Devil Town

Tuesday evening after watching a beautiful sunset on his piece of land, Tim and Lyla had drove to the outskirts of town to an old lake that held special memories for himself, Lyla, and even Jason Street. It was where the notion of Texas Forever had truly began all those years ago.

Tim and Lyla hadn’t meant to stay there all night but they’d dozed off sometime after midnight. They’d laid in the back of Tim’s truck for hours just talking on an old blanket, with soft music playing in the background and the crickets chirping. But sleep had consumed them so it had been quite a startle when about 4:25 AM Tim finally stirred awake enough to hear his phone ringing. Something in his gut told him it was an emergency.

He hadn’t answered it in time, but whoever had called left a voicemail. Upon listening to it, Tim was feeling slightly frantic. He lightly shook Lyla awake. The doe-eyed girl looked up at Tim just a bit bewildered. She didn’t even remember falling asleep or even where she was but it all came back to her within a moment.

“Mindy’s in labor. We’ve got to get into town.” Tim said in a quiet voice, trying to stay calm as to give Lyla a chance to wake up. The dark haired girl nodded her head and started slipping her body out of the back of the truck, gathering up the blanket and her phone and things like that from the back.

Five minutes later, they were back on the road headed into Dillon to the hospital. Ten minutes after that, they’d arrived out front. Tim and Lyla both rushed into Dillon Community Hospital and skidded to a halt in the middle of the hallway where Tyra Collette, Coach Taylor and his wife stood waiting on them.

“Where have you been, Tim?” Tyra asked, sounding rather infuriated. “I’ve been trying to call you for the last thirty minutes to no avail.” She kept snarling off, part of it was because of her own nerves about her sister giving birth.

“Damn, Tyra, chill out. I’m here now. I got your first voicemail. I just thought it’d take more time to get here by calling you back,” he pointed out. “Lyla and I were out at the old lake. We didn’t mean to stay there all night. We fell asleep talking about the old days. Something I’ve needed,” Tim added at the end—of course that didn’t make Tyra Collette feel any better.

“You know, you could have involved me with your plans with lil’ miss Garrity over here,” Tyra continued being snarky. “Then I wouldn’t be so worried about my boyfriend and his former ex-girlfriend spending time together,” Tyra was preparing to say something else and Lyla was gearing up to have a go back at Tyra when Tami Taylor put her hand upon Tyra’s shoulder to end the quarreling.

“Right now isn’t the time and this sure isn’t the place,” she said quietly. “Coach hasn’t had enough sleep, you’ve all not had enough sleep, and if you don’t watch out, Eric will have you all outside doing push-ups until the baby is born.” That was enough of a threat to get the three of them to simmer down and at least put their focus back on Mindy who was upstairs in the labor ward with Billy preparing to have twins.

After ten or so minutes of silently waiting, a nurse came into the hallway looking at the group of them. “Mr. Riggins is asking for his brother, and Mrs. Riggins is asking for her sister.” The nurse said softly. Tim looked over to Tyra where she was sitting. The both of them wore a face like something had gone wrong…they hoped like hell it hadn’t.

Tyra stood up and walked over to Tim, grasping his arm tightly out of nervousness as they walked to the OB area with the nurse. Eric, Tami, and Lyla however were still in the waiting room. Lyla looked over to Mrs. Taylor with her doe-eyes somewhat wide.

“You don’t think something has gone wrong, do you, Tami?” Lyla asked, after all—she wasn’t a Mother; Tami shook her head with a small smile. “No. I think Billy and Mindy just want Tyra and Tim to see the twins first. They are family, after all.” Tami’s voice was soft as to not harm Lyla’s feelings more than they’d already been hurt. “I’m sure we’ll all be able to go in very soon to see the twins.” Tami reassured the younger woman.

Lyla had known for the last going on twenty-four hours now that Tim was with Tyra…he was dating her. But it wasn’t Tyra who Tim had spent the last twenty-four hours with… it had been her. A piece of her wanted to see Tim kick Tyra to the curb and take her back…but Lyla Garrity was a selfless person and if it meant that Tim and Tyra could be happy together…she’d leave Dillon and go back to college. Just seeing Tyra clutch onto Tim like that, like Tim was everything to Tyra… it put things into perspective for Lyla Garrity.

Back in the OB area, Tim and Tyra were shown into the room that Billy and Mindy were in. As they walked through the door, the two of them took a sigh of relief. It was over: Billy was holding one twin and Mindy was holding the other. It looked to Tim and Tyra to be a boy and a girl…one wrapped in blue and the other wrapped in pink.

“Everything’s fine?” Tyra finally croaked as they fully walked into the room and Mindy nodded her head, although she was somewhat drugged now after birthing the twins. “She did phenomenal.” Billy praised his wife, looking over to his brother and to Tyra. “A boy and a girl, can you believe that?” Billy asked quietly, a tone of disbelief hidden in his voice as he gazed down once more at the beautiful baby boy in his arms. There he was with his second son in his arms and his first daughter in his wife’s arms.

