Blackout: Stand Your Ground (3 page)

***

 
“O.K. I have a plan baby.”
Jawan
said as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket along with his wallet. He handed the cell phone to
Meesie
so that he could concentrate on commanding the wheel. It would be silly of him to endanger his family’s future by catching a moving traffic violation.

 
“Get the number for Greyhound and call them for me,” he said without hesitation.

 
“Greyhound? Hell no
Jawan
! We’re not going to board no bus! That’s like suicide! We’ll be boxed in and-”

 
“I said call Greyhound
Meesie
!” He had to raise his voice upon repeating his instructions.

 
Meesie
handed
Jawan
the cell phone and sat back in her seat as she let her man run the show. She didn’t know why he would place them on a stupid Greyhound bus, but it seemed like
Jawan
was seeing tunnel vision, and thought that all of his decisions were the correct ones to make.

 
“Hello. I would like to purchase two tickets right now for
Meesie
Hall and
Jawan
Louis to go to Atlanta GA… Yes I’ll reserve it with a credit card now… Yes, that amount is fine.”

 
As soon as he got off of the phone with the Greyhound, he made an illegal U-turn in the middle of the street and took off in the opposite direction.

 
“
Jawan
, please tell me what’s going on! That’s all I’m asking of you right now. I have your back through anything, but I just want to know what my anything consists of sometimes.”

 
Jawan
took a deep breath and focused on the road ahead of him. His emotions seemed to morph with each passing moment. They seemed to morph from pride because of his pregnant fiancé, to confusion because of the Zimmerman verdict, to downright sadness due to the state of the American justice system.

 
“I gave them our real names and told them we were buying tickets headed to Atlanta, GA so that I could throw them off. Knowing the police department, they’re going to think they have all the sense in the world and think they’re going to try to outsmart me. They’re going to lock down the interstate going to Georgia, as well as the interstate going into Miami and surrounding cities; but I got news for them motherfuckers!

 
We’re going to stay right here in motherfucking Sanford!”
Jawan
screamed as he turned down a vacant side street. “We ain’t going no got damn where. I will feel like less than a man if I let another man run me out of my home. I’m
bouta
stand my got damn ground!”

 
Meesie’s
forehead frowned up as she stared at him. “Nobody is running us out of our home
Jawan
! We ran ourselves out! We went outside and picked our own adventure, and this is where we are right now!”

 
“This fight is artificial. It’s not even our business
Jawan
! I understand how you feel bout black people being treated unfairly in America, but do you honestly think that what you’re doing is going to help how white people see us? What you’re doing right now is only setting us back ten years! This is all bad. I don’t-”

 
“
Argghhh
! One minute you got my back and in the next you saying something different. Are you with me or not
Meesie
?”
Jawan
asked violently as he ran through an intersection and ignored the stop sign.

 
Meesie’s
heart was beating at a rapid pace as she considered all of the consequences that would come about from their actions. She thought about how she would never be able to raise her child, and how she would never be able to be a wife; all because she was certain that the state of Florida was going to seek the death penalty for the actions that they had partaken in.

 
She lay back against the headrest and closed her eyes as tight as possible. She had a headache and felt like if she held them closed long enough, that it would go away.

 
“O.K. then.
Jawan
, where are we going to stay at if we’re planning on staying in Sanford?”

 
Jawan
made a right turn, and then another left turn, and drove a little slower than he had been driving since he saw children playing in the road. “We’re going to stay at my uncle’s house. We can park this car in his garage, and nobody will ever know where the hell we disappeared to.”

 
Meesie
shook her head vigorously. “Oh hell nawl! Why would we stay with your uncle? For one, I told you I never trusted him; and for two, you know the cops will turn his house upside down looking for you if they are able to identify who you are. I think we should stay at Nay-Nay’s.”

 
Jawan
almost hit a fire hydrant when he heard that name. “Why the hell would we stay with your
bff
? Your best fake friend! That’s an absolute no-no! I don’t trust that bitch!”

 
Suddenly,
Jawan
slammed on the brakes in the middle of the road; scaring the hell out of
Meesie
. There were no cars behind them, to her relief; but she was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. “
Jawan
, what the-”

 
“You gonna have to take the wheel
Meesie
. I’m not going to go any further.”

 
“What the fuck!
Jawan
, what’s wrong with you?”

 
Jawan
put the car into park and laid his body against the driver’s side door. He glanced at her one more time before his eyes closed and he collapsed.

 
“Damn
Jawan
, you didn’t take your seizure medicine? Oh my God,
Jawan
!”

