Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2015 23:01:49 GMT -5
June 6th, 2011
Superior Court of California
220 West Broadway
San Diego, CA 92101
I remember the sweat rolling down the side of my face. It wasn’t because I was nervous. I knew that I was guilty no matter how hard my lawyer tried to get the jury to believe I wasn’t. It didn’t matter how much I had to drink, I’d knowingly gotten behind the wheel of my Ferrari and I’d knowingly let my fifteen year old daughter, Alanna, sit in the passenger seat beside me.
And on top of this, I wasn’t even sober at this moment. I’d smoked a joint before even leaving my hotel room. Something to take the edge off right? But right now, in this moment as I looked into those seemingly pupil-less, soulless eyes of the prosecutor I was probably more sober than I’d been in years. He paced the floor in front of me. The jury of ‘my peers’ seemed to have already made up their mind that I was some kind of monster that would put my own pleasure over that of my family.
“So tell me, Mr. McKay, can you recall what happened on the night that you nearly killed your daughter?”
“Objection.” My lawyer fires out. He wasn’t much to look at this lawyer of mine. Short, balding, pushing sixty. But he had been representing me for nearly my whole career and loyalty meant everything to me.
“I withdraw. Let me rephrase that.” The young lawyer questioning me says. He gives me an almost sinister smile and I knew he was out for blood. Despite my guilt, this guy saw me as a way to gain notoriety. An famous Ex wrestler that got into some trouble? If he won, it would look good on his resume. “Can you please tell the court YOUR recollection of the night you and your daughter were injured?”
“Okay.” I say
…..
It was blurry. But most of my life from the time I’d snorted that first line up until the moment I’d retired to the standing ovations of the fans. The glory, the adoration. That was what I was really addicted too but god help me if I didn't need that momentary sense of euphoria that followed when you took a hit. Nothing bothered me when I let it take over. Not my failing marriage. Not the fact that my kids resented me being away so much or that I tended to try and buy their love with toys and large amounts of money. Not that the only way I seemed to feel love was if the crowd loved me, not my family and once I had to step down, my dependency only grew more.
That night, I’d come to pick up my daughter. She’d called me. She was panicking because she couldn't get a hold of her mother. She’d gone to a party, like most fifteen year olds did during the spring break. She probably had something to drink herself. I couldn’t exactly judge seeing as how I wasn’t the best role model. Her mother and I slept in separate bedrooms. We barely spoke, and when we did it was when I had enough of coherent moment to form a complete sentence anyway. The moment that she said the words, “Daddy… He tried to do things to me… please come and get me…”
Her voice unfurled that fatherly deadly instinct to kill the man that had dared to lay a finger on my baby girl. I’d left the house without a second thought and I don’t remember how I got to the address on my phone, only the moment I parked haphazardly on the street and stormed up to the door. She was waiting for me. Her long blonde hair was in a mess around her shoulders. Her dress slid off one shoulder but it was her eyes that really gave it away and she had to hug me to stop me from storming the place to find the prick that had made my little girl cry.
“No Daddy… he’s not worth it. Please can we just go home?”
I’d nodded; --I think-- and led her back to the car. The first thing she’d done was buckle her seat belt. “Daddy, please… do up your belt…”
I remembered giving her a smile, wiping a tear away from her cheek with my thumb. There was nothing I loved more in this world then her, then my son too. I did put on my seat belt even if most of the time I failed to remember or care. I think it was the fact that both of us were wearing our belts that saved us from both dying when I’d swerved away from an oncoming car and crashed over that guard rail and into a shallow ravine.
I’d suffered some broken ribs but Alanna had hit her head off the dash board. She had suffered a major concussion, whiplash and a broken wrist. She’d been in a coma for two days. And when she’d woken up, it was my name on her lips. It was me she’d been concerned about when in actual fact she should have hated me.
……
“Thank you Mr. McKay.” The prosecutor walked back to his table and my lawyer stood.
My lawyer hadn't been able to make that jury think I was innocent. Reckless endangerment of a minor was my charge and I had four years of probation, stripped of my licence. My reputation however was the thing I lost which I prized the most. That and the respect of my son.
Present Day
Holston, Pennsylvania
The office of Bobby Mcveigh
I flipped the four year sobriety chip in-between my fingers as I sat outside the door. I was here to sign my contract. It had taken four years, rehab and a divorce to get to this point. After the antagonizing detox I had put everything I had back into training. Doing the thing that I loved the most and although I was nearly fifty years old, I knew I could still do this. No drugs, no alcohol. I was going to show everyone that I am still Robbie McKay, “The Show Stopper”. They called my name and I stand to enter, looking at the chip one more time and then slipping it into my pocket. 'Here goes nothing', I think to myself. Time to give this ‘one last run’.