“Have you thought of names yet, Billy?” Tim asked his older brother as he took a seat next to the hospital bed, Tyra sitting down in Tim’s lap. It was the little moments like this with their families intermingled that… Tim felt like he belonged with Tyra Collette, and with him feeling like that—you could only imagine how right this felt to Tyra. Tim’s wrapped his arms around Tyra’s waist as he held her there in his lap, looking to his brother and sister-n-law.

“We want to name our son Timothy Eric. After two amazing men,” Billy admitted, looking right over to his younger brother and almost looking completely into his soul. Tim couldn’t deny: he was feeling a bit emotional after that. “What about the baby girl?” Tyra asked her older sister, Mindy.

“We’ve fought a little more with this name but I think we found the perfect one. Tyra Christina. I’ve always liked the name Christina but… you’re my lil’ sister and my biggest inspiration in life Ty-bear, so I wanted to name her after you,” Mindy said in a very quiet voice, her voice was almost gone from screaming so much during labor. “We’ll probably nickname her Chrissy…and with Timothy Eric, we’ll probably call him Timmy. The perfect twin names: Timmy and Chrissy.”

Just like with Tim, it shook Tyra to the core—in a good way—that her older sister had named her first daughter after her. And for Mindy to call Tyra her biggest inspiration in life, well, that made the younger Collette sister feel like she was on top of the world. Never in a million years did she ever think she’d be an inspiration for her older sister.

“We also want you two to be the Godparents,” Billy said as he walked around the hospital bed to where Tyra sat in Tim’s lap, letting her take the precious baby Timothy Eric out of his arms. Tyra clutched the baby properly, looking down at its cute, scrunched up sleeping face. It made her think of how amazing it was going to be when she and Tim had kids, maybe a couple years later…

“I don’t think I’d make a good Dad… I barely make a good Uncle,” Tim whispered as he watched Tyra with baby Timmy Riggins. He hadn’t even meant to voice that concern out loud but somehow, he guessed, it was meant to slip out.

“Just because you’ve done some bad things in the past, Tim, doesn’t mean you wouldn’t make a good Dad,” Mindy said from the hospital bed, still holding baby Tyra Christina. “Look at Billy and myself. I’m a career stripper… and he’s done just as many criminal things as you have… and I think we’ve made good parents…don’t you?” Mindy asked, finally breaking her gaze away from baby Chrissy to look over to Tim.

Tim couldn’t argue with that logic. Three years ago, before Stevie was born…he couldn’t have imagined his brother and Mindy making good parents but somehow they’d pulled it off. He only wished he wouldn’t have missed ten months of it being in jail. At least Billy and Mindy had taken so many photos and videos that some days it felt like he hadn’t missed a thing at all.

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Luke Cafferty had already been awake an hour and a half before he went back upstairs to wake up his still sleeping girlfriend, Becky Sproles. In the Cafferty household, usually, sleeping past six o’clock in the morning was a sin…unless it was a holiday morning, where sometimes they could be found snoozing as late as eight o’clock.

Breakfast was about to be placed on the table and Luke knew his mother, Susan, would want Becky down to eat with them. He sat down gently on the edge of his bed and lightly shook Becky’s shoulder. The seventeen year old female grumbled, her eyes barely opening. “Too early, Lukey,” she mumbled and rolled to her other side, a snore erupting from her.

Luke laughed, honestly thinking it was one of the cutest things he’d ever seen or heard in his entire life. He shook her shoulder again gently, earning more grumbles from his girlfriend. “Fine… I’ll get up,” she muttered, sounding somewhat hateful first thing in the morning.

“I’m not trying to be the bad guy,” Luke said while cackling more so to himself. “Breakfast is almost on the table. Mom wants you down to eat with us,” he explained. It was that kind of motivation that finally had Becky Sproles rolling out of the bed and slipping on some clothes.

“I’ll be down in a few minutes,” she said as she gathered up some of her toiletries out of a bag and headed for the bathroom. While Becky freshened up, Luke went back downstairs and sat down at the kitchen table. His father, Mike, sat at the very end of the table where most Dads’ would sit. His Mother was still slaving over the stove, finishing up the last of the breakfast. They were having sausage, fried eggs, biscuits and gravy.

“She’ll be down in a few minutes,” Luke informed his parents as he took a piece of the newspaper his Father was finished reading and started reading it himself. It passed the time rather quickly and before he knew it, Becky sat down in the chair right next to him at the breakfast table.

“Everything sure smells good, Mrs. Cafferty,” Becky said in a soft tone of voice, her stomach starting to growl now because of the wonderful smell. “Thank you, Becky, and please call me Susan or Susie,” the woman said in a hospitable tone, setting a plate of food down in front of Becky and then one in front of Luke. Luke placed the newspaper down in an empty chair and waited for blessing to be said.

