He’s sentenced to some time in jail. Not sure how long, but I know it’s not his first time in there. My mom who just had me is now a single parent, and I might add, not the best. She eventually disappears on me too. I say “too” because when Rashid got out of jail, his ass never came back. You’d think a man in jail knowing he got a baby girl out there somewhere would come find her and be a father. Well, I guess we all got it wrong. I guess a few years in jail wasn’t enough time away, so he went looking for some more time. When you got a disappearing mother and a jailbird named Rashid, this life already has a shit start.

…

I knew better than to listen when Rashid told me something about his past and jail. I guess my brother didn’t. We used to sit in front of the couch while my father sat on it. He’d tell us about his drug deals and the hood and running from the cops, getting stabbed, all the years leading up to now. My brother soaked in all these stories, which weren’t the best because all Rashid told you was how to get in jail, not how to not be like him and actually go to college and to live a life crime free.

I’m not going to sit here and act like I don’t have some of Rashid’s mentality. I’ve had a trip into the troubled land, but I got more brains over all his gene and traits crap, so I corrected myself.