by I D Johnson
They waved in the general direction of their friends as they passed by, Reggie included, and then headed back into town. Nancy was strangely quiet, and Elliott wasn’t sure if it was what had happened between them in the back seat that had her so reflective or if it was what they’d spied in the woods. But she had a firm grasp on his hand, and he felt that their lovemaking had certainly brought them closer together. In fact, he started to think he might need to be saving up for a ring.
Nancy’s house was on the other edge of town, so he had to drive all the way through Norman to reach it before heading back out to the farm, but he didn’t mind. She wasn’t even going to be late for her curfew. Boy, had he gotten lucky with Nancy Farr—both figurative and literally. Not only was she willing to put out, she sure was a sweet girl.
He pulled the Monterrey to a stop in front of Nancy’s house. “Would you like for me to walk you to the door?” he asked with a smile.
“No, that’s okay,” Nancy replied, turning to face him. “I told my folks Linda’s brother was bringing me home. They don’t know about you yet. But I’ll tell ’em soon.”
“Okay.” It seemed like a decent explanation to him. “Well, in that case, guess I’ll see you at Monday on school. I mean, on Monday at school.”
“What’s the matter, Elliott? Do I leave you tongue tied?”
He laughed, her eyes intoxicating as she leaned in closer to him. “I guess you could say that.”
Nancy giggled and then pressed her mouth against his, forcing him to part his lips as her tongue tied his every which way possible. After a long moment, she pulled away. “See you, handsome.”
“Bye, doll.”
She slipped out of the car and headed up the sidewalk, straightening her dress as she went, and Elliott watched to make sure she got safely inside before shifting into drive and heading on back across town.
Images of what he’d seen in the forest threatened to invade his mind, but he pushed them away. Finally, he’d gotten some! Now, it would no longer be necessary for him to make up stories about the girl at church or the country girl down the lane, although those were still good stories to hang on to, should anyone ask about his early experiences. Being with Nancy was different than he had imagined, but it was still great, and he couldn’t wait to see her again. So what if Cliff had had her first? He was having her now.
Elliott drew close to the road that led out of town to the farm when he noticed lights in his rearview mirror. He pulled over and sucked in a deep breath. Whatever had happened, the cops were headed there in a hurry. Common sense told him to drive home, but instinct told him to follow the police car, so he did. Something wasn’t right. He could feel it in his gut.
About a half mile down the road, he saw an ambulance coming up quickly behind him, so he pulled off again. This time, when he pulled back onto the road, he hit the gas pedal, sure something was wrong. Maybe he was just uneasy about what he’d seen in the woods, but he had a feeling that whatever this was, it was bad.
Chapter 6
Norman, Oklahoma, 1955
A few miles outside of town, Elliott saw two police cars and the ambulance pulled to a stop along the side of the road. There was a cop in the road slowing down traffic and directing cars around what was apparently the scene of an accident. Elliott slowed, though he saw only one other vehicle, which was passed the scene now and speeding off into the night. Elliott looked around for the involved vehicle but didn’t see it at first, until after he’d passed the ambulance. And then there it was, in the ditch, so crashed in, he hardly recognized it.
Except he did. It was Marv Smoot’s old pickup truck, and from the looks of it, he’d rolled it pretty good. It was lying on its passenger side several feet down in the ditch, which was luckily dry right now. Elliott noticed Linda sitting in the back of the ambulance, crying hysterically, and Marv was with the police officers. At this slow crawl, Elliott could see blood trickling down Marv’s forehead.
His initial reaction was to be glad that they were both all right, but then it hit him. They weren’t alone in the truck. “Oh, Jesus!” Elliott whispered to himself as he pulled his car to a stop along the side of the road. Without thinking, he bolted from the car, running at top speed toward Linda.
The police officer who had been manning the road stopped him. “Son, you can’t come in here. This is an accident scene.”
“Where’s Reggie!” Elliott shouted at Linda, who was at least twenty yards away from him still. “Linda! Where the hell is Reggie?”
