Chapter 16
Evie enrolled Jamie into a t-ball program at the park down the street from her house, and his first practice was today. Stacy new she was nervous about the whole ordeal, so he offered to go with her. He hadn’t seen them since dinner a week ago, and was anxious to spend more time with them.
Stacy knew that things were getting bigger and growing faster than he’d meant for them to, and there were times when the guilt ate away at him like some disease. But when he was around Evie, his contrition seemed to go away and somehow he felt removed from his shame. Sometimes it would return, however, when Jamie was around. He was the spitting image of James.
Yet, Stacy saw so much of his childhood self in him—full of crazy energy that just shot out everywhere when not channeled into something. For this, there was a commonality and Stacy couldn’t help but be drawn to the little boy.
He even took a liking to Evie’s mother. She was nice, warm and didn’t bombard him with a barrage of questions like Kelly’s mother always had. In the back of his mind, despite his affections for Evie and her family, he knew that this little scenario he’d created for himself was not going to end well. There was only one way this thing could play out, and it wasn’t good.
As Stacy headed out of the door, he noticed an unfamiliar car parked in the driveway behind his. He stopped and looked, shading his eyes from the afternoon sun with his hand, but it was hard to see anything within the shadow of the car. It wasn’t until he saw his younger brother immerge from the vehicle that he froze. He knew his brother Greg was going to show up sooner or later. He’d called and told him to expect him within the next few months yet somehow Stacy was still unprepared for this reunion.
His brother walked towards him and stopped about ten feet away, blocking the walkway.
He hadn’t seen Greg in almost three years. Looking at the grown man only a year younger than himself, he saw little of the college kid that had skipped town years earlier and spontaneously joined the army out of spite.
They stood sizing each other up for a few moments, until Stacy finally greeted his brother.
“Greg.”
“Stacy.”
“Thanks for letting me know you were coming by today.” The comment came out a little more sarcastic than Stacy had meant it to.
However, his brother didn’t bat an eyelash.
“I’m on my way out,” Stacy continued, “so I can’t sort everything out with you right now.”
“That’s fine. I can wait. I’m in town for a while on leave. I’m staying with some friends.”
Stacy shrugged. “Great. I’ll see you maybe tomorrow then.” And with that, he brushed passed his brother and walked out to the curb towards his car.
He hadn’t intended to be so curt with his brother, but he couldn’t help but be a little angry that Greg hadn’t come to see their mother in the past three years and hadn’t even bothered to attend her funeral. No matter what problems Greg had with him, he should have been there for their mother and not simply emerge only when there was to be money collected.
By the time Stacy arrived at the park he was somewhat out of sorts. With everything going on in his life right now the last thing he needed to add to that list was his brother, but one could only be in a bad mood for so long while watching three year olds try and play t-ball. It wasn’t long before he’d totally forgotten about his brother and was cheering Jamie on, assuring Evie that the boy wasn’t too young to play sports and engaging Madeleine in conversation.
“Jamie’s a natural. Look at him, he hit the ball on his first try.” Stacy commented. He could see the worry lines etched on Evie’s face.
“He seems so much smaller than the other kids though.”
“Oh, baby, stop worrying; he’s fine. It’s baseball, not football,” Madeline said. “Anyway, Stacy you were saying your mom grew up in Kansas?”
“Yes, Kansas City. “
“And your father was a veteran?”
“He was in the air force during Vietnam.”
“Evie’s uncle was as well, although he was never in actual combat. Thank God for that.”
“My father wasn’t either.”
“Do you have any siblings?”
“Uh, a brother.” Stacy almost choked on the words.
“Are you two close?”
“Growing up we were. Not so much now. He’s been in the army for the last three years.”
“Good for him. Your mother must have been very proud of you two.”
“My brother is a year younger me.” Stacy said, for lack of anything else better to say about his brother.
“Mommy! Grandma!” Jamie shouted, rapidly climbing the bleachers towards them.
Stacy sighed in relief. Jamie’s interruption could not have come at a better time.
“Did you see me hit the ball? I hit it! I hit it! Mr. Stacy, did you see me? “
“Yeah, we saw you kiddo. You looked good out there.” Stacy grinned down at the boy and pat his shoulder affectionately.
“I like baseball. It’s so much fun. When can I play again?” Jamie exclaimed.
“Well, your next practice is Saturday,” Evie told her son as she hefted up the sweatpants that were slowly creeping down his narrow waist.
“Mr. Stacy, will you come to watch me again?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
“Grandma, will you?”
“Oh, baby, next weekend I can’t. I’ll be out of town.”
Evie’s head shot up. “What’s next weekend?”
Stacy watched her carefully. He could see the anxiety beginning to creep up on her face. He could only guess it was at the prospect of her mother leaving.
“I told you last week I’m going up to Laughlin for the weekend with Mrs. Headley and her sister.”
Stacy almost smiled to himself the way Evie’s face scrunched up at the mention of her neighbor’s name.
“How long are you going to be gone for?”
“We’re leaving Friday night and should be back Sunday morning. But, I won’t make it back in time for church.”
Evie breathed heavily.
“All right.”
“You’ll be fine.” Madeleine assured her daughter.
“I guess so.”
Evie rose from off of the bench. “Okay Jamie, let’s get you home and wash that one inch thick layer of dirt off of you.”
As they walked out to the parking lot, Stacy gently pulled Evie back and motioned for her to let Madeleine walk ahead of them with Jamie.
“What has you so worried about next weekend?” he asked quietly.
“It’s nothing,” she waved him off, and then seemed to think better of it.
