by Jessie Cooke
“Yeah, okay,” Chopper said. “Maybe it was your whore of a mother that made you this way then. You know what? I don’t really care. I’m bored with all of this.”
Chopper pulled the gun out of his waistband and pressed it into the back of Walton’s head. He looked at Chuck. The bodyguard had tears rolling down his face and piss staining the front of his pants. Chopper shook his head in disgust and then looking over at Dax he said, “You can have them take this one.” Then he leaned in close to Walton’s ear and said, “She did not deserve what you did to her and if I had heard even a modicum of remorse from you today, I might have thought that you didn’t deserve to die, but even on your deathbed you’re an arrogant son of a bitch. Even knowing you’ll be burning in hell by the end of the day, you still have that smug, self-righteous look on your face. But I want you to think about this, pastor…when you’re gone, if you are remembered, you will be remembered for what you did to that beautiful girl. You will be remembered as a dirty, disgusting old man. They won’t remember one sermon you gave. They won’t remember one campaign promise that you may have meant to keep. They will remember that you were a filthy pervert.” For the first time, the smug bastard cringed and seemed to realize this was it for him. He wasn’t going to get out of this place alive.
Dax nodded. He went over to the door and called Garrett and Jigsaw inside. He talked with them quietly by the door and then they went over and began to unhook Chuck from his restraints. Chuck was gagging and choking on his own phlegm as he sobbed, and the pastor had the gall to demand to know where he was being taken, even with Chopper’s gun pointed at his head. Everyone ignored him and when the two big bikers carried Chuck out of the warehouse, Dax went with them and closed the door. Chopper pulled the gun away from the pastor’s temple and stood upright. As soon as he did, Walton said, “I knew you didn’t have to balls to do it. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it already.”
Chopper didn’t say anything. He had already said everything he needed to say. He walked over to where the toolbox was and pushed it back about four feet. He held his breath, knowing that the stench was about to be overwhelming. He leaned down and grabbed the handle on the wooden door and pulled it up. It fell open with a loud slam and Chopper was immediately assaulted with the smells. He was glad he hadn’t had breakfast or lunch.
“What the hell is that?” The pastor yelled, gagging on the odor. Chopper still didn’t answer him. He went over to him again and took out his knife. Walton’s eyes widened when he saw it and he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when Chopper cut his restraints and not him. Chopper realized that part of this son of a bitch still believed he was getting out of there alive.
Once he was free of the restraints, Chopper grabbed hold of the back of his neck and forced him to stand. He propelled him over to the edge of the dark hole in the floor and that was when the true horror set in for the pastor. “No!” He kicked and screamed but Chopper held on tightly as he was yelling, “Shoot me in the head! Beat me to death, I don’t care! I’ll take it. I’ll meet my maker and face the consequences for my sins. Don’t put me in there…it smells like…” He stopped and for the first time all day Chopper smiled.
“It smells like death…because that’s what hell smells like, pastor. Welcome to hell. I hope you enjoy your time down there with the other souls that have gone before you. You’re a pretty healthy guy, so I’d estimate you have at least a good three to four days to think about what you could have done differently before you pass on and get to find out if heaven and hell really do exist.” The sounds of his screams and his begging didn’t penetrate Chopper’s ears as he pushed with his foot and watched Bartholomew Walton, pastor, family man, evangelist, and congressman disappear into the depths of “hell.”
The Southside Skulls version of it anyway. He hurried to slam the lid shut again to block out both the sounds and the smells, and then he rolled the heavy toolbox back over the opening. Walton’s voice could be heard, faintly, but it wouldn’t last long. Chopper went to the closet in the corner and he cleaned up the rest of the room, lastly stacking the chairs back in the corner and kicking hay over the rings in the floor. When he was satisfied that it was all neat and tidy, he went out into the bright fall sun, and got on his old bike that he had decided to ride for a while, because there was something else he wanted to customize first, and he pointed the bike in the direction of his future.
