That moment I turned to him and struck him with every bit of strength I had. It happened so fast that I was on the ground being stomped by his group until the officers stopped them.
As Malik’s friends pulled back a little, he said, “You’re damn lucky you have them cops to protect you, or you would have been killed already!”
I was shocked at what all just happened. This made me hope that once I went to court, I would not be proven guilty, because if I was, I would have to stay in this place for years. I didn’t think I would live to see another day. Either I would take my life or the prisoners would.
I stayed and shot around until it was time for me to come back in. And that was when all the prisoners went back to their cells. I walked past the cells and blocked out the loud noises. It was clear to me that a lot of people now knew I was once a cop. I started to think of Renee’s smile as I walked past. The thought of Renee took my mind off a lot, but it also made me sad thinking about her. But I knew somehow or someway we would see each other again.
Chapter Fifteen
Renee
I woke up missing Keithon, but I just put that in the back of my head.
An hour after I woke up, Ms. Taylor came down and took me back to her office. We talked for hours about how different it would be from how it used to be when I first started living here and my living situation.
Ms. Taylor ended the conversation with, “This is only because you ran away. We do not want that to happen again.”
Ms. Taylor walked me to my new room. We went through the two doors I went through when I first came back. It was just like the other side of the building, but something was unfamiliar. We stopped at room 114. The other rooms on the other side of the building, where I’d stayed before, were not numbered.
As Ms. Taylor unlocked the door, I noticed on this side the rooms were far apart from each other, unlike the old side I was on. Also, the same flowers were on the walls like on the other side of the building, but this time I felt no emotions looking at them, nothing but emptiness.
Ms. Taylor finally got the door open. We entered the room. The walls were bright white, and the carpet was sky blue. I touched the walls in my new room. This room was made to look homey, but it wasn’t. This room had extremely hard, cold walls like the ones made in jails, painted over with white paint to make it unnoticeable. My old room had wooden walls and felt like an actual room. As I took my mind off of the walls, I could hear the light sound of Ms. Taylor saying, “This is your new room.”
I didn’t pay attention because my eyes went to looking at the rest of the room. I noticed there was a sink and a toilet in my room. At this very moment, I started to feel like a prisoner.
Ms. Taylor handed me a piece of paper and began to speak. “This is your new schedule.” She pointed at the white cabinet in the room then continued to talk. “Everything you need is in here. Pads, tampons, first aid, water and so on. Here is a cell phone. You can only reach my office, 911, and our medical service on this. If you ever need anything call me. I basically live here.” Ms. Taylor laughed for a second.
She gave me five notebooks and a bunch of pencils and pens. “This is just in case you ever get bored. But are you okay?” Ms. Taylor asked.
“Yes,” I tried to reply, but I ran to the toilet and threw up.
After I finished, I felt dirty. Ms. Taylor took me to the nurse, who gave me some medication and let me brush my teeth. I lay down in the bed in the nurse’s office for about twenty minutes. Then Ms. Taylor walked me down to the dining room.
“Have a good lunch. I’ll talk to you about the other things after lunch,” Ms. Taylor said.
“Okay, bye.” I was just happy. I felt better now.
I went to the lunch line, got my food, then sat next to Shondra at a lunch table. The food was not bad today. We had pizza, salad, and pineapples. As I was drinking my orange juice, she stared at me with the same face she made before she asked me a question. So I knew what was coming.
“What, Shondra?” I asked.
She giggled. “So how is the new room?”
“I feel like I’m in prison.”
“What room are you in?”
“Room 114, and yes, we have room numbers. They also lock my door at night.”
“Maybe sometimes at night when you’re bored I can sneak out of my room and talk to you from the other side of the door. Or we can pass notes under the door,” Shondra whispered very quietly.
Before I knew it, it was time for lunch to be over. I saw Ms. Taylor walking up to me at the lunch table.
Shondra nodded good-bye as she got up and walked away.
Ms. Taylor walked me to my new room. She unlocked my door, and as we entered, she showed me this small green light on the inside and outside of the door.
“Whenever you have a meeting, a meal, or it’s time to shower, this light will turn green, and this means the door is unlocked.”
“Okay. I understand.”
“When the light is red, it means I locked the door, so you are not able to leave when you are not supposed to.” Ms. Taylor took a small break then said, “That is all for now, but remember we have a meeting in about an hour. It’s also written on your schedule.” Ms. Taylor walked out of the room and locked the door.
I watched the small green light turn red, then I lay back in my bed, thinking about passing notes under my door. In these few seconds of me thinking about this I remembered that I was the only person Shondra talked to here. I didn’t know why I forgot this. I knew she must feel so lonely sometimes. Like how I felt without Keithon in my life.
Chapter Sixteen
Keithon
Today was the first day I met with the lawyer who would work with me on my case. I really did not want to meet her. Like I told Renee, she could ask me all the questions she wanted, but I was not going to say anything. And I hoped they did not bribe Renee into telling them information. If that did happen, we were toast, dead meat, roadkill, damn it we were done for. I also had to keep in mind that Renee would not do such a thing. She was smarter than most girls. She had gotten this far. So all I could do for right now was just relax, have a talk with the lawyer, and leave, simple and easy.
