"Dear Martin" by Nic Stone, Chapter 20-Four Months Later

At first, Jus recoils. If there’s one thing he can’t handle right now, it’s pity.

“Yup. It's been since I was little, but she’s gotten more adamant about it since—” He cuts off.

Investigator: Arson was our initial suspicion due to the number of threatening phone calls and letters Mrs. Tison has received during her husband's detainment. We're now able to confirm that this fire was started from the outside.

(Cuts to picture of house's charred remains.)

Police have apprehended three teenage boys who were seen in the area on the night of the incident.

For the most part, Jus isn’t surprised when a pair of cops approach him and Mama after Bras Preps commencement ceremony.

And he was right: not twelve hours after news broke that the fire at Garrett Tison’s house was set by someone outside it, the same newspeople who instigated “Thug-Gate” were speculating about Justyce’s “involvement in the arson plot.”

The detective’s eyes narrow, and Justyce wonders if he’s being too nonchalant.

“This is the deal: we arrested three young men caught on camera siphoning gasoline from cars in a Walmart parking lot near the Tison home. Two of them...”

Officer Troy passes her the notepad. “Filly and Bradley Mathers,” she reads, “named you as an accomplice.”

For one, they’ve both tried to implicate innocent parties before.

“Is there someone who can verify your whereabouts?”

“Is there someone who can verify your whereabouts?”

But testifying with his best friend’s murderer glowering at him from twenty feet away?

Jus, with tears in his eyes, recounts the final minutes of Manny’s life, and for a second he’s tempted to relax, especially when Doc gives him a thumbs-up from where he’s sitting.

“Your Honor, I’d like to enter into evidence a police report, filed on January twenty-sixth, that alleges Emmanuel Rivers physically attacked a Mr. Jared Christensen on Monday, January twenty-first.”

“The type who ‘attacks’ people unprovoked.”

“So you’re suggesting there was provocation.”

“The question is ambiguous.”

“You were involved in a similar altercation on the night of January eighteenth, correct?”

“Maintain your composure, Mr. McAllister,” the judge says.

“After you attacked Jared Christensen and Blake Benson, Emmanuel Rivers reprimanded you, correct? He sided with the victims of your unprovoked assault—”

Above certain levels, noise or noise disturbance is detrimental to the health and welfare of the citizenry and the individual’s right to peaceful and quiet enjoyment.

“Would you say your loud music was in violation of this ordinance, Mr. McAllister?”

“Did Mr. Rivers use foul language and make an obscene gesture toward my client that you would’ve perceived as threat?”

"And that young man—Quan Banks, I believe his name is—connected you to a group of young men with extensive criminal records and known gang affiliations, yes?”

After 27 hours of deliberation, Tison was convicted of two misdemeanors—disorderly conduct and discharge of a pistol near a public highway—and aggravated assault, the less severe of the two felonies.

The jury was unable to reach a consensus regarding the felony murder charge, and a mistrial was declared on that count.

The jury was unable to reach a consensus regarding the felony murder charge, and a mistrial was declared on that count.

Though Tison's claim that the teens had a gun was unsupported by evidence, the surviving teen, Justyce McAllister's, exposed connection to known gang members, including sixteen-year-old Quan Banks, the young man charged with murdering Tison's partner last August, cast a considerable pall over the proceedings.

She’s stretched out on the couch with her head in his lap, looking at a documentary about the migration of monarch butterflies, but Jus doubts she’s actually watching.

She’s stretched out on the couch with her head in his lap, looking at a documentary about the migration of monarch butterflies, but Jus doubts she’s actually watching.

As much as Jus hates that the death of his best friend was minimized by the hung jury, he can’t begin to imagine what Manny’s parents must be going through.

Mrs. F holds up her index finger and continues to speak into the phone: “Mmhmm...Oh good lord...This is...And the perpetrators?...I can’t believe this, Jeff.....”

In a statement to police, Garrett Tison’s attorney claimed she received a phone call from Mr. Tison alleging that guards refused to put him in isolation despite his complaints about receiving threats.

Well, I'm here.
The illustrious Yale University.

Then when SJ came back in from the bathroom and I introduced her as my girlfriend, dude's entire demeanor changed for the negative.

I'll admit my filter's a little tainted after the past eight months...scratch that: after the past year.

But if I go with Doc's thinking—Who would Martin BE?—well, that's easy: you'd be yourself. THE eminent MLK: nonviolent, not easily discouraged, and firm in your beliefs.

“Pffft. I wish. That dude was a titan with the ladies.”