Previously: I stayed with my homegirl Connie in the two-bedroom apartment she got from FEMA. I‘d go out and hustle, often washing cars. I wouldn’t see myself panhandlin’ because I don’t like askin’ for money when I know I’m not gonna do the right thing with it. Instead I earned money to bring home crack cocaine, liquor, and beer, so Connie and I could get high together. One night Connie went out to make some money prostitutin’. I saw her get into a man’s car, and I never seen her again.
Miss Linda from HUD recommend me to psychiatry. She ask me what I was incarcerated for, and I open up because she trying to help. I told her I was a burglar.
She asked me did I finish school. I said I was put in special education when I was 12 and I dropped out not long after that. I guess I didn’t give myself a chance. Now my editor and others tell me I’m smart. Back then I picked and chose which teachers I would work harder for.
One teacher I was close with, I would go to her house on weekends and cut her grass. She motivated me to do my homework. I had a crush on her. I didn’t think I was smart, but I knew I wasn’t stupid. I just didn’t want to participate in most classes.
I liked gym, I liked math, I didn’t like reading. I read now. I break words down into syllables, that’s how I figure them out.
I learned how to read out of the Bible. Just about everybody who go to prison, they give you a Bible. They don’t give you nothing else but they give you a Bible.
When I was in prison in my teens, some older guys offer me a cigarette, if I learn to read. They say, “You smart.” They liked me. That’s how I improved my reading.
I was a cool cat. I knew the street game. But I didn’t know how to read. You can be a gangster, a killer, a cool cat but you need a education.
When I was 18 or 19, I was sent to Orleans Parish Prison. It was after only 48 hours of bein’ home from juvie facility. That’s because I stole a car and got caught.
When I was comin’ home that was the thing: everyone was stealin’ cars and motorcycles. So I said, “I’m gonna get me a car.” I told my buddy I knew how to drive.
We turned the corner and I didn’t put on the brake. A police stopped me and my friend opened the door and ran away.
To be continued . . .
You can buy my book, ”Still Standing: How an Ex-Con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina“ on Amazon in paperback and Kindle form. I hope you will tell your friends about it and, if you like, write an Amazon review. Thank you!
