Jump Bad

By Sheldon McCormick

Former welterweight boxer and now bodyguard Charlie Champion Plate battles to guard a beloved--and despised--Compton mayor and prevent a dastardly Maoist takeover of the Hub City, Plates precious hometown, in this sequel to Champion Plate (2007)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483681184

Sheldon McCormick

A Los Angeles, California native, McCormick began his writing career while a student at Foshay Junior High School (now the Foshay Learning Center) in 1971. He was a writer for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Compton Bulletin and several other publications. He was editor of the now-defunct Los Angeles Balance News newspaper in the late 1980s. McCormick received his Associate of Arts degree in journalism from Los Angeles City College May 22, 1986. He is the author of eleven other novels and has written commentaries for his Facebook page.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Sheldon McCormick.

Library of Congress Control Number:                 2013914112

ISBN:                     Softcover                     978-1-4836-8117-7

                               Ebook                          978-1-4836-8118-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 09/12/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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123884

CONTENTS

About The Novel

About The Author

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

In loving memory of my dearest parents Ouida and Leon McCormick; my beloved longtime friend Valena Yvonne Holmes (1957-2011); Wendell Black; Alfreda Jordan; Marcus Boobie Rodgers; Western Avenue Elementary School teacher Mrs. Rosser; Aunt Rose Walker; Raydale Washington; Robert B. Ballou, Jr. (1955-1972); A.S. Doc Young; Willie Rodgers, Jr.; Guy Crowder; Maxcy Filer and Executive Protection Specialists (bodyguards) who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Special tribute to Joan Adrienne, Victory C. Kinnard; Carolyn Bingham, Michelle Sorey, Juanita Squeak Walker, Norma Johnson, Delphine Dee Dee Robertson, Glenn Sturgis, Veronica Hendrix, Sandra Lightner, Vicky Lanzsey, Rolando Novoa, Lucie Hill, and Ray McCormick.

ABOUT THE NOVEL

Former welterweight boxer and now bodyguard Charlie Champion Plate battles to guard a beloved—and despised—Compton mayor and prevent a dastardly Maoist takeover of the Hub City, Plate’s precious hometown, in this sequel to Champion Plate (2007)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Los Angeles native, McCormick began his writing career in 1971 at Foshay Junior High School (now the Foshay Learning Center) He was a writer for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Compton Bulletin and several other publications. He was editor of the now-defunct Los Angeles Balance News. McCormick is the author of the novellas Tales of Tyrone (2006), Champion Plate (2007) and its sequel Down A Different Route (2010), all published by Authorhouse. Tales of Tyrone won Honorable Mention in the 2008 Writer’s Digest Self Published Book Awards. McCormick won a few journalism awards as well.

CHAPTER ONE

Proud, triumphant and enthusiastic, Thomas Franklin Pykeree smiled back at the cheers and hopes of the multitudes assembled inside the city hall auditorium. They celebrated his win as mayor of the city of Compton. Their hopes and the other upbeat emotions mirrored his semi-pudgy hare face. Its features were carved and edged by years of hard labor, a police career in the city, years of hard manual labor before that, racism’s harshness and a miniscule amount of pent-up anger.

That was smoothed out by his widening smile, an aknowledged nod and a good night hand wave to his happy audience from behind his oak podium. Dressed in his favorite dark brown pine-striped two-piece suit, white shirt and black tie, Pykeree was flanked by his equally proud and victorious, as well as imperious, newly-elected City Council members, Pykeree’s new cabinet members.

Scores of citizens, a third of them Latinos and African-Americans, became emotional. Others waved U.S. and California flags and their hands in the air. Photographers’ camera’s flashed and television cameras rolled from a sizable contingent of news media posted around the stage, others amidst the audience. A dozen black business-suited and tied Keester Protection Services bodyguards encircled the candidates, scanning everyone for any sign of trouble. On Pykeree’s right stood at parade rest was ex-welterweight boxer Charlie Champion Plate, now a veteran security officer and executive protection specialist (bodyguard). A fully-loaded Korean War-vintage Colt M-1911 .45 semi-automatic pistol sat in a black nylon left-sided shoulder holster beneath his coat.

