Down by the River

We grew up together. She was the only daughter of the richest family in town. I lived down from their estate in a modest house with two sisters and my mom and dad. My dad worked at a farm implement factory. He had started to work there right out of High School and had been working there for the last twenty years or so. My mom was a school teacher. She had us kids and got us in School and then went to the local college and got her a degree in Elementary Education. She now taught the second grade. All of us kids were in High School. Lacy was a senior, I was a junior and Janet was a freshman. I am Jake. I was a big kid, a little over 6-2 and about 200 lbs. I took after my dad who was a near giant of a man. He was a gentle giant as my petite mom pretty much ruled him in a benevolent way. My two sisters were the apples of his eyes. I think my dad was disappointed in some things in his life and he pushed me to excel in sports and the classroom. We were the Clawson family, William was my dad, Elizabeth was my mom and Lacy, Jake and Janet was us kids.

He and mom had gotten pregnant just out of High School and had gotten married. I think both of them wanted to go to College but the baby coming stopped all that and Dad got a job at the factory and they started raising their family. He kept working there as us kids grew and got into school and he agreed that mom should go to College as she had wanted to do right out of High School. With their combined salaries our family got everything we needed but wants were another thing.

He treated me a little different than the girls. They could get by with a B or a C sometimes but if I had a B it was a catastrophe. I learned through Grade School what was expected of me and by High School I was a straight A student.

My rival in High School scholastically was Deidra De Angelo. She lived next door to me only it was near a mile away. We had a hundred acres and a stream separated our property from the De Angelo's. They had nearly 600 acres. She was in the same grade as me and she rode the same bus as me and my sisters to school. She was a beautiful girl, in fact the most beautiful in our High School. My big sister Lacy and she were best of friends. My little sister Janet didn't care for her as Janet was a very beautiful girl herself and resented Deidra's beauty and also didn't like that Deidra and I were boyfriend/girlfriend sort of up through Junior High.

Deidra and I were friends and liked each other but I think I was the one who cared the most. Our sophomore year she started pulling away from me. I knew her parents were upper crust and I could tell they wanted more for their daughter than they figured a local yokel was able to give her. Of course my little sister Janet was Johnny on the spot to tell me that Deidra was dating a senior. She and I had never had a real date. We met at birthday parties, at the movies and had cheek kissed down at the creek between our properties but just early teen stuff. There wasn't any break up as she just started hanging out with other people and some guy carrying her book and she was sitting in the lunch room with this guy or that. So I just let it go and made sure I wasn't where she was.

I concentrated on sports. I was playing Football, Basketball and wrestling and I was running Track. I was 1st string Tight End my sophomore year. My first game I scored three touchdowns and caught 10 passes for a 105 yards. It was one of our biggest rivals and we beat them. We were coming off the field after our victory and the cheerleaders came rushing us. I saw Deidra headed toward me and I dodged away from her and picked up a cheerleader named Sandra and held her up and hugged her. She was a freshman and Janet's best friend. She put both her arms around my neck and kissed me right in the mouth. I kissed her back.

She said, "Thanks Jake, you just upped my status in the Cheerleaders Squad." I put her down and she put her arm around my waist and started walking me to the fieldhouse. The next thing I knew Janet was on my other side hugging me just like Sandra was doing.

"Big brother you have upgraded your taste in women. And thank god you dodged Deidra as she was trying to steal some of your glory."

"Deidra isn't like that she is a nice girl and she wouldn't do that I'm sure she just wanting to congratulate me."

"Keep believing that Jake."

I went in and got a shower and came back out and Sandra and Janet were waiting on me.

I went through my sophomore year and made All-Conference at Tight End. I dated Sandra off and on but not as much as Sandra and Janet wanted me to. I dated some other girls and Janet wouldn't speak to me for the weekend. I saw Deidra during the year but avoided her mostly. But when I ran in to her face to face I always spoke to her and asked how she was.

Near the end of the year Billy De Angelo came up to me after practice and told me he wanted to talk to me. I was dressed so we went out and into the football stadium to talk.