32
Chelsea’s dad took her hand as they walked up the steps to the courthouse. It was quiet in the city this morning. All the action seemed to be down by the docks where they had found the body of the new congressman’s bodyguard, the empty safe that had been stolen from the church, and the fact that the yacht belonging to Bart Walton was missing. Chelsea caught a brief of that on the news as she was dressing for court that morning. She’d smiled and turned off the television and then she had sent several text messages, asking for help.
Her mother had gone ahead with Reed. Chelsea spent the night with them the night before and she and Reed had played with his Legos and his cars. They’d ridden the horses and had a picnic lunch. And then when the sun went down, they made s’mores in the fireplace and she read him a bedtime story. She was finally able to imagine what a “normal” life would be like with her son and Chopper, and she wasn’t willing to let go of that dream. She planned on winning today and making it all a reality.
When they got to the door of the courthouse she saw the people that went with the Harleys they had passed outside…most of them, anyway. Her dad smiled at them and shook a few hands and then he kissed Chelsea on the cheek and went inside. Chelsea turned to Dax and Angel then and said, “Thank you for coming.”
Angel put a hand on her arm and said, “You’re family now. You call, we come.” Angel held out her hand in the direction of the pretty little red-haired girl who was playing with the two little boys. Susie took her mother’s hand, smiled up at Chelsea, and followed her mama and daddy into the courtroom. Cody put his arm around Harley, winked at Chelsea and said:
“Come on, boy.” Little Ian jumped up and followed his parents inside. Lastly, Zack reached down and scooped up his little boy, put his arm around his old lady, and stopped to give Chelsea a kiss on the cheek.
“Everything’s going to work out,” he said with his trademark grin. Chelsea smiled back.
“Thank you. I believe that…finally.” She looked toward the front door anxiously as Zack and his family went inside. Chopper wasn’t here. She looked at her phone; they were about to be late. His bike was what she’d looked for first outside, but it hadn’t been there. With a worried sigh and butterflies going crazy in her stomach she stepped through the doors, and suddenly her world was complete. Chopper was already inside. He was dressed in a dark polo shirt, a brand-new pair of jeans and boots, and he’d gotten a haircut. Chelsea would have said that he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, if not for who he was holding in his arms. Reed, dressed in the little suit and tie her mother had bought him, was bouncing up and down on Chopper’s lap. There was an older lady sitting behind them reaching forward and pretending to tickle him, and the man that sat next to her, with a big smile on his handsome face, looked like an older version of the man she loved. Chelsea had never met Chopper’s parents, and yet here they were, supporting her, making her feel like family.
Chelsea could scarcely breathe as she approached them. She barely noticed her sister and her family sitting on the other side of the courthouse. She was too busy focusing on her own family and keeping her own future in sight. Chopper handed Reed to her and she bent down and kissed him on the cheek. “Mom, Dad…this is Chelsea.” Chopper’s dad stood up and took her hand, bringing it to his lips and giving it a soft kiss. His mother smiled and grabbed her hand when her father dropped it and said:
“I can feel your energy is lovely! It’s all positive.”
Chelsea smiled. “Thank you. I can’t even express how happy, amazed, and honored I am that you’re here.”
> “Family, club…everything else,” Chopper’s dad told her with a wink. Chelsea looked at her own mother, who smiled at her, but her eyes looked sad. She glanced behind Chelsea and she knew her mother’s heart was breaking over her own family being split apart. Chelsea kissed Reed and handed him back to Chopper.
“I’ll be right back,” she told him. They had about two minutes before the judge entered the room. The attorneys were already in their spots and the battle for a little boy who needed every one of them was about to begin. Chelsea stopped next to her brother-in-law who sat in the aisle seat, stone-faced. He looked up at her and she smiled and said, “Hi, Rick.”
“Chelsea.”
“Hey, Matt, Sarah.” Her niece and nephew both smiled at her but glanced nervously at their mother, who was still staring straight ahead. Chelsea went to the row in front of them and sat down in the fourth chair, the one directly in front of her sister. “Celia, I want you to know that I forgive you.”
