The Journey of Michael J. Cannon: The Rise

By Clorie Copeland

Michael J. Cannon, born in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx, was an innocent fifteen-year-old kid until someone killed his best friend, his father threw him out of the house, and somebody was trying to kill him. Michael’s state of confusion turned into rage and a thirst for vengeance for the death of his friend, which unleashed his alter ego he called “Simon,” and with the help of Mr. Lawrence, a renowned gangster, Michael disappears for five years to be educated and trained in the streets of Harlem as one of the best sophisticated killers known. Michael resurfaces at his grandmother’s funeral and the killer comes after him again, but it’s different this time. With the help of Mr. Lawrence and his crew, Michael starts tracking down the killer for his revenge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781648015779

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Rise

We were heading back home to New York. We had gone to Richmond, Virginia, because Uncle Ed and Aunt Effie were in a car accident. They both ended up in the hospital. Uncle Ed only suffered minor injuries, but Aunt Effie had major injuries which put her in a coma. Fortunately, Uncle Ed was released from the hospital and sent home, and Aunt Effie came out of the coma before we left. Cousin Earl said he would stay with Uncle Ed to take care of him and drive him back and forth to the hospital to see Aunt Effie and he would keep us informed of their progress. The drive back to New York seemed longer than usual. We only made three rest stops between Richmond and New York and that was only to get gas, use the restrooms, and get sandwiches.

My dad didn’t talk much on the way back. His thoughts were elsewhere. I know he was thinking about our Uncle Ed, Aunt Effie, and especially his brother, Raymond. Dad and his brother had a confrontation in front of the hospital, and if Earl hadn’t stepped in between them, they would have fought. My dad wouldn’t tell me what they argued about, and when I asked Uncle Raymond, he just shook his head and said, It’s just the same old shit.

I stared out the window deep in my own thoughts, thinking about Mary. Last year, just two days after school ended for summer vacation, I was sent to Richmond to spend the summer with Uncle Ed and Aunt Effie, and that’s when I first met the girl who lived across the street. Mary was her name, and when I first saw her, my heart skipped a beat and all I wanted was to be with her. She was gorgeous, with doe-like brown eyes, sensuous full lips, curly reddish­brown hair, which laid suggestively on her floral halter that was covering her ample breast, and last but not least, she was wearing a form-fitted pair of cut-off blue jean shorts that showcased her curvaceous body and long legs. It was a good thing she didn’t turn around for a booty view, my hormones would have exploded.

I don’t know how long I was staring at Mary, but it must have been too long for my uncle because he came out of the house and dragged me across the street to introduce me to Mary. My heart was beating so hard and so fast that I thought I would have a heart attack. She was even more beautiful up close, and when she spoke, I held my breath as if to capture her soft lyrical voice and embedded into my soul. When it came time for me to introduce myself, for the life of me, I could not remember my name.

Fortunately, my uncle introduced me since I was only able to stutter the letter m several times. Mary smiled at me and that was the beginning of the happiest and ultimately the saddest summer of my life.

When we got close to home, my dad didn’t stop at White Castle for our usual hamburger feast. He kept on going until we pulled into our driveway. The first person I saw was my grandmother sitting on the porch. She was yelling for my mother to come out.

My dad gave me the keys to unlock the trunk, to get our suitcases. With a suitcase in each hand, I headed toward the porch. I stopped to kiss my grandmother on her cheek, and then I took the suitcases upstairs to our rooms and then I went outside to talk to my grandmother. My parents went into the house. I asked my grandmother how she was feeling. She looked so frail; the cancer was taking a toll on her.

She said that other than an upset stomach, she was fine. She said she needed some club soda this morning to settle her stomach, so she asked Kenny to go to the store and get her a bottle. He said he had hurt his ankle and he couldn’t walk on it. He claimed his ankle was sprained and now he walked with a limp, which is why he couldn’t go to the store and she didn’t have any club soda. I told her I would go the store for her, so she gave me a couple of dollars to get her a few bottles of club soda. As I approached the store, I spotted Kenny sitting in someone’s car with his two dumbass friends Greg and Fred trying to talk to some girls. I called him and he got out of the car. Kenny is my middle brother, who used to terrorize me as a child, but as I got older, I learned how to defend myself, plus I have a quick temper, which I would use to intimidate Kenny. I watched him walking toward me and noticed he was not walking with a limp. I could feel my body tense up as I was becoming enraged. When he got close to me, I asked him very politely, Did Grandmother ask you to go to the store and get her a club soda?

He smiled, looked me up and down, as if to impress his friends, and said, Yeah, so what?

I asked him why he didn’t go and get it. He said, She woke me up at three in the morning and I wasn’t going. So I told her I sprained my ankle and couldn’t walk that far.

Before I knew it, I grabbed my brother by his throat. With one hand, I brought him down to his knees, his eyes were watering, from the pressure I was putting on his throat, as his air supply was slowly being cut off. I whispered softly to him, I warned you once before if our grandmother ask you to do something, you do it. If this happens again, you will definitely walk with a permanent limp.

