Welcome to Serenity

by Olivia Gaines

  I am my brother’s keeper. In a leather bound notebook, he began a new list of people he would need to build this vision of his new western home.

  A construction worker

  A lumberjack who could work a lumber mill

  An electrician

  A restaurateur

  A doctor

  A general store owner

  And a farmer

  Maybe a barber (my hair must stay fresh)

  He used his laptop to create a webpage for the small village that would be his new home. It was also a place that was really isolated. Last, but most important, Jamar created a chat room with password access only. The only words that showed up on the landing page were “Welcome to Serenity.”

  Chapter 5. Making Friends...

  The first few months in Serenity were exhausting, exhilarating and a tad bit lonely. Jamar had never really considered himself to be a social body, but being in the middle of nowhere trying to build a town that was off the grid became a bit trying on his soul. The nights were the worst. As much as Keneisha got on his nerves, dull moments were not spent with that woman. A few times he picked up the phone to call her and maybe send her a plane ticket...aw hell no! Then he would have to explain...the money...leaving her when he won it. Awww hell no!

  New start, Jamar.

  Twice, when in Cheyenne, he’d seen a pretty cowgirl or three, but changed his mind at the thought of a late night visit from a group of cowpunchers with a very long rope. I would feel better if I saw someone who looked more like me. Hell, I would feel better if I saw someone else, period.

  Late on a Friday evening, a pair of headlights rolled into Serenity. Jamar stood on the lopsided porch he’d attempted to build, and he recognized the forestry service symbol on the side of the truck. It was a park ranger.

  “Hey there, Park Ranger,” Jamar called out.

  “Howdy,” the large ranger said. “I heard you had bought the place. I’m your nearest neighbor, Daniel Wilstrom.”

  Handshakes were exchanged as a smiley-faced Jamar invited the ranger inside. “Come on in. Can I get you anything?” he started. “Hold up. My nearest neighbor?”

  “Yeah, I’m about 15 miles west of you,” Daniel told him. “I’m curious about your plans for the place. I see heavy equipment, satellites, cell towers, and stuff. Are you planning to make some kind of adult playground or something?”

  Jamar chuckled. “Nah, nothing like that. I’m making a town that will be off the grid.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Cross my heart,” Jamar told him. “I just want to live in a place where people still care about each other, you know.”

  “I get it, but how are you going to get people to this town?”

  “I’m going to start with the men,” Jamar said with a smile. “They have to be single, no kids, and none of that ‘I have a fiancé crap.’ I want the dreamers and the dream builders. I have a website up and everything. I host weekly online chats about what I am looking for in my residents. I’ll need a farmer, a construction worker, an electrician, a doctor, a cook, those kinds of folks. I also want a store owner to set up a mercantile.”

  Daniel’s facial expression had not changed as he listened to the young man talk about his vision. Based on Daniel’s understanding, each man would buy a parcel of land to work on his portion of a personal dream. The current bunkhouse would be a holding pen for all the bulls until houses and shops were erected.

  “It sounds like a good plan until the women get involved,” Daniel told him.

  “What about women? I mean I like them and all, but I am not factoring them into this equation,” Jamar said.

  “Good, but not possible. Women have a tendency to cloud a man’s judgement and vision,” Daniel told Jamar. “Have you thought about making the town off limits to women unless they are married to a townsperson or something?”

  “Honestly man, I was really thinking of doing like that little Alaska town getting everything set up, then changing the website to a mail order husband thingy. You know, we will be like the Grooms of Serenity or something. I will do a calendar featuring all the men,” he said with a smile.

  “Sounds like you have it all worked out,” Daniel told him.

  “Nope. I failed to factor in one thing,” Jamar confessed.

  “What’s that?”

  “It is lonely as hell out here, man. I’m from the South Side of Chicago. If I don’t hear a gun being fired, I think I have died and no one told me. I love the serenity of this place, but the silence is deafening,” he told him.

