“Please take a seat.” I walked over to the chair and sat down as she continued. “We have to talk about a lot today. Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, I’m feeling a lot better.”
“I do want to talk to you about the fight you saw yesterday and how you feel about it, but I’m going to talk to you about something that is more important to you first.”
I could tell it was something important because she kept talking around it instead of just telling me. “Ms. Taylor, please just tell me!”
“Okay. A month from now you will have to go to court to get questioned for Keithon James’s case.”
All my bitter emotions changed to happiness but also fear. I stayed quiet thinking of these emotions and what might happen. I started thinking about seeing his beautiful face again.
We talked for a while, then, later on, Ms. Taylor reminded me again about court. “The date is July fourteenth, so mark your calendar. We will finish talking about this tomorrow. Get to lunch.” Ms. Taylor handed me a calendar as I walked out the door to lunch.
As I entered the dining room, I saw my only true friend. I sat down and told her all the news about what just happened and about the fight.
“I can’t believe it. I don’t know how to feel.”
“Don’t overthink it. Just be happy you get to see him again,” Shondra responded.
When lunch was over, I hugged Shondra. “You are a great friend!” I told her then walked back to my room.
When I got to my room, I put a heart on July 14, then marked today.
Chapter Eighteen
Keithon
Over the past month, I had been eyed by every prisoner in this place. I couldn’t go anywhere by myself and couldn’t leave my cell without officers to protect me. My cellmate helped me by keeping the guys he knew from harming me. I even had a name the prisoners called me. Every prisoner, even my cellmate, called me prison cop. There was one prisoner who wanted me dead and hated that the police had my back, and that was Malik Mason. Little bastard was probably making plans to kill me right now with other inmates.
But today I would not worry a thing about the prisoners. I guessed I’d go shoot the ball around on the basketball court today. I hoped to not have any problems like before, and if I did, I knew the cops would stop anything from getting out of hand.
“Do you want to come to the court with me?” I asked my new cellmate.
“Sure, what the hell? I have nothing else to do.” He was a brave, “fuck these other inmates” type of dude who didn’t mind I was a former cop.
“Well, my name is Anthony Hampton, but you can call me Tone.”
“So, Tone, how long have you been in prison?”
“About five years now in total,” Tone replied.
“Damn, that is a long time. Do you have family?”
“Yeah, sure I do. Two sons and two daughters. They are the love of my life, too. I have a wife who keeps the kids in line since I’m not there.”
“Wow,” I said, sitting next to him on the ground.
“So about this Renee you keep mumbling about, have you talked to her?”
“No, I haven’t. I am not allowed to, but I would rather see her in person anyway. I need to see her.” I was getting depressed.
“I see, man. That’s how I feel about my wife and kids. I hate just talking to them over the phone. I love when they visit here so I can hug them and tell them I love them in person,” Tone replied.
“What did you get in for, buddy, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“I was drinking, was kind of depressed because I lost my job. I was driving from the bar and hit two people with my car and killed them right on impact. I was sentenced with involuntary manslaughter. Put in here for twenty years, man. Twenty years of not seeing my sons and daughters graduate or go to prom. Recently I heard my son Shawn is in a gang and has been in and out of jail for selling drugs. And my wife cries every night. There is a lot my wife goes through, working two jobs and taking care of four kids on her own. I told her to leave me, get a guy who can love her, be there for her, and who can work. But she loves me too much to leave. She does not know how better off she would be without me,” Tone said.
“Wow, I’m sorry,” I told Tone. I was in shock but at a loss for words.
“I have not talked with anyone in here about my life outside the bars. You’re the first person. You are a cool guy, prison cop, a cool guy indeed.”
“Sometimes I need someone to talk to. I’m just returning the favor.”
“When is your court date, man?”
“It’s in two weeks, on July fourteenth.”
“Are you nervous at all?”
“Kind of, but I’m more just happy. I will see Renee again, and I hope that I can talk to her during that time. I will be at peace then,” I told him.
We started to head back to our cell because lunch was over. We waited until the prisoners got into their cells before we started going back in.
“Good talk, dude. Whatever you want to talk about is safe with me, I promise. And if I do not have anything else, I have my word, and my word is everything,” Anthony told me.
Chapter Nineteen
Renee
Cleveland was not the best place to live with all the crime that happened. But it did not matter where we lived, because the biggest crime to me was happening in my house, under our roof. I remembered one time, out of all the times of my mom being with Tyrone after he started drinking, the only time my mother ever stood up to him. One time when I was just a kid, my mom was at work, and it was only me and Tyrone in the house. I was in the shower for about an hour. I always took long showers because they were relaxing and peaceful. I guessed sometime between this time of me being in the shower and the time I got out, my mom had come home early from work.
I was getting out of the shower, and Tyrone pushed the bathroom door open and came in. I was naked. I grabbed my towel super fast and wrapped it around me. Of course, Tyrone was drunk.
“I have to pee,” Tyrone said while looking at me.
