BOMAW 12-14

by Mercedes Keyes

  "I told you to lay off'im, didn't I tell you, that was enough! We're fucked - you know that? You see how many of them there are out here, and his father - the big white guy, he's already fit to be tied." Officer Dalragandt muttered angrily, now all of a sudden, everything was starting to look wicked, even to him - he was now, all of a sudden, against the treatment, Stark and Gerassi administered. They didn't know what to do, how to get out of this one. They both turned to Mundo, looking at him as if he couldn't hear what they were mumbling low between them, "Look you want us, to phone an ambulance for you? It'll take you straight to the hospital, your family can pick you up from there." They suggested.

  Mundo looked away from them and knew that if he only made it down that hall, that would be far enough, but he wasn't willing to let them take him anywhere. Using the table as a support, he made his slow way down the length of it, towards the door. Officer Dalragandt knew he would have to help him. "You should have at least cleaned him up!" He growled at the other officer. But there hadn't been anytime, because they thought they had all the time in the world - usually it was hours before anyone showed up with the other scenarios they were used to, this was unexpected - if someone did show, it was usually a mother, whom they could easily intimidate to make her be quiet, and that would be that.

  Officer Dalragandt, shook his head, "I'm not touching him, in fact," he left the room and walked back to where all were waiting, he looked around at everyone there, eyes on Ben, choosing him, because he looked calm, "You - he's gonna need your help..." and then to Jake, "...and you, come and get him."

  Sylvia couldn't believe what she was hearing, "HELL NO!!! WHY CAN'T MY SON WALK OUT HERE ON HIS OWN? HUH? WHY CAN'T MY SON-..." She couldn't finish her sentence, horrified and ready to fight herself. Vivian went next to her, "Gurl, let's just, get'im out of here, Sylvia - let's just get him out." She whispered urgently.

  Shawn was giving up on the control thing, cops or not, he looked at Jeremiah and Deidre, "Call the press, can you get them out here Deidre?"

  "Yeah, I think we better." She turned to Sylvia, and then looked at her daughter, clinging to Sylvia's side, scared and knew she'd do anything to make her daughter see her in a better light, besides, this is one time she wanted to use her prestige and power to make things happen.

  Shawn stood waiting, watching, his heart hammering away in his chest as his eyes followed Ben and Jake out of the room and down the hall behind the officer to where Mundo was being held. He turned to look at his wife, apology in his eyes, but he felt it coming - he wished he had come there alone.

  Jake was the first to turn in the doorway, the minute his eyes set on Mundo, shock exploded within him, he snapped - without a word, he turned and slammed his fist into the face of the officer standing there, Stark, catching him by surprise - knocking him clean to the floor, his fist made such hard and immediate contact with his nose and mouth, you could hear the smack loud and clear. He - was - out!

  The commotion could be heard out front - Shawn knew - it was over. Jeremiah yelled and told all the women, "Get the kids! Get outside! Get outside! ALL OF YOU, GET OUTSIDE!!!" He barked noticing Shawn heading towards the back.

  Officer Gerassi, pulled his gun, "Stop right there! Stop right there or I'll shoot! I mean it! Don't make another move!" He barked at Shawn.

  In the back, Dalragandt had his gun drawn on Jake, "GET OFF OF HIM NOOOW! RIGHT NOOOW!!"

  For Ben, the event was surreal, a complete out of body experience because he didn't recognize Mundo, this was not the new, lil'bro - that he'd grown to love, spent so much time with in L.A. - no way. Not with both eyes almost closed, skin around his eyes swollen tight, shiny, seeing through slits, head bleeding, jaw swollen, lip bleeding, his shirt completely bloody down the front and torn. He couldn't seem to hear what was happening around him, moving in slow motion as he was towards Mundo, he didn't fully comprehend that Jake had knocked out one of the officers, trying to make it so that his face would soon match Mundo's.

  Ben drew close, his eyes traveling over the state of him, his clothing. He'd never seen anything like this in his life, he didn't understand it, couldn't quite get his mind to register how this happened to Mundo, who would do it, why would they do it?

