Shadows of Truth

By Kristina Kilbourne

Scared out of his mind and still in a state of shock, Jayson jumped out of the two-story window. He hit his ankle on the ledge of the fire escape and fell hard onto the cracked pavement. All of a sudden, he heard a high-pitched scream that echoed throughout his whole body which clearly indicated that his life was about to change. Follow this misguided young man as he straddles the fence between whats wrong and whats right while finding himself caught between two women who dont realize the man who they see as a priority only sees them as two possible options.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 21, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462825028

Kristina Kilbourne

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kristina Kilbourne is a talented singer, songwriter, author, poet, and playwright from the San Francisco Bay Area. She currently attends college in San Francisco, where she is working to complete her education in music business.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Scared out of his mind and still in a state of shock, Jayson jumped out of the two-story window. He hit his ankle on the ledge of the fire escape and fell hard onto the cracked pavement in the small tight alleyway between the Johnson apartment building and the Bread and Butter Bakery on the corner of Twenty-ninth and Lincoln. Even though the smell of mouthwatering bread filled the air around him, the only scent Jayson could smell was the stench of his own fear.

All of a sudden, he heard a high-pitched scream that echoed throughout his whole body. He began to run hard, struggling to escape the scene of the worst decision he had ever made. Jayson ran like an Olympic track star during the hundred-meter dash race, disregarding his injured ankle even though the throbbing pain he felt started to intensify rapidly.

He stopped running once he felt he was in the clear, or in other words, when his common sense started to kick back in. Limping up to St. Peter’s Baptist church, he began to quietly weep. He was completely weak and out of breath.

Lord, he lightly said. I need you. I don’t have the strength to walk inside your church, but momma used to say that your presence could be felt even on the outside. So here I am standing at your edge hurting, hungry, and in need of some help. I am confessing what I did, even though you already know the details, and I am asking for your forgiveness. Please hear me, Jesus.

Coming up behind him was a tall, slender man in a flannel blue shirt and black jeans. He tapped Jayson on the shoulder saying, How you doing, son? God bless you.

Jayson looked at the man up and down with not one thing to say. The tall man had a Bible in one hand and a Starbucks coffee mug in the other. Sir, can I help you with anything?

Jayson, after having lockjaw for about five minutes, managed to let a little sentence slip out. Naw, I’m good.

Well, okay. The doors of the church are always open to you. By the way, my name is Keith McCall. This church is like my second home. So if you ever need something, you know where to find someone who’s willing to help. Take care.

Thanks, Jayson replied. The tall, slender man continued on his way up the church stairs and into the building.

A few moments later, Jayson limped his way to the pay phone two blocks down to call his best friend Tony for a ride. He wobbled up to the pay phone, took out the thirty-five cents he had stolen earlier from the apartment building, and began to dial Tony’s number. T, man, can you come through to Thirty-fourth and Lincoln? I need a ride to my grandmother’s house.

Yeah, man. I am just around the corner. I will be there in, like, two minutes, Tony replied back to him.

Jayson hung up the phone and sat on the curb, waiting for his friend to pull up. As soon as Tony arrived, Jayson hopped into his blue pickup truck and told his friend everything that happened. Man, I just want to put this whole day behind me. This was one of the worst days of my life so far.

Look, I am not here to judge you, Jay, but you have got to do better than that. If you needed some help, why didn’t you just ask me?

It’s not that I didn’t want to ask you, T. It’s just that I need to do things for myself. So you rather get yourself caught up than to ask someone for a favor? I mean, be honest with yourself at least if you aren’t going to keep it real with me. Jay, you know you were trippin’. It’s never that serious, and it’s not like you didn’t have someone to call. You made your bed. I just hope you can lay in it.

It’s complicated all right, T? Just drop it man.

Okay. Well, I am glad that you are all right.

Well, sort of. I messed my ankle up pretty bad, so I’m gon’ get my granny to wrap it up. Hopefully, she cooked something to eat. T, you know my granny can cook.

Pulling up to the large red brick house, Jayson remembered playing in his grandmother’s front yard as a child. He would always come over to her house after Sunday church service and play in the front yard with Joseph, the gray cat, while his mother and his grandmother talked about the preacher’s sermon and shared what each of them received from the message.

Tony pulled out shortly after he made sure Jayson got into the backyard safely. Walking up the small paved path through the white picket fence, he could smell the mouthwatering fried chicken, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, and cabbage. He began to call out to his grandmother to let her know that he was at her door.

Granny, it’s Jay. I’m outside.

Hey, babe. Come on in. How are you doing? You know there is a lot of mess in them streets. You’re keeping yourself out of trouble, I hope. Oh my word! What happened to your ankle? Let me take a look.

She walked over to the cupboard above the stove in her small kitchen and pulled out some bandages and ointment. Lightly taking off his sock, Jayson began to tear up as the pain began to swell.

I can’t believe a big ole man like you sitting up here crying. Now that’s a sight to see. Jayson’s grandmother laughed.

