Girls from da Hood 13

by Ms. Michel Moore

  I started to walk off.

  “Renee, no matter what, I’m proud of you!” my dad yelled across the room.

  I smiled at him then walked to Ms. Taylor’s room. “Renee, no matter what, I’m proud of you!” This was in my head the whole time while I walked to Ms. Taylor’s office. I never really had anyone tell me they were proud of me before. This was a nice feeling.

  I knocked on the door. “Come in!” Ms. Taylor yelled. I entered her office, and I saw dresses everywhere.

  “You have to look nice for court, right?” Ms. Taylor said, smiling at me.

  “This is for me?” I asked, but I wasn’t really looking for an answer.

  “Yes, this is for you, Ms. Turner.”

  “You can call me Renee, Ms. Taylor.” I started to look around, then I asked, “Can my friend Shondra help us! And can she come to court with me?”

  “Shondra? Shondra, who doesn’t talk to anyone in this place?” Ms. Taylor remarked.

  “Yeah, but she talks to me. Shondra is my only friend here, the only person I can truly trust.”

  “Sure, why not?” Ms. Taylor said then went over to her desk. “Shondra, come to Ms. Taylor’s office,” she announced on the intercom.

  Five minutes later we heard someone knocking on the door. Ms. Taylor opened the door, and Shondra walked in. She had a strong look on her face. I knew she was wondering what was going on.

  “Shondra, it’s okay. I told her to call you down. I want you to go to court with me, and Ms. Taylor got us a bunch of outfits to try on.”

  “Okay,” Shondra said while smiling. I was surprised she responded so fast, but I knew she trusted me. I also could tell Ms. Taylor was just shocked to hear her voice.

  We tried on all the clothes, laughing and joking. This was a lot of fun. Finally, we found the ones we wanted to wear.

  “Thanks,” Shondra and I told Ms. Taylor. I hugged Ms. Taylor then walked to my room. Of course, I wrote everything in my notebook: about how nice Ms. Taylor was, how my dad and I had reconnected, and how I would never find another friend like Shondra.

  “Renee, no matter what, I’m proud of you,” was on my mind again before I dozed off to sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Keithon

  It was the afternoon before my court date. I could not stop thinking about Renee, her big brown eyes, and her smile. I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to hear her voice. I had to.

  A lot of people left the dining room, but there were still a decent amount of people still in there. Then I finally left the dining room, and I saw an officer I knew. He was a childhood friend, and we went to the academy together.

  “Hey, Max. How are you?”

  “Hey, buddy, I’m good,” he said with a smile on his face.

  “Can you do me a favor?”

  “Sure, you know I’ll almost do anything for a friend like you,” Max told me. Max did not ask why I was in here, so I assumed he knew everything. There was no point in saying anything. It was clear. He could see me wearing this baggy orange jumpsuit.

  “Can you take me to a phone I can use?” I asked in a low voice.

  “Sure, follow me, but only because I know you are a good person. But you can’t tell anyone I did this, of course.”

  I followed him to his office and sat in his seat at his desk. I looked in the phone book to find Calming Meadows, and I saw Ms. Taylor listed under it. I called, and the phone rang about three times. Then someone answered.

  “Hello, Ms. Taylor’s office. How may I help you?”

  “Can I speak to Renee Turner?” I asked.

  “May I ask who’s calling? And you do know you have to make an appointment? She can’t take calls,” Ms. Taylor responded.

  “No, I did not know this,” I said, thinking of a name to say.

  “Is this Keithon James?” Ms. Taylor asked.

  “That’s Keithon! I know it is! Let me speak to him! Please!” I heard loud in the background. I knew it was Renee. I knew that beautiful voice.

  “Is that Renee? Please let me talk to her!” I asked, and my heart started beating fast.

  “Do you know how many rules I would be breaking if I let y’all two speak to each other? I could lose my job!” Ms. Taylor said in defiance.

  “No one will find out. Please, I just love her so much! Please just let us have a couple of minutes?”

