The Ex-Con

Chapter 13: Building Trust

Tuesday January 1st, 2008

Tahime

It was around 5pm, i was thinking when i was done working at the school i could go home and get a bit of nap in. But for some reason i couldn't sleep so I decided to workout a little bit. I turned the radio on in my room and i put it on 101.5 OSHC & i heard this song called Runnin' Rhythms By Rebel XD and DJE (Another dope song worth looking up) Song was definitely dope. I got a couple hundred push-ups and sit ups in and all. Then after that i got in the shower. Around 6:30pm I was downstairs, getting ready to head out the door.

"Hey young'n where you off to?"

"Well 1st of all i don't think a 40 year old man could be considered a young'n Reggie." We both laughed. "I'm probably going to head over to my sister's house or something." I honestly told him. "But 1st i'm probably going to stop at Ray's BBQ Shack and get something to eat." I said. "So Old timer what you have planned for tonight?" I asked him as we laughed again.

"Well to be honest not much, i'm probably going to relax and watch some TV, might watch The Amazing Race, or some reality shows on VH1 in all honesty." He told me.

"Cool, sounds like a plan." I told him. "Well you be safe, i'll probably be back around 11pm or so." I told him as I walked out the door.

I walked down to Ray's BBQ Shack which was a few minutes walk away, and I walked in and sat at my usual table. I waited for one of the waiters to come and take my order.

"Hello welcome to Ray's BBQ Shack, can i take your order.... Tahime." The waiter said. I looked up and seen it was DaQuan.

"DaQuan, you're working here now?"

"Well yeah...I mean I saw that you were really wanting to help and all, and look, i'm not a bad person but I...."

"It's cool, i get it. There's no need to explain. Look i was in your predicament once, and I wish I had someone to look out for me when I was a young'n. Also look at you, you look kind of respectable in your work clothes, I mean seriously you're putting forth the effort and that's the best thing you can do, so you like this job?"

"Well it don't pay as much as my previous employer but hey it's a decent living right? And plus it's still money." He said laughing. "So what will you be ordering?"

"Some ribs & fries." I told him.

"Oh to go? Where are you off to?" He asked.

"Going to see my sister. My son's been staying with her and i'm going to visit both of them."

"That's cool. I didn't know you had a child."

"Yeah, and i regret not being in his life." And now he's 18, in and out of trouble, just like me." I told him. "That's why i'm hard on you, Savon & Roderick, because y'all have potential to be more than just another statistic, y'all have potential to go places in life." I told him.

"Well that's good. That's good." I saw him begin to tear up a bit. "I'll let Savon know you're here and he'll get your food ready in a second." He told me.

I sat there for a few minutes, I got my food around 6:55pm and then i ate it, and then after that I sat and thought about things for awhile. As i was sitting there in my thoughts Ray came and sat down beside me.

"Hey Tahime, Savon told me you were here. You always stop by, man it's cool ain't nothing wrong with that, it's just everytime i see you, you're always deep in thoughts. It makes me wonder what could be on your mind, you know?"

"What isn't on my mind, you know. Life is really something. One day you're a young man, running around living life fast, making money, wrong choices and twenty years later you're on the other side trying to keep the next generation from making the same mistakes you did, you know?"

"That's true Tahime, that's true. It's tough too because you can't save everyone, no matter how much you try." He told me. "But as long as you save someone, that's all that matters, you paying it forward, that's what really matters." He told me.

Me and Ray talked a bit as Savon brought the food. We all talked a bit, and around 7:20pm I got going. I called Derrick and let him know where I was at and Derrick told me that him & Cherise were going to surprise me and head over to my place. I asked about Angelo and he said that Angelo wasn't going to come. Their place is like a 5 minute drive away from me, they live on the corner of South Lowe street & West 73rd street.

"Well why isn't Angelo coming?" I asked.

"Well man.... You know how he feels about you, this whole situation is just a mess."

"Yeah, It is. Well since y'all are coming over my way, how about i treat y'all to dinner?"

"Sounds good." He said. "Wait you're not going to treat us to Ray's BBQ shack are you?" He asked laughing.

"No, i just left there myself." I told him, laughing. "It's a restaurant over on South Winchester & West 64th called Mario's & i wanted y'all to try to the italian food over there." I told him.

I waited awhile for them to show up then when they did Derrick honked the horn and i hopped into the car and we headed over to Mario's Italian Restaurant. We got there around 8:20pm.

"You know i wish that Angelo would have shown up." I said, still somewhat upset by him not showing up.

"It's not going to happen overnight, me and Derrick tried." Cherise said. "But he just wouldn't budge." She said. "You can't make someone do something they don't want to do, especially when it comes to something like this big bro." She told me.

Me, Cherise & Derrick sat there and ate and we talked more about life, work & more. Around 10:30pm we left and headed back to my place. They pulled into my place around 10:45pm and when we did we saw Angelo sitting on my front porch.

"Angelo what are you doing here?" I asked as we got out the car.

"You were supposed to be with us." Cherise said.

"I know, it's a lot going on in my mind." He told us. "Y'all just don't understand." Tears were coming out of his eyes and when he lifted his head up his eye was black.

"Oh my, what happened?" Cherise asked.

"Those damn thugs he was hanging around with." Derrick said. "I'm sure that's the cause of it." He scoffed. "Look at what happened to you, just because you want to keep continuing hanging with trash like that." He said. "You're never in school, you never finish your work on time, you're eighteen going on nineteen, you need to take responsibility for yourself, you act like you don't want to live." He told him.

"Hold on now." I began. "He's definitely in the wrong for this but for him to come here it's something, why come here?" I ask.

"To be honest i don't know." Angelo said getting up and walking over to the car. "I don't know." He looked at me and got in the car.

"Man this kid." Derrick said, shaking his head, then looking at me. "Just like you when you were young, full of anger, full of stubbornness. Hey man we're going to go ahead and go, we'll call you when we get home." He said as him and Cherise walked over to the car.

I walked into the house and walked upstairs and went in my room to unwind, listened to music, and thought to myself. The reason he showed up tonight, i don't know why but the only other thing i could think of was me and him BUILDING TRUST.

End Of Chapter 13