CHAPTER 1
Lincoln
May 2000
“Promise me you won’t get upset.”
“Upset? About what?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you in a minute, but first you have to promise me,” he insisted.
Lincoln was in love with Katherine Clinton. When she strutted into his eleventh-grade homeroom class wearing a sleeveless dress and high heels, she instantly became the hottest girl in all of Selma, Alabama. He had to make her his girlfriend before any of his teammates got to her. His breakup with Mona Lisa was fast and to the point. He respected Mona too much to use her or string her along. Besides, two years of dating one girl in high school was not only commendable, but highly remarkable for an athlete with his stats.
Sitting on the sideline at the fifty-yard mark with Katherine brought tears to his eyes. Unlike being alone with Mona a half hour ago, Lincoln really felt like he and Katherine were the only two in the football stadium.
“Okay, I promise. Now tell me,” she said.
Lincoln removed a gold band from his pocket, held it in his hand. He knew she expected a proposal and she was right. But first he had to tell her the bad news for her, good news for him.
“Katherine, I’ve joined the Marines.”
Katherine hugged him tight. Her arms clamped around his shoulders as she cried uncontrollably. “Say it isn’t so, William Lincoln. When did you decide this? What happened to all your scholarship offers? What about your going to USF in Tampa and my going to UFL in Miami? I was excited about us being in Florida together. That’s all I’ve dreamt about since I got my acceptance letter. You know this.”
That was one of the differences between Katherine and Mona that he really loved about Katherine. She always made him feel manly. As though he was the only guy in her world. Everything he did excited her. Nothing he’d done excited his parents. Not much of what he’d accomplished thrilled his grandparents until he agreed to enlist. His family’s apathy was the main reason he refused to sign a letter of intent.
Lincoln stared over the field. He was trading a football field to fight in the field, as his sergeant called it. Truth be told, going into the military terrified him. The money he’d make excited him. He never had a steady income. His grandfather told him, “Football players come a dime a dozen, son. Only the few and proud can serve the greatest country on earth. What you gon’ do if one of the big ole linebackers break your leg? When I was your age, I fought in World War II.”
Grandpa was right about the potential injury. Several of his teammates had had offers, but once they were injured, the colleges didn’t want them. Grandpa said, “The university will use you up, make money off of your talent, and not put a dime in your pocket for all your hard labor.” But if the decision were Lincoln’s alone, he’d take the full ride, go to college, and be the first in his family to graduate from a university.
Since joining “the few” would make his grandfather proud, he’d sacrifice his dreams. He doubted his mother and father would keep in touch with him after he walked across the stage. It might appear selfish on his part, but having the two women who loved him the most wait for him was better than returning home to no one who cared. He’d given up on going pro.
“I’m leaving today. Right after I get my diploma.”
Tears drenched more tears as Katherine cried out loud. “What am I going to do without you?”
He was Katherine’s first lover, first real boyfriend. With Mona, she said he was her first boyfriend, but it was hard to tell. He’d heard in the locker room that some loser named Steven Cunningham hit it first. Dude was a loner, a nerd, a weirdo.
Right now, Lincoln’s priority was Katherine.
Handing her his high school championship jersey, he said, “You’re going to go to UFL, major in journalism like you’ve always wanted to, and then you’ll get that job anchoring the news. That way if there’s cable TV where I’m stationed, hopefully I can see your beautiful face on the regular.”
Katherine was ultrafeminine. Mona Lisa was a lady when she had to be, but mostly Mona was more of a mystery than the mysteries she loved solving. He understood why she’d started dating Steven after their breakup. They were both odd, but in different ways. Lincoln couldn’t lie, Mona’s spice and enthusiasm to explore the unknown excited him. If he could marry both Mona Lisa and Katherine, he would.
Sliding the gold band on Katherine’s left ring finger, Lincoln said, “I need you to pray for me. Pray for me every day. Pray I don’t get killed. Pray I return home safe. I love you, Katherine. I really do. And when I get out, promise you’ll marry me.”
He pressed his warm lips to hers. Gently dried her tears.
“I promise, William Lincoln. No matter how long it takes, I’ll wait for you,” Katherine said, then hesitated. Her voice trembled. “I was going to tell you after we got our diplomas . . . I think I’m pregnant.”
That was not what he wanted to hear. Instantly, her words made him regret having sexed Mona without protection. Lincoln held her tighter than he’d held Mona. Katherine made his leaving easier. Mona Lisa could keep the ring, but not answering his question gave him the answer he needed.
Katherine could keep her ring too. I think I’m pregnant? He thought she was different. Wrong. Katherine was a manipulator. Mona Lisa too. As long as they got what they wanted, they didn’t care about him. Nobody cared about him.
To his parents in Chicago—who had come to his graduation as though they were visitors—he’d always be the thug/drug dealer/dummy kid they wished they’d never had. He wasn’t any of those things. He was simply trying to fit in on the South Side of Chi-town. The dealers and thugs in middle school loved and protected him because he was a great athlete. Plus, with a 4.0 GPA, how could his parents call him a dummy? He never understood why they’d sent him to Selma to live with his grandparents. Maybe he was his parents’ insurance for them to remain his grandparents’ beneficiaries.
To his grandparents in Selma, he’d given them a reason to get out of their house. They’d come to his football games. His grandfather would stand on his prosthetic legs and cheer each time he touched the ball. His grandmother’s shaking hands spilled more popcorn than she ate each time she stood. They instilled in him a sense of pride. But his pride was not his passion. Maybe he could change his mind and go to college.
Neither his parents nor his grandparents cared about his scholarship offers or how he’d earned a slice of the American pie before it was done baking. If he stayed healthy, he could write his own ticket to the pros. That’s what Katherine wanted. Not him. She wanted his money.
He stood, stared down at Katherine. “Let me know how that works out for you.”
Lincoln trotted across the fifty-yard line, broke to the left, exited his high school stadium for the last time, and never looked back.