Chapter 4 – A Drive to Park City, Utah

I woke up the next morning after a long night with the guys playing Madden ’13 all night.  We are going on a week-long trip to Park City, Utah on the last week of June before the 4th of July.  Victor Junior’s camping at an organization that handles kids like Victor’s disability and to also enjoy the great outdoors of the Rocky Mountains of Utah.

I would say that I have never been to Utah, just know it as “Mormon Country” with all those people that believe some kind of teenage kid saw God and Jesus back in the stone-age times.

The Applegate home is on the corner of Newport Avenue and 3rd Street. It was also a two-story/duplex style home with a massive main level and a half an upstairs with two rooms and two bathrooms.

On one-half of the house, as far as the main-level of the house goes, it took most of the space of the whole entire property; which in this case was a “big house” for any houses in Long Beach. Other than the swimming/hot-tub in the back yard, from the front door as you walked in, there was a big living/family room and a dining room that seats 12 people.

Beyond the dining-room is the massive kitchen with an island counter top in the middle; it is surely fit for any master chef. And behind the kitchen is a pantry room and a full bathroom across to Victor’s own bathroom.

But on the other half of the house was Victor’s own domain. His room was on the front end of the house where it used to be a living room with no front door, but with rather, a side door to the left side of the house. The room is bigger than my room with a low-to-the-floor king size bed fit to the “T” of the room and for easy access for Victor. On the mid-section of the house is a walk-in closet but more of a sit-down room with a changing table in the middle for dressing him in the day/night and the back-end of the house was the bathroom that looks like a locker-room with tile flooring and marble counter-tops and a walk-in shower; all three rooms were connected together by a pulling/lifting system that ran down the middle of the celling.

As I was over for the night, Mike told me about his family and how they were rich but kept a humble sprit within the Family. Their Mom was 34 and his Dad was 36 when they had him. But Maggie was 36 when she had Victor Junior and with complications had made him the way he was supposed to become, as she calls it.

During which both boys were growing up in the fast lane because their Mom started school at age 17 because she graduated high school early in Long Beach. She had, had a hard life as well but she always knew who she was. Maggie also had 35-years of schooling and a career in medicine; she wasn’t only a cardiothoracic surgeon but also a professor at the Georgetown University Hospital, she had a full-ride through college and promised to never go back to the old ways of growing up. In the end that is where she met Victor Sr. the love of her life because she was also working at a bar called the Ice Box, there in Washington D.C.

On the other hand, Victor Sr. who Victor Junior is name after is from Montreal, Canada and came to the US for school when he was 18. His families are of a French descendant from his mother’s side and moved to Canada when his Mother was 13 years old. His parents were smart people too and lived in Montreal until he went to college. From there, Victor Sr. became a businessman and held an executive position at General Electric for 36 years. He also has a Doctorate degree in International Business from George Washington University, where he met Maggie while he used to go to grab a drink at the same time she worked after school.

Now Victor is an Ambassador for Canada and they now reside in New York City while he works at the United Nations. After only a few months of retiring, at an early age of 54, the Canadian President wanted Victor Sr. to seek service in the UN and that is where they have been. Both boys didn’t like leaving Cali and their high school friends, so they convinced both parents to let them stay. As for Maggie, she still teaches now at New York University and still does surgeries from time-to-time at an age of 52.

Back at home, as I got up from the living-room floor to go pee, I noticed while passing Victor Junior’s room that the light was on and knew that he had a nurse that comes in every day to get him ready. As I went into the bathroom across from Victor’s bathroom, I noticed the double doors to the bathroom was open and as I was about to walk in and close the door behind me, I saw a cute girl nurse, that seemed about 24 years old, giving Victor a shower.

Victor then noticed me and with that look, he smiled from ear-to-ear. I could tell by reading his young 16-year old mind of his that he was enjoying every minute of it. Besides what guy wouldn’t like to have a cute girl nurse like that showering your chair-sitting-butt of yours every day; then of course my butt would love that too! And with that, I closed the door behind me and went on doing my own business to get ready for the day.

