by E. N. Joy
“Hello? Is everyone fine in here?”
A voice could be heard calling out from downstairs.
“That’s Mr. Charles,” Tyson said. “My best friend’s daddy number one.”
The second officer looked at Lynox for confirmation.
“Sounds like our neighbor,” Lynox confirmed.
“I’ll go talk to him,” the second officer said, while the first officer had Lynox off to the side in handcuffs.
The male EMT had managed to work on Deborah this entire time, while the female EMT had engaged Tyson in a conversation that had distracted him from his mother.
“Ugh.” The sound of Deborah moaning caught the attention of everybody in the room.
“Deborah!” Lynox shouted out.
“Mommy!” Tyson cried.
“See, baby? I told you your mommy was going to be all right,” the female EMT said to Tyson.
The second officer came back up the steps and into the room. Charles was with him.
“Sir, is this your neighbor?” the second officer asked Lynox.
Lynox looked over at Charles, who had a look of shock on his face as he examined the scene before him. Deborah was on the floor, in a pool of blood; Tyson was crying over her, with blood on his hands; and Lynox was in handcuffs. So many scenarios ran through his mind, but right now, Charles’s concern was for the young boy, who shouldn’t have been witnessing any of this.
Lynox confirmed that Charles was, in fact, his neighbor.
“Tyson, son, come with me,” Charles said. “I’ll clean him up and then take him next door.”
“Whoa. Hold up,” the first officer said, raising his hand to stop Charles from moving toward Tyson.
“It’s okay. Let him go with him,” Lynox said. “I don’t want my boy seeing this.”
“Is this gentleman family?” the first officer asked.
“No, but—” Lynox began before the officer cut him off.
“We can’t turn him over to anyone who isn’t family. We’ll have to call children’s services.”
“What? Are you kidding?” Lynox snapped. “Can my sons at least go with our neighbor until we call a family member to come pick them up?”
“There’s more children in the house?” the first officer asked.
“They have an infant son,” Charles interjected. “Tyson comes to our house all the time and plays with my son. It’s okay. They know us and trust us.” He looked at Lynox for confirmation.
“Yes. That’s right,” Lynox confirmed.
“Sorry. We can only release them to family.” The first officer was adamant about following regulations.
Lynox felt the officer was being a prick. But he was not about to jump bad with the officer, considering this officer might be the one in charge of driving him to the precinct if he were to be arrested. No way did he want this officer to Freddie Gray him, God rest that young black man’s soul. So Lynox was going to be as cooperative as possible.
“Can we at least call my mother-in-law to come pick them up?” Lynox asked.
“She better get here soon,” the officer said. He nodded at Deborah. “Looks like she’s going to the hospital and you’re going to jail.”
The thought of going to jail horrified Lynox. He wanted to defend himself and explain why he should not go to jail. But right now making sure his boys were safe and sound was his main priority. Making sure his wife was okay would be his next.
“Charles, can you please call Deborah’s mother?” Lynox asked.
Charles whipped his phone out of his pocket. Lynox rattled off her phone number as his neighbor dialed.
“Tell her to get here as soon as she can,” Lynox ordered. “Tell her you’ll explain everything when she gets here.”
Charles stood there with the phone to his ear. After the second ring, Deborah’s mother picked up. “Hello? Yes, this is Charles, your daughter’s neighbor.” He stepped out into the hall to finish the conversation out of Tyson’s earshot. The boy had already heard and witnessed too much.
“How is she? How is my wife?” Now Lynox could concern himself with Deborah’s well-being.
“She’s been able to tell us her name, the date, and everything,” the female EMT replied.
“Deborah’s mother is on her way,” Charles said, reentering the room and tucking his phone away.
Just then the baby could be heard crying through the monitor.
“Can I at least take Tyson with me to go check on the baby?” Charles asked the officer who seemed to be running the show. “We won’t leave the house.” Charles, too, wanted to be as cooperative with the officers as he could. Even though he wasn’t black and his chances of suffering police brutality were slimmer, he knew that a white man could get it too. Not too long ago he’d watched a video on the news of a white officer body slamming a white male he had in custody. The white male had died as a result.
