i was fourteen years old and i had to be in the house before 9:00 o'clock at night. That was when all the fun had started. Every Friday night there was a dance at a school around my home town and all the boys i hang with used to go to them every week and they would tell me, Adrian, man, you don't know what you be missing and all the girls you talk to be at the dance too.

i didn't want to tell them that i had to be in the house before 9:00 o'clock because i knew they would have made fun of me, so i used to tell them i had to go stay with one of my grandmothers or something every time a Friday came around.

One Friday all us was hanging out in the park and all they was talking about was the dance that night. i had about ten dollars in my pocket and it costed two dollars to get in the dance so i just said to them all i am going with y'all tonight. They looked at me in surprise, but i told them that i was dressed and we could leave from the park. So everybody agreed with that.

At 8:00 o'clock that night we went to the dance at Mays Junior High School and i danced all night. But once in a while i would take a look and see do i see my daddy, thinking someone had told him where i was and i knew when i get home i can be looking for an ass beating.

So i went on and enjoyed the time i was there. The dance ended at 12:00 o'clock so my friends and i was walking across the park. We made it across the park and crossed the street and was right on the corner by my house. As soon as we took five more steps, a car pulled up behind us.

It was my daddy saying where the fuck you been, i am going to beat your ass, come here and get in this car. He was getting out the car at the same time as he was saying those words and coming at me and i looked into his eyes while he was coming at me and i seen he wanted to kick my ass bad. And about that time all of my friends had run the way we came, and one of them called out Adrian, run, man!

And i heard my friend Wolf tell Chris, that's his daddy. i looked out of the corner of my eyes and seen my friends watching to see what he will do. Right then i told myself y'all will never see that so you can talk about the beating my daddy put on me. And at that second my daddy ain't seen nothing but ass and elbow of me.

He was calling out boy you don't run from me and i heard the car turning around. i ran to the street next to mine and there was a car parked right on the street and i rolled right under it and my daddy's car went right by. So i jumped up and ran where my friends waited for me and they went to asking me why he did that and what did i do and all i can say is i don't know, man.

Chris was the first one to say hey man, you can stay at my house, you know you is like a son to my mother. Then Wolf said no man, stay at my house, we can call some girls on the phone. So i told Wolf OK and told Chris we be down to your house in the morning and all us went to Wolf's that night and told jokes and kicked the bo-bo. When it got late Chris and Pat went home, and i went and took a bath and put on some of Wolf's clothes for the night. Wolf's mother called me in her room that night after i dressed and we had a good talk. She was nice and understanding, but she talked me into calling my mother to let her know where i was. i called my house and my mother answered the phone crying and i said mother what's wrong? She said Adrian, where are you and i said i am all right. But she will not stop until i start crying and tell her. She says OK, let me get on some clothes and i will be there in 15 minutes, but i told her i will not be here. She said Adrian please don't leave, your daddy said he is not going to hit you and i asked her was she sure and she said i am, Adrian. So i told her i will be here. She hung up the phone and i waited in the living room with Wolf and we had a little talk. Like man don't sleep hard because if he come at me i will be at your window calling you to open the side door dig. So we talk a little more. Then i heard the horn of my mother's car and told Wolf i will see him the next day. i walked out the house and it was my mother and two sisters in the car, so i got in the back seat and we pulled off. And i didn't say a word and my mother didn't say nothing to me.

We pulled in front of the house and got out the car and went through the gate and up the walk and then up the three steps before the front door. My daddy was standing in the middle of the living room, and i could see him as i was coming up the steps, because we had a screen door then.

My mother and sisters went in before me and i stood at the door and he said i ain't going to put another hand on you as long as i live.

So i went to my room and closed my door halfway. About five minutes later as i was sitting on my bed, he walked in my room and stood at the door with a drink in his hand. And he told me, well Adrian, it look like you want to be on your own. Well that's fine. i will not buy your school clothes any more and i will not give you 20 dollars every time i get paid, and that's that. i don't want you to ask me for nothing, do you understand? And i nodded my head yes. He left the room. i said to myself, i don't need him. All he want to do is beat me all the time.

It was summertime, and i ran into this guy named Little Bow and he will steal the sweet out of a cake. i told him man school is going to start next week and i need some new clothes. He said all right, let's go to the mall. At that time we was in the park and he had his bike. So i got on the handlebars of his bike and we went to the mall.

It was a Jordan Marsh store at the mall and in the front of the store was a rack of Jordan Marsh bags, and Little Bow told me to go get one of those bags and snap it out in front of you so it can blow out like something is in it. And i did just that.

Then we went into a store called Gap and he told me to get all the pants i need for school and fold them up real good. And i did that. And he said now when nobody is looking put all of them right in there and walk out the store and i did it and got clean away with ten pair of pants. We came back the next day for the shirts.

We got the same Jordan Marsh bags and went to J.C. Penneys and stole 20 shirts, Polos too. i kept 10 and sold the rest for 10 dollar apiece and that is how i got my Pro Keds shoes. i got three pair and some school paper and pencils.

About this time i was just starting seventh grade. By the middle of that school year i was stealing cars and breaking into homes and doing my armed robbery. i had went to youth hall for stealing out of stores already but after about three times my mother and dad gave up on me. They had nice jobs. My daddy had a job for the City of Miami on the garbage truck and my mother was a nurse for a company named PRN and we went to drive in movies and ate out and we had a three bedroom two bath house. Two air conditioners -- the big one in the living room and the other one in my mother and daddy's room.

But the time i went to the joint the first time my daddy had just started a bad drug habit. It was right before i got my 18 months in the joint. And about that time we will talk like mens to each other. And by me being a street player i told him that crack was a bad drug, don't be fucked up with it. But he was not listening to me because i was his son. i didn't know what i was talking about.

So i turned myself in and did two months in the county jail and got to my camp at Hillsborough Institution and i called home and everybody was feeling good. My mother said baby i will send you two hundred this week, OK? And she said your daddy don't work for the city no more and he just got his retirement check for $21,000 and i was so mad because i knew that drug made him do what he did.

They came to see me every two weeks and sent me the two hundred dollars. But i only did a month of that camp because of the Tampa and Miami fight. They sent me to ACI, so i called home about a month later and my grandmother told me you know your daddy is putting the house up for rent. i cried because i lived there all my life and his drug habit took everything i love and i had my own room.

i knew how the police knew about my crimes and i knew that if i would have got out of the joint and got a job they would have still messed with me any time anything went on in my neighborhood. Because one time i called home and my mother asked where am i. And i said i am in prison, why? Because the police came around the house with they guns out talking about have you escaped and was you up to your old crime again. And she said i told them my son is up the road at ACI Institution. When everything came down, it was somebody else had did a crime and used my name.

My daddy had always told me that i couldn't get no good job with a crime record because nobody would ever trust me. And those jobs like Burger King and McDonalds was out of my mind because that was the $3.35 an hour shit. So i told myself i know i can't get me no good job. And i looked at one of the crimes i do can pay them off four times. So that's why i didn't stop when i got out of jail the first time.