WESLEY
I was sitting up in my hospital bed being spoon-fed what had to be the nastiest-tasting soup in the world for breakfast. Grandmother Lorraine was making sure that I ate every drop.
“Come on now, Wesley, stop making this harder than it has to be. How am I supposed to nurse you back to good health if you won’t eat?”
“This stuff is horrible,” I complained as I slowly swallowed down another spoonful. “What else is there to eat?” I scanned the food tray for something that would perhaps taste better.
“Wesley, you will not eat anything else until you finish this soup!” my grandmother insisted. I smashed the back of my head against my pillow and groaned. Grandmother Lorraine gave me an evil glare, which meant she wasn’t playing around with me about eating. I reluctantly gave in to her will and ate the soup.
“Is that stuff any good?” my mother asked as she entered the room with my dad trailing behind her. She was wearing a citrus-yellow dress and red patent-leather high-heeled shoes. Her freshly dyed black hair was pulled back in a tight bun.
“No,” I answered immediately.
“I didn’t think it was because it doesn’t smell good at all.”
“At least it smells better than alcohol,” Grandmother Lorraine muttered as she moved the bed tray away.
“Whatever!” said my mother as she gave my grandmother a nasty look.
“I’m ready to get out of this place,” I whined.
“I know you are.” My mother paused. “Wesley, your father and I were talking and I feel that you’d be better off living with me.”
“Better off living with you?” Grandmother Lorraine snapped. “I don’t think so.”
“He’s not your son. He’s mine,” my mother shouted.
“Hey, there is no need to get nasty with each other,” my father said, bringing about some order to the tension between them. “Wesley, your mom feels strongly about you going to live with her and I feel that you should stay with me.”
“Hold up,” I said because I didn’t want this conversation to continue. “Mom, I don’t want to stay with you. I want to be with Dad.”
“But he’s not taking good care of you. For God’s sake, Wesley, you’ve been shot,” my mother griped.
“And he ended up in jail when he was with you. So what’s your point?” Grandmother Lorraine just couldn’t stay out of the argument.
“Dad, seriously, I’d rather stay with you,” I stated once again.
“Then that settles it.” My father turned to my mother, who wasn’t at all happy with my decision.
“He’s going to get you killed,” my mother said angrily as she turned to leave.
“She didn’t mean that, Wesley.” Dad tried to clean up her comment.
“Yes, she did,” I said without empathy. I’d turned off my feelings for my mother a long time ago and I certainly wasn’t about to turn them back on now. There was a knock at the door and I turned my head and saw two uniformed police officers enter.
“Hello, everyone, I hope you remember us. I’m Officer Davis and this is my partner, Officer Miles.” Both men approached my bedside.
“How are you feeling, partner?” Officer Davis asked. My pulse inexplicably quickened. The monitor tracking my heart rate began to beep.
“Relax, Wesley. We’re only here to ask you some questions about the shooting,” Officer Davis explained, but I still didn’t feel at ease.
“Can’t you do this some other time?” Grandmother Lorraine asked.
“No, ma’am. We really need to talk to him,” Officer Davis stated adamantly. “We have a pretty heavy caseload and we have to turn in a report on this case.”
“Wesley—” Officer Davis pulled out an ink pen and notepad “—in your own words, tell me what happened.” I was silent for a brief period as I tried to reconstruct everything that had taken place.
“I don’t know,” I said as I turned my head and glanced out of the window. “I got shot.”
“We know that much,” said Officer Davis. “What we need to know is who shot you and why?”
“I don’t want to say,” I answered.
“Wesley, tell the man who shot you.” Dad took my hand into his own. “It’s okay.”
“I don’t want to be a snitch,” I explained.
“Are you involved in a gang?” asked Officer Davis.
“No, my son isn’t involved with gangs,” my dad spoke up for me.
“Sir, I need to hear it from Wesley,” Officer Davis said firmly. “Wesley, are you involved with any gang?” he asked once again.
“It all depends on what you consider to be involved,” I answered.
“Wesley! I know you haven’t run off and joined a gang since you’ve been here!” Dad shouted at me.
“Sir, please, allow him speak,” Officer Davis insisted.
“No, Dad, I haven’t done anything like that,” I answered.
“Are you sure?” Officer Davis pressed the issue.
“I’m positive,” I answered, then closed my eyes tightly as images of the incident began to flash in my mind.
“Have you had any altercations with gang members?” asked Officer Davis.
