This is a real true story about my brother Jordan. He was murdered on August 15, 2013, and left in the street to die. I began writing this about 10 years ago but got stuck every time it was time to pick up a pen. It was devastating to our family wha...
Imagine waking up with pains in your chest, not knowing what is possibly wrong with you and all you want to do is be admitted to the emergency room. Well, that is what happened to me on the morning of August 15, 2013. The actual time was 6:39 am when I thought I had to be seen by a doctor but then the pains went away thirty minutes after they started. I didn't know what was wrong with me or what was happening to my body all I knew was I needed to wake up my children and get them prepared for school.
So I proceeded to attend to my morning routine. Once the kids were dropped off at school, I continued to drive myself to work. My cellphone started to ring, it was my brother Jerome. I didn't answer it because I didn't have much time left before I was late clocking in on the Kruger time clock. As usual, I ended up putting the pedal to the medal to get to work on time. I arrived at work, just in the nick of time, when my cellphone started to ring again...
"Ugh, Jerome.." is what I thought to myself. It can wait until I get settled at my desk and have breakfast... So I sent his call to voicemail again.
"Hello Linda, good morning. Are the phones busy today?"
"Good morning buddy, yes the phones are busy, it started as early as 7:00 am. Are you going to have breakfast?"
"Wow, that's crazy for the hospital telephone to be ringing off the hook so early. Yes, I am going to the cafeteria. Do you want me to pick you up something?"
"Oh yes, if you don't mind... Just a muffin and don't forget the butter."
"No problem."
See I was a telephone operator at this hospital that has changed their names so many times, I think it has lost its own identity. At the time I was hired, the name of the hospital was Columbia Hospital, and now it's known as West Palm Hospital. The name change happen about 7 months later. I arrived back at the operator booth and started my daily activities as a phone operator. I checked my cellphone to see if I had any missed calls... Nothing. My boss, Linda is telling me about her crazy daughter. I'm trying to focus and listen to her but all I could do is check my timeline on Facebook.
Since the incoming calls had decreased, I'm just catching up with an old friend, and my boss is still chatting away. Her conversation is starting to sound like that teacher from Charlie Brown. To keep her talking so I can keep chatting on Facebook, all I have to do is laugh and nod my head like I'm interested. It sounds funny but that's what I did to remain sane throughout my day. A few hours went by and the calls were non-stop. It was lunchtime and Linda decided to go to lunch. I told her I can handle the call volume. When the calls at least gave me a little break, I decided to call my mom and bother her for a bit. She was telling me something funny about her boss that every time we're on the phone, she pops up. Lol. It was like I had bad juju or something.
The conversation lasted about 5 minutes and she said she was going to call me back. As soon as I hung up with her Jerome called back again... This time I answered.
"Hello"
"Hey Kendra, you're at work?"
"Yeah what's up?"
"Have you heard the news?"
"What news?"
"It's about Jordan... He's gone.."
Breathing heavy... "Gone, gone where?? To jail, out of town..what?" I was hoping he wouldn't say what I left out of the conversation. You never want to hear that one of your siblings had died, especially not at work...
"Jordan passed away this morning. The police contacted me to identify the body. I've tried to call mom and no answer. I told dad and were on our way to see what was going on."
At this point, all I could do was burst out into tears... Not my brother.. Who..what..why..?? That is all I could think of... Why in the hell is my brother dead?? This couldn't be true...
"Hello?? Sis... Are you there.."
He couldn't hear me crying... And the operator's phone is ringing continuously because I'm unable to do anything. This just totally blew my mind. I'm unstable and I can't be here... I answered him.
"Yea I'm here.. Are you serious? This can't be happening... Not to us..this is Jordan. I'm calling mom. Let me know when you get there to the police station."
He said "okay sis. We'll be okay."
I hung up with my brother and tears ran down my face, I'm trying to hold it together so I can continue to do my job and call my mom but I don't want her to hear me sound like this. All I can think of is where the fu*k is Linda! She should have been back by now. This is sort of pissing me off because it doesn't take that long to get lunch. So I decided to only take a few calls to stop the ringing of the operator's phone and call my mom.
"Hello.."
"Ma.."
"Hello"
It sounds like I'm laughing but in reality, I'm hard down crying...
"What's funny?"
"Ma, I'm not...laughing...I just talked to Jerome and he told me that Jordan is dead."
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