Sorry it’s taken me so long to write you back. It’s been like what…over 10 years now. I thought of you recently because I was watching this doc “The House I Live In.” It’s about the war on drugs and how harmful it’s been, how it’s destroyed lives, ruined families, and hasn’t brought drug use down. They showed how it affects everyone involved. So yeah, I thought about you and wondered how you were doing.
You probably remember the last letter you wrote me. You asked me to buy your kids birthday gifts. Remote control cars. You filled out an order form from Radio Shack and begged that I do this one thing for you. You’d asked me to do other things before like send you books, magazines, and find you female pen pals. I never got around to asking for pen pals but I sent you a ton of things to read and you devoured all of them. I remember you really enjoyed “Holler If You Hear Me.” And oh yeah you liked some calendar I sent too.
“I need a favor from you homie! I hate to have to ask but I have to at least know that I tryed Im really fucked up right now. I want my kids to know that I really love them so much. I want them to get a nice present from me. :( I really need you on this bro! Please man.”
Man, I was really annoyed that you’d asked me to do that. I thought, this dude, out of nowhere writes me a letter to my job from prison because he saw a pic of me in Vibe. I hadn’t heard or seen you since high school. And I took time out of my busy life…writing you letters and sending you packages and now you wanted my money? I was mad at you, Troy. Like, how ungrateful. I tossed that order form out.
That was then though. I regret not getting those gifts. I regret not ever writing you back. I look back and I was so selfish then. I really thought it was all about me all of the time. I didn’t really take the time to understand anything. Even your situation. I just couldn’t understand how our lives could’ve gone so different.