  “How are you even calling me? Aren’t you locked up? Never mind. Okay, you can talk to Renee but just a quick hello. Then I will hang up the phone myself,” Ms. Taylor said.

  “Keithon? Keithon? Are you there?” Renee gleefully screamed out.

  “I’m here, and I love you so much,” I responded. Just hearing her voice meant so much to me.

  “I love you so much too. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. It is going to take everything in me not to jump in your arms,” Renee told me.

  “I know, right. But are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been doing my best. I reconnected with my dad, but I’ve been feeling really sick lately, throwing up and—” Click. While Renee was talking, the phone hung up.

  “Renee?” I yelled.

  “Shhh,” Max said quietly. “Are you done?”

  “Yes, and thanks, man,” I told him.

  Of course, I was mad that I could not talk to her longer, but I wasn’t thinking about that at this moment. I was thinking about how I’d just heard Renee say she was reconnecting with her father. I’d thought her parents were dead. When Renee told me about her mom and everything while we were hiding out in my parents’ second house, she never said anything about her dad. So I automatically assumed that he was dead like what she told me the night I first met her. But I guessed that was just a lie, so we would find out just what the truth was.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Renee

  This was Keithon’s second time being in court. The first time he pled not guilty. Today was the day of his trial. The first time I couldn’t come to court to see him. But for the trial I could because I was part of this case. Keithon was a former officer, so this case was talked about on TV and on different blogs. When they didn’t tell me what was going on with Keithon, I kept up with him through media. This was my way of keeping in touch since I couldn’t talk to him on the phone.

  I also was reading a lot about the law. One thing I found out was that Keithon could’ve represented himself, but I could see he didn’t choose that.

  The judge started talking then called me to the stand. I looked around. I saw the jury. There was a mixed group of blacks and whites, but also two Asians. They seemed to be emotionless.

  A guy name Terrell Johnson came in front of me. “What’s your name?” he asked me.

  “Renee Turner,” I responded.

  “Are you in love with Officer James? Yes or no?” he asked with anger in his voice.

  “Yes.”

  “That will be all for now,” Mr. Johnson said as he walked to sit down. I could see him whisper something to the lady sitting next to him.

  Then the lady who represented Keithon walked up before me. Her name was Brenda Archer. “Hello, how’s it going?”

  “Okay.”

  “Tell me, how did you meet Mr. James?”

  I explained to her how I was in the trash and Office James and the other officer found me and took me to a shelter.

  “So you can say that Officer James and Officer Braylock did not know you were a runaway?”

  “They did not know,” I responded.

  “That will be all for now.”

  The judge told me to go back to my seat.

  When it was Ms. Archer’s turn to question Officer Braylock, she asked him, “You know Mr. James pretty well, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you say he’s a pretty well-rounded, kind-hearted, good person?”

  “Yes, definitely. He’s one of our best officers,” Officer Braylock told the court.

  “You both didn’t know the state was looking for Ms. Turner?” Keithon’s lawyer
asked.

  “No, we did not!” Officer Braylock responded.

  She turned, facing the jury, and said, “Mr. James wasn’t aware that she was a runaway when he met her.”

  There was a small recess. Then everyone came back to the courtroom. It was hard for me to keep my eyes off of Keithon. I missed him so much.

  “Keithon James to the stand,” I heard the judge say. As Keithon walked to the stand, I could not help but think about me not stressing him anymore. I was starting to feel sick to my stomach again. Seemed like I’d been getting a lot bigger, too, but I’d been stress eating a lot lately.

  Once I stopped thinking I got back to reality and noticed Mr. Johnson was getting angry with Keithon. “So at the point you knew she was a runaway, why didn’t you turn her in?” he asked loudly.

  “I was fully in love with her, but I didn’t plan for this to happen,” Keithon told him.

  “Nothing was planned, but you carried it on,” Mr. Johnson said. He was asking all these questions, trying to make Keithon look like a bad guy. This made me so angry.

