I loved Willie. I really did. We always seemed to get in trouble together. A lot of the folks around town never liked that we played together, just because he was black and I was white. But I didn’t care. I loved Willie. He had such a great smile. Whenever he laughed, I had to do the same. He could tell a joke better than anyone in the whole county, and that’s no exaggeration neither. I think my parents liked him too, but they weren’t always so sure. They taught me to look past how someone looks and focus on other things, like if they were nice and had proper manners. Willie was always respectful to my folks, but I think his frame made him intimidating. Heck, he could probably pick up a school bus if he wanted to! I did wish we went to the same school, though. Having your best friend with you makes class a whole lot easier, that’s for sure. Either way, Willie was my best bud and I thought we were never going to be apart.
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Things were looking up for Willie and I. The US Supreme Court just made a ruling that made a lot of people here in southern Georgia unhappy. I didn’t care how they felt because I knew that Willie and I were finally able to go to the same school. The day I heard the news, Willie came over as usual and I was jumping out my shoes to tell him. The look on that big boy’s face when I told him was a look of pure joy I will never forget. Needless to say, we were feeling extra jubilant that day. And a little mischievous as well. Pa was out back chopping wood, and my ma was in town with my baby sister, probably spending all the money we made from our famous sweet cream we made. That left the entire house for us to play in; it might as well have been a castle! Even though Pa told me to never go in his and Ma’s room with guests, I didn’t think of Willie as a guest. I thought of him as family. So, we made our way up the stairs, adrenaline filling our bodies. Oh, how good it felt to do something you weren’t supposed to! We creaked the door open slowly and assessed the room for what we could get into. Willie opened a drawer and let out a low whistle.
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“Willie put that back! Pa told me to never play with guns, ‘specially not his!”, I barked.
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“Oh, c’mon Jackson, you know my Pa’s got one just like it. Plus, your daddy’s out in the yard. He ain’t never gonna know-”
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BANG
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That shot was so dang loud, my ears were ringing like a church bell gone crazy. I scanned the room, and nothing seemed to be broken, which made me relieved. When I got to Willie and locked eyes with him, he looked like he’d seen the devil himself.
“Willie what’s wrong, you okay?” I asked.
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He didn’t have any wounds, so I asked him again.
“Talk to me Willie. What’s wrong?”
​
His mouth moved, but no words came out. His hands were shaking so uncontrollably that I started to think he was having a stroke. Suddenly, my vision started to black out from the edges of my peripheral, moving in. It became darker and darker. Sounds became fainter. I slightly heard the sound of my father’s work boots dashing up our creaky stairs. When he appeared in the doorway, I watched him look at Willie, then to me, then to my lower torso. An emotion of anger muddled together with fear came over his face. I tried to tell him everything was fine. We were just playing. But no words came out. He ran over to Willie as if to beat the living hell out of him. I tried to get him to stop, but I couldn’t move. I tried to shout and scream, but I couldn’t speak. Darkness took over my vision completely and that was the last thing I remember from that day.
As my eyes fluttered open, bright lights flooded into my vision. I looked around. My momma was asleep in the chair next to me. Cartoons were playing on the television in the corner of the room. Next to me in the bed was my old stuffed bear, which I haven’t seen in years. I tried to get up and use the bathroom, but my legs wouldn’t move. I thought maybe I was still sleeping, so I tried again to no avail. I hated waking her, but I did so nonetheless.
“Momma?” I asked frightened.
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She awoke from her slumber, and instantly smothered me with hugs and kisses.
“Oh, my child! I thought we were never going to get you back!” she exclaimed.
I pushed her away and demanded some answers.
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“Why can’t I move? Where’s Willie? What’s happening?!”
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“Calm down dear, everything is fine. That bastard Willie shot you and paralyzed you from the waist down. He’s in jail now and will be for a very long time” Momma said.
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“Ma, he didn’t mean to do it! We were just playing! We have to get him out of there!”
She explained to me that he wasn’t getting out until the court date because his family didn’t have the money to make bail. She believed me about Willie’s intentions, but she also told me Pa wasn’t so convinced. At this point, I wasn’t concerned about my paralysis. There wasn’t anything I could do about it now. I just wanted my best friend out of the yard. He didn’t belong there. All I could do now was convince my daddy and the court that it was all just a simple accident. But I was feeling tired. All these emotions had me worked up. Plus, my stomach hurting something awful.
“Momma, my stomach hurts” I whimpered.
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“Here honey, just sit back and relax.” Her voice was really soothing. She pressed a button and I felt something where the tubes were stuck in my arm. Within and instant, I was knocked out cold.