In came two officers through the door of my cell to take me to the conference room where the lawyer and I would speak. I stood next to the bed and locked my arms so one of the officers could put me in the handcuffs.
“Damn, what the fuck?” I barked because one of the handcuffs pinched my skin.
We started to walk down the cell block. I looked downward as always, and I imagined Renee in my head to block out all of the noises around me. We approached the room, and I saw an older white woman with gray hair. The woman was very short. She seemed like someone’s grandmother.
“Hello, you must be Keithon James. I’m Mrs. Brenda Archer. I will be your lawyer for this case. Please sit down.” She greeted me with a handshake, and then we took our seats to begin our meeting.
“Now, Keithon, we will meet one more time before court, which is July fourteenth. Then, I will prepare you.”
“When will I be able to see Renee again?” I eagerly spoke up. “It has been four long months since I have seen her. I need to know how she is doing. And just talking over the phone will not satisfy me, even though we can’t contact each other through the phone anyway.”
“Well, that is not my job to assign visitation. That is the court’s job. But are you two married?” Brenda Archer looked up at me.
“Well no, but it was a thought in my head before this situation happened.”
“Really, I don’t know if there will be any visits assigned, Keithon. If you two are not legal partners, then the court will look at it as nothing.”
I was pretty upset at the response I got, but I kept my composure and just listened. I guessed I knew ahead of time that I was not going to be able to see her, because we had done a crime together.
“Keithon, could you tell me your side of the story about what happened with you and Renee?” B
renda Archer asked.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Archer, but I just do not feel comfortable telling you things when you do not know me,” I said with a little anger in my voice.
“Excuse me?” Brenda Archer raised an eyebrow, shocked by my response.
“I just don’t feel like talking about it, okay?”
“I know, Keithon, that you are angry right now, but I am here to help you. If you do not tell me the truth, then I can’t help you out of this mess.”
“I just don’t feel like talking about nothing right now. Can you come back tomorrow or in an hour?” I said, holding my tears back from pouring out of my eyes.
Now, stop. I just want to say right now I wasn’t just telling her these things just because I didn’t want to talk. I was beginning to feel tears pushing to come out of my eyes because right now my thought of Renee was popping in my head, and the thought of never seeing her again was killing me.
“Can someone bring him a tissue? Poor baby. It will be okay.”
I walked out of the room and back to my cell, wiping my face so I would not be embarrassed crying in front of any of these criminals, which would be the last thing I needed. So once I got to my cell, I went to sleep.
Two hours later I woke up and the same two officers were standing over me. One said, “Come on, the lawyer is waiting for you.” I got up and felt a little better from sleeping, and I headed back to the conference room.
“How are you feeling, Keithon? I hope you’re in a more agreeable mood.”
“Just fine, I’m good,” I lied, sitting back in my seat.
“That is good. Now look, Keithon, you are going to have to tell me something to help you in court. I know that you love Renee, but don’t you think if you tell me something, you are possibly helping her? Maybe you will even be able to see her again if you do so.”
Well, maybe this would help me to be able to see Renee again. Oh, how I would love to hold her in my arms again and shower her with gifts. I would do anything in this world to see her again and to get out of this place.
“Okay, I will, but it is just between us. I don’t want the officers in here to hear while I’m talking if that is okay.”
Brenda waved the officers off, and they exited, and I began talking. “It all started when me and my old partner, Officer Braylock, were doing block patrol. We had seen someone digging in the trashcans behind the abandoned building. So we pulled up behind the trashcans and asked the person to exit. When we flashed the light, we saw it was a woman, a very young woman, who was Renee. We both started asking her questions like why was she digging in trash and where her parents were. Renee said she had no parents because they both died when she was young. I took her to a shelter to stay the night so she would not sleep on the streets. Every day I came to see if she was okay and to get to know her better. Couple months later she came and stayed with me, and there we connected and fell in love. I took her to meet my parents in New York, where I was born and where my parents still live. Afterward, everything went downhill. The police were looking for her, and that’s when I found out she ran away from the hospital. I loved her so much that I kept quiet and hid her out at my parents’ second house where no one goes to. Then we were caught because the police found the house because my parents told them. There’s my story.”
Wow. I told the whole story, and now I felt horrible. Now it felt like I would never see Renee again. What if she went back and told the judge what I did and I was stuck in prison forever?
“Wow, Keithon, that is some story. It seems like you really love her, but you do know hiding a runaway is a federal offense?”
“I know. I was a cop, Mrs. Archer, but love had me blinded, and it still does,” I confessed.
“Keithon, I had a husband who committed a horrible crime. I don’t want to say what. But it did not stop me from putting him away.”
“But did you love him?” I asked her.
“Yes. I loved him with all my heart.”
