Red

Forgetting Him

"I'm not some backwaters, New Orleans whore that you can push around!" I wasn't just angry anymore. All of my energy was being directed towards the one man who was lucky I didn't have a knife to castrate him with. Might be a little more lucky that I actually cared about my badge. My new partner, Officer "womanizer" William T. James. All six foot of pure muscle and hellish asshole.
     "Come on, Darl'n. Ain't like it's my faul'. Didn't want you to step'n blood and ruin the new boots, that's all," William cocked his hip on to my desk. " It ain't like I seen the doctor." Oh, hell no! "No, of course you didn't you backwaters hick! You were to busy look'n at my ASS instead of paying attention to the crime scene! I stop to do my job, and YOU PUSHED ME ON TOP OF A DEAD BODY!!!"

     "ELLIOTT! GET YOUR ASS TO MY OFFICE, NOW!" Great, now Chief is pissed. I storm passed Will, heading to Chief's office. Will, in all his still teenage hormonal filled rage, decides to SLAP MY ASS. I stop, then continue on. Right before he enters the office, I slam the door into his nose. "C.T Elliott, mind telling me what you were think'n?! If your daddy was still alive...."
"If Daddy were still alive,  I wou'd sure like to know what he be think'n." I interrupted. " But daddy's dead. And ain't noth'n gonna change that." Chief Dupree just looks at me, like it was his daddy that got shot, but sometimes I forget that Daddy was his friend too.
     "Carolina Taylor, I love you girl like you were my own. Shoot, chil' I helped change more of your nappies than my own kids. So let me set you straight. You know as well I as I do this world ain't kind to no woman cop. Let alone one who works with demons." Cause it's my fault that I'm different! "Ain't like I can control my DNA Chief." Strike one, I'm a Cop. Strike two, I'm a black woman in the great state of Louisiana, in a town that up until thirty years ago would have strung me up in a cotton tree. Strike three, my momma was a demon who left me on daddy's door step. As someone once said to me 'I'd rather be friends with a Nigger cop, then a demon.' 'course ain't like I told anybody of my demon half. I pass well enough that nobody gonna know.  Daddy died when I was seven in the line of duty. Ever since, Chief and the station have looked after me. Ain't like I had any other family, except Chief and the fourth district.
     "It's Commander when in office, C.T." Chief says exasperated. "Yes sir." I softly sit down across from him. "Mind telling me why you are out of uniform, Officer? And why the hell you decided to get into a screaming match in the middle of the station?" I normally hate disappointing Chief Dupree so I decided to tell him. " Officer James decided that I should get a closer view to the corpse, Sir. He decided that in order to do that he was going to push me left, with the goal of 'preserving my shoes' Sir. This caused me to fall on the victim Sir. Who was on a swamp bank, Sir." Chief busted out a free-for-all belly laugh. "Damnation, chil' and he still breath'n? Shoo' chil' I'm surprised he ain't dead!" I don't have the heart to tell Chief that I wasn't even mad about that, I was more mad that my daddy's watch got wet and stopped ticking. There are a lot of things a little girl should do for her daddy. Be on time, visit every Sunday, bring him flowers, and talk'n about what's happening. Forgett'n him ain't one of them.