The Ex-Con

Chapter 8: Lessons

Thursday December 20th, 2007

6:00am

Savon

I woke up and i took a nice long piss, got myself together and brushed my teeth and took a quick shower, had to shower before the cold water kicked in. I left my house over on South Green street and headed down to Ray's BBQ Shack down the street from me. The snow was starting to let up a bit which was good, it was still frozen over so i was being careful walking on the sidewalk. It was like a foot of snow or so on the ground if not more. I got there around 6:15am.

"Hey Ray."

"Hey young man how's it going this morning?"

"Going good, i wanted to talk to you about something."

"What could that be?" He asked.

"I wanted to talk to you about a job."

"Oh really? I thought you already had a job, running with the mod squad, running errands for Maurice." He said.

"No not me. I really want a job, i want something legit, something i can make money from and save up on. I don't want that life."

"Really? Well alright then Young Buck, come back here and me and some of the employees will give you some LESSONS if you're really serious about this." He told me. "He's gonna break." He said to another employee.

Little did Ray know i was determined to prove him wrong. I'm going to get this job.

"Alright Savon 1st thing, watch Trey here because you're going to be starting off with flipping burgers and fries. Then you're going to watch Sabrina, because she brings the food to the customers, you're going to be multitasking." Ray told me.

"Alright that's going to be no problem." I told him.

I watched Trey and Sabrina at work for awhile, a good 30 minutes and they was moving and going around that diner, taking orders. People weren't really coming in like they usually do because of the weather but the people that were there were definitely ordering food to keep warm. It was cold, the weather was something, this snow storm would be over in the next few days, that's what they said on the news at least. I continued watching Sabrina and Trey for a bit, then Ray came back over to me.

"Hey you think you can do this?"

"Yeah, i know i can."

"Good that's what i like to hear, get to it then." He said.

******

******

Tahime

7:45am

I walked into Ray's BBQ shack after a long morning and sat down to relax, i looked over and seen that Savon was helping Ray out. Well it's better than him being out in the streets.

"Hey Savon, over here." I said. He looked at me and broke out in a half smile and walked over. "Hey Can i get a cup of coffee and some Waffles?" I asked.

"Yeah it's no problem." He walked over and got my order and then walked back over to me. "It should be ready in about 5 minutes or so." He told me.

"So you finally decided to make a couple of changes in life huh?"

"Yeah, to be honest, you and Ray, y'all cool people and y'all really made me think." He told me. "It's more to life than the streets it really is, now if i only i could get that through Roderick & DaQuan's head."

"I'll level with you Savon." I began. "It's only a few people in life that'll actually listen and try to make that change that they know possibly need to be made and then it's those who want to learn life lessons the hard way. Both of them know that the life they are leading is only going to lead to 2 places, Prison or the cemetery, but it seems like they don't care. That's what's wrong with this generation, they are more scared of living than they are of dying but you're one of the ones that want to live, and that's a good thing." I said as i shook his hand and showed him a sign of respect.

"Thanks, i really appreciate that, i really do."

"It's no problem, speaking of Roderick and DaQuan here they come now." I pointed over in the direction they was coming from and told him to be cool.

"So when did you start flipping burgers?" Roderick laughed as he looked at Savon.

"Chumps flip burgers." DaQuan said.

"Well am i a chump?" I heard Sabrina say, i looked over at them and chuckled. I seen Roderick look over in my direction.

"Yo what you laughing at janitor?"

"Shit, here we go again." I mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Look why you starting with me each morning man, you got something against me or some shit?" I asked. "Cause you act like i personally did something to you, if i was one of these young boys out here i'd knock your head off, i'm trying to be calm, cool and collective with you but my patience is wearing thin Roderick." I told him, he came closer to me.

"You need to watch your back around here."

I got up and got directly in his face. "Is that suppose to be a threat son because if it is it didn't phase me." I told him.

"Whoa relax." DaQuan said as he pulled Roderick away from me. "Look Roderick you need to chill a bit. You doing a bit much." DaQuan said.

"Whatever, i'm out." He said as he stormed out.

DaQuan looked at me and then looked over at Savon. He started to follow Roderick.

"Wait don't go." Savon said.

"So is that what you do?" I began. "You follow Roderick around like his little lap dog?" DaQuan turned around and stormed over to me. "Watch yourself young brother."

"Man you don't know what Roderick has been through, he tends to lash out at people he don't like, he's a bit off up here." He said. "He needs someone to be there...."

"What he needs is time to cool off, Roderick is a scared young man, who don't know how to handle responsibility and blame all his problems on someone else, i know because i use to be one of y'all, running the streets, getting myself in trouble, hanging with the wrong crowd just like Roderick is doing." I said. "But what i'm worried about is you, i mean look at you, you're going to head in the same direction as him, you need to focus on you."

"Why do you care man?"

"Because i don't want to see y'all end up like me, in a prison cell for the next 20 years, or possibly life because of some dumb shit that y'all did when y'all was younger. Trust me prison is no fun place to be." I told him.

I seen the look in DaQuan's eyes. I was getting through to him, and that was a good thing, but i know just like Roderick he was scared, scared of life, scared of responsibility, scared of the opportunities out there for him, he wanted the easy money, he wanted to live the fast life.

"Where do I even start?"

"You have to start at the bottom to work your way to the top." I told him. "Find something you're good at, and then go after it, something like sports or writing, some artistic, something that makes you unique." I told him.

"Thanks...I got to go." He walked out, and things started to get back to normal at the BBQ Shack.

Just another day in Chicago.

End Of Chapter 8

Wow this was definitely a interesting chapter. What did y'all think of it? What would y'all like to see happen next?