I thought that she never felt real love if she was quick to lock her husband away. I knew how much I loved Renee, so I had nothing to worry about. “Are we done here, Mrs. Archer?” I asked, getting up and slowly walking away.
“Yes. We will meet before you go to court, Keithon. Have a good rest of the day,” Brenda Archer replied.
I left the room and went back to my cell. I grabbed my journal from under my pillow to write an entry for today. I was pretty aggravated today, so my entry would show anger through my writing.
Entry 20
June 29, 2018
Fuck, I can’t get a break. It’s like as soon as I start to feel happiness, something knocks me off and I get this shitty mood again. I met my lawyer today, and she asked me why I didn’t call law enforcement when I found Renee. Well, have you ever heard of this thing called love? I could have just gone off rocket talking to her today, but I kept my composure, and I think I did a very good job at that. At least this meeting is over, and now I can get some rest.
But I don’t understand. She is my lawyer, not my fucking mom or dad. She’s supposed to fight for me, not against me. Maybe I’ll ask to be assigned to a new lawyer. No, I should just calm down and relax. Maybe it is not that bad. I am probably just overreacting to this situation. But at the same time, I told her things I should have kept to myself. Here I was telling Renee not to tell anything, but I told on the both of us. Shit, I’m screwed. What the hell can I do to change what I have done? Maybe I’ll just rest on it. Maybe I will ask my cellmate what I should do. I’m so confused and so angry. I don’t know what to do.
I closed my notebook and slid it up under my bed as I always did after I was done writing. Only this time I decided not to go straight to sleep. I got up and tried praying. I had not prayed in a long time. I wasn’t even sure if I even believed in God. All my accomplishments in life I had done on my own. I had never had help from anyone. And if there was really a God, why would He have me going through what I was going through? But even though I doubted my faith, I still tried praying to see if a good outcome would come from this.
“Dear God, I know we have not talked in a very long time. And you probably won’t even answer this prayer, but I’m asking you for a favor, a simple, small favor. I know you can work miracles in people’s lives, and I am hoping that you could do one for me. Ever since I got to this prison, and ever since I left Renee, I have had this pain in my heart that leaves me feeling empty inside. God, if you are real, I am begging on a bending knee to help me and Renee back together again. I love her, I need her, and I want to marry her. Amen.”
Chapter Seventeen
Renee
Keithon kicked open the door of my room, and he grabbed me. We started to run. Security started to chase us. We ran faster and faster, but they continued to get closer and closer. One security guard yelled out “Stop!” As the security got unbelievably close, Keithon whispered, “I love you!”
I woke up in sweat. It had been a while now since I’d been here. I kept having dreams about Keithon. These dreams felt so real they were starting to scare me.
About ten minutes passed of me sitting in my bed, thinking about these dreams. I finally noticed the red light turn green. Still feeling the sweat on my body, I went to the bathroom to take a shower. This was my first time using these showers on this side of the building because they were open and not private. I’d been washing up in my room for the past few weeks out of the sink.
I walked into the bathroom. The walls were white, but the first thing I noticed when I walked in were two stacks of face cloths and towels. There were also little bottles of body wash that had “A cleaner way could be a brighter day” printed on the bottle. I grabbed one of each and walked through the small hallway that led to one big room with twelve showerheads and a mirror on the side. There were four girls already in here showering. I showered really fast before anyone else could come in. I felt awkward and uncomfortable. And then the worst thing that could possibly happen happened.
“Why are you looking a
t me?” I heard in a really angry voice.
“I can look where I want to look, but trust me, you ain’t much to look at!” someone responded.
I was scared to turn around because the last thing I wanted to see was two naked girls fighting. I finally turned around after a couple minutes of hearing a bunch of noises. I saw one girl hit the other girl’s head against the mirror. The girl’s nose started to bleed. She had cuts on her face from the glass. I saw blood dripping from her face and flowing down to the drain. I felt sick to my stomach. I had a flashback to the night my mom died when I stabbed Tyrone. I always hated seeing blood. Snapping back to reality as the two big female security guards rushed into the bathroom, I started to feel dizzy.
The one other girl who was in the bathroom yelled out, “Look at her.” She shouted it super loud as I was throwing up on the floor.
Once security stopped the fight and took the girls out of the bathroom, I got my strength and wrapped my towel tighter around myself and left the bathroom. I went back to my room. I brushed my teeth then lay down in my bed. The nurse came in to check on me thirty minutes later and brought me some water and crackers.
“You have been sick a lot lately. I’ve talked to Ms. Taylor, and you can stay in here and rest today. She will meet with you tomorrow. And I’ll bring your meals to your room today,” the nurse said before she left my room.
The nurse was a small white lady with red hair. I ate some crackers and drank some water. I finally fell asleep after a while.
* * *
The next day I felt a lot better, and I didn’t have a dream about Keithon last night. Ms. Taylor and I had a meeting today, so I went to her office.
“Hello, Ms. Turner.”
“Hello,” I responded to Ms. Taylor.
Girls from da Hood 13 Page 28