Part 10 (2/2)
”You don't want to know,” I said, staring out of the , trying to disengage
”Kody, I need to knohat happened These people are not stupid They are going to need an explanation to this shooting Nohat happened?”
”Is that why you wanna know, just so you can have an explanation for them?” I shot back ”What about you? You haven't even asked me if I am hurtin' No, you too busy fussin' to show me love, to say somethin' kind or nice No, it's always fuss, fuss, fuss”
She gave no reply, just looked straight ahead So I continued
”You wanna knohat really happened, Mom? Really?”
She didn't answer
”We went to take a van for a un from Diamond and shot me in the back”
”My God,” she said with disdain ”Kody, why do you want to take other people's property? That's not right People work hard for what they have You can't just-”
”Mo to death”
”Oh, now you scared of dying You should have thought about that when you had your bad ass out there, robbing folks Now you want to worry about dying I'll tell you”
I didn't respond and she didn't drive any faster When we finally got to the hospital, well over an hour had passed since I was shot We wereroom There were four people there: t Afrikans, one Chicano, and one American The American was called first She had a cold Mom went off
”You stupid motherfuckers, don't you see my son has been shot!? You mean to tell me that a white woman with a cold is more important than my son with a bullet in his back? What kind of da here?!”
The receptionist, an American, was dumbfounded Totally speechless, she sat safely behind the partition, thankful for her seclusion from Mom Mom kept at it until two American doctors wheeled out a wheelchair and rolled h the double doors
First I was X-rayed, then led to a room with a bed to await the results The entry hole, they said, was very tiny and didn't seee I explained to the doctor about the numbness and he said it was a symptomatic response to shock and delay of treatment He added that he doubted if it would be perazed out the
”Yes, officer,” I heard a feht in here”
”Thank you,” said a scratchy, still unseen voice
Then in through the door came two American soldier-cops, one with a clipboard, the other with a Winchell's Donuts coffee cup The one with the clipboard was older, redder, and ray and ed as if he had just had it styled for a V05 coht off the beach, a surfer-nazi froer to ht away that a conflict existed between these two New versus old, traditional versus contemporary, professionalism versus personalism I decided to have a little fun
”What's your name, son?” asked Clipboard
”My na the question
”Yeah,” Donut Cup snapped, ”your naiven at birth?” His tone was pushy like ”all you people are so stupid”
”Oh, yeah,” I said, ”my name Kody Scott, sir” I was careful to be nice and respectful to Clipboard, while agitating Donut Cup with ned stupidity
”Where did this incident take place?” asked Donut Cup
”Incident?” I asked right back, looking from Donut Cup to Mom for an interpretation of ”incident”
Donut Cup turned his head
”Where were you when you were shot?” asked Clipboard with all the ease of a fa alone on the bus stop at Adams and Western”
”Southeast, northwest?” asked Donut Cup
”No,” I began, as if he had it all wrong ”I was not at Southwest College, I was on Adams and Western”
”On which side of the street were you standing?” asked Clipboard
”On the Ada toward don”
”That would be the southeast corner, then,” said Donut Cup, trying to haht it was the corner of Ada to look perplexed Donut Cup turned a shade darker
”What happened while you were standing on the bus stop?” asked Donut Cup
”Well,” I began, iht, ”I wasn't really standing on the bus stop, I was standing behind the bus stop, in back of the bench on the sidewalk between the gas station and the street”
Donut Cup went fla his head with both hands as if he were trying to stop froh Clipboard, ever-patient, just waited to rephrase the question
”Look,” said Donut Cup, his face a stricken er, ”all you have to do is answer the questions as we ask the full around to face Donut Cup, ”if you'd let me ask the questions you would be better off”
”Yeah, but-”
”Ahh,” said Clipboard with an upheld hand, waving Donut Cup to silence
”Now, uhh, Kody, as you were standing behind the bench on Adaan and paused for a second to turn and look at Donut Cup as if to say ”this is all you got to do” Then he turned back to me and simply said, ”What happened?”
”A brown Monte Carlo ca eastbound” Now I looked over as Donut Cup as if to say ”you people are so stupid” ”A guy with a 22 rifle hung out of the -”
”Which ?” asked Donut Cup
We both ignored him