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Went with my mother today to visit my brother at the county farm.
I dunno why it's called a farm. I didn't see any farming going on,
just a cluster of disgustingly run-down buildings within chain-link fence,
and a rather decent tree with some rickety bleachers settled around it.
We signed in with some bulbous guy in khaki pants ripping at the crotch, and Trey came out to greet us. Baby bro done got big. He was big a long time ago, though. I just wasn't here to see it. His head was just about shaved, and he ambled in a loose-limbed fashion in his baggy clothes. The talk was uncomfortable, but the silences more so. Hearing coming up soon, he might wind up in the Pen. Legalities, technicalities, pleas and subpoenas. I couldn't follow it. And then it would all come back around to April again. April used to be his girlfriend. No, he would correct me, fiancee. She has his dog now. The engagement ring's been flushed down the toilet. She isn't ready to settle down. He wants her to obey him. Sounds like a mess to me. He is all broken up about it. I miss my friends. It would help to be able to talk about all this stuff, but the one friend who told me to be sure and call - collect! - well, I don't wanna run the phone bill up too high. It's on my list of things to do to get a calling card when I get back, so's not to be in this position again. I hugged my brother. I told him I loved him, and I do. He is a young man now, and way overdue for a slice of reality. Sometimes I wish I could just pick him up and plonk him down in some other place, away from his so-called friends, who have really done nothing but help him destroy himself. I would like to put him in a survival situation where excuses and rationalizations don't cut it, where you do what you gotta do, or you die. I know he would rise to it, and wake up a real man. I dunno, I have never been there, but you tell me. Is prison such a place? |