Her sister gasped. “You forgive me?”
“Yes. I’m sorry for everything I did to our family, truly. I will work the rest of my life to make that right if I have to. I will work the rest of my life to keep this family together. Look at your babies, Celia, and tell me that you wouldn’t have fought tooth and nail if anyone had ever tried to take them from you. They needed you. They still do. Right, guys?” Matt and Sarah nodded. Sarah had tears in her eyes and Celia looked like she was fighting her own. “That’s all I’m doing here. I’m not fighting against you. I’m fighting for my family. I have been clean and sober now longer than I ever have in my adult life. I like it. I feel healthy and clearheaded. I feel like I can finally make plans for my future. But I will stand up in front of this judge and tell him that I am in no way perfect. Like all of these other parents that showed up here today, I have serious flaws. I will always have to fight the urge to use, to have a drink, to escape reality. But we all have our addictions, Celia, every one of us. What some of us lack is support. I gave up the support of my family once and that’s when I got lost. I intend to never do that again.
“Starting from this day forward I am going to lean on my family. I’m going to learn from the parents who have already struggled to learn things and I’m going to make mistakes, just like you did, Celia, just like all of these other parents did. But I promise you one thing I will never do, and that’s stop fighting for that little boy over there. He’s my heart and soul and I know you understand that.” Chelsea stood up then, just as the judge came into the room and the bailiff called for them to all rise. She waited for the judge to be seated and then she went over and took her seat next to her attorney. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Celia headed for her table, and she was surprised when he sister stopped at the podium in the center where the microphone was and said:
“Your honor, may I address the court?”
The judge raised a bushy eyebrow and looked at Chelsea and her attorney. “Any objections to this unusual request?” It was a family law hearing, nothing formal. The DCF officer was there and she stood up and said:
“None here, your honor.” Chelsea’s attorney looked at her and Chelsea nodded.
“None here, either.”
Celia adjusted the microphone and in a nervous, shaky voice she said, “A long time ago I was lonely, and I prayed for God to send me a little sister. It took him a while, but he finally did. By the time she was born I was so much older that I honestly had maternal feelings toward her. I took the best care of her. I loved her so much. Then one day she grew up, and she didn’t need me any longer, but that was okay because by that time I had babies of my own. I dedicated my life to them and when I realized I was losing them too, I had a little breakdown.”
“Celia…” Rick said. She turned and looked at her husband and smiled.
“It’s okay. I need to do this.
“I have suffered from depression and anxiety most of my adult life. I was ashamed, and I didn’t want anyone to know. So, to the outside world, thanks to my husband’s support and my amazing children, I looked like superwoman. But behind closed doors I was taking pills to wake up and pills to go to sleep and pills for my moods in between. It was horrible for all of us and it almost tore my family apart. But one day I woke up and realized I was losing them all and I decided to clean myself up, in private again, of course. And just to prove that I wasn’t an addict like my little sister, I decided to take her baby away from her. Your honor, I’d like to apologize for wasting the court’s time on this case, and to you as well,” she told the DCF representative. “I don’t deserve my sister’s baby. I am no better than she is. We’re both human and if she’ll let me, I’d love to be the best aunt to Reed that I can be. I’d love to help her, and I’d love it if she could help me as well.”
Chelsea got up and went to her sister and the two women hugged. The gallery erupted into claps and whistles and Chelsea couldn’t help but laugh when she saw the exasperated look on the judge’s face… Only on the Southside. He banged his gavel, and when he had order in the court, he looked at the DCF agent and said, “I’m leaving this one in your hands. Case dismissed.” He stood up then and the bailiff called for “all rise.” Something wonderful had happened there that day. Chelsea was confused about whether or not she had actual custody of Reed, but she left the courthouse with a much bigger, closer family than she’d gone into it with. The pending call from Child and Family Services would just be the icing on the cake she was already holding.
