“Do you want me to go with you?” Nash asked him.
He shook his head no, then headed in the direction Nash pointed. “I’m here if you need me,” Nash told him. Ryker said nothing in return.
Once he disappeared around the ambulance, I asked Nash, “What happened?”
Nash’s jaw clenched, and his hands balled into fists at his sides. “Motherfucking racists happened,” he ground out, then looked at me. His eyes flashed with pain and anger. “Apparently the good white folk don’t like Ryker dating a white girl. Ryker didn’t recognize the guys in the truck, so I don’t think they’re from Lawton, but he also said they were older. He thinks they looked about twenty. There were three of them.” He paused and inhaled sharply. “Fuckers followed them from the service station they stopped in just outside of town. One was in the back of the truck yelling…” He stopped there and closed his eyes tightly. The line of his mouth was grim. “You know what they were yelling. You can guess.”
I flinched thinking about it and nodded my head.
“Ryker was driving. He headed for the field, trying to lose them, and when he pulled into the trees, they did too. Ryker kept going until he got to the field and they followed. Hunter had called the police by this point. He told them what was happening. They told them to stay in the car, but the guy in the back of the truck jumped out and he had a gun in his hand. He didn’t point it at them, but it was there. Hunter panicked and jumped out of the truck to talk to them. Since he was white, he thought he could do something, I guess.” He paused and his jaw clenched tighter. “They didn’t wait to let him say anything. Ryker was yelling at him to get back in the truck. The gun went off and Hunter was on the ground. Ryker didn’t get the license plate number because he had then jumped out of his truck to get to Hunter. The dispatcher heard it all because Hunter hadn’t hung up. Ryker screaming at Hunter to not die. To keep breathing. God,” he said with a groan. “He will never get over this. This is going to fuck with his life. The rest of it will be marked because of this pointless, fucking hate crime.”
“Jesus,” I whispered as the brutality of it all sank in.
“The only lead they have is the fact Ryker saw the face of the shooter in the rearview mirror and realized he’d seen them earlier tonight at the restaurant they had eaten at with Aurora, her dad, and her stepmom. Aurora had left with her parents because Ryker and Hunter were headed to the field house. Some of the things the guy in the back of the truck was yelling were related to the fact Ryker had been with Aurora.”
There was nothing I could say to make this better. No words were the right ones. We stood there watching as more cars arrived and more people came to the scene. Cops were blocking it off and no one was getting past the barrier, but who would want to? One of ours was out there covered up and dead. I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to think about Hunter being gone. His life taken because of hate. Pointless hate. It was sickening. This was the year 2020. Yet this hate for the color of someone’s skin was still an issue. Why? What was wrong with this world?
I heard footsteps and turned to see Rifle Hannon and Walker McNair headed our way. They were Hunter’s closest friends on the team. Then I looked past them and saw Brady Higgens also coming this way. Brady had graduated last year. I hadn’t realized he was in town.
“We came as soon as we heard,” Walker said to Nash, and Nash just nodded.
“I don’t understand this,” Rifle then said.
Nash turned to look at them, and his eyes saw Brady headed toward us. “Higgens,” he said as Brady reached us. “Heard you were in town. Didn’t think to call. It’s been…” He shook his head and looked back toward the blocked-off area.
“How is Ryker?” Brady asked.
Nash let out a heavy sigh. “Not good.”
JUNE 15, 2020 You Know Asa?
CHAPTER 8
ASA
Summertime in Lawton looked as different as the rest of the world because of Covid. Nothing was the same. Life had spiraled out of control so quickly, I was no longer surprised by anything. I had been allowed to stay for Hunter’s funeral, and then my mother had shipped me off to New Mexico to live with my abuela. My father refused to allow me to come back to the house they called home. Leaving everyone had been a temporary situation, but then the world shut down due to a pandemic. No traveling to visit my friends. Rare calls from my mother. No way to make new friends in Taos because I was stuck at my abuela’s with three younger cousins. Loud-ass boys, all three of them. My uncle did little in the way of discipline with his kids. Lucky me, they all lived with my abuela too. It had been a long three and a half months.