From Crack to Christ: A Witness

"There was this girl on the stroll named Keisha*.  Some people thought she looked like me.  I didn't think so.  She did wear her hair in finger waves same way I did.  And she was shaped like me a little bit from behind but that's it.  Well one night I was strolling, business was slow and this John pulled up to the curve and said, "Keisha?"

I said, "Yeah it's me. You want something?"

"Come take a ride with me.  I've been looking for you.  You haven't been around lately."

"I've been here.  How you doing?"

I had already figured that Keisha knew him as a regular.  So, as I'm leaning in the car, I'm looking around for his name on something so I can say it. I told him my prices.  I told him where I usually go.  I didn't want to go far.  Don't want to be too far from the stroll, from my regulars, even though I knew they'd wait.  He saw that I was hesitating.  He increased the money and gave it to me upfront.  That's all I needed to see. Cause it's all about the loot.  I got in the car with him.  We started driving up Main St. to make a left on Fulton St.  I notice that he is going in the opposite direction of the Courtesy.

"Turn around.  There's this spot where I usually go."

"No, I have a new spot I want to take you to."

I'm sitting back and I'm looking at him.  And something about him doesn't look quite right.  I started to get a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Where are we going?  We can pull over and do it right here on the side of the road."

"No, I got this place I want to take you to."

Then we get on the parkway and he's driving faster and faster.  I'm starting to get really scared because I don't know where we're going.  He's not a regular and I'm just really starting to get a bad feeling in my stomach.  I'm talking about anything right now, just to get his mind off of whatever he's thinking about that's making him drive so fast.  Finally, for what seems like fifteen minutes or more, he pulls over.  We are on the Meadowbrook Parkway, parked on the grass.

"Get out," he said.

"Here?"

"Yes!  I always wanted to do it in the woods.  Go ahead, I have to get something."

"That's gonna cost extra."

I got out of the car.  This is gonna be quick, I'm thinking.  Got me all out here in the woods.  He'll have to pay extra.  I started walking up the side of the parkway into the woods.  The moon was out and it helped me to see where I was going.  I kept walking.  He was behind me.  He was coaxing me along and then his voice changed.

"Keisha, why did you do it?"

"Why did I do what?"

SMACK! I could feel my face tingling from being slapped.  He'd taken rope out of his pocket and had hit me in my face.  He tied my hands behind my back.  I couldn't fight back!

"You know what you did.  I lost everything!"

"No, tell me!  What did I do?"  By then, my left eyelid was hurting and I could feel something dripping down the side of my face.  I knew it was blood.

"I lost my family, my home, my career..."

By then he's crying and there's something in his hand.  He raised it over his head and I could see that it was an axe.  I started screaming.

"My name is not Keisha!  My name is April!  April Cofield!"

"Your name is Keisha!  And I'm going to kill you for what you did to me!"

I started running, but because I was in the woods and the ground was soft I lost my shoe and then I fell.  He was right behind me.  He had both his hands on the axe and was holding it high over his head.  I looked back at him and moved my shoulders up to try and shield my neck to prepare for the blow.  I was crying.  I knew I was gonna die that night.  I just knew it.  I was crying about my sister Karen.  She was pregnant and I wouldn't live to see the baby. I couldn't move nothing but my head.  I knew I was gonna die, so I moved my head up toward the sky and to the side.

"Please Jesus!  HELP ME!"

There was silence, all but my voice praying and begging God to help me.

Then...

"It's not you!  You're not Keisha!  Oh my God, Oh my God, OH MY GOD!  What have I done?  What have I done?  What is that?  What's that?"

"What's what?"

I rolled my shoulder up to wipe the blood and the tears.  Also, I think that I had grass on my face or something.

"What's that shining on your face?  What's this?"

I turned my face toward the moonlight again.  I knew it could only be one thing.

He shook his head, 'Yes!"

"My nose ring.  It's my nose ring.  Please Mister! My name is not Keisha.  Please just let me go.  I won't tell nobody."

He started wailing.  I mean he cried so much that I felt sorry for him.  He begged me to forgive him.  He looked like a wounded little boy.

"Just take me back to Terrace."

He untied my hands and we walked back to the car.  He put the axe in the trunk.  We got in the car and sat there for awhile.  The tears started flowing again. I had never been so close to death before that I could taste it.  After awhile I stopped crying.  But I had to know.

"What did Keisha do to you so bad that you'd want to kill her?"

He waited a long time and then he told me.

"I was a regular.  I was good to her.  I gave her whatever she asked for.  More than she charged.  She became greedy.  Started demanding more and more.  Then she sent me pictures of us.  She blackmailed me.  I paid it off.  But she sent the pictures to my office and to my home.  My wife left me.  Took my children.  I lost my job.  She didn't have to do that to me.  Ruined my life.  I lost everything!  I wanted to kill her for what she did.  When I saw you from behind, I thought it was her.  But when the moonlight hit your nose ring; I could see your face... Please forgive me."

He started sobbing again.  By this time we had been riding back, had gotten off the service road and were going back through Roosevelt, headed towards Hempstead.  I looked at him.  I let him take me back to Terrace and I got out of his car.  I had to know how much money she got that almost cost me my life.

"How much money she get from you?"

"Ten thousand dollars."

Then I really became vexed.  Got my face busted open, almost lost my life because she wouldn't do the right thing after getting 10 G's?  I would've done the right thing. I would've taken care of him if he was taking care of me.  He again apologized and before he left, he gave me all the money he had in his pocket.  He drove off.  I was still in a daze.  I went and bought some weed and got high with a friend of mine.  I just had to talk to somebody that night.

A couple of days later, I saw Keisha.  I went up to her and bust her in the face for G.P. (General Principle).  But then I had to leave Hempstead.  Her people were looking for me to retailiate.  I still managed to service my clients by going to their places of business after hours.

He and I became friends after that.  He actually became a regular customer.   But then one day just like he came in my life, he left.  I often wonder whatever happened to him.

**I sat there looking at her.  Hanging on every word that came from her mouth.**

"And one other thing," she said.  "From that day to this day, I never used anybody else's name and I never leave home without my nose ring!"

**April and I recently drove by the spot where she almost lost her life. It was near the M7 exit on the Meadowbrook Parkway.**

 © 2009, Robin Carmon Marshall and April Cofield Lambert.  All rights reserved.  No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author.