“Now calm down, boy,” the police officer, who looked to be in his mid-forties and tired from a long shift insisted. “We know the colored boy was thrown from the vehicle. We got folks searching for him now.”
Elliott ignored the degrading term used by the office and turned to see a couple of cops out in the field with flashlights wagging back and forth. At this rate, it would take forever. “Listen, he’s my best friend, sir. Please, let me help.”
The cop opened his mouth, but Linda just seemed to realize he was there and started shouting for him. The police officer stepped aside and let Elliott run over to the ambulance where a paramedic was bandaging up Linda’s arm.
“Linda! What the hell happened?”
“Oh, my God, Elliott,” Linda sobbed. “I told Marv he was going too fast, but he wouldn’t slow down. And the next thing I know, we were tumbling all over the place. I thought for sure we were all going to die. When we finally stopped in the ditch, I was so surprised to even be alive!” She started sobbing again, and Elliott noticed she had cuts and scratches all over her, and the sleeve of her dress was torn.
“Where is Reggie?”
“I don’t know!” She covered her face with her free hand. “When we stopped rolling, I looked over, and he was gone. He’d been sitting on the passenger side, and I was in the middle.”
Without even waiting for her to finish, Elliott took off for the field, shouting Reggie’s name. He had a flashlight in his glove box, so he ran back to get that, and then decided since the police officers were slowly searching the field on one side of the street, he’d check the other.
It didn’t take long for him to find his friend, but when he stumbled upon him about fifteen feet off of the road, lying near some shrubbery a few feet away from a barbwire fence, Elliott didn’t have to check for a pulse to know Reggie was gone. His neck was twisted at a shocking angle, and there was very little skin left on the side of his face the light illuminated. He shuddered to think what the other side might look like. Reggie’s brown eye looked up at the sky unblinking.
Elliott moved a few feet over into the bushes and threw up the contents of his stomach and intestines, continuing to dry heave for several seconds before he regained control of himself enough to signal to the officers he’d found his friend. Immediately, the paramedics moved in, their path illuminated by the police officers, but they realized quickly that Reggie Pope was dead.
As soon as the recognition settled in, Elliott turned and sprinted across the road, headed straight for Marv. Whether the officers truly didn’t know what he was up to or were just slow to react, it was hard to say, but Elliott managed to land several blows in Marv’s face before the police pulled him away. “You son of a bitch!” Elliott shouted as they dragged him away. “You drunk bastard! You killed him! You killed Reggie, you sick sack of shit!”
“Calm down, son,” the officer who had originally intercepted him on his way to Linda insisted. “Calm down. I don’t blame you for being angry, but none of that’s gonna bring your friend back.”
“Take some deep breaths now, boy,” another officer said calmly. “You let us handle Marv, okay? He ain’t gettin’ off for this. That boy was drunk as a skunk. He’s lucky the whole lot of ’em didn’t die.”
Elliott did as he was told and inhaled deeply, trying to calm himself, and despite his despair and rage, it did seem like he was beginning to slow his heartrate slightly. Linda was still sobbing, and the paramedics were all attending to Reggie now, so once
he could assure the officers he was calm, he crossed over to her, and she rested her head on his shoulder and cried.
He stood there long enough for the emergency workers to bring over the body, and then, he and Linda both had to move aside. One of the officers slowly walked over and asked, “You say you knew the boy?”
“Yes, sir. He was… he was my best friend,” Elliott said, his voice catching.
“You know his name, then? We’ll have to inform his parents.”
The thought of what Mr. and Mrs. Pope would be going through shortly made Elliott want to vomit again. He held it back and inhaled through his nose a few times. Linda still had her head on his shoulder, though her sobbing had turned to hiccupping a few minutes ago. “His name is Reginald, Reggie, Pope. His folks live over on Third Street. If you take Walnut, it’s the second house on the left. Do you want me to….” The idea of going with the police to tell Reggie’s parents what had happened seemed unbearable, but he’d do it if the officers thought it would help.
“No, son, that’s okay. We’ll handle it. Thanks for your help. Miss Smoot, one of the officers can drive you home. We’ll need to inform your parents that your brother has been placed under arrest as well.”