  “I’m headed home to cook some dinner. You’re welcome to join me, see where I live, hang out for the evening. I have a guest room and in the morning, we can catch some fish for breakfast,” Daniel added with a smile.

  “Man, didn’t you hear me say I am from the South Side of Chicago? I don’t know how to fish!”

  “Good– tomorrow morning, you’ll learn because I’m going to teach you,” Daniel said with pride. “Grab some stuff for the overnight stay and lock up. Follow me over to my house.”

  Jamar stood still.

  “What?” Daniel asked him.

  “I did tell you I like women right?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “I don’t want no funny stuff, man. I don’t want to wake up and find you standing over my bed with your junk in hand talking about, ‘I can’t sleep’ or no bullshit like that,” Jamar said with wide eyes.

  Daniel stood still as well, staring at him with a confused look on his face. “Does that kind of thing happen to you often?” Daniel wanted to know.

  “Man, dudes get out of prison and come home,” he said with a pause. “You try to do them a solid and put them up for a night; even if you lock the door, you still find them standing over you, looking at you all under eye and shit, scaring the hell out of a brother.”

  “Maybe you should stop housing men fresh out the pen,” Daniel said.

  “I learned after that third time,” Jamar said with a frown. “That last dude was not taking no for an answer. I think he had a flashback to Cell Block D or something. Sometimes, I don’t know what my cousin be thinking, man!” he said to Daniel, who was trying his hardest not to laugh.

  “Why did you try it three times?” Daniel wanted to know. “Seems like you would have learned after the first one.”

  Jamar rose to gather some items for the night’s stay at Daniel’s place. He thought about his Grandma living on that street all of those years. He thought about all of the people she had helped, some who needed a fresh start, others who needed to start over, and some who simply needed to start.

  “I am my brother’s keeper. Do you know what the saying means?” Jamar said to Daniel.

  “I know what the saying means, Jamar. I’m curious as to what it means to you,” Daniel asked the young man.

  Jamar placed the items in the bag, checking to make certain nothing was left turned on in the bunkhouse before he locked the door.

  “To me it means that if my brother wants to better himself, I’m going to help him try. Serenity is all about helping a man build his vision. The right support system means everything in a person’s success. That is what Serenity is about – this is what my town is about. I lost my brothers to drugs and jail, just stupid shit. I am going to build a new family. I am going to build a new town and a life out here. I want to surround myself with like-minded individuals who don’t mind working hard to achieve something of their own,” he told him. “I am my brother’s keeper.”

  “Works well for me, brother. Let’s head over to my place and get some chow. Plus, I need to get my girl fed,” he said pointing to the truck. A beautiful collie sat in the passenger seat of the truck.

  “That’s a nice dog. What’s her name, Lassie?”

  Daniel grinned. “No, that is Sheila D.”

  “Sheila D?” Jamar asked.

  “Yeah, the E was taken by another lovely lady,” Daniel said to him. “Say hi, Sheila!”

  The beautiful, glossy haire
d dog barked at Jamar twice.

  “I will take that as my cue to roll out,” Jamar said. “I’m kind of hungry myself.”

  Chapter 6. Let’s build something...

  Jack Kinson landed his single engine Cessna in the middle of an open field in the heart of the town of Serenity. It took Jamar several minutes to understand who in the hell decided to land a plane in the middle of his town and he wanted to know why. His next thought was that he should maybe consider exercising his Second Amendment rights living way out in the middle of nowhere. If someone wanted to make an uninvited stop, he needed have something to stop them with. Right now the only weapon he possessed was a sharp wit and the blood of Jesus his Gigi prayed and covered him in.

  A muscular man with short brown hair and an undecided beard stepped out of the plane, lugging a tool belt behind him. In his hand he held a camera, taking pictures of what Jamar had put together thus far. The facial expression as he walked towards the town was a bit intimidating when he approached Jamar.

