CHAPTER
5
JAMES
BRISCOE
By Mike Furches
2
Years Earlier
James
loved fried chicken, while KFC was his favorite it was rare that he got to eat
it because of its cost. When the family wanted chicken or he had enough money
to buy something for his brothers and sister, it was usually Church's Chicken.
It was pretty good and a lot cheaper than KFC. Despite the rarity of eating
KFC, here he was, standing in line on a Wednesday night to order 4 KFC Chicken
Fried Steak specials and to get an 8 piece bucket. With the coupon he had he could
get everything for less than a $20 bill.
This
was a typical night, his mother Jeanette had not been home for a week. She had
issues with drugs, crack and meth especially and for all practical purposes,
she was seldom at home and when she was at home there were more problems than
not. James knew he was responsible for raising his brothers and sister. He
never knew who his father was and it was likely that each of his siblings had a
different father. His mother Jeanette at one time had been a very attractive
woman. She was tall with milk chocolate colored skin. She was in good shape,
not from exercise unless you counted walking the streets exercise but it was from
her natural genetics. That made it easier for her to turn tricks as a
prostitute so she could buy her drugs. Since James had turned 12, (he was 14 now)
her appearance had gone down hill. Her hair was thinning and her teeth had deteriorated.
As a result, she didn't smile as much and her income from prostitution had gone
down drastically which meant she had to do even more dehumanizing things.
James
had two younger brothers, Charlie, was 10 and of average build for his age.
Buddy had just turned 9 and was a little heavy for his age, he wasn't fat per
say, but he clearly wasn't an athlete by definition or appearance. While the
other boys took joy in playing outside, Buddy was content to play video games.
Then there was James sister Barb, an unexpected come along who had recently
turned 5. James was pretty certain that Barb's birth father was a white man
because of the her abnormally light skin. She looked more like a Mexican or
Italian than she did black and outside of the summer months, she looked more
Caucasian. This didn't matter to the boys, despite some of the strange looks
they got at times. James had been questioned as to why the boys were hanging
around this white girl when going to a restaurant or play ground with his
siblings. His friends in Turley and his distant family later realized and understood
that despite the actions of his mother, James had done a good job with his
brothers and sister.
There
were times in the past when his grandparents were there to help raise the
children. They died in a car accident shortly after Barb was born but they had already
instilled the values on the importance of family to James.
James'
grandparents took James and the other children to church when they were younger
and prior to their death. It was clear to James that church was important to
his grandparents but he had experienced and felt a sense of hypocrisy regarding
the church after the were killed on their way back from visiting family in Dallas. James couldn't
forget the looks and stares of the church members when they brought food and so
called well wishes to the house after the funeral. They would stare at his
mother, knowing what she did and James still recalled the whispers. He had heard
of how the church was to love, he even saw that example in his grandparents but
it didn't take long before he realized after his grandparents death, that the
church and the people in the it would conveniently disappear from the life of
the Briscoe's when they needed them the most. It was when James needed the help
from the church the most that he was judged by many of those in the church or, as
he later said, he was judged for the actions of his mother. It was so easy to
look down on someone while at the same time ignoring the needs of the
innocents, especially, the children.
Many
of those around James thought his mother was taking care of the children but
shortly after the death of his grandparent his mother became more absent from
the home, leaving James at a very young age to care for his siblings. James had
tried to make friends in the community with those who were decent kids, staying
out of trouble but most of them due to the needs of he and his brothers and
sister stayed away. It was the friends who were used to taking advantage of
others due to their own needs that James started hanging around. They would
come to the house which was small and dingy to camp out and escape their own
home situations. At least James had access to his moms food stamps and kept
food in the house. The family also had state assistance due to the 4 children
all of which were minors. James had learned to balance what they had, making
sure that not only would there be a couch for his friends to sleep on, there
would be something in the fridge to eat. In all of this though, James still
took the time to look after his brothers and sister.
