Jack And Arthur

A Typical Saturday Morning.... Olivia and I had just come from doing laundry...I was helping her fold and put away her laundry...

Olivia looked at me and smiled.\

''Finished over there?" she said with a smile..

As she looked from the kitchen table..

''Uh Yeah...." I said with a sheepish grin....I found a photograph..

"Who is this? Is this the man who is fifty percent responsible for bring the woman I love into the world?" I asked..

"That would be he...That is my daddy, Alvin Bennett..."said Olivia... "He would have loved you...I'm so sorry he and my mom never got to meet you...They both would have loved you...Your southern manners and charms.."laughed Olivia.

I pulled out another photo....

"This is Mrs. Bennett....Mother of Jimmy West and Olivia Bennett, correct?" I asked.

''Right again.. That's my mama...Marissa Bennett..." said Olivia..

"Thus your middle name...Marrisa ,Olivia Marrisa Bennett..."I said..

"Aren't you the detective today..."laughed Olivia.

She began pouring us both two glasses of Ice tea..

When our doorbell rang..

It was Beverly and Nelson...

Olivia poured two more glasses of Ice tea...

Beverly saw the two photos...

''Pop Pop and Mom Mom." she said..

"Oh wow, Your grandparents Bev and your parents Liv...I did meet your mother before she passed."said Nelson.

"She liked you...She told me I was gonna marry you one day.. I told her I didn't think so..and now look at me..Married and in love with YOU!" said Beverly, who laughed..

"While you two are here , I should tell you a story...about my daddy... You see how Bev and I have these frequent run ins with Lt. Tragg now of days...Well they pale in comparison to the run in my dad  had with his Father and His Uncle."said Olivia.

''You and Tragg go back that far?" I asked.

 ''Oh God no.."said Beverly..

"I didn't meet Asshole Jr. until I was a grown woman, working as a public defender...But I knew his Father ,Arthur Sr. and his Uncle, Jack Tragg…"said Olivia..

II-

It all began years ago....

 Captain John "Jack" Tragg

and his younger brother, Lieutenant Arthur Tragg Sr. were tough cops, brutal cops.... They cracked cases, they cracked ribs and jaws too...

Both men had so many brutality complaints filed against them when they were uniformed Beat Cops that it was suggested that Detective Work would be better for them..

But they weren't much better as Detectives...Most detectives question people, rely on forensic and scientific evidence to solve crimes...and sometimes informants..

These two would forgo all of that anytime they thought a good beating would do...

 Captain Jack was the biggest asshole..

Believe it or not Lt. Tragg's father, Arthur Sr was a little more level headed, but he too never hesitated to put a beat down on a suspect when all else failed..

Their father had also been a Detective.....So it was a generational thing.

One night my father witnessed a pretty brutal beating of a man suspected of selling drugs...The man had been beaten close to death....but he gave up the names of his crew..

Doc Gibbons was not the Chief Medical Examiner then...He was the head of the EMT Units..

"Jack, you gotta cut this shit out...You damn near killed this boy....and this is the third one this week.."he said..

"Hell , He shoulda co-operated...Then I wouldn't have beat him as bad." laughed Jack Tragg..

Several other cops laughed..

My Father was in the crowd..

"Yeah you beat the wrong one...One of these days ,You gonna hit somebody and they gonna kick your ass." he said.

Captain Tragg walked over to my dad..

"You got somethin you wanna share with the crowd boy?"

''I don't see no boys around here..I said what I had to say...One of these days , That badge and that gun aint gonna save you..You just aint hit the right one yet...You beat up on people that are smaller than you and afraid of you....One day you gonna meet somebody that aint afraid of you and that will hit you back...What you gonna do then?" said my father..

"WHY I'LL KNOCK YOU THE HELL OUT!!" snarled Jack Tragg..

"Come on..Come on Jack...One beating tonight is enough...let's go..The man is obviously drunk.."said Arthur Tragg Sr.

"You better watch your mouth sonny boy.."said Jack Tragg...

A week or so later we were all at the diner...Well not my brother Jimmy, he had a game...

My Dad and my mom were there 

 With me..I was 23...I was a second year Law student..

And Beverly was 14...

My dad was parking the car when Jack Tragg walked in...He was drunk as usual...

He walked over to me...

"Heyy Sugar don't I know you?" he said.

 I didn't say a word..

''Silent Treatment Eh?"  He said..I still didn't utter a word..

Beverly didn't either..

"That's my daughter Olivia...She's in law school, her second year and that's my grandbaby..Beverly..She just finished the 8th grade."said My Mom intervening.. She didn't like the way he was leering at both of us..

"Cute girls...She's in the 8th grade? 

"Boy she's developed for an 8th grader... " he said looking at Beverly's breasts and hips a little too long and making her feel very self conscious and uncomfortable.

"This her daughter?" he asked looking at me very leeringly...

"No...Nooo...I have a son...He's much older...This is  his daughter...My daughter is 23...My Grandbaby is only 14..Just nine years between them.." said my mom..

"You people have been known to have babies real young... I'm just sayin...I got a nephew...My brother's son...He's a little older than your daughter...He's in the Police Academy..." said Jack..

Everything was cool until my dad walked in.. and we all sat down..

Jack walked over to our table..Much like his nephew does today..

