The Journal

I wrote my big story, all the other students in my journalism classes were congratulating me and the new professor on the paper made me the student editor. He still had final say on the stories that we ran but I was to approve them before he saw them, Chuck would even give me a small story every now and then.

Andrew told me how proud of me he was, and he showed a few times too. I came home one night after work and found a present wrapped and sitting on our table. The card said, “I am so proud, and I love you.”

I started to open it as Andrew walked in the kitchen. I asked, “did you do this?”

He grinned, “maybe.”

I ripped the paper away, it was my article matted and framed. “God Andrew, this is awesome, thank you so much.

I gave him a big kiss and we headed to the bedroom so I could thank him properly.

Andrew and I worked hard, we were both doing well in school, before we knew it, we were in the middle of our last year of school. I was able to turn my work at the paper into an internship and Andrew would be student teaching at a high school near our apartment.

I finally told Chuck about the journal and about Walter and Ellis, he asked, “so what have you got so far?”

I said, “I have the journal that tells me that Walter lived in Westburg in 1922, he met Ellis that summer, his mother died the fall before, his father was an alcoholic ass that beat both Walter and his mom. The house they lived in burned down the same day the journal stopped. That was the day after Walter and, I assume, Ellis were beaten up by the pond, but I never knew who did that. I also know that the sheriff’s son drowned in the pond about the same time, and a couple years later the sheriff was in some sort of scandal, but I am not sure what that was or if it is even related.”

I sat back in his chair, “well, that is a good start, where have you looked for your information?”

“Mostly just in newspaper articles.”

“You have access to more than that now kid. I have a friend at the capitol, Joe Spencer, he can get us things like census records, property tax info if he ever owned property, even car registration records. I will give him a call to see what he can find.”

“That would be great Chuck, if I could find out where he has lived or does live that would be a good start.”

The next day when I got to the paper, I found a note on my desk and an envelope, “Kid, I am out interviewing a witness on that gang shooting from last week, won’t be back today. I found an article for you to read, it’s in the envelope, I got it from Larry in the archive room in the basement. He may be able to help you more, just go and tell him what you are looking for. Oh, and a tip, he likes White Owl cigars, a little gift sometime motivates him to help.”

I ripped open the envelope, the story was about the sheriff of Westburg being investigated by the state for high arrest rates for blacks and numerous complaints for the treatment of them while they were in jail. They also found proof that he was not arresting whites for crimes that were committed against the blacks. Shit, I was right they may have been connected, the sheriff or his men may have even been responsible for beating up Walter and Ellis. I decided to talk to Larry to see if he had any stories on the sheriff or anything from Westburg around that time. I ran down to the corner drug store and bought the biggest box of White Owls they had and headed for the basement.

I walked into the archive room, “Mr. Grimes, I am Mike Jenkins, Chuck said I should talk to you, you found him an article this morning.”

“Hey kid, yeah Chuck told me you might be stopping by. So, what exactly are you looking for?”

I explained the whole story to him and that the article that he gave Chuck tied in with the information that I already had. I asked for anything he could find from around the same time period about the sheriff, Walter, Ellis, Walter’s dad or his mom.

He said, “I did find one more article after Chuck left this morning.” He handed me a copy of another article. “Don’t get your hopes up kid, but I will see what I can find.”

I smiled, “thanks Mr. Grimes, I really appreciate your help, oh, here these are for you.” I handed him the bag with the cigars in it.

He looked in the bag, “Nice kid, Chuck is doing a good job in training you.”

I went back upstairs and worked on the list that Chuck had left for me to do. I finished filing the last papers shortly before 6:00 and headed home to update Andrew on the new information I had.

Andrew was just getting home as I pulled up, He was grinning ear to ear, “hey Mike, I am glad you are home, I had the best day.”

“That’s great Andrew, what happened?”

“Well, we have this student who has failed all his tests and quizzes this semester, well a few weeks ago, Mr. Hogan, my supervising teacher, told me that I could work with him and if I could get through to him, it would be a miracle. So, I took him aside and talked to him, and then working with him during his study hall and after school, well today he got an 82 on his chapter test. Mike, after class he came up and gave me a hug and said, thanks Mr. Watson you are the first person to ever tell me I was good enough to do anything, I studied just like you told me. Guess what Mr. Watson, I knew almost everything on the test, He was so excited Mike, he told me he was going home to start studying for the next quiz.”

“God Andrew, that is incredible, I am so proud of you, I knew you were going to be a great teacher.”

“Jesus Mike, I feel like I could just do anything right now, I know everyday won’t be like this, but if I just get a few, I will know that I made a difference.”

“Well, I know you made a difference for me.” I gave him a deep kiss.

“You did the same for me Mike. Tell me about your day.”

“Yeah right, well it wasn’t as good as yours, but it was good. I found some more information on Walter.” I filled him in on all the details, and that I hoped that Larry would have a little more for me by the end of the week.