It
was almost a year later when James started to be influenced to some extent by
his friends. He had resorted to shoplifting a few times to make up for things
the family needed. As his friends spent more time at his house, eating the
food, drinking the milk, using the laundry services, and so forth, there was
less for his brothers and sister. James supplemented the needs of his family
and his friends had shown him how easy that was to do. After awhile, James
confidence grew to the point that he had moved from shoplifting to doing simple
breaking and entering robberies to get items that he could sell at local pawn
shops or on craigslist to get extra money. He took on this aspect of theft especially
during birthdays and Christmas. He seldom used the money from selling the items
for anything he wanted outside of an occasional CD but he didn't want Charlie, Buddy or Barb to go
without due to the actions of their mother. The church and family that were so
quick to judge had ways they could help, if nothing else by putting them in
touch with the local Salvation Army and other groups, but James was convinced
that those individuals and church had better things to do for them. He would
think they didn't have time for families like his.
James
had been recruited by some of the gangs in the area but he was smart enough to
stay away from them. He had good friends who were a part of the gangs but as
much as they offered a since of family to him, he knew he had flesh and blood
family to care for, even if they were his half brothers and sister. While James
saw a since of family among his friends in the gangs, he also saw an
opportunity for prison and in some cases, death.
James
had an issue with drugs, he had seen first hand what they had done to his
mother Jeanette. He had tried to smoke but didn't like it and never got into
drinking alcohol. He stayed as far away from those aspects of life as he could.
He didn't want to sell drugs and he certainly didn't want to use them. For all
practical purposes, James was a good kid in a bad environment. He was doing the
best he could considering the circumstances he lived in. Of course he also knew
those looking in made lots of assumptions, assumptions largely not true based
not just on his condition, but his race.
James
had seen racism all around him. There were churches that were primarily black
or primarily white. North of the Greenwood District in Tulsa was still segregated. Most of the
blacks lived up through Greenwood and Turley and
most of the whites to the South, into Broken
Arrow. There were small communities that were predominantly
Caucasian that had been established around the ranching cowboy days in the
area, communities like Owasso and Collinsville
but as close as they were in proximity, they were a world apart in an
understanding of each others culture.
James
had seen the church culture around Northeast Oklahoma and Tulsa in particular. Tulsa was after all known as the "Charismania
Capital of the World" with Oral Roberts University, Rhema Bible Institute
and the teachings of churches like Higher Dimensions and The Christian Victory
Center. These churches seemed to be integrated but were filled with people
believing in the concepts of being healthy and wealthy. James knew some folks
who went to these churches and while they had great programs, they were always
soliciting money and seldom if ever actually doing ministry in the areas they
reached out to, especially the areas predominantly black. It was convenient and
easy to send busses to pick people up but they had never taken the time to get
to know the needs of the communities. They didn't know or understand why people
became upset when their streets always seemed to be the last to be fixed or
when there was a snow or ice storm, why, once again, their community was the
last to be served.
There
were some predominantly black churches that had done some good things to help their
communities, they were rare and James had never been invited to them or knew
anyone at those churches, he was too busy caring for his brothers and sister and
trying to make it on his own. As a result of his extra curricular activities in
life, James was able to go to school at Booker T. Washington but he wasn't
doing well as he could have. He didn't time to go to the study groups and other
activities at school which would have helped him. While there was help available
to meet his needs, he was justifiably afraid. He knew that if he and his family
were found out then Family Services would break up the family and they would be
separated. James figured it was best to just endure and get by. While he had the
potential to do better than just get by, he had little knowledge and no one to
help him get to that place or to keep his family together if he did get the
help.
As
life for James moved on he became more callused at the situations surrounding
his on life. The only thing he was sold out to was his brothers and sister. He
would do all he could to provide for them and give them as good a life as
humanly possible. For others around him whether it be various adult influences
that included family, the church and later on, his friends whom he had seen take
advantage of him, James became more callused and was going through life giving
the appearance to most, that he just didn't care, of course, that was during
the public times when others saw him, privately, it was clear, James cared for
his family and wanted more for them. He was like many others in his community
though, a child raising children. There was a time when parents took care of
their children, that moved to a time when grandparents would take care of them.
The time was coming, and for many, already here when children were the ones
caring for other children, unfortunately for many, losing the opportunity to
experience childhood for themselves. James fit into the later category.
This
was all two years earlier, while missing out on much of his childhood, he had
done the best he could at being a provider, mother, and father for his brothers
and sister. On this day, James lay on
his cot at the Juvenile
Detention Center
thinking about Charlie, Buddy and Barb. He wondered, what would happen as he
awaited the trial for the crimes he had just been arrested for.
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