The court officer opened the cell and Celeste moved out. She was led into the packed courtroom. She looked out into the glaring crowd and she could feel the heat of eyes on her. She didn’t feel nervous. The time for nervousness was over. She had already lost everything that mattered to her, so to her this was nothing.
The court officer announced the judge as she entered the courtroom. The judge folded her robe under her and motioned for everyone to take their seats. The sound of clothes rustling signaled to Celeste that everybody had sat back down and it was about to be on.
“Counselor, I take it you’ve had a chance to discuss this matter with your client and she is in agreement,” the judge said to Celeste’s lawyer.
“Yes, your honor,” he replied. Celeste gnawed on her lip nervously.
“Ok, would the defendant Celeste Early please rise,” the judge instructed.
The courtroom was eerily silent and a cold chill passed down Celeste’s back. She did as she was told and stood up.
“Ms. Early, has your attorney explained this proceeding to you?” the judge asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Celeste said in a low whisper.
“Are you prepared to render your plea to this court today as to the charges against you? Those charges which have been reduced to just one charge of involuntary manslaughter?” the judge asked, looking at Celeste over the rim of her wire framed glasses.
Celeste answered yes.
“Ok, Ms. Early, I will read off the charge and ask you how you plead. At that time you will tell the court how you plead,” the judge instructed. Celeste nodded.
“Ms. Early, as to the charge of involuntary manslaughter in the case of the City of New York versus Celeste Early for the involuntary death of one Keon Drake Early, how do you plead?” the judge asked.
Celeste swallowed hard and closed her eyes for a second. She could see both of her kids’ faces. Celeste began, her voice cracking, “Your honor, I, Celeste Early, plead gu—” Before she could get her complete statement out, she was interrupted.
“Wait!” a voice called out from the back door of the courtroom. The courtroom began to buzz with murmurs of shock and disbelief. Almost everyone turned around to see where and who the loud, crazy sounding voice was coming from, including Celeste. A few of the court officers began racing towards the voice as well.
“Your honor, I am the lead detective on this case,” the detective stated. “At this time it is not necessary for Ms. Early to plead guilty. We are prepared to withdraw our case. We have developed new evidence that completely vindicates Ms. Early.”
Celeste noticed it was the lead detective from her case, the one who pretended to be the good guy to his partner’s bad guy. He was out of breath from running up to the courtroom. Celeste’s legs got weak and a feeling of relief washed over her entire body. She had to sit down. Gripping the edge of the defendant’s table, she eased down into the hardwood chair. She closed her eyes and exhaled. She felt like an angel had just come into the courtroom and gave her an entirely new life.
The courtroom was alit with talking and movement. The judge banged her gavel several times to get everybody to simmer down. “Detective, I need to see you and both counselors in my chambers now!” the judge boomed. “This court will take a fifteen minute recess,” she said banging her gavel again as she rushed off the bench and stormed into her chambers.
The courtroom came alive like a third grade classroom without a teacher when the judge left. The media was buzzing and so was everybody in the courtroom. People had whipped out cell phones and were making calls, others were screaming across the aisles. The court officers couldn’t control everyone. Including the people Deezo had hired to sit in on the case and report the play-by-play to him.
Deezo had decided to let Ben live when he found out Celeste was the one in jail for the drugs. He figured Ben couldn’t have possibly talked to the cops. Too bad Ben had already suffered that horrible beat down before Deezo realized Celeste was in jail. But things had changed. Deezo would be getting different information now, which would change up the game totally.
When the court recess was over the judge asked Celeste to stand up again. She held onto the table and pulled herself up. She was so nervous her eye was twitching, but she stood up straight and confident nonetheless.
“Ms. Early, after consulting with the prosecutor and your attorney, and based on some new evidence presented in the case, I have no choice but to dismiss the city’s case against you,” the judge told Celeste.
Celeste bent over at the waist and she cried tears of joy. “Thank you!” she said to the detective.
“You need to thank your son. He is a brave kid and he really cares about you,” the detective told Celeste.
