10. Amina Sinclair
Amina Sinclair
ONE WEEK LATER
“Amina? Get up for a second,” the sound of Gemini’s voice snapped me out of the sleep that I was in. I woke up, frantically looking around, trying to see what the hell was going on.
We were in the truck, driving on the highway.
It was late. Gemini told me a while ago to go lay in the back, but I don’t know if I was becoming obsessed with him or what, but I opted to stay up here with him.
I had my shoes kicked off, with my legs pulled up Indian style in the chair, with a throw blanket wrapped around me.
My head had been lying on the doorframe.
I was getting some good sleep. You would have thought that I was the one that had been driving this big truck around all day.
“Huh? What happened?” I was confused, not really knowing what was going on, or why he’d woke me up.
“It’s two state troopers behind me. They pulling me over. I don’t know what the fuck I did,” he said, and that’s when I looked in the rearview mirror, and it was the first time that I was actually hearing the sirens.
They had their lights flashing, alerting Gemini to pull over. I could tell he wasn’t scared though. His voice was calm. A little too calm, but I guess that was a good thing because I didn’t want to freak out.
Before I closed my eyes, I remember Gemini telling me that we were headed to Louisiana.
We were going to a part called Monroe. It’s been a week since we’ve left Mississippi.
After leaving Mississippi, we went over to Southern Arkansas.
That was my first time in Arkansas. Even though we were there for work, I enjoyed the feel that Arkansas had.
It was humid there though. I don’t think I wore my braids down one single time while we were there.
My period was on the entire time that we were in Arkansas, and something about my period, and heat that just didn’t mix.
That was probably the only downside about it though.
Other than that, when Gemini got a few moments to spare, we did little things.
The sunsets out there were beautiful as hell.
He had me trying new foods out there. I tried smoked brisket and fried green tomatoes from a food truck spot that he found.
I saw fireflies for the first time, and just the overall simplicity of being out there with him is what I loved.
Now, here we were, in Louisiana, and with Gemini getting pulled over, I hoped that this wasn’t getting ready to set the tone for how our stay in Louisiana was going to go. I wanted this to be a good experience, just like the rest of the states that we’ve visited so far.
“You weren’t speeding or anything?” I asked him, just trying to see what it could have possibly been for them to pull him over.
“Nah I wasn’t speeding,” he told me.
It was pitched dark on this highway. Like a lot of the highways that we’ve been on, there wasn’t rows of streetlights that stretched for miles. It was after ten, and something about this traffic stop just seemed so eerie. I said a silent prayer, hoping for the best.
I sat my feet down, taking them out of the chair, and because I didn’t want it to look like I was hiding anything in my lap with this blanket, I went ahead, and tossed the blanket down on the floor.
By this point, Gemini had the truck pulled over onto the shoulder lane. He rolled my window down, along with his, and he sat with his hands on the steering wheel.
It took about a minute for the state troopers to make their way over.
One went on Gemini’s side, while the other came over to my side.
The officer that was on Gemini’s side, he flashed a bright flashlight into Gemini’s face.
For him to even do that, let me know that he’d come over here looking for a problem.
He could have flashed the light into the car.
Instead, he came over here being an asshole, looking for a reaction out of Gemini.
I knew Gemini well enough now to know that he had self- control. He wasn’t going to give the officer the reaction that he was looking for. Instead, he just dropped his head, so that the light wasn’t flashing in his face.
“Good evening. May I ask you where you’re headed tonight?” the officer asked Gemini.
Did this man really pull us over to ask Gemini where he was headed? If that was the case, then he needed to get back in his car, pull everyone over, and ask them where they were all headed to tonight too.
“I’m headed to Monroe,” Gemini was calm in his response.
When Gemini responded, the officer didn’t say anything else after that. He just simply looked into the truck, flashing the light inside. My eyes were on him, so he flashed the light in my direction. He kept it on me for a few seconds and then dropped it back down into the truck.
“Can I ask you why you pulled me over?” I knew that question was coming from Gemini. Hell, if he didn’t ask it, then I was gearing up to do it.
