Laura and Wayne appeared to have as close to perfect of a marriage anyone could imagine. They were young and seemed to be so much in love some thought it rather cheesy, bordering on sappy. Public displays of affection were the norm for these two.
Laura and Wayne are both 26. They were five years into their marriage; they got married during their last year in college. Laura is an alluring, athletic 5-foot-8 long-haired blonde. She maintained her 35-23-36 figure by swimming laps every day in their pool as well as hitting the gym three times a week. Wayne stands 5-11 and is in fairly decent shape. He's a little soft around the middle because he doesn't hit the gym as much as Laura. He too has blond hair and slowly but surely he is balding.
They attended a small private university in Southern California, and both were raised by conservative families in rural farming communities in Central California. Laura and Wayne claim to be open-minded even though their politics lean heavily to the right. Their association with people of color is limited to say the least. Neither of them have anyone of color they would call a friend, not even on Facebook.
They relocated to a mid-sized city north of San Francisco and recently bought a beautiful, spacious four-bedroom home in a gated community that was exclusively white. The people with the darkest skin in their neighborhood were an Italian couple who lived three homes down.
Wayne makes his bones in the financial world, while Laura works for a media corporation. Their plan is to start a family within the next two years and have agreed to have three children. But for now, Laura is on the pill.
Wayne loves Laura dearly. Laura could be considered a trophy wife, and Wayne treats her like a queen. He'll do just about anything to make her happy. One of her wishes he is granting is the installation of a hot tub in their back yard adjacent to their pool.
When she works out at the gym, Laura doesn't lack for attention. Men tend to gravitate to her, some offering to help her on an exercise machine. Though she is flattered, she informs the men she is married. Still, that doesn't stop men from openly hitting on her. It's gotten to the point where she's come to expect it and even like it, but her purpose remains to work out and maintain her figure, not finding a date.
One day while she was running on a treadmill, a striking young black man started running on the treadmill right next to her. The dark-skinned man stood 6-3, had short hair and was a toned 220 pounds. Laura had never seen him in the gym before, but he looked oddly familiar. She visually took in his athletic physique and was very impressed. He made brief eye contact with her, but that was it, as he had headphones on and was listening to music.
As he continued on the treadmill for another 15 minutes, Laura kept stealing glances his way. But he never returned her glances. When he was done, he continued on to another station for a round of sit-ups. Laura did another 10 minutes on the treadmill, her mind was still on this man.
Laura finished her workout, showered and left the gym. She was still trying to remember where she had seen him before. On her way home, she realizes her tank is near empty and pulls into a gas station. Low and behold, she sees him again, filling up his car.
She sees he was wearing a sweatshirt from her college and then it hits her. He was one of the standout players from her college football team. She approached him and introduced herself.
"Excuse me, my name is Laura, and I just have to know, is your name Roy Mason?" she asked.
"I am," he said, eyeing her up and down, liking what he saw. "Should I know you from somewhere?"
"I thought it was you," she said. "We went to the same college and you were on the football team. You were a fantastic player. Didn't you make the pros?"
"I got drafted and stuck with the team for about four years, but the team decided to move on without me and no other team picked me up," he said.
"Ah, that's too bad...you were a really good receiver," Laura said. "So what are you doing with yourself these days, and how did you end up in this town?"
"I grew up here and moved back a few months ago," Roy said. "My dad's not doing well, so I'm here to take care of him and run his business."
"Oh yeah? What's his business?" she asked.
"He owns a janitorial supply store over on Strickland Road," Roy said. "What about you?"
"Me and my husband moved here a couple years ago," she replied. "He's a financial consultant. I work for a media corporation."
"Sounds like you two do quite well for yourselves," he said.
"We do OK...we just bought a new home in Sunrise Heights," Laura said.
"Hmmm, that part of town, huh...I see," Roy said with a hint of disdain in his voice.
"What do you mean...that part of town?" she said in an annoyed tone of voice.
"I'll just say only those of a paler hue get to live in that neighborhood, and I'll leave it at that," Roy said. The gas meter clicked, letting Roy know his car was full. "That's my cue. I've gotta go. It was nice meeting you."
On the drive home, her conversation with Roy was nagging at her. She got the feeling he felt she was a bigot and began to resent it. In fact, she was getting downright angry. Sure, she was conservative but she believed in her heart she was a person who was accepting of all people, no matter their race or creed.
