Evolution ©

This is the story of a man’s journey from birth to his present place in life. It began almost a half century ago in a small city. He was born to hard working and strict parents. Love usually came at the end of a belt or a broom stick handle.
He grew up with a lot of other ethnic kids in a poor part of the town. This area also was the home to drug dealers, hookers and bikers. At the age of 6 he was kidnapped by a group of boys and taken to a construction site during the night where he was to be killed and tossed into the freshly poured cement. Just for fun.
Some how while up on the scaffolds where he was being dragged, he managed to get loose and run for his life. In the process of escaping one of his tormenters fell off the scaffolding and landed on the rebar piercing his leg clean through. He managed to elude his captors and run the half a bloke home. That’s how far he was from home. One year later he would attend the school across the street.
The neighborhood got worse in the next 2 years. Bikers were openly selling drugs and beating people up. The cops were always there.
They would race up the street on their Harleys through the night. It was hard to cross the street you were always scared to be run over. One Friday evening at the age of nine he walked out of a yard (he had been necking with the neighbor’s daughter) stepped onto the street and was run over. He had 2 broken legs, 5 busted ribs, broken hip and a broken knee.
His parents were at work. They worked 16 hour a day to keep the bills paid. In fact at the age 4 he was tied to a chair and his mother went to work and his father would arrive one hour later to untie him because their shifts overlapped.
The doctors told them that he will never walk properly again. It took 2 years for him to heal and learn to walk, but he walks as well as everyone one else.
As the years went by, the neighborhood claimed him. He was selling pot for the money, smoking and drinking by the age of 15. He still went to school though; he enjoyed learning and had high marks. The goal was to get out of his bullshit life.
All that changed one night at the age of 17 when 2 of his friends were badly beaten and in the hospital, they had been beaten with baseball bats by the very people for whom they sold the drugs for.
He and all of his friends gathered at the park that night and talked about the abuse they were getting and how they were being used. Their sisters and girl friends were being drugged and raped. Fathers mugged cars and houses burglarized and the list went on. Something had to be done. The cops couldn’t do anything or didn’t want too.
On a Friday night about a week later he had set up a drug buy and was to meet with the same person that had beaten his friends. He told him where to go and pick up the drugs and to hand over the money. They met in the same alley his friends were beaten. The only difference was he got there first. When the supplier showed up he extended his hand to shake hands with him, and that when he was kicked in the balls and then the head. While the supplier was on the ground he went over and got a baseball bat he brought along and proceeded to beat him viciously, breaking both his knees. Through out the area the same was going on. In the bars fights broke out, there were guns and knives used. Kids against grown men, but these were not the kids of today they were street raised and tough.
They were hit at the same time in the bars and at their homes.
There were over 50 in the gang that took part in this midnight dance, and the message was clear, your out and they were in. This was the changing of the guard.
The shit hit the fan, the cops were all over this but no one would talk.
As the weeks passed deals were made with the people that supplied their ex employers and took over the selling of drugs to the large section of town they lived in.
His only concern was not to become what they just got rid of.
For 12 years he did that and the neighborhood was peaceful kids played hockey on the street, everyone was safe. All drugs were sold in the bars .
A lot happened within these years, but nothing for him to be ashamed of.
The only problem was the crew. That evening had changed them.
Violence changes people.
Some kept them selves sane some just went insane. Drugs claimed many, to soon. Many went to jail. Some were killed.
Some are prominent people today in society. Well earned through honest work.
One is a priest.
After his best friend was found in a rural ditch slumped over the wheel of his truck with a bullet hole in his head, he decided it was time to move on.
Three attempts had already been made on his life and one of them was fatal, but for the quick work of a doctor he would be gone now.
He met up with the people he was in business with and made sure they were square. He said goodbye and left for good. That was 17 years ago.
He spent the next 4 years completing the education he left behind and is now a computer technician and network specialist. It was a long road to here but he made it and so did a few of his friends.
When he goes out he sits alone. Many people are scared of him. I guess he has that Darth Vader aura about him. He sits there staring out of the window at the different spots along the street and remembers a story or two for each one, and the faces he will never see again.
He remembers the kids who loved to smile and joke and be happy. How they used to play hide n seek.
He remembers the day that changed their lives forever.
He remembers the funerals he's attended.
Today he is sitting in front of his computer with a tear running down his face writing this post.
If I could go back in time and change that part of my life, I wouldn't. It made me person I am today.

I have no regrets .
I am who I am.
From what I was, I became.


Today my friends consist of : Lawyers, Doctors, Politicians, Cops, Accountants, Bartenders, and some very nice average people.
They know who I was and now, so do you.
I needed you to know this so that I can bring you there in up coming posts and show you what many of you have never seen, the underbelly of society as I lived it then.




Walker