Page 143 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

He liked to eat at my house and I liked to eat at his. His parents liked me a lot, especially his

dad. Mr. Brock always bragged on my manners and my school grades. He was the first person to
offer me a choice of light meat or dark meat. I didn’t know the difference.

Life was not always sweet. One Saturday morning Cleve and I were playing in his yard. A
police car rolled up. The officers took Mr. Brock to the car and left. I didn’t understand what that
was all about. Somebody later said moonshine whiskey.

That experience was a scary time for Cleve and me. We watched it happen as we were lying
flat in the tall grass in the side yard. Cleve was teary-eyed. “Never tell, Mot. Never tell at school.

Promise.”
“I promise Cleve.” And I never told until now.

Later that year at school our friendship was tested. One day I was summoned to the principal’s
office. It seems Cleve had brought a large sum of cash to school and given it away to fidends. The

principal knew I was Cleve’s friend and thought I had probably gotten some of the money. I hadn’t.
I really felt let down. Cleve had given away all that money and I hadn’t gotten a red cent! Some

friend!
Later Cleve explained it away with that happy laugh and we were friends again.

After junior high, Cleve dropped out of school and I seldom saw him. I heard he had some
scrapes with the law. Once we met briefly in the lobby of the Lake Theater. Nothing had changed
about our friendship. It was still Cleve and Mot.

One December I came home from college and heard the news that blew my world apart. The

news was not about Cleve but his dad, Tanner Brock.
The elder Brock had taken his youngest son, five-year-old Tommy Joe, to Buzzard’s Roost,

just south of Big Alligator Lake, and murdered him.
Gruesomely murdered him. Taken his own tiny son by the ankles and bashed him to a pulp

against a tree.
I was not the only one whose mind was blown by the news of the murder. The entire

community reeled from the shock. How could a father do that to his own small, helpless, trusting
son! Along with shock and anger came a demand for a speedy trial.

Five months and thirteen days after the murder, State Attorney William Randall Slaughter

-138-

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: CD05D759-5273-4705-A6D7-381FCF749098