Speaking The Language

"After we are done today...I gotta take you guys to this restaurant we went to the last time we were in San Diego...the food is off the chain...and the drinks are cheap!" I said as we all boarded the bus and prepared to drive out to the detention center where our client, Quenterro Castille was being held..

"Yesssss the food is incredible...He's not lying.."said my wife, Olivia..

"I'll take your word for it....You haven't been wrong in Philadelphia.." laughed Yvette..

"Isn't that something??? and he's not even from Philly....and knows more about our restaurants than we do and we are born and raised there." said Beverly...

"Donnie Ray is going to get his own TV show somewhere down the line and make a killing, Like Anthony Bourdain." said Gary...

We all laughed...

 "I'm looking forward to that..."said Kahlil...

 "It's so hot...."said Sofia..

 "It was hot in Philly.."said Bee Bee..

 "Temperature is 101 today...."said Keith Jones..

 ''Feels like 110." said Jade.

 "This Bus is air conditioned.."said Josie..

"That's going to be the best thing about this trip today.."said Nelson..

"Yes." said Beverly....

She ,Nelson ,Josie, Liv and I had already been out to the detention center ,three days before..

It wasn't particularly hopeful..

The center was on the outskirts of San Diego...

A stale  group of wooden bunkers with no air conditioning...housing about 500-600 people...

it was very depressing..

Olivia said...

"We've got to do everything we can to get him out of there..."

II-

This whole scenario was like what we had faced in Houston last year.....Only this camp was worse...The smell of human perspiration hung in the air...

We presented our identification...We were seated in a small area....There were three large fans....but it was so hot...The fans were of no comfort...They were just blowing hot air...

 "Auntay,I hate it here...This is terrible."said Beverly..

"I hate it too baby!" said Olivia..

"I wonder how long they are going to make us wait today?" asked Nelson...

We had waited an hour and a half three days before.....

I looked over at Josie...

"You Okay Jo?" I asked..

"I'm okay." she said...She was such a trooper.

Yvette looked at her troops..

"You guys alright?" she asked.

 "We are fine."said Bee Bee..

 "Yes, we are fine.."said Sofia..

 "This is what we signed up for."said Keith Jones..

 "Yupper." said Kahlil.

"I'm okay."said Jade.

I had an ice trunk on the bus, full of cold bottles of water and Orange Juice...

I passed bottles to everybody.....

Guards brought Quenterro into us after an hour wait... I wasn't surprised...This was done both as an act of intimidation and one to let us know who was in control..

"Olivia, Beverly, Donnie Ray...You came back....Hey Nelson, Josie.." he said..

"I brought some friends...They've done a lot more of these type of cases than Bev and I...and they'll be helping..

 "This is Attorney Yvette Jones

 Attorney Sofia Garcia..

 Attorney Beatrice Evans...

Quenterro's eyes got as large as saucers just looking at the women...The same way he did looking at Beverly and Josie three days before.

 Attorney Keith Jones

 Attorney Kahlil Ahmed

 Investigators, Jade Lee

and Gary Lockwood.."said Olivia..

"Wow....Who is paying for all this?" he asked..

"The American Civil Liberties Union is paying our legal fees and our airfare....A good friend has put us up in his Airbnb....Your case is being used as a test case...perhaps to help some of these other people."said Olivia..

"I haven't had a shower since I been here..Could you help with that?" asked Q.

"That will be my first order of business....Have you been fed?" asked Olivia..

"Yeah, we get three hots and a cot...Not as good as the Military " he joked..

He was trying to keep his spirits up...

III-

Olivia, Beverly, Nelson,Yvette, Keith Jones and  Josie met with officials and demanded that showers be provided for Q. as well as the others...

Surprisingly...it took about two hours...but showers were set up and all of the detainees were allowed to get a shower.....

A white man with horn rimmed glasses approached us...

"Who is in charge here?" he asked..

 "Who are you?" asked Bee Bee..

"I'm Boston Bishop, Attorney for DHS/ICE... I heard some attorneys were here creating a ruckus."he said.

 "We aren't creating any ruckus...We are advocating for our client, just like you're advocating for the government.." said Kahlil..

"Yes." said Sofia..

 "We are from Philadelphia....We are representing Quenterro Castille.."I said..

 "There are others with us..They'll be here shortly.."said Gary...