“It’s just that whenever my mom’s out of town it gets a little hectic by myself. No big deal though. I’ll be fine.”
She forced a smile, but Stacy noticed that it lacked honesty.
“I’m off duty next weekend. If you need anything, just let me know. I can help you out with Jamie.” Stacy offered.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get the reaction he thought he would. A look passed over her face so quickly that he had trouble figuring out exactly what it meant. It seemed like relief at first, then something else. Maybe it was concern, or perhaps it was fear?
“Okay,” she finally said.
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To his dismay, Greg showed up the following morning at six o’clock. Stacy barely had time to roll out of bed before he heard the doorbell ring. He quickly pulled a pair of basketball shorts on over his boxers and furiously ran his hands though his hair before making his way to the living room.
When he peeked through the blinds and saw his brother on the porch he felt like putting his fist through the wall. He slung open the front door, but before he could say anything Greg pushed passed him and entered the house.
“Seriously, Greg? It’s six o’clock in the morning!”
“Since you c
ouldn’t find the time to deal with me yesterday I’m here now.” Greg said coldly.
He was standing in the middle of the living room feet spread apart and hands clasped behind his back. Even though he wore a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, he practically oozed army.
“Okay, what do you want, Greg? You want your money? Is that it? Fine.” Stacy stormed to his bedroom where he kept all of his mother’s papers in his desk. He took out the cashier’s check that he had made out to his brother a few weeks ago. All of his mother’s assets had been split right down the middle, with half going to him and half to his brother. He walked back into the living room and thrust the check at him.
“Here is your half. Everything was divided down the middle.”
Greg took the check almost reluctantly.
“She’s buried at Rose Hills Cemetery.”
A flicker of emotion passed over his brother’s face as headed back towards the door. As he was reaching for the handle he turned and looked at Stacy.
“You’re real messed up big brother.”
“I’m messed up?!” Stacy exploded. “We haven’t heard from you in three years. While your own mother was dying on that bed in my back room you didn’t bother to come see her. And I’m messed up? You’re so twisted you couldn’t even get over your own hate for me for her sake.”
“You killed a man!” Greg shouted back. The force of hearing his brother say those words hit him so hard he almost stumbled backwards. “How could I stand to be near you when that was the type of person you’d become. You were my big brother and I looked up to you.”
“I was wrong. The situation was wrong. I never meant to hurt that man.”
“Yet you did, and got away with it.”
“I didn’t get away with anything,” Stacy muttered. In fact, he was reminded of his mistake every time he was around Evie and her son.
“You ruined my life.”
Stacy found this comment highly amusing.
“I ruined your life? How? Because you’re silly little girlfriend decided to take things to the next level?”
“You killed a black man in cold blood. What was she supposed to think or do for that matter?”
“Believe me!”
“You’re a white cop! Why would she believe you?”
“Because you were my brother and she knew me! You should have made her understand.”
“How could I make her understand when I didn’t?”
Stacy was starting to get a headache from all of the yelling. He was in no mood to rehash the problems that Greg’s ex-girlfriend had caused after the incident.
“Just go, Greg. You’ve got your money. I’m sorry if you feel I ruined your only chance at happiness with Jasmine. See yourself out.”
Feeling resigned, Stacy left his brother in the living room and retreated to the bathroom where he found a bottle of aspirin and downed two five hundred milligram tablets. He didn’t leave the bathroom until he heard the front door shut, and then he went back to bed.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Three years later and his brother was still nursing a broken heart. It was not over the fact that Stacy took a man’s life, but that Jasmine, his brother’s girlfriend broke up with him because of it. The notion was ridiculous. The situation had been very precarious three years ago, and it seemed to end badly for everybody involved to some degree.
After James Tyrell’s death, there were only three people that knew the truth about the situation: his great uncle Chief Parker, who cleaned the whole mess up; his partner Timothy Walker; and his brother whom he mistakenly told. At that time, Greg was a senior at the University of California Los Angeles.
When he first told his brother about James Tyrell, Greg had his back and was very supportive. He seemed to understand that Stacy was a rookie cop and simply made a mistake. Knowing his career could be over, his great uncle, Chief Parker had taken it upon himself to save Stacy’s job by calling in some favors and cleaning up the entire mess. All charges were pinned on Timothy Walker, a man who was somewhat known for having underlining prejudices toward African Americans. Walker was the one thrown under the bus and after a temporary suspension, he’d been dismissed from the force and the Tyrell family was issued a formal apology and given a substantial sum of money for their losses. Meanwhile, Stacy was allowed to remain on the force and his involvement in the incident was swept under the rug.
Unfortunately, things got even messier when one drunken night Greg mistakenly told his girlfriend, at that time, about the whole situation. Greg’s then girlfriend, Jasmine King, was the editor of the university newspaper and just so happened to have an uncle who had previously suffered some type of cruelty at the hands of the LAPD --- and she had an axe to grind. Hoping to expose them all she wrote up an article on the incident naming Stacy as the second shooter and exposing his uncle as the one covering everything up.
When Stacy informed his uncle about what Jasmine was about to do, Chief Parker had his wife, who was an alumni of UCLA and good friends with the dean’s wife, convince the dean to have Jasmine removed from the university newspaper immediately. She then informed Jasmine herself that if she went anywhere else to print the article she would make sure that Jasmine would never be hired by a respectable newspaper, magazine, blog site, or anything of that nature for the rest of her life. In other words she would blacklist her. Jasmine, had complied to save her career, but at the cost of her relationship with his brother, something Greg couldn’t forgive him for.
Keys To Redemption Page 16