"Mister Big Mouth...This is your wife? Your Daughter?? and your grand-daughter?/" he asked.

Looking at the three of us..

"Glad they get their looks from your wife and not from you boy." he said.

"I don't see no boys in here ! Get away from my table...I'm not going to ask you again.." said my dad..

''What are you going to do if I don't?" said Jack..

Everybody started backing up..

''Alvin please...We don't want no trouble.." said my mother.. But My Father never took his eyes off of Jack Tragg..

"You're a tough guy with that gun and that badge...I bet without it you're a straight chicken shit..You strike me as someone who was a punk until he got a gun and a badge.."said My father..

"I'm off duty..." snarled Jack Tragg… He foolishly took his gun 

and laid it on the table..Then he took his Gold Sheild

 and laid that on the table...

"Wanna Step Outside..? If you're smart you sit down and shut up and have your meal with your wifey and that cute daughter of yours..." he said.

''Right so you can arrest me for assault of a police officer." said my father..

"I give you my word , you won't be arrested...You'll be in the hospital, but you won't be arrested...Sure you want to do this in front of your wife, your daughter and your grandbaby?..." he snarled.

''Step Outside." said my dad..

"Oh Captain Jack was sorry he did that.."said Beverly..

"Oh My God yess…"said Olivia, who continued the story...

Jack swung two haymakers...both of them missed by a mile..

My father hit him with about 16 lefts and 16 rights to his face...and then followed up with an uppercut that sent Jack Tragg flying into a row of stacked trash cans...They all fell on him...

He was bloody and hurt, but he was a tough old bird..He crawled from under all that and charged my father, who side stepped him and tore his mid-section up with more lefts and rights...

He got a few lefts and rights in on my dad...but my dad sidestepped him and delivered an upper cut that sent him flying into the side of his car and down into the street..He picked up some dirt and threw it into my fathers face and charged him..pummeling him with lefts and rights..but my dad delivered about 16 or 17 more lefts and rights to his face ,which sent him spinning like a top..

He couldn't believe he was being beat like a drum by this little man...Neither could the crowd who had stepped outside to watch...

Captain Jack  tried to throw another haymaker and missed and slammed his fist into the light pole...This broke  three fingers on his left hand...

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GOOOD LAWWD!" he yelled in excrutiating pain!!

My father hit him one last time and old Jack Tragg collapsed like a sack of potatoes..

The crowd clapped and whistled...

Old Jack had finally had his ass handed to him...

My father didn't have a scratch on him....

One man paid for all of our meals... I can't tell you how many people shook my father's hand...

Jack Tragg had a broken hand...A broken Nose...A Fractured jaw...Both of his eyes were swollen shut..

He lie there in pain, listening to people clap and cheer that he had gotten beaten up...The embarrassment and pain broke his heart because he cried like a baby....

What Jack didn't know was that my father had been a  pretty good middleweight boxer..He had fought when he was in the Army and briefly as a professional..He could handle himself..

An ambulance came to get him....

Someone had stolen his service revolver in all of this...

My Father walked over to him....Passed him his sheild

.

''See my little girl over there..

Her name is Olivia...Remember her name...She's going to be a Lawyer one day and dirty cops like you are going to pay for what you do to the people around here.. and my grandbaby,

Beverly....She gone be somethin too....Remember their names." he said.

III-

 "Damnnnn your pops was gangsta."said Nelson..

''I'll say..Wowwwww!" I said. "So what happened after that?" I asked.

""That was it for Jack Tragg….His gun stolen and word going around that some Soul Brother kicked his ass.. was too much for him to take..He retired from the force about six months after that...He was just getting out of the hospital..and a year later...A Massive Stroke ended his life......Nobody in the Black community was sorry he was dead...In Fact, they had parties at all the local bars...." laughed Olivia..

"Arthur Sr....

He remained around for a couple or more years...He was just like his son is today....Screwing up one case after another, making one wrong arrest after another and losing his wife, Lt. Tragg's mother through divorce because of his philandering.

He fancied himself a ladies man...He  apparently messed with another cop's wife or girlfriend and that cop tried to shoot him...In Sam Mother's Diner!!! He never darkened Sam Mother's Diner again after that..He was either too embarrassed or afraid of that cop.

He kept a low profile after that...A Massive heart attack took him some years later! said Beverly...

IV-

''What about your dad?" I asked.

"He outlived both Tragg brothers.. He and my Mom...

They lived to see me graduate from Law School and Pass the bar..."Proudest day of my life.."
He said..

He even walked me down the aisle when I got married..

He lived to see Beverly graduate from Law school, but died shortly after....

"Mom was still around to see us both working as Public Defenders...but she died soon after Bev started working there..She was so happy for us and worried about my Brother Jimmy." said Olivia..

'' When you met Lt. Tragg...did you know who he was?" I asked.

"Not at first...

He had just put on his Gold shield and become a Detective..

I was a Public Defender....He's about Five or six years older than me...

Soon after meeting him, I put two and two together and figured out he was the son of Arthur Sr...And the Nephew of Jack Tragg." said Olivia.

''Wow, that apple didn't fall far from the tree did it?" I laughed.

"Sure didn't." said Beverly..

Nelson smiled..

and poured himself another glass of Ice Tea.


FOR SLC!