The 7th

Chapter 5

The strong smell of oak and musty paper was heavy in the room. Not heavy in a bad way to me though. It was more of the heavy you feel when you wrap yourself up in your favorite blanket on the couch during the coldest days of winter. A comforting heavy that made you feel warm and safe. A coffee pot sat over next to the door on a small wooden table percolating. I myself had never been real big on coffee, preferring the sweet taste of an energy drink over the bitterness of the black liquid. The events of the morning had not allowed for my routine stop at the store to pick up said energy drink so when Walt asked if I'd like a cup I readily accepted.

"How do you take it son?" Walt asked me using the parental terminology that only he, my mother, and my father could ever get away with. I don't generally like being referred to as son, boy, kid, etc. I find them demeaning and belittling. Two things I have always struggled with. From Walt though, it was different. The word was filled with love and caring. You could hear it in the way he said it. Never short and chopped, spit at you as if to make the force of the word cut you down the way an enemy would. He would draw it out in perfect southern style, and a warmth could be felt on the word. The edges of the word almost curved and soft instead of the sharp and hard insult I would generally feel.

I replied with the joke him and I kept running more often than not. My general reply was "I take my coffee like I take my women. Not often and not to hot." Like I've said, self-deprecating humor is what I am all about. Keeps me in my place. Today I must've been feeling especially chipper because I replied "I like my coffee like I like my women. Hot, blonde, and sweet."

Walt chuckled. "I like mine like I like my women to son."

"Yea? How's that?" I asked already knowing the answer as I had heard it a thousand times, but it still amused me every time I heard it.

"Black and bitter." He smiled at my laugh. Walt had grown up in a time when interracial marriage was not well thought of. Even in the liberal states it wasn't often seen and when it was the couple was persecuted more often than not. If it was that way in the liberal states you can imagine what it was like in the heavily republican south. Still Walt had shoulder the burden and come out the other side with the respect of his family, friends, and the adoration of the town. He didn't talk about it much, and especially less since his wife had passed on. Once I had asked about it and his reply boiled down to "I had to explain to my family and the good people of this town that the heart wants what the heart wants. At the end of the day there is no power, no hate, strong enough to put out the fires and the light of a true love. That's what June and I had. In the end the people of this town, my mama and daddy included, could fight us all they wanted and if it had just been us two as individuals trying to fight back we wouldn't have stood a chance. But with love, with love we were armored and there was no man alive that could pierce it."

Walt believed in love and the power that it had. I wasn't so sure I did. I could only imagine what they had endured in their lives. Walt poured the cups, brought one over to me, then turned to Cami gesturing with the second cup in a "would you like a cup" manner. Cami shook her head.

"Never really cared for it. Guess I take it like I take my women too." She smirked.

Walt had a questioning look on his face. He was waiting for the punchline it seemed. When Cami was not forthcoming with one he had to ask. "Well how do you like it then sug?"

"Not often, only when I really need it, and then I like it hot and in my face." She said with as serious a face as she could muster. For a minute Walt just stared back at her and I wondered if she had stepped over some line. I thought it was a pretty good one myself but was reserving my laughter for Walt's judgement of the joke. All at once he boomed out a huge laugh that startled me, almost making me slosh my coffee out of its cup.