Abraham (Chucky) Saez
Read by Rocco RosanioWhen we first moved to Philly I was going to a good school in our new neighborhood and I was a smart kid. Everything was going fine at home until my dad got locked the fuck up. A couple months after that, one of my cousins burned the house down because my mom wouldn't give him money to buy dope. My mom didn't know what to do so she went to New York to my grandmom's house. After a couple of days we were kicked out because they had an argument. We stayed at my aunt's apartment for like two weeks and then came back to Philly.
She put me in school again but I was getting suspended every day for fighting. I started to come in the house past 1am because I thought being in the streets was important to me. I had just turned 15 and I started to cut classes just to go and hang with my friends and smoke weed. I missed a lot of school days so the school district sent my mom to court. They sent me to boot camp for truancy. I hated that place. I was there for only 30 days and it was hell for me. I used to cry because I couldn't handle it, but I still had to do whatever they told me to do. If you didn't talk right or do something the way they wanted they'd restrain you and slam you on the floor or wherever you were. When you're in a place like that you can't do things your way. 30 days went by and I had to go back to court to see if they were going to send me back home with my family. I went back to school, but I still was cutting class sometimes. I started smoking weed again and hanging out with my friends. I kept on getting locked up for selling drugs. I came home the next day and the court put me on probation and I had an advocate that I had to go with every day after school to keep me out of trouble.
Later we were all taken in to DHS and we had to move around all the time. My mom went food shopping with me one day and left my step dad watching my siblings. We took too long, so he called one of my mom's friends to watch the kids while he went to get something. He took too long to come back so my mom's friend got impatient so she called the cops and lied. She said that she came to talk to my mom and she found the kids by themselves. When we got home there was a police report on the door explaining why the kids were taken away. She tried to explain to the cops but it was too late, the kids were in a DHS group home already.
When my mom went to go see them they used to cry and ask when they were coming back home with me and her. The judge said that she would get the kids back if she brought me to court so he could ask me questions about the household. But instead of giving the kids back to her they took me with my little brothers and sister. I went from one group home to another. We were split up at all the different homes except one. We used to see each other once a week when mom used to come see us. We used to be the happiest family on that visit day, but when our time was up it wasn't anything but sadness and tears at the end.
The foster homes parents didn't like me because I was a smart mouth. In one house when I used to get punished the foster dad used to put me out of the house like at one in the morning. The last time we had a visit with our mom she told us not to worry, that she was going to get us home soon. One day she told us in a week she was going to take us back the hard way. She waited for our visit day and tricked the social worker in to leaving us alone… then we ran. We were happy as hell that we were back with my mom once again.
We still moved around a lot so that the cops wouldn’t arrest my mom for kidnapping, it was hard but we were together. After getting busted for selling drugs again I was sent to a juvenile center.
I broke out of there with two guys that I met. We snuck out a broken window in the middle of the night and ran for hours and hours without stopping. A man gave me ten dollars so I could catch the bus and train home.
When I got back on my block I got right back in the game again. I was hidin from the cops but I had to make the money. My old head that was on my block wanted catch up with me again, but I never let him because he was real grimy and selfish. He was supposed to be like my partner but I didn’t trust him because I knew all the crazy stuff he used to do. He used to go on robbing sprees but I never set myself up to do something like that to another person that works hard to get they money and was trying to survive like I was. My old head used to get mad at me because I wasn’t with it. I always was smart with what I did by myself in the streets. I never tried to hurt nobody if they didn’t try to hurt me and my family or my friends I grew up with all my life.
One week before my birthday in October 20, my old head wanted me to go handle some shit with him at this house with some other bolls I know from the block. I got in the car and sat right next to my old head. Somebody walk to the car on the back of the passenger side where my old head and me was sittin at and started to shoot through the window. Whoever was shooting that gun was trying to kill my old head, he kept on pulling the trigger non-stop. After he stopped shooting he disappeared with out us seeing who he was or where he went. The person that was driving the car kicked my old head out the door while he was shot up almost dying and left him in the middle of the street like nothing and then he drove off. I went back to see if my old head was fine and he didn’t call nobody but me, he said, “Chuck, call the cops before, I die hurry up.” I flagged the cops down because they heard the shots but didn’t know where it was coming from. When they pulled up I told them to help him before my friend dies then I walked off because I had them bench warrants from when I ran from VisionQuest.
Later when I was on the block the cops pulled up in front of my young bolls house while I was telling him what went down…..I ran out the back yard because I knew that they was gonna lock me up for the shootin and I was on the run with three bench warrants. They didn’t catch me then but they saw me and I became a suspect for shooting my old head.
I got caught on November 6, 4 days after my birthday. I passed an off duty cop when we was inside a gas station and he looked at me but I didn’t pay him no mind. When we got in the car and drove off on our way to the house we was on the red light and the cop that looked at me pulled us over with no reason, just to lock me up.
As soon as they transferred me in, my mom, girl and her mom got there and I saw them through the window crying and throwing me kisses because they knew I was gonna be gone for a while. The detective questioned me about the shooting but I told them I don’t know nothing about it, I was only getting picked up that night when that shit went down. They said that my old head and the people that was in the car said I was the one who shot my old head 16 times to kill him.……….
I was there for 5 months then I beat my case because the old head showed up late for court. When I called my mom that day she told me I beat the case so I should be going to the youth study center for my escape charges and my open drug cases.
After that I did 3 months at the center till I started my time in June 12th, I got transferred to Danvill, PA where I got to do this one year bid so I should be home by the middle of 2007. This place I’m in now is good because you can leave with your High School diploma or G.E.D. and thy help you with whatever you need help with to set you up in a positive way in life. Its hard growing up and not being in the same place very long, always jumpin schools.
I think if my dad wouldn’t of got locked up all this would’ve never happened through my whole life. Till this day I regret that what life I live and the path I chose in the streets just because pops wasn’t there. My dad came home like in 2003, he did 10 years for rape. He told me he didn’t do it so I believe him because he never tried to hurt none of us when we were little or put his hands on us.
I learned my lesson already by being locked up. I am done with all that shit because it wasn’t worth it to lose your family or freedom or your life. When I get out I’m gonna go to college so that I can show my family and friends I’m gonna turn my life around to a positive direction and do shit the right way in life. I want to take mom out the hood and be somebody in the future because my friends always think I’m gonna keep selling drugs and not do anything with my life so I’m gonna prove them wrong of what they think about me.
There is more to the story but imagine everything I wrote in your head and picture that in your mind.