Chopper stood next to Chelsea while she thanked each person for coming again, individually. He slipped his arm around her as each one said goodbye and he watched his brothers, and sisters, and their children leave. Chelsea’s sister came up to them next and he let go of Chelsea so that the women could hug again. While Chelsea was hugging her brother-in-law, and her niece and nephew, Chopper was shocked when Celia put her arms around him. “Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For being here for her.”
Chopper chuckled. “I’m the one that needs to be thankful. I’m so lucky to have her.” Celia hugged him again and said:
“Take good care of her, and Reed, okay?”
Chopper nodded and said, “You bet, but she needs all of her family, so don’t forget that, okay?”
Celia wiped a tear off her face and nodded. After hugging her sister again, she left with her own little family, and that was when Chelsea’s parents stepped up with Reed. Her mother put him in Chelsea’s arms and said, “I spoke to Angela.” That was the DCF agent that had been in the courtroom. She was in charge of Reed’s custody case. “She said that she will file the paperwork to terminate our temporary custody and reinstate yours first thing in the morning. It will take a few months to be legal and binding, but in the meantime, Reed can stay with you, or you can stay with us…”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Mrs. Roberts,” Chopper said, “but can I make a suggestion?”
Chelsea’s mother smiled at him and said, “Of course you can, Justice.” She refused to call him Chopper, but that was okay with him; he liked that she called him the same thing his own mother did. It made him feel more like part of the family.
“Would you all mind following me this way?”
Chelsea’s mother looked at her and she shrugged, but the three of them, and Reed, followed Chopper toward the parking lot. As they got close to the cluster of bikes Chelsea said, “Oh! Did you finish your chopper?”
He reached out and grabbed her hand. “No, baby, that’s on hold for now…not off the burner, just on one of the back ones. There was something I thought was more urgent.” He led them toward a large, black motor home. When Chelsea saw the Skulls emblem painted on the side of it, she looked at him, curiously. He smiled and took them around to the door and tapped on it. It came open and she saw Tigger sitting in the driver’s seat. He grinned at her and said:
“Come on in.” Chelsea held Reed tightly and stepped up into the RV. Tigger reached back and moved the curtain between the driver’
s and passenger’s seat and the rest of the vehicle. Chelsea gasped out loud when she saw it. There was a little table, covered in a white lace tablecloth, and curtains in the window to match. There was a kitchenette with stainless steel appliances and a full-sized refrigerator. She kept moving through it and she came to a little bathroom that not only had a shower but a small bathtub as well. She stepped up a few carpeted steps and she was in a bedroom with what looked like a king-sized bed and a dresser, closet, and vanity.
“Chopper, oh my gosh, is this for us?”
“If you want it. See, I was thinking that it could be parked anywhere. We could park it on your parents’ ranch, or on the Skulls ranch, or in Utah, or Indiana, or New York…hell, even Alaska. My point is that we can be as mobile as we choose to be while still giving Reed a home and a family.”
Chelsea was beaming. “I love it.”
“You haven’t seen it all yet,” he said. He reached over and pressed a button. The side of the RV expanded slowly and when it was finally open Chelsea let out an actual cry. Chopper’d had a customized bedroom made and added on for Reed. The walls were blue and there was a little bed that came out of the wall and bookshelves full of books and a toy box. Reed squealed and wiggled out of his mother’s arms. He was obviously excited, and that made Chopper’s heart feel good. Chelsea let him go play, and she wrapped her arms around Chopper and pulled him in for a tight hug.
“I can’t believe you did all of this. I love it. I love you.”
He felt her dad’s hand on his shoulder and when Chelsea let go of him, her mother gave him a hug as well. “You’re a good kid,” she said. Chopper hugged her again, tighter. He was a good kid, but he was ready to be a good man. He was ready to be an old man, a husband, and a father. He was ready to realize that life wasn’t all about having fun and begin living his own words that it was all about balance. He was ready to shake off all the bad things that had happened lately and move on. He was ready to believe that karma and maybe even God had opened up a clear path for them and all they had to do now was drive.