  “Hey! You Smalls?” the man asked.

  “Yep. Why did you land a plane in the middle of my town?”

  “Because you don’t have a landing strip,” the man told him.

  Jamar looked at the burly fellow as if he’d fallen over and bumped his head from an upright position.

  “Can I help you?” Jamar wanted to know.

  “I came to help you,” the man said.

  “Stop it,” Jamar said. He didn’t like the short cryptic answers. “Who are you and what do you want?”

  “Oh,” he said with a sardonic smile. “I’m Jack Kinson of Kinson Construction. You and me was chatting on the computer internet thingy. My fingers are too thick for all that typing, so I just fueled my plane and came on out.”

  “You flew out to finish our online conversation?” Jamar asked.

  “No. I flew out to get started helping you build this town,” Jack told him.

  “Are you interested in buying a plot of land to house your construction company?”

  “Nah. I’ll stay in the bunkhouse, get the work done, and when it’s over, I’ll go on to my next job,” Jack told him with confidence.

  “Okay,” Jamar said. “Do you have any paperwork, letters of references, anything like that?”

  “Nah. Kinson Construction is a pretty big name in Wyoming. We’re family owned and operated. The Kinson’s have built everything from half of Cheyenne during the gold rush to the Walmart in Cody. Construction is in my blood. It’s basically all I know how to do,” Jack said with a sadness behind his eyes.

  “Nope,” Jamar said flatly to him.

  “Whaddya mean, nope?”

  “Just what I said. You’re hiding something or lying to me, and I can see right through you,” Jamar said. “This place is too damned remote to be living with someone I can’t trust. So either you level up or you can get back into your cute little plane and fly back to wherever in the hell you flew in from,” Jamar said.

  Jack straightened his back and looked around the start of the town. The main street had been cleared. On the corner was a makeshift sign, which read Main and Smalls Streets. His eyes roamed the land, noticing the two cell phone towers, the satellite dish, and the above ground propane tank.

  “I kind of got kicked out of my family,” Jack said quietly.

  “Listening,” Jamar responded.

  “I slept with my brother’s wife. She is pregnant. I may the father of the child or I may be its uncle. I dunno,” Jack said.

  “That’s some nasty shit,” Jamar said to him.

  “I know. I am,” he looked into the distance. “I dunno. I should be sorry I did it, but I’m not. I don’t like my brother. He always talks down to me, like I’m not good enough or I don’t know what I am doing. Caleb has always made me feel incompetent,” he told Jamar. The brown eyes looked at him with some scrutiny. “I want to do this on my own to prove to myself I am not a ‘nasty shit,’ that I’m capable and I know my stuff.”

  Jamar did not speak but only looked at him.

  “I am asking you, Smalls, to give me a shot at redemption, not only for my skillsets but for my soul,” he said to Jamar. “I want to bury myself in something that is not related to my family, build my way out of my self-imposed misery, maybe build a brand of my own, stand on my own two feet, work through this wretchedness in my heart that is about to eat me alive with hate.”

  “Wow,” Jamar said. “When you do talk you really say a mouthful.”

  “Yeah, well...besides, no one else is going to come out here and work for you,” Jack said.

  “Why?”

  “You’re a tenderfoot. You’re also black. This ranch has been for sale for years and you were the only bite,” Jack said.

  Concern covered Jamar. Did I buy a lemon?

  “Is something wrong with the land?”

  “No, it’s good land with good water; it’s just remote,” Jack said. “It will be hard to get supplies in before the winter and grocery shopping is a bear. My name will carry some weight in getting shipments out, but I don’t know how much...considering my brother and all.”

  “Grocery shopping?”

  “Yeah, hence the plane. I can fly out to get us fresh fruit and veggies and other things faster than trying to get UPS to come way out here,” he said. “We will also have to fly into Cody and get mail and stuff.”

  “Okay,” Jamar said.

