Unhooking the Moon (29 page)

It was silent except for some commotion. My uncle looked for the person who had not obeyed his command. When a group of people cleared from his line of vision I saw Marie Claire on the floor. She wasn't moving. ‘Call an ambulance!' I shouted. I ran toward her and took her hand. ‘I'm with you, you're going to be OK! Call an ambulance!'

And that was, as they say, a long time ago. I'm sixteen, now, and six foot. And I've really broadened out. I live with my Uncle Jerome who has become my legal guardian. We move between his house in the Hamptons and his place downtown. Sometimes we stay at his apartment on Fifth Avenue, the apartment we had searched for but could never find. Uncle Jerome used to have me attend a private school, one of the best in New York. But now I come here to the Marymount Manhattan College, just a short walk from where we live. I like living in New York, it's become a second home, but I still miss Winnipeg.

Anyway, my classes are finished for the day and so is my writing, and now I have to go to New Jersey.

I leave the library as quietly as I can and head to
the main entrance. Students are stamping snow off their feet as they come into the building. New York never gets as cold as Winnipeg, but it's making a real effort this winter. And so I wrap up warm before going outside.

‘Hi, Bob!'

I turn to see Ashley going into class. ‘Hey, Ashley!' She makes that sign with her fingers to tell me to call her and, smiling, she drifts away. I will call her as well. She's the prettiest girl in Harlem. We had a dinner date there last week. She took me to this soul food place on 125th Street. I thought it was tacky at first because it was so rundown and they microwave the meals. But the food tasted so good you'd never know it. And the people who ran the place were really nice. I'm going to take her somewhere next week, but where I don't know.

I can't get a cab on Third Avenue now that the snow is coming down and so I walk over to Fifth to see if I can do any better. I throw some nuts to the squirrels scavenging in Central Park and then I look around me. I'm not far from the old den. It seems like a dream, now, that me and the Rat had once lived in the park. But a lot of things seem like a dream from around that time, like Joey getting shot.

I thought he'd definitely die, but he was out of the hospital in a matter of weeks. The cops never brought charges against him as long as he never brought charges against them. And that was the end of it as far as all parties were concerned. He went to live with Sexy Sandra in Queens. He said he was only staying until his wound healed. But now they have a girl called Sydney and another one on the way. They're even talking about getting married and moving to Venezuela, where Sandra is originally from. But I hope they don't, I'd miss them if they went.

A cab whizzes by without stopping. I can't stand that. It didn't even have anyone in it! I blow into my hands to warm them up and then I look at my watch. I'm already late. I want to be there and gone before Uncle Jerome arrives. He can be stern in many ways. But he can be kind too. For example, he had his lawyers exhume Dad's body, when he found out we'd buried him without an autopsy – turns out Dad died of a heart attack – then he had him reburied, in the same spot, with Father Henri performing the burial rights. He also ordered a beautifully sculptured angel from Paris and had it placed over Dad's grave. I know all this happened because Harold kept me informed by email. I was angry that Uncle Jerome never told
me about the service. I was even more angry when I found out he had gone. But Uncle Jerome can be quite secretive.

The second cab I flag down stops and I get in the back, glad to be in the warmth. ‘Take me to New Jersey.'

When I first heard they were charging Ice with murder I could hardly believe it. Ice was up on one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and countless other charges. They were even charging him with driving recklessly. One count of murder and driving recklessly. They didn't go together, not unless you ran your victims down.

Ice's lawyers postponed the trial on more than one occasion, mainly because the paedophiles at the Don Children's Home gave up so many of their so-called friends. And they, in turn, would give up their friends. What's more, the FBI scoured the country for the three girls who had gone missing from the home. And in doing so they uncovered a paedophile network that had tentacles across the country. They started arresting paedophiles from New York to Miami and as far west as San Francisco. They were even charging paedophiles who had committed crimes twenty years earlier. No one was walking away from this one. The
last I heard they'd arrested fifty paedophiles, and they were charging more everyday. And that's why they kept postponing the trial, so it would go better for Ice. But when the FBI found the bodies of the three girls they were looking for, the lawyers postponed the trial no longer.

