Bloody Sheets

Will was getting ready for his date with Allie. She had just told him she was pregnant earlier in the day. Will was gonna be a daddy, and the idea of this pleased him to no end. His own father had never been there for him, and Will was ecstatic about the idea of being able to somehow be the yin to his father's yang and raise his own child properly. Of course there would be obstacles—there were always obstacles in life. Allie was a white girl, the daughter of a local dentist, and the interracial thing didn't really fly in Gibson, Alabama. While the rest of America had at least pretended to move on and act more progressive, Gibson was still stuck in the 1950s.
Black people in Gibson weren't forced to drink from separate water fountains anymore, but this was only because there were no longer water fountains for anyone to drink from. In Gibson, black people weren't allowed to do much of anything outside their own area. Blacks weren't welcome in most white businesses and their money, green as it was, wasn't welcome either. Black and white kids attended school together—that's where Will had met Allie—but that was only because it was illegal to do otherwise in this day and age. But if the white folks of Gibson had their choice, their schools would still be segregated. Hell, if they really had their say, there would be no black people at all.
Will had always been aware that he and Allie dating would be an issue one day down the road, but he'd always figured he would face that day whenever it came. One time Will had asked Allie how her father would react if he knew they were dating and she'd said earnestly, “He'd probably kill you, Will. Daddy don't like black people very much. But that's just how he was raised.” That was the line everyone used to dismiss this behavior—it was the way they were raised. As one might expect, Will had not been overly enthusiastic about Allie's response, but they had continued seeing one another in secret. They would meet up outside town and drive to a nearby city for their dates. This had worked out well, and the two of them had never been caught in the two years they'd been together.
But now Allie was pregnant, and that would be a problem. Of course they could drive up to Atchison and pay to get an abortion, but neither of them wanted that. They loved one another very much and saw the forthcoming child as a byproduct of their love. The two of them had talked about moving far away from Gibson but hadn't talked about it in some time. But now it would be a necessary conversation, and Will planned to bring it up as soon as possible.
He was in good spirits tonight, happy about Allie's news, listening to his mama's gospel albums as he prepared for their date. Tonight he would take Allie up to Garrett, a bigger city that was slightly more accepting of interracial couples. In the years Will and Allie had been going there, they had only experienced one conflict. That night they had made the mistake of going bowling. Will should have known better. He'd always had a pretty good idea of what types of people frequented bowling alleys—a lot of redneck white dudes—but he'd made the mistake of going that night because Allie had wanted to. “We used to bowl all the time when I was a kid,” she'd said. But then Allie was white, and her experiences as a child were different from his own. Will and Allie had received more than a few dirty looks upon entering the Bowl-Mor bowling alley, most of them completely missed and unseen by Allie, but they had gone about their business, paying them no mind. Later, in the midst of their game, they were accosted by a fat, drunk, bearded redneck. As Allie was about to throw her ball, the cracker yelled out, “Get a strike, nigger lover!” Predictably, this comment had distressed Allie, and Will had wanted very badly to beat the living shit out of the guy. But this was rural Alabama, and Will knew his place in this world. Both he and the white man knew Will could pummel the hell out of him, but they also both knew what the consequences of that would likely be. So Will and Allie had left the place without saying a word. Will hadn't even glared at the man, instead leading Allie out in silence.