 
On the verge of perpetual panic,
Meesie
jumped out of the car and went around to the driver’s side door. She opened it and caught
Jawan’s
body as it fell from the removed support. “
Jawan
baby!
Jawan
!”

 
From experience, she knew that it could be minutes, or even an hour before he recovered from having a seizure. At that moment she realized that she could do anything in the world. Anything from running away and getting herself out of the trouble he had put her in, to staying there like a fool as she waited to discover what more trouble he could figure out how to orchestrate.

 
After thinking about it for a few seconds, she knew that for her soul mate she would always choose to play a fool if that’s what it came down to. Using all of her strength, she tried her best to move his body out of the vehicle and into the passenger’s side seat.

 
A green Silverado stopped alongside her as she tried to move
Jawan’s
heavy body into the passenger’s seat. She knew that they were in serious trouble, but she seriously doubted that everyone in Sanford, Florida knew what they looked like after only a few hours. It just wasn’t possible.

 
“Hey ma’am, do you need some help?” The white man in the Silverado asked as he put his truck in park and got out.

 
Eager to have some assistance,
Meesie
quickly nodded her head at the white man. According to her reasoning, the sooner she could get
Jawan
into the passenger side seat, the sooner she could go to her best friend Nay-Nay’s house and park in her garage.
Jawan
didn’t want that, but she knew that she could trust Nay-Nay when nobody else was able to.

 
“O.K., what happened here ma’am? Looks like I’m going to have to call 911 and get an ambulance here.”

 
Meesie
almost pissed on
her self
at the mention of 911. “Oh, no sir; that’s not even necessary. I’m on my way to the hospital as we speak. I-”

 
The white man scratched his head as he stared at the situation. “Not with that dead body on the driver’s side! I don’t see how in the hell you could be headed
some where
with a dead man driving!”

 
“He’s not dead! He was driving and because nauseous. I believe he had a seizure, and I’m going to take my husband to get help. Could you please help me!?”

 
The man exhaled and shook his head. He didn’t want to help her, but he decided he might as well help the poor lady since she was in the middle of the damn road trying to hoist an unconscious man. It was better he help her before she hurt him further.

 
Effortlessly, the man picked up
Jawan’s
unconscious body and sat him into the passenger’s side seat. After
Jawan
was situated, he turned his back away from him so that he could have a conversation with
Meesie
about hurrying on down to the hospital. But when he turned around, he felt his heart flutter.

 
“Well I’ll be damn! Aren’t you the girl they’re looking for on the news, for killing that police officer?”

 
“What? Hell nawl! I’m not-”

 
“The hell you’re not! Put your hands in the air
damnit
! I’m making a citizen’s arrest. Now by law you can’t go anywhere until the police get here! I’m calling them right now!” He said as he pulled his belt off.

 
“What the fuck are you doing with that belt?” She asked, with a frown on her face.

 
The man looked at her like she was the dumbest person on the planet. “I’m going to tie your hands up until the law officers get here. You can’t resist a citizen’s arrest! By law you have to let me arrest you. Now give me your wrists Miss Lady.”

 
Meesie
had never thought to break the law or go against any rules before, so going with her initial instinct; she took two steps towards the man so that he could arrest her. But during the time it took for him to remove his belt from his pants and grab her wrists; her entire existence flashed before her eyes at once.

 
Jawan
had sacrificed his freedom in order to keep her free, and here she was about to freely sacrifice their freedom in order to give their lives away. Thinking quick, she used the only weapon she had.

 
With all of the force in her body, she swung her foot and kicked the man in his family jewels. As soon as he crouched over in pain, she jumped inside the car and tried to grab the gun out of
Jawan’s
possession. She searched him frantically, moving his shirt around and even checking his left pocket; but by the time she made it to his right pocket the man had grabbed her and was pulling her out of the car.

 
“
Noooo
!
Noooo
!
Jawan
hellllpppp
!” She screamed at the top of her lungs.

 
Jawan
was unconscious and didn’t hear her make a sound whatsoever. She gripped her hands around the steering wheel as she held on in an attempt to save her life. She didn’t want to give her life up, and she was sorry that she had even considered it.

 
The man pried her hands off of the steering wheel and pulled her to the ground. When she was on the ground, the man turned into a savage animal. He took his left fist and ran it into her face as if it were a designated punching bag. Some of her blood splattered against the car window, against the driver’s side seat, against his clothes, and the rest of it leaked down her face.

 
His fist was swollen, but he didn’t care. He took the same fist, swung it again and crushed her nose flat. Her head bounced back against the concrete and she let out a scream so deep that it
brung
Jawan
out of his unconsciousness. He was slightly in a daze and trying to focus, but when he finally was able to comprehend what he was seeing; he nearly passed out again.