"Jake, I like you and think you are a good guy. But why are you doing Deidra the way you are."

"Billy, now truthfully she dumped me. At the start of last year she just started ignoring me and she was dating a senior or two. I didn't make a fuss I just tried to be wherever she wasn't. I don't think your parents want me around her and I understand that. My dad works for the Company that your dad owns. I can't make any trouble or cause problems. My dad doesn't want me in any serious relationships until I'm out of College. I like Deidra we have been friends since the first grade. But she and I dating might have repercussions beyond what we could imagine. I hope you understand that."

"Jake, my mom and dad don't want you going with her. You are right about that. Dad has these big shot ideas about who we should marry. I mean it doesn't affect me because I date Sherrie Caruthers and her parents are big friends with mom and dad. They have forced Deidra to date some of their friends and business associates' sons. She didn't do it because she wanted to. She was forced to do it so don't hold it against her. I am going to tell her what you have told me because she thinks you hate her and she cries about it. Do you mind if I do?"

"No Billy, I really like Deidra and you can tell her that. Maybe after we become adults we can figure it all out."

"Thanks Jake, It will please her hearing you say that."

The school year was over and we went on vacation. Lacy was a senior and I wondered if it would be our last vacation as a family. We went to Myrtle Beach. Dad had rented a condo. We lay on the beach and all got tans. Lacy and Janet and I did some partying and hung out with some guys and girls our age. We had a wonderful two weeks and everybody was relaxed and we were anxious to make it back home.

We got back home and the whole town was in an uproar. It seemed that Deidra De Angelo had gone to the College graduation of a son of one of the De Angelo's friends. There was a party and somehow Deidra got separated from the family she was with and was given a date rape drug and raped. We didn't know all the details but her father Anthony De Angelo was raising holy hell with the College, the family she was with and their son. This family was very good friends with the De Angelos but that was all over now as he was suing them and wanted the son in jail. The bad thing was that Deidra was a virgin and the rapist didn't use protection. She had a medical procedure to make sure she wasn't impregnated. They got his DNA from the rape kit and someone was going to pay dearly.

There was a list of everyone who went to the party. A judge was using his subpoena powers to force DNA tests on all the male guests. Anthony De Angelo had every law agency involved and all his political friends. No stone went unturned. Some had already left Campus and they had to be hunted down. It was a terrible time. I felt sorry for Deidra and wondered how she was.

About a week after I got home I wandered down to my fishing spot to do some fishing and just a little quiet time. I sat and put my line in the water and tried to catch some fish. I had brought some cokes and I opened one.

I had sat there for about 30 minutes when I thought I was being watched. I looked across the stream and saw Deidra standing watching me. I stood up and she turned and started leaving. I wanted to talk to her so I hollowed, "Deidra, please don't leave. I want to talk to you!"

She stopped and turned and looked at me. I waved and motioned for her to come to me. She hesitated and then slowly moved toward me. She came up to the bank on her side of the steam. The stream was only about waist deep at this part. She looked at me and stepped in the water and came over to my side and stepped up on my bank and came toward me crying reaching out for me and I went to her and took her in my arms and she was crying her eyes out with her face buried in my chest. I held her like that for about 30 minutes it seemed before she pulled away from me.

"Jake, I have missed you so much. I am so sorry for the way I treated you. My parents put all kinds of restrictions on me. They forced me to date guys that they selected. I was miserable but there was nothing I could do.

I guess you have heard about my problems. I got raped and I'm the talk of the town. I thought I had friends but apparently I don't.

"Are you still my friend?"

"Deidra, we have been friends since 1st grade and you dumped me but we are still friends as far as I am concerned. What happened to you was not your fault and changes nothing between us."

"Jake, you have no idea how much that means to me. I've lost nearly all of my so called friends. They are shunning me and changing directions when they see me coming. I'm an outcast. Dad is putting me in a boarding School for girls. It's a private School and as soon as School starts they are taking me there. I know I'm going to be lonesome but I couldn't go to School here and take all that ridicule and be made fun of. I'll miss you Jake."