“I’ve gotten into a few fights,” I answered, feeling as if I was under an enormous amount of pressure.
“Okay. Can you give some details?”
“About which fight? I’ve had a few of them.”
“Why don’t you start from the beginning, so I have the full picture?” He stood poised and ready to take down notes.
“You’d better pull up a chair,” I suggested. Officer Davis and Officer Miles did just that. My dad leaned against the wall and Grandmother Lorraine sat down on the empty patient bed. I took a few deep breaths.
“I didn’t want to get involved with Lori and her boyfriend,” I said.
“So are you involved in some type of romantic love triangle?” asked Officer Davis.
“I don’t know. At least I don’t think I am. I mean, Lori and I have sort of a love-hate relationship. She’s a bossy girl, but once you get around her defenses, she’s really nice,” I explained.
“So, the shooting is over a girl named Lori?” Officer Davis wanted to be sure he was getting all of the facts correct.
“Yeah, man, it’s all over a girl.” I paused and then explained how I’d come to Lori’s rescue one afternoon when her boyfriend was beating her up.
“So after the fight, what happened next? Did her boyfriend try to get even with you?” Officer Davis began scribbling on his notepad.
“After the fight I walked Lori to her front gate. Percy had hit her so hard that her right eye had begun to swell shut. I wanted to call the paramedics, but she insisted she was fine and didn’t need any help. She pleaded with me to keep my mouth shut about the entire incident. I thought it was kind of strange, but I let it go because I just didn’t feel it was any of my business and I didn’t want to get involved any more than I already had. Lori went inside and I came home and chilled out. I have to admit that I was nervous about retaliation, but when I didn’t see Percy for an entire week I took it as a sign that he wasn’t coming after me. Then two weeks later, I ran in to Percy and his crew on the school bus. I don’t even know why he was on my school bus. He just showed up. I didn’t want any trouble with them, so I avoided him and his crew and sat down in my usual seat.” My mind wandered back to the images of that day.
“You’re sitting in my seat!” Percy had come up to me, clearly wanting to throw down.
“I don’t see your name written on this seat,” I said, unafraid, as I glanced up at his broken nose.
“Who you rollin’ with?” he asked, but I didn’t respond. “I knew you were with somebody that day when I first ran in to you at the grocery store. Do you remember what I told you? I said if I found out you were in any other gang I was going to put you six feet under.”
“I told you then and I’m telling you now—I represent God.”
“Church boys don’t know how to break a man’s nose, only gangbangers do. You know this is ass-whipping day, don’t you?” he said through clenched teeth.
The next thing I knew, it quickly turned into a brawl and I was defending myself against Percy and two of his friends. When all was said and done I had a cut over my left eye and a split lip. During the scuffle I ended up issuing a black eye and knocking out Percy’s incisor tooth. Since Percy and his boys started the fight, they got suspended.
My dad was now standing with his hands on his hips. His brow was wrinkled and his mouth was set in a grim line. “Wesley, you told me that you got hit with a ball during gym class. You said that’s how you got the cut over your eye and the split lip.” My dad was clearly upset about the lie I’d told.
“I didn’t want you to worry about me. You had enough to deal with. I didn’t want to dump something like this on you,” I explained.
“Wesley, you should’ve come to me. We could’ve notified the school about it.” My dad continued to fuss at me.
“I’m sorry, okay?” I stopped talking because my throat was dry. “Can I have some water please?” Grandmother Lorraine quickly got up and filled up a white foam cup with water and handed it to me. I lifted my head off the pillow and took a few gulps before relaxing once again.
“Go on. What happened next?” Officer Davis asked.
“Nothing happened after that. Percy and his goons were suspended. I didn’t see them anymore and that was perfectly fine with me.”
“What about the girl? When did you see her again?”
“She’d heard about the fight so she dropped by to see how I was doing. I wasn’t really hurt, but she felt guilty about asking for my help and everything that happened afterward. She said she wanted to thank me for helping her get away from Percy. I told her it was no big deal and she didn’t have to repay me, but she insisted. She wanted to take me out for pizza. I was in an awkward position. I really wanted to say no, but the pleading look in her eyes made me say yes.”
“So you went on a date with her?”
“I really wouldn’t call it a date. We just went to a nearby pizza parlor. We actually had a pretty decent time. I learned a lot about her. I learned who she truly was and all the difficult times she was going through.”
“Stuff like what?” Officer Davis asked, digging for more information.