“He’s under arrest?” Linda asked, as if it hadn’t dawned on her that her brother was sitting in the back of a police car.
“Yes, miss. He was driving under the influence of alcohol. He’s not old enough to legally drink in the state of Oklahoma, and he caused a serious accident that claimed a young man’s life. Those are some serious crimes.”
Once again, Linda was inconsolable, and for a moment, Elliott wished he could just drive her home himself, but he definitely didn’t want to be there when they told Mr. and Mrs. Smoot that their son had essentially killed someone. The officer extended his arm to the young lady, and Elliott guided her over, glad to be free of at least one of his burdens.
He checked his watch and realized he was out way past his curfew, but that was the least of his concerns now. The sound of the ambulance doors slamming shut had a bit of finality to it he wasn’t ready for, and he held back tears, trying not to think about Reggie as he headed for the Monterrey.
But once inside, it was hard for him to focus. Had it just been a couple of hours ago that Reggie was sitting in the passenger seat next to him, asking about girls? Now, he was gone. He’d never play football again, never pick off another pass. He’d never go to prom or graduate from high school.
Elliott rested his head on the steering wheel. If only he hadn’t decided to take Nancy home. If only he hadn’t left Reggie and went off with Nancy in the first place, this never would’ve happened. The second Nancy mentioned Marv had had too much to drink, he should’ve insisted Reggie get into his car. The thought that it could’ve just as easily been Nancy’s body on the side of the road, instead of her being safe and sound, warm in her bed, also did not escape him.
With tears in his eyes, Elliott headed down the road, knowing another way to get home from here without having to go back through the crime scene. Guilt ate at him the entire drive, and as he pulled into his usual parking spot, he took more deep breaths to try to calm down, knowing he’d have to rehash the whole situation—well parts of it—to Peggy, assuming she was up waiting for him. She always stayed up waiting for him when he was out, but he had never missed his curfew before. His watch told him he was almost an hour and a half late.
He realized he still had Reggie’s football equipment in the trunk of his car and decided his could stay there overnight, too. Maybe in the morning looking at the jersey Reggie would never wear again wouldn’t be so painful, but somehow he doubted it.
The door creaked when he pushed it open. The reading lamp was on in the living room, and Elliott knew Peggy would be sitting there with a book, sipping tea, waiting for him. He ran his hands down his face and made his way in. She was exactly where he expected her to be.
“You’re late.” Her tone wasn’t accusatory as she studied his face, only concerned. “What happened?”
Elliott dropped into Frank’s recliner, trying to hold back his tears as Peggy set her book aside and leaned forward, unhooking her legs from the couch as she did so. “Elliott? Is something wrong?”
He cleared his throat and tried to keep things as factual as possible. “I, uh, gave Reggie a ride out to Lawson’s Point. We were going to see some friends.”
“Lawson’s Point?” Peggy’s tone made it obvious he had misunderstood that this location was an acceptable one to her. “What happened?” she asked again.
“Well, I got to chatting with Nancy Farr while we were out there, and she asked me to give her a ride home. Reggie said he’d catch a lift with Marv Smoot.” Even saying the bastard’s name now was hard. “I dropped Nancy off around 11:00 and was headed home, but that’s when I saw a police car and an ambulance headed out of town.”
“Oh, no, Elliott. Did something happen at the point?”
His eyebrows knit together. He certainly wasn’t expecting that question. What could possibly happen at the point that would require police and an ambulance? An accidental drowning, maybe, or a fight? “Uh, no. It was a… car wreck.” He was immediately brought back to the scene, the image of Reggie lying in that field making his stomach churn again. “Mom, Reggie got ejected from Marv Smoot’s truck. He’s… dead.”
“Oh, my God, Elliott, honey, I’m so sorry!” Peggy exclaimed, sliding off of the couch and wrapping her arms around her foster son, who instantly started to sob into her shoulder, not unlike Linda at the scene. “You poor thing.”
