Martin & Friends

“Yesterday afternoon Quan Johnson was pronounced dead due to loss of blood. Earlier that morning, officer William Miller pulled Mr. Johnson over after speeding. According to Johnson’s wife, Akeelah, they were heading to church. When Johnson went into his pocket to pull out his driver’s license, Miller shot him twice in the chest. Johnson’s wife is outraged and already has organized a Black Lives Matter event at the Baptist Church for Christ.

“My husband was a good man, a good father and a phenomenal husband. Let’s not confuse this for anything else other than what it is, racism and a white police officer using his privilege to hide behind the law. My husband’s life mattered, Trayvon’s life mattered, Sandra Bland’s life mattered, my son’s life matters. Black lives matter. An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere!

The police department has not released a statement as of ye-”

David opened the front door and overheard Ashley listening to the local news station. He took off his uniform jacket and walked into the living room where Ashley was sitting on the couch.

“Dinner's almost ready babe. I’ll fix you a plate. Go wash your hands,” Ashley said as she lifted herself up from her spot on the couch.

“Oh God, is this about that Johnson guy again?” David said as he followed her directions.

She went into the kitchen to take the chicken out of the oven. 

“Yeah it is. It’s so sad they killed that man.” 

She grabbed two evergreen plates and began to put black beans, brown rice and baked white chicken breast on each plate, making sure she gave David more chicken than herself.

“It’s sad but all that flack that they’re giving that officer is unnecessary. You really think he actually meant to kill him?” David yelled from the bathroom while lowering his voice when heading to the dining table. There was no need for him to bellow, their apartment was small enough to hear a whisper. It was temporary while they saved for an actual house. Three bedrooms, they agreed.

“Yeah I do. You don’t?” Ashley said dropping David’s plate in front of him. The food shifted from the impact. She went back into the kitchen to put two glasses of iced water on the table, careful not to slam it like the plate.

“Don’t tell me you believe that Black Lives Matter...mess?” David said with hesitation to try to find the correct words he wanted to use. “You’ve seen the riots. I should be the one scared, not black people.”

“And why the hell do you feel that way?” she said, as she slammed the refrigerator, her eyes tattooed on his.

“Because it’s true Ash. I go out there everyday and bust my ass to protect these citizens and these thugs think they can just disregard that because a guy was shot and just so happened to be black.” he said while shoving a full spoon of rice and beans in his mouth.

“Nah Dave, call it what it is,” she said as she sat down and attacked her white chicken with a fork and knife. David put his utensil down, giving in to his frustration.

“And exactly what is it called huh?” he said with a sarcastic tone. Ashley became calm as if her anger transferred to him. She finished chewing then took another bite, knowing her long pause was fueling him. She put her glass to her lips and gulped loud enough to overbear the noise from the TV. David rushed to the remote and turned the TV off, watching his wife closely, waiting for an answer that can lead to a response shutting down the conversation. Ashley wiped her mouth, taking off a smudge of her dark maroon lipstick that matched her blood red witch dress she wore to her classroom for Halloween.

“Racism David. If he was white, he’d still be alive,” she said as if she was informing him that the sky was blue.

“Oh no, not the ‘if he was white’ card. Black people love to say that but, it isn’t true. If you actually paid attention to the story, you’ll realize that he was speeding.”

“Because speeding is so bad that one should die. Good one David. Maybe you should be the pastor of the church that he and his wife were heading to!” Ashley said as she raised her voice and body to bring her barely empty plate to the kitchen. She took aluminum foil out of the brown wooden cabinet and slammed the cabinet door while stating she wasn’t hungry anymore. David grabbed her glass of water that was across from him and downed it knowing she wanted to finish it.

“Oh really? We’re taking it there Ash?” he said, taking a huge breath from drinking the water so quickly. “Him going to church doesn’t mean he should’ve been speeding. Let’s just all speed to church why won’t we! You and I both know that cop isn’t racist. He probably panicked.”

“Panicked? You guys are trained to handle the toughest of situations and you’re telling me he couldn’t handle just simply giving him a speeding ticket? It’s murder!” she said, hovering over him, tiny drops of spit probably falling on his strawberry blonde hair.

“You’re not out there! You don’t know what it’s like or half the shit we go throu-”

“No I don’t but it’s still wrong!” she interrupted. “You have no idea what it’s like being black in America!”

“Being black in America?” David was standing up now. His body rubbed the table making it shift slightly. “What about being a fucking cop with this stigma of being racist?”

“What about the stigma of being ghetto, ratchet, thieves, monkeys or-”

“Oh whatever! Cut the crap! These people are making my job harder!”

“These people? Last I checked I was one of them!” Ashley yelled. David put his hands up defensively.

“You know I don’t mean it like tha-”

“So explain yourself because right now you sound like a racist...cracker!” Ashley said, the word feeling strange in her mouth.

“See! There’s that word! Racist!”

“What do you expect?” she said, her hands on her hips and a coil leaning on her coffee brown cheek.

“Instead of being so focused on some dead black guy and calling me a fucking cracker, you should be focused on how much danger these riots are putting me and my colleagues in. You’ve seen what happened in Dallas!”

“You’ve seen the Black Lives Matter protests!”

“So my life doesn’t matter? Cops lives don’t matter?”

“Black lives don’t matter?”

They could hear the ice floating in David’s glass. 

“You married a black woman and don’t even think black lives matter?” her voice cracked like damaged phone screens.

“I married a beautiful intelligent woman who I thought I could converse with about anything.” 

“I don’t want us fighting. The whole world is already against us.”

“I don’t want to fight either,” he said.

“I’m just scared Dave. That one of these days you won’t be home for dinner. But also scared of us having a son. No matter what, people are still going to see him as a black male.” David went to the kitchen and gave her a forehead kiss, her head in his hands.

“Look, I don’t want you worried about that. We’re going to be fine. And when we do have a kid, we’ll teach him or her how to obey the law,” Ashley looked at David’s green eyes and touched his pink cheek that was still warm from the heat of their argument. 

“That may not be enough.”

“Of course it will. It isn’t the 50’s.”

“But it isn’t perfect either.”

“Oh stop Ash” David said as he pulled her to his chest, failing at combing his fingers through her coily dark brown hair.

“You just don’t get it do you?”

“Get what?” he said as she removed herself from his grasp. His heartbeat and breath speeding.  “Ash, you’re not understanding me,” he said, reaching out his hand to try to grab hers.

“I do understand. I knew you had some far fetched opinions but wow.”

“Babe…”

“Your privilege has blurred your vision to the real world. My world. The world of our future kids.”

“What world are you talking about?”

“What world?”

 She looked for something in his eyes and couldn’t find it. “Who did I marry?” she said turning body towards the small sink.

“You married me. Don’t get worked up over some fight,” he said leaning over her, failing to wrap his arms around her waist.

“It’s bigger than tha- You know what? Just forget it.” Ashley passed him and sat on the sofa. She clicked through the channels before deciding on BET to watch a rerun of Martin. 

“Jerome’s in the house. Watch ya mouth! I said Jerome’s in the house! Watch ya mouth!”

David went back to the dining table to finish his meal and could see the tv from his seat.

“Can you turn it to Friends? I saw that our favorite episode was on!”

“That’s your favorite episode.” Ashley said as she turned the channel to Nick @ Nite for a Friends rerun and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

“She's your lobster. C'mon you guys. It's a known fact that lobsters fall in love and mate for life. You can actually see old lobster couples, walking around their tank, you know, holding claws. ... See? He's her lobster…”