“Yes,” the first officer replied, then nodded at the door.
“Come on, Tyson. Let’s go check on your brother,” Charles said, opening his arms for Tyson to come with him.
“But my mommy,” Tyson whined, grabbing hold of Deborah’s hand and looking at her.
“It’s okay, Ty,” Deborah groaned. “Mommy needs you to help her take care of your baby brother right now. Can you please go with Mr. Charles?”
Tyson thought about his mother’s request, then nodded his head while he wiped his eyes.
“Good boy.” Deborah smiled and gave Tyson’s hand a squeeze.
Tyson stood up and walked over to his best friend’s dad. He took Mr. Charles’s hand and was escorted out of the room, but not before he gave Lynox a glare.
Lynox’s eyes filled with tears. He hated that Tyson thought he’d hurt his mother intentionally. How would he ever get the boy to understand otherwise?
The second officer bent over Deborah and asked, “What’s your full name?”
“Deborah Chase,” she replied, still somewhat groggy.
“Who is this man to you?” The officer pointed at Lynox.
“My husband,” she replied.
“Mrs. Chase, can you tell us what happened? How did you get hurt?”
“My head,” Deborah said, reaching for her head.
The male medic pulled her hand back down as the female medic was cleaning and examining her head.
“I hit my head on the nightstand,” Deborah added.
“Did you fall?” the second officer asked. “Were you pushed?”
Deborah looked over at Lynox. Lynox couldn’t tell what the look Deborah was giving him meant. She still seemed a little out of it to him.
The first officer, the one who had Lynox in cuffs, spoke. “Ma’am, did this man push you into the night table?” The tone in which the officer spoke conveyed that he was hoping, wishing, and praying that Deborah would answer in the affirmative.
Lynox felt that the officer wanted Deborah to give him a reason to manhandle Lynox and throw him in the back of a police vehicle.
Deborah stared at Lynox for a few more seconds before she cast her eyes downward and replied, “Yes,” while simultaneously nodding her head. “He pushed me.”
Chapter 15
Lynox didn’t know what to think as he sat in the back of the police car. The first officer had cared nothing about what Deborah said after accusing him of pushing her and hurting her. Immediately after her statement, Deborah had begun yelling that it was all an accident, but he hadn’t tried to hear her one bit.
“Can’t you hear what she’s telling you?” Lynox had asked the officer as he pushed him down the steps. “She’s trying to tell you that it was an accident, which it was. I did not hurt my wife, not on purpose, anyway. This is all a big mistake.”
The officer had said nothing. He had heard that same old song and dance a thousand times. He had simply escorted Lynox to his squad car and thrown him in the back.
Lynox now sat there feeling as though he was in a nightmare. His only encounter with the law had been the time he was in a car
accident. Even then it hadn’t been a moving violation. As a matter of fact, it hadn’t been his fault at all. It was his car that had been hit. And like the last time he had any involvement with the law, Deborah had been involved. She was the one who had actually backed her car out of a parking space and into his vehicle. Now here the two of them were again, dealing with the police. Only this time it was no fender bender.
“Sir, can you please go back inside and get my wife’s story?” Lynox asked the cop through the partition that separated them. “Just really listen to what she’s saying, and not to what you want to hear.”
The police officer completely ignored Lynox as he talked on his CB. From the few details Lynox could hear, it sounded as if the officer was running Lynox’s name. Lynox wasn’t worried about them finding anything on him. The only law he’d ever broken was not feeding a parking meter in a timely matter, and that had got him a parking ticket.
As Lynox sat in the police car, which was parked in his driveway, behind the ambulance, he noticed the headlights of a car pulling up in front of their house. He turned as much as he could and saw that it was his mother-in-law. “Oh, great,” he said under his breath. The last thing he wanted was for her to see him handcuffed like some common criminal in the back of a police car.
