Strong Island Page #7

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He'd thrown a vacuum cleaner.

Oh, yeah.

So I know that that incident occurred.

I don't know...

Let me see if I can get a hold

of any of my reports.

OK. Anything... Anything you could

share with me would be really helpful.

-I can't promise. But if I can...

-No, of course not.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

-I'll talk to you within the next

week. -OK, sounds good. Thank you.

- Hey, there.

- Hey.

How's it going?

I just talked to Detective Hughes.

Oh, my goodness.

I need to talk. I just need to hear

your voice for a few minutes.

I'm right here. I'm right here.

The f***ing vacuum cleaner...

incident...

Oh, my God.

...is why they didn't indict him.

What?

Because he threw a vacuum cleaner.

Because he picked up a car door.

And because apparently that's enough

to justify reasonable fear.

What kind of investigation was this?

The f***ing vacuum cleaner.

Oh, my gosh, my love.

OK.

Wait. What else did he say?

Nothing. I just hung up

the phone with him.

He's going to call me back next week.

-He's gonna call you back next week.

OK. -Yeah.

Did you start crying on the phone

or after?

After. I managed to keep myself together!

Deep breath. Take a deep breath.

Thank you.

-I'll be home soon, OK?

-OK. Talk to you soon. Bye.

You know, I actually had hoped

to not be in New York that weekend.

I had hoped to be in Chicago

with a bunch of my friends.

But I couldn't get anyone to cover

my shifts at the DA's office.

I didn't have any cash

so I went to the local ATM,

and as I was doing the transaction,

I felt something at the back of my head.

And at first I actually thought it was

one of my roommates,

maybe playing a joke

or something like that.

I turned around and there was, you know,

a man standing there

with a gun in his hand.

You know, very surreal.

You know, it's sort of...

people describe... sort of slow motion.

And that's sort of what I, you know,

went through at that point.

My, sort of, heart,

at that point was in my throat.

You know, I could feel my sort of...

constriction, in my throat.

And I basically made a break for the door,

you know, giving him the money,

and then there was an explosion.

And, you know,

I remember actually more the sound first,

and then this feeling,

like someone had just, you know...

punched me in the kidney, right?

And...

And it was this huge disconnect.

It just... the explosion was one thing,

And then there was this feeling in my...

like a really hard punch to the kidney.

And then it was suddenly this realization.

"Oh, my God, I've been... He shot me."

And I remember yelling out, like,

"Oh my God, he shot me."

And then he was gone.

I remember thinking,

"I'm not going to die here. Not today.

Not here on the streets of Brooklyn."

And... sorry.

So I put my hand behind my back,

because I was like, "What is that?"

Like I was feeling, like... moisture.

And my hand was soaked in blood.

I'm dying.

So I...

I just need to get to a live person,

someone I can talk to

who's going to know what to do.

I knew the one place

you always find people is the subway,

and also the token clerk, and...

So I actually had a badge,

as a prosecutor,

and you know, I pulled out my badge

and I said, "Help me, I've been shot."

And I sort of put it up

against the window and...

She was like, "OK, alright," you know,

"Hold on, honey. Hold on, honey."

And, you know, she quickly made a call

on something and then she came out,

which, I found out later,

is against all protocol.

But...

it was this moment of humanity.

She...

She just held me.

And... she encouraged me to sit down,

and I was afraid to shut my eyes,

because if I fall asleep,

I'm not going to wake up.

So...

Sorry.

They got me up.

They got me into an ambulance.

I didn't realize that

they shut down the

Brooklyn Bridge, to get

me over there.

The other thing I had a

vague memory of,

when I was still down

in the subway...

These two guys coming up and one saying,

"Hey, man, what happened?

Where did you go?"

You know. "We saw you, we saw you."

Or, you know, "We couldn't find you."

And again, I found out later

from the prosecutor

that one of them was your brother.

Or was your brother or his friend.

They apparently had seen part of it,

or had seen this...

one of the guys running away.

And I guess one of them

would chase after the guy,

and one of them went to try to find me.

Mr. Ford's testimony was basically,

the guy was running right down the middle

of the street, and he ran after him.

The guy with the gun.

And jumped on him, and caught him.

That's my remembrance

of what had happened.

And I remember that we made an X

right in the middle of the street,

on a picture,

as to where that had happened.

I mean, he just, he reacted,

and I was trying to remember,

was he in the service or something?

What gave him the training or ability

to handle himself

in such a... effective way?

You know? Fearless.

It was a... it was a heroic act, I think.

"January 1st, 1992.

It's a new year.

I'd said I was not going

to make any resolutions,

but there are some goals that I

would like to get accomplished.

One. By June 1st, I would like

to be a corrections officer.

Or I will be back in school.

These are my only two options.

Two. This year,

I want to stand and not falter.

I want to calm some of my fears.

I want to feel peaceful.

This is the year for me to find me.

January 2nd.

It's only the second day of the year

and already I'm feeling lonely.

I'm tired of every aspect of my life

having an undecided feeling.

January 7th.

When I got home, there was a letter

from the Department of Corrections,

telling me I have 30 days

to come in for my weigh-in.

I'm on a two-day

fast, and will be

back down to 245

by Wednesday.

I couldn't ask

for a more powerful motivation.

40,000 dollars a year!

I've been trying to get this job

for almost two years,

and now it all comes down

to the next 28 days.

The only thing that I must remember

is that there can be no failure.

There is no starting over.

This is the last chance I'm going to get,

and I must take it.

January 9th. I'm at 241.

My next goal is to be at 230 by the 19th.

The goal after that is 225 by the 25th.

Then, if I am down to 220 by the 30th,

I will go in on the 31st.

And I still have two tricks up my sleeve

that I've been holding in reserve:

Ex-Lax and Lasix.

January 28th.

The only problem is,

I think I'm getting sick.

I'm feeling weaker

than I have felt the whole time.

I have to hang on until Friday.

I don't care if I have to crawl

into the place. I will not give up.

January 30th. The last day.

I do know that this

is a chance to start over,

with a whole new everything.

It's not just a new job,

it's a new adventure.

Pull this off, and then you can...

actually make

a small chunk of the world yours.

Pull this off, and you can actually make

a small chunk of the world yours.

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