Chapter Three

The ride was short but much appreciated. I continued walking, planning to stay the night in Burkesville, KY. Eventually, a cop picked me up and brought me into town. It was refreshing to find a cop who still remembers that they are here to protect and serve. I poked around town for a bit and I met a young black man named L. hanging outside of the public library. He asked if I had a cig, no, but I asked if he knew where to find some weed. He said he had a friend up the road selling. I bought a dime and we rolled a joint, smoked, and chatted. He used to work at the plant too, and he was waiting for his girlfriend to come by. While we sat there his best friend met up with us. Once his girl arrived we drove up to a little park. The girl left to do something, and me and the boys smoked another j on a set of aluminum bleachers. 

They had sat on these same bleachers I was now sitting on to smoke weed and hang for a big part of their life, and now I was here, invited to take part in this ritual and to hear his story, of his hard childhood, having to fight to stay alive, his friend always having his back. Everyone has their story and I want to be open and accepting to each soul I encounter in this life.

We finally parted ways, he off to whatever awaited him in life. I slept that night in a field behind a gas station under the clear, honest sky.