Once Lynox saw her getting out of her vehicle, he turned and faced forward. At first, she stepped on past the police car, but then she decided to look over her shoulder and back at the car. That was when a look of shock covered her face and she grabbed her chest.
She came back and spoke to him through the rolled-up window. “Dear Lord, Lynox, what in the world is going on here?”
All Lynox could do at first was shake his head. He knew he had to answer her, though. By the time Lynox went to speak, the officer had gotten out of the vehicle and was on his way around it to address Ms. Lucas.
“Ma’am, are you the boys’ grandmother?” the officer asked her.
“Well, yes, I am,” she said, her eyes shifting back and forth from the officer to Lynox. “What’s going on? Why do you have my son-in-law in the back of your car?” She looked at the ambulance. The next expression on her face was one of pure horror. “Deborah! Where’s my baby?” She no longer gave a care about Lynox. All she wanted to know was where her daughter was. “The boys? Are they okay?” And her grandchildren.
“Ma’am, there’s been an accident,” the officer told her. “But the boys are fine. They’re inside the house with the neighbor.” The officer went to escort Ms. Lucas to the boys. As they were going inside the house, the second officer was coming out.
The second officer whispered something in his partner’s ear. His partner turned and looked toward Lynox. He then passed Ms. Lucas off to the second officer, to be escorted to where the boys were. Lynox watched as the officer who had placed him in the vehicle came back in his direction.
“Can you step out of the vehicle?” the officer asked upon opening Lynox’s door.
Lynox scooted over and struggled to get out of the car. When it seemed like he was unable to lift himself off the seat, the officer finally assisted him.
Without saying a word, the officer took out his flashlight and began examining Lynox’s face, head, and arms. He made a mental note of the bruising that was forming on his face. Lynox had scratches on him as well. “How did you get all these bruises and scratches?” he asked Lynox. “Did your wife do this during your fight?”
Finally, Lynox thought. This jerk was actually going to give him an opportunity to tell him exactly what had happened. “Yes!” he exclaimed with a sigh. “She was hitting me, and all I was trying to do was get her off of me. I pushed her. I didn’t mean for her to fall and hit her head against the table. I was trying to defend myself from the blows. I swear to God, that’s what happened. I would never intentionally hurt my wife.”
The front screen door opened, and the medics walked Deborah out of the house. Her head was bandaged. Ms. Lucas came out next, with the baby in her arms, wrapped in a blanket. The neighbor followed, holding Tyson’s hand. The second officer was behind him. That officer made his way around them all and over to his partner.
“Does his story match hers?” the second officer asked his partner.
His partner nodded his reply.
“My wife, how is she?” Lynox asked. “Where are they taking her?”
The officers looked at one another.
The officer who had detained Lynox spun him around and began uncuffing him. “Well, regretfully, your story checks out,” he said. “It matches what your wife told my partner, that she was hitting you, and you were simply defending yourself.”
“That’s what I’ve been explaining,” Lynox said. He rubbed his wrists where the cuffs once were. “Now where is my wife going?”
“Well, first, she’s going to get a few stitches in her head,” the first officer said to Lynox. “Then she’s going to jail.” He walked over to Deborah as the medics were about to put her in the back of the ambulance. “Ma’am, you are under arrest for domestic violence.”
“What?” Ms. Lucas yelled out, frightening the baby. He began crying.
“Oh, my God,” Deborah said under her breath, in disbelief.
The officer began reading Deborah her rights while she stood there in what was truly a surreal moment. “You have the right to remain silent—”
“Wait a minute,” Lynox yelled. “I’m not pressing charges.”
“You pressing charges?” Ms. Lucas shot back at Lynox. “My daughter is the one whose head is busted open.” She looked at the arresting officer. “You had it right the first time. He’s the one you need to be handcuffing and taking to jail.”
