Free Love/Fate by Tracy Brown Page B

notorious brothers behind him, and Born figured few would challenge that. He passed the reins to the people he trusted most, and went to embrace his fate. He pled guilty, and went in for sentencing. Anisa and his mother were both in the courtroom as he was led away to begin his bid.
    During his months at the jungle in New York City known as Rikers Island, Born managed to steer clear of catching another case. He was anxious to leave Rikers, where the C.O.s let the inmates run the jail, and the gangs ran amok. Born had nothing against the gangbangers. But he saw them all as bullies. And he only respected bullies who had the heart to bully all alone—not those with a whole gang behind them. Six weeks after he was locked up at Rikers, he was transferred to Franklin Correctional Facility in upstate New York. When he got to Franklin, Born went to reception, and they reviewed his case and all the charges against him. The decision was made to put him into a drug program for six months. Born assumed this was due to the fact that all the charges against him were drug-related. He surmised that they probably wanted to show him the type of damage he was doing by participating in the drug trade.
    During his time in the program, Born was forced to take a look at himself and his role in the game. He thought about his father, who had never gotten over his love affair with the fast lane. He started to wonder if it was time for a change. But prison being what it was, he was forced to revert back to the devil within daily, and to react to his environment. He had a few words with his fellow inmates from time to time. But for the most part he managed to keep himself out of trouble. The part that was the hardest for him was the constant attempts by the correction officers to demean the prisoners. Many of them walked around like overseers on a plantation, barking orders and daring the inmates to cross their invisible lines. They looked for any excuse to toss a nigga in the box, and many of them were assholes. A couple were cool, though, and those were the ones who came in and did their jobs without becoming obsessed with power and control. Born didn’t like being told when he could use the telephone, or what colors he could wear. But he managed to humble himself and roll with the punches of being incarcerated. While in thedrug program, one of the administrators explained that 85 percent of those inmates who earned their GEDs got paroled. To Born that was a blueprint to get out of jail, and he was determined to be in the next 85 percent. He studied for and passed his GED, and kept his mind occupied with books and magazines.
    In the beginning of his bid, Anisa had held him down. She came to visit, put money on his books, sent him books and magazines, food, and some clothes. But it wasn’t long before those things began to dwindle, and Anisa seemed to disappear into thin air. He called from time to time, and she didn’t answer her phone. Born wasn’t completely surprised. He had half expected her to forget about him once he got locked up. He had known in his heart that she wasn’t cut out to be loyal, and to make frequent visits upstate. But still Born was bothered by her absence at a time when he needed her most. He thought back on how much time and money he had spent with her, and wondered if he’d ever find a woman who reciprocated for once. Born chalked it up as another reason women couldn’t be trusted. Doing time was hard, but he saw every day he spent in jail as being one day closer to going home.
    When his six months in the program were done, Born was released into the general population, and he came face-to-face with a blast from his past. Martin was also an inmate there, housed in a separate dorm, but still in close proximity to his former best friend. Since Born’s departure from the crew, Martin had never stopped harboring the feeling that he had been slighted somehow. He was still a little pissed that