Day 766: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: disoriented (and The Posture of Innocence, day 33.5)

Mr. Black brings some data that causes as much disorientation in Captain Lee's office as dropping a black hole in that office would ...

To get totally caught up on The Posture of Innocence, here are the prologue, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 3.5, day 4, day 4.5, day 5, day 5.5, day 6, day 7, day 7.5, day 8, day 9, day 9.5, day 10, day 10.5, day 11, day 11.5, day 12, day 12.5, day 13, day 13.5, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 16.5, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 19.5, day 20, day 20.5, day 21, day 22, day 22.5, day 23, day 23.5, day 24, day 24.5, day 25, day 25.5, day 26, day 26.5, day 27, day 27.5, day 28, day 28.5, day 29, day 29.5, day 30, day 30.5, day 31, day 31.5, day 32, day 32.5, and day 33!

Mr. Black had come in at 10:30, bearing gifts of data to the cold case division as it began its next work – who, what, when, where, and how of a lot of things it had charge of were now solved. Officer Cadbury accounted for 25 murders alone; there were others like him to be grabbed up. The remaining question was, why had John Soames been killed, along with so many others, and how did all of that fit in with the sequence of events that also was emerging: the criminal conspiracy to get Pendleton Prison in neighboring Roanoke County built and full and profitable in just 12 years.

The powers that be didn't care about the Black lives that had been destroyed as Mr. Black did, but he knew they would care intensely about the state and federal funds that had been misappropriated and diverted into the pockets of key figures. There was a resonance to the thing: at the time of the FOIA release, a great number of police officers had been spurred into terrorist behavior at the Gilligan House to protect the secret of how they were framing Black people left and right to get that prison full, and from the public connecting that to the big houses they all were getting over the better part of the same 12 years.

But the average officer involved was reaping a pittance compared with a hit(police)man like Officer Cadbury, and he was reaping a pittance compared to some in the Blue Ridge, Skyview, and Starview neighborhoods of Big Loft. Before the Gilligan House Burning, the matter was conceived of being in the millions of dollars. With the new information, the actual known sums of money involved ended up being in the hundreds of millions.

Colonel Lee, once again in his manifestation as Captain Lee, commander of the cold case division, looked over the new data and was so disoriented by it that he had to put it all down, consider it for several minutes, and then pick it up and look again for understanding. So heavy was his gravity once he had that understanding that two of the division's lieutenants walked in talking and stopped like they had hit a wall – like light itself is disoriented and swallowed up by the gravity of a black hole.

The gravity did not break but only increased as Captain Lee returned his mind to those present with him with a long, slow shake of the head.

“Mr. Black, my respect for the nobility and patience of Africans in America has been greatly increased,” he said. “The fact that those of you that know this information have not all gotten up like Nat Turner and slaughtered everyone that you know is involved in this modern-day slavery shows a forbearance that most men on the earth will never possess.”

Lieutenants Lightfoot and Longstreet jumped and bumped into each other so hard they nearly fell over as their entire understanding of the history of America, and its men of greatest, noblest character, was permanently disoriented.

Mr. Black smiled grimly.

“Thank you, Captain Lee, for the compliment. Count yourself and those with you blessed that you have stopped pushing the edges of that forbearance.”

Day 34 is up