By 8:00am, I had come out of the shower to get my duffle bag of my stuff from the dining room and to my surprise there she was, in the kitchen making Victor Junior breakfast.

I stood there with just my towel around my waist and my still wet blonde wavy hair, as I was waiting for something to happen.

She spoke first, saying: “What’s your name?”

“Derek!” I told her with a blush face. I was not looking too good and for a split second, I rushed and got my bag, from the dining room; I then hurried my butt back and said: “Nice to meet you!” with the quickness to the bathroom before my towel fell.

“I’m Jennet Long!” she said as I was closing the door behind me.

Victor Junior then came through the door as I was dressing and with a smile on his face, said that I looked like a dog, ready to get some. I told him that he was a pervert. He then said: “If only I could have that dream that most guys have of beautiful girls showering them…oh wait, I have that…every morning!” And with a laugh, he rolled out to the dining room ready to eat.

By 8:35am, I went to the kitchen to make something to eat. Mike had been awake since 6:00am, and had just gotten back from filling up the Victor’s van to get ready for the long drive to Utah. I asked him who else was going. Mike said that it would be: Luke, Mary-Ann, Andrew, Michael, and I. Jennet was coming along too, not only because she was Victor’s nurse but because she was a volunteer worker over at the organization as well.

As we were loading up to get ready to go, I wanted to ride with Luke and Mary-Ann but to my surprise Mary-Ann had brought more than was needed for the trip. She packed for a week wardrobe of camping, shopping in Park City, swimming, hiking, and dinner reservations for their two-year anniversary of being a boyfriend/girlfriend couple that Luke prepared for months in advance and of course they wanted the car to themselves without anyone else. Go figure!

We all piled into Victor’s seventeen-passenger bus; it was of course styled out to the “T” with all the amenities of living like a king. This blacked-out paint job ride had all the windows; it also was decked-out with its own wheelchair lift at the back end of the bus. Inside from the back it had a place for Victor to park his chair; from there it had a cherry-oak wood table beside him. He had his 17” MacBook and a table on the other side, each had its own place carved into the table and was controlled by an up/down button so Victor could set at a height he wanted.

From where Victor was sitting there was a two-bench chair in front of him that seated at least six to seven people but both benches was taken over by Andrew and Michael. So I took the lazy-boy chair right behind Mike and Jennet took the passenger seat.

By 9:00am on a nice Sunday, we were headed off to Las Vegas, which was a four-hour drive.

As we were driving, we were all doing something to keep our minds busy: Mike was listening to iTunes on his iPod; Jennet was checking her emails on her Dell; I was on my Mac watching episodes of the “Walking Dead”; Andrew was watching “Simpsons”; Michael was playing a game; while Victor was listening to iTunes and was reclined back in his power-chair sleeping.

Two hours into the drive Andrew and I were talking about our lives and growing up in LBC. I found out that Uncle Jay adopted him when he was eight years old because both of his parents were killed by a drunk driver and since then has been taking care of him. I also learned that Andrew is a year older than me at 19.  And that he is half French from his Mother’s side and his Dad was related to us.

At the third hour of driving, Luke and Mary-Ann called us and said they wanted to pass us, so they could stop in and do some shopping before we move onto Park City. We then heard Victor laughing his head off as he looked over. We were wondering why he was laughing, they caught up to where I was sitting and I couldn’t believe my eyes as they passed and the blackout window of Mary-Ann was rolled down. I notice that Luke was driving with no shorts but had boxers on. I guess when you’re driving in nice leather seats all you need are your boxers on. That’s when Michael said: “That’s probably because Mary-Ann gave him ‘something’ while on the drive”.

By 1:35pm, we reached Vegas. We went to the Sinclair gas station that was outside of the city before heading onto the strip. We got out to stretch and took a brief bathroom break while Mike was filling the bus.