We made our supper and headed to bed, both satisfied that we each had made the right career choice.

I got to the paper the next day after I finished classes, I found another envelope on my desk.

Chuck said, “hey kid, Larry dropped those off for you.”

I asked, “how was your interview yesterday?”

“Kind of a bust, I didn’t get anything more than I got from the police reports. I have to try another angle, not sure what that is yet.”

I opened the envelope and started to read, it was another article about the sheriff. The article detailed the state’s case against the sheriff, proportionally he was arresting far more young black men for relatively minor offenses than their white counterparts. They were also given harsher punishments, usually having to spend time in jail since they were less likely to have enough money to pay fines. There were also allegations that he was not investigating complaints of black men getting beat up and, in some instances, even encouraging the beatings. It all came to a head when the black families started to move out of Westburg to find jobs elsewhere. Old man Thornhill figured out what was happening, he was losing all his cheap labor, and after he talked to the sheriff things didn’t change. Thornhill made sure the town knew who was really in charge in Westburg, a bunch of records were “leaked” to the state and the sheriff was out of town within two weeks.

I knew the sheriff was a bigot, I just didn’t know how much. The article didn’t mention any deputies, so I don’t know how involved they were. I also knew from dad that the Thornhill’s were bigots too and just bringing the black families to town to use as cheap labor. I get sick to my stomach every time I think about all the people in Westburg that knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it. It just proved that if you have a little money and power, you can get away with anything.

There was another short article that the crime rate had decreased in Westburg in the six months since the sheriff had been replaced, there had also been a reduction in drownings at the pond. What did that mean? Shit, was the sheriff taking anyone who was beaten down to the pond to make their death seem like a drowning instead of being beaten to death? Jesus, I needed to find more, where do I look now?

Chuck said, “hey kid, did Larry find you any more information on your journal?”

“Yeah, he did, turns out the sheriff was crooked, I think it is somehow connected to Walter, I just am not sure how yet.”

“Don’t worry kid, you will figure it out, in the meantime I want you to work on another story for me. A guy down at City Hall thinks one of the new council members is taking bribes, I want you to talk to him for me. If you think he is on the up and up, then I will join you and we will investigate it more.”

“Sounds good Chuck, when and where?”

He handed me a piece of paper and I headed out the door. I talked to the contact for about a half an hour, it was clear that it was a case of sour grapes. This guy had been promised a job by the guy that the current councilman had beat in the last election. When he was passed over for a promotion, he decided that a scandal would help him move up.

I got back to the office and Chuck was not at his desk, I was looking over the articles I received from Larry again. Chuck poked his head out of Fred’s office, “hey kid, what did you find out?”

“Nothing, the guy was pissed he didn’t get a job, so he was just trying to stir some shit up.”

“That’s what I figured, come on in here for a minute.”

I sat in the chair next to Chuck.

Fred said, “Chuck here has been telling me good things about you.”

I looked at Chuck, “thank you.”

Fred continued, “So when are you graduating from college?”

“In two weeks if I pass my finals.”

“Is there a chance that you won’t?”

“No sir.”

“Well, tomorrow I am going to announce my retirement, Chuck is going to replace me as editor. That will leave us with an opening for a full-time reporter, are you interested?”

“Hell yes, er I mean yes sir.”

Chuck laughed, “you understand you will be at the bottom, a lot of the stories you are helping me on will have to go the senior reporters. You will probably be covering a lot of city council and school board meetings, minor crimes and a few car accidents, things like that.”

I said, “of course, anything you need.”

Fred said, “you will still be reporting to Chuck, he will decide who covers what stories.”

“Yes sir, I won’t let either one of you down.”

Chuck said, “remember what I said about the sir thing, I gave you a pass today.”

“Yes si.. Chuck sorr… I mean got it.”

I headed home, Andrew was already there. I ran inside to tell him my news, I could tell by the look on his face that he was upset about something.

“Andrew what’s wrong?”

He sighed, “today was my last day student teaching, there is an opening for a history teacher, but the Superintendent told me that I wasn’t going to be considered for the job.”

“Why not?”

“He wouldn’t say directly, but I let it slip that I was gay. When he was interviewing me, he asked about my martial status and I just said I had a partner but we weren’t “married”.”

“That has nothing to do with your ability to teach, he can’t use that as a reason to not hire you.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?”

“Andrew, we will fight this, I will get Chuck to help me write a story.”

“Mike, I have to deal with this myself, we can’t go running to Chuck every time we have a problem.”

“I know you are right, hey I know, let’s get a lawyer, it is illegal to discriminate.”

“No Mike, I really appreciate you wanting to help, but if I cause too much trouble, I won’t get a job anywhere. There are plenty more schools in town. Mr. Hogan has given me a great reference letter, I will find something.”

I said, “if you are sure, I will support you, just remember that if you need me for anything, you just have to ask.”

“I know, that is why I love you.”