Bam!!!! All I hear is my mother yelling “what the hell is that”!!! Then I run down the short steps to the second floor and look through the narrow hallway where I see the Police talking to my mom. It turns out “too short” ran into our house to avoid the police. It is 3:17AM and some man has just pushed our front door down run through our house to the side door and away from the cops through our back yard.

I guess he has been in our house before to know where to get to the back door. The police finish up by searching our house because they think we have something to do with “TOO Short” since he picked our house to run to.

I don’t think we have anything to do with this guy, but who knows. My mom is wild and I never know what she is up to or with whom………..

I live here on 3rd street in Lester. I have been in this world for six years and it is an amazing place. I have four brothers and a baby sister. Lester is one of those towns that used to be a working man’s town. Negras came here from the south finding jobs at what they thought was good pay and settled in. There used to be steel mills and a lot of other place for people to work. Now all that is gone and we have the promise of redevelopment. 33rd street as we call it, is one of the crime areas. Negras sell dope, steal, prostitute and smoke crack all day every day.

I can tell you about Tone the dealer. He sells weed and coke. I have known about him for a while. He used to have “beef”, disagreements, with one of my brothers, dad. One night, they got into a fight and my mom, who was carrying Ricky’s (my brother’s dad) gun in her purse gave it to Ricky and he pointed it at Tone and Tone backed off. But, Tone is not a punk and I know one day he is going to get them both…. It is just a matter of time or years, but he will get them back one way or the other.

I have seen a lot in my six years. But for know I am going back to bed. The TV stays on in the room I am sleeping in all night. I think I started doing that because everyone else in the house leaves theirs on all night. I think it keeps us company and gives people outside the idea someone is awake in the house. Although, that did not keep “TOO Short” from busting in the front door. I snore a lot and everyone says I keep them awake, but I don’t care. My sister Tri is in bed with my mother until she goes to Q’s. She has been slipping out the house every night between 2AM and 4AM to hang out with her “get high” man, Q. We are pretty much on our own until she comes back, if she comes back. She usually stays at Q’s for days smokin. My mom is real good at running her house from afar. She will call my brother Skinny who is 15 and direct all our activities from wherever she may be hanging out. My mom is real pretty and has a “bangin”, very shapely, body. All the guys want her and she probably has had most of them in some way. The word is all you need is some coke, liquor and good oral sex and you can have her. I only see the ones she wants me to know about. I know she was about 35 when she started “messin with”, dating my dad, Reno. Reno was about 18 and didn’t finish high school. Now that I think about it My grandfather nor my uncles graduated either, I guess it is a family trait. My mom started Reno, my dad, selling drugs to support her family and her habit. After a while she had him out there trying to “be large”, a big dealer, and of course he got caught selling to an undercover cop and “caught a case”, got arrested and a guaranteed trip to jail in the short future.