Sheriff ✔

New to the small southern town, brown-skinned Evalyn Brown answers an ad for domestic help. Enter her new employer, the disagreeable and decidedly white William Davis, who works for the town's police department. As time progresses, their relationship to each other, their small town, and the people who inhabit it changes. In the mid-1900s in a place so easily described as backwards, change can very rapidly become a dangerous friend.

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He said nothing but continued to approach, and I started backing up, my hands in front of me to create space. He advanced until I had nowhere to go, and the stories of southern Negro women being lynched, beaten, raped, and on swirled in my mind. There were some battles to fight, and this was not one of them. I just wanted to appease whatever angry beast I had stirred within him and go back to my role as his quiet housekeeper.

"William, I - ."

Idiot! His whispered name slipped from my mouth before I could stop it. Today was the worst possible day to mistakenly call him by his first name. I closed my eyes as tears escaped out their corners. I didn't want to watch whatever was going to happen next.

"Look. At. Me."

His words were a constrictor that wound around my neck and tightened. His heady, hot breath fanned over my face. I opened my eyes and peered through my tear-blurred vision. His orbs were almost black as onyx, but tumultuous and frightening. He studied me and my pulse thudded deafeningly in my ears.

"I want you to stop." His voice was low and threatening.