Carved

CHAPTER 7

ELLA

Say yes.

I had to clear my head this morning.  I couldn’t sleep with the numerous thoughts that kept running through my mind.  I put on my running shoes needing a run. Dylan had called several times last night while I was working at Duck’s, but I ignored all of his calls.  I knew Vicky had gone over to cook him dinner. I didn’t want to hear her with him. It didn’t matter. I heard her leaving his house this morning. Not that I care what he does on his own time, because I don’t.  It’s not like he’s still my boyfriend and I have feelings for him, because I don’t. At one time he was my boyfriend though. I find him being with Vicky, a friend of mine…it is despicable, detestable, disrespectable and disgraceful.   I know dating his cousin wasn't good either, but I didn't know. Dylan never talked about his extended family.

He was with Vicky.  A friend of mine. It was another reminder that he has changed.  I wonder what life would have been like if things didn’t change. My last words to him were “Stay away”.  I had wished every day I could have taken them back. That he didn’t go. Now I’m not sure.

I was near our special place when he called this morning.  It has been years since the area was cleaned of its weeds and fallen branches.  However, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the beauty of the old oak tree near the running water of the creek.  Bright golden leaves cover the large oak to cast a protective shadow over the bench beneath it. It was our place to get away from the troubles and just be together.  I needed you Dyl.  Why didn’t you stay with me?  
My breath leaves me when I move closer to see what is hiding below the shadow of the tree.  Tears run down my face as I place my fingers along the deep ugly carvings on the bench. So many years have passed by and the bench looks the same.  There’s no warping and no deterioration. It has weathered some of the greatest storms. Including the storms we brought to it. It survived through the ages and holds its beauty.  Still, as good as new, lay the carvings we made of our initials inside a small heart. Above that, like a scar left behind by a hated hand, is the deep ugly carving of an x to cross out the heart of young love.

This was our safe haven.  Our place to relax and forget everything for a short time.  Mr. Skuld had placed the wooden bench here before he passed away.  He made it from one of the fallen trees from his land. Dylan found this area along the creek when he was helping Mrs. Skuld with yard work.  It was something Dylan’s father forced him to do. His father started from the bottom and worked his way up. He worked in a mailroom and as a bartender part time during college.  He wanted his sons to know what it was like to “earn their worth”, as he would say.  

A week after Dylan moved here he started helping Mrs. Skuld on weekends when school started and weekdays during the summer.  Mrs. Skuld was a good friend of Grammy. She owned one of the largest properties in town. I used to love going with Dylan to help.  Her large Colonial Tudor style manor was one of my favorites. I just found out she has sold the home to move to Florida near Grammy.  She said she sold it to a young man for his future wife. I know I would never be able to afford the two million dollar home, but I was still devastated.  

The house and the land had been owned by the Skuld family for centuries.  Mrs. Skuld had been here since before anybody can remember. She was the lady that always had cookies for us kids when we stopped to visit and listen any time we needed to talk.  She was older than Grammy, but looked closer to my mom’s age. She said she had the best plastic surgery money could buy. She never looked fake like some do after facelifts. Nobody could tell Mrs. Skuld had any work done on her at all.  All of the women wanted to know what kind of moisturizers she used. They begged to have her beauty secrets. She said it was love. She was beautiful and we loved her. She loved us. There wasn’t a kid in town that ever had a bad thing to say about her.  This was the place to be after school, but Dylan and I tried to keep it our little secret.