EXCERPT IV...IS THE GRASS REALLY GREENER?

High school teacher, and single mother to a young son and troubled teen, Rayne has no time for love. But when it comes knocking at her door, can she say goodbye to an old ghost to release her past, and forgive herself? Today we feature main character #4...Rayne.


It was a rainy Saturday evening and they were stuck in the house with nothing to do. She had been working on a lesson plan while he watched TV and Bryant had just let for Troy’s house. Finishing her work and setting it aside she left her desk area and went to sit next to him on the couch in their family room.
Picking the boy up and sitting him on her lap she took a deep breath to inhale his scent. Fresh from a bath he smelled like Dial Spring Water soap and Johnson & Johnson shampoo. He looked nice and cozy in his Spider Man PJ’s.  She kissed the top of his head and rocked him in her arms.
“Mommy I’m bored…I’ve watched all the Toy Story movies and I want something else to do,” he complained.
“Like what honey?”
“I don’t know…I wanna play Legos,” he pouted.
“Okay baby come on we can play Legos,” she conceded removing him from her lap and preparing to follow him down the hall.
“I don’t wanna play with you,”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t play fair,” he explained, and then he crossed his arms and stomped to his room.
Puzzled by what this act was all about she decided to go along with him and followed him into his bedroom.
Pouring out all the Legos he began to assort the Legos into pile according to color.
“Honey, what did you mean when you said Mommy doesn’t play fair…sure I play fair,” she remarked.
“Uh uh…you didn’t play fair with Thierry,” he continued to pout.
“Ohhh. So is this what all the pouting is about?” she asked and reached for a blue Lego but cocked her head to the side when he snatched it out of her reach.
“You don’t Mommy. You got mad at him and never let him come back to play,” the little boy reminded her.
“Baby, it wasn’t like that at all. I was never mad at him, we just had different opinions and…”
“What’s an umpenyum Mommy?” Brody asked tilting his head sideways and screwing up his face forgetting for a brief moment he was supposed to be mad.
“An opinion is what we think about something; it doesn’t mean that it is true or real, but it is how a person thinks or feels about a particular thing. So Thierry and I had different opinions about some things in life that we couldn’t come to agree on and we needed to go different ways in life,” she explained hoping to put the subject to bed.
“So if you don’t agree with me we’re gonna stop speaking too?” he asked somewhat appalled at the thought of not speaking to his mommy again.
“No baby! That would never happen…it sometimes happens with adults but not mothers and their children,” she patiently explained. She didn’t relay to him that she and Thierry were speaking again. She didn’t want to get his hopes up, but they had been talking on the phone three times a week to check in on each other.
“What about daddies and their children?” he asked.
“Never them either, they love their children just as much as mommies do,”
“Will we ever get a new daddy mommy?”
“Mmm baby…I don’t know what the Lord has in store. But I’m sure that He will bless us with a daddy someday, and if He chooses not to, we’ve got enough love in store for me, you and Bryant to always be okay.”
“How come Thierry couldn’t be our daddy? He wanted to,” Brody shared.
That statement left Rayne speechless, how could he possibly know that Thierry would want to be a family? He hadn’t really expressed that to her.
“Baby what you mean he wanted to?” she tenderly asked afraid of the response.
“He said it. I asked him if he could be our daddy and he said he would love to be our daddy and he would be proud for me to be his little boy. He said he luuuved me and he said he luuuved you! He said he wanted to get to know Bryant too. But he might not love us no more cuz you broke his heart and Bryant’s always being mean,” he stated matter-of-factly in his wise six-year old manner.
“Umm baby…you finish playing with your toys. Mommy has some work to do okay?” she said fighting back the tears.
Rayne curled up on her bed infant style, pillow cradled to her chest and she cried and cried until she couldn’t cry anymore. What had she done? Why did she have such a hard time trusting anyone with her heart?  What did Thierry think about her? They no longer discussed personal matters or feelings. It was an unspoken rule that personal discussions were off limits. She had been such a damn fool! When she couldn’t cry anymore and the cries turned into hiccups and her face was full of snot, she got up and went into the bathroom to clean her face. Looking herself in the mirror she promised that she would swallow her pride and make a phone call that she knew she needed to make. Why did life have to be so hard?
I hope you enjoyed today's excerpt from "Is the Grass Really Greener." If so join me again next Thursday for our final character reveal. Please leave your comments, it really makes my day to hear your thoughts and feedback. Be Blessed!
 JUST WRITING MY DREAMS,C. Michelle Ramseywww.cmichelleramsey.com