Previously: They put me in a cell with this old guy. We didn’t really talk other than he said, “Dang you came all the way up here from New Orleans and got into trouble?” I don’t really talk too much when I go in prison, other than with people I know. I was on a serious charge, and if I say the wrong thing, you never who you’re telling or who he works for. After a few days, though, we start talkin’. I ask him what he know about the court. He told me, “Man, you might don’t go home. I don’t know too many people who walk out of federal court.” I kept thinkin’, I’m gonna get life in prison! I worried I would never see the street again, cause remember I’m dealin’ with the FBI. I thought about how I would miss my family, miss bein’ on the street, miss bein’ free period. And I would miss eating fried chicken.
Me and my cellmate start to talk, gettin’ along a little bit. I also start goin’ out of the cell, minglin’. You can go out any time you want, except they lock you down at 4 pm when the shift change or when a fight break out.
You can go out on a quad—play cards, checkers. They got a basketball court. I like to play spades and poker. We play poker for chips, since we don’t have money. They put boxes of apples out, so sometimes we play for apples.
One night at midnight, a guard came down to tell me, “We have a court order to move you to CTF.”
My cellmate ask me what he say. I tell him. Then he tell me CTF the rat floor. Then I tell him, “I ain’t goin’ up to the rat floor!”
This tall guard, who work the night shift, he say to me, “What going on, Orlean? You don’t wanna go?” He say He been workin’ on the prison system for twenty years.
I say, “They already offered me some deals. The day I got arrested they was offerin’ me a hamburger and a milkshake and a Newport.”
I say, “Take me to 7D, central lockup, and give me a bologna sandwich and a cup of Kool-Aid. I ain’t never gonna be a rat.”
He say, “What you know about that?”
I say, “Check my history. You’ll see that I’m not a guy gonna sit at the table and tell what I know.”
The guard say, “Don’t worry about it; they’ll deal with it in the morning. Maybe there be an error.
My cellie say, “Man don’t let them put you on.”
I tell him, “No way.”
My lawyer came to see me. He say, “I don’t wanna ask you this, but I’m gonna ask—I know you not that kinda guy. But the government wanna know if you willing to work with them.”
I said, “No comment. He knew what that mean.”
So we continue talking about other things like what kind of time I’m gonna get.
He say, “I already heard the rumor that they trying to separate you and put you in CTF.”
I told him, “Nah, they tried last night but I ain’t goin’.”
The next morning, I get up and see the inmate who pick up the laundry. I tell him to pass the word to my codee (co-defendant) to meet me at medical. I need to see him ASAP.
I had to let my codee know I wasn’t gonna snitch. If you real, you bring that kinda thing to your codee. If not, it’s like you workin’ with the government.
We meet up at medical around ten o’clock.
I tell him the correction officer tell me to go to CTF, the snitch floor.
I’m like, “Man this is crazy, I’ve got a choice of death, graveyard, or prison all at one time.”
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. It’s a tough story but also good, because I’m still standing, so it makes a nice gift! I hope you will tell your friends about it. It tells a story of poverty, life on the streets and in prison that many from age 12 to 92 would not otherwise know. If you like it, maybe you can write an Amazon review. Thank you!
