More Than I Can Bear by E.N. Joy Page B

the world was going on.
    Eventually another police vehicle pulled up. A young, dishelved-looking female, who Norman had seen around campus, was brought over to the car he was in. The officer who led her there pointed at him. The girl then nodded while going into hysterics. Shortly thereafter, Norman was driven downtown and booked on rape charges.
    It was a long, drawn-out ordeal that took a couple of months to be cleared up. Mr. Vanderdale was released from jail when the girl later said that she wasn’t sure if she’d fingered Mr. Vanderdale because he was the actual rapist, or if she’d just recognized him from around campus. Then there was some DNA testing that didn’t match up with Mr. Vanderdale. But before his release, he’d been jailed for two months and in those two months he’d witnessed things he’d never even imagined animals doing. But then he realized why. The inmates were being treated like animals. You can only treat someone like a dog for so long before they start barking and biting like a dog.
    Mr. Vanderdale, although two years into his business major and paying for college out of his own pocket, changed majors and vowed to do what many thought couldn’t be done in the prison system: rehabilitation. He’d succeeded greatly, receiving all types of awards, accolades, and honors. He became sought after for counseling services in jails and prisons all over the country. He finally began to focus on the youth in the juvenile system, figuring if he could get them while they were young, he’d never have to meet up with them in the prison system.
    He’d met his wife during this time in one of his travels to a Southern prison. She’d been the clerk at the theatre he’d decided to catch a movie at during some of his down time. They quickly fell in love and when Mr. Vanderdale moved back north, he had his new bride in tow, who he had found out upon marrying was the daughter of the owner of the theatre chain. Mrs. Vanderdale had kept her relationship to the owners of the chain a secret. Many men had tried to court her simply for her money. But Norman Senior had been different.
    From day one his wife’s family had pressured Mr. Vanderdale into joining the family business so that their children could continue the family legacy. It took five years of pressure and Mr. Vanderdale almost losing his life after being attacked with a knife during one of his counseling sessions for him to give in and join his wife’s family business.
    During his days of counseling, Mr. Vanderdale had met, stayed connected with, and continued to counsel pro bono some of the inmates. He did this mainly through letters and phone calls. This was the reason the Vanderdale family currently had and had always had an almost all-black staff. Most of them were rehabilitated convicts. It hadn’t gone unnoticed by Mr. Vanderdale the African American ratio of inmates versus the other races. Even when he agreed to join in on the family business, it was under the strict and unwavering stipulation that he’d be allowed to hire some of his past rehabilitated clients to work for him.
    â€œSon,” his father-in-law had spoken to him all those years ago, “you are the best at what you do. If you were a car repairman, and my car broke down and I sent it to you for repairs, if you had the reputation as a car mechanic as you do a mind mechanic, I’d trust driving that vehicle one hundred percent. Therefore, I’d trust anyone you chose to hire.”
    Even when Mr. Vanderdale informed his wife that he wanted some of his past clients, who were mainly African American, to work for them in and around their home, her words mirrored those of her father. She didn’t put up a fight.
    â€œI believe in you, Norm,” she’d told him. “Anything you fixed isn’t broken anymore. You’ve made a well-earned name for yourself in your field. Besides, I think it’s about time