I Am Your Brother

by Jaimy Reynolds

  SEVEN: Clever man. Chess, not checkers I see. And that waitress never would have guessed that you would have left such a generous tip.

  KING: Let’s just say, she did have a little something against black people. After this, it could cause her to have a change of heart. Never know.

  SEVEN: And so you have a heart, but can be savage at the same time. And wait a minute here, you listening to Bob Dylan?

  KING: What do you know, I changed two perceptions in the last ten minutes. But yes, Bob.

  SEVEN: (Laughing in shock) Bob!

  KING: Bob was ahead of his time. I like a good deal of his music, but not all. The first rapper in my opinion.

  SEVEN: (While looking out the window) That’s crazy, I thought I was the only person to think the same thing. That is some cool stuff man. We just pulled up to a red light. If there were to be a million people to pass by and look at you and have to guess what you were listening to, may be one out of that million would have guessed Dylan. That is pretty groovy right there. So who are you man?

  KING: (Looks at Seven while driving) I am King. Don’t you need a pen and some pad? Are a recorder or something.

  SEVEN: No, it will all be stored in my mind for now. Sometimes I might jot something down, but for the most part I store it all in my mind until I feel it. Then I’ll just go in with the writing or typing.

  KING: Roger that.

  SEVEN: So I see a young black man with a gold grill jamming some Bob Dylan. So how does that come about? Who was responsible?

  King then begins to tell Seven the story. The story went something like this: FLASHBACK

  The keys of the prison guard jingle while unlocking the cell door. Fire was in his eyes while standing in front of steel bars. He sees the bottom pair of prison slippers crossed on the top bunk. The steal bars run across his eyes from the door opening. He pauses for a moment and slowly looks up at the tall white guard, then back inside of the cell. He takes two steps in before hearing the door slam shut behind him. He turns around and goes through the process of being uncuffed. He rubs his wrist while staring outside the prison bars. The man who lays on the top bunk has his hands together resting on his chest. He then raises up like the undertaker and calmly speaks.

  JOE: What made you do it?

  KING: (Turns around and faces the cell) Do what?

  JOE: What caused you to do it? Dig deep and think, what was at the core of your decision that landed you in here?

  KING: (While walking over to the bunk) Yo, I don’t know who you are white man?

  JOE: (In a calm way, he raises up and swings his legs off the edge of the top bunk and jumps down to the ground. Then makes eye contact) My apologies, my name is Joe. They call me, Info Joe. Now, I would like to know, what caused you to get yourself in here? And you are going to have to look past skin color, because it’s bigger than that.

  KING: How easy for you to say white boy.

  JOE: I told you my name. It’s Joe.

  KING: (Slowly steps up face to face with anger in his eyes) You want problems old man!

  Joe sends a quick punch to the solarplex of King and folds him up gasping for air. In the mist of gasping for air, Joe embraces him and gracefully speaks in his ear, “breath, deep breath young lion.” Joe slowly guides the gasping King to sitting on the edge of the bottom bunk. While trying to catch his breath, King gives Joe an evil look as if he was in for it once he catches his wind.

  JOE: You are going to have to learn self- control young man. Now let’s talk while I make you hot tea.

  KING: (While still catching his breath) You should have killed me.

  Joe swiftly moves his whole face 3 inches away from the face of King. His eyes are wide open to its max as if he had just won the lottery. His green eyes are dead locked in with a desperation look before he responds back to King.

  JOE: Do it! Pleeease do it! Do it for me, take me out of this misery. Please, I’ll give you all my tea’s and goodies. Hmm but if you kill me, you may not receive the message. And since they call me Info Joe for a reason, there will be a lot of angry people outside of these bars if you harm me.

  While King looks like he had seen a ghost. Joe then cool, calm and collectively eases away from the face of King and climbs to his top bunk. Once in comfort, he didn’t move an inch. King looks like he just saw a real live monster when realizing his new roommate was crazy. Joe had touched his soul like no other. With both fear and curiosity, he had never been handled like that before. Revenge was in his eyes. No way was he going to let him get away with it. He moves from the bottom bed and slowly rises up to be eye level with Joe. Soon as he lifts high enough to make eye contact with Joe, he realized that Joe was already prepared for him. Joe was laid stretched out on his side with one hand holding the side of his head up. Joe had a look as if nothing had ever happened.

  JOE: Would you like you some tea?

  KING: (He then looks helpless like he just gave up. He leans his head up against the top bunk) Maan who are you man?

  JOE: It’s okay young lion. I’ll make us some tea. You sit down and relax and will talk. You probably haven’t ate in hours. Do you like honey buns?

  KING: (In a look of total confusion and a brief moment of silence) Your serious aren’t you? (A brief moment of silence) Yea.. yea man, I like honey buns.

  JOE: Great, I love herbal tea with a honey bun. It’s a damn good combination.

  While Joe prepares the tea, King slowly gains his full wind back while contemplating if he should stomp the old man out or not. He sizes him up. Joe weighed a buck sixty and stood 5 foot 9 inches tall. Small but thorough. He wore a straight face. His eyes gave a feel of wisdom that stemmed from sorrow. He moved without making much noise. Joe slowly turns around towards an angry looking King while handing him a warm cup of tea in one hand and a honey bun in his other hand.