"Deidra, I'll miss you also. If you decide to go back to School here I'll destroy anyone that says anything about you."

"Jake, I know you would and I appreciate that but I couldn't do it. The trauma of what that jerk did to me and trying to get over that then having to put up with harassment also is just too much pressure on me. I would be miserable and my grades would suffer. But now you got a straight shot to valedictorian, you probably have beaten me out anyway."

"I don't know about that Deidra, you are a very smart girl always kick my butt in literature and English courses and languages."

"That doesn't matter anymore Jake but are you going to write to me and text me some? I'm going to need a friend and some support. I think I embarrass my family by just being here. They seem to blame me for what happened. I mean they don't come out and say that but I sense that is how they fee. I don't know if I can ever come back to this town. Oh, they found the guy! He is Craig Reed who graduated from High School here a few years ago and is a friend of Chase Carlyle who was my date for the Prom. Why would he want to do that to me? I was out during all the things he did to me. But I feel so violated and dirty. I cry nearly every night about it. Nobody knows this Jake but they found Chase's DNA in me also. I guess they gangbanged me." They are going to arrest Chase tonight at his home. That is going to make it impossible for me to be here and Chase was very popular.

"Deidra, it will take you a long time to get over it. I'm sure your dad has you in counseling. But I will always be your friend and support you. Anytime you want to talk I am always available. Also, trust me if they don't put Chase away for a long time I will find him some dark night and mess him up good.

"Jake I hope to get to see you a lot before I go away to School. I love to fish with you and we could go over to Ardmore to the movies and eat out. I can't stay home all the time."

We started meeting 3 or 4 times a week to fish and hike in the woods. I hugged her a few times but I didn't try to make out with her afraid it might upset her after her trauma. We didn't date because I told her that my father worked for hers and I didn't want to make a problem that would hurt my dad.

I was still friends with her but her dumping made me feel differently about her. I never told her that but I was just a friend now and I felt that I didn't want to get as close as I thought we were before.

The summer flew by and we had a good bye picnic at the creek the evening before she left. We hugged and I kissed her on the cheek and watched her as she crossed the creek and headed toward her home. We emailed a lot the first months and texted but then it started being longer between notes. I always answered her right back when she communicated with me but her response time kept getting longer and longer. She called me at Thanksgiving but we didn't meet up as she didn't seem to want to. After that I only got a few texts and everything quit after New Year's. We didn't communicate anymore. I never heard from her at her breaks anymore.

Over the next two years I got bigger. My senior year I was 6-4 and 220. I made All State in football my junior and senior years. I did very well in wrestling and track and was all state forward in basketball. I was also valedictorian. I got numerous athletic scholarships from some good schools but I had no desire to get my body beat up for nothing. My athletic endeavors were for fun and I wasn't one of those that wanted to play in the NFL. I wanted to be an engineer. I was headed to Tech and an Engineering Degree. I had this Knack for making things that did things better than what was on the market now. I wanted to invent things.

That summer I got a summer job at the factory dad worked at. Yes, it was Deidra's father's factory. They hired a lot of the boys in the town during the summer. I worked in Dad's section. I saw a lot of things that I was very intrigued about. One farm implement used a chain drive and dad told me it was sometime a problem for the customer when it was used heavily. It interested me a lot and on my shaft on it to replace the chain drive.

My dad had a little machine shop behind the house. He did small jobs for his friends. He had some older but very good machine tools. I had gone to an automotive parts house and got two universal joints and a drive shaft that was the right diameter. I measured how long I would need it and connections I would need to attach it to the drive train.

Some other things I should mention is that with my state of mind when I was hired in you had to sign all manner of papers and on one I had to sign giving the rights and revenue of any invention I would make to the Plant owned by Anthony De Angelo. Where my signature was supposed to go I wrote 'I refuse to do this'. Well when the HR people scanned over it they paid no attention except that there was writing where there was supposed to be not what it was. Then I got her to make a copy of the paperwork and to initial it and notarize it. She did that and still didn't notice anything wrong. She put my paperwork in a folder and filed it away and I took my copy and left.

