Driver, T. C. (48 page)
After a quick lunch at a roadside Diner our group was on the main road and reached the long bay bridge in about an hour and a half. Once over the water we could see the Great Ark out in the channel. The Ark was being helped by many tugs. Soon the traffic came to a stop once again. We all got out of the van to stretch and Joe jumped up in the pick up truck shouting and pointing to the far horizon. Coming into clear view was a cloud of smoke. It was Captain Cory in Jediah’s yacht. He was still trying to sink the Great Ark. Bug like drones were diving out of the clouds like wasps, stinging the old destroyer the best they could. “Cory’s going to ram the Ark,” shouted Captain Coe. The bridge was now lined with people watching this epic battle. Just like the Monitor and the Merrimack these two old ships could not finish each other off. The Great Ark was like a tired old wrestler reaching for the safe corner of Hampton Roads, the place where she was born! Jediah’s Captain Cory was just as stubborn as Joe’s First Mate Friday. Both were pursuing each other unto death for fame, fortune, and glory. As we watched the old destroyer rolled belly side up and the thick, rolling, black smoke was quickly snuffed out. Like a peaceful swimming whale the old destroyer without notice or fanfare submitted quietly to the still waves of death! Yes, Friday had done it. The Ark had crossed the highway. The Great Ark would live again. People were raising hell behind us now for the traffic had gone on in front and was some ways down the road. Back in the van Angie gave her red- faced stubborn and now mad husband a kind facial expression but knew better than to speak. Tommy Mute who had lost it during the church service so bad that we had all feared that he was dead, was now praising God and shouting “Blessed by the Best” He would be shouting for many hours of the drive back to Salem. Tommy might be Holiness I thought. He never mentioned any giants so I wasn’t really sure. On the long bridge I stared out the wide side window of the van. I was sitting in the back with Gary Litton. Gary was pretending to be asleep so that I would not talk so much, he’s had years of practice at doing that and has gotten pretty damn good at it. Out in the bay past the bridge posts rushing by my window I saw the most beautiful sail boat yacht I’d ever seen. On the back or stern were three men asleep. Two women drove the big Captains wheel on its bridge. Daniel and Double De stood waving to a fishing boat from Port railing! Hey, look there they go, that’s Franklin’s boat. They soon dropped out of sight and I lay my head back down. Sometimes you just don’t know?
That evening I was standing at the front door of my house or really now my ex-wife’s house. The cowboy van rode off into the evening sunset. I knocked on the door and Patty answered!
“Do I live here?” I asked?” How many of life’s basic important questions you just don’t know. Patty grabbed me and pulled me inside. “Welcome home honey,” she said.
That evening and night was spent in each others arms! Not cold marathon sex but real love making. We so much enjoyed spending time together, as only lifetime partners can really, fully understand.
In the morning we headed for the Cracker Barrel for breakfast.
This is a long time old family tradition at my home comings, but no relation to Patty’s family (ha-ha). After breakfast Patty reached into her purse and handed me a summons from Roanoke County.
“Cornelius, honey you’ve been indicted. I’m sorry. This is about my sister. Don’t worry, Cornelius, she filed charges on me also down in North Carolina. I did beat all of her silly made up charges, but it cost thousands of dollars and many trips back and forth going to court. Cornelius, I showed my North Carolina Lawyer your case and she laughed out loud. She said only a commonwealth state would ever bring up silly charges like yours, that my sister plainly said that you two did not have sex and that her thirty five year old allegation would not have been taken seriously! My lawyer also said that Virginia was famous for poorly written sex laws because so many lawyers from state schools were incompetent and backward.
“Oh! I see, maybe those lawyers went to UVA and played football. I did hear something about that! Patty Honey please tell me what did Debbie Cracker Head, your little sister charge you with?”
“Stalking,” answered Patty, “and trying to kill her dog, and bring harm to her minor children. It was simply crazy and mean and evil, Cornelius! I haven’t been to my sister’s house in over seventeen years, that can’t be stalking?”
“Sounds bad, Patty, I thought your sister’s three boys were all big tough football players in college, how did you manage to scare them, and the dog, (ha-ha), is that the same dog you would dog sit for at your mothers when Debbie and Barnie would go on trips and vacations (ha-ha). That dog likes me more than it does Barnie. Your mother always did say so. That dog was a very good judge of character, just like your mother (ha-ha).”
“Stop laughing and making fun, Cornelius, this is serious. Both of my sisters are cracking up and poor little Debbie is only in her fifties. She has lost all touch with reality, honey. She filed charges on you and me both the same week after I would not sign my mother’s estate settlement paperwork!
“Your mother had money?” I thought that was settled years ago.” “No, Cornelius, they have been dragging their feet, the old house has sat empty for years. Our family is the shame of the community. The grass is six foot high, nobody cuts it much and my brothers and sisters argue about everything. Little sister Debbie has stolen all of mother’s jewelry from the house and of course I told you I gave her what mother had at the hospital she said at the time she would have it cleaned! Barnie rented a truck, and hauled away all of daddy’s garage tools, the welders, air compressors all that stuff in daddy’s shop. They wanted me off of the executors list because I was so sick all the time so I trusted them and signed away most of my legal rights and power. I tried to go along and stop some of the arguing but now they have given me nothing at all. I trusted them Cornelius, and now my sisters and brothers have turned on me. They all changed when Momma and Daddy was not around to keep the peace. My momma and Daddy were people of faith they would be so ashamed of them. All I asked them for was one of the four Bibles one of momma’s many rings, and a piece of Daddies old military uniform Cornelius. They will not talk to me, or even give me copies of family pictures over the web. This is not about the money. I guess they just hate me. I’m so sad because I love them so much. They will not even let me in the Church, not even for my uncle’s funeral! Debbie filed charges on you Honey, she said you were naked in front of her but did not have sex with her when she was sixteen.”
