In need of a family

I learned about a different kind of family when I was 13 years old, without naming the gang name or anybody else. I am not going to incriminate myself or others that may have moved on with their lives.

I was cutting school one day with my sister and cousin, as this was the only way we were able to get freedom from home. At home we were not allowed to look out the window or have friends, this was because of my mother's boyfriend. Of course, we were where they so happened to be boys they like, we ran into this guy. He asked us if we were looking to make money and we said it depends on what it was. He wanted us to beat some girl, by this time we had learned to redirect our anger so we did. Made a quick $500, he like it so then we started to hang out with him and his friends more often. Then we got jumped into the gang that he was a part of about six months after meeting him. We sold drugs, involved in fights, attending meetings among other things. This was no big deal because this is something we did anyway regularly. We made money how we knew how to, and it worked since we were unable to get it from my mother or family. This went on for a few years, everyone knew that where they saw one of us the rest were not far behind. We had a sense of family, but this time my mother’s boyfriend was warned to leaves us alone and we had all the freedom in the world. They were looking out for us, my mom started to get involved and leading her apartment for a meeting. His boyfriend tried to be down so hard, but we just took him as a joke. Even as I look back on this chapter of my, can help to think how simple-minded my mother was.

I remember the day they found him dead. Gunshot wound to his head, while sleeping in his bed. Yes, it had to do with the girl we beat up some years ago. It was dealt with accordingly, we had to do a lot of work to raise the money to pay for his funeral. You see he was the one that paid the bills in his house, his mother could not afford to bury her son. You would think that the so-called family the gang that he worked so hard for that called him brother would help his mother pay, but they forgot about him not even a week later. They showed up at the funeral 1500 strong, they had a shootout at his funeral and a lot of police everywhere it was a disgrace. No, we are sorry, or thank you, just to tell us that we had to be re-evaluated as members. This came from the new leader, we decided to get jumped out. Just in time because a lot of them died or went down. This was the first sign that people no matter are never good at keeping their word and no one if family the way they say they are. In my case not even blood were good people to be around.

This didn’t stop us nope, we created our underground group. Made a lot of money and enemies too. This was a life I hide from my children and others, people who know me today would never think I was involved in things like this. It is what I call life, survival