Pops was locked up.
Brothers locked up.
He was just waiting on his turn to go.
He didn’t trust anyone but his family. He didn’t have no friends. He didn’t even trust his brothers’ friends from the gang.
All he had back then were his mothers and sisters and his gun.
All he knew was to make fast money and when he made some he’d put the money in his mother’s purse at night when no one was looking.
He kept everything to himself.
His mother passed away in front of his eyes after she gave him the last five touches of the sign of the cross.
She was long gone and there’s nothing he could’ve done.
Just another heartbroken kid.
He hated the world and God all at once.
Sitting in his cell.
It was his turn now.
Armed robbery just to feed his sisters.
Fourteen years old and doing four months in Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.
He and his Pops get out of prison about the same time.
His father flips the game
Becomes a businessman.
Leaves the gang and stops selling drugs.
Now, at 17, he has everything he’s ever needed.
But he misses his other half, his mom.
By Alfonso Manzo Castenda
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