“Well, honey, she’s right about the not having sex part. I’m sure I would have remembered that.”
“That was almost forty years ago, can she really file charges against you now, honey?”
“We live in the commonwealth of Virginia my dear we are not like all the rest of the fifty states. I have looked into this some. Did you know that the laws in Virginia are famous for being poorly written? Salem is a backward hick town and few powerful families run it. There is no justice here Patty or honest Judges! Do you remember that crooked Salem Judge Uncle Allen had fired for me during our divorce? That Judge was a friend of your brothers. I wish that Allen and Dad were both alive now but I guess I’m on my own on this one. I’ll talk to the police in the morning and see what’s up.”
The next day I came home from the magistrate office and my Lawyer to tell Patty the news! “Honey I talked to the police and my Lawyer! The magistrate let me out without bond to get my affairs in order before I go to court and to jail! I will not have a trial.”
“Jail,” Patty said (crying).
“Yes dear, the court date has been moved up. Court is now set for in the morning. Our lawyer said the only way he could get me out of life in prison without parole was to take a deal offered by the prosecutor and go to jail for six months. If I don’t take the deal and demand a jury trial then we would spend all of our retirement money and you could even lose the house and I would likely be put away using the new civil commitment laws of Virginia and would never get out. Almost nobody ever gets out of civil commitment in Virginia and it only takes one offense on a list of twenty-eight different charges. They said that if I didn’t “play ball” and take the plea that they could keep me in jail anyway for six months just waiting on a court date so there was no reason to be a smartass and try to claim constitutional rights. I was deemed a danger to society even though I was sixty years old and had a clean spotless record and had run a public charity in the town for over ten years.
“Did you say in the morning, Cornelius?
Go to jail? Did I hear you right honey? The sentence for not having sex with my Cracker Head sister here in Virginia is life in prison? How could this be? Lots of boys have not had sex with my sister? At least I would think so. I mean she’s been living down in Carolina for years.”
“I’m sorry, honey. I have to take the crooked deal they offered me. This has nothing to do with truth, or justice only power, hate, and money. I would not spend all of your money on me, not at our age. I don’t think we can fight them and win. The laws in Virginia have changed since back in 1975, and 1978, but not for me. The two top sex case lawyers advised me not to try to fight Salem. Do not try to prove the fine line argument of innocence or guilt that it would be impossible. In Virginia the law was so broad, and obviously written to confuse for the express purpose of empowering dirty local officials that fighting for justice was not possible. In fact I could be convicted (and was) of having carnal knowledge of a minor with no claim of any type of sex. I remembered what Jediah Emin Patel had said about the Prince of Virginia and signed the plea deal. There was no evidence against me except my own statement to the police. The next morning I walked into the courtroom and after a quick five minute plea bargain hearing I walked out in shackles. An old man of sixty with a lifetime clean record not even a parking ticket now a felon in trouble forever with the law. Patty cried as I was led away, my friends shouted “We love you, Cornelius”
Paul Goldwater was smiling like a possum, as were the evil Cracker Sisters. I was not allowed to say goodbye or hug my wife. In the holding cell I remembered what the giant had said. “Don’t be fooled Cornelius, these are false names with the power to deceive in water. DEBBIE, HEDDIE, in the hedge of CECIL, a double effect. My plaintiff sister-in-law DEBBIE was fifty years old, with long thin blonde fair, five foot seven, and ninety two pounds. Her brand new capped, “too white” for real teeth shining like new money. It does not take a doctor to see a classic anorexic female with teeth destroyed by stomach acid standing before you. Anyone who saw her immediately had compassion for her deep sunken AIDS patient type face. How could a person who obviously could not see truth in the mirror each morning still be found capable of recognizing the truthful witness about herself
from thirty-five or forty years before? Not filing charges after all these years until her parents are both dead and she is in a selfish fit or rage in an angry estate fight with her sister! Was the judge Sam or Randy his prosecutor really that blind or where both dirty pawns directed from above?
Hold previous page up to your bathroom mirror (water) now turn it upside down! The names you still find easy to read have the power to deceive in water.
I next sat in a holding cell awaiting transport to the big new regional jail in Salem Virginia, or WVRJ for short. These next six months in jail would be harder on my wife Patty, than me I thought. I was finally back, but now gone again just when she needed and wanted me. In the holding cell with me was a tall young man named Jim.
“Maybe I should have fought them and not taken the plea agreement,” I told Jim. “I feel so dirty, and cheap like taking a dive or something. Maybe I could have beaten them in court. Goldwater, Sissy from Catawba Hospital, all the Crackers! I’d hate to be the next one sitting on that court bench (ha-ha).” The tall young man named Jim held up his hand and shook his head side to side before speaking!
“No, you did right Cornelius! Don’t try to fight Salem, learn from me! I demanded a trial! The girl was sixteen years old! I just got thirty years and have spent over forty-five thousand dollars! My lawyer says I may never get out!”
“Wow, Jim, thirty years what did you do have sex with her, rape her or hurt the poor girl.”
“No,” said Jim, “nothing like as that! I think they shoot you on the spot if you have sex with a sixteen year old here in Salem. This woman looked older to me and I was a fool. She had talked about having an abortion two years ago to a woman friend of mine and I took from hearing about the abortion that she was more than a kid I didn’t figure she was fourteen and having an abortion. At trial she didn’t look like a hooker anymore but like a little school girl. I was not so much ashamed of touching her crotch as I was accused, I admitted that I did touch her crotch, but ashamed for being such a fool.