  JOE: Ten out of ten times you would whoop my ass in a fight. So understand that in your mind, lose the pride young lion. The question you have to ask yourself is this, “why am I here?” Just maybe you and I are supposed to meet. And me being one who calls a spade a spade, I cut out all beat around the bush talk out and get right to it. So forgive me for being so frank.

  KING: Love… Love is why I am here.

  JOE: Well I’ll be, how interesting is that. And so I tell you, forgive any person who you feel is at fault and forgive yourself and move on from it. Let it go. The question is now, what are you going to do from here on out? And when you get out, what will you become. Will you be a modern day slave? Or will you become the king that you are?

  Joe lifts his cup toward King and makes a toast, “to a new beginning.” King doesn’t respond by lifting his cup, instead he just looks at the older man. Joe acts as if he touched cups with an invisible person and takes a sip of his tea.

  JOE: I may move a little fast, but we may not have much time. Perhaps the law of attraction brought you here. I had a feeling someone like your self will be crossing paths with me soon. Without physically seeing you, I felt your energy and presence. I felt your youth, as if you still had a chance. Then once we made eye contact, I saw fire in your eyes. Look son.

  KING: I’m not your son, I don’t have a dad.

  JOE: I understand, I’m sorry it won’t happen again. And their lies one of the root problems.

  KING: What’s that?

  JOE: You don’t have a dad. The void. The built in anger that will eventually have to be let out at one point or another. The rebellion. The list can go on and on of what a son may lack or what it may cause psychologically. I’m willing to bet more than 75% of men locked inside this cage lacked love from their father at a crucial time of their lives.

  KING: How could you have a child and have nothing to do with it. What kind of real man would do that?

  Joe: Well, I can answer that because I’m one of those guys. You meet this woman you love, you don’t plan it, but she gets pregnant. And before she has the child, you do dumb shit that gets me locked up in here. Things happen. Knowing that I hav
e a son out here in this world and not knowing who he is or what they are about. It’s like going through life missing an arm or leg. I can’t speak for all, but for me that is what it’s like. Picture you being able to cry at any moment of the day from just the thought of it.

  KING: Do you know each other?

  JOE: No, I never met or saw him. I don’t even know what he looks like. His mother and I totally lost contact. I went missing and one day she finds out I was in prison for a long time. She didn’t bother keeping in touch. I don’t blame her. Well, to be honest, I don’t know if that is true. I don’t know if something happen to her. Once I get out of here I plan on searching for him.

  KING: You tried to keep in contact with him.

  JOE: I tried and tried. After so many times I just stop trying. So any time I get locked up with a young man like yourself, I kinda have the tendency to look out for them. As my way of making up for not being in my own son’s life. But I have to feel it ya know. I am not just casting my pearls to swine to anybody. And I felt it with you young man. And if you hear me out, I’ll show you how to get out of here better than how you came in. I can show you how to make a lot of money once you get out of here. That’s if you make it out.

  That was first time King has ever felt love from an elder man. Where it felt genuine. He never would have guessed that it came from a white man. King acted like he still had his guard up, but he really took a likening to Joe. The same day King met Joe, there was prison lock down where the inmates had to stay in their cell for two days from a massive prison riot. This is where Joe wasted no time in teaching him the game in prison. How to survive, who to watch out for, who not to deal with. All the in’s and out’s and how they can be translated in the free world. King ate all the information up. He became the student while allowing Joe to become to teacher.

  Before prison, Joe was a small time musician and part time con artist when his funds got low. He ran away from home at the age of fourteen and bounced around as a drifter. He would play his guitar in the streets for money. So one day an on looker passing by, asked him to play at his hole in the wall joint. The crowd enjoyed Joe to where people started asking when the next time he would be back. So much to where the owner offered him a job playing music there. The pay wasn’t much but it paid the bills. The money he earned caused him to live in the lower income parts of town. Joe was the one white guy in the neighborhood. Overtime he became highly respected by the black people in his community. When things got rough financially for Joe is when the con artist in him pulled him in the wrong crowd. Although he was no longer hurting for money, he was taking risk’s that would eventually end up right where he was at. Laying on a top bunk in a dark cell. There lied a young King laying in the bottom cell with his arms folded behind his head.

  KING: Joe… Joe… (No answer)

  JOE: (Removing his headphones from his ears) Did you call me?

  KING: Yes. What are you listening to?

  JOE: How rude of me. Would you like to hear some music? Little bit a Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis and Coltrane.

  KING: Yea that’s cool.

  Joe secretively cherished the moments when he can talk about music. He took the headphones out of the tape player and turned the volume up so it would play out loud. The two would sit up and talk music while it played in their cell. The two built a strong bond in a short amount of time. When the inmates were off lock down, King stayed by Joe’s side and became a sponge. They spoke during chow time as King could feel the eyes come his way from being the new kid on the block. Instead of going on the yard, Joe wanted to speak to King in the library. While walking through the library.

