XIV
Things started out like they usually did that day. DJ and I ate cereal for breakfast and rode our bikes around the neighborhood. We hung out at the park and over at some friends’ houses until it was time to go home. When we got home, it was time to take a bath and eat dinner. Momma was still cooking, so we sat on the couch in the living room and watched TV. We could hear the loud pipes of our dad’s motorcycle coming down the block. He pulled up, and the single bright headlight briefly shined through the window before going off. Our dad walked in, and the only thing he said was, “Where y’all’s momma at?”
Too scared to say anything, we both remained silent. He walked past us and went down the hall to his and Mom’s bedroom. Mom was putting Jaylen to sleep on the opposite side of the hallway, across from our room. About thirty minutes later, there was a loud bang and a series of doorbell rings followed, nonstop. DJ hopped off the couch to go see who was knocking on the door. But before his feet could hit the floor, Dad was in there. He told DJ to sit his a-- back down ’cause ain’t nobody knocking for him. DJ immediately jumped back on the couch with me.
As soon as Daddy unlocked the door, it swung open, hitting him in the face and knocking him to the floor. Several men came running in. They were dressed all in black and wore ski masks. All we could see was them waving their guns at us. One of them pulled DJ from the couch onto the floor where they were already pistol-whipping Daddy. They kept repeating, “N---a! You know what time it is. Give it up, n---a!” Two of them went to Jaylen’s room. They dragged Momma out by her hair to the living room where we were. By this time, my dad was barely recognizable because he had been beaten up so badly.
Seeing them handle Momma so roughly wasn’t that shocking to DJ and me. We’d seen our dad do worse things than that to her. This time was different, though, because the circumstances were different. These were strangers whose identities were concealed underneath their ski masks. Daddy knew who one of them was, because I heard him saying, “Fresh! This is where I lay my head, n---@! You gon’ do me in front of my family?”
The guy started hitting my dad with the handle of his gun. He gave my dad a lick for every word. “Didn’t—I—say—shut—the—f--k—up—n---a?”
After doing their sweep of our house, I was surprised that they didn’t take Jay from his crib. Beating Daddy didn’t seem to be getting them anywhere, so they decided to raise the stakes. One of them went outside and came back in with a gas can. They poured gasoline in a circle around us and said, “Give it up, n---a! We ain’t playin’ around no more.”
My mom said, “Why are y’all doing this? These are our kids, and they have nothing to do with what he got going on.”
The guy who I guess was in charge said, “B--ch! Who you think you talking to?” He grabbed her by the throat and walked her back down the hallway into her and Dad’s bedroom. I could hear Momma pleading for her life, and ours too. This coldhearted n---a wasn’t hearing none of that. Mom said, “Please, I’m so sorry. I got kids, and they’re gonna need me.”
The guy yelled, “Shut up, b--ch!”
I heard a loud thud, and things got quiet in her room for some time. Then the guy opened the door and called one of the other dudes for help. Together they dragged my mom into the living room where we were. Without a second thought, they dropped her face-first onto the floor in front of us.
Thinking she was dead, I completely lost it. I jumped off the couch, crying, “Momma! Momma . . . you OK, Momma?”
I overheard the guy telling my dad, “I done f--ked over yo’ b--ch.” He pulled a quarter from his pockets and said he was going to flip it. He wanted to act out some sort of twisted game of roulette in a very foul way. He said, “If this quarter lands on tails, I’m gone shoot you in the a--, n---a! If it lands on heads, I’m gon’ blow yo’ f--kin’ head off!”
The quarter must have landed on tails, because he shot my dad point blank in the leg. My ears were ringing and hurting so badly. Jay had to have been scared by the blast too, because by now he was crying. The guy told my dad, “This is my last time telling you to give it up, n---a! I’m about to f--k over these little f--kers next.”
Daddy stared at us for a few seconds and, with tears in his eyes, said he was sorry and that he loved us.
For long as I’d been alive, I’d never heard him say anything like that to us. He looked at the guys and said, “All right, man. I ain’t gon’ let you kill me in front of my kids. Take me to my spot, n---a, and you can have that sh-t.”
Two of them picked Momma up, and Daddy said, “She ain’t going with us.”
The guy in charge said, “What the f--k do I look like? I’m stupid or something? She definitely gots to go with us.”
They walked me and DJ to the bedroom, and the dude told us if we were smart, we’d stay our little a--es in that room. Two more shots rang out, and we heard the door slam and the burn of car tires.
All this time, Jaylen had been crying his little lungs out, and all we could do was sit in silence. We stayed put in that room for at least two hours, and Jaylen cried the whole time. Then DJ went in the other room and got him and brought him back into the room where we were. He said, “Come on, let’s go.” But I was too scared to move. That’s when he yelled at me: “Ain’t nobody in there anymore. They’re all gone. Come on, Brandon!”
I got up, and we left quickly. We stayed at the end of a dead-end street. Our house was deep in the cut, so there was very little light around it. Our aunt and uncle stayed a few blocks over, but it didn’t seem like it that night. Every time we saw headlights or vehicles approaching, we’d run and hide, thinking it was the robbers coming back to kill us. We finally made it to our aunt’s house, and she must’ve called every agency of law enforcement there was. That pretty much led to her getting custody of Jaylen.”
Eventually they caught the robbers and charged them with capital murder for the death of our parents. The cold part of it all is that the courts couldn’t convict them of capital murder because my parents’ bodies were never found.
…
“I’m stuck with the memories, and I can’t get rid of them no matter how hard I try,” says Brandon. “Honestly, Mr. White, I get what happened to my dad because of the lifestyle he lived. What I’ll never understand or accept is why my momma had to get caught up in his sh-t, man. Every time I think about what happened to her, I get so mad at God just thinking about it. If he loved us so much, like the preachers say that he do, why would he let something like this happen to someone who was as sweet as my momma? The police stopped searching for their bodies, and no one knows nothing or seems to care, so I stopped caring. I stopped caring about God, my family, or myself . . . I stopped caring about life.”
After Brandon speaks those words, things get very quiet in the hospital room. They both stare at other objects in the room, but what they have just talked about dominates their thoughts. It really does a number on Donnell and gives him a totally different perspective of Brandon. He feels useless to help Brandon cope with the loss of his parents. His heart is torn for this kid who has gone through so much.
Over the next few weeks, things begin to change in unbelievable ways in both of their lives. Brandon allows Donnell to help him regain his interest in education. What is even more shocking is that Brandon slowly begins scaling back on using profanity.
On the other hand, Mr. White scores a few victories of his own. He and Ms. Oukinuwin begin dating, and together they form the Boys Will Be Boys Foundation, a nonprofit organization that mentors and assists at-risk youths who are re-entering society upon being released from incarceration. The number of participants grows from a faithful few to over fifty youths in less than ninety days. However, the sudden increase of teenagers enrolling in the program doesn’t affect Donnell’s commitment to Ohallowbee or to Brandon. He continues mentoring at Ohallowbee and remains committed to supporting Brandon with education and physical therapy while he is in recovery.