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Feeling a sense of security as he walked down the dark littered streets of the easternmost side of Tulsa, passing neighborhoods full of rundown houses and loud music and voices that would make the average person think twice about continuing, Dallas vaguely wondered if he loved her.
Love wasn’t the right word – but when he thought back on it, it didn’t seem that he treated her any differently than anyone else he had feelings for. But, God, Dallas couldn’t say that Sylvia was just any girl either. She was real. He was reminded of the girls from back home when he looked at her, especially when she was drinking.
He was still two blocks away but could already make out the large tree that marked her front yard. Sylvia had told him about the apple tree that stood beside her bedroom window – it had been a ‘present’ from her father, as he was the one who planted it many years ago when Sylvia was two and a half. It had been her mother, though, who took on the role of gardener as her father had run out on them not long after he planted it.
Sylvia had said that it’s her only memory of her father – and that he only planted it out of guilt for striking her. She laughed when she said it.
Is that what Dallas liked about Sylvia? That she also had a turbulent upbringing and that, if he were to marry her, she would already know what was expected of their relationship? Did it comfort him to know that Sylvia, despite the many times he swore to “get ‘em back”, would be understanding – even anticipating that Dallas would follow in his father’s footsteps and succumb to generational trauma? Is that the reason he decided so adamantly that she’s the one who will wear his class ring?
Dallas thought about it for a second as he sized up the tree. He remembered Sylvia mentioned that when she was younger, she often imagined that a knight in shining armor would rescue her from her bedroom window and save her from her life. Perhaps that was the real reason – perhaps, somehow, Dallas Winston thought he could be the hero in someone else’s story. But if anyone would be able to see through him, it would be Sylvia.
He climbed the tree anyway.