“Family drama. She told me her grandmother had been physically abused by her grandfather for years. Miss Winston never left her husband. She stayed in the marriage and dealt with the punishment. Lori’s mother grew up watching all of the abuse and felt that a man didn’t truly love a woman unless he beat on her. Lori’s father never raised a hand to her or her mother, which her mom took as a sign that there was no love in their marriage. Her mom ended up having an affair with a physically abusive man. Eventually her mother’s lover confronted Lori’s dad and things got messy. After a nasty divorce, Lori and her mother moved in with her grandmother, Miss Winston.”
“So Lori and Miss Winston think it’s okay for a man to beat up on them?” Grandmother Lorraine muttered. She was without a doubt awestruck by the discovery of this news.
“Grandma, I told Lori she didn’t have to follow in her mother’s or grandmother’s footsteps. I told her it wasn’t cool to stay with a dude who beats up on women. Lori then said that ever since she was a little girl, whenever a little boy hit her, her mom told her it was okay because that’s the way little boys show their affection.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” my father uttered as if that was the oddest thing he’d ever heard.
“So you got to know Lori over a few slices of pizza. What happened after that?” Officer Miles had asked a question for the first time. I took a deep breath and continued.
“Well, while Lori and I were eating pizza, talking and laughing, Percy and his crew walked in. When he saw us he walked over to our table. Percy had nothing but hate in his heart for me and accused me of screwing around with her behind his back. I told him it wasn’t like that, but Lori set Percy off by suggesting that she and I were hooked up.”
“Why would she say such a thing?” my dad asked.
“I don’t know. I think she just wanted to get even with him.” I shrugged. “Percy then lifted his shirt and exposed the handle of a gun.” I paused and buried my face in my hands. I was having a horrible flashback.
“Wesley, are you okay?” Dad asked.
“I hate him!” I said angrily. “I can’t believe this happened to me.”
“Wesley, I can appreciate how difficult it is to talk about this. But I really need you to finish telling me what happened.”
“I’m not sure what happened. I keep getting flashes of images from the shooting,” I explained.
“Here, drink some more water. Take a few deep breaths and try to relax.” Officer Davis grabbed the water pitcher and refilled my cup. The cold water helped to calm my nerves, and a few minutes passed before I began talking again.
“Percy said that he was going to shoot both of us. I tried to reason with him, but it was no use. Percy cocked the hammer back and I saw the belly of the gun rotate but just then a police officer walked in. Percy backed off and left.”
“Why didn’t you or Lori report him to the officer who’d walked in?” asked Officer Miles.
“I don’t know. Neither one of us were thinking about reporting anything. I just wanted to go home and so did she. Once we were certain Percy and his goons were gone, we left. During the walk home, Lori once again apologized for getting me involved in such a mess. She also explained that Percy was not only crazy, but he was also a well-known gang member. If Percy says he’s going to shoot you, he means it. Lori made that very clear. I tried not to be afraid of him, but deep down inside I knew we would meet again, and it wasn’t going to end peacefully. During our walk back home, Lori looped her arm through my own and held on to me. She admitted how frightened she had become of Percy. She said that he’d hit her before, but he always made her feel as if she had it coming because of her bossy ways. I just listened as she talked. When she didn’t feel like sharing any more details she rested her head against my shoulder. Once we arrived at her gate, she kissed me. That was the last thing I’d expected from Lori. I embraced her and tried to reassure her everything was going to work out. Then, I heard the sound of a car door slam. I turned around and saw Percy walking toward us wearing a black bandanna that covered his nose and face. I shielded Lori with my body just before Percy pulled out his gun and fired multiple rounds. I don’t remember what happened after that.”
“Was there anyone else with Percy?” Officer Davis asked as he continued to take notes.
“I don’t know,” I answered.
“Will you testify in court?” He put away his pen and pad.
“Of course he will. I’m sure Lori’s family will testify as well,” Dad said.
“I wouldn’t count on that. Ms. Lori Brown and her mother are fearful of retaliation and have refused to help us in our investigation,” Officer Davis explained.
“You’re kidding, right?” I asked.
“I wish I was…. The state prosecutor will look at our report and determine whether or not to press charges. In the meantime, I’ll go back to the station and have a warrant issued for the arrest of Percy Jones. We’ll bring him in for questioning and go from there. If you can convince Ms. Brown to testify, it would help a great deal. Get well soon.” Officer Davis rose to his feet and exited the room with Officer Miles trailing behind him.