Authors: Kevin Bullock
“Ron? When?”
Ching filled her in about last night’s event, as G-Unit’s
Beg for Mercy
played softly through the speakers.
Cataya was close to tears when he finished.
“I’m so sorry, Ching. I didn’t mean to pull you into this mess.”
“That’s okay. I run fast and disappeared in woods.”
“No, it’s not okay. I’m so sick of this mess!”
“Please, no cry.” He said, wishing he would have kept it to himself.
“You don’t understand. That man has been like a nightmare my whole life. I just want to…” she let her words trail off.
Just hearing her vent about the man that she despised reminded Ching of something that he had noticed last night. It was something that baffled him greatly.
“I saw you timid last night when he come. That’s no like you, you no scare of nobody. Tell me what he did to make you like that.”
It took her a long time to respond because it wasn’t a subject that she discussed lightly. The matter was held so close to her heart, that she had never discussed it with her grandmother. Her father did no wrong in Granny’s eyes.
It wasn’t until they got on the highway that she decided to open up to Ching. “I consider you my best friend,” she began, oblivious to his chest swelling with pride,
“and I want you to now the potential danger that you could be in by knowing what I’m about to tell you.”
“Okay.”
“Do you still want to know?”
Ching nodded ‘yes’ like she had been insane to question his courage.
“Okay, here we go. My dad is a control freak. It’s either his way or no way. That’s why he’s in prison; he killed a man that would not let him control him. Anyway, he controlled my mom the same way until he got locked up. She saw his incarceration as an opportunity to break free from him, and start a new life. But when she told him that she was moving away, he threaten to kill her. I know that you’ll probably wondering how could he do that from prison, but that’s where Ron comes in at. He’s my dad’s flunkie; does anything my dad tells him to do.”
Ching sat there nodding, processing everything she said.
“When my mom finally built up the courage to break away from him is when I turned five. Keep in mind that he had already been in prison for two years. She was that scared of him. But anyway, we moved to Durham, where my mom’s boyfriend was from. I remember one night, my mom telling her boyfriend that Ron was sitting out in front of the house. She begged him let her call the police, but I guess his pride wouldn’t allow him to do it. That was his biggest mistake because they both was dead the next morning. I woke up to a house full of cops.”
Ching was shocked. He had known that her mother was deceased, but he had never asked the cause of it. It was all too clear to him now why Cataya was so terrified of Ron, and he didn’t fault her one bit.”
“Did you tell police it was him?”
“I was five years old, nobody took me seriously. I don’t know why though, it was common knowledge that my dad was furious about her leaving Charlotte. She told everybody. That’s why she kept having miscarriages, he was stressing her out.”
“Sorry, Cataya.”
“Me, too. That’s why I need for you to be extra careful from now on. I don’t want to lose you, too.”
Ching nodded too confidently, never knowing that he wouldn’t be able to make good on that promise.
* * *
Hammer balled up the write up and flushed it down the toilet. If any word could describe the way that he was feeling right now, it would have been ‘murder’.
He hated the man that was responsible for him being there. If he had things his way, he wouldn’t know which one of the men that he would have killed first.
Bobby was a child molester/dope fiend, which in Hammer’s opinion, didn’t deserve to be alive in the first place. He really couldn’t figure out Bobby’s motive for mentioning his name to Goines in the first place. Yet, when he gave it a thorough look-over, he knew exactly why.
But with Warden Felts, Hammer was totally lost. He wasn’t quite sure how their bad blood had begun. The only incident that he could recall was a confrontation about the lack of disrespect that Felts had showed him. It had been years ago…
Hammer had LeLe’s revelation heavy on his mind when Officer Felts walked up to his bed. He stared up at the white man for a long time wondering what he wanted.
“Are you Carl Bobbit, boy?”
“Boy?”
The word ‘boy’ was echoed by many blacks who had heard Felts say it.
“You ain’t no girl, is you?”
“I ain’t either one of them, you better watch your fucking mouth! How would you like it if I called you a name?”
“I done heard it all from your kind. Now, are you Carl Bobbit?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Step aside so I conduct a search,” he demanded, ignoring Hammer’s question.
Hammer complied and Felts rambled through his locker with little regards of how he left it. He lost his cool when Felts ripped down a picture of Cataya that was taped on is locker.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asked, grabbing Felt’s arm.
Felt spun around with a threatening finger. “Keep your nigger hands off me, boy!”
Hammer hit Felts with a series of combinations of pure instincts.
He had lost the fight in a long run, but for the sweet, brief minute before Felts’ help came, every inmate’s fancy to assault an asshole correctional officer, had been tickled.
His attention went to the door when he heard the tray flap being unlocked. The Chaplin stuck his face in.
“Please tell me that you’re okay.”
“I’m okay,” he replied, a he made his way to the flap. “What are you doing here? You have Bible study today.”
“I cancelled it. I wouldn’t have been able to give it my all knowing that Felts was up to his old tricks again.”
“Yep. The way that things are looking, he’s going to make the write-up- stick.”
“I’m sorry, Bobbit. I knew that something wasn’t right when you got called to Goines’ office.”
“Me, too. I just want to know what he has against me. I ain’t never done anything to that man.”
The Chaplin glanced behind him and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Between you and I, I overheard Sergeant Goines say that Felts hates you because your daughter’s mother ticked him off in visitation one day.”
A baffled expression appeared on Hammer’s face. “Ticked him off in visitation?”
