Previously: Now that I’m in the street hustlin’ and gettin’ money, the womens all on me. The KingPin had a Hummer truck and a Lexus. I start drivin’ his car, we start goin’ to dinner, goin’ to clubs. You dress nice to go in the club, and 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. I’m startin’ to get big-headed. I stepped my game up—getting 50 and then 100 bags to sell. And now I’m frontin’ other dudes. One day, a cop stopped me. He tell me, “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.
With me bein’ addicted, I didn’t see nothin’ but money and the material things. I didn’t see the consequences that could come with this.
A few weeks later I see the cop riding with three others, four-deep in one cop car.
We had a clientele so good that people call and let you know when the feds riding. So it catch me off guard when I see them come around the corner, and the hero cop hang out the window shoutin’, “Hey Orlean, can I get 4 for 35?”
I’m sayin’ to myself, “How he know I sell drugs?”
When I told my friend, he say, “Man you’re marked.”
I told him, “I’m in to win; it’s too late to back out now.”
Another day I was by myself walkin’ to the store. The cop pull up on me and say, “Orlean!”
I say, “I didn’t like how you call me.”
He say, “I’m gonna do you a favor man. Leave those guys alone. They going down. We gonna bust them and they never see the light of day again. I’ve got informers. I pay them real good.”
I say, “Me, I’m gonna see the light of day, ’cause I’m not doin’ nothin’”
He say, “I’m givin’ you the benefit of the doubt. I’m your homeboy. I can get you a job at Safeway bagging groceries.”
I say, “Man, I’m telling you I don’t do nothin’.” And I tell him, “I know your game before you comin’, just like a game of chess. I been on the street since I was a teenager. I know game when I see game.”
He say, “All right man, I’ll see you later.” I was really messed up in my mind after that.
I told the big man, “I’m gonna keep it real with you. The cop said, ‘You can run, you can hide but eventually the bridge—the whole team—gonna come down.’”
I really wanted to quit but my addiction was sayin’, Nah you ain’t gonna be able to get high like you do now.
I was in a world of my own with everything I wanted. I thought I struck gold. I should have known this was the beginning of a road that was gonna come to a end.
To be continued. . .
