Summer's Echo

by Robbi Renee

Shawn: Good morning, babe. You up? Is that attitude any better?

Say what now?

Instead of actually listening when I’d told him how I was feeling—my worries, my fears, the uncertainty sitting like a stone in my chest, he’d dismissed it all as me just having an attitude. Like I was being dramatic. Like my feelings didn’t matter.

somebody else’s wife.

Our house had walls as thin as paper, so one night, I heard my mother praying. “Please, Jesus, let this girl like boys. Lord, I don’t know what I’d do.”

the rest falling straight to brush against my shoulders. Gold hoop earrings, a swipe of eyeliner, and a little lip gloss finished the

gravitating toward the slim-thick, light-skinned girls who always looked perfectly put together. That

toward the slim-thick, light-skinned girls who always looked perfectly put together. That was not

put together. That was not me. Girls lined up for him—at school, in his neighborhood, and even mine. But with me? It was always something sof...

time—you’ll be sitting right here with me and your daddy for the

“Some months ago,” she admitted. “But I guess, if I’m being honest, I always knew that I shouldn’t have accepted his proposal.”

She just caused all this trauma and already knew she should’ve said no. Being stood up at the alter and embarrassed is hurtful.

Summer called off her wedding for the same reasons I broke up with Kourtni. Because deep down, we both knew we were supposed to be together.

Summer shot up from the bed, her movements frantic as she shook her head vigorously. “No. No. I can’t do this,” she cried, pacing the short length of the room like a caged bird trying to escape.

What the hell is she scared of??

“I’m all in,” I said, nodding as my eyes wandered toward our hidden place behind the trees. “I can’t go another ten-plus years…shit, ten days without her.”

“Now, I go get my Sunshine.”

“Mr. Abara…your father wouldn’t let me.”

“I don’t know if you were there or not, but he told me to stay away from you—that you had your whole future ahead of you, and I would only hold you back.”

“He said that you deserved better than a girl who…” She left the rest unsaid, but I already knew how it ended. It hit me like a punch straight to the ribs, knocking the air from my lungs. I already knew the ending to that sentence. My family was traditional. Strict and sometimes unforgiving. My father, especially. Marriage preceded pregnancy under any circumstance. In our village, an unmarried, pregnant girl would have been disowned, sent away, a walking disgrace. A stain on the family’s honor.

“You were never something I needed to be protected from,” I said, my lips brushing against the shell of her ear. “You were the only thing I ever wanted, Sun.”

“He didn’t trust me to stay away from you, so he tightened the leash. Made me stay home. Forced me to go to WashU.”

“If there were no past, no expectations, no opinions but your own, what would you want?”

“Baby, love ain’t supposed to be perfect. It ain’t always neat and convenient. But real love?” She leaned in, her voice dipping. “Real love has a way of making you face yourself. Face your fears. And I think Echo has been doing that to you since the moment you laid eyes on him.”

“Love, when it’s real, has a way of finding you no matter how far or fast you run. If you want him, then fight for him, Summer. But if you walk away…” She exhaled, holding my gaze with quiet certainty. “Don’t do it because you’re scared. Do it because you’re sure.”

Mama is speaking straight gems. My favorite quote by Zora Neale Hurston…Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place,"

The heart leads the way, even when our mind tells us to take another path.”