As I was helping hold up Victor Junior to pee in the bathroom, three guys walked in and saw a brown butt and me holding him up. It took Victor a while because of his shyness, but then Andrew noticed this and decided to stand beside us and with that his pants and boxers were pulled down to his ankles. He didn’t have a care in a world and stood there with his sexy butt hanging out; within minutes we were out the door.

We called Luke and Mary-Ann to see where they were and were told that they parked at the Harley Davidson Café and walked across the street to Planet Hollywood Casino and Hotel to look around.

As we drove onto the strip passing Mandalay Bay, I was in awe to see a city such as this. I had never been to Las Vegas or on the strip except for the Las Vegas Airport once. As we got to the café and parked we got out to see what we could do because we were all under 21 and couldn’t gamble.

As we walked across the street, we were handed cards and on them were numbers to your “choice” of getting it on with a lady of your dreams and with that I threw them away because STDs and HIV/AIDS weren’t what I wanted in me. As we got into Planet Hollywood we met up with the dating duo and yes, Luke had pants on.

We decided to walk around the strip while the two “love birds” went off to do some shopping. We began to walk North while passing and dropping off Luke and Mary-Ann at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, we proceeded on passing Paris, while stopping by The Bellagio to look at their pond as it was playing Frank Sinatra’s own “Come Fly With Me”, we then went on to pass Bally’s, Flamingo, Caesars Palace, Imperial Palace, and Harrah’s Las Vegas until we got to The Mirage; all of which were on Las Vegas Boulevard.

As we got to the Harley Davidson Café and walked in it was already 2:45pm. We were hungry and decided to drive over to Gold Coast Ports O' Call for all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet for only eight dollars each. The place wasn’t that far and it was five minutes west from where we were and was on Flamingo Drive and Hugh Hefner/Golden Coast Drive.

As we got there, we noticed that it was by The Palms at Las Vegas. In the building we had to pass all the slot machines and tables because the restaurant was on the other end of the building from where we came in which was typical of all casinos in and around Vegas. As we were walking through the floor, we could smell the aroma of Chinese food from afar and before we knew it, we were there waiting in line.

After which, we all met up with Luke and Mary-Ann as they joined in on the fun. And by 5:25pm we were full to the rim and made a pit stop for the bathroom before we headed back onto I-15 East. As my eyes shut I was in dream-world listening to some tunes from my iPod as we drove on for another eight hours to the next and last stop: Park City, Utah.

Written by: Junior F.

Edited by: Alexa G.

Chapter 3 – The Line Ends in LAX

Weeks went by since the shootings in Lakewood and things returned to normal in LBC. I woke up to: “Time out of mind” by Steely Dan on my alarm clock on a weekday in June. I ran downstairs to eat breakfast with dad before he left, we’ve created a relationship that I haven’t had since mom died and the great thing is…I’ve loved every moment I’ve had with him.

After I got ready, I walked to the Highlanders house to see them and to see how Layla was doing after getting out of the hospital a week ago. The house was on the corner of Loma Ave. and 3^rd Street, which was just two blocks north of the apartments.

As I got there I noticed Victor Junior there waiting in his power-chair at the bottom of the stairs. I came up to him and started a conversation with him even though I could only somewhat understand him. He told me that Mike was at work and rode over from their house, which wasn’t too far away. While we waited, the Highlander twins pulled up in Peter’s black-out windows with blue and running black down the middle of his 2013 BMW M5; as they got out they were carrying bags of groceries to make lunch for Layla, and dinner for us that night, which was hot dogs and hamburgers with Dr. Pepper and Coke.

Both boys said “Hi” to Victor Junior as they walked by, I then followed them in and they looked at me and told me to bring Victor inside the house because it was getting too hot. I was hesitant as to what to do and how? So I asked them what I was doing. Peter looked at me with a questioning look on his face, as if I hadn’t been paying attention to the past few weeks since I had moved in. He thought that I would have learned and should have known by now that everyone took part in helping and giving to the needs and wants of Victor Junior; in making sure especially that he may live an active life beyond our doings, and the only thing we’re doing is helping him obtain his goals in life, and that goes to bringing him into the house without hesitation or questions.

