Chapter Two

After facing a trauma Gin Moreno will never forget, he begins to wonder what value his life really has to offer. Well, now it's his time to prove it. Will it be him or them?

Handcuffs locked his hands behind his back as he sat on the curb, admiring the red and blue that lit up the small and normally quiet community. Nosey neighbors had been woken by the commotion and stood on their lawns as they watched the body bag be placed in the back of the ambulance.

Olivia was crying harder than ever as she spoke to one of the officers while Gin couldn’t feel a thing. It was still impossible for him to understand what had happened or what he had done. Somehow, he had taken the life of another man. He always believed that there was no place in society for men like Abraham, but what gave him audacity to have that opinion, as his life had even less value? Abraham was a working man who paid taxes and helped fuel the economy with his alcohol addiction while Gin contributed nothing. All his life he had done nothing but take and be supported by others, never helping by getting a job or by giving back to the community by volunteering. All he did was take, and he had just taken another man’s life.

Finally, he was approached by two officers who appeared as if they wished they were still in their beds. One was a rather fit man with a shaved head and the other was a young and petite blonde woman.

 “Giovanni Moreno?” The female officer asked even though she was well aware of who he was.  

Gin gulped then nodded.

“Alright Giovanni,” the male officer started. “I’m officer Ashby and this is officer Wagner” They were always the usual to respond when the police had to be called on Abraham. They were more than familiar with the situation, but they were professionals who always followed their scripts.

“Am I in trouble?’ Gin finally asked, tearing up.

Officer Wagner sat next to Gin and placed a supportive hand under his shoulder blade. It didn’t matter where she placed her hands. Gin could never be comforted as long as his were confined behind his back.

“We just want to know what happened today,” Officer Ashby told him as he prepared his pen and notepad.

“He wants a lawyer!” Olivia shouted. “Gin, don’t say anything without a lawyer!”

“You have the right to have an attorney present. Do you wish to obtain one? If you do, we’d have to take you to the station for questioning.”

“Please don’t arrest me,” Gin wept.

“You want to tell us what happened here instead of the station?”

“Don’t do it Gin!’ Olivia pleaded, but she was ignored.

“Like, the whole day?” Gin asked.

 “Sure, why not?”

 “It was the last day of 8^th grade.” He spoke as if it was a normal situation where he had been asked about his day. Something he had been excited to share just hours ago. “There weren’t any classes, just a big assembly where the teachers told funny class stories then there was a talent show for all the students.”

“What kind of stories?”

“Stories about funny projects like Danny Volk doing a report on the negative effects of homework. Or Alexa Daniel pretending to read a blank piece of paper for her report.”

“What about the talent show?”

“It was awesome. My favorite teacher, Mr. Mayberry, played the guitar and sang. He had kids from band play as his actual band. Then his 3-year-old daughter ran up on the stage to hug him then sang too.”

“Sounds like a blast.” Officer Ashby sounded surprisingly supportive when he spoke, but he was a trained professional and that did not mean he was on Gin’s side.

“It was a half day so after everyone ate pizza, we got to go home early.”

“What happened when you got home?”

“At first I was still alone because my mom was upstairs working.”

“What does your mom do for a living?”

“She’s a camwhore.”

Officer Ashby was not the least bit surprised. “Go on.”

“I waited for her in the kitchen for a little while before she came down to talk to me. She told me that she had just broken up with her boyfriend, Abraham. We sat down together to eat some fruit then we played board games. After that, we stayed up late watching old cartoons.”

“What games did you play?”

“First, we played Clue and then we tried to play Monopoly, but it’s so long. We got bored and played a few more rounds of Clue.”

“When did the attack happen?”

This was when Gin started losing all confidence. “It was around midnight. My mom and I had made a fort out of blankets while we watched cartoons.”

“Do you remember what you were watching at the time?”

“It was Rocco’s Modern Life.”

“Okay, continue.”

Gin needed a moment to catch his breath and looked over to his mother who was still trembling as she spoke to a different officer. His voice had grown weak and shaky. “Then all the sudden, there’s a banging at the front door. It was Abraham and he’s yelling at us to let him in.” Tears started rolling down his cheeks. The female officer handed him a tissue from the pocket on her breast. Gin wiped his face. “My mom told me to go to my room. I’ve seen him hit her before, so I got scared and called 911 on my cellphone right away. I told them that he’s not supposed to be here. The woman told me to stay on the line the whole time, which I did. The whole entire time.” He began to cry harder. “When I was in my room, all I could do was listen to all the banging and listen to all the yelling. He broke down our door and was yelling at my mom and she was yelling at him to leave, but he wouldn’t. I didn’t want him to hurt her. I had to protect her. That’s why I went down stairs. They were in the kitchen and he was hitting her. He knocked her to the ground and started kicking her while she was down. I don’t remember how, but I had a knife and he was coming after me. I was so scared. I closed my eyes and suddenly it was over.”

“So, let me get this straight. You remember the stories your teachers told. You remember the talent show and eating pizza. You remembered what you talked about with your mom, what you ate, what you played, and what you watched. You remember all of that but you don’t remember how you got the knife?”

Gin was stumped; he was trapped. Somehow, he had played right in his hands. But how? He answered all his questions and told him exactly as he remembered it. He didn’t lie and never tried to fill in any blanks. “It all happened so fast,” was all he could mutter as tears rolled from his cheeks faster than ever. “I didn’t want to hurt him.”

“Thank you, Giovanni. I think we got everything we need.” And with that, the two officers took their leave and headed towards his mother.

Gin hung his head low as he let his tears flow down his face like a river. Heat collected in his cheeks and his nose was just as wet as his eyes as it dripped. When more officers approached him, he wiped his face with the already used tissue before looking up. Before he knew it, the process was repeating. Even though he may have gotten himself into trouble, he was not dumb enough to lie or change his story.

“Thank you, Giovanni. I think we got everything we need,” the other officer repeated. Everything they said sounded legit, but he knew by now that it was nothing but a script.

Everyone from the neighborhood had left their homes to watch what was going on. Of course, seeing the police in front of the Moreno home was nothing new, but this was the first time a corpse had been involved.

After what seemed like hours, officer Wagner had returned to Gin. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up to his feet. All Gin could imagine was her flinging him over the hood of the car and yelling at him that he is under arrest. But instead, she turned him around and unlocked the cuffs. “You can’t go back home for a while because it’s a crime scene, but we’re releasing you to your mom.”

“Am I in trouble?” Gin asked again, much more upset than he had ever been. Somehow, telling the story was much more traumatizing than the experience. When it happened, it flew by. It was nothing. But when he recalled it, it was a never-ending nightmare that was now truly sinking in.

“That’s not up to me, kid.  It’s pretty obvious what happened here. Abraham was a repeat domestic violence offender and all the evidence fits. As far as we’re concerned, you’ve committed no crimes. We’re releasing you, but a judge may issue a warrant. I’d start looking for a lawyer.”

Olivia had a blanket wrapped around her and they could hear her bare feet slap against the pavement as she slowly walked towards the officer and her son. She wrapped her arms tightly around her boy as the two watched what was happening to their home.

It was still in shambles and there was no way they would ever get their security deposit back. The door was completely ruined. Holes littered the walls and surely it was not cheap to clean the blood. But for now, that’s not their concern.

Olivia had no words, and neither did Gin. All they could do was hold each other tightly and weep.