  The day ended when the judge said, “This case will be continued a week from today.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  For a couple days during this passing time, I started to think about everything in the world. First I started thinking about the time when my mom and dad were together. When I was really little, we went to the park once for July 4th. I started to zone out thinking about this. It was one of the last times I actually saw my family on both sides together. My father’s and my mother’s families came together at this park on this one night to see fireworks, and we were all happy. Actually, this was one of the only times I remembered ever having a family.

  My dad was pushing me on a swing back and forth. I was going higher and higher. The sun was just starting to set, and it was starting to get chilly out. My dad went over to my mom and started to talk to her as I continued to swing. I watched from a close distance as my dad took off his jacket and put it around my mom’s arms. I continued to watch as he kissed her on the cheek, and she smiled the biggest smile I ever saw her smile in my life.

  I snapped back into reality as I thought about this being the last time I truly saw my mother really happy and her smiling so bright. I really missed her so much. You will never ever feel as much pain as losing someone you love. I started thinking about the time when I was in middle school. My mind started to drift away from reality again. I could see the white walls with poster boards of equations on them. One wall had stars on it, with the name of each student who had an A or B in the class on each star. Cedric Johnson. I would just stare at this gold star with the name Cedric Johnson on it written in green marker.

  “Miss Turner, pay attention,” Ms. Coleman said.

  Ms. Coleman was my sixth-grade math teacher. Ms. Coleman was a black lady in her late forties and wore glasses. Ms. Coleman would always yell at me about not focusing in her class. I was not doing that badly in her class. Even though I was not on the star board, I still was passing. I had a C+ in Ms. Coleman’s class.

  I could not help but not focus when I had someone like Cedric on my mind and in the same class with me. Cedric was the first boy I ever liked. Cedric was gorgeous and a smart boy, which was hard to come by. I’d had a crush on him for a whole year. I heard the bell ring. I got up and started walking out of the classroom.

  “Hold up, Renee!” I heard coming from behind me, and of course, I knew the voice.

  “Yes?” I said as I turned around and looked at Cedric. I was looking right at his cute face. With black curly hair, light brown skin, and beautiful hazel eyes, Cedric was mixed black and Mexican.

  “Do you need some extra help in class? If you do, you can stop by my place after school, and I can tutor you,” Cedric told me.

  I stayed quiet for a minute.

  “Well, we don’t have to,” Cedric told me, and I could hear his confident level dropping as he said that.

  “No, no. I would love your help,” I told him while standing in the hall. I knew I was going to be late for my last class, but I did not care. I was not about to waste this opportunity. Cedric, the boy I had the biggest crush on, wanted to hang out with me. Every girl in school liked him, which was just an extra bonus.

  Cedric started writing his address on a ripped piece of paper, pressing the paper against the wall as he wrote in black pen. I could remember everything about Cedric.

  “Here you go. Come right after school if you can. Talk to you later,” Cedric said with a smile then walked off.

  That day I tried to rush to my last class, but I was late. I made it to the door right as the bell rang, but my teacher closed the door in my face. I knew this meant I had to go to the office.

  I did my work in the office, and after school, I went straight to Cedric’s house. I did not think to go tell my mom. I knew she would not care anyway with the arguing with my stepdad and stuff.

  I arrived at Cedric’s house and rang the doorbell.

  “What’s up? Come in,” Cedric said as he let me in. “My parents are not home, but we can still stay in the living room,” Cedric continued.

  I followed him to the living room. His house looked like an old lady decorated it, but it was still really nice. We both sat on the couch, and we started to do our math homework. Cedric helped me on all the problems I did not know how to do. Finally, we were done with our homework and him showing me example problems.

  “I really like you, Renee,” Cedric told me, and he leaned in and kissed me.

  “You like me?” I asked as I smiled really big. This was my first kiss, and it was with someone I really liked who’d just told me he liked me back. It was amazing.

  Cedric and I started dating two days later. We continued to date for years, until not long before Tyrone killed my mom. The reason we stopped talking was because too much was going on in my life with my mom and Tyrone.