While still holding his throat, I told him go in the store and get the sodas and take them to her. I released my grip on his throat slightly, so he could stand up and I put the money in his hand. With my hand still clutching his throat, I pulled him closer toward me and told him if for any reason she doesn’t have her club sodas, when I get back, then everyone would be calling him hop along, just try me, and with all the strength that I could muster, I shoved him toward the store. I watched Kenny as he stumbled through the store door, coughing and clutching his throat. I turned around to see my brother’s friends watching and I realized my left hand was still tightly clinched in a fist. They nodded at me and started walking up the street in the opposite direction.

I started walking toward the Bronx River, but before I reached the river, I stopped to compose myself. I was still experiencing the confusion and hurt of Mary’s actions and the incident with my brother just intensified my anger. My eyes begin to water, it felt as if my blood was boiling, and I could taste the blood in my mouth. An old man came by and ask was there anything wrong. I told him I was fine; I had a death in the family. I just said that to prevent him from asking any more questions. He gave me his condolences and continued walking. As soon as I regained control of my emotions, I went home, threw myself on my bed and stared at the ceiling until I fell asleep. It took months to get over the pain of losing Mary. When I finally felt everything was right with the world, we got a call from Earl that Aunt Effie had died.

This time my mother and Kenny went with Dad and me to Virginia for the funeral. My oldest brother was in the army and unable to come and my grandmother was too ill to travel, so she stayed in Brooklyn with her son Uncle Ted and his family. When we arrived at Uncle Ed’s house, there were so many cars that it looked like a car dealership. Inside the house, it was a maze of people everywhere you turned. All of Aunt Effie’s family, the Joneses were there, along with an ample supply of the Cannon’s, Uncle Ed’s side of the family. My dad’s brother Uncle Raymond was there, but they didn’t speak and stayed far away from each other. Uncle Raymond spoke to me and asked how I was doing in school. I told him I was doing fine. He still wouldn’t tell me what happened between Dad and him when I asked. He just shook his head and then walked over to my mother and Kenny to say Hello.

The only time that my Uncle Raymond and my dad were in the same room together was when Uncle Ed called both of them to come to his bedroom to talk. When they both entered the bedroom, Uncle Ed closed the door. I braced myself for the pending argument and the ultimate fighting to begin, but that never happened. There was only one person in the room that was doing all the talking, and that was Uncle Ed. When they came out of the room, Uncle Raymond headed straight for the front door. He said goodnight to everyone who was within earshot. My dad went upstairs to the bedroom mumbling and closed the door. I don’t know what Uncle Ed said to them other than when he opened the door and said, If you two are going to act like children, then I’m going to treat you like children.

My dad stayed in the room until my mother called him for dinner. Nothing was said at the table. There was an eerie silence in the room. I wolfed down my food and got the hell out of there as fast as I could. I could hear my mother asking me if I wanted dessert, but she was too late. I was already at the top of the stairs, and I was not about to come back down. I saw the anger in my dad’s eyes and was not about to become the recipient of his wrath. My last thoughts as I turned off the light and jumped in the bed were Good luck, Kenny! I may or may not miss you. The next day, everyone got dressed in their best Sunday outfits and waited for the procession of black funeral cars to pull up. I counted a total of four family cars. I was amazed, especially since Uncle Ed and Aunt Effie didn’t have any children of their own.

My dad wanted to drive his own car, but Uncle Ed insisted that we ride in the first car with him. Uncle Raymond rode in the car behind us and so their rift continued. When we got to the church, I walked straight to the casket. It was already opened. I looked at Aunt Effie just lying there, even though the funeral home had done a nice job at making her look like she was sleeping peacefully. She just didn’t look like how I remembered her in life. The hospital had sent her home to recuperate two weeks after she came out of her comatose state. The first month home she caught pneumonia, the second month she had a heart attack and in the third and final month of her life she suffered a massive stroke which sent her back to the hospital in a coma, but this time she didn’t recover.

My eyes watered up. I refused to cry, but a few tears managed to trickle slowly down my face. I refused to cry on the outside for everyone to see, but I was crying up a storm on the inside. By the time the funeral started, the church was packed with people from wall to wall, it was literally first come first seated, followed by standing room only, and to say it was hot in the church would be an understatement. Although, the funeral was only two hours long, it seemed like an eternity. Uncle Ed sit between Uncle Raymond and my dad. I watched them as they expressed their grief the same way but different. Uncle Raymond was crying and rocking back and forth. Uncle Ed was crying and moaning and occasionally. He would gasp and lean forward. My dad was crying, but he never said anything or even moved. He just stared at Aunt Effie’s casket.

When we got to the cemetery, the reverend finished his sermon and as my aunt’s casket was lowered into the ground my Uncle Ed collapsed. My dad and Uncle Raymond carried Uncle Ed to the funeral’s family car and rode with him to the hospital. Earl ask the reverend to tell everyone to go home and they will be notified of Uncle Ed’s status later. My mother, Kenny, and I rode with Earl in his car to the hospital. We went to the emergency ward and found Dad and Uncle Raymond pacing up and down the hallway. A nurse informed them he was still undergoing testing. Dad said that was an hour ago and they hadn’t heard anything since.

