Dollar Bill by Joy Read Free Book Online Page A

heartbroken mother. He had feared this day for the past few months that he had been in custody. Being charged with a triple homicide, bail wasn’t an option for Dollar, so all he had was time in his jail cell to think about this day.
    Dollar had failed his mother. He could only imagine the pain it was bringing to her. It was far worse than that D he’d gotten in Spanish when he was in the ninth grade. It didn’t compare to the time he drank the last two cans of soda from the fridge and swore on Grandma Davis’s grave that he hadn’t done it. It was the type of failure that was an entire flight of steps up from telling a mother that her early teen child was about to become a parent.
    If only it was as simple as Dollar impregnating some fast-ass chick from the block. Being incarcerated is the ultimate reflection of bad parenting to any mother. Dollar knew the years of his mother working so hard, even to the point where she lost a leg, were now proven to be in vain.
    Dollar’s mind was instantly taken over by the vision of Tommy sitting in the front row behind the defense table. “What is she doing here?” Dollar said under his breath. Tommy could read his mind as she quickly stole a glance at Dollar’s expression and put her head down in disobedience.
    Dollar made himself clear when he put the word out that Tommy and Ral were to lay low. Dollar had psyched himself up to take the fall alone. He’d feared that Tommy’s female characteristics would deliver her to the Franklin County Courthouse in Columbus, Ohio on the day he was to enter his plea. Now there she sat.
    Dollar stared Tommy down as he walked to his chair at the defense table. He knew she had to lift her head sooner or later, and just as soon as she did, Dollar’s eyes would be pinned on her.
    â€œDon’t do it,” Dollar lipped to Tommy while shaking his head in the negative. “Don’t do it.” He could hear his heart beating as he just thought about Tommy being all dramatic and just as they were sentencing him, she’d jump up and confess her guilt.
    Just then the judge entered the courtroom.
    â€œAll rise,” the bailiff ordered.
    The gallery stood up.
    In Dollar’s eyes, the man appeared to be moving in slow motion. He was the Grim Reaper in the flesh. This robed man held Dollar’s fate in the palm of his hand and on the tip of his gavel. He would dictate the outcome of the robbery gone bad. Dollar’s life, if there was to be any more to his life, was in the judge’s hands.
    As the judge began to read aloud all the specifics of the case, Dollar’s body became ice cold. The judge’s lips were moving, but Dollar couldn’t hear a word he was saying. He was zoned.
    â€œDareese Ramelle Blake,” the judge addressed Dollar. “You have been charged with three counts of murder in the first degree. How do you plead?”
    The courtroom filled with the sound of Dollar’s heartbeat. The floor flooded with his pouring sweat. The time was now. If Dollar was going to vacate his commitment to the hustle then this would be his last chance.
    â€œYour Honor.” Dollar gulped. “I plead—”
    Just then Tommy stood up. Before she could say anything Dollar’s mother began to cry out. “My baby,” Dollar’s mother yelled. “I know my baby. He couldn’t kill anybody. Please have mercy.”
    â€œOrder!” the judge shouted. “Order in the courtroom.”
    Dollar turned to see his auntie Charlene caressing his mother. He wanted so badly to let his mother know that her labor was not in vain, that her firstborn son, although was capable of murder, was not a murderer.
    â€œIs there a problem, young man?” the judge said to Tommy, who was still standing, mistaking her for a man. “And please remove your cap.”
    This was the moment of truth. If Tommy was going to save Dollar from spending the rest of his life in