  I came back to reality. I hated ever thinking about Cedric because it was another thing my stepdad messed up for me. Of course, Cedric did not nearly compare to Keithon, but I couldn’t lie. I did miss him a little after all this time. I at least wished I would have told him the reason why I stopped talking to him.

  I started to fall asleep once I thought about the final court date for Keithon coming up so soon. I was not exactly ready to hear that I might not be able to see him for a while. After I thought about this my eyes closed and I was asleep.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  A week passed, and we were back at court. Today I wore the prettiest dress Ms. Taylor gave to me. I was hoping to look good for Keithon, wearing a dress a little above knee length. The dress had sparkles all over it. When I was a kid, I loved sparkles, so of course, I really liked this dress. I saw Keithon sitting down, and his beautiful eyes had fear behind them. You could tell he was scared just by looking at him. This change my mood really fast from thinking he had little time to me thinking I might never get to see him again.

  “Mr. Johnson, please give us your closing argument,” Judge Monroe said.

  “Why should we let this man get away with crime? He might not have known at first, but once he found out, he continued. He is a bad man and obviously a bad officer.” As Mr. Johnson spoke, I could really feel anger in my heart.

  “You’re a liar. He’s not a bad guy at all. He is the only who cared when no one else did!” I yelled across the room.

  “Order in my court!” the judge said. I sat back in my seat and didn’t say another word. I saw Keithon’s parents looking at me from across the room.

  “It’s okay, Renee!” Shondra told me.

  Mr. Johnson ended his argument by saying, “He was harboring a fugitive. He committed the crime, and he should do the time.”

  When it was time for Ms. Archer’s argument, she stood in front of the jury with confidence. “Okay, there was a warrant out for Ms. Turner, but Mr. James didn’t know that most of the time he was with her. He has no history of committing any crimes, and if you’ve ever been in love b
efore, you know that you would do anything to be with that person. So when you make your decision, keep this in mind and imagine yourself in his shoes. He’s not a bad person. He didn’t kill anyone or hurt anyone. All he did was fall in love, and he did not know that she was a runaway until after the fact,” Brenda Archer told the jury.

  * * *

  After about thirty minutes of deliberation, the jury came back out and sat down. A black man in his mid-forties stood up with a paper in his hand. The room was completely silent to the point where you could not hear a person take a breath. I looked around and saw my dad, Keithon’s parents, and Ms. Taylor, and I could see a bunch of strangers’ faces, so I stopped searching the crowd. I was so nervous I could hear my own heartbeat.

  “In the case of Ohio v. Keithon James, we find the defendant, Keithon James, guilty of an unlawful act,” the guy from the jury said.

  My heart dropped. I looked at Keithon and could see tears rolling down his face. His eyes were red and watery.

  The judge started to speak. “Keithon James, I considered your clean record and that you are obviously not a terrible person, but I have to punish you for what you did, which was harboring a fugitive. You broke the law, and you are an officer, which kind of makes it even worse. I sentence you to ten years in prison, and you cannot see Ms. Turner even when you get out. Case closed.”

  I ran over to Keithon so fast. I kissed him and hugged him as tight as I could. “I love you, and I will always love you,” I whispered in his ear.

  My heart was broken. I felt the same amount of pain as the day my mom died. A cop came over and tried to grab me off of Keithon, but we were holding on so tightly to each other it took another cop to help pull us apart.

  “Always,” Keithon said, yelling across the room to me as I got damn near dragged away.

  “Forever. Forever and a day,” I promised him as I sobbed like never before.

  Watching the officers handcuff Keithon hurt me so bad. I couldn’t take seeing this, let alone knowing that this was the last time I was able to see my beloved. I fell to my knees when I had the last glimpse of his back leaving the courtroom. Ms. Taylor and my father leaned down and hugged me. I could see his parents walking over to me as my dad and Ms. Taylor were hugging me. I let go of my dad and Ms. Taylor so I could figure out what the hell Keithon’s parents wanted. Hadn’t they done enough to cause our heartbreak?