As I walked outside to Victor Junior, only knowing somewhat of what to do, he looked at me with a surprised look because of how dumb I was, so he called me a dumbass. I could almost hear in clear affirmation that was the word he would use to nickname me by for however long he wanted to.

During that moment while I stood there, thoughts started running in my head, strategizing of how to do this in the best way and if I was strong enough to carry him. Victor Junior then instructed me by saying that I should be sitting on his lap and he’ll have his arm wrap around my neck, then while we both stood-up I kept one hand on his waist and the other hand holding onto his hand and guiding him to stand-up. After a few seconds, we finally were up on our feet; next thing he told me I needed to do was to hoist his body up onto my back and piggy- back him up the six steps into the house and carry him to the back of the house into the family room, where everybody hangs out.

There in the family room, I sat Victor Junior on the lazy-boy; both Peter and Porter just stared at me and said: “Now you can be called a dumbass.” Victor with a laugh, said: “Yup!” I knew right then and there of my many life lessons and more coming thereafter, that it was dumb thinking on my part to actually question myself, or even more so, Victor Junior’s abilities to not only tell me how to take him in but also for my “dumbass” mind and ears to listen to him; and more importantly learn that whatever my legs want to do something like walk inside the house; that I should always consider in asking Victor Junior if he wanted to come inside or whatever it may be to never look at others to do it for you or ask you to help out in any way especially when Victor Junior is involved.

Moments later, as we stood there thinking of what to do, Layla came down for something to drink as Peter left to go to work. As I knew from Porter, Peter was a model for a famous agency from London that set up shop here awhile back and are well known for their worldwide GQ-Magazines in providing models for pictures and who couldn’t blame them for taking in Peter, who looks just like Porter. He is 5-10, 194lbs. with dark blond hair, blue eyes, and a body that goes to the gym six times a week, he takes good care of his figure and makes sure there’s no hair at all except on his head. And even though they look alike with different personalities, the Highlander twins could have any girl if they wanted to.

After Layla drank some water, she was still weak and still needed to stay in bed. Porter was busy getting the hamburgers ready to be cooked outside tonight, so he asked me to walk Layla back upstairs to her room and into bed. As we got into her room, I couldn’t stop staring at her good looking body as she climbed into bed and I must say, she looked a lot better than Mary-Ann. Or maybe it was how she looked in her sweats-pants and sports-bra that made myself want to kiss her at that moment, but I couldn’t take her trust in me away and surly didn’t want her to think that I was a creeper guy and most definitely didn’t want to take the honesty of me out of the twins either.

As I went back downstairs, I saw that Porter was in his room doing something. I asked what he was doing, he replied back saying: “Preparing for the race!!” and I had a questioning look as he explained to me what it was.

While in the family room with Victor Junior, Porter on his laptop showed me this email from another gang out of Los Angeles that read that they’ll be in Long Beach that night to hold a four-person race that will start here and will end in LA; the race starts at 1:00am sharp in the LBC; the cost to enter the race will be $100 for each race-car and $25 for each follower that follow their gang behind; the winner of the race will get 45% of the proceeds; all racers and gangs should meet at the light of Ocean Boulevard and Long Beach Boulevard right in front of the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center and will end at the Evergreen Memorial Park & Crematory at the parking lot of the church. The email ended with a heed warning that: “ALL racers are RACING at THE RISK of being CAUGHT by the LBPD and LAPD Law Enforcement…Don’t get caught!!”

Afterwards, we ate lunch and by 1:00pm got into Porter’s car with Victor Junior. As we drove to the car shop to have Porter’s 1979 Ford Cobra and all of the other cars that were racing tonight checked and retuned by Andrew and Uncle Jay. The four cars with the Cobra that were getting ready for the race tonight were: Luke’s 1975 Z25 Chevy Comoro, RJ’s 2011 Ford Shelby GT500, and Peter’s 2013 BMW M5.