⃰⃰⃰
The court room was warm and stiff. Beads of sweat glistened as they slid down the prosecutor’s bald head. The judge was a rotund white man, around 70 years of age. Wrinkles made their mark on his face and were especially concentrated around his mouth that hung like that of a bulldog. He peered ominously over his spectacles that sat at the bottom of his red, pudgy rose. I didn’t like him. I didn’t like this. I didn’t like any of this. I told my daddy Willie didn’t do it on purpose, but he didn’t listen. No matter what I said, he blew it off and kept saying, “Jackson Todd, we’re gonna get that son of a bitch and that’s the end of it”.
The prosecutor was especially awful. I hated how he talked to Willie. He treated him like a criminal! He didn’t do anything. I could’ve easily done the same to him.
“How is life at home, Willie?” the prosecutor asked.
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“It’s good” Willie responded shortly.
“And your parents? How about them?”
“Well if you look right over there, mister, about the third row on the right, that’s my momma. Beautiful lady, ain’t she?”
Willie always did have charming personality.
“Uh, why yes, she is” the prosecutor responded begrudgingly. “And your daddy? Where is he?”
“Well, he’s out working the railroads, sir.”
“Oh, so no male figure at home for discipline, then? Tell me, Willie, have you been getting into trouble in school?” the prosecutor asked.
“Well, I, um, a little bit. I, uh, got detention the other day” admitted Willie.
Willie was honest to a fault, too. But I loved that about him.
“I see. We have a trouble maker on our hands. An undisciplined, dangerous troublemaker who comes from a broken home. One who knows how to work a gun too. Tell me, boy. Did you shoot Jackson Todd?” the prosecutor demanded.
There was a long pause before Willie responded. I knew just as much as he did that it was an accident. He was my best friend, he wouldn’t do that to me. Put I could see the struggle on his face. His lawyer told him to answer every question truthfully. He swore to God he would. So, he simply answered:
“Yes”.
I told you he was honest to a fault.
“That is all, your honor” the prosecutor said to the judge, and walked back to his table with a smug smile that made my insides turn.
“But I didn’t mean to! It was an accident!” exclaimed Willie, visibly worried.
The judge quickly barked at Willie not to speak out of order unless he wished to be held in contempt of court. They were good at making him seem like a bad kid. I knew he wasn’t, I just hoped everyone else would think the same. I looked around. The faces of the jury told tales of disgust and hatred. The judge’s expression, however, remained unchanged and stoic. I was hopeful, though, because I still had my testimony to go. I’ve been practicing and I know it will wow the jury.
I gave my testimony and boy was it heart-wrenching. I talked about how much Willie meant to me as a friend and how I felt he was family. I told the jury about how we’ve been playing together ever since we were little tykes. I told them if the sky turned black, and we had a day left to live, I wanted to spend it with Willie. I also told them there was no way Willie had the intention of shooting me. We we’re just kids playing with something we shouldn’t have. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone his best bud.
After my testimony, a recess was called for an hour for which the jury was to make their decision. I wheeled my way to the back lot of the courthouse, a spot I told Willie we would meet so we could talk in private. Willie was there waiting for me, and when I made my way over, he bent down to give me a hug. Tears were welling up in his eyes.
“Don’t squeeze too hard, I’m still healing some” I told him.
“Jackson I’m sorry. I really am. I never meant for all this to happen. I shoulda listened to you and…”
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“Willie!” I cut him off. “Don’t worry, okay? I know you didn’t mean to do it, and as soon as we’re out of here we will go play just like usual” I assured him.
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“Aw okay Jack. Say, when am I gonna get one of those wheelchairs too so we can race?”
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We both started laughing. And we didn’t stop for a while too. I think the stress of the day got to us, so it was nice having a little comedic relief. Willie always knew how to make me laugh. We talked and talked, the hour of recess seemingly never ending. We talked about the pranks we would pull once we were in class together. We talked about the stars and aliens. We talked about sports, how he wanted to go to a university and maybe play football. He could do it, too! I admired Willie. He was so smart and athletic. I offered to be his personal trainer that would make sure he worked out and went to all of his games with him. We had a bright future together. All we had to do was get past this day.
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As we tossed a pebble back and forth, our conversation fell silent for a while. He held on to the pebble I tossed him and looked out into the distance. The sun was about to set, and the sky was painted with awesome pastels of pink, orange, and red. Without looking at me he asked,
“Jackson, what are they gonna say about all this? I know I didn’t do it on purpose, and you know it too, but I’m not so sure they know it.”
Before that moment, I never really thought about the other outcomes of the trial. I always believed we were going to walk out of the court room, continuing being best buds like always. Admittedly, I didn’t want to think of the other outcomes, so I didn’t. I reassured Willie that everything was going to be fine.
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“Look Willie, don’t worry about that. It was an accident, and that’s all it was.”
