someone watching me but I can’t see anyone. I have a shiver running up my spine but it’s not a chill shiver. But I try to shake it off because it has to be me thinking about losing Mica.