I left the bathroom really fast. I was not scared or anything because Tyrone had never sexually harassed me before. I was just feeling really awkward because my stepdad saw me naked. I walked in my room and took my clothes out of my dresser to get changed. Little did I know I did have to worry about him. I put on my lotion as usual before I put my clothes on. I heard a light sound, and I could see the door was slightly open and Tyrone was peeking in through the door. OMG. I hurried and tried to put my pajamas on, but Tyrone opened the door all the way once he knew I had noticed him peeking in my room. Tyrone saw me naked in the bathroom, and now he saw me naked again, but this time it was on purpose. What was wrong with this creep?
“Don’t make a sound,” Tyrone instructed me.
I still slowly reached for my pajama pants. But the bastard gave me an angry look. I knew he did not want me to move. He slowly walked to me, looking me up and down, and he sat next to me on the bed. I could smell all the alcohol that he’d drunk.
He never did touch me that day, but he kept looking at me. I was so scared. I did not know what was about to happen, but I knew I did not want him to touch me, and I did not want to get raped. But to my surprise, he did not do any of those things. He kept looking at me with a blank stare. I heard a sound and looked up. My mom was at my bedroom door.
“Get away from my fucking daughter, you monster,” my mother screamed.
I grabbed my clothes and ran out of the room to put them on.
All I could hear was my mom yelling at Tyrone. “You sick fuck. How could you?” My mother was yelling, and I could hear the sound of her punching him.
That day was the first day Tyrone did not hit my mom. I never knew if it was because he knew he was wrong or because he was just too drunk to think to hit back. I did not really ever feel the same after that day. I never really wanted anyone to see my body. For about a month I stayed with my older cousin, who later in life died from cancer. When I came back,
I would only shower when my mom was home or when Tyrone was not in the house. It was weird after that situation with Tyrone happened, and we never spoke about it again in our house.
Chapter Twenty
Today was the first time I’d been able to get outside since I’d been here. I was sitting on the grass with my notebook in my lap, and my back was leaning on the tree. Ms. Taylor was sitting on the bench next to the tree.
“I know you never get outside and you’re always in that room, so I was thinking some of our meetings should start being outside. Would you like that?” Ms. Taylor asked while smiling at me.
“Sure.” I started to look around, and I noticed there was a male security guard not too far away from us, sitting on the bench and looking our way. We were the only people outside at this moment. “Is he here to make sure I don’t run away?” I asked Ms. Taylor.
“Yes, he is. You know, if you don’t feel like talking, you can write in your notebook,” Ms. Taylor told me.
“Okay thanks,” I told her before I started writing in my notebook. I spent most of our meeting writing in my notebook, I never talked to Ms. Taylor unless I was spoken to. It was not because I didn’t like her or trust her. It was only because I was tired of talking about my problems to strangers. It wasn’t going to change anything. But I liked Ms. Taylor. She was a nice lady.
“Okay, it has been an hour. It’s time to go back in.”
“All right.”
“Okay, but you have a visitor so follow me,” Ms. Taylor responded as I almost walked off.
I stopped, then followed Ms. Taylor to the visitor room. I’d never had someone visit me here so this was my first time ever being in this room. We entered the room. There was a desk to the far left, where three ladies were signing people in on the computer. I noticed there were security guards standing at different spots by the walls. I also saw about fifteen circular tables with chairs.
“Come on, Ms. Turner, follow me.”
Ms. Taylor took me to a table where some man was sitting. He lifted his head. I didn’t remember much about my dad, but I knew this was him. I had his same big brown eyes. She walked off, then turned around and said, “Tell me if you need anything.” Then she walked away.
I was still standing, and my dad got up real fast. I’d never been hugged so tight in my life, but I did not hug him back.
“I missed you so much. I’m so sorry!” my dad said as tears fell from his eyes. He sat down. I decided to sit down across from him at the table. My mom only told me a little about why he left, so I did not really know much other than he left because of that lady.
“Why? Why now? Why did you leave us? Why!” I bellowed with power in my voice.
My dad had black hair, big brown eyes, and a light brown skin tone but kind of on the pale side. “I’ll tell you everything, I promise.” My dad went on to tell me about how he left because he was not ready to be a parent, so he left with a lady, but he was ready now. He told me how he could not take care of us and did not have a job at the time. After he left, he joined the military, and he just got back from his latest tour. I was starting to remember the part about him leaving us for that lady.
“I’m better now, and I am so sorry all this happened to you. I cried so much when I found out. I never cried before, but you are my little girl. I’ll do anything so you will let me back in your life. And if that devil weren’t already in hell, I would kill him myself!” my dad told me.
I just looked at him. I didn’t know how to feel, but I was happy he felt the same about Tyrone as I did. Of course, I wondered how he found out about me being here.
“You don’t have to decide now, but please just allow me to come here and visit again.”
“Okay, you can visit me, but I’m only giving you one more chance. If you mess up again, I’m never giving you another.”