  JOE: Look around King, tell me what you see.

  KING: People reading and some searching for a book.

  JOE: Right. Either searching or reading. Knowledge is power young man. Gain it. Utilize it. What else to do you see in here?

  KING: Older folks.

  JOE: That’s it, the older folks. The ones who has been there and done that. Less drama goes down in here. (Walks over to the window where you could see outside to the prison yard) Look out there King. Now, really look and open your eyes and see. You know what I see when I look out there?

  KING: What do you see?

  JOE: (Both staring out the window into the prison yard) I see male ego’s, pride, fear, testosterone and unhappiness all covered up by masking it through lifting weights and getting bigger. Getting stronger, getting yoked up. Why? Fear of losing. Fear of getting your ass whopped. Who is the biggest, who is the baddest. Who can look the toughest to where they hope nobody will mess with them. Look, what else do you see? Hanging out talking. You want to go hang out and talk?

  KING: No, I don’t.

  JOE: Playing basketball. You trying to go to the NBA?

  KING: No

  JOE: Alright, is basketball, or handball, or soccer ball going to lead you anywhere once you leave these prison walls? That’s not everybody on the yard. Some are working out to stay in shape and burn time. Burning time by working on your body is good, but why not burn that time on your mind. When you are in your cell, work out your body and get it strong. It’s what you do when nobody is around to watch. It’s when your alone King. There will come a time when you become real alone and therefore you must possess mental strength to overcome. That is what will determine the rest of your life. The fight you have in your mind. So you see this library, this is where you want to spend most of your time while in this prison.

  KING: I understand.

  JOE: (Looking at King in the eyes) King, I’m giving everything to you straight now. Your new in here. And this place is full of vultures. There are people right now plotting to see how they are going to test you. There is somebody right now pulling up your name on the computer to see what crime you committed to get in here. You can’t see it but it’s happening. Sooner or later, they are going to come and test you to see where your heart is at. And if you don’t show heart, your days in here can be a living hell.

  KING: Oh I’ll show heart.

  JOE: I know you will young lion. Because you have a lot of anger in you. But what I am trying to get you to see is, you can channel that anger into something positive. You must work on mastering yourself. That is by having your pride and ego under control. Discover what you are good at and beat on that craft daily. Everyone in here will eventually be tested, but by using your mind, you can save yourself a lot of trouble.

  KING: There is no escaping it, I know it’s coming.

  Joe: That is so King. Once they see you have heart, you will have way less problems in here. Learn the game of chess, because that will show you how to think. You don’t want to be caught off guard by one of these giant bullies with no stamina or strength. So when you are in that cell, get your strength and conditioning in. Run in place, get your core right and get your legs strong. Come here, look outside this window.

  KING: What I’m I looking for?

  JOE: You see that big cock diesel man standing there by the bench press? The big 6 foot 6 inches 250 pounds of solid muscle.

  KING: Yea I see him.

  JOE: They call him Rambo. Look how much power he has. Look at all those guys that fear him. You can sense it. That guy is running the yard. And you want to stay clear of him. If he senses fear, he will salivate at the mouth and seek to devour.

  KING: What’s an example of how you would play chess to get you out of trouble?

  JOE: Ok, one example. When I first met you. You wanted to take my head off. So I had to think quickly. You lost your self -control, so I used that against you. As you waited to see if I was going to match your aggression, is when I used that split second to catch you off guard and be first to act. You are bigger and stronger with youth on your side, so I needed to hit you in a spot that would take your strengths away. For all I know, you could be a bully. And if so, I needed to show you that I didn’t fear you to psych out your ego. And tell you something that would get you to think in order to calm you down. If I wouldn’t have
been playing chess, you possibly could have been running our cell by now.

  KING: (Smiling) Damn, you sure did old man. Well congratulations, your the first person to ever handle me like that.

  JOE: Whoa wait a minute, is that a smile I see?

  KING: (Trying to fight his smile and make a straight face) Yea something like that I guess. That was just cold blooded how you did me.

  JOE: Aw it’s nothing, happens to the best of us. Look King, I see something in you kid. Vision the life you want in your mind and focus on it. Become obsessed with it. And keep your eyes on the prize. I’ll see you in a little bit alright.

  KING: Alright. I’ll be up in a couple hours.

  JOE: Alright kid.

  King checked out a couple of books and returned to his cell an hour later. He was eager to get back and talk with the Info Joe. Once he made it back to his cell, he witnesses guards cleaning out some of Joe’s things. “What’s going on, where is Joe?” “Joe has been moved. He will be transferring to another location.”

  Silent hurt pained the heart of King. He didn’t love much, but when he did, he loved hard. The void of never having that older male take him under his wing was finally there for three days, then gone. Back to being alone in familiar territory. King definitely didn’t want to be locked up, but it wasn’t so bad with Joe around. He knew that he would possibly never see Joe again. King became hopeless, drained and miserable from facing his reality. The guards finished moving out the rest of Joe’s belonging’s and King enters the cell by himself. He held in his tears of frustration and anger. He didn’t want anybody to walk by and see that he was crying. Emptiness was the word that best described King.