  “Okay,” Jack responded.

  They walked in silence to the bunkhouse. Jack visually taking in all the details. Jamar spoke slowly, “I have rules for my town, Mr. Kinson. The first rule is no women. No single women. No women in the bunkhouse. The only women allowed in the town are the wives of the men once they marry.”

  “Okay,” Jack said.

  “Second, you have to take the pledge that you are your brother’s keeper,” Jamar said.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means you don’t get to screw any other man’s woman,” Jamar said. “Also, I am now your brother, but a brother that you like. Our success in this venture is predicated upon us being able to rely on each other. In order for me to rely on you, I have to trust you. Can I trust you, Jack?”

  “Yep,” he said.

  “Okay,” Jamar said.

  “Okay,” Jack said.

  “You really do pick and choose the amount words you are going to say don’t you?” Jamar wanted to know. “You are not a big talker are you?”

  “Nope,” Jack responded.

  “Then how in the hell did you get your brother’s wife in bed?”

  “I gave her that look. I opened the bedroom door, stood in the threshold, and she walked inside,” he said.

  “That’s all it took?”

  “Yep,” he said. “She is a no good woman – something I tried to tell my brother, but he wouldn’t listen. So I had to show him.”

  “Did you also do it to show him that you are more competent at pleasing his woman?” Jamar wanted to know.

  “Yep. She howled like a wolf all the way through it which is how he found out,” Jack said. “He followed the sound.”

  Jamar shook his head. “That’s some really, really nasty shit Jack.”

  Jack lowered his head when he spoke to Jamar. “Yep. We were in my parent’s house for a weekend stay.”

  The pain on his face was evident at the betrayal to his brother. It probably also cost him a relationship with his parents. Then there was the whole issue of his brother’s pregnant wife. Sticky. Messy. Nasty shit. “This is a new start for you Jack,” Jamar said to his new brother. “Don’t blow it.”

  Both men exhaled as they stared down Main Street. A lot of work was ahead for them both, and piles of lumber stood waiting for Jack. The heavy equipment that was present was a good start, but he was going to have to fly back to Cheyenne and load his trucks and roll them out this way.

  “Hey, Smalls,” Jack said. “I brought some groceries.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “I have a couple of T-bones fo
r dinner, some oranges, bananas, asparagus, and turnip greens,” Jack said to him.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’m black so I know how to cook turnip greens? What? No watermelon?”

  “I have cantaloupe and a honeydew melon, but I am not that fond of watermelon,” Jack said.

  “Oh,” Jamar said.

  “I was just providing us some grub to tide us over for the week,” Jack said.

  “Thanks. I’m sorry I jumped the gun there,” Jamar said.

  “It’s okay,” Jack said squinting. “I did bring some chicken to fry though - to get on your good side. I don’t know how to fry chicken, so I hope you do... being black and all.”

  “Screw you, Jack!”

  “Nope. I don’t get down like that,” Jack said with a straight face.

  It was a quiet moment before both men started to laugh. Jack, although not officially a resident of Serenity, showed up to help him build the town. He showed up to prove something to himself and his family. More importantly, he showed up.

  “Smalls,” Jack said. “I am my brother’s keeper. From this day forward, you are my brother.”

  “From this day forward, Kinson, you are my brother. I am my brother’s keeper,” Jamar said.

  “Thank you,” Jack mumbled.

  “For what?”

  “Giving me a chance to be a better man,” Jack said softly.

  Jamar extended his hand to his new brother. “Welcome to Serenity,” he said to Jack. “Wait, you said you had a couple of T-bones?”

  “Yep. With mushrooms and onions. It is about the only thing I know how to cook,” Jack said.

  “You know what this means, right?”

  “No,” Jack said.

  “It means that the next dude that moves out to Serenity has to know how to cook because I sure as hell can’t,” Jamar told him. “I don’t even know how to fry that chicken, but we can grill it I guess.”