Susan placed a plate of food down in front of her husband, and then sat down to her own, where she sat next to her husband. The four of them bowed their heads and Mr. Cafferty said a short prayer before they began to eat.

“The food’s delicious, Mom,” Luke complimented his Mother and of course Becky agreed. For once, she was actually keeping pace with Luke and his fast eating considering it tasted so good and she was just that hungry. She supposed she hadn’t eaten since Applebee’s yesterday with Luke and Tyra. “Thank you, kids,” Susan smiled at the two of them.

It was during the calmness of breakfast that Becky decided to check her phone and noticed a text from Tim’s phone. ‘The twins are here. Stop by the hospital when you get a chance, Becks.’ Becky squeaked some out of excitement. The Cafferty’s looked to her, brows raised. “I’m so sorry,” she started, feeling bad about interrupting their conversations and breakfast.

“Billy and Mindy had their twins, so I’m excited to go see them after breakfast.” Becky grinned and Luke couldn’t help himself from grinning, too. “I’ll take you to see them after we eat. I know how badly you’ve been waiting for them to come,” he admitted and the two of them finished up eating rather quickly, before Luke’s parents had finished.

“You’ll be back to help me with the cattle?” Mike asked Luke and he nodded immediately. “I’ll visit for a few and then come back home. Becky won’t mind spending the day with her extended family?” Luke asked in a questioning tone and Becky nodded her head. “It’s where I need to be today,” the seventeen year old admitted and the Cafferty’s agreed with her.

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“Lyla,” Tim’s voice brought Lyla Garrity out of her thoughts as she sat there in the waiting room, half asleep. He had stepped out from the OB ward and went back downstairs to the waiting room to tell everyone that the twins were fine and they could come up to see them. It had dawned to Tim how worried they must have been…especially with the grim faces he and Tyra wore as they had went upstairs earlier.

“You look exhausted,” he commented to the dark haired Lyla who was just about asleep in the chair; he knelled down in front of her, looking up into her sleep deprived eyes. Lyla shook her head some, reaching forward and playing with Tim’s shoulder length dirty-blond hair. It calmed her like no one would believe, not even Tim understood it.

“How’re the twins?” Lyla asked in a quiet voice and Tim started to smile quite largely, which immediately melted away any and all worry she had in her fragile heart and mind. “They’re great,” he admitted and stood up slowly, looking over to Coach and Tami who sat across the hallway from Lyla.

“Billy and Mindy are ready for everyone to come see them.” Tim noticed next to Tami was a large basket full of things, she hadn’t had that earlier, but he wasn’t going to question when she’d went and got it or anything, he was just appreciative that she was that thoughtful. He was sure Mindy would love it, since it was so bright and colorful.

Eric and Tami got up from their seats, Tami clutching the basket and they began the ascension in the elevator up to the OB ward to visit with Billy and Mindy, and the newly arrived twins. Tim however, still stood next to Lyla in the hallway. She yawned, clutching onto his side.

“You’re too tired for this?” Tim asked her, looking down at how her eyes were shut, feeling the weight of her body against him. He thought she was going to fall asleep standing up at any moment. Lyla nodded her head somewhat. “I just need some coffee,” she admitted and lightly pushed past Tim and walked to a nurse, asking where the nearest coffee station was. The nurse showed her down the hallway where a coffee pot sat with cups and fresh coffee within it.

Lyla returned to Tim a moment or so later with a tall cup of coffee, pointing to the elevator, “Let’s go.” She grinned a little, excitement starting to churn in her stomach to see the twins. Lyla was a sucker for babies, then again what roughly twenty year old girl wasn’t? Plus, the robust smell of coffee and the first hot sip had rejuvenated her to a certain degree.

They were about to step into the elevator when Tim heard a familiar voice. “Tim, wait up!” Becky hollered from down the hallway, running with her boyfriend, Luke Cafferty. They finally caught up with Tim and Lyla in the elevator, where Tim had held the doors open for them.

Becky and Luke stepped inside with the two of them and the doors closed. “Oh, hi, Lyla,” Becky said with a smile. It had been at least a year and a half or more since she’d seen Lyla Garrity last. She remembered when Tim was living in the camper outback of her and her Mom’s house that Lyla had come to see him once or twice.

“Good to see you again, Becky.” Lyla smiled, looking from Becky to Luke. She recognized him as a football player, but didn’t exactly know him. “I’m Lyla Garrity,” she introduced herself and he nodded, shaking her hand.

“Luke Cafferty. I’m familiar with your Dad and your little brother; we became good friends last year on the football team.” He went on and Lyla nodded, figuring he had to know her younger brother. Lyla only hoped Buddy Jr. would make the football team again this year…she was almost certain, being a Garrity that he would without a doubt.