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“I… did… not. Yooou… focus… on… baaaad… things. Yooou… pun…ish… yourself. I… don’t… want pit…ty. I… am… con…tent. I am… whooole. Yooou have… to… mooove… forward, Cain.” Cain hung his head and sobbed uncontrollably now. “Yooou are… be…ing… de…stroyed… by… the past… Pleeease…be my… big… brother… a…gain…”
Around them, a couple of guards regarded the scene, looking rather choked up, too.
“Let me explain somethin’ to you, Cain.” Jude snatched a tissue off the table and dabbed his eyes. “This man who sits beside me, our brother, is the smartest of all three of us. Without him, I wouldn’t have found that remarkable woman I married, the mother of my baby. I wouldn’t have even been open to the idea of having arealrelationship like that. Somethin’ past the superficial level. I wanted someone to keep Eli company, but I was so particular about it, I was huntin’ for a wife at the same damn time and didn’t realize it until I was in deep. Eli helped me see that, just because we came from pain, doesn’t mean we have to live it every damn day of our lives. I deserve that woman!”
He pointed towards the door. “I deserve my baby! I deserve all the happiness in this messed up world! We gotta stop not thinkin’ we don’t deserve anything good, just because of where we come from, and the mistakes we’ve made along the way. I love my son more than my own life, Cain. I’d literally lie down in the middle of track, and let cars run over me if that meant he could live a beautiful life guaranteed. Life… itisdamn beautiful, man. I deserve the future children I’m gonna make with that woman, too. I deserve the cars I drive, the checks I cash, the flights I take, the jewelry I wear, the tattoos I get, the boats I ride, the designer clothes I wear, the bed I lie in, the big house I live in, and the amazing brothers I have. I deserve every damn dollar I’ve got! And you know what? You deserve to forgive yourself, Cain! For everything!”
Cain reached across the table, and gripped his hand.
“Regardless of what happened, Eli is exactly the way he’s supposed to be. We’re blessed beyond measure. Look how far we’ve all come.” Jude tossed up his free hand to emphasize his point. “We lost our parents. We were in the foster care system. Prison. Drug addictions, breakin’ the law, hating ourselves over shit we had no control over, and for what?! Right now, I’m running three businesses.” He held up three fingers. “All of ’em are fruitful. I’ve got a legacy to leave my children, Cain. Somethin’ they can be proud of! Hang their hat on. Somethin’ that’ll make them say, ‘Daddy took care of business, and he did it the right way.’ I’m busier than hell, but I like it like that. I have a mind for business, andthistime, I’m using that skill for good, instead of what I was dealin’ with before. I’m not going to lie, I’m addicted to the street life, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
“I find excitement in other ways in life. Eli here had a pediatric head injury, yet he won a damn chess championship last month. Not against other people with special needs or neurological disorders, but regular Joes! He’s going to be flown to Arizona for a tournament. Your brother Eli is a fuckin’ chess genius. He’s been featured on all of these online articles and blogs. Here’s another way God showed and proved how great He is, Cain… My wife’s aunt, Blue, remember me talkin’ about what a cut-up she is?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, guess what? I was talkin’ to her one morning on the phone, and she told me her actual background is in paralegal work. She worked in this field many years ago in her twenties, then switched to the medical administration field, but anyway, we got to talkin’ about your case. Before I knew it, she had gotten in contact with someone on your behalf. When my phone rang, it was the big wig in New York callin’ me. The price was steep, but damn it, he thinks you got a chance at this. I would have never met this man had it not been for me letting go of the past, and givin’ love a chance!” Cain blinked back tears and nodded. “It’s a chain reaction! Your son is doing way better in school now, man. Pete is maturing, and part of the reason why is because he finally put his pain aside and came up here to see his father months ago. He was able to look you in the eye and get his feelings out, all of ’em—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because you listened, and didn’t get defensive, driving him away, proving his fears right, he came back the next month, and the month after that, to continue the conversation. To heal… He loves you, man!”
“I prayed for this.” Cain shook his head, then wiped his eyes with the palms of his hands. “I prayed Eli and Pete would forgive me. I didn’t think I had a chance in hell of getting out of here, either, and even if I don’t, even if this guy from New York can’t do nothin’, it’s nice to have hope.”
