When we were last with Gerald, he was telling of his later encounter with Glenn in the Federal prison system. When Gerald was coming up in his hometown of New Orleans, Glenn had been a major operator…
Dude was always my icon.
Me and Minew was always together and we used to see him in the park. We used to always see him put a bag behind the tree. I always wonder why he put a manilla envelope behind the tree. It was so weird.
I used to tell Minew, “Your turn to go get it.” Then when we get it, it have marijuana in it! He was in the park selling a lot of weed to people.
I’d say, “Damn. Got it. Let’s go!” But he never knew it was us!
When I ran into him in the Fed, he told me, he say, “Man, I work in the Commissary. Tomorrow ain’t my store day, but you gonna get to go to the store. Since you came in here yesterday, you’re gonna get emergency store. So what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna put it on my book, and I’m gonna make you $190 at the store, whatever you want.”
“But in 30 days, you have to get your paperwork.”
See, this is how the Fed work. I didn’t know, but if you less than 30 days, you gotta get your paperwork. They want to know if you a rat.
In the Fed, they got some guys that know the law. They go look at the computer, see what’s your case. If you got “15-K”, they know you ratted. That’s the case, “15-K.” Like you work with the government. You can go online, you can check it out.
He hit the guy, he told him, “We not saying, Big Homie, that you good or you not good. …But let’s keep things down. Because I don’t mess with no rat, Third.”
I say, “Yeah.”
Which I knew I was good on paperwork anyway. So it no problem.
They were still asking me how it was in D.C. I was kicking the bobo, telling them how it was, how I lived in D.C.
My homie was asking, “How you make it up there with them bammas?”
I say, “Man, D.C. is just like being in New Orleans, but for real for real. They like Ninth Ward n****s.” Ninth Ward n***s, uptown n***s, got a different swag.
They say, “Oh, so they like BAMmas!”
They like, “Damn, you been up there all that time?”
I say, “Man, I just jumped on the 10. The government ain’t going to give me no housing or nothing. Man, I had to do what I had to do. So I slung that dope like Doug throwed the football.”
So after that, we kickin’ it. Like I said, Glenn was a good homie of mine.
I hope one day he get out.
To be continued. Anderson’s first book, “Still Standing: How an Ex-Con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina,” is available on Amazon.com.
