The Ex-Con

Chapter 1: Reflection

Tahime

It's been a long hard Two Decades, 20 years behind bars for a mistake i made in life. I couldn't believe what i had gotten myself into, now here it is, November 20th, 2007, my release date. It was 1:30pm when i was brought up front to get my belongings and get released from the Jail and when i went outside i sat, i waited and about 30 minutes later a car pulled up and i seen a familiar face. A old friend of mines, a good friend of mines, Derrick King.

"Hey man what's up? You gonna hop into this car or what?" He asked me laughing. He was one of the very few, and i mean very few people to keep in contact with me while i was in prison.

"Hell yeah, i can't wait to get out of here man." I hopped in the car as we drove away from the prison in Ransom, Illinois and the almost 2 hour trip back to the Englewood neighborhood in Chicago began. It was quiet for awhile but then about 30 minutes into the trip Derrick said something to me that really made me think. "Why did you do it? Why did you ever get involved with them?"

"I was a stupid yongster, i wanted to be cool, be in with the it crowd, be popular, be known, i had it all, i had it all and i fucked it all up!" I said.

Just as we were talking The O'Jays song Backstabber came on.

"Well isn't that ironic." He said. "As we're talking about it this song came on." He said laughing.

I cracked a smile and laughed too. "Yeah it's ironic, boy it's ironic."

We continued talking about a lot of things like life, how much things have changed and everything, then we talked about his teaching job at the high school i use to go to, Booker T Washington High. Around 3:15pm we rode into Chicago, i could see some small houses and then some familiar areas about 35 minutes into heading into chicago.

"There's Ray's BBQ Shack." I said as we was passing the corner of Ashland Avenue & West Marquette Street. "I didn't know he was still in business."

"Yeah, he has like 6 of those BBQ joints here in Chicago, his kids own each and every one of them, one kid owns like three and the other two of them owns one, one of them is in Oak Lawn, and 2 of them are in Cicero." He told me.

"That's cool, that's what's up."

"Yeah...so man have you thought about what you're going to do with your life since you're out of jail?"

"Yeah, i've been thinking man, i've been thinking of getting work....good, honest work my man, for real. I'm too old to be running the streets, getting into shit, i don't want that life. Do you know of any job openings?"

"No man not really, i mean it might be a few here and there, but you gotta look in the classified sections of the newspaper, or you can even use the computer." He said.

"Dude, i know nothing about using a computer." I told him. "We didn't have Computers back then, well we did but we didn't have the money to afford it nigga." I said laughing. "Boy, i guess you'll have to teach me." I told him.

"Yeah, looks like it." He shook his head and laughed. "So do you have a place to stay?"

"Yeah, the jail set me up with a place to stay here in Chicago, it's called Brookwell's Boarding house over on the corner of West 66th street and South Union Avenue right next to an old abandoned church." I told him as we got into the neighborhood.

"Really? You're right down the street from the school, you know that right?" He said. "It's on the corner of South Green Street & West Marquette Road." He said.

"No i didn't know that, that's cool."

"Yeah, you're also around the corner from another one of Ray's BBQ Shacks, You know Ray still works at that one?" He said as we passed it. "Maybe when i'm done working we can meet up at the BBQ Shack and kick it." He told me.