Part 28 (1/2)
”So I can take you shoppin' fo' sooin' nowhere, he just got here,” coht,” I said, happy that Ta into his pocket, ”here, then But I'll be back to-”
”Don't call me that,” I said with my head down, eyes closed, and hands raised
”What, nigga?”
”Yeah, that's disrespectin' me, brotha”
”Oh, well excuse ned look of disht this time”
Everyone looked at one another They knew that although I had changed my name and reconnected to reality, the 'Monster' still lay doro, homes” He handed me the crumpled bills
”Thank you, E, and I'll be here toht then Watch yourself, too”
”I will”
I closed the door and leaned on it in an exaggeration of exhaustion and told Taave Shaun 900 of that as he tried to explain as happening in the 'hood We had gotten off to ourselves in the back room
”It's the dope, man, it has tore the 'hood up Check this out, there are soin', but they don't coonna jack 'eot nothin' feel like those who do got a grip have left the, snitchin', and animosity around here now”
”What happened with Crazy De?”
”Poor De, you knoas having big ht?”
”Yeah, I heard that”
”He tried to wait for you, bro Said he was gonna ht for you when you ca for you But De wasn't like the others He cared about the homies and put a lot of the li'l hoht up in soaffled for two hot ones I irls, wasn't it?”
”Yeah, but I don't believe De did it Cuz is a killa, but he ain't stupid, you know?”
”Yeah, that's right”
”He's in LA County We should swing down there and check hi else ”What's up with the Sixties?”
”Sa, back and forth They hit us and we hit them But the dope has slowed down the war too, in a way While there ain't thatto put constant work in, everybody got fullies, so one ride usually is enough now to drop several bodies at once”
”Have there been any negotiations with anybody over there?”
”Negotiations? Bro, you ain't hearin' ear Negotiations are conducted over the barrels of fullies Those left standing have won the debate”
”Still like that, huh? You knoas hbor in San Quentin?”
”Who?”
”Lunatic Frank He taught ood, too”
”Yeah, but Lunatic Frank didn't have no fullie in there, either”
”No, but I doubt that if he had he would have shot ed”
”Shot you? No, let me explain what fullies do They don't blow you up, they don't shoot you, they spray you Rehty-one, you were hit six tiot sprayed with a fullie and he was hit seventeen tiot shi+t that shoots seventy-five tiot LAWS rockets The latest things out here are fullies, body arers Offense, defense, and communication This shi+t is as real as steel”
”daot a Glock hteen times It's a hand strap Bro, this is the real world”
The real world How ever could I have expected anything else Although prison had been where I'd acquired knowledge of self and kind, it also was a very simple place Slow and hly explosive at It's almost as if I had contributed to a structure here, but then had soh years of its develop to find afor Homeboys ere once without money like the rest of us now had expensive cars, homes, cellular phones, and what seemed to be an endless cash flow All this talk of fullies and body armor made me feel old I was like Rip Van Winkle-or, more aptly, Crip Van Winkle
”So, where does the set stand now, Iworld?” I asked Li'l Bro
”Well, you see, it's difficult to explain, 'cause nothin' is stable-you can't ever make a state is fragile, more so than ever before, 'cause it's all about profit Muha world”
”Do you have a job?”
”Naw,” he said, his head hanging down, ”I slang dope”
And so did everyone else who had no s So little money in the community caotten into the drug trade just to ht as well putpeople, the destruction, in the end, being equal
I found a job as a file clerk and, fro was not as bad as I had thought it would be Through s and new consciousness I knew that in order to really feel the actual weight of the state I had to be a part of the working class This was no easy decision to come to, as most of the brothas in the pen have this I-ain't-workin'-for-whitey attitude That goes over well in prison, but it didn't seem to hold up out in society, where I was faced with the very real responsibility of taking care of home, bills, and two children, as in addition to Keondahad a son, Justin Initiallymy responsibilities for those who relied on me It was by no means easy for Tamu and me We only had one car, and it was old and had problems And Tamu had moved to Rialto, which is sixty eles, while I was a prisoner So I had to stay in the city on weekdays while I worked and go hoave me the opportunity to be in the coe for weekends with rown very close because she had chosen to come into the Movement with me, which fire and suranization that could retrieve me from the almost certain clutches of doo separations with nightly phone conversations and did things as a family on the weekends
One particular weekend, while ere driving along in our little raggedy car, ere pulled over by the Rialto police, who proceeded to write Taer seat and Keonda was in the back Suddenly, out of nowhere, another police officer canored hi and he had no need to talk to me But his knocks became so hard that I feared he'd break the , so I rolled it down
”Yeah, what's up?” I asked, still looking forward, not giving the officer the time of day
”LetWhy do you need to see my identification?”
”Look, we can do this the hard way or the easy way”
Now Ta to see the officer as talking toher the ticket, ”over here You got a probleot a proble to my husband”