Chapter 10 - Justice

 The speaker is feeling alone, carrying pile of clothes. On every Friday, every time speaker came up stairs, he knew for sure that his family would be there. All together again in the apartment, Ma would be all dressed up to go to the Emerald Isle, doing the laundry. Seamus and Stevie would be watching wrestling tv show and practicing Hulk Hogan moves on each other. Davey would be pacing the floors and smoking cigarettes. Mary and Jimmy and their 2 kids might be over with Chinese food for everyone. Joe would be waiting Frankie to finish eating every last bit of protein in the house before they go out and meet girls. Johnnie would be calling in from some disclosed location with the Navy Seals. Kathy would be all dolled up and sneaking out the front door. Is there a nostalgia or a reversion to the best place on Earth?  The speaker started sleeping at friends' houses all over Boston. He kept all the windows shut, and the air in the apartment was so thick and heavy that he felt he was swimming through ghosts. He changed his clothes and fled out the door everyday. This passage describes that the speaker was overwhelmed and scarred.

Johnnie owns the apartment after leaving the Navy Seals. The speaker never seen Johnnie was outdoing that much. The speaker claims that Johnnie was the one who had "gotten out." Johnnie never spent much time in the project, he was always at Latin school. playing football in the afternoons, and studying at the library at night. He went to the Tufts University and went straight to Navy Seals. Johnnie was immediately welcomed back into Southie, expect by Frankie's old gangs. Johnnie started working as a bouncer at some Broadway  owned by gangsters and boxers. Johnnie and the speaker hardly crossed paths in Southie. The speaker wanted nothing to do with the town, and Johnnie was getting into it.

Semaus and Stevie commented on how poor everyone in the trailer park looked in Colorado. The speaker told Ma that he doesn't like Colorado, too. So, Joe bought a house and the family lived in the trailer. Ma stopped calling the speaker once her phone was blocked for long distance calls. When he called her, Stevie had rung up a big bill calling his friend, Tommy Viens in Southie. 2 kids were begging Ma to send them back to Southie so they can see their friends.This shows that they miss the chaos. Mary told everything to the speaker, that Tommy had gotten to hold one of Johnnie's guns. Stevie was shaking and Tommy had a bullet to his back of the head. Detective O'Leary came and asked questions about the incident. So, people told anything to O'Leary. Stevie didn't kill Tommy. Then Stevie was charged for first degree murder. So, he spent a night in jail. After that, Stevie was still scared about what happened to Tommy. The family tried to talk out of him. They knew Johnnie had guns and ammos because he was in Navy Seals. Tommy had found the gun, but no ammo in it. Seamus and Stevie couldn't figure out how Tommy was killed. Stevie explained everything what happened to the speaker. He said that Tommy found the gun and Stevie told him to put it back or Johnnie is going to be pissed. Johnnie told them that he had hidden the ammo separately  in a pouch, under the pile of old shoes in Ma's closet in the other apartment. Speaker thought Tommy killed himself, Stevie said that Tommy wouldn't kill himself. Then Stevie and the family went to the court for the murder of Tommy  The family knew that Stevie wouldn't kill Tommy, he was his best friend.

Then Stevie was charged with first degree murder and a bail of $250,000. It means if you own a house or something to worth to sell for, but it's $25,000 if you pay with cash only. Johnnie explained that to the speaker. Mary, Joe, Johnnie, and the speaker scraped up $25,000 to bail Stevie. Their life savings are gone. They were happy to see Stevie again. The speaker spent the rest of summer with Semaus and Stevie, hiding out in a cottage on Cape Cod that they rented from one of Johnnie's new Southie friends. They sat and talked about that horrible day all over again, again, trying to figure out what happened to Tommy, why he was killed. They thought that the gun might accidentally went off and killed Tommy. The FBI took Stevie for gun test to prove that he didn't shot Tommy. It was unlikely that Stevie shot Tommy because of the blast had covered his hands in the chemicals. Stevie's hands had no chemicals on it. Then the speaker wanted to have the 911 call from Stevie on that day when Tommy was shot. He heard that Stevie was scared and yelling and he said he shot Tommy. He showed it to Fallon. Fallon was shocked, and the speaker fled Fallon's office, to explain Stevie what really happened. The court happened again with Stevie, with the different evidence  O'Leary appeared in there.  After the court, Grandpa died. After the funeral, the speaker spent nights studying laws, crimes, pictures, gunshots, evidences, etc.Stevie was gulity in the court. The judge said they could sent him to Department of Youth Services, it could be a year or until his 18th birthday. Later, Steive was freed.  They won the case in 4 years.