Chapter 87: Penitentiary Life
The loud sound of the horns going off woke me up again this morning. I opened my eyes quickly seeing the cell doors automatically slide open, I rolled over slightly just as one of the officers entered the cell.
"Chris, Benji Wake up." He told us banging on the steel door, just angry for no reason. I sat up and rubbed the back of my head, "What's going on?" I asked noticing it was still dark outside.
"Cell count, get up" he said before exiting the cell.
"I'm sick of this shit" I sucked my teeth and hoped down off my bunk. I pulled my shirt over my head. "Ayo Benji, cell count" I said knocking the bottom of his bunk to wake him up. Then I stepped out onto the lobby of my cell. Soon the block became loud as more inmates were released from their cells for head count, it was like a rampage of loud hyenas, coming out of their dens. I looked back as Benji came strolling out and stood next to me. "Another day, more bullshit" he said looking around.
Benji was my celly, old school Asian dude born and raised in Crenshaw. The nigga had been locked up for the past 23 years for an armed robbery gone wrong. In the mist of the mayhem he ended up taking a mother and child's life and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Benji stayed to himself since he'd given his life over to Christ, but he was well respected in the block as an OG. When I first came in, we instantly connected. According to him I reminded him of a homie he used to have back in the day called Melvin, the nigga was convinced this Melvin cat was my pops or some shit. As I settled into prison life he showed me the ropes, who was who, what showers and press bars to use, who not trust all type of shit. He also introduced me to two of the nigga's I was closest too in here, Rico and Husky.
Rico was a cool dude he reminded me of a young Snoop Dogg. Skinny nigga, tatted up with long hair that he wore in two braids, he was on his 5th year of a 8 year bid for assault with a deadly weapon. Husky was a big dude from Virgina, they called him husky because he had a deep scratchy ass voice, the type that could be whispering and you'd still hear him from 5 feet away; he was serving a 10-year bid for drug trafficking. They both were cool as hell, in a weird way they reminded me of Ty and Mijo; I knew I could rely on these niggas no matter what.
Adjusting to life in prison wasn't an easy adjustment. I'd done jail before but nothing could prepare me for the realities of state prison. This shit was a fucking jungle where only the strongest animals survived.
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