It hurts. What am I supposed to do? Besides, ain’t nobody here, anyway, Jayson said, trying to grab hold of what was left of his manhood.

Oh, I see, his grandmother said, smirking out loud.

Granny, I am not crying. A little dirt just got in my eyes on the way here, that’s all.

She wrapped the swollen ankle up and placed it in a tub of ice water to help the swelling go down. Stay off this ankle tonight so that it can heal properly. You want to tell me what you did to gain such a painful injury?

Granny, I really don’t want to talk about it, but it was something really bad. I asked God for forgiveness. Now I just have to forgive myself, which is the tough part.

Well, Jay, we all make mistakes, but the key to a new start is to first do as you have and repent. Second, you have to get up and set your mind to never repeating the same mistake twice. But I am going to leave it alone if you don’t want to talk about it.

Granny, is it okay if I stay tonight and then leave tomorrow morning? I know that I don’t come around as much as you would like me to, but I really need a place to stay. Please. Sure, baby. I don’t have a problem with that. I am surprised you want to spend some time with an old lady like myself. She smiled as she left the room and went into the kitchen, humming This Little Light of Mine as she picked up her wooden spoon to stir the cabbage in the big silver pot on the stove.

Jayson reached to the other side of the blue couch he was sitting on in his grandmother’s den and turned on the TV. Granny, do you get NFL Network?

Yes, sugar. It’s on channel 212. You know I got to watch my football. That Terrell Owens is so cute. Honey, he better watch out. Because if I ever get the chance to meet him, ooh wee!

Granny . . . what about Grandpa Earl? Jayson asked, laughing hysterically.

What about him? I know I am married to that ole fool, but sometimes a woman like to look at other merchandise just to window shop. Even when she has no desire to buy anything. I’m just keeping it real. Ain’t that what y’all young folk say?

Both of them started to laugh hysterically. I am about to fix you something to eat and bring it to you in the den, so sit up straight now.

Yes, Granny. Jayson slowly sat up on the couch, waiting for his dinner. After he ate, he went straight to sleep readying himself for the day ahead.

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It was a beautiful October morning. The air was fresh and crisp; the leaves were beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows; and the sky was blue without a single cloud in it. Everything seemed to be in place as it should be. Jayson woke up feeling refreshed and ready to start the day, telling himself that yesterday never happened and today was new and fresh with possibilities.

He jumped off the sofa bed and washed up, got dressed, and kissed his grandmother on her cheek before leaving to start another day.

Walking out to the street, he thought back to the days when he used to take long walks around his grandmother’s neighborhood with his junior college sweetheart Michelle Davis. Now, Michelle was gorgeous. She was one of those high-status divas who attended community schools with big dreams of moving to LA to continue her music career. She had long wavy dark-brown hair, and the prettiest brown eyes you had ever seen on a black woman’s face. She was one of the finest girls on campus, and she was dating the most popular college sophomore athlete in the Bay Area. They were like junior college royalty, definitely the Jay-Z and Beyonce of the town. Life just did not get any better than that.

Well, their dream ended quickly when Michelle caught Jayson kissing Jasmine, the foreign exchange student from France, behind the bleachers after football practice one day. But even though their relationship ended tragically, they still cared for one another.

Unfortunately, that year was never the same for either of them especially when Michelle dropped out after the incident with Jasmine. Jayson never heard from her again.

Jayson sighed to himself and kept walking not really sure of where he wanted to end up until he reached his hand in his pocket and found that while he was sleeping, his grandmother put $100 in his jeans. With a smile on his face, he decided it was time to get some breakfast. He had a taste for waffles, eggs, and bacon and the best place to go in town for a meal like that was Angie’s Diner.

He ran to the diner as fast as he could, as if he was in a race with time, because Angie stopped serving breakfast at 11:00 a.m. It was already ten forty-five. Pushing the door open to the pink and yellow diner, he plopped into a booth and thanked God as he looked at the clock that said he had one minute left. The waitress came by to take his order.

Welcome to Angie’s Diner. My name is Monique, and I will be your server this morning. Can I take your order, sir?

Excited that he was going to get his waffles, he played with his napkin and replied childishly, Can I please have Angie’s famous waffles?

Oh, I am sorry, sir. We don’t sell breakfast after 11:00 a.m.

But it’s not 11:00 a.m. I got here at 10:59, and I want my waffles.

Sir, it is now 11:02. So I am sorry, but we aren’t serving breakfast anymore. Now, would you like to try our sloppy joes? They are my personal favorite?

Are you seriously not going to serve me my waffles when I got here in enough time? If I can’t get waffles, it is only because it took you too long to get over here to take my order. So once again, I would like some waffles.

Yeah, but, sir!

Monique, is it? Isn’t the customer always right?

Yeah, that’s what they tell me.

Okay, good. So I would like my waffles.

Frustrated and annoyed, Monique went over to the slide and told the cook about her order. Angrily, the cook fixed Jayson’s order and went on about his business.

"Here you are, sir. Your meal as you