The Safe: Part 2

The cops they start questioning me cause somebody had stole the safe and they thought I might have had somethin’ to do with it. “Do you know anyone that would’ve taken the safe?” and this and that.
And I said “I don’t know what the f… you’re talking about!” because the only one that it’s going to hurt is me. It was my paycheck! My paycheck come from that safe. I never got paid over it – the safe was stolen! I told them I had no idea who done it. They thought it was me.
What happened was Ron was drinking and two people come to his house and asked to use the phone. And he invited them to drink. They put something in his drink. Next thing Ron says he woke up. And when he woke up the safe was gone. He invited them in the house, and then the safe was gone. I was like “Ron why did you let these people in your house? They could’ve killed you!” I don’t know why he invited them in, he was drinking. He just let them in. Ask them if they want to drink and the next thing he said he woke up the next day. I kept thinking maybe he thought these people were friends or, I don’t know if they said their tire was flat and can we use the phone, or I don’t know what. I think they put Xanax in his drink. It’s a prescription sleeping pill. It will put you out for hours. He’s lucky he’s alive. Why did he let them people in? They were not his friends. They targeted him. I think they thought he had a bunch of money in the safe. The story got louder and louder and bigger. And he didn’t have much money there, he had maybe only $500 in it. You know nothing major. They was thinking maybe he had thousands of dollars. “This old man has thousands of dollars’ worth of money”.
I think the police thought that these two people was friends of mine, and they wasn’t friends of mine. I don’t know who it was, I heard later on who it was so I think I know now. But the cops were saying “who’s your acquaintances? What’s been going on?” Ron wouldn’t give a description of these guys neither, because he was scared. He was scared they might come back. I think he kind of knew who they were.
What I’m saying is he knew who it was, but I don’t think he ever seen them before that day, and I don’t think he ever seen them again after that day. But the description he gave was kind of vague. Two white males, blah blah blah. And the police didn’t do nothing about it. They wrote down a statement and that was it. They didn’t care. And that was wrong. It seems like because Ron was drinking, the cops didn’t really much care.
Now JJ kept telling Ron “it was Ohio Fox, Ohio did it!” But Ron knew it wasn’t me. I thought I was going to jail. I had nothing to do with this. I was just as surprised as Ron was. And the only thing I kept saying to him was “Why did you let these people into your house?” So then I walked back home. I was kind of in shock. He owed me some money but there was no safe and there was no way he could pay me. I went down to get paid but I didn’t. So I went back home.
I went down there again after everything calm down like a couple days after that. I let things sort of died down. I still needed my money. Ron was blaming me by then. He thought I had something to do with them two because JJ had put it on him. “It was Ohio Fox. Ohio’s friends. Ohio this and Ohio that.”
And that’s why I sweared to him up and down “Ron I had nothing to do with it. I swear to you. I would never do that to you. I wouldn’t do that to you, I wouldn’t wanna see you hurt. You was doing me a favor by giving me odd jobs”.
Anyway then I heard JJ pull up. And I said Ron, “I don’t want to hear his mouth. If I stay here I’ll fight with him because I’m so mad I’ll fight. I’ll fight him right here and now.” And Ron said go upstairs, so I went upstairs.
And JJ came in and he said, “You know she did this. You know she’s the one who stole the safe. Blah blah blah. You know what, I’m gonna call the cops. I’m gonna call Larry.” Larry was a big fat cop that he knew, and he did, he called him right up. And he told him that it was Ohio Fox that done it. JJ called the cops right up – it was the sheriff’s department – to me that was a nark. He knew the inside person in the police station in the town. It was in the complaint, he was almost like filing charges saying it was me. I think he was like showing off in front of Ron. Look at the power I have. And I was upstairs listed all this time and I can’t believe this is happening. Why is he doing that? And while he was on the phone and talking to Ron he was calling me every name but a white person. I’m a no good this, I’m a no good that. I felt that JJ was a little bit prejudiced towards me. He knew my family was black. That’s why I said he called me every name but a white person. There was a lot of hate there. And I’m listening to this and I wanted to go down there and fight him, but then I was thinking what is that going to fix? And he doesn’t know I’m upstairs listing. And I was crying. I didn’t have nothing to do with it. But he swore up and down to Ron that it was me. And call the Sheriff’s Department and told them it was me and that I had everything to do with it. And I stole all this stuff. And I listen to all of it upstairs. And when he got done showing off and call the sheriff he left and I come downstairs.
Well I went down there and I was crying and mad. I said “I can’t believe he did that.” And I was cussin’. And I was kind of like in denial. I couldn’t believe that I just listened to that. And I was so mad about the boulder going through my window. I thought I should just go down there and shoot through his house I was so mad. But Ron was trying to tell me just to calm down. This will sort itself out. And I think he realized at that point I didn’t have nothing to do with the safe being stolen.
After JJ left I wasn’t afraid that the sheriff would come get me about the safe because I had nothing to do with it. That’s not often when you’re a girl and you get accused of dragging somebody’s big old safe out of the house. And then someone calls straight to the police and says, “oh yeah, she done it. Yes, she dragged it out of there one-handed!” And it was one of them big old safe’s too. I don’t know how two people got it out! I don’t know how they would have. But I was afraid that with him throwing my name out there like that, that they would think that I was going into people’s houses and stealing stuff. You know I didn’t want my name being put out there like that. To me that was a nark. A nark is somebody who rats out on the law and throws people’s names out. Police are trying to get people to tell on people. That’s what a nark is. And that’s wrong. You don’t call the sheriff like that and throw someone’s name out like that.