Jude nodded in agreement.
“And look, he didn’t make any promises, but he said there are some problems with the case that can work in your favor. For one, the cop whose son you shot has gotten in some legal trouble messin’ with people’s records, fudging things. He likes to target those who get caught on drug offenses, and this was even before you killed his son. That was one of the arguments made the first time around by the old defense attorney you had, but he never really explored that line of reasoning. Also, one of the jury members he discovered is related to the prosecuting lawyer but didn’t admit that. That’s big. Anyway, if there are some strings that can be pulled, he’s going to find them, and he’s going to investigate this inside out, then get in contact with the Tennessee district attorney. We all know what you did wasn’t right. That’s not the issue. You know that, too, and there’s no need to rehash it, but spendin’ the rest of your life in here when you were defending yourself from being robbed, regardless of what you were being robbed of, isn’t right, either.”
For the first time in years, Cain looked optimistic.
They spoke for a bit longer, then Pete and Iris joined them again so they could wrap up the conversation and say their goodbyes.
Cain and Eli embraced, letting their emotions out one more time. Moments later, he, Eli, Iris and Pete had left the prison.
Once outside, Jude paused to inhale the fresh air. The smell of a new day. When they reached his white Cadillac Escalade, Eli and Pete climbed into the back, while Iris began to strap the baby into his car seat. He stood behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her in for a kiss. She looked deep into his eyes from over her shoulder, smiling at him in that sexy way of hers.
“You okay, baby?” she asked in a whisper.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
Finishing up with the baby, she got into the passenger’s seat and turned on the music. Larceny’s, ‘Another Level’ played from the radio. Jude stared at the prison for a moment, at the armed guards at the top, and the big, concrete cage secured from all sides.
My brother isn’t an animal, and yet, here he is, locked in a crate. We’re what the world made us, and we’ve been fighting the current, swimming upstream ever since. I’ve had to do things to survive that many would think were animalistic. I’ve had experiences that are the things of nightmares, and yet… here I am, still living. I survived. Cain survived. Eli survived. We went different routes, but we traveled nevertheless. We kept moving.
My wife knows most everything about me, but some things, she will never be told. Not because I’m ashamed, but for her own protection. She married someone with darkness inside of him, and she is nothing but a beacon of light. She gave birth to my first child, risked her life to bring him into the world. She’s almost finished with school, and I know whatever my baby puts her mind to, she can do it with flying colors. We’ve got so many adventures ahead of us… I can’t wait to enjoy every moment. Angel and Johnny had three boys who grew up and became men.
They left us far too early, but still managed to instill in us the tools we needed to endure. They took care of us beyond the grave, and still continue to do so. The bloodline is strong. It lives inside my heart, and showed itself inside a clock… while we watched the time go by.
My pregnant wife cleaned and tended to those seconds… tick, tock… She sliced her nail open, a sacrifice… the blood dripping so she could find the gift that keeps on givin’, from the clock, that keeps on tickin’.
Life is precious. I know that now. I took it for granted. Family is important. I have everything I could ever want or wish for, but even if I didn’t have a dime to my name, I’d be rich, as long as I have the love of that woman…
He caught a momentary glimpse of his wife. She was talking to Pete and Eli, happiness etched upon her face.
Cain… you are able. Keep your chin up.He was just a poor White boy from Nashville, Tennessee, whose heart was big, yet someone made him think it should be small…
Eli’s a star, too, like Iris, shining bright in the darkest of nights.
My first-born child, my son, Lynx, is the start of something new. He won’t go through what us Cooper boys suffered. He’ll have his own obstacles, ’cause life ain’t easy, but he’ll learn from his uncles, father, and grandfather, so he doesn’t have to make the same mistakes we did. We’ve paved the road for him so he won’t have to travel in the dark. There will be light at the end of the tunnel.
“Baby, you comin’? We wanna eat!” Iris yelled through a partially rolled down window.
“Yeah, darlin’…” He waved to the prison and winked, then turned around and settled in the driver’s seat of his car. “No worries. Here comes the Judge…”
