Growing up in the big city of Detroit without a father can be difficult but can tend to be a norm for other families just like mine. It's just me and my Ma. It has been difficult for the first 18 years of my life but now that I am an adult my responsibilities are much greater than before. My whole life I've had to do things on my own because as my Ma always says "Jacob you are the man of this family because the other one didn't care enough to stick around." So from a young age, I have been doing chores like laundry in our run down washer, cleaning dishes by hand, and making sure everything is neat and clean in the apartment. cleaning isn't too tough because the apartment is only 3 rooms so it has been easy doing that. Dishes and laundry have seemed to take up most of my time throughout my life, though.
My Ma always makes sure that right after the chores I hit the books. She knows that I need to succeed and be a smart child because she won't be able to support me when I need to leave. So every day my routine for the past 13 years of my life has been, monotonous: wake up go to school stay focused, coming home after class and immediately do my chores I hit the books, and complete my homework. After my rough day is over and I still have some daylight left I run down to my friends apartment 4 blocks down and get him and a couple of his other friends and do what I really love to do in life, playing basketball, Demoney and I have gotten great over the years we play for almost 2 hours every day that we can and on the weekends we have become regulars there. Demoney and I are now seniors and have been playing basketball together since freshman year when we both made the varsity team. Besides basketball, I have been able to stay serious about my grades and class while Demoney has found his way into some dirty groups that Ma had told me to stay away from. Demoney has barely stayed afloat with his grades for his 4 years of high school. Demoney will always be my homie and I will never forget him and what he has done for me. Flashing back to right before basketball season began Demoney and I got into some trouble and I will learn from it while Demoney will live it for the rest of his life
It was a fairly usual day in Detroit on a Thursday in October. I had just gotten back from school and began my chores. I knew me and Demoney were talking about going down to the court with a couple buddies of ours so we could shoot and get ready for the upcoming season. Demoney was going to meet me at my house right after I finished my chores. I had struck a deal with my mom to finish my homework when I got back. Demoney showed up right as I was getting done with cleaning the bedroom.
"Hurry up Jay I ain't got all day" shouts Demoney.
"I'm coming chill" I responded.
I finished cleaning the floor in the bedroom I grab my shoes, a jacket to wear, and also grab my ball that we always use down on the court. I walk into the kitchen where Demoney and my mom are waiting for me.
"Who all is going to be down at the courts today?" I ask.
Demoney says, "Just a couple people like Carl and some of his crew, should have enough to play a full game."
"Alright let's hit it," I say as I am tying my shoes to get ready to leave.
Demoney and I are walking out the door when my mom stops me and says, "Don't stay out too late Jacob, remember we have a deal ya know."
I reply " don't worry Ma I'll be back before dinner just gonna play a couple games."
"Alright stay safe," she says as she gives me a hug.
Demoney and I continue to walk out when I yell back at my ma " cya later!"
Demoney and I head down the steps onto the sidewalk by 4th street we only have to walk about 4 blocks to get to the courts. As we make our way past the third block we start to hear a bit of a commotion at the court so we start walking a bit quicker. All of a sudden our pal Carl comes running by us. He is yelling "Dude, I'm screwed! They're after me!". Demoney and I without thinking start running after him thinking it's a gang fight or something. Carl turned down an alleyway to get a breather so Demoney and I did the same to figure out what was going on.
"Yo Carl what are you doing man?" asked Demoney
Carl gasping for air says " It's the Police!"
"What do you mean it's the Police!?" I yelled
"They caught us! we were just chilling and talking with my boys when a Police car drove by and saw that Jones was hitting a joint"
"Yall are stupid man!" snarled Demoney
Carl continued telling the story " I saw the cop getting out of their car and I knew that he was gong to search everyone for it so me and a couple other boys ran for it."
"You got some on you right now?!" I asked.
"Yeah, only a couple g's though," Carl answered.
"Are you crazy?! You just screwed us!" Demoney said as he pushed Carl. Demoney thinking quickly told me to hide.
"What? Why?" I questioned.
"Cause you got something to look forward to me and Carl got nothing we not going to college like you which means you can't have a record when you trying to get scouted." at that time the lights from the police were peaking through the entrance to the alleyway.
"Jacob hide now!" demanded Demoney " they only saw two of us running Carl will be screwed with me while you stay down". Demoney then shoved me into a garbage can that was sitting in the alleyway. It smelled awful but I couldn't get out because I needed to stay hidden. All I could do was listen to my best friend practically take a bullet for me and have to deal with this for the rest of his life. After it was clear and the policeman took Demoney and Carl away I snuck back to the apartment where I was confronted by Ma. I told her what had happened and she was just thankful I was okay. She didn't have much sympathy for Demoney though which bugged me. The next day I was able to talk to Demoney when he was released in the morning because of how he was still a 17-year-old.
"How you doing?"I asked.
"Doing well, pissed at Carl for getting us into this situation but other than that I was able to be just fine on the inside?" He continued to tell me about what it was like when finally I interrupted, and said, " yo man you don't know how much I can thank you. I really would have been screwed and would never get into college and be stuck on the streets for my whole life. I owe you big time."
Demoney just shrugged and gave me a smile " Ya know man this really helped me if you think about it. I was able to learn my lesson early enough for it to not actually screw me over too much. Instead, if it hadn't happened I would be with my other boys right now probably doing something worse and who knows I may have just gotten away with it till I was 18 and then gotten screwed."
"But still what you did was the best thing anyone has ever done for me in a long time," I explained.
He said with another grin " no problem man, now, since I saved your butt you better hook me up with some of those crisp passes next couple times we play. Ya, feel me?"
I respond as I laugh "I'll still be expecting some of those passes to turn into assists"
"Let's go work on it right now, what do ya say," Demoney asked.
"Yeah sure. Let's do it!" I agreed.