“You can’t ask me anything, boy! I’m the one doing the questioning here!” he snapped on Gemini.
I was angry. Literally seething. Leg bouncing up and down. I knew that Gemini was upset too, but he was able to keep it together.
“Will all due respect sir, I can ask the reason for the stop. It’s late at night, and I’m just trying to get to the truck stop that’s coming up in the next few miles.
You pulled me over and have yet to ask me for any proof of I.D or registration.
The first thing you inquired about is the destination at hand.
I’ll cooperate with you man, but I want to know why I’m being pulled over,” Gemini stated, hands still on the wheel, while turning his head, so that he could look the officer in his eyes.
As if what Gemini just said was a joke, the officer on his side laughed. It prompted the officer on my side to laugh as well.
“You hear this boy? Craig, he’s talking about he wants to know why I pulled him over. Let him know that this is my city. I don’t need a reason to pull you over boy,” the officer on Gemini’s side stated. Both of them were cracking up.
“Gemini, don’t you feed into this shit. We both know what they are trying to do here,” I whispered it to him, and he nodded his head.
I didn’t care if the officers heard me, either. They needed to hear me, so that they could see that we were on to their game and wasn’t going to fall into their trap.
“What you hauling on this truck?” the officer asked.
“I transport vehicles,” Gemini was short in his response.
“Care if we take a look?” he wanted to know.
“Ay man, before we go any further, could you please tell me the reason for the stop? Again, you haven’t asked for my license or registration.
Now, you’re asking to see what’s in the back of the truck?
It’s nothing back there. I’m coming from Arkansas, where I just finished my final drop off.
I have a pickup first thing in the morning, and I would like to make it to the truck stop, so that I could shower, and bring it in for the night,” I could tell Gemini was getting pissed now.
“And as soon as you show me what’s in the back of the truck, you can be on your way to do those things. Let’s go,” he said. Gemini sucked his teeth, and he took his seatbelt off. I took my seatbelt off as well.
“You can stay put. We just need him to show us what’s in the back,” the officer on my side stated to me.
“So ya’ll can get him to the back of the truck and fuckin kill him? No! I’m getting out too!” I spat, and Gemini shot me a look, and I knew that was his way of telling me to back down.
“Amina, chill out. Ain’t nothing going to happen to me. I’m cooperating,” he said.
I watched the officer flash the light in Gemini’s face, as he stepped out the truck, and then started patting him down, looking for weapons. Gemini had his gun stored. It was always stored whenever he was driving.
I was so angry that I started crying. It broke my heart seeing this.
I’ve been on this truck with this man for the past couple of weeks, and I’ve grown to know who Gemini truly was.
Not the asshole teenager that stuck the lizard down my shirt.
Not the man that acted like it was the worst thing in the world for me to get on the truck with him. I wasn’t talking about that person.
I’m talking about a person that showed respect to everyone whenever he walked into a room.
A man that always said please and thank you.
A man that makes sure to tip our server plenty whenever we sat down somewhere to eat.
A man that makes it his business to call and check up on his mother, his sister, and his grandmother every day, even on those days when I know he’s tired.
A man that walked into a grocery store and went shopping for me all because my period came on, and he heard me say that I was cramping.
A man that wouldn’t touch his food until he prayed.
Gemini was out here making an honest living for himself, and to watch him get racially profiled like this, it broke my heart.
These cops didn’t see him for the son that he was.
The big brother. The businessman. The college graduate.
The man that built his company from the ground up.
Instead, they saw him as a black man, that had no business pushing this expensive truck.
That alone was already a crime in their eyes and was the reason they pulled him over in the first place.
I heard when the trailer for the truck went up.
I was able to look out of the rearview mirror, and watch what was going on.
It felt like the longest five minutes of my life, having to sit here, while Gemini was alone in those officers care.
Like they didn’t do anything, like they didn’t just racially profile him, they eventually went back over to their cars, and Gemini made it back into the truck with me, getting in the driver’s seat.
He didn’t say anything. He sat there, and it’s as if he was numb.