Ms. Jade took her tablet and began looking up who we were dealing with...

"I'm from Philly myself..Nice to see some people from my hometown out here.." he said...

Just then ,Olivia returned...She sensed that this was an Attorney from the government..

 "May We help you?" she asked..

 Beverly looked on...

 So did Nelson..

 But Yvette seemed to know him...

"Boston?   What are you doing here?" asked Yvette...

 Keith whispered to Josie...

"His name is Boston?"

Jose giggled..

"Yvette...I could ask the same...You are with this group eh?   I know who Olivia Bennett-Alexander and Beverly West Are...They're the two that got Richard Graves out of two murder raps...I'm honored to finally meet them....I didn't know you knew or were associated with them."said Boston.

"Olivia is my very best friend....We were room mates in Law School..."said Yvette..

"Wow...and so you guys all work for the American Civil Liberties Union eh?" asked Boston..

 "No...I have my own firm...

 You know my niece, Beverly...

 This is her husband, Attorney Nelson East..

 My Husband, Investigator, Donnie Ray Alexander

and our Para-Legal, Josie Boyd."  said Olivia.

"And I work for MCCLUSKEY/COZEN/CONNOR & PRATT & ASSOCIATES.....These are my associates..

 Attorney Keith Jones

 Attorney Beatrice Evans

 Attorney Kahlil Ahmed

Attorney Sofia Garcia

and our investigator,

Jade Lee.

and this is my significant other,

Gary Lockwood, an investigator with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office ." said Yvette proudly....

"I get it...The ACLU contracted you, rather than use their own inferior lawyers..." he smirked...

He sounded a bit arrogant...

''And why did the government send you?" asked Olivia..

"Touche'....I am looking forward to sparring against you Olivia and Yvette too...To answer your question, they called me in because I'm the best....I never lose....Like you, I'm in Private Practice...I was especially chosen because they knew that ACLU was going to make this a show trial.."said Boston Bishop..

"Then we'll see you at the bail hearing tomorrow morning.."said Yvette..

"Bail Hearing? He won't get that...He's a flight risk..He fled Philadelphia before we caught up with him out here..I'll make sure he doesn't get bail.."said Boston..

"Think so huh? We'll see about that." said Olivia...

A Fresher smelling and more energetic Quenterro was brought before us...He said something in Spanish to Sofia.. He asked her if she would have his next baby with him..

She smiled and answered him back in Spanish...Saying "I'm afraid not papi...I have a boyfriend..He's one of your attorneys." and she pointed to Kahlil, whose back was turned..

He didn't understand Spanish, so he was oblivious to what had been said.

 Beverly, who spoke Spanish fluently smiled...She had heard what he asked...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.."she said..

Olivia ,who also spoke Spanish fluently laughed and told him to keep his mind on being free and on his two small children and their mothers back in Philly...in Spanish.

He was embarrassed when he realized that Olivia and Beverly could speak Spanish fluently...He asked if everyone here could speak Spanish fluently..

Beverly replied in Spanish...That just the three of them could and that he was lucky because Sofia's boyfriend ,

Kahlil was standing within ear shot..

He apologized profusely in Spanish...

Boston Bishop, like the rest of us had no idea what the four were talking about..

"Cute.....I would invite you all out for drinks...but that would be unethical....Maybe after this hearing is over..on your way back...." he said..  "Oh and Q.  Hope you showered well....Your next one will be in Mexico champ." said Boston with a smirk as he walked off..

"He's arrogant as hell...Please don't tell me Yvette that you and he have history?" asked Gary..

 "Ouuu Ms. Yvette.." said Beverly.

 ''Aye Mios Dios Ms. Yvette."said Sofia.

 "You gotta spill the tea Ms. Yvette."said Bee Bee..

 "Yes..Spill that tea,"said Josie..

Ms. Jade said nothing...She just smiled.

"We dated...it was years ago...When he lived in Philly... I had just started at McClusky, was just starting to make a little money....He lived in my building...He was working for his father's law firm...We struck up a conversation and it led to a lightweight relationship...

We dated...He was my first and only white boyfriend...We were starting to get serious and then he took me to meet his family.." said Yvette..

"Racists huh?" asked Nelson...

