Malcolm went into the living room to wait for Sabella. She came downstairs a few minutes later laptop in hand. She joined Malcolm in the living room. She sat next to him on the couch.
"How do you use your computer to use this thing called the Internet?" Malcolm asked.
"I have to turn it on," Sabella said turning on her laptop. "Once it's on it connects to the Internet."
"Once it's on and connected I need you to look for information concerning the Double M Ranch," Malcolm said.
"I'm not going to like this am, I?" Sabella asked as she logged on to the Internet.
"No, you're not," Malcolm replied. "Your brother feels that you should know what you're about to learn, and I agree with him."
Sabella clicked on her web browser and waited for her homepage to open up.
She then clicked on the search field and typed in; Double M Ranch, Tyler, Texas. She hesitated pressing the enter button because it would start a process she wouldn't be able to stop.
"I don't like surprises," Sabella said, "tell me what I'm going to see."
Malcolm took a deep breath and began telling Sabella the story of the Double M Ranch.
"Until a year ago this place, this land wasn't a ranch," Malcolm said. "My father when he was alive was the Grand Wizard of the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan."
As expected Sabella was shocked and she moved away from Malcolm. The hurt he felt at her reaction to what he said surprised and overwhelmed him.
"My father used the land for Klan rallies," Malcolm said stamping down the pain, he felt from the look of disgust on Sabella's face and continuing with what he had to say. "Everything that had to do with the Klan was held on this land. My father was very proud of being the Grand Wizard. He considered the position to be one of honor, and he expected me to follow in his footsteps when he became too old to perform the duties of the Grand Wizard. But, to his chagrin and disappointment I had no desire to follow in his footsteps. I was ten years old when I understood what the Klan stood for but even at that age I knew that what they stood for and what they did was wrong. I refused to attend anymore of the meetings and to have anything to do with my father or the Klan."
"That must've made your father very angry with you," Sabella said.
"Yes, it did," Malcolm replied, "My father said, I couldn't do that, especially since I was his only son, and he held the top position in the Klan. He said my refusal to attend the rallies would reflect badly on him, and he couldn't allow me to do that. So, he forced me to attend the meetings and the cross burnings by threatening to burn down the home of my best friend Jesse. A colored boy about my age that I had become friends with when I was about five years old."
"Your father allowed you to have a colored child as a friend?" Sabella asked amazed that his father would allow such a thing.
"When I became friends with Jesse, he wasn't happy about it," Malcolm said. "He told my mother that he wanted her to keep me away from Jesse because it wasn't right for a white boy and a nigger boy to be friends and my befriending a nigger boy would reflect badly on him because of his position in the Klan. My mother wasn't like my father, she was, in fact, the exact opposite of my father in every way. She told my father that the friendship couldn't do any damage to him because the two of us were just babies. She didn't tell my father that Jesse and I had met because she was friends with Jesse's mother. She kept their friendship a secret because she knew how my father would react."
"How did your mother wind up married to your father if they didn't have the same beliefs?" Sabella asked.
"My father presented a totally different picture to my mother when they were dating," Malcolm said. "It wasn't until they were married that my mother and my mother was pregnant with me that she found out the type of man my father really was."
"Why didn't she divorce him?" Sabella asked.
"My mother didn't believe in divorce," Malcolm said. "She took her marriage vows seriously."
"I guess so," Sabella said amazed at what she was hearing.
"When I told my mother about my father threatening to burn down Jesse's home if I didn't attend the Klan rallies, she told me that I had to end my friendship with Jesse because seeing him would put him and his family in danger. We went over to Jesse's house one last time so my mother could explain to his mother why she, and I wouldn't be coming around anymore. Jesse's mother understood. She told my mother, she would miss their friendship, but she agreed with her that it was the right thing to do."
"I bet you missed your friend," Sabella remarked her tone sad just thinking how she would've felt if she wasn't allowed to have Regina as her friend for whatever reason.
"I did," Malcolm replied. "Jesse and I didn't understand why we couldn't be friends, so we would meet secretly and play together. We did this for months and thought we were getting away with it. I didn't know that my father saw me leaving home one day when I was sneaking off to meet Jesse and followed me to see where I was going. When he saw that I was going over to Jesse's house, he told me that he wanted to grab me and take me home and give me a beating I would never forget. But, he didn't because he came up with what he considered a better way to teach me a lesson, something he knew I would never forget."
"What did he do?" Sabella asked.
"That night as I was preparing to go to bed my father told me he wanted me to take a little drive with him," Malcolm said his breathing becoming labored. "When I recognized where he was taking me, I knew I wasn't going to like what he was going to show me. My father drove until we were sitting over a ridge that overlooked Jesse's house. He turned to me and told me that he knew I was sneaking off playing with Jesse, and since I wouldn't obey him, he had no choice but to do as he said and burn his house down."
"Oh, my god," Sabella said.
"I begged him not to burn his house down," Malcolm said his voice becoming shaky. "I told him he didn't have to burn Jesse's house down because I would never visit him again. But, he wouldn't listen. He said I broke his rule and somebody had to pay for it, and I decided it would be Jesse and his family when I didn't obey him."
Sabella's eyes filled with tears as she imagined the fear and dread Malcolm must've felt when he realized what his father was about to do.
"My father flicked his headlights on and off," Malcolm said continuing his story. "Few seconds after he did that I saw someone dressed in white carrying a torch run towards Jesse's house and throw the torch onto the front porch. Then another person dressed in white appeared a few seconds after the first one also carrying a torch and threw it onto the back porch. I continued to plead and beg my father to stop what he was doing. I promised him once again that I wouldn't play with Jesse ever again. I even promised to go to the Klan rallies and cross burnings if he would just stop, but he wouldn't stop.
Sabella reached out and took hold of Malcolm's hand as he continued with his story.
"His Klan buddies kept throwing flaming torches at Jesse's house until it caught on fire. I stared at the house expecting Jesse, his mother, his father and his little sister to coming running out of it, but they didn't. I prayed they were away visiting family, or that they were being held outside of the house forced to watch it burn that would've been bad but they would've been alive. Anything would've been better than what my father said to me."
Malcolm stared out into space as he continued telling Sabella what happened that awful night.
"He said that all of this was my fault that Jesse and his family were losing their home and their lives was my fault because I disobeyed him. When I realized what he said I started screaming, and trying to get out of the truck so that I could help Jesse and his family escape from the fire. But, that bastard grabbed me and wouldn't turn me loose. He kept telling me that they were losing their home and their lives because of me, because I disobeyed him."
As Malcolm spoke Sabella looked at him and her heart began to weep for him seeing the fear and anger that filled his eyes as he relived the terror of that night.
It was the tears that she saw forming in his eyes, that slowly made their way down his cheek and his body shaking as he spoke that made Sabella reach out and put her arms around him to comfort him and try to ease some of the pain he had to be feeling.
As he continued to speak her own tears began falling as she imagine what he must've felt watching his friend's home and family perish in such a horrible manner because his father chose such a sick way to punish him, to try and teach him a lesson.
