The Nature of Things

“Much of life is timing and circumstance, I see that now.” Indeed. If only Roy and Celestial had agreed to spend that Thanksgiving night at Roy's parents’ house instead of going to a motel in Eloe, Louisiana, the woman in the motel would never have had an opportunity to wrongly accuse Roy of her rape that night. Roy would never have been arrested and charged with that rape, even though he had been with Celestial the entire time and she knew, and testified, that he couldn't have done it. But he was a black man in a small Louisiana town and he never had a chance. He was summarily convicted and sentenced to twelve years in prison. Timing and circumstance. Before that fateful night, Roy and Celestial had literally been the embodiment of the American Dream and the New South. Roy came from a middle class Louisiana family and Celestial was from an upper middle class Atlanta family. They had been introduced in college by Celestial's lifelong friend Andre (called Dre), but they had ...