"Not really....They went out of their way to prove they weren't.....Two of his uncles and his father mentioned to me that they voted for Barack Obama twice and would have voted for him a third time..One of his Aunts asked me if I knew Jay-Z..."said Yvette...

 "WOWWWW!" said Olivia..

 "Oh My God!"laughed Beverly...

 "REALLY?" said Josie..

 "OH MY GODDDD!" laughed Bee Bee.

"WOWWW!"said Sofia.

"You should've said yeah!."said Keith Jones..

"And went...IT'S THE ROCK! everytime you came up in their crib!"said Kahlil..

Nelson and Jade spit their water out laughing..

Olivia, Beverly, Josie , Bee Bee  and Sofia cracked up laughing..

Gary and I shook our heads...

"One of his cousins kept wanting to feel my hair...Another asked me where I went to Law School and if Affirmative Action got me in... After being around his family...I knew I couldn't go any further with Boston.... It was hard for him, but not for me...I broke it off...He called me for months, asking me out ,asking if we could start over...but I told him no...and that was that..

He moved out of my building and I never saw him again..."said Yvette..

"I can tell you what he did after that...He left his father's law firm and headed out West...First to San-Francisco where he worked for two very prestigious firms...doing good work...He got married...To a white woman...and divorced after three years...,Married another white woman, divorced after three years and was engaged to an Asian woman....broke the engagement off just six months ago...

Moved to San Diego and set up his own practice...where he seems to be doing quite well.."said Jade..

"These trips are always interesting."said Beverly....

"Yes they are...Indeed." said Gary, laughing ruefully.






III-

As promised....I took them to the restaurant we had been in when were last in San Diego..

 We had a delicious meal and drinks afterwords..

Everyone was quite pleased...

This was a rooftop restaurant and bar and it had a great view of the city...

 "Remember when we came out here before Nelson?" asked Beverly...

 "Yeah, I missed this place...I came out after you all had been out here a week...Liv paid for my airline ticket...She called me and said.."My niece needs you" he laughed remembering..

 "That's back before I got to come on any of you guys great trips.."laughed Josie..

 "This is nice isn't it? Romantic..."said Bee Bee to Keith Jones..

 "Yeah it is.."said Keith Jones, who couldn't take his eyes off of Bee Bee.. It seemed like every dress she brought out here was a micro mini...he mused..

 "Man, I'm loving this...I love California weather...I had an offer for San-Francisco..wow!" said Kahlil

"You know you wouldn't have been happy without me papi."said Sofia.

Beverly, Nelson, Josie, Bee Bee, Keith, Kahlil and Sofia stood by the rail, overlooking the city...tomorrow they were going to spend the day in our Air BNB looking up predicates and working on strategies and arguments...

Olivia and I, Yvette and Gary and Jade sat at the bar after we ate, talking and drinking..

 "Well we certainly had an eye opening day...That camp was deplorable...Tomorrow I'm going to file a motion to close this camp, citing human conditions being deplorable..I took photos with my phone." said Olivia..

 "You know that that motion is going to be useless, but I know, you want to bring attention to these conditions...put the government on the defensive." I said.. I liked how my wife's mind worked..

Yvette and Gary were having another conversation altogether..

 "So..Are there any white girls in your past?" she asked.

 "Yeah....two or three...They were all cops..."laughed Gary, putting his arm around Yvette's waist and pulling her closer to him..

Ms. Jade was face timing Danny Ho back in Philly....

IV-

We packed into our bus and headed back to our Air BNB....

unknown to us...sitting across the street in a car with tinted windows was Boston Bishop..

''So this is where they are staying in a property owned by accused murderer Richard Graves.....Once they said a grateful friend was putting them up...It wasn't hard to do a property search and find this place.." said Boston...

He watched us each get out and file in..

He wasn't interested in Beverly, Nelson, Josie, Keith, Bee Bee Sofia, Kahlil or Jade for that matter..

He did study Olivia and I for a minute...

"Olivia is a babe...Her husband is one lucky man..." he mused..

Yvette was who he was really interested in....

and Gary.....

"God I miss Yvette....I would have married her....She's dating this schmuck now?   I can't believe it..He's an investigator for the D.A.'s office in Philly....Wonder what interest they have in this case?" he mused as he watch the last of us enter the house..

"Gotta give Stephen Graves credit....he knows how to live.." he said and drove off..

(TO BE CONTINUED)