As we waited, we sat in the office when Uncle Jay walked in; at that moment that was the first sight of seeing my family and were my first meeting with my Great Uncle. He looked at me as if I was the younger side of my Dad. As he walked towards me I stood up, he put forth a hand to shake mine, as I did the same our hands met with a firm grip of a handshake. At that moment, he gave me a hug with the other hand and saying with a strong stable voice saying: “Hi, I’m your Uncle Jay, great to finally meet you for the first time since birth.”

After that emotional interaction with my Dad’s Uncle, it brought a feeling of comfort to finally meet a family member and it felt like I could finally say that I do belong to the LBC and have deep roots.

By 4:05pm, we all met up at the Highlander’s house for an early dinner and a place to hang out while we waited for the cars to be done before everyone had to go back to the shop. As we were being dropped off in Uncle Jay’s tow truck, we saw Chang with Michael in his Coupe, and Mike in his SUV with Adam, Peter, Luke; as Mary-Ann got out from her 1975 Ford Mustang II as they all pulled up at the house. As soon as Mike got around to the tow-truck to see Victor Junior I got him into his push-chair, Mike said to me with a smile: “Hi Dumbass!” I just took it with a smile on my face and said: “I deserve that!” while everyone laughed.

As Chang pushed Victor Junior into the house, Mike with his right-arm over my left shoulders said to me that it was great to see and heartwarming for me to take the initiative in helping his brother and was a great moment to see his brother also laugh at others’ funny moments in life.

While we sat in the dining room, we talked about the race and named off the who’s who of the gang that’ll be there racing. Mary-Ann was the know- it-all kind of girl in the gang because she knew some of the girls in LA that could get any information. They were also the group of girls that would go out on girls night out and talk about the in’s and out’s of each gang because most of the girls’ fathers were indeed high-power attorneys that were lawyers to these guys. Some were both good and bad guys and each of the guys came from either high-power business families or a mafia crew of families that were “loaded” with cash money.

Mary-Ann told us that four gangs including us would be racing tonight. The three gangs that’ll be in the race would be: The Pacific Boulevard Gang, which is a middle-class gang from Huntington Park which is just like ours; The Eagle Rock Prep Gang, which was indeed from Eagle Rock City but also went to Occidental College and all are students that are a part of a co-ed Fraternity group called: Zeta Tau Zeta; and lastly are The Valley Ridge gang, which is an all-African-American gang from View Park-Windsor Hills.

By the time we got done eating, we went to the backyard for a nap on the cool grass and comfortable chairs on the backyard-deck. Adam piggybacked Victor Junior down to the blanket that was placed on the grass and by 6:45pm the sun was setting over the horizon. We took it all in, hoping for a nice long nap there; as it was getting dark, not long after, we were all asleep while listening to the tunes of the radio as they played Eric Clapton’s “My Father's Eyes.”

By 11:30pm, we were awakened by “nature” calling us and we all took each bush in the backyard. Mary-Ann was not trying to have to see us boys peeing in bushes, so of course she went inside. We then drove back to Jay’s to get the cars and get to the race by 1:00am at the front of the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center.

While waiting in the shop for the cars to be tested and ready to go, both Adam and Mike put together $50 to put in their SUVs as followers and another $400 towards the four cars that would be racing. By 12:45am: Porter, Luke, RJ, and Peter got into their cars; meanwhile Michael, Chang, Victor Junior, and I rode with Adam in his 2011 Escalade ESV; while Mary-Ann, and Andrew rode with Mike in his 2011 GMC XL Denali.

By 12:55am, we got to the light of Ocean Boulevard and Long Beach Boulevard. The LAX Regulators, a gang out of East Los Angeles was the ones that organized the race for us and were already waiting nearby to see and meet the competition that came through. As we got out, we met with Paul McDougal, second-in-command of the gang.

