This boys story. Welcome to hell!

I was trying hard to adjust to my life and until the day I left this hell, I never did. The building we lived in was full of interesting people, some that I will never forget. Upstairs above us lived ”Pops” and his son. He was an important part of my life as he introduced me to the Lord through an Apostolic church. We would go to church Tuesdays, Thursdays and twice on Sunday. We would always go to church in Pops car. He drove a big 70’s Cadillac and would pretend to be the captain of a spaceship and all the controls would help us blast off. He was a good man and I loved him, I sadly can’t remember what his name was. His son was what you would expect the preachers son to be like in a horror movie. I watched him hang at least three cats from trees and scare a bunch more out into traffic to purposely get them ran over. I learned quickly who to trust and who to keep a distance from. I also remember brother Washington another member of our church who lived in our building. He was a quiet man who seemed to love God and live for nothing else. These are the only people I remember in our building. There were several more people but, I don’t remember any of them.

The first day of school was the way things would be for me here and I just didn’t know it. I was in school for less than an hour and one of the kids in my class came up to me and said ” I’ll let you punch me in the mouth if you let me” and before I could answer he punched me right in the mouth. It was just a taste of what was to come and the weekly fights. I would soon learn to defend myself and the lay of the land. You better learn what to avoid from a distance and decipher a situation or pay the consequences. You learned to avoid large groups as that was usually where trouble came from. I learned this from avoiding a large group that another kid walking behind me did not. I purposely walked around there direction and he walked right into them. When I came around the corner I could hear someone screaming and realized as I came down the street it was the kid that was just behind me. They had somehow put this kids eyelid through the chainlink fence. I had to find someone to call 911 as this poor kid sat there with his eyelid attached to the fence bleeding profusely. I realized how unforgiving a situation could be in this new world and I had to learn to stay alive because that could have been me! I was in a world that could easily take my life and the predators were everywhere.

Our apartment had no locks on the doors and we had to block them to feel somewhat safe. It got to the point that I had to ask for id’s under the door before I would let anyone in. I was 8 years old and I had no choice but, to become the man of the family. My mother was in the middle of a bad heroin habit and was not apart of our lives for the most part. She got so bad that at 8 years old I was the only one she would come home for when we found her somewhere in a Downtown alley. Several times I would have to make her get up in a dark alley in downtown Denver in the middle of the night. It was a rude awakening and I thought then I was handling it like a trooper. I am at my best in stressful chaotic situations. In all the chaos and stress here I soon developed a sleep walking habit. Pops upstairs would accommodate my path and open doors and move obstacles so I always slept in his apartment. It was a normal nightly thing and it really bothered my oldest sister.

My life was empty of all worldly treasures except a collection of Elvis Presley records that had grown through out the years. We also had a TV straight from the fifties. It was black and white but, it was all we had and to us it was the best. We came home one day to find it all gone. Everything of value we ever had was gone in a short while and it was not getting better any time soon. I had managed to get a bicycle donated to me and I was very ecstatic but, it to was gone before too long. It had been gone for awhile when i noticed my Mothers friend was riding around a bike. When I finally got my hands on it, I scratched off the paint and found that he had stole it! Right from his friends son and painted it? What a great friend but, just one of the same guys she was attracting for some time. I of course said nothing and took my bike back. That loser never said a word and acted like nothing ever happened. These were the people we were now dealing with on a daily basis. They out numbered the kind hearted good people by many and we were inviting them into our lives and home. It would not take long for the combination to turn deadly.

pg. 10