“I found him, Mom. I was the one who found him.” He had trouble getting the whole sentence out, and she squeezed him more tightly as he blubbered on. “If I hadn’t taken Nancy home…. If… I could’ve told him not to ride with that drunk bastard.”
“Elliott, you can’t blame yourself,” Peggy insisted, stroking his hair lovingly. “Reggie was capable of making his own decisions.”
“I know, Mom, but if I wouldn’t have driven him out there in the first place….”
“Well, that’s another matter altogether, Son,” she said, sitting back on her heels but not taking her hands off of him. “I had no idea you were going out there. I don’t want you out there anymore, you hear me?”
“We just sit around and talk, Mom, it’s nothing.”
“There are things about that place you don’t know.” Something about the intensity of her gaze made him shudder slightly, so he nodded in understanding. There was little chance he’d ever go out there again anyway. Not after this. “Besides, it sounds like some of you were doing more than talking if Marv Smoot was drunk.”
“I think Marv might’ve been drunk when he got there,” Elliott admitted. “But, yeah, some of the kids do drink.”
She turned her head slightly to look at him out of the corner of her eye but didn’t ask the question he knew was on the tip of her tongue. Was he one of them? Not tonight. And when he did have a beer, he never had enough to impair his driving. At least, he didn’t think so. Yet, one more thing to contemplate.
“Honey, I am so very sorry about your friend. I have lost good friends as well, and I know how much it hurts. It hurts like hell, and there’s nothing you can do about it except for ride it out. In time, it will sting a little less, but for the rest of your life, you’ll think of Reggie and a wave of sadness will wash over you. You’ll wonder what he might be doing right now, what he might’ve become. You’ll want to pretend he’s just off in another state with his wife and kids, living the life he’d dreamt of. I know, Son. There’s nothing easy about it. And I’m so very sorry. But—you’ll be okay. I know you will be.”
Her words had his tears overflowing once again. She was brutally honest, that was for sure. He could imagine himself in the future, years down the line, still missing his friend with the infectious smile and eyes as bright as the stars at night. “How do you know?” he asked timidly.
“How do I know what?” Peggy asked, placing her hand under
his chin and gently lifting it.
“How do you know I’m… strong enough?” At the moment, he didn’t feel like a six-foot-two young man, weighing in at over two hundred pounds. He felt like a little boy stumbling around in the dark, trying to find a security blanket or some string of comfort to hold onto.
Peggy slipped her hands around to both sides of his face. “I know because you’re my son, that’s how I know. Maybe I didn’t give birth to you, and maybe I didn’t carry you around when you were a toddler, but you’re my child, just the same. You are brave and strong. You are a true friend with a winning spirit, and nothing is going to hold you back Elliott Michael. Nothing. I promise.”
Once again, he found himself sobbing, though this was less related to Reggie and more because never in his sixteen years had anyone ever said something like that to him. He rested his head on his mom’s shoulder, and she rubbed his back until he stopped crying. A few minutes later, she somehow managed to help him up the stairs to bed, and Elliott mentally noted that his mom was a lot stronger than he’d ever given her credit for, both physically and emotionally.
Reggie Pope was buried on a bright October morning just a few days after Norman defeated Newcastle in the last football game they would win that season. Elliott cried at his best friend’s funeral, and so did the rest of the team, even Cliff Humphrey. Later that afternoon, he drove across town to Coach Tom Little’s house and turned in his equipment, and Reggie’s. He could never play football again, not under the circumstances.
And when Nancy Farr called that evening, he told Peggy to tell her he was busy. She got the same message for the next two weeks, as well as complete avoidance in the hallway at school. Elliott couldn’t look at Nancy and not think about what had happened to Reggie, so he decided not to look at her at all.
Elliott had once believed it was simple to convince yourself that death was part of life, that these things happened, and it was always best to just accept them and move on, but he knew if he lived to be a very old man, he’d never forget Reginald Pope, and he’d be hard pressed to find another friend like him. One thing was for sure. If he ever found another guy like Reggie, someone so funny and smart, so athletic and inherently cool about everything, he’d be willing to do whatever he needed to do to keep that friend, even lay down his life in his place.