  "Mundo? Oh man, aaah man, wait ... I gotcha, I gotcha." Ben moved up next to him, easing beneath his arm. "Can you lean into me? Am I hurting you?"

  Mundo couldn't speak, could barely breathe as Ben secured himself beneath his arm, trying to figure out where it was safe to grab him, hold him. "Mundo? Who? Who did this to you man? What happened?" Ben couldn't get the dots to connect in his mind - while he knew of police brutality, had heard of it, seen some reports here and there on TV - it still didn't sink home with him, until right then.

  "They ... did." Mundo muttered lightly. Ben took out his phone and dialed 911 - because he was afraid to move Mundo - afraid of hurting him even more.

  The worst of his injuries happened after he'd spoken to Shawn, because he'd told them - they'd be sorry they touched him, doing what they did. Not believing him, unable to take him seriously, they got pissed off at his "attitude" and beat him up even more.

  Things were happening quickly, both officers had their guns trained on Shawn and Jake, the only other persons available were two dispatchers, who were powerless and couldn't leave their phones further back in the building. Leaving Officer Dalragandt with the chore of phoning for backup needed at the Sheriff's office - this at the same time that Deidre was getting the Madison news reporters, a short drive away and local reporters to come in on an urgent - happening now - scoop, to do with police brutality taking place as she was speaking to them. Responding, they were moving with lightening speed to do just that. Jeremiah was calling in the NAACP for the Madison area, Saturday didn't make this a good day for it, but he knew what to do, who to call and with urgency - explained there was a severe brutality incident happening fresh at the moment, news reporters were already on the way, hearing that, got him results.

  Behind him, Charlie had a camera out, had been snapping pictures of everything, of everyone, with Samuel standing guard over Deidre in the parking lot with a very upset Sylvia, Crystal and Angela, each of them hanging onto the kids; but they weren't leaving.

  Inside the station, the officer was yelling at Charlie for taking pictures; while at the same time, Shawn wouldn't shut up, with his hands on his head, from where he stood, he could now see Mundo, "You good'ol'boys have truly fucked up royally! You hear me? See my son?! See'im - yeah - how you gonna get out of this one? Huh? You sorry bastards! Throw the guns away and let's, one on one - hey? Yeah? No? Know why? Scared to come from behind that uniform and badge, that's why! You do - I'll lay an ass whopping on you the likes of which you've never seen - nor will ever want to - again! Oh yeah, I'm wantin' to put it on'ya! Oh yeah-..."

  "Shut up! Things got a bit out of control, we were trying-..."

  "Fuckin' liar! Prejudice, red-neck bullies! I bet you do this all the time, don't'cha? Stop a black kid, thinking, who'll give a fuck? Let's do'im! How many, huh - how many beat on him? I bet he was handcuffed too, huh?" Shawn bit out, so angry tears rolled down his face.

  Jake stood breathing hard, he couldn't get over what he was seeing - the shock of seeing Mundo like that made him respond impulsively. He looked down at the officer laid out cold; next, the two holding them at gunpoint until backup arrived. They could hear the sirens already, several of them - pulling into the front and back of the Sheriff's office, who was also on his way there. Suddenly the station was flooded with state troopers, officers from there, including the female officer who had left just earlier, an ambulance crew, and reporter's vans in the parking lot. To say that bedlam had broken out was putting it mildly.

  Charlie, who had ignored the officers order to cease taking pictures, had carried on, after all, what was he gonna do? Couldn't keep Shawn at gunpoint if he was busy making her put the camera away, thus, she had taken close up shots of even him, not missing the tiniest detail of anything, got a
couple of the cop on the floor, knocked out cold, but her primary focus, was Mundo - his bloody clothing, his badly battered face. She got them all. The whole time, quiet, calm, certain of what needed to be done. When she heard the sirens, she was done; satisfied, made her way outside to take up her place with Deidre; walking outside, it was to see, Sylvia in tears, camera on her, explaining the events that brought them all there and the condition of her son inside the station, to the reporter asking her questions. She explained that her son had been stopped for going 70 miles in a 65 mile an hour zone, and for some reason, he was arrested instead of being given a ticket; also traumatizing her grandsons, who had been with him at the time. More than one reporter threw questions at her - Charlie walked up to them, showing them pictures of Mundo on her digital that she'd just taken. They all wanted copies of the pictures; she walked to the vans, and let them upload them all so they would have exactly what they needed for the news report, every one of them. A few moments into talking to Sylvia, a car drove up, a representative of the Madison NAACP.

