After Katrina: A Ten-Year Roller Coaster: Part 11

Previously: I went back and told my homeboys and homegirls I got a lick. They say, What you talkin’ about? I say I got a connect. I’m in the game with a dealer and these other dudes now. One of my homegirls say I hope you don’t mess his money up. I don’t want you to get in trouble with these guys out here. They might kill you or come here and kill us. I tell her, I got this man. I’m true to the game, not new to the game. I got a coke connect and a heroin connect. Every day I go out and hustle, sell my drugs. I get my nickname—they call me Orleans.

During that time they had a song out by Mike Jones called “Back Then” that say the girl don’t want you. Now I was sayin’ the same thing because when I came to D.C., the girls didn’t want me. Now that I’m in the street hustlin’ and gettin’ money, they all on me.

The dealer had a Hummer truck and a Lexus. He was a kingpin, he had money.

I’m startin’ to get big-headed, meaning you think your pants don’t fit you. I start drivin’ the dealer’s car, we start goin’ out to dinner, we go to clubs. A lotta big players and hustlers there.

You gotta dress nice to go in the club. They don’t allow tennis shoes. I wore black slacks and brown Timberland boots. Inside the club they had walls of mirrors and disco lights. The bathroom had guys in there handin’ you napkins to dry your hands.

The dealer introduced me to other hustlers. When I shake hands with them, the dealer let them know I’m his right-hand man, which make me believe I’m important. It’s like he put me on display. It all make me think I got it goin’ on!

I dance with real nice-lookin’ women. Meetin’ big players is like a big excitement. It got me halfway thinkin’ like I’m still in New Orleans.

I’m driving the dude around, and we start really gettin’ hot. I got a bond with him because I won his confidence. I stepped my game up—I’m getting 50 and then 100 bags. And now I’m frontin’ other dudes.

I went to feeling like a man in command.

I wanted to go to the tattoo shop and get a tattoo that say “In 2 Deep,” which mean I feelin’ myself ridin’ with the big man, eatin’ with the big man. Once you start takin’ me to your house, showin’ me your guns, it mean I’m in deep with you. I was closer to him than some of the older workers he had. I went to feelin’ like I could call some of the shots.

So after bein’ around with him for a year plus something, one day I was goin’ to the BP gas station. It was a small area right by the projects in the hood, the ghetto, where they got a liquor store on the corner, a convenience store a block away, a kids’ playground up on the hill.

Before I got to the station, a cop stopped me and asked where I’m from.

I say, “New Orleans.”

He say, “Oh yeah? I’m from New Orleans too.”

I say, “You just sayin’ that to mess with me.”

He say, “Nah, I worked in the 6th district. That was my district.”

After a while I’m thinkin’ to myself he might have been one of those crooked cops got transferred out.

He said, “We need to take a photograph of you, so we have a picture of you in case something happen to you.” Someone must have told them about me, which gets my mind to thinking this could be trouble.

Afterwards my dealer asked about it. He knew the cop’s name.

He say, “That’s the hero cop who busted me.”

After a while I got to wondering, Is this time to get out or get in?

To be continued . . .

My book, “Still Standing: How an Ex-Con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina,” is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle form. I hope you will tell your friends about it. It also makes a great gift! If you like it, maybe you can write an Amazon review. Thank you!


Issues |Weather


Region |Washington DC

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