I watch a bicycle courier in bright gear riding up Fifth Avenue the wrong way. He ignores the horns of the demonstrating drivers. He even gives some of them the finger. He brings back memories of our great journey on our BMXs. I've only ridden a bike once since we gave ours to Big Frank. But I have to say it wasn't the same by myself.

The trial was televised and the circus was soon underway. The media wanted to talk to everyone we'd met in New York and there was no shortage of people coming forward. They spoke to Sean and Connor who told them how we'd been chased that night. And how they'd chased the guy who had chased us, but he got away. They talked to the Bronx people who told them how we'd searched for our uncle in the pouring rain. It was amazing how many of them remembered us. Even the likes of Tall Toni and the bald guy he was fighting with, who both wanted to know if there was a reward, or any chance of bail. Al the butcher
told them if we had come back five minutes later he would have told us who our uncle was.

They talked to Karl the chauffeur, the guys him and Ice were fighting with, and the media people at the Marriott. They talked to the cops who turned up at the Exocome Building, the security guard, and Sonny, Tommy's tattooed friend. The only person they didn't speak to was Big Frank, who threatened them with physical violence.

I turned on the TV one time and they were showing dozens of clips of me and Marie Claire captured on CCTV. I couldn't believe how many cameras we were on. When I changed the channel they were talking to Erwin. How they found Erwin I'll never know, but they did. He told them that white kids could get away with anything, but we weren't so bad. And we could still come over if we wanted. That's when they found out we had slept in the park. They took pictures of our den and put them with their stories.

The cab passes the Rockefeller Center. I still have the photographs I took there that summer. I keep them in an album under my bed but I enlarged the one of the Rat holding up the world like Atlas. I framed it and put it on my wall. It's a great photograph, even Uncle Jerome made a copy.

The worst thing about going to court was seeing Ice chained up. They never gave him bail because they said he was a flight risk, and so every day they'd bring him out in handcuffs. And it was so sickening to hear the paedophiles give evidence against him, and the lies they told! The childcare worker, the woman who Ice shot, told the court that Ice went insane. ‘He's a gun-crazy killer! We tried to calm him down, but he started shooting at us for no reason!' And the prosecution went along with it. They were trying to paint Ice as a vigilante. If there's one thing the court hates it's someone taking the law into their own hands.

The cab swerves on the corner and cuts across to the West Side. I move back to where I'd been sitting. Riding in New York cabs can be a life-threatening experience. But they usually get you there in one piece.

I only enjoyed going to court once. That was when Tommy took the stand. He looked so smart in his new suit, and he was a big hero to everyone. You see, when Ice went down that night he kept up the fight from the floor. That was the gunfire we could hear. But when Tommy ran into the home, Ice was out of bullets. That creep had come out of the dark by then. He was just about to stab Ice when Tommy jumped on him. He fought with the man, a monster
twice his size, and got stabbed in his stomach for his trouble. Then the creep tried to leave and he tried to take Felicia with him. But Tommy wasn't having any of it. He got up off the floor and fought like a lion until that goddamn paedophile had let her go. Then he chased him outside.

The cops searched with a vengeance for him, and anyone else who had worked at the home, especially Mr Joshua. One day they found him. He had been shot in the back of the head and his body had been dumped in a dumpster. A woman journalist asked me, did I think Uncle Jerome was involved? ‘He has the contacts,' she said. I could never imagine him killing anyone, not like that, but I never looked at him the same way again.

Tommy gave dozens of TV interviews and the
New Yorker
done a piece on him. ‘From Hustler to Hero', they called it. What's more when Tommy turned up at court he was accompanied by his ex-wife and three daughters, who came along to offer their support. Not that he needed it. He defended Ice with all the cunning of a time-served attorney. He answered the questions clearly and stated his points with precision. When the prosecution asked him, ‘Was it not Ice's intention to commit murder when he learned that
the girl Felicia Johnston had been abused?' Tommy grew cold. ‘Murder! How can you use that word? Sir, it is a dishonour to our legal system that this man should be charged with anything! Ice defended innocent children from evil men without any thought for his own life! What is wrong with our society that we punish the brave? And yet we cower to creatures like those!' shouted Tommy pointing at the paedophiles. The people in the court rose to their feet and applauded. The prosecutor was seething, but he sat down. ‘No more questions,' he said.

