Prologue
They say the river that runs through the land here used to be as calm as a peaceful sunny day, but that it all changed when the Johnson’s came to town 15 years ago. They say they have bad blood, and that blood got mixed in the river one night when old man Johnson’s wife got murdered. By him, they say. And ever since that night the river has been wild. Fast and demanding. Ruining anything that gets in its path. They say anyone who has been in that river since, hasn’t lived to tell anyone. The river washes everyone away. Cleans its slate I guess. Maybe that’s why it’s called wild white river. It washes everything away. Leaving no traces of the death and destruction it has caused. They also say he has bad blood too. Because it was his momma that was killed in that river. They say he probably helped kill her. I don’t really believe that though. How can a 3 year old kill his own momma in a river? Anyway, there has always been something so alluring about him. Even if daddy does tell me to keep my distance from that Johnson boy. Bad blood and all, that I rightfully don’t need to get mixed up in. But his blue eyes are wild like the river, and they draw me in, even if he has never spoken a word to me. He pulls me in and I drown in his vibrant depths without him even knowing I exist or that we have grown up so close to each other. No, he may not see me. But I see the storm in Hayes Johnson’s gaze every morning I walk past him in the hallway. And well, I have never really been afraid of being washed away in the depths of the river here anyway.
