How Far to the Promised Land by Esau McCaulley

Author:Esau McCaulley [McCaulley, Esau]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2023-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

Doughnut Crumbs and Crack Rocks

My first encounter with real police officers took place during my junior year of high school. I owned a cream-colored Delta 88 that I’d bought and paid for myself. If you caught it at the right time of day, it might have passed for one of the Cutlasses or Cadillacs made famous by Outkast’s music videos. Most girls were too savvy to confuse my car for anything worth their attention. For that reason, I preferred to drive my mother’s white Mitsubishi Galant.

One Saturday night, my mother had gone to a basketball game at the high school. She was heavily involved in the PTA, so she was just as likely to go to these sporting events as I was. She’d taken the Delta 88 and left the Galant with me because I had a date. But before I could head out for the night, my mother called and let me know that she’d decided to come home, only the car wouldn’t start.

Aware that things could quickly get out of hand after sporting events, especially when Johnson was playing a rival school, I jumped into her car and didn’t think to follow the rules. The song “Notorious Thugs” was hot on the radio at the time. It featured a recently deceased Biggie Smalls and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, with the kind of relentless drumbeat conducive to speeding, and it boomed from my speakers as I accelerated toward the school. I knew I was in trouble when I saw those flashing lights. After turning down my radio and pulling to the side of the road, I placed my hands on the steering wheel and waited.

I watched the officer approach in the rearview mirror; he looked as leery of me as I was of him.

“Where are you heading in such a hurry this time of night?” he said.

“I’m sorry, sir,” I replied. “My mother’s car broke down over at Johnson High School. I was worried and so I was rushing to get there.”

My explanation and mention of my mother did not soften his glower. “That is no excuse for going fifty in a thirty-five. I am going to have to give you a ticket.”

I took a deep breath. My mother would be upset, but she would understand my haste. All would be well.

Then the officer noticed something in the car. “What is that in the seat next to you? Is that cocaine?”

The accusation sent a chill through me. A speeding stop was one thing, but if this cop thought I was a drug dealer, there was no telling what he might do. I glanced over to my right, wondering if someone I’d given a ride to could have left something in the seat. But I didn’t see anything. I stilled my fraying nerves and replied, “Sir, there is nothing in the seat that I can see.”

Backing away, he yelled, “Get out of the car!”

I took my hands off the steering wheel, opened the door from the outside to keep them visible, and exited the car.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.