  For the officers involved, the party was over. The hell they were accustomed to doling out, made it's way back to them, but was about to come in - in a far greater fashion - there was no possible way of them getting out of this. The Sheriff's office was swarmed by more news reporters, who were taking pictures of Mundo as the ambulance crew wheeled him out and put him into the van, Sylvia climbed in with him, trying to hold back more tears at the look of him.

  Chapter 299

  Early Sunday morning...

  Crystal quietly eased into Victor's room, wondering if he was awake or sleeping, then noticed his TV was on, playing low. With the door closing behind her, she made her way to the bed, to see him lying still, watching the news with his remote in hand. Turning his head to her, he stared.

  "Hi, you're awake. How you feeling?" She asked gently, moving around his bed to sit in the chair she'd occupied the day before, from Friday night to Saturday morning.

  "Sore, in pain..." He spoke low, "How's Mundo?" He asked.

  "You know?"

  "Yeah, it was - all over the news, all last night, on every channel. Hope they - get what they deserve."

  She sighed relieved, believing he would be upset about her not coming back yesterday. She couldn't, too much had been going on, and she hadn't been able to actually lay down and get some sleep until late Saturday at her moms.

  "Oh they will - they messed up big-time."

  "Saw you, the boys - on the news too - you - looked good on there."

  "No way, I looked like the walking dead. Hadn't gotten any sleep after coming to the hospital about you, and I was here all night and Saturday to afternoon, left here, got maybe two hours sleep, mama wakes me about Mundo. Get there, get the boys, they wanted me to say something, they interviewed Shawn," She started laughing, "He's the wrong person to ask anything, when it comes to stuff like that! Oh my goodness!"

  "Yeah, I saw - he's an angry man, mad at the world." Victor commented low.

  Crystal stopped, gazing at him, "No, not angry at the world, just at injustice - those are the things that make him angry. Otherwise, he's funny, happy, laughs, wants to have a good time like anyone else,"

  Victor sighed deep and turned away from her while she spoke of Shawn, it worked, she stopped. "Sorry, I don't mean to go on about him."

  "I don't, really want to - talk about him. Where's Mundo?"

  "He's home, with my mom. He had a punctured lung, two broken ribs, fractured cheek-bone, they jacked up his jaw, he looked terrible; I couldn't believe they did that to him. That's okay, because one thing is for sure, when his day in court comes, he's gettin' paid. Jeremiah chose an attorney for him, because they were all over him, wanting his case - it's practically cut and dry. Those three officers were suspended without pay - and an investigation is going on at that Sheriff's office now, because like, three more people, all guys, all black, came forward saying the same thing happened to them. It's gonna get ugly - and Jake - he knocked one of them out cold. They got him to the hospital, he had a broken nose and his two front teeth, gone!" Crystal laughed shaking her head, "Jake only hit'im one time! Them big'oh ham-bones on'him - knocked his ass willy-nilly. Under the circumstances, they couldn't touch Jake, or Shawn for the hell they raised, because they have enough heat from all the dirty-nasty laundry everyone is dragging out on them. Oh I love it."

  Victor lay quiet letting her talk it out of her system. When she finally quieted, he was gazing into her eyes. "Ben was there - too - saw him, in the background - he - had Isaac, and you - got in the car - with him."

  Crystal gulped, she'd forgotten about that part.

  "All the - family that was there, why'd you have to - ride with him?" He flinched, in pain.

  "My mother and I rode there with him, because Shawn took off and left us. I was too tired to drive anything. I slept going there, and slept coming home."

  "I don't want you around him, not at all. I don't want, my kids around him - at all. You're in love with him." He finished, telling her, not asking.

  "No..." she shook her head, "...it's nothing like that."