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He didn’t seem too convinced, but neither was I. I guess it was out of our hands. I looked down at my watch and it was about to time to head back to the courtroom.
“Ready to go back in?” I asked Willie.
“Ready as I’ll ever be” he responded.
He took the reigns of the wheelchair and we headed back to the courtroom, unsure of what the future held for us.
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As we approached the courtroom doors, a cacophony of noises was audible from the outside. I looked at Willie and he looked back. We nodded to each other and entered the courtroom. When we entered, the buzz was dampened considerably. People gawked at us as Willie walked and I rolled by, as if we were some sort of interracial freakshow. I just wanted them to know we were friends.
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We found our seats on opposite sides of the court room, waiting to hear the verdict from the judge. I was nervous, and I knew Willie had to be even more nervous. The judge cleared his throat and proceeded with the verdict.
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“In the case of Willie A. Washington versus the Todd Family, the jury, in a vote of 6-3, has found the defendant guilty of attempted murder. Willie A. Washington was tried and will be punished as an adult in this trial; therefore, he is sentenced to death by electric chair. Thank you jury for your time today. The court is adjourned.”
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People clapped. Let me say that again; people clapped. If I wasn’t paralyzed from the waist down, I would’ve dropped to my knees. Willie’s mother let out the most painful cry my ears have ever had the displeasure of hearing. I glanced at Willie, as tears were streaming down his face. I was screaming, begging the judge to revise his verdict. But the police officers cuffed him, struggling to keep him from rushing over to me. What was done was done, and there was no changing it. As I watched the officers drag him away, I saw Willie drop the pebble we were playing with to the ground. I immediately rolled over and scooped it up, squeezing it in my hand as hard as I could.
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Maybe it was because I was present in court in my wheelchair. Maybe it was because I was Richard Todd’s son, our town’s icon and model business man. I knew these weren’t the reasons. I knew good and well what happens when a black boy shoots a white boy, intentional or not. I should’ve known. I shouldn’t have been so naïve. I miss Willie. I miss him so much. I had to get him back.
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A few nights later, we were eating dinner at the warden’s house, who is a good friend of my daddy. Pa told me not to say anything bad about him or the case or he’d whoop me. He said he was nice enough to have us over for dinner that I shouldn’t be disrespectful about what his juror friends decided in the case. It took everything I had not to chirp up, laying everything I had into the warden about the immoralities of the case and about how they were the murderers, not Willie. After a lot of small talk of politics and town happenings, I about had enough of this dinner. Even the warden’s two overweight boys were getting on my nerves with their sly comments. When my baby sister started to wail, that’s when I became a little tempered. I got away from the table without excusing myself, and my Pa asked me where my manners were.
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“Excuse me, sir!” I snapped back, obviously annoyed. I heard my father mutter something under his breath. Momma came to my defense though, telling the warden and his missis that I had gone through a lot lately with the paralysis and all. That angered me even more. No Ma, this wasn’t about the paralysis, this was about Willie. As I rolled myself to the bathroom, I noticed something in the corner of my eye. I peered over to investigate and it was just what I thought: the warden’s keys hanging from a nail in the kitchen. I wheeled myself over as quietly as possible, threw the keys in my pocket, and finished my trip to the bathroom. This was my chance to free my best friend. Save his life, even! I figured if I went now, the warden would surely know the culprit. I decided to return to the table, put on my best poker face, and remain a polite young man the rest of the dinner.
A week had passed since the trial. Willie was up for death row in three days. My time to act was now. I knew I could get in trouble, but if no one knew it was me, how could I? Hoping for the best and prepared for the worst, I set out for the jail. I kept Willie’s pebble in my pocket, squeezing it every so often on my long journey to the jail. When I arrived to the jail, it was dark out. Lights illuminated the prison, but that was the only light for a while. The back of the jail contained the prison cells, all with barred windows leading to the outside. My problem was figuring out which one Willie was in. I wheeled back and forth, carefully weighing my options. I couldn’t shout to get his attention, lest I wanted a guard to catch me. I felt defeated. Did I come all this way just to let my friend die? I sat there and waited. I would think of a way, I was sure of it. Suddenly, I heard singing from one of the cells. I knew that baritone voice. It was singing:
“Go down, Moses
Way down in Egypt's land
Tell old Pharaoh
Let my people go”
It was Willie! I heard him singing that tune before too, it was one of his favorites. I went over to his window, and tossed the pebble in. Earlier, I inscribed it. On one side it said RUN. On the other it said JACK. He couldn’t fit his head in the window, but he held his fist up with a vengeance. I tossed the keys up and in through the window, and quickly started to wheel away. I needed to get out of there before he started running away.
Boy, I loved Willie.