Rising Read Online Free PDF Page A

distant, there is a reason.” He promised to protect Bobby Jack, and this was the only way he could do it.
    “Yeah, okay. Why join the brotherhood? Leave those crazy assholes alone. They promote racism, but that’s more like a cover. They are more of a criminal entity. You got away from them once. Why go back to them now?” Bobby Jack crossed his arms. “Some of the shit they do in prison is foul.”
    “What the hell are you talking about?” Riley sat on the hood. “I never left.”
    “When you moved out of Isaac’s house, I thought you gave it all up.”
    “How could I? I had a little money, but not enough to get a room. I had nowhere to go. That left me with one choice. Talk to the group that hated Isaac as much as I did. New World Watch members gave me a place to live, and helped me get a GED before getting me on the rig.” It was time his kin learned some hard truths. “The only reason no one has bothered you is because of me, and your daddy ain’t powerful enough to challenge me.”
    “But you don’t…”
    “I don’t what?” He snickered. “I have teachers, government officials, and everyday common folk in NWW. We have learned to assimilate. We don’t all shave our heads or spout rhetoric in public.”
    “Whit?” Bobby Jack leaned forward. “How far up are you in the brotherhood?”
    “I run the Southeast Territory.” Riley straightened. “I know you love a black woman. I don’t like it, but it’s your choice. I made your mama a promise to keep you safe and that’s what I am doing. I wanted you to know there will come a time when I have to shut Isaac down.”
    “I’m right here!” The toddler yelled out. “Can I get out of the truck now?”
    “Do what you have to do. Keep me out of it.” Bobby Jack moved to the side and stopped. “For someone who isn’t fond of black people, why are you helping a black woman?”
    “Come again?” Riley tilted his head.
    “The ID in the console belongs to a black woman with long hair and a pretty smile. Sound familiar? I know relations with someone other than a white woman is—looked down upon—but you’re digging out a car for one. I wonder why.” Bobby Jack hummed as he climbed up into the cab.
    “You little shit.” Riley started digging.
    Riley let his mind drift to those years with his Aunt Elizabeth. He could clue his cousin in on some things, but not everything.
    Those last few days of his aunt’s life were hard. Isaac disappeared after he and some Klansmen beat up her doctor. That left him and his cousins to fend for themselves. There was nothing to eat in the ramshackle trailer. Clay and Andy took to robbing their neighbors, and tried to include the youngest family member in on their little crime sprees.
    Riley actually had to go to school and made sure that he towed Bobby Jack with him in order to keep the boy out of trouble.
    He was at his wit’s end when he’d snuck into the hospital to visit Aunt Elizabeth.
    *
    Riley crept past the heavy metal door and wrinkled his nose at the antiseptic smell that permeated the hospital room. The space was cold, to the point he’d wished he brought a jacket. He raised the collar of his shirt to fend off the chill. Machines beeped and a faint light gave the space an ethereal glow. On the nightstand was a mason jar full of yellow wildflowers. His cousin, Bobby Jack, must have come by to see his mother.
    He shuffled closer to the bed, and the soles of his tennis shoes squeaked on the linoleum floor. His aunt’s frail frame was hidden, buried beneath a mountain of blankets. He’d swallowed and glanced at the closed door. No one passed by the sliver of window that gave him a view into the hallway. It was after visiting hours and he wasn’t supposed to be there.
    His Uncle Isaac had been on a serious bender ever since the doctors told the old man there was nothing more they could do, but make his Aunt Elizabeth comfortable. His heart pounded in his chest as tears rolled down his cheek.
    When