It's His Choice
Page 3
related to this incident, he confessed he knew nothing about the kidnap of and later the physical assault on Blake. He pleads his innocence. Nobody would believe him, not even his father. Joseph tells John he’s ashamed to have a son like him and regrets even letting him fall on the earth. He also tells John that he will not get any help from him and that John has to face the consequences for what he did. Michelle later met John and tells him she trusts in him and tells him to not worry. She promises John that she’d try to explain Blake and his parents about the incident. She tells him that Ashur could probably be the one who back-stabbed John. He hugs Michelle and leaves.
Finding Blake unconscious near Joseph’s factory, the two white students who are overheard by the black guy as an evidence and the mob of black students claiming John as the one who kidnapped and assaulted Blake, a preliminary complaint is filed accusing John of the kidnap along with some other white students who Blake claimed to witness during the assault. Ashur and the upperclassmen created that they were present at the faculty’s house discussing the nomination process as an alibi and escape the accusation of kidnap. They also escaped the accusation in the mob attack as they absconded from the site of the brawl just in the right time as the policemen arrive.
John and the other accused students spend that entire night in jail. Nothing has changed, the students are planning their vengeance against blacks. John, on the other hand, remained silent the entire night. Other students explained John what has happened behind his back revealing everything he didn’t know. Many thoughts wavered around his head. He can see the images from the day he stepped in Duke’s to the day he stepped in prison. He spent the entire night soul-searching.
The students are taken to the court the next morning. Their parents appealed to bail them out of custody. Considering the young age of the students, the sympathetic judge accepts the bail proposal after hearing the prolonged arguments by the lawyers. He also orders all the students to attend counselling lectures until the final judgement is given. This relieved the concerned parents.
The students celebrate as they walk down the steps of the court hall. They forget everything that has happened, all the troubles they experienced, the misery of their parents. The screams are echoed throughout the court premises. But the changed version of John remained silent. His silence made him look the odd man out. He realized something which his friends didn’t, he understood something which they didn’t.
John remembers Michelle, the person who indirectly changes his life. He remembered Ashur, who directly influenced his life. He quit his position as the face of the whites, he quit his enjoyment with a group of phonies, he gives up the glory as a leader of an ignorant racist group; He is now optimistic and content with the person he has become now. He understood that friends come from within the heart and not from the outside skin color.
He understood that dominant leadership and wealth are not the keys to live a great life, but, living the life fully is great in itself. He understood that freedom is the only key that allows you to live your life fully, and it is not just the freedom from slavery, or the freedom from racism, or the freedom from poverty that one needs. He is thinking about something big, the freedom from falseness; the false people, the false beliefs, the false parenting and the false notions planted in the budding brains. He finally earned that freedom, a freedom every individual in this world irrespective of race, sex, age, and status needs the most; the freedom from wrong thoughts, wrong decisions and wrong paths would make anyone’s life a memory that lives forever.
He slowly walks away from his friends with all these thoughts running in his mind. Sensing that, one of his friends calls upon John to join them. John pauses for a moment, looks over his shoulder, and continues his walk. He made up his mind. It’s his choice.