More buzzing erupted in the courtroom. Celeste knew she would be on the news again that night like so many other nights. She wondered if the media would be apologizing to her for calling her all sorts of nasty names. It didn’t even matter if they didn’t, Celeste was a free woman.
“Congratulations, Ms. Early. I hope everything works out for you and your son,” Celeste’s attorney said to her, patting her on the shoulder.
Celeste nodded at him. “I am going to make sure I take care of my son like I never did before,” she told him with a big smile on her face.
Celeste was still led away by the court officers to a cell in the back of the courtroom. She had to be transported back to Riker’s Island and have a proper release from the Department of Corrections. She didn’t care. All she wanted to do was see Ben. She wanted to hug him, which is something she had failed to do over the years. When she had heard about Ben being jumped at the juvenile center and the condition he was in, she stayed up three nights in a row worried about him. She had been getting updates and that was how she knew Ben had made a great recovery from his injuries.
She thanked God that Ben didn’t have permanent brain damage, because she had been told that he had suffered horrible head injuries. She wanted to tell him that she forgave him for bringing the drugs into the house and that they would grieve for baby Keon together.
She was released from Riker’s Island and when the prison bus crossed the bridge, Ben and Ms. Tori were waiting for Celeste on the other side. She rushed over to her son and grabbed him into a tight embrace. Ben was still a wiry teenager and he wasn’t big on public displays of affection, but he wrapped one of his arms around his mother and returned her hug.
Celeste and Ben climbed back into Ms. Tori’s car and drove off. Celeste thanked Ben repeatedly for finally telling the truth about what happened. Additionally, Ben said he was sorry repeatedly for disobeying his mother’s wishes and having the drugs in the house. They had one place to go before they headed home.
*********************************
“Five – O, five – O!” a boy, the lookout yelled. Everybody on the corner started to scatter. It was too late. There were ten black police vans all over the neighborhood. Every single one of Deezo’s spots was being raided. The jump out boys threw Quan up against the corner store wall and slapped handcuffs on him.
“I ain’t do nothin’ man!” Quan whined. The cops didn’t have to say anything. They weren’t looking for evidence against him. They already had all that they needed.
All of Deezo’s workers at all of his spots were rounded up and hauled off in police vans. It was a good day for the narcotics teams in Brooklyn. They had received great insider information from a reliable source. But there was a problem. They had not found Deezo at any of his spots nor was he out in his car monitoring like he usually was. The narcotics detectives tried to get several of the corner boys to tell them where Deezo might be located, but none of the boys would cooperate. It seemed like Deezo had had a heads up before the raids.
Ms. Tori wheeled her car through the narrow path in the cemetery. Finally, she pulled up on the side of some newly laid graves. Celeste put her hand over her mouth as she stared out the window. Ben put his arm around her shoulder.
“C’mon ma, you have to go say a proper goodbye to him,” Ben said solemnly. He felt like he needed to do the same thing. He opened the car door and helped his mother out of the car. Slowly, they walked together through the overturned, red earth.
Celeste looked down and saw a small white cross that read KEON D. EARLY. She turned into Ben’s chest and began sobbing.
“Shhh,” he tried comforting her. “We have to do this together. He deserves us to come pay our respects,” Ben said, sounding like a wise, mature, older man.
He moved Celeste from his chest and grabbed hold of her hand. They walked together and stopped at baby Keon’s gravesite. Ben bent down and held his head down. Celeste did the same. She lifted her shaking hand and brushed some dirt off of the little white cross that the cemetery had placed on the grave.
“I’m so sorry baby. If I was a better mother this would not have happened to you. Please forgive me for everything. Keon, I love you so much,” Celeste said through sobs.
“Keon, my little nigga, this was all my fault. I will always live with the fact that I was the one that caused your death. I know you are in heaven and I know you will look down on us forever,” Ben said, his voice quivering a little bit.
They were silent for a few minutes.
Ben felt a presence behind them. He just assumed it was Ms. Tori. He stood up so that he could tell Ms. Tori a proper thank you for all of the things she had done for him while he was at the group home. When he turned around to face Ms. Tori, his mouth dropped open and all of the color drained from his face. Ben could not move. It was like his feet had planted roots in the dirt.
