Things Happens

The southwest Philadelphia neighborhood is unfamiliar to him. It is early evening and Jerome hurriedly steps to his car with caution. He had left the apartment of a woman whom he met at a party a week ago and had championed his pursuit of sexual intercourse. He hears a man scream, “stop, help.” He looks behind him and sees in the next block an older man being attacked by a young thug. The older man pleas for his life and money not to be taken as the thug punches and kicks him. Jerome quickly gets into his car and drives away. He doesn’t bother to see what was happening through his rearview mirrors. He turns onto an avenue that would not take him to the expressway that will take him close to his home in Germantown, but he’ll make a turn much later to drive onto the expressway.

           That night in his apartment his telephone rings announcing his fiancée, Joan, is the caller.

           “Hey babe what’s up?”

           “I’m at the hospital.”

           “What? What’s the matter?”

           “It’s my dad.”

           “What happened to Lawrence?”

           “Not my stepfather my dad.”

           “Oh, well, what happened to him?”

           “He was jump by a punk who beat him bad and took what money that he had.”

           “Damn that sucks.”

           She weeps. “My dad is already with bad health and this happens.”

           “I’ll come to the hospital to be with you. Which hospital is it?”

           She tells him.

           “I’ll be right there.”

In the hospital room, her dad lay unconscious on the bed due to the medicine. Joan sits on a chair next to the window. She looks out onto the streets. Her dad was once strong and now he displays weakness. She was twelve when the divorce became final, prior to their separation she always thought their family lived an amiable unity. During their separation Lawrence began to come over to see her mother and after the divorce she married him. She found out later that it was because of Lawrence that her amiable family life ended long before their separation.  A nurse interrupts her thoughts.

           “Visiting hours will be over soon,” she says.

           “I’m just waiting for my fiancé to pick me up,” Joan says.

           “Police detectives were here to talk to your father, but he was under heavy sedation, so they decided to come back in the morning to talk to him.”

           “Did they give a time?”

           “No, they just said in the morning.”

           “Okay then I’ll be here early.” To herself she says. “If I miss them then I’ll go to the district to find out what they’re doing to find the creep.”

           “There you are,” Jerome says. He steps into the room.

           “I’m sorry but visiting hours is over,” Nurse says.

           “Thank you, we’re leaving,” Joan says.

           In the corridor they walk.

           “How is your father?” Jerome asks.

           “He’ll be okay,” Joan says.

           “What happened?”

           “Some punk beat him up and took his money and watch.”

           “Where did it happen?”

           “I don’t know exactly somewhere close to his apartment.”

           “How did you find out?”

           “Dad has me on his emergency contact. His phone was not expensive enough for the bastard to steal.”

           “Do your mother know?”

           “She wouldn’t care; she has a husband.”

           “Oh yeah, right, you want to go to my place?”

           “No, just take me to my apartment.”

           “You’re coming back here in the morning?”

           “Yeah, I already called the office and left a message that I’m taking a couple of days off and told them why. I want to be here in the morning to meet those detectives to see what they’re going to do to catch this ass hole.”

           “I can stay with you tonight so that I can ride you around tomorrow so that you will not have to take the bus or a taxi. I’ll call my job from your place.”

           “Okay.”

           In his car riding along the streets.

           “You never spoke about your father.”

           “Yes, I did. I told you that I had my dad and a stepfather.”

           “I mean; I guess that I’m saying about on our wedding day.”

           “He wouldn’t come; I had told him about you, and he will be happy to meet you after the wedding. He drinks a lot; he works a lot so that he can drink a lot.”

           “Oh okay.”

Early in the morning before sunrise the hospital calls her to come to the hospital right away because her father’s condition deteriorated. They arrive at the hospital in time to hear her dad’s last breath. The doctor told her that the hitting and kicking was the cause of the deterioration of his health.

           At the police district detectives Jack Browne and Betty Johns welcome Joan and Jerome. They direct them to sit on chairs at Browne’s desk. Johns studies Jerome in a clandestine manner then signals Browne in a surreptitious manner. He looks quick at Jerome then nod to acknowledge he see what she sees.

           “We received the news of your father’s death and we’re sorry but now we have a murderer to catch,” Browne says.

           “Yes, and I hope that it will be soon, real soon,” Joan says.

           “Well, we think that it will be soon because we had help in identifying the suspect. We just have to find him,” Johns says.

           “What kind of help?” Joan asks.

           “Well, a neighbor has the area of under surveillance with a camera that oscillates, and he caught the whole act; he let us watch what the camera photographed,” Browne says.

           “He was the one who called the police when it was on going, but the bad guy still got away,” Johns says.     

           Browne asks Jerome. “Do you own a Chevy Camaro with this license number.” From his notebook, he shows the number to Jerome.

           “Yes. Why?” Jerome says.

           “We were going to look you up as a witness,” Johns says.

           Surprised. “A witness to what?” Jerome asks.

           “Well, the camera that we talked about well it caught you looking at the attack; we wanted to know if you could identify the attacker,” Johns says.

           Taken-aback, Joan stares at Jerome who’s stun.

           In an indignant manner Browne says. “There was many calls reporting the incident but if you had yelled or shouted something or even look like you would help maybe, just maybe the victim’s beating wouldn’t have been so severe. You see that is a neighborhood of mostly elderly folks.”

           Joan removes the engagement ring from her finger then stuff it into Jerome shirt pocket who is too unable to speak.  She thanks the detectives then strolls out of the office.

           “You can leave now sir,” Johns says.

           “Okay,” Jerome says.