Authors Note 4/28/09: I have gotten some free time and I am now taking the time to redo some of my chapters and hopefully here soon I will be added a new one so keep you're fingers crossed

1- Layla

The cabin was empty as she stepped through the front door, where the only sound that could be heard was a ceiling fan spinning around and around that dared to challenge the silence of the vacant home. Layla walked into the kitchen and noticed the little red flashing light on the answering machine. she pressed the button to hear a familiar voice come blaring out of it, "Hey, Layla it’s me Molly, I thought I should check in on you and see how you’re doing seeing as I haven’t seen you since the funeral three weeks ago. I know it must be rough for you right now after what happened, so I guess what I am trying to say is that you have me worried and I don’t know what else to say is please call me.”

Layla could feel hot tears start to burn in her eyes in the painful remembrance of what had happened to her family. She wiped the tears from her cheeks with the sleeve of her oversized gray hooded sweat shirt. All she wanted was to get away, to be alone to deal with her loss, but it seemed that no matter where she went, people always tried sympathize. How could you relate to this? Layla wanted to scream at them. She went out the back door and out on to the deck to get some air to clear her mind. The night air gently slid across her face and through her shoulder length black hair that hovered around her high cheek bones of her face. She could feel a storm was coming as the air smelled thick with the on-coming rain, but it didn’t bother her much. She walked down the deck’s stairs on to the dock that led out wards the waters of Lake Winnipesauke.

Layla found her favorite plastic white chair next to the boat house near by and sat down. She pulled her bare legs up inside her sweat shirt and tried to calm herself down, but still tears found there way to her green eyes. A crack of thunder came from over head as it began to pour. It seemed that even nature wouldn’t let Layla grieve in peace.

Layla felt like yelling at God, who himself felt like he was punishing her for some unknown reason, but before she could open her mouth to let out her cry of fury someone else took it. It wasn’t the sound of a cry of fury, but it was a cry that Layla thought was an animal of some kind coming from the water. She got to her feet and ran to the end of the dock to listen. The cry turned into a voice of a man. "Help, please, someone help me!" cried out the man.

She tried desperately scanning the water for the man as the rain beat down on her, and then she saw him splashing around like a madman not too far off the shore. "Hold on!" Layla cried out to the man. "I’m coming to help you!"

Layla dove into the water that felt cold as ice on her skin, but she swam out to help the man who had cried out for help and she wasn’t going to let him down. She was going to save this man no matter the cost of it. The waves started to get rougher as the wind started to pick up. The storm was starting to gain force and it would only get worse. Finally, Layla made it to the man. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you," She told him. She wrapped her left arm around the man’s bare shoulders as she towed him to shore. Layla got herself and the man to the beach portion of her property and laid the man down on the sand. She collapsed down on to her knees to catch her breath. As soon she felt the air return to her lungs, she looked over at the man who she just had saved from the water.

He had to be in his early twenties, with short blonde hair, washboard abs, and oh yeah, stark naked. Yes, naked. It wasn't a bad naked, however. A bit embarrassed, Layla looked away from the man, but knew that she had to get over her embarrassment to help the man. She got to her feet and went to see the man, who had a big bruise on his forehead, with his eyes closed, and he wasn‘t breathing. She quickly started CPR on him, pushing down on his chest three times, then pulled his head back, pinched his nose shut, and breathed into his mouth. It worked. He coughed up water and regained his breathing. He opened his eyes, which were a pale sparkling blue, and he tried to speak, but Layla told him not to.

Layla ran up to the boat house and found a dry blanket, which she wrapped up the man in the best she could to warm him back up. The rain began to pour down even heavier as she knelt down to his side. "Can you walk?" Layla asked the man.

He shook his head yes, and, with a great effort on Layla’s part, lifted the man to his feet, put his arms around her shoulders to balance them out and made their way up to the cabin. Once inside, Layla led the man to the couch in the living room and sat him down. “Stay there, I’ll go call an ambulance," Layla told him as she picked up the phone to dial for help.

"No," The man choked out. "Please, no... I really don’t need any medical treatment. I feel fine now."

"Are you sure? My father was an ER doc for twelve years, and you lost consciousness and you stopped breathing, too," Layla told him.

"Please no," He said once again. "There is no real reason to call them. I really am fine now."

Layla put the phone down on the kitchen counter, and looked over at the man. He was shaking in the soaked blanket that he held very close to his body. "Okay, I guess that’s fine, but you need some clothes, so I’ll be right back," Layla said.

She went down the hall to her parent’s old bedroom. She stopped at the door handle and thought about last time she opened the door. It was the day before her parents' deaths. Both of them were in bed, and Layla had come in to tell them she had hit a deer with her Jeep that caused some menial damage to her car, but they gave her a lecture on driving safely and that she should be careful the next time she drove. Layla pushed the memory away and opened the door to the room, but she had no time to remember anymore, nor did she want to. She went to the drawers of her father's dresser and pulled out a pair of underwear, jeans, and a blue long sleeve shirt. She came back to the living room where the man was still on the couch, shaking in the blanket.

