that?”
“Crazy.”
“It ain’t like you gotta recite ‘I Have a Dream’ or some shit.”
“It’s just a day off work,” Ted says. “But they’d rather go to work than take a day off for a black man.”
“They straight-up hate us out there. Fuckin hot-ass desert,” D-Rock says.
“And a straight-up Philly ngh like Uzi?” Scoop says. “They don’t want him comin home till Neveruary!”
“The judge might try to roof him. The white man don’t like you messing with his little Suzie.”
“They can’t give him no wheel of death for that.”
“What’s the wheel of death?”
“Life.”
This all feels like broken glass in my mind.
“Did you talk to him?” Ted asks. “What did he say?”
I hear Uzi:
Get me outta here!
Dear Carole,
Malo ran away. Not like the time he ran away when he was five years old, when he just went to the end of the block and looked to see if I was looking. No, this time he really ran away. He’s fourteen.
The thing is—he took my car. What kind of running away is that? Not only is my child gone, but my ride too. Initially I think he’ll return in the evening. I’m upset but not worried. But when nighttime comes and he doesn’t return, I get worried. I think about calling the police. Chaka says that we should wait. I call everyone I know but no one has seen or heard from Malo and I don’t know his friends’ phone numbers.
Morning comes and Malo still hasn’t come home. I decide to call the police. The police seem uninterested in finding a runaway black boy but they take down the information. I don’t want to report the car stolen because that will criminalize Malo.
Malo ran away but there wasn’t an argument and hewasn’t on punishment, so I’m baffled. Where is he and why did he leave? Of course this means he isn’t going to school, but I’m not even thinking about school, I just want to make sure that he is safe. Chaka doesn’t seem worried but I’m sure he is. We are both amazed that he took my car but I had information that Chaka didn’t. I know that Malo had taken my car many times while I was asleep and his father was away. So while it was definitely outrageous that Malo took my car, since he’s only fourteen and doesn’t have a license or even a permit, I wasn’t that shocked.
Then after a week, he strolls in. I ask Malo, what was he thinking? He simply says that he was ready to live on his own. If I wasn’t so angry, I would have laughed. Actually, I did laugh. What chutzpah! Where did he get the nerve? Well, I really don’t have to look too far.
I ran away when I was thirteen too. I not only ran away but I left a note for my mother saying that I was running away to get married and that she shouldn’t look for me. I left in the middle of the night and took the subway to the 34th Street bus terminal and took a bus to Reading, PA! I arrived in Reading with nothing but the clothes on my back and called my aunt Patrice from the bus station and asked her to come get me.
There was an incident that made me run away. My mother wouldn’t let me go to a beach party that a lot of my friends were going to and I was very angry about it. My mother and I didn’t have a good relationship and I wanted to get away. My aunt Jaime had taken me to Reading when I was six years old and I had fond memories of Reading. For one thing, my aunt Patrice had ahouse and that seemed like the ultimate luxury to me. Little did I know at the time that Heller’s Court was called “Hell’s Court” for a reason.
I took money out of my aunt Jaime’s purse. I am sure that my mother caught grief about that but I wasn’t thinking about that at the time. My mother finally called my aunt Patrice and my aunt admitted that I was there. My mother didn’t come get me. I don’t even think that she talked to me. She was angry with my aunt Patrice for not calling her but at least she knew where I was.
Reading was wild, and even though I wanted more freedom, this was a life that
“Crazy.”
“It ain’t like you gotta recite ‘I Have a Dream’ or some shit.”
“It’s just a day off work,” Ted says. “But they’d rather go to work than take a day off for a black man.”
“They straight-up hate us out there. Fuckin hot-ass desert,” D-Rock says.
“And a straight-up Philly ngh like Uzi?” Scoop says. “They don’t want him comin home till Neveruary!”
“The judge might try to roof him. The white man don’t like you messing with his little Suzie.”
“They can’t give him no wheel of death for that.”
“What’s the wheel of death?”
“Life.”
This all feels like broken glass in my mind.
“Did you talk to him?” Ted asks. “What did he say?”
I hear Uzi:
Get me outta here!
Dear Carole,
Malo ran away. Not like the time he ran away when he was five years old, when he just went to the end of the block and looked to see if I was looking. No, this time he really ran away. He’s fourteen.
The thing is—he took my car. What kind of running away is that? Not only is my child gone, but my ride too. Initially I think he’ll return in the evening. I’m upset but not worried. But when nighttime comes and he doesn’t return, I get worried. I think about calling the police. Chaka says that we should wait. I call everyone I know but no one has seen or heard from Malo and I don’t know his friends’ phone numbers.
Morning comes and Malo still hasn’t come home. I decide to call the police. The police seem uninterested in finding a runaway black boy but they take down the information. I don’t want to report the car stolen because that will criminalize Malo.
Malo ran away but there wasn’t an argument and hewasn’t on punishment, so I’m baffled. Where is he and why did he leave? Of course this means he isn’t going to school, but I’m not even thinking about school, I just want to make sure that he is safe. Chaka doesn’t seem worried but I’m sure he is. We are both amazed that he took my car but I had information that Chaka didn’t. I know that Malo had taken my car many times while I was asleep and his father was away. So while it was definitely outrageous that Malo took my car, since he’s only fourteen and doesn’t have a license or even a permit, I wasn’t that shocked.
Then after a week, he strolls in. I ask Malo, what was he thinking? He simply says that he was ready to live on his own. If I wasn’t so angry, I would have laughed. Actually, I did laugh. What chutzpah! Where did he get the nerve? Well, I really don’t have to look too far.
I ran away when I was thirteen too. I not only ran away but I left a note for my mother saying that I was running away to get married and that she shouldn’t look for me. I left in the middle of the night and took the subway to the 34th Street bus terminal and took a bus to Reading, PA! I arrived in Reading with nothing but the clothes on my back and called my aunt Patrice from the bus station and asked her to come get me.
There was an incident that made me run away. My mother wouldn’t let me go to a beach party that a lot of my friends were going to and I was very angry about it. My mother and I didn’t have a good relationship and I wanted to get away. My aunt Jaime had taken me to Reading when I was six years old and I had fond memories of Reading. For one thing, my aunt Patrice had ahouse and that seemed like the ultimate luxury to me. Little did I know at the time that Heller’s Court was called “Hell’s Court” for a reason.
I took money out of my aunt Jaime’s purse. I am sure that my mother caught grief about that but I wasn’t thinking about that at the time. My mother finally called my aunt Patrice and my aunt admitted that I was there. My mother didn’t come get me. I don’t even think that she talked to me. She was angry with my aunt Patrice for not calling her but at least she knew where I was.
Reading was wild, and even though I wanted more freedom, this was a life that
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