The officer ignored both Ms. Lucas and Lynox and continued reading Deborah her rights. By now what was about to take place was clearly registering in Deborah’s head: she was about to be arrested and taken to jail for putting her hands on her husband. Tears began to stream down her face.
“Do something!” Ms. Lucas shot at Lynox. “You’re her husband. Protect her from these fools.”
Lynox might have been between a rock and a hard place, but Ms. Lucas was like a boulder rolling down a hill and tumbling on his head. The way she was looking at him, if she didn’t have that baby in her arms, there would probably be two people catching a case.
“Officer, I don’t want to file charges against my wife.” This time Lynox spoke to the second officer, who didn’t seem to have anything against him.
“Sir, you don’t have to. The state will,” the second officer responded. “In the state of Ohio, when it comes to domestic violence, the victim doesn’t have to press charges. The state is the plaintiff, and the victim is the state’s witness,” he explained. “Your wife broke the law. What your wife did to you is unacceptable. She has no more right to put her hands on you than you do on her.”
Lynox knew that what the officer was saying was right, but to him it was different. Deborah, even though she had gotten the best of him upstairs in their bedroom, could never win a physical altercation with him. He’d suffered some bruises and scratches, but she could never do the physical damage to him that he could do to her. With one blow, he could have knocked her out cold. That would have kept her from wind milling him. He wasn’t the type to hit a woman, not even in self-defense.
“He’s a big ole man,” Ms. Lucas said in her daughter’s defense. “And he’s still standing. She didn’t hurt him, not to the point where she needs to be hauled off to jail.”
“What if the next time she uses a weapon or something? Cracks him over the head with a bat? Maybe even doesn’t see her son behind her when she’s swinging it back and cracks his skull?” the officer said.
He did have a point, one that both Lynox and Ms. Lucas couldn’t deny. But that hadn’t been the case in this situation, and Ms. Lucas voiced this. Her words fell on deaf ears, though, as the officer turned his attention to Deborah.
The first officer began speaking to Deborah. “Ma’am, they are going to take you to the hosp
ital to be treated, but then you will be taken to jail.”
Deborah couldn’t speak or even nod her understanding, like she had done when the officer had asked her if she understood her rights. She understood her rights, but what she didn’t understand was how her life had been turned upside down because she couldn’t control herself. She felt so weak right now, physically and mentally. It tore her apart even more that her children were here to witness this.
The medics put Deborah in the back of the ambulance.
“Don’t you worry, baby. Mommy is right behind you,” Ms. Lucas called out.
Charles, who had stood there, remaining silent, trying not to interfere in the family’s domestic situation, finally spoke up. “Do you want Tyson to spend the night with us, so you can handle things?” he asked Lynox.
Lynox looked down at a very sleepy, worn-out Tyson. Too tired and drained, and all cried out. He stood there, holding his neighbor’s hand, letting the grown folks take care of things.
“If you don’t mind,” Lynox said to Charles. Lynox looked down at Tyson. “Buddy, why don’t you go help Mr. Charles pack you an overnight bag? And don’t forget your book bag for school tomorrow.”
“I’ll make sure he and CJ get on the bus all right,” Charles said. Both Tyson and his son went to the same school and rode the same bus.
“Okay, Daddy,” Tyson said, rubbing his eyes. “But is Mommy going to be okay?”
“Yes, she is,” Lynox answered. “I promise.”
With Tyson seeming to be convinced, Charles escorted him into the house to do what Lynox had asked.
“This is crazy,” Lynox said, smacking himself on the forehead. He looked at the second officer. “You have to admit that this looks crazy.” He pointed to the ambulance in which Deborah had been placed. “She’s no match for me. Besides, this is the first time any of our fights have ever gotten physical.”
“So you two have fights on a regular basis?” The officer raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. I mean no. Well, lately things have been . . .” Lynox could hardly answer the officer because he was watching one medic get out of the back of the ambulance and close the door while the other tended to Deborah. “What hospital are you taking her to?” Lynox asked the medic, who was about to hop into the driver’s seat.