  "Yes, it is."

  "I'm with you, here - now."

  "Look me in the eyes, say that you love me, me!"

  Crystal looked him in the eyes, and said it, "I love you - I do - I love you." And she meant it, she did love him. Only, it wasn't the same love she'd had for him at one time, this was a different kind of love, the kind that comes from knowing someone, being around them, sharing your life with them for so long, there was certainly a love there - an agape love - that would always make her care about what's happening to him - yes, this love, would make her sacrifice what was in her heart, the love she had for Ben. That love, could not be.

  "You don't act, like you love me, not anymore."

  "I'm sorry for that, everything has been so - I don't know, when we split, you left - and you didn't come back, I resigned myself to the fact that it was over. It took everything I had, to get past that hurt, it crushed me-..."

  "That was my mother!"

  "She didn't force you to sleep with Jeanine, did she?"

  "I regret that, I do!"

  "Okay then, so I tell you what. I won't bring up Jeanine, and you - don't bring up Ben. After all, I - haven't slept with him." The night with him, in his car, immediately came to mind, the power of her climax from his hand.

  Victor sighed, "I can't help what I feel, I know he's after you."

  "We hardly even spoke to each other yesterday - so much going on. Me sleeping all over the place."

  "Let's not talk about them anymore."

  "Let's not."

  "They say I'm doing pretty good, no infection or anything, that I may be able to go home tomorrow."

  "Good, it's lonely there - all by myself."

  He reached over and took her hand in his, "I wanna love you again, the way I used to." He announced softly, "Please let me?" He asked softly.

  Crystal's heart palpitated like mad - here it was, do it - or leave it - time.

  She swallowed deep, looked into his eyes, and nodded, following it up by, "Okay - when you're better."

  "Everything still works." He grinned, flirting with her.

  "No need to worry about that right now."

  "I have scars now, down my side, my arm, that gonna bother you?"

  "Don't be ridiculous, that doesn't change who you are." She spoke to him in soft tones.

  "My mother came here yesterday."

  "I know, I saw her; what happened?"

  "She's full of it, tried to tell me ... she did it for me. Some other nonsense, not important - I told her, stay out of my life."

  "She's still your mother, Victor."

  "I don't care, she totally screwed me over, I'm never forgiving her for that."

  "That's a bit harsh, don't you think?"

  "How can you defend her, after what she's put us through?"

  "Victor - you let her - put us through it. You went along with it-..."


  "Let's not talk about that anymore. We won't talk about anyone, or anything that comes between us. This is a new start, a new beginning, right? This is about us, no one else - so to hell with everyone else, Jeanine, my mom, Ben, anyone who is not for us - we don't need."

  Crystal was silent, not about to agree on that one, she had a feeling, he was suggesting she cut Shawn out.

  "Right?"

  "I don't know what you mean by that."

  "I mean, I will cut the people in my life, who won't accept you. You should do the same, if there are people in your family, who can't accept me; they wanna be that way, well then, hey - you don't need them. We have each other, that's all we need. And - I - I want my boys back home too. You're not working, you don't have to; bring them home."

  "I don't know, if they're ready to come home yet - they love it with my mom-..."

  "They're mine! My sons, they should be with me! You say you want us to make it, well do right by me Crystal, do right. I did right by you. Granted, I let things go too far, true - but I finally did what I had to do for us. Now, you do what you have to do for us. I want you to, make that court date tomorrow, have everything reversed - so that we're still married."

  Crystal felt her chest constrict.

  "You have to Crystal, I won't make that appointment with the judge."

  "It's not like you can't reschedule it."

  He lay a moment gazing into her eyes, "Fine, know what - let's get married again, how about that? This time, we'll do it better, we'll have a nice wedding. How about that? I'll even buy you a diamond ring this time, a really cool engagement ring, I didn't last time, but I will this time."

  Crystal smiled, relieved to be let off the hook about the court date. "How about, you focus on getting better, getting out of this hospital, coming home, so - we can be - a family again." The words were jamming up in her throat.

  "Deal! And know what else, we're gonna have a little girl next, I want one - I want her to be just like you, red head and all!"