She was still stewing about it when she got home. Wayne arrived home, gave her a kiss and immediately knew Laura was annoyed about something.
"Babe, is something wrong? You look sort of pissed," Wayne said.
"A conversation I had with someone bothered the hell out of me," Laura said. "This black man seemed to insinuate that I'm racist because of the neighborhood we live in."
"OK, so where did you meet this black man and who is he?" Wayne asked. "Do you want me to go kick his ass?
Laura retorted, "Wayne, there's no way you could kick this man's ass. In fact, you're quite familiar with him. It's Roy Mason."
This surprised Wayne.
"The Roy Mason who was on our college football team? He was a hell of a player. How'd you meet him?" Wayne asked.
"He started working out at the same gym as me. I thought he looked familiar but didn't say anything to him," Laura said. "But I saw him again at the gas station a little later and approached him. We were having what I thought was a pleasant conversation, until I mentioned where we live. His tone changed, as if I were racist."
"You should just let it go...no need to stress yourself out over something this minor," Wayne said.
They had a nice dinner, watched a little TV and then went to bed. Still, Laura remained bothered.
The next day, Laura couldn't help herself. Before heading to work, she drove to the other side of town where Roy's father had his store and sought Roy out. She was the only customer in the store at the time. Roy, to say the least, was very surprised to see Laura, who was wearing a tight pair of jeans and a San Francisco Giants sweatshirt. She let her blonde hair flow to the middle of her back.
"How can I help you, Laura...right?" Roy asked.
"I want to revisit our conversation from yesterday," she said tersely. "I don't like being called a racist."
"I never called you a racist," Roy answered.
"Your tone of voice insinuated that because I live where I live, I must be racist, and that couldn't be any further from the truth," Laura stated.
"OK, so you're not a racist," Roy said in somewhat of a mocking tone. "But I find it sort of funny how you felt the need to come all the way across town to tell me that. Or maybe you're just trying to convince yourself. I don't know."
"You know nothing about me, and you're jumping to conclusions, and that's bullshit," Laura declared. "Wayne and I live where we live because the homes in that neighborhood are a good investment for our future."
Roy couldn't contain his laughter at this point.
"I'm sure it is, but I didn't jump to any conclusions about you. But that neighborhood keeps out undesirable people like us," Roy continued in his mocking tone. "We're out of your sight...we're out of your mind. Now, would you like to buy something?"
Laura grew more frustrated and angry.
"There's no fucking point," she said and left.
As she headed for work, she thought about Roy's out of sight, out of mind comment. That's when it hit her. She has no connection with people of color in any real capacity. She sees them around at work, but she's never really had a serious conversation with anyone who wasn't white. And this saddened and annoyed her.
After leaving work, Laura went to the gym, wanting to work off some the anger that lingered with her all day. She was furiously working out on a rowing machine when she saw Roy make his way into the room. They made eye contact for a brief moment but neither spoke to the other. Roy went to a machine to do some work on his legs, and his workout was just as vigorous as Laura's.
Laura glanced over to where Roy was working and a strange feeling washed over her. She found herself oddly turned on by Roy. Although she didn't like the mocking way he spoke to her, he told her some uncomfortable truths. And she was intrigued by this man and wanted to get to know him better.
Laura went home and told Wayne all about her day when they were in bed. When she said she came to the realization they only had white friends, Wayne chimed in.
"So what?" Wayne snapped. "Why feel guilty for only hanging around people we feel comfortable with. I don't give a shit that we only have white friends. If I wanted to be friends with niggers I would. But I don't."
"I don't think I've ever heard you utter that word before," a shocked Laura said. "That's just not like you."
"They're just not my favorite type of people, and that's all I'm going to say," Wayne said and then he rolled over to go to sleep.
Laura didn't know how to feel about what Wayne had said. The day's events had made her want to expand her horizons. And she began feeling uneasy about being married to a bigot. She started to wonder how well she really knew her husband.
The next day, Laura again made her way across town to see Roy. Upon seeing Laura, Roy threw his hands up and asked, "What now?"
Laura said she thought long and hard about what he said. She told Roy she never thought about race relations much because she simply didn't have to. All she ever knew was a white world but she wanted to diversify her circle of friends.
Roy was taken aback by her admission. He dropped his mocking tone.
"That's nice to hear, but how are you going to go about doing it?" he asked.
