ONCE UPON A TIME and you miss a fella for a lil while and you see him again, his skin used to be a lighter complexion; brown skin, he would be a lil fatter, and he used to got a Yankee accent. And you would say, “boy I aint see you for a couple o’ years.”
And he would reply, “yeah ‘mainnnn’, I been up in the States, but I decide to come back home, I can’t take that cold anymore.”
But as soon as he turn his back somebody would whisper in your ears, “don’t mind he, he was in Glendairy for the last two years, he only come out yesterday.”
You see, there was a time that fellas used to feel embarrassed bout gine jail so they would lie about it, but I realise that nowadays fellas ain’t got no problem bout talking bout gine prison, some does even brag.
In fact, them got fellas who would tell you them ain’t got no problem in killing you and gine back up, cause them done know them prison cell.
Anyhow, the other day I was talking to a thief. How I know he was a thief? Well he told me so. It was during casual conversation in one of my watering holes, and this fella started talking ’bout prison food.
So I asked him how many times he went to jail, he told me three times. I asked him what he went to jail for, he told me thiefing.
Figuring that this lifestyle was all behind him since I heard him talking bout his new job, I asked him, “so you done with that kinda thing now?”
The fella turned and asked me, “Eric Lewis, you mad? I would like to find a good house to brek all like now.”
He went on to tell me that it was a risk he was always prepared to take, ’cause he does be tired being poor.
This fella talk bout brekking houses like how a doctor would proudly talk bout performing surgery. But what scared me was when he said, some people does want robbing cause them got too much and some people ain’t got none.
He added, “Eric Lewis, them got people out there can’t get nothing to eat, and another set o’ people feeding them dogs with steak, so anytime I can’t get nothing to eat I gine brek one of them houses.”
He even recounted stories about him stealing STV antennae during the time when everybody had a Dream Box and antennae were in demand. He said all kinda people used to call him and tell him them want one. So sometimes he would steal one, sell it to some person and then the following week thief it from them and sell it to somebody else.
Seriously, so I asked him ’bout chain and bag snatching. He say he don’t risk that because nowadays everybody got a gun, so he might snatch a chain or a bag and while he is running away he liable to get a shot in his back.
I then asked him, if my wallet had to drop out of my pocket and I had to walk away, if he would pick it up and keep it. He said he aint dishonest, that there was a big difference in being a thief and being dishonest, so he would call me back for the wallet, ’cause he sees me as a friend.
So then I asked him if he ever brek anybody house that he saw as a friend. He just laugh and laugh, and all like now I still waiting on the answer. See ya.
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