Hendrix
October
I’m in the recliner and Elle sits on my lap. My arms are wrapped around her, but I have yet to breathe for the last ten minutes. I have a new appreciation for Elle and what her life has been like in the public eye. When I joined the campaign trail last May, I thought I understood, but I didn’t. Now, watching myself on TV, I feel like an alien in my own body.
Elle lays her hand over mine that are locked around her stomach. I’m on that national news show that appears on Sundays with the ticking clock. They approached me after I began advocating publicly for the Second Chance Program to be given, ironically, a second chance. Right now, the program is on hold, and its funding being threatened.
The old reporter has a deep voice and calming way about him. He earned my respect when he walked beside me in my neighborhood without batting an eye. The cameraman followed us, and seeing how they edited our journey to show my real story freaks me out but, at the same time, moves my heart.
“Oh my God,” Holiday says, and pats Dominic’s leg multiple times as if he’s not also watching with rapt attention. “That’s our house. Our house is on national news!”
The reporter is telling the real story—he’s telling the truth—and he doesn’t mind getting dirty in order to get to the heart of the matter.
Sitting here in this living room, the reporter looks point-blank at me and asks the tough question. “What do you think should happen to the Second Chance Program?”
“I think the politicians who were elected to help the people of our state should stop focusing on party politics, on what gives them more power, and start funding programs that work. The fact the judicial system does not work in favor of those in poverty is an issue, but that issue has nothing to do with Governor Monroe’s Second Chance Program. I was wrongly convicted of a crime because I couldn’t afford decent representation, but that program saved my life.”
The reporter does a voice-over as it shows him shaking hands with Marcus and the other people who went through the program with me. All meeting here in my backyard. The reporter talks about how the political party against Elle’s father is holding the funding for the program hostage in hopes it will elect their candidate in November.
It’s bull. It’s all bull and it’s bull I intend to clean up.
Marcus pumps his fist, and we all clap when he comes on-screen. He talks about how the program saved his life, how he did commit his crime, but echoes the same issues that me and the other teens faced...that people with limited resources don’t stand a chance within the judicial system, especially teens without advocates. He also emphasizes the school-to-prison pipeline, and that because of the Second Chance Program, he’s redirected the path of his life.
We return to the single interview between me and the reporter. “I know you hate this question. It has to be asked, though, but I’ll ask it in a different way. Can you tell me about Ellison Monroe?”
On-screen, the right side of my mouth tips up at her name, and in appreciation that he didn’t try to dig for info on my relationship with her. When I agreed to the interview, he promised the piece would focus on the Second Chance Program.
“Elle is a force of nature and the smartest, most articulate and compassionate person I know. Beyond my family, she’s one of the few people who fought for my future, and she’s honestly the only person who truly fought for my innocence. Ellison Monroe saved my life.”
A kiss on my cheek from her, and I choke down the emotion building up in my throat. There’s a chorus of overly dramatic “ahhs” in the room that leads me to tell them to shut up, and the laughter helps soothe out the moment.
Pictures of me and Elle appear on the screen. Us together with me driving and Elle in the passenger seat of Axle’s truck, us eating lunch together at the mall, and my favorite, us holding hands walking down the midway of the State Fair. The snake she won me from Whack-A-Mole is wrapped around my shoulders.
But this reporter doesn’t speculate, only talks about how we’ve been seen together, and about how with one press release we explained to social media and the press that we would never discuss our relationship in public.
He also goes on to explain how Elle was the one who proved to her father I was innocent, but there’s no discussion on the fighting that happened between them. I owe much to Governor Monroe and the Second Chance Program, and Elle knows that. Any infighting between her and her parents has stayed completely out of the media.
A few snapshots of Elle by herself, but then of her at a coding competition a few weeks back. The reporter talks about how Elle has stepped back from campaigning for her father and politics in order to pursue interests in her own life.
Then there’s video of me in a suit, and I’m talking to the state legislature, of me talking to crowds of people at various events and not one of those was scheduled by the campaign. That’s been of my own doing, with a little help from Elle and Cynthia.
“You started out trying to save the Second Chance Program on your own, correct?” the reporter asks.
I nod. “With help from a few people, but, yeah, I decided that one voice can make a change for a whole lot of others.”
“Hendrix Pierce has not only made change, but he’s inspired others to believe in change, as well,” comes the voice-over, and there’s video of Marcus and other people from the program meeting with their state legislators, talking at smaller events in their towns and of Marcus speaking in front of a packed congregation at a church.
That church, once learning of his story and of how he’s relied on Axle for shelter and support, has decided to help Marcus financially and emotionally.
“Hendrix Pierce’s one-man campaign quickly struck a chord with the other nine members of the initial Second Chance Program. Their enthusiasm has caught fire in the state and in the nation. Their passion for this program has sparked discussions about the school-to-prison pipeline, the broken judicial system, and the lack of funding for public defenders.”
Back to the interview. “There are many who are saying that you’ve become the deciding factor in this state’s upcoming election. That who will be the next senator is because of the outstanding man you’ve become out of the Second Chance Program.”
“I can’t decide any election. That’s in the hands of the people. The voters need to do their job, learn about the candidates without being influenced by the media and social media’s opinions, and vote. Doing so can save lives.”
The piece ends there, the clicking stopwatch comes into view, and the entire room breaks out into applause. When I meet Elle’s eyes she kisses me. Full-on, not caring there are easily ten other people in the small and cramped room. I kiss her in return, hands in her hair, and when she pulls back, there’s a light in her eyes that makes my heart lift.
We made it, even when the world was falling apart, Elle and I still made it out on the other side alive.