Once a Dog Always a Dog!

Chapter 19

I wasn't sure where Meagan was and to tell the truth, that was one of the last things on my mind as Cheyenne, myself, and her sister made it back to the Walt Disney World resort. The resort was very apologetic and accommodating and they put me and Cheyenne in a suite by ourselves and they put her sister in a nice room as well. "We'll have someone bring your things from your old room," they said to me. "Is there anything else that we can do for you?" they graciously asked. "No. This is plenty," I replied. Everyone associated with Derrick's team came to me and Cheyenne and consoled us and offered us many words of encouragement. And Derrick's coach informed us that they were going to withdraw from the tournament. "No, Coach Cohen. The kids have to play tomorrow. Derrick wouldn't have wanted it any other way. It doesn't matter if they win or lose, just make sure they play and that they play their hearts out," Cheyenne said to the coach as she held his hands. "Cheyenne, we are so sorry, you cannot even begin to imagine," Coach Cohen explained. Eventually me and Cheyenne made it up to our suite, and we didn't turn on the  television. 

We simply took off our clothes and laid on the bed and turned out the lights and held each other. "Baby, this is my fault. I shoulda been there. I should have been there!" I vented in frustration as I started to cry. "Kha'Darious, listen to me," Cheyenne said as she sat up. "Listen. Can you control whether or not one strand of hair grows on your head?" "No." "Can you control whether the sun rises or whether the sun sets?" "No." "Only God can control those things and in the same way only God can control life. This was God's will, Kha'Darious." I just sighed and shook my head and continued to cry. And me and Cheyenne both just laid on the bed holding each other as tight as we could and we cried our eyes out for hours. Neither one of us could sleep. I knew that Cheyenne was such a big person in every way. I mean, she had every reason in the world to blame me for what had happened and to be bitter and resentful, but she did the exact opposite. "Let's just pray," Cheyenne suggested. I wasn't in the mood to pray in front of Cheyenne. I didn't mind praying alone but I felt like praying with her required me to do some more cleaning up of myself so I asked Cheyenne to pray and she did. 

She asked the Lord to be with us and comfort us with his grace and the reassurance of knowing that LL was with him in heaven. "Thank you, baby," I said to her when she was done praying. "Cheyenne, how do we go on with life after something like this?" I asked. Cheyenne didn't have the answer to that question and I certainly didn't. But just as surely as the sun had set that evening, as me and Cheyenne lay in the bed consoling each other, the sun eventually began to rise again. And as much as I didn't want to live, and with as much pain as the both of us were feeling, we knew that just as the sun would continue to rise and fall each day, that life would go on. So somehow, some way, we had to find the strength to continue on the journey of life as God saw fit for us.