“What happened, you ain’t happy to see a nigga?” Deezo said evilly.
Celeste jumped up when she heard the familiar voice. Her eyes hooded over with ill intent. She despised Deezo.
“How dare you disrespect the grave of my son when it was your drugs that killed him!” Celeste screeched.
Deezo started to laugh. It was an evil, shrill, maniacal laugh. “My drugs or this punk ass boy’s stupidity?” Deezo replied. Ben bit down into his jaw.
“What do you want?” Celeste asked.
“I want what belongs to me,” Deezo told her.
“Nothing here belongs to you. We don’t have nothing for you!” Celeste spat.
“This boy of yours . . . he belongs to me! You ain’t never tell him I’m his daddy?” Deezo said cruelly.
“Shut up! Get away from us! Leave us alone!” Celeste screamed.
Ben looked at his mother in disbelief. He couldn’t believe his ears. All the years his mother let him struggle, working hard and all along she knew damn well who his father was.
“Now, I tried to be nice to him just because he was mine. But see, he ain’t got no loyalty. The one thing I always told you lil nigga was never to cross me,” Deezo said to Ben.
Ben balled up his fists and he was rocking on his heels. He wanted to kill both Deezo and Celeste for lying to him all these years.
“He didn’t do anything to you. Get away from us!” Celeste cried out. She grabbed for Ben’s hand to pull him away, but Ben yanked his hand away from her.
“Now your boy gonna face the consequences,” Deezo said to Ben. “I can’t go back to my house, all of my money done got seized, all my spots shut down . . . all because this boy you got here ran his mouth. I can’t let it get out that no punk muthfucka like you is my son.”
“Fuck you! I hate you!” Ben finally erupted. He started moving towards Deezo angrily.
“Naw Shorty, fuck you!” Deezo boomed. He lifted his hand that he had hidden behind his back and leveled a gun at Ben. Ben stopped dead in his tracks.
“Oh my God! No!” Celeste screamed at the top of her lungs when she saw the gun.
Ben could see Ms. Tori running from the car towards them. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion to Ben.
“Snitches don’t deserve to live,” Deezo said with finality.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Deezo shot three times.
Ben’s eyes popped open as he looked down at all of the blood.
“I’ll see you in hell,” Deezo said, lifting the same gun to his own head and BOOM! He got off one more shot.
“Ma!” Ben screamed as his mother blocked him with her own body. The shots caused Celeste’s body to lurch forward and she hit the dirt on top of baby Keon’s grave.
“Ben!” Ms. Tori screamed as she finally reached them. It was too late. Ben was on his knees cradling his mother’s head. Celeste’s blood soaked his hands as she pressed down on her wounds trying to get the bleeding to subside.
“Help! Help!” Ben screamed so loud and hard the veins in his neck were protruding through his skin. There was nobody around but them.
Ms. Tori began frantically dialing 911 on her cell phone.
Celeste looked up into Ben’s face as blood spilled from her lips. She creased her face into a painful smile.
“Stay with me . . . just stay with me,” Ben begged her as he rocked her.
Celeste moved her head side to side as she coughed up blood.
“Ma! Just please stay with me!” he cried.
“I’m s . . . s . . . sorry Ben. I . . . I . . . didn’t me . . . mean to hur . . . hurt you,” Celeste rasped.
“I know! I’m sorry too. You’re gonna live, just hold on,” Ben cried. He could hear the wailing of the ambulance and police sirens in the distance now.
“I will see K . . . Ke . . . Keon in heaven,” Celeste managed to say.
The ambulance came to a screeching halt on the side of the path near the gravesite. Ben looked out of his tear filled eyes and saw the EMTs running towards him. He shook his head. He knew they were too late. He reached down before they made it to where Celeste lay and closed her eyelids. He placed her head on the bloodied, wet earth right on top of his brother’s grave. The EMTs finally made it over and started to feel Celeste for a pulse. One EMT held up his hand to signal to the others that she was gone.