We then got to meet the four other drivers of each gang, as we got ready to line up. First: John III, Brandon, Gordon J., and Philip John Junior was from the Valley Ridge Gang; then Sarah, who was the only girl racing, Austin, Water, and Taylor made up the Pacific Boulevard Gang; then lastly from the Eagle Rock Prep Gang had Timothy, Richard III, Quinton, and the head boss of their gang: W. Young IV. Each gang had their followers behind them, in total there was a sight of 16 cars racing: four mini-vans, eight SUVs, and two other cars in all; we looked like we were about to cause a traffic jam at one o’clock in the morning.

As we all huddled inside Adam’s Escalade waiting for the race to start, we were all worried that the police would show up and see the vast amount of vehicles on Ocean Boulevard facing west. Then Jake King one of the LAX Regulators members stood between the cars of Richard III and Porter as he counted down and within seconds the race was on!!

First in line and storming through the light getting out front of the pack was Richard with his 2012 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Behind him RJ followed as they headed west on Ocean Boulevard while Adam decided to follow him, everyone else went in different directions. Minutes later, Mike called in and said that they’ll follow Peter, since he had one of the fastest cars out of our group and just to make sure he made it to the finish line without foul-play from the other drivers.

The race should have lasted at least thirty minutes and a 21-mile drive to the park in the city of Hazard, which is two miles North of East Los Angeles.

As we got onto the on-ramp heading North on I-710, we saw that two more racers joined in on the fun; it was Taylor from the Pacific Boulevard Gang and John from the Valley Ridge Gang.

Minutes later, RJ was ahead of Taylor and still behind the other two cars but took an unexpected exit off the 7-10 onto the I-410 heading west. We took aim following behind and weren’t the only ones because Taylor followed suite behind the Ford Shelby.

Things were about to get onto the fast lane as speeds clocked in at 85 MPH and with that Taylor put it into fifth gear passing RJ on his right, seconds later speeds got up to 115 MPH with no cops around us.

Within ten to fifteen minutes we passed the busy Interstate-110 and cities Lawndale, and Del Aire. We went as far North until we got onto the I-10 to head east. Culver City exit came up and we knew that we were about twenty minutes from the park. That’s when RJ took speeds up again but this time he made his move to pass Taylor and his 2012 Pontiac Grand Prix GXP at 120 MPH.

Within ten minutes, we then interchanged off from I-10 and onto Interstate-5 to get to the exit of East Cesar Chavez Avenue; making a quick right turn heading east.

For the next eleven blocks we took speeds upwards again of 75 MPH on the two lanes of East Cesar Chavez Avenue passing blocks with names of: Cummings Street, St. Louis, Soto, and Mott Street until we took another quick right turn onto Evergreen Avenue then hung a left turn to reach the Evergreen Memorial Park & Crematory and saw a sign that the church was at the South mid-section of the park. All the while Taylor was just a few feet behind RJ the whole way through.

As we got to the church, to our surprise, Peter and his 2013 BMW M5 beat out the head boss of the Eagle Rock Prep Gang: W. Young IV and his 2011 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe.

Minutes after our arrival, the rest of our Sun-Street Gang got there with all of the 30 vehicles parked in the parking lot of the church. At the front of us was an all-black entourage of a 2013 Mercedes-Benz GL-Class SUV and two 2013 Mercedes-Benz C250 Sport Sedan. Out from the driver of the SUV were Paul McDougal and Mac Young IV; head boss of the LAX Regulators came out from the right-rear door. 

From what I heard earlier in the day, the Young Family were the head masters of gangs in the Los Angeles area and had deep roots that dated back to the 1940s that everyone within the parking lot knew to be very true. From the SUV, Mac came walking over in his three-piece suit and announced to everyone that was there that the Sun-Street Gang was the winners of this event and had won $877.50 of the cash-winnings of the race.

And just like that, everyone left home and by 3:25am in the morning we decided to stop by an I-HOP restaurant near home to eat. As we sat there the drivers then divided the winnings by giving Peter $292.50 and spilt $146.25 up five ways to: RJ, Porter, Luke, Adam, and Mike; all the while listing to La Roux’s “Bulletproof” over the speakers.

Written by: Junior F.

Edited by: Alexa G.