Superior Court of California
220 West Broadway
San Diego, CA 92101
I remember the sweat rolling down the side of my face. It wasn’t because I was nervous. I knew that I was guilty no matter how hard my lawyer tried to get the jury to believe I wasn’t. It didn’t matter how much I had to drink, I’d knowingly gotten behind the wheel of my Ferrari and I’d knowingly let my fifteen year old daughter, Alanna, sit in the passenger seat beside me.
And on top of this, I wasn’t even sober at this moment. I’d smoked a joint before even leaving my hotel room. Something to take the edge off right? But right now, in this moment as I looked into those seemingly pupil-less, soulless eyes of the prosecutor I was probably more sober than I’d been in years. He paced the floor in front of me. The jury of ‘my peers’ seemed to have already made up their mind that I was some kind of monster that would put my own pleasure over that of my family.
“So tell me, Mr. McKay, can you recall what happened on the night that you nearly killed your daughter?”
“Objection.” My lawyer fires out. He wasn’t much to look at this lawyer of mine. Short, balding, pushing sixty. But he had been representing me for nearly my whole career and loyalty meant everything to me.
“I withdraw. Let me rephrase that.” The young lawyer questioning me says. He gives me an almost sinister smile and I knew he was out for blood. Despite my guilt, this guy saw me as a way to gain notoriety. An famous Ex wrestler that got into some trouble? If he won, it would look good on his resume. “Can you please tell the court YOUR recollection of the night you and your daughter were injured?”
“Okay.” I say
…..
It was blurry. But most of my life from the time I’d snorted that first line up until the moment I’d retired to the standing ovations of the fans. The glory, the adoration. That was what I was really addicted too but god help me if I didn't need that momentary sense of euphoria that followed when you took a hit. Nothing bothered me when I let it take over. Not my failing marriage. Not the fact that my kids resented me being away so much or that I tended to try and buy their love with toys and large amounts of money. Not that the only way I seemed to feel love was if the crowd loved me, not my family and once I had to step down, my dependency only grew more.
That night, I’d come to pick up my daughter. She’d called me. She was panicking because she couldn't get a hold of her mother. She’d gone to a party, like most fifteen year olds did during the spring break. She probably had something to drink herself. I couldn’t exactly judge seeing as how I wasn’t the best role model. Her mother and I slept in separate bedrooms. We barely spoke, and when we did it was when I had enough of coherent moment to form a complete sentence anyway. The moment that she said the words, “Daddy… He tried to do things to me… please come and get me…”
Her voice unfurled that fatherly deadly instinct to kill the man that had dared to lay a finger on my baby girl. I’d left the house without a second thought and I don’t remember how I got to the address on my phone, only the moment I parked haphazardly on the street and stormed up to the door. She was waiting for me. Her long blonde hair was in a mess around her shoulders. Her dress slid off one shoulder but it was her eyes that really gave it away and she had to hug me to stop me from storming the place to find the prick that had made my little girl cry.
“No Daddy… he’s not worth it. Please can we just go home?”
I’d nodded; --I think-- and led her back to the car. The first thing she’d done was buckle her seat belt. “Daddy, please… do up your belt…”
I remembered giving her a smile, wiping a tear away from her cheek with my thumb. There was nothing I loved more in this world then her, then my son too. I did put on my seat belt even if most of the time I failed to remember or care. I think it was the fact that both of us were wearing our belts that saved us from both dying when I’d swerved away from an oncoming car and crashed over that guard rail and into a shallow ravine.
I’d suffered some broken ribs but Alanna had hit her head off the dash board. She had suffered a major concussion, whiplash and a broken wrist. She’d been in a coma for two days. And when she’d woken up, it was my name on her lips. It was me she’d been concerned about when in actual fact she should have hated me.
……
“Thank you Mr. McKay.” The prosecutor walked back to his table and my lawyer stood.
My lawyer hadn't been able to make that jury think I was innocent. Reckless endangerment of a minor was my charge and I had four years of probation, stripped of my licence. My reputation however was the thing I lost which I prized the most. That and the respect of my son.
Present Day
Holston, Pennsylvania
The office of Bobby Mcveigh
I flipped the four year sobriety chip in-between my fingers as I sat outside the door. I was here to sign my contract. It had taken four years, rehab and a divorce to get to this point. After the antagonizing detox I had put everything I had back into training. Doing the thing that I loved the most and although I was nearly fifty years old, I knew I could still do this. No drugs, no alcohol. I was going to show everyone that I am still Robbie McKay, “The Show Stopper”. They called my name and I stand to enter, looking at the chip one more time and then slipping it into my pocket. 'Here goes nothing', I think to myself. Time to give this ‘one last run’.