Well I told my brother Bob. My brother had to do community service. And he had to work at the Street Department of Wellstone to work off his community service. The Street Department and the Water Department and the Sheriff’s Department of Wellstone were all in the same building, and that’s where JJ worked. And I said, “I want to tell you that JJ is nothing but a fricking nark.” I told my brother, “Hey, you better watch what you say or do because if he doesn’t like you he’ll throw your name up to the cops.” I thought my brother should know. Mostly I was warning my brother to watch what you say if you see him there. And I said, “If you see him, you tell him he’s nothing but a big fat nark.” Not that he’s fat at all, but he was running his mouth. I said it out of madness and anger and hurt.
So my brother tracks him down and corners him right there in the Street Department. Then he knew how I felt when someone his own size came up to him and said, “Hey, why did you do that to my sister?” My brother could whoop his ass too. And there my brother was standing right in front of him and his coworkers, and says, “you are a nark. Why did you make that phone call?”
Then JJ apologized my brother because my brother was going to whoop his ass. He apologize to my brother for what he did to me. He said, “I’m sorry Bob. Ron shouldn’t have told her that.” He kind of blamed it on Ron. And my brother said, “My sisters got no reason to lie.” And he had JJ cornered, and JJ was like, “Oh, I’m sorry Bob, I’m sorry.” He apologize to my brother, “I’m sorry I did that to your sister.” And he apologize over and over to my brother. I hate to say it, and it makes me feel good to say it and it’s wrong, but when he had to talk with my brother, then he knew how I felt when I had to listen to him up in that room and I wanted to fight him but I knew I couldn’t have whoop him. That didn’t fix anything, and I shouldn’t of been spiteful enough to say it, but that’s how I felt.
And JJ came down there and jumped on Ron. And he comes to Ron and says, “Ron why did you tell Ohio all that stuff. Her brother came and talked to me and threatened me at the Street Department today.”
And Ron says, “I didn’t tell her nothing!”
And JJ says, “What do you mean? Her brother called me a nark and told all my coworkers what I done.”
And Ron says, “She was upstairs all the time when you call the police. It was your fat ass that told her everything – you told her yourself. You was running your mouth to the law and called her every name. You’re the one that told her.” It’s funny how karma has a way of doing that.
You know, and in the end, it took about a year later, JJ himself told Ron he found out who it was that stole the safe, and it wasn’t Ohio Fox. I found out because Ron told me that JJ stopped by and told him they found the safe. JJ worked for the Wellston Water Department. And someone was draining one of the lakes for the Water Department. And they found the safe in there in the lake. And something that they found in the safe told him that it was Ron’s. JJ said that everything was destroyed in the safe but who really knows. And he heard who it done it. And I think the guy was doing time. He had stole a script from a doctor and was writing out his own prescriptions. He was the one who came to the door and stole the safe. I don’t know how JJ found out it was these guys. He’s the one that told Ron and Ron told me. And I knew who they was. One of them was back in prison again. He had one of those things on his face like a teardrop that showed how much time you got if you done so many years in prison. Like one teardrop for every five years or something. I don’t know for sure. But he had one of them. I don’t want to be judgmental about people’s tattoos, I got some of my own. But that was a pretty bold statement when you’re doing that on your face.
Ron told me that JJ had stopped that day and that they had found the safe and who it was who had done in. And it kind of made me mad because I was like, “I told you I’d nothing to do with it.” And when Ron told me I said, “What good does it do for him to tell you that now Ron. It’s been over a year. You think he’s going to call the sheriff back and tell them it wasn’t me? No!”
There was a lot of damage and vengeful things done over that safe. In hindsight, you can’t change things. What I learned from that is let karma solve things. And karma did pay JJ back. He had the losing of his wife. The Street Department and the Sheriff Department were all in the same building. And his wife worked for the water company collecting people’s money. She got in trouble for stealing from the city of Wellston. And she had an affair with the Sheriff of Wellston. So she got a divorce and JJ and her split up. And she went with the Sheriff of Wellston. But the sheriff had to quit his job so they could be together. He resigned. It was too much of a big commotion and he was supposed to be an example of the city so he just ended up residing. She lost her job because she was stealing, but she went with the Sheriff and he resigned his job because of the commotion with her stealing and JJ’s divorce. The karma was all the stuff that he was doing, trying to show off, and tell these lies, in the end, he ended up being alone and hooked on drugs. I don’t wish that on anybody, that’s a sad lonely life. Still working for the Street and Water Department of Wellston. The girl he was with was a very pretty girl but he lost her. When he lost her, he lost a lot. They had a nice family with a couple of kids. I don’t know what the deal was with the money that ended up missing or anything like that. That was none of my business. I don’t know what happened there.
In the end I don’t wish JJ no harm. I’ve lived long enough to see that karma will get you. Karma takes care of things. You can blame others out of hate but it’s the wrong thing to do. I let go and let God. Vengeance is the Lords, and I’m not on to that vengeance anymore. I let go and forgave and moved on with my life.