NEEDLES

I watched a guy leave Killer-K to go home today. Seven years in here and he's making it out in one piece. I envy him. Needles is the next to leave and mother fuckers in the unit are upset. He is the best tattoo artist in the pen. I like the kid a lot. He's white, about 5 foot five and he keeps his hair long. Long hair in the pen is not really a good idea, because you're just giving the booty bandits a reason to fuck with you. Maybe it's because long hair is associated with being feminine...

Anyway, Needles is one of my main mans. I fuck with the kid because he is always cracking jokes and making niggas laugh. I like his vibe. Needles says he has to complete almost 23 tats in 17 days. I can't imagine going home in 17 days. What does it feel like? Is Needles nervous, scared, anxious? Needles beat me in Scrabble today. I had one tile left and Needles had four. We were playing for the $675,000.00 dollars he owes me. (Only payable if one of us hits the lottery.) I was up almost a million dollars just last month. I knew he had a "C" in his hand because I put it back in the bag. There was no space on the board to get rid of the "C" so I knew I had his ass, and I told him so. He said, "If you're so sure bet it all!" You know me. "Fuck it, it's a bet nigga!" This mother fucker lays down "CWM" What the fuck kind of word is "CWM"? I add up his points and he's beating me by nine. If I challenge I'll lose a turn, but there is no way for me to score 9 point or better with one tile. I challenge and sure enough the mother fucking word is in there. Needles is so happy that he won he does a little dance that has my black ass laughing so hard I forget I'm in jail. I hate to admit it but I'm gonna miss this nigga.

WORD IS BOND

I was born addicted to heroin. My mother is a junkie. As a child I prayed my mother would die. Not because I hated her I just hated seeing what this drug was doing to her. In my young years I was shuttled back and forth between my mother, Zenee and my grandmother, Thesia. I dreaded leaving my grandmother to go back to my mother. Once, when I was six my mother left me and my 3 year old brother inside of a dope house for two days. I remember it clearly, because I felt so helpless. My brother Raymond kept saying over and over, "I'm hungry, I'm hungry." We got water from a leaking fire hydrant outside of the the abandoned building we were left at, but water does nothing for a hungry belly. I decided to take matters into my own hands. I walked with my brother to the corner store and stole four packages of Slim Jims. It was the first time I had ever stolen anything in my life. I felt bad, but I figured G-D would forgive me. To top it off Slim Jims are not Kosher, but still I figured G-D would forgive me. I thought about going to the police, but nobody wants to be the cause of their mother going to jail. I gave my brother three of the Slim Jims and I ate one. My brother fell asleep, but I couldn't sleep no matter how hard I tried. There were roaches all over the place and it smelled like piss. Why is this happening to me I asked? A couple of hours later a fight broke out between two dope fiends. The female I knew by name.... Candice. The man she was arguing with was unknown to me, but by the time it was all over the man had stabbed Candice in the neck and I knew it was time to get out of there. These are my earliest memories of time spent with my mother.



Zenee wrote me today. She is dying. She has AIDS. The last time I spoke to my mother I had just turned 12 years old. My last words to her were, "As far as I'm concerned you're dead to me. I don't have a mother." I gave my WORD to myself that I would never speak to her again as long as I'm alive. My WORD is my BOND and I have never broken it and I'm sure not gonna start now. My family has begged me to make peace with her, but I refuse. My mother is dead to me, but my WORD and my BOND are very much alive.

SPIRITUAL

Spiritual is from the future. At least that is what he believes. Spiritual stands about 5 foot 8 and weighs less than a 135 pounds. He is the color of Cinnamon and has buck teeth. He arrived to Killer-K from the hole this morning. I've seen Spiritual many times in the yard. He is always carrying a Bible and preaching of the end of days. He's not a very popular dude. I actually sat in the yard and listened to his sermon once, while I was high. It consisted of the usual stuff fire and brimstone type preachers talk about, but then he said something that fucked my high all the way off. Spiritual looked me right in the eye and said,"Brother, it is never too late to repent. We have all sinned. The Father still loves you." Maybe it was the weed fucking with me, but I felt my eyes begin to water up, so I got the fuck out of there quick. That was the last time I had direct contact with Spiritual.... That is until today. As I was heating my coffee up this morning I watched Spiritual pick up about three cigarette butts off of the floor. I hate to see a nigga down on they luck, so I went into my cell grabbed a can of Bugler and gave it to him. I went back to my cell to cool out for a while, when I heard a little knock at my cell door. It was Spiritual. I told him to come in and have a seat. I placed the toilet seat cover down and Spiritual sat. We chopped it up for a minute about this and that and then Spiritual dropped the bomb on me. Spiritual told me he is from the future. It took a Hercules like effort not to bust out laughing in his face. Here is what he said. He is from the year 2012, he came back in time to stop an attack/war involving our country. (He was very vague on which. Attack, or war?) The government did something to him so he can't remember what he was sent to do. The attack/war will involve missiles. (Missiles attacking America? You know this nigga is crazy!) The attack/war will happen during the first year of the new millennium, in broad daylight while the whole world watches. I had to stop him right there. If he was really from the future he could answer a few questions for me, right? "Will there be flying cars in the future? What are the power ball numbers for next month? Will McDonald's bring back the McRib sandwich? Who wins the next four Super Bowls? What stocks should I buy right now? Who is the President in 2012? Will George Lucas ever finish the Star Wars saga? Did they find a cure for athletes foot? Is Victor Newman still on The Young & Restless? Where is your time machine?" All these questions and the nigga couldn't answer one. He stuck with his story of the government fucking up his memory. I was like, "nigga please!" Then spiritual removed his baseball cap and I could see a large circular, surgical scar that started from the front of his hairline and traveled to the left side of his ear. "This is what your government did to me," he said. ... My government? I must have pissed him off, because spiritual kind of stomped outta my cell with a little attitude. The more I thought about it the more absurd the shit became to me. Fraction and I smoked a joint after the cell doors closed and talked about "Future boy." Here are all the holes I found in the story. (1) One man can't stop a war/attack. Fraction disagrees. "What if all he had to do was kill one person. The mastermind behind the whole thing," Fraction said. (2) Where is his time machine? "Who said it has to be a machine? What if it was some sort of portal that transported him?" Okay, Fraction was on a roll and pissing me off. So I saved the best for last. (3) If your from the future and you know this war/attack is gonna happen the first year of the new millennium, why come back to 1996? Why not go straight to the new millennium? Better yet, why not go to December 31, 1999 and bring in the new millennium with the rest of the world?... Fraction had no answer for that one.

MUCH LATER IN THE NIGHT

Now that I think about it, Spiritual looks to be around 35 years old. That means if Spiritual was 35 years old in 2012 there should be a 19 year old version of him running around somewhere in California as I write this. Tomorrow I'm gonna tell Spiritual he should give his 19 year old self a call and warn him (19 year old Spiritual) about the war/attack. Fraction say I'll go to hell if I fuck with the nigga like that. I"m still high as fuck!