The cab passes Times Square, where the Rat and Tommy had performed, and heads towards the Hudson River where we had almost taken a ferry ride. Then we swerve hard and drive alongside the river, which is so misty with snow you can't see New Jersey.

I never stopped getting messages and emails from Winnipeg throughout the trial. Everyone offered their support: Little Joe and Harold and all my old classmates. They all stood by me. Even the Mayor of Winnipeg wrote and asked was there anything he could do. So I suppose he was a bit of a celebrity after all.

But the night before I was to give evidence I felt
nervous. I wanted to tell the truth, and I wanted those goddamn paedophiles to pay for what they'd done! But I never wanted to say anything that would harm Ice's defence. And I'd seen the prosecutor put Joey under pressure. He was like the Prince of Darkness in the courtroom and the thought of facing him frightened me.

I went to bed early that night hoping to sleep, but I just lay there worrying. Then the phone went. ‘Is that you, Roberto?' If I ever needed to hear the voice of an angel it was then! Whether it was the joy of Gabriela calling me, or the stress of having to give evidence I almost cried. Thank God, I didn't. But I told her how bad I was feeling and how worried I was, and, like an angel, she listened.

‘You have to be brave, Roberto! I'll tell you what. When the time comes for you to take the stand, remember I'll be watching. It will be like I'm there with you.'

I talked to her for ages. I told her I thought she was the best teacher that Luxton ever had and that I liked her more than any girl I had ever met. She never laughed or anything. She said I was a nice boy and she was glad I was safe and well. She said she would pray for me and told me to get a good night's sleep,
and so that's what I did.

The lights started flashing as soon I walked out of Uncle Jerome's apartment block the next morning. They continued when I stepped from the limousine, and they followed me up the courthouse steps. Uncle Jerome and his security pushed the media out the way, so it wasn't too bad. But other people came forward as well. Some of them patted me on the back. While some of them asked for my autograph. Why? I couldn't tell you.

Ice's defence lawyer, Amber, was a redheaded woman with a serious frown. She asked me the same questions we had rehearsed in her office. It went really well, I thought, but then the Prince of Darkness stood up. He glared at me like the whole thing was my fault. I was so nervous my hands started to shake. But when I thought about Gabriela watching me, it gave me courage. He asked me a few trivial questions and then he got serious.

‘On the night that Ice broke into the home, the resident childcare worker, a Ms Hanes, was pleading with him. Is that not correct?'

‘Yes.'

‘Tell me, what did she say to Ice?'

‘She said she had nothing to do with it.'

The Prince of Darkness turned to the jury. ‘But he shot her anyway!'

‘She tried to stab Ice! He had no choice!'

‘Hearsay, your honour! Move to strike!'

The judge looked at me. ‘Just answer the questions you're asked, son. Strike that from the record.' Then he asked the jury to disregard my last remark. But I don't think they did disregard it. I really don't.

I spent the whole day giving evidence. We broke at noon and I was recalled to the stand after lunch. I can't remember half the questions they asked me. I can only remember how relieved I was when it was over. Ice's defence team said I did a good job and I should be proud. Then Ice and all the lawyers went into the judge's chambers. Everyone seemed to be on Ice's side. I thought they would let him go.

All of a sudden the judge and the lawyers came back. Everything became tense. The word went around the courtroom that Ice had taken a plea bargain. Thanking the jury for their time and diligence, the judge dismissed them. He recommended that the Don Children's Home be closed down and that it should never be reopened. He commended me and the other witnesses for giving evidence, and he ordered the remaining paedophiles to be taken back
to prison. He said that Ice was a brave and decent man who had stood up for children who could not stand up for themselves. But he had gone too far and that no citizen should be allowed to take the law into their own hands.