“Yes. From what I gathered from the conversation, it was racially motivated.”
This didn’t surprise Hammer. It was well known throughout the prison that Felts didn’t like anybody outside of his race.
“Please keep that between us,” the Chaplin pleased.
“That’s without saying. Now I know why he all of a suddenly started targeting me. Anyway, I really appreciate you coming to check on me.”
“It’s the least that I could do since I can’t get you out of this jam. Oh! Don’t worry about your job; it’ll be waiting for you when you get out of here.”
“’Preciate it.”
“I almost forgot.’ He stuck a Bible through the slot. “It’ll take your mind off all the negativity going on around you.”
After the Chaplin left, Hammer started to ponder his helpless situation again. But before the sad reality of being delayed from reuniting with his daughter surfaced, he began to read the Bible feverishly…
* * *
“Your dad is going to kill you,” Cataya warned Ching from the passenger side of the car. He glanced at his fresh pierced ear in the rearview mirror before he replied, “I know. That why I charged five thousand dollar on his credit card for earring. He going to ground me anyway, might as well be worth it.”
Cataya was astonished. “I wish I had your problems, I swear I do. My life would be so much better.”
“You say that because you lack what I have. Me, vice versa. I would love to stay with grandmother lie Granny.”
“Staying with Granny is great. But you have to take in all of the considerations of why I’m there, and what I go through. Sometimes I just want to run away, I’m just scared it would worry Granny to her grave.”
“Where would you go?”
“Nowhere in Charlotte that’s for sure. I have some family in Durham, I know that they would love for me to stay with them.”
“I hope that you never have to. If so, I think Durham is bad choice.”
“Why?”
“Because Ron find you there.”
“Maybe. My uncle would protect me, though.”
Ching thought about that for a moment before changing the subject.
“What you want in life?”
“You know what, Ching? That’s easy. There are so many things I want in life, but if I don’t get peace of mind first, I don’t think nothing else will go right.”
“What you do to get that?”
She stared out of the passenger window, somberly. “I need some closure on my mother’s death. So, I have to confront my dad.”
“What you expect him to say? Why he killed her?”
Tears began to flow down her face. “I know why he did it, that door is closed. I want to record him admitting to it so I can send him back to prison.”
Ching looked at his friend’s face and saw more than sorrow. He saw a desire that was way more advanced than anything that he had ever wanted. Though their problems were night and day in comparison, he understood her pain. At least he wanted to, being that she was his best friend, and cared for her more deeply than his courage allowed him to reveal.
“My dad has some recording gadgets at home; I give you small sized one tomorrow.”
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you. You’re such a dear friend.”
The kiss embarrassed Chin and he knew that he was blushing. His state also motivated him to express his feelings so that they could take their friendship to the next level.
But all of his attentions and blushing was put off when he saw the ambulance and police cars parked at Cataya’s house…
–—Chapter Four–—
Al Atwater was considered by many as an honest and good nature type of guy. He didn’t use profanity and rarely lost his temper. His only flaw was his promiscuous ways. It lead up to him having five kids by five different women.
Yet, his golden heart had brought them all together for the kids’ sake. The women weren’t the best of friends, but they made sure that their kids had a relationship with their siblings.
Now as he sat in his pawnshop watching the Dallas Cowboys mercy rule the Carolina Panthers, his attention was diverted when a man entered. The mere sight of the man baffled Al because he had paid his bills online last week.
“How are you doing, Ron? I’m surprised to see you here.” Ron didn’t respond until he approached the glass gun case that separated Al from him. “You shouldn’t be, being that you was short on your lease.”
“That can’t be right. I got the in-voice for the thousand dollars that I paid.”
“Didn’t you get the e-mail last month stating that the lease was raised two-hundred dollars?”
“Yeah, but I signed a three year lease for a thousand dollars a month,” he stated, producing papers verifying his claim.
Ron snatched it from his hand and ripped it in half. “It has just been voided.”
“Hey! You can’t do that!”
“Listen to me and listen to me good. Hammer raised the lease up two hundred dollars, and that’s the end of that. If this is something that you feel that you can’t deal with, then you can pack your shit and get the hell out of this building!”
“This is extortion! You’re going to regret that you ever met me. I’m going to sue you for breach of contract and this building is going to be mine!”
The comment made Ron laugh. He casually produced a gun from his waistband and grabbed Al by the shirt. “Are you threatening me, Al?”
“Don’t shoot me, Ron, my son is in the back!”
As if on cue, seven-year-old Xavier appeared form the back with a Nintendo DS in his hand. Ron wasn’t deterred by his sudden appearance.
“I don’t take good to threats.”
Al looked at his son. “Go in the back, Xae!”
“Don’t move!” Ron commanded. “I want you to see what happens to anybody that opposes me.”
The boy began to sob. “Please don’t kill my daddy!”
“Okay! Okay!” Al pleaded. “I’ll pay the extra two-hundred. Just put the gun away.”
Ron seemed to be considering Al’s offer. “I never pull my gun without using it.”
“Please don’t use it. I shouldn’t have threatened you with a lawsuit. That was stupid of me. Here.” He pulled out a wad of money from his pocket. “Take it all for your troubles.”
Once Ron released him and pocketed the money, he bashed Al in the face with the butt of the gun. “Consider yourself lucky. Nobody has ever threatened me and lived to talk about it.”
Al lay on the floor in agony, bleeding heavily from his nose. He fought through the pain. His main concern was Xavier, who was screaming from the top of his lungs.