Booker T: From Prison to Promise: Life Before the Squared Circle by Booker T Huffman, Andrew William Wright Page A

beautiful wife and a great house. In my eyes, Danny had really made it.
    Throughout my childhood, I had stayed with Danny’s family some weekends and had fun with them. His neighborhood had a community pool with tons of kids I made friends with. He had always made me feel like a welcome addition. The prospect of living with him was a dream come true.
    But like most of the dreams I had around that time, it was shattered into a million pieces. At the last minute, Danny backed out without an explanation. Most likely he did not want an interruption to his routine family life. All I knew was that it just did not happen.
    I wanted to die.
Did I do something?
I thought.
Is there something wrong with me?
Inside I crumbled and snapped. All those empty promises had taken their toll, and as far as I was concerned everyone could go to hell. I would not be betrayed anymore. I gave up on everyone, and trust was a complete joke.
    When Danny didn’t take me in, Carolyn did, which meant that Bonita and I stayed together after all. However, now Bonita and I were far apart in mind and spirit. Whereas I had cracked and lost interest in school and pretty much everything, she kept herself together and remained a good student, ensuring a good life to come. Arm in arm, we had faced some serious trials and tribulations, but when it came right down to it, a fork divided our path. She took the high road, and I just wandered aimlessly.
    It did not help that I was back in Carolyn’s world, which was definitely not the right place for two young teenagers to be. She was a straight-up booster, a hustler who took to the local waterfront where tricks were made, johns were played, and she could’ve been killed any second. Yeah, Carolyn gave me a roof over my head but no positive guidance. School, in particular, was a disaster.
    Toward the final days of eighth grade at Hartman Junior High, I stopped going to school on a regular basis and found myself in danger of failing out. But before I had the chance to be held back due to academics, two other factors assisted in the process: Riley and Ernest Smith.
    The Smiths were cousins in my grade and notorious bullies. One day when we were riding home on the bus, they and their friends decided to test me to see what I was made of.
    While I sat beside some other random kid near the aisle, just doodling in my notebook, Riley Smith walked up. “Hey, man, move over. You can sit in the middle.”
    What? This dude wanted me to scoot over like some passive nobody so he could have the aisle seat? He was out of his mind.
    “Sorry, man,” I said. “This is my seat, and I ain’t moving. If you want to sit down, you can take the middle or keep on moving down the line.”
    Riley did not say a word and made his way to the back of the bus.
    That’s what I’m talking about,
I thought and assumed that was the end of it. I was wrong.
    When we pulled up to Riley’s stop, he and his cousin Ernest and all their boys jumped me from behind right there in the aisle of the bus. I tried to fight their flurry of punches the best I could, even landing some good shots of my own, but they overwhelmed me in a tight spot with a good ass-kicking.
    I was thinking,
Wow! They got me just like that?
I was far more stunned than hurt, trying to digest what had happened. As I sat there, I thought about the fact that none of my boys—Fran, Terry, or Wendell—had done anything to help.
It’s worthless to
trust anyone,
I thought.
I’ll take care of myself.
I knew if I didn’t act fast, this would happen again.
This shit ends tomorrow.
    That night as I drifted off to sleep, I imagined myself heroically destroying the Smiths and their gang in front of everyone in a whirlwind of Bruce Lee karate moves. When that fantasy wore off, I knew things would have to be handled a different way. I just wasn’t sure how.
    The next day while I waited at the bus stop, anxiety swirled in my gut.
    Bill, this cool white kid who was my friend, walked up. “I saw