Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Attack on T-Bone (Part 1 by T-Bone) Letter 12

T-Bone - Radiating power and strength, this deeply-spiritual massively-built African American towers over most inmates. He is a prison gladiator with more stab wounds than Julius Caesar. A good man to have on your side.

It started with this midget coming to me two weeks after getting out of the hole, and telling me he had a problem. Every day he would sit in my cell door and cry to me about wanting to change and how everyone was taking advantage of him.
I simply replied, “I know.”
He said, “It was thousands of dollars.”
I said, “Yes, I know.”
He asked, “What should I do?”
I told him, “Stand up and be a man. If you quit doing dope they can’t take advantage of you.”
He said, “Yes, but it is hard.”
I said, “Make a firm decision. You have to live life the right way.”
He said, “What you mean a firm decision?”
I said, “Make a choice based on what you want to do with your life.”
He said, “Every time I try to turn my life around, they get in my face and tease and tempt me with dope.”
I said, "No, you are teasing and tempting yourself.”
He said, “I’m just fed up. I don’t know what to do. I just need help.”
And as he sat there, a guy walked up with dope papers in his hand. I just looked at him to see what he was going to do. The two of them left.

The next day, I asked him, “What did you do?”
“I broke weak,” he said.
“Did you get high?”
“Yeah.”
“You need to pray. I’ll pray with you if you like.”
We prayed, but a few minutes later, he was in his cell getting high again, and he had a bunch of food. The next morning he was gone.

Two days went by and two guys came to my cell and said I owed them $25 for the midget’s food and $100 for his dope, and they wanted their money by Wednesday.
“What?” I said, but didn’t push the issue because I was in the middle of some reading, and at that time it was more important than anything they could say or do. I was fascinated by Caesar’s exploits. He built a bridge across the Rhine River in 10 days to deal with certain tribes. That was more important to me than dealing with these two dopeheads. They went back downstairs to their cell.

I followed them 45 minutes later.
“What’s up? What’s all this about?” I asked one of them.
He had a piece of paper with all this stuff written on it. It had my name on it besides some numbers. “You need to pay up, or else I’m gonna take it outta your butt.” He really used that word butt!
I looked at him and said, “You’re kidding me,” and laughed.
I feinted at him like I was going to hit him, not seeing the shank [knife] he had under his writing pad.

Part 2 coming next week.

Here’s the link to T-Bone’s previous letter: http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/from-t-bone-letter-11-t-bone-radiating.html
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.

Email comments for T-Bone to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.

Shaun P. Attwood

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