The Hoodlum Preacher: I Was Lost, Now I Am Found by Burton Barr Jr

Author:Burton Barr Jr. [Barr, Burton Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780976911715
Amazon: 097691171X
Publisher: Kobalt Books
Published: 2006-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

The Hoodlum Preacher

Christine decided to drive me to Chicago. She and Deborah had always been close, and they hadn’t seen each other for a while. I tried to talk Ralph into going with me, but he didn’t want to leave Wanda. No one in the family could stand the way she treated him, but he was too much in love to see how big of a fool he was. Chris decided to go with us to help with the driving. So, that Saturday morning, I packed up my few things and we headed down Highway 55 on our way to Chicago.

I admit I was a little nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. When I had left six years earlier, I was wanted by the police for failure to appear in court for the bank case. And I didn’t know what other lies Esther had accused me of after I stole all of her heroin. Although I had quit smoking about a year or so earlier, suddenly I felt like I really needed a cigarette.

When we got to Chicago, I did what I always did. I went to Dave’s and got a polish sausage. Then we went to Deborah’s and partied for a while. I went to Dad’s, and he was glad to see me. He was living on the first floor where my grandparents had lived. I moved upstairs where I grew up.

Vernon still lived on Christiana, in the same building that he had grown up in. He worked at the Cook County Jail as a Deputy Sheriff, and was doing very well. I asked him to run my information to see if I had any warrants out for my arrest and he said that I was clean. No wants, no warrants. I was ready to make a brand new start in Chicago.

I was starting to think that I could be like everyone else. They had nice jobs, nice homes, nice cars, and they seemed to be so happy. That was the kind of life that I wanted. I was kind of like the fly that was trapped inside of a house. Everyday, he would look out of the window and see all of the other flies just flying around outside and enjoying themselves in the nice warm sun. He decided that he was going to get out of that house and enjoy the fresh air too. So he flew towards the daylight, only to bump his head on the windowpane. Again and again, he tried to break through, but again and again, he was blocked by the cold, hard glass. Eventually, he joined all the other flies that lay dead in the window seal. He did not have to die there because not far from the window was a door that was wide open and he could have flown safely through. But now he lay dead in the window seal because he was determined to do it his way.

We are often unsuccessful when we try to break free from situations in our lives because we are determined to do it our way.

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