Ms. Taylor walked over and said, “Time is up. It’s time for you to go now.” So I did not have time to ask him about how he found everything out, but I’d ask him the next time I saw him.
“Okay, I love you, Renee. I’ll be back tomorrow!”
“All right, bye.”
“How do you feel?” Ms. Taylor asked.
“It went okay,” I told her, then walked back to my room. I wasn’t really in the mood for talking to Ms. Taylor anymore today.
Once lunch came, I told Shondra everything as usual, and then I went back to my room. I wrote in my notebook for some time about everything today. It had been a long day. I put my notebook under my pillow, marked a day off the calendar, then fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-one
Keithon
Today my parents came to see me. I hadn’t seen them since Renee and I ran off after they talked to the police. I didn’t really want to see them, but they were my parents. I guessed I could try to forgive them.
I walked down to the phone booth to talk to them. I picked up the phone. My mom picked up theirs so fast.
“Hello, Mom. Hello, Dad.”
“How are you, son?” my mom and dad asked at the same time.
“I’m okay, I guess.”
“Why haven’t you called us?” my dad asked.
Was this a serious fucking question? “I had nothing to say.”
My mom said, “That’s all you have to say?”
“Honey, not today, okay? Not today!” my dad told my mom.
“Look, why did you come here if you were just going to argue with me?”
“That’s not why we came here. We’ve just been worried about you, son,” Dad said.
“I am sorry. I love you so much. I just hate seeing you in here,” my mom told me.
“That’s funny, because you helped put me in here,” I replied with anger in my heart.
“Keithon,” my father said.
“No, Dad. You guys helped put me in here.”
“Now you listen. Don’t go blaming anyone. You knew she was running from the law after we told you, but you chose to stay with her. You should have never fallen in love with her. You are an officer.”
I knew there was some truth to that, so I was silent for a second. “Dad, you can’t help who you fall in love with. I will never apologize for loving her when no one else did!” I told them while a tear fell from my eye.
“I love you, honey. Everything will work itself out,” my mom told me.
“I love you too!” I replied. I was over this whole conversation.
“We heard your court date is July fourteenth. We will be there to support you,” my father claimed.
“Okay, thank you!”
“Time is up,” I heard in a loud voice.
Chapter Twenty-two
Renee
I woke up super early so I could get in the shower alone. Since that fight in the showers, I asked Ms. Taylor to unlock my door at 5:00 a.m. every day so I could wash up in peace without having to deal with the risk of something like that happening again.
Some hours passed and today my dad came in early to see me. I walked down to the visiting room. Before I entered, Ms. Taylor was standing by the door.
“When you are done talking to your father, come to my office. I need to talk to you about some things,” Ms. Taylor said.
“What is it?”
“Just come to my office afterward,” Ms. Taylor said, and then she walked off.
I entered the room and sat down across from my dad.
“Hey, Renee. How is your day so far?” my dad asked.
“It’s good,” I said while smiling. I was more open to letting him in today, maybe because I was happy that soon I’d get to see Keithon.
“Why are you so happy? What is going on, if you don’t mind me asking you?” my dad asked.
I was scared to tell him, but I didn’t care. “I get to see Keithon soon, and I know you might not agree because he is older than me, but I don’t care. I love him,” I said very quickly, leaning toward my dad.
“Honey, I might not agree, but the last thing I want to do is judge you. I’ve never seen you so
happy before. I know he has to be a good guy,” my dad said to me.
“Keithon is a good guy. He really is!” I said then got up and hugged him. “I love you, Dad,” I whispered in his ear while hugging him.
“I love you too, baby girl,” my father said while wrapping his arms around me tighter.
As I sat back down, I could see a tear falling from his eye. I was so surprised. My dad whipped the tear off his face real fast, cleared his voice, then asked “So when is this court date? Can I go?”
“It’s July fourteenth. I’ll have Ms. Taylor send you the information,” I told my dad. “Dad?” I spoke.
“Yes, honey?”
“How did you find out about everything?”
“Since I am still your guardian, someone had called me to inform me of everything that was going on and what happened with your mom. Of course, I couldn’t just up and leave the military. I had to wait until my time was up. But as soon as I heard about everything, I knew the first thing I was going to do was come find you. I just had to, and I was so sad you had to go through all of this alone. I really wish I could have been there for you. And since I wasn’t, I will live with that for the rest of my life. I am so sorry, honey.”
“It is okay. If I am willing to work on forgiving you, then it is only fair that you work on forgiving yourself. Promise me you will let that go and stop being mad at yourself. Just worry about how you can work on being a better father now,” I told my father with my pinky out. “Pinky promise you will get over it and just worry about today and tomorrow, not yesterday and before then?”
“I promise.” My father smiled and put his pinky out and promised me.
I started to think about Ms. Taylor, and I remembered she wanted to talk to me.
“Nice talking to you, but Ms. Taylor wants to talk to me. I just remembered. But I’ll let her know to send you the information.”
“All right. Love you, Renee. Bye,” my dad said.
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