I was exhausted and looked for a chair or something that I could sit on. The only thing I could find was a wheeled stretcher, so I climbed up on it. I don’t remember falling asleep, but I do remember being roughly shaken by Kenny, which is why I accidentally, on purpose, punched him in his stomach. I heard Earl say, Come on, Michael. I’m taking you and Kenny back to the house.

Chapter 2

When we got to the house, I went straight up the stairs and flopped on the bed. I woke up to the sound of thunder. I got up and looked out the window, just as flash of lightning lit up the sky. I don’t know how long I had been asleep, but the low growl in my stomach reminded me that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so I headed down the stairs in search of food. I stopped short of the bottom step when I spotted Betty and Earl on the couch kissing. I backed up the stairs, so they wouldn’t see me, but I wasn’t fast enough. Even though they didn’t see me, I still managed to hear Betty, who was crying and apologizing, say to Earl, Earl, please forgive me. I made a mistake. I still love you. I should have never married Sam.

Coincidence or not, at that exact moment, the front door opened, and I heard my mother’s voice. I took that awkward moment of silence to make my entrance into the living room, with my arms stretched over my head while faking an exaggerated yawn, I said, Hey, what’s to eat?

I looked at the frown on Mom’s face and said, How’s Uncle Ed? Is he going to be all right?

Without saying a word, my mom went into the kitchen, with Dad following behind her. Betty told Earl she had to go and rushed out the front door. I plopped down on the couch next to Earl. I stared at Earl. He was looking down at the floor, as if he was found guilty of something and was waiting to be punished. I said, What’s going on, Earl? Did I miss something?

Earl didn’t look at me he just stared at the floor and told me that Mary came by, while I was sleeping, and of course, Betty came by, she had just left. I was just about to ask Earl how Mary looked, when my dad called me to come and eat.

It had been two days since Aunt Effie’s funeral. I still found it hard to believe that she was gone. All the Joneses and most of the Cannons had gone home. We were going home tomorrow, which just happened to be my birthday. I wondered if anyone would even remember my birthday. My parents and Earl had gone to the hospital to pick up Uncle Ed, who had a mild heart attack at Aunt Effie’s grave site. The hospital wanted him to stay longer, but he insisted on going home. As for me, I was posted in Aunt Effie’s rocking chair on the front porch, waiting for a glimpse of Mary.

Since the Betty-Earl incident, neither one of the sisters would come over to Uncle Ed’s house. I was ready to give up and go inside when a car pulled up in front of their house. Betty’s husband got out and opened the trunk. To my surprise, there she was finally! There was Mary, heading toward the car with a suitcase in each hand. To me, she looked the same as she did last summer.

Betty came out carrying a baby bundled in a light-blue blanket and got into the backseat. Mary’s husband came out empty-handed and got into the front passage seat. What an asshole, I thought, making your wife do all the work. Mary started to get in the backseat when she stopped and looked straight at me. Even though this was the moment I waited for, I still felt caught off guard.

My heart was pounding, and I could barely breathe. I was totally mesmerized by her brown eyes and all the feelings I had for her came rushing back. It seemed like a lifetime since our eyes had locked on each other. I started to feel hot as I watched her slowly move her tongue over her sensuous lips and as she opened her mouth wider as if to say something and I leaned forward straining to hear every word she might say, at that long-awaited moment. Earl’s car pulled up with my parents and Uncle Ed, blocking my view of Mary.

What the hell? I said, I just can’t catch a break, no damn way!

I went into the house, slamming the screen door behind me. I ran into Kenny blocking the stairs to the second floor. Laughing loudly, he said, What’s up, little brother? Who stuck a bug up your ass?

Now’s not the time to fuck with me, Kenny. I strongly suggest you get the hell out of my way, I said, as I charged up the stairs.

I don’t know how long I had been laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, my brain whirling in confusion from so many unanswered questions. I was trying to figure out why Mary would go back to her ex-boyfriend and then marry him, especially since the reason they broke up was because he cheated on her numerous times, or so she told me. Now I wondered, during our relationship, if she was ever truthful or if everything, she told me was one big lie.

Kenny burst into the room panting as if he had just run a marathon, flipping on the light switch.

I yelled, What the hell, what’s your problem, Kenny?

Sorry, Dad is in one of his moods and I was trying to avoid him. He panted. Besides, I thought you were asleep.

I glared at Kenny as I sat up. I was about to say something when Earl, standing in the doorway, said, Hey, Mike, can I talk to you downstairs?

Sure, I said.

I got up and followed Earl down the stairs and into the living room. Earl sat on the couch and I slumped into Uncle Ed’s recliner chair facing Earl. I waited in silence, for Earl to say something. Listening to the ticking of the clock, on the wall behind Kenny, made the silence even more unbearable. I finally said, So what did you want to talk about?

Earl who had been fixated on pulling a string from his shirt button looked at me and blurted out, I saw you on the porch when we pulled up. Did you get a chance to talk to Mary?

I wasn’t ready to talk about Mary, so I quickly changed the subject by saying, "So what’s up