I worked all summer and as dad had this same implement on our farm I made the sleeves to fit over the power take off and attach to the shaft of the gearbox on the tool. I had a working model and then I made a blueprint for it. Dad was thrilled by my project. We kept it quiet and no one knew about it but him and me.

We both knew nothing about getting patterns for my invention. I started College and was knee deep in work getting my degree. I was taking courses learning CAD programs with all manners of Trig and calculus. For the first time in my life I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. When I came home for my 1st summer I got another job with De Angelo Inc. I was working again in my dad's section. My file was just glanced at and I was hired. I had a personality that most people liked. All the men remembered my High School athletic accomplishments and the women wanted to mother me and fix me up with their daughters. I dated some at home and a few girls in College. But marriage was not on my mind.

I worked all summer with Dad. I got numerous ideas and drew up plans for equipment built by the De Angelo Company. I put these things back as projects for the future. I was also working on some complete machines that were not being manufactured and did a better job than anything on the market. I also had some plans for automated machines that using AI to operated them by GPS.

I went to School and worked every summer for De Angelo. I had a head full of ideas and a desk full of blue prints that I had drawn up for these projects. I graduated with honors in the top 5% of my College class. My parents were very proud of me. My sister Lacy had graduated a year earlier. She had a degree in Computer Science and Software. We were close and she was working at a Software Company.

My family had a big barbeque for my Graduation party. A lot of my friends from High School and guys I worked with that were friends of dad at De Angelo Inc. It was to be pretty big party.

The day before my party I went fishing at my old favorite place. I took a couple of roast beef sandwiches and some drinks and my tackle. I got there about 9 AM and settled down wetting my line and looking at the birds and listening at the noises in the woods. It was very relaxing for me and I had come to this place all my life to find myself again when I felt lost.

I had been there an hour or so and caught a few fish. I saw movement across the stream and Deidra De Angelo appeared out of the woods. She was even more beautiful than when I had last seen her. She had on a t shirt and shorts and sneakers. I had always liked her even maybe loved her a little bit or maybe more than little bit when I was young. It had been 6 years since I had seen her.

She didn't see me and sat down on a smooth bolder and looked around. I didn't make a move so she just looked past me as she looked around. I watched her and she always made me feel good to be around her when we were young. Then she seemed to be staring off into space and then tears were rolling down her cheeks. She had her head in her hands and her body was shaking and I could tell she was having a hard cry that was rocking her soul.

I decided to do something as I couldn't stand to sit and watch her cry and be heartbroken. So I said in a calm voice, "What in the world could make a beautiful woman like you cry?"

She didn't scare at my voice she just calmly looked up at where I was and smiled at me.

"You Jake, I was thinking about all the wonderful life I missed out on without you."

She got up and took off her sneakers and walked across the creek barefooted and came up on my side walked to me put her arms around my neck and kissed me like she owned me. I hate to say it but even after she had dumped me, not communicated with me, avoided me, shunned me and stayed away from me she did own me with that one long passionate kiss. I wrapped her up in my arms and kissed her back. It was the first real kiss we had ever had. She pulled back from me and looked in my eyes, "I love you Jake Clawson and I always have."

I was dumbfounded and just stared at her. What, after all these years of pain and loneliness, trying to keep her out of my head, making excuses for her behavior, working my butt off at everything I did so I had no time to think about her and here she stands in front of me saying she loves me and always has, go figure. I needed some serious therapy.

She smiled up at me with her arms still around my neck.

"Am I confusing my baby? I see that I am. "

"Jake, I have a very long and painful story to tell you. I only can now because of some recent events that took place and is still developing. If you will trust me and believe in me I can clear up both our lives and let us start over back to our freshman year in High School when our lives went to crap.