Etched with guardian earnestness chiseled from several years as a guard and fighter in the ring, Plate looked like a cross between a mule and Saint George’s dragon with full, semi-cross-eyed pit bull eyes and mien, a full, flat semi-broad nose with outward nostrils and a receeding military-style crew cut. Plate’s full, flat, duckish lips bent downwards on opposite corners of his mouth. His fellow bodyguards, which included four women, had shoulder-and side-holstered .9-milimeter, high-capacity semi-auto pistols.

A blond Nordic-featured female television reporter in a dark pants suit became excited by the crowd, then resumed professional journalist demeanor. She spoke before the camera with a New York accent. "Today, Compton voters have ousted the previously corrupt, low-down, stinking, crony-infested city leadership and elected, some have said, a more progressive one with the election of Thomas Pykeree as mayor.

Despite all of the nastiness, unethical and downright insulting tactics used by his opponents in the mayoral race, which including racial epithets like ‘house nigger’ and ‘Uncle Tom’ in the mayoral race, Pykeree’s campaign workers are elated and gathered here tonight.

Mayor-elect Pykeree was a 5-foot-11 and three quarters of an inch, portly and semi-paunched bespectacled black urbanite with a wisened, cautious, alert Southern field hand bearing, wild hare brown eyes, mustache and a strip of hair below his medium lower lip. He faced his audience and radiated competence and confidence in his newly appointed mission.

On his left, next to his chief bodyguard Plate, stood City Councilman Oscar Julius, 41. He struggled with glee, at times glaring in envy. Julius was Pykeree’s second-in-command. Helpful, shunned faced, he had a tall, heavy sea bass-features, cruel, possessive, semi-medium lips of a con man, a balding, aristocratic dome and full black motorcycle handlebar-shaped eyebrows.

The guy’s profile was lined with hardships from his earlier years as a menial job worker, homelessness, racism, stress from those and numerous cigarettes. His small, flat nose flared in pique.

Pykeree acknowleged the crowd, raised his medium-sized majestic right hand and waved at the gathering, including television viewers and radio listeners. The people, including scores of Compton community leaders, eased their applause to hear his first words as Compton’s chief executive.

Friends, he proclaimed. Through my new Youth Encouragement and Vocational Plan, my administration will get the unemployed, under-employed and those wishing to be employed get the skills and training for new jobs and occupations destined for this city. And we will, through our brave, dedicated sheriff’s department, deal with this gang, drug and gun-related violence off our streets.

The crowd roared with enthusiasm, then after four minutes, allowed Pykeree to continue his speech. This crime problem, like poverty, joblessness and lack of faith in city government will not, like the last administration…

It was buuullshit!, a black man in the gathering yelled out, his tone

fed up.

No more crabs in the bucket politics. We will fight back and end this gang warfare from our streets. Too many innocent people, especially our children are falling from this terrible scourge!

Yes, Lord!, an older church woman yelled out from the pain of seeing too many dead children at funerals. Help our mayor and us, Jesus!

For those who say that I am a bumpkin and don’t know the first thing about fighting back… I know more than enough. I manned an M-60 machine gun on a Navy patrol boat during the Vietnam War. I lost dear friends there and to this day I hate both the stupidity of and futility of war, crime and racism. Our community will get back and retain it and our respect in Southern California, the whole damned United States of America we are too good for all of this nonsense. We’ll be the best city in the state. Now friends, let’s roll up our sleeves, put on your best work boots, be progressive and get to work, kick some booty and move forward and progress. I thank you!

The audience stood up, applauded, cheered and chanted, Move forward, progress! The slogan was officially adopted by the City Council the following week and soon appeared in red, white, green, blue, yellow, brown and red and pink posters and signs