Lawless: Where the Wild Roses Grow

PROLOGUE

I've known the Bondurant brothers since I could remember.

It's quite a funny story the way we met. Our daddies had been friends when they got into the farming-and moonshine- business together ever since daddy moved us from Rocky Mount to Blackwater Creek. When he told the Bondurants that he had a child, I believe the boys were expecting me to be a boy like themselves. I might as well have been considered one when I was a little girl. I preferred my overalls and my worn-out newsboy cap, instead of the frilly gingham dresses that mama tried to make wear back then. Well, when we arrived, you could only imagine their faces when they first saw me. What would happen next would surprise them even more.

Mouth wide open like a fish gasping for air, Howard had pointed his finger at me and exclaimed, "You're a girl!"

What I did next was probably not the most ladylike and polite thing to do, but back then I didn't care if I was supposed to be a lady. I glared at him, shouting, "And you're a boy!" and punched him square in the nose. Mama wouldn't let me out of the house after the incident; eventually, when I was finally released after doing my time, I met the Bondurants again along with their friend Cricket and this time they said they approved of me and that I could hang out with them. That was how our friendship began. Farm work, exploring the woods, sneaking out at night sipping moonshine- that was the way things were between us: me, Howard, Jack, Cricket… and Forrest. They were my fondest memories of Blackwater.

As we grew older we remained the same; however, things started to change between Forrest and I. Out of the boys I was closer to him, yet I no longer saw him as just my friend. I began to see him as something more. He became my rock when my parents' marriage began to deteriorate from bad to worse. I loved him for everything he was and what he did to try to protect me. But what he didn't know was that he couldn't protect me from my desire to leave Franklin County. It's funny; I never realized how much I was like my mother until then. I was beginning to tire of the same old routine that Franklin gave me. I wanted to travel to places like in the books that I read. I wanted to go the big cities like New York and Chicago and live. I wanted to see the world. As much as I cared for Forrest and my friends, I knew I couldn't stand another minute living in Blackwater; and so, in the dead of night I ran…

Thirteen years later, driving along dirt road, I begin to wonder if I made the right decision as I return home after so long. If going back was even the right choice. Did he move on? Is he married with children running all around the station? I do not know. I'm honestly afraid to know. I can only hope that I am devoid of any chance meeting. I know that if it ever happens, nothing good could ever come out of this predicament.

For any of the three of us.