Excerpt from my book Perspective

Hi everybody. I want to say thank you to Ahmett for sharing his online book that he has been working on.  In fact I want to say thank you to everyone that wanted me to see their writing and there has been a few of you.

I enjoy writing.  I like writing for a purpose and sometimes I like writing for just plain amusement but nobody is counted out in my book. No matter what you do keep the keys on your keyboard pressed and write till your pens are out of ink.

So this is a small excerpt from a novella I have been writing called Perspective. After seeing what has happened with Trayvon Martin and how everybody did not waste time in search for justice I decided to take the same calling for a boy name Stephon Carter in my hometown of Aiken SC.  

A boy of 19yo should not have the death penalty on his heels let alone know what it is like to be an accused murder of a police officer.  I wrote this book to express the concerns of change I see sweeping through not only my town but a nation. I hope you all enjoy it.

PERSPECTIVE

I decided to walk down Abbeville Ave pass Greenville St and come up to Hampton Ave from a side street.   Walking that route again was refreshing and it recharged me for some reason. Now being a man I see that I made the right decisions so that I can walk with the past and not doomed to repeat it.  I was coming up on Hampton Ave and I heard sirens but they did not sound like the usual ambulance or police car. 

When I finally reached the intersection of Hampton Ave and Lauren St I saw cars and trucks filling up both sides of the road.  It was an astonishing sight to see.  I did not know that many cars could fill the street like that.  I see flashing lights out the corner of my eye and hear the click clack of something tapping on the road. 

I looked to my right and finally saw where the lights and weird sounds were coming from.  It is a funeral procession.  I walked further down Hampton Ave and found a vacant lot on top of a hill to get the best view of the street.  I cannot believe how long this procession is.  Even on top of the hill I could not see the end of the line. 

The first car was the police clearing the way of course but there are so many different police cars from different jurisdictions.  Once that part of the caravan was finished there were two of the most beautiful horses I ever did see.  They are white as snow and the mane looked like soft silk.  They are pulling a funeral wagon which looked like something out of the movie.

Seeing all those cars move to each side of the road when the wagon came was like watching Moses part the red sea.  There were so many I could not keep count.  There were cars from all over the country that came to this person's funeral.  People came from Georgia, California, North Carolina, New York and Alabama.  The only reason I could think of for someone having such a lavish funeral is that the guy was rich. 

They are  burying the man at Bethany Cemetery right at the same intersection I am standing across from.  That particular cemetery has been there for years.  My father use to tell me stories how that place was the white cemetery and the cemetery down the street from my house was where the black people were buried at back in the day.  Bethany Cemetery is a very beautiful spot and I sure whoever they buried there was going to surely rest in peace. 

I started to hear some voices in the distance that caught up to ear shot fast.  People are chanting coming from the right side of my direction.  I looked all around and at first I did not see where the noise was coming from exactly but I saw white signs through some of the bushes. 

People are protesting at the funeral.  At first I thought “Can you protest a man getting buried?”

They were chanting “Free Shawn Corey, free Shawn Corey!”

I have never been at a funeral where there was a protest going on.  Hell, I was not planning on being a part of this funeral it was just by sheer coincidence that I ran upon the event. With the chanting of these nice people it is no longer a mystery who the funeral was for. This funeral is for Samuel Rivers the cop that was killed some days ago. 

For some reason these people felt the need to disrespect the proceedings by insulting the dead.  I feel a bit of rage in the actions of a few.  If people believe what is happening to Shawn Corey is wrong then have a community meeting, rally to raise money for a better defense lawyer or go out and gather support for his cause.  There is no need to interfere with the dead by using the problems of the living.  Samuel Rivers did his part in life now it is for him to have his time to rest.