"Here, put these on. You should be the right size for these," Layla said, handing him the stack of cloths.

"Thank you," He said, taking the stack of cloths in his hands.

"No problem," Layla said in return and walked away to get out of her own drenching clothes, also to give him some privacy as he got in to the clothes. In her own bedroom, she stripped off the wet clothes and put on a dry pair of pants along with fluffy brown wool sweater to warm up, then went back to the living room.

As Layla came back to the living room, she found the man in clothes she gave him and sitting back on the couch, resting. "My name is Layla White," She introduced herself to him. "I would have told you earlier but it kind of slipped my mind at the time."

"I’m Darrius Johnson," He introduced and extended his hand. "My friends just call me Dar."

"Do the clothes fit alright?" Layla asked as she sat across from him on a wooden rocking chair.

"Yes, they fit just right," He said. His voice was soft and calm despite what had happened to him. He got to his feet and started to head for the front door. "I have to thank you again for saving me and taking me in, but I really must go."

"No, I don’t think so," Layla said and blocked him off from the door. "If you don’t want to go to a hospital, then I must have you stay here until I see your not just going to drop dead. Besides, you need to rest after nearly dying."

Layla sat him back down on the couch, and he just gave a smile as he sat back down. "I’ll rest if you insist, but after that will you let me go?"

"Yes, and I’ll even drive you home, if you like, so just lay there. You have been through a lot," Layla said to him. She got up and got another blanket from the closet down the hall and handed it to him. He took the blanket thankfully and snuggled up on the couch, then closed his eyes.

Layla took a seat on the loveseat across from him and watched his breathing until she could tell he was really asleep. Why wasn’t he wearing any clothes? The thought drifted in her mind until she nodded off to sleep. She awoke with a jolt, greeted with the fleeting blur of nightmares that plagued her dreams so often. She looked across from herself to see the man was awake too.

"Good morning," He greeted her. He hadn’t moved from his spot on the couch that she had told him to stay at.

She got up, stiff and unrest, and made her way towards the man. "How long have you been awake?"

"I don’t know... only a few minutes, maybe," He answered. He started to sit up as Layla approached him and she sat down in the wooden rocking chair next to him. "I just laid here watching you sleep, and then you woke up."

"Well Dar, how do you feel?"

“I feel fine. I don‘t think I will drop dead, if that‘s what you mean," Dar joked.

Layla giggled. "You almost drowned out there. How did you get out in the lake like that? And with out any clothes on, too?" Layla wanted to know.

"I don’t remember much," Dar answered, rubbing his head. "I think I might have been swimming on my uncle’s boat. I must have fallen overboard and hit my head somehow."

"Oh, okay, you do live around here, then, right?"

"Well, I live in Wolfeboro with my largely extended family," He answered.

"Wolfeboro is on the other side of the lake... you must have drifted a hell of a long way, then, cause you're in Alton," Layla informed Dar. "No worries. I said that I would drive you home, and that is what I am going to do. Do you want to call your family to let them know you're alright?"

Layla got up to give Dar the phone to call. "Well I don’t…think…. that will do much good," He stammered out as Layla handed him the phone.

"And why not?"

"My family isn’t one to pick up the phone. Even if it rings forever," Dar explained. Dar got up from his seat and handed the phone back to Layla, when their hands touched.

Layla smiled and started to blush, and so did Dar. She had only known this man for a few hours, she had kissed him if you count the CPR, she'd seen him naked, and he seemed to be the kindest man she'd ever meet. She looked outside. The sun had just started to rise above the mountains, and then she looked at the clock that read 7:45 a.m. "It’s still early. Are you sure that your family will be home?"

"They will be," Dar answered.

"Alright, I’ll just get my keys," Layla said to him.

Ten minutes later, Layla’s blue Jeep Wrangler was turning down a small dirt road off of route Twenty-eight in Wolfeboro. During the drive, Dar talked about his family being mostly made up his uncle Viktor, who owns acres of private property because he likes the wilderness, his sixteen-year-old second cousins who are triplets named Paten, Pierce, and Parker, and an assortment of other family members who pop in now and then.

"How about your families Layla, are they just as crazy as mine?" Dar asked. Layla didn’t say anything and just kept her eyes forced dead ahead on the road, which was turning into a dirt road. "I see I have struck a nerve... I am sorry."

"No, it’s just that..." Layla tried to think of an explanation, but nothing seemed to come to her mind, which left the two of them in silence. "...That I really don’t feel like talking about them right now, is all."

"Did you lose them?"

"Yes."

"Then I will not push you to tell me," He said charmingly. "I can wait."

"Really?" Layla asked lifting an eye brow. "And how do you know that we will meet again after I drop you off?"

"I know that we will see each other again 'cause," Dar said. Just as he did, Layla pulled up to the house. It was a three story manor house that had to be as large as one seen right out of New England House monthly. "I owe you my life and I must pay you back."

Layla parked the car in a open part of the dirt driveway. "How are you going to pay me back?"

"How about I start by breakfast?"