Two short stories about two black men that I know. You don't have to figure anything out, just read it and come up with your own conclusions.
Black man # 1
She met him when I was 16 years old. In line at the grocery store, he thought he was slick, so he paid for her groceries. She was immediately impressed, seeing as money makes the world go round. He told her that he was a millionaire, yet he was driving a Ford Explorer. For some reason she fell right in to his tricks and games. It turned out that he was not a millionaire, surprise, surprise. He lived in an apartment in Culver City, where he hadn't paid the rent for 6 months. He had twin sons who went to Crenshaw high school, and lived with their mother, who had 8 other children and was on welfare. I knew from the beginning that he was a piece of shit, but for some reason she was attracted to him. After he got evicted from his apartment, he lived with us. He didn't work, but he pretended to work. I pulled a knife on him once, because I hated him that much. He tried really hard for me to like him though. We had some good moments, but mostly bad ones.
He taught me how to drive, helped get me my first car. But then he would disappear often. She would drive the streets, in my car, looking for him, because he stole hers. Yeah, he lost his truck too. I think we had some of our worse years ever with him. We were homeless for a month, and then we moved over 30 miles away from everything that I knew and loved. There we were, the three of us, living unhappily ever after. Things became a lot worse, before they got better. When I moved out, that is when the shit really hit the fan. Before I left, one of his sons, who went missing for some months ended up staying with us too. That was around the time his mother died. He got all this money from her death. $67,000. They also sold her house. Turns out his whole family was crazy. His sister was living in her car, because the mother kicked her out. His son went missing, and no one heard from the other son. They were supposed to be scholars or some shit. One went to USC and the other to UC Santa Cruz, they were very smart, but crazy guys.
You see, he had a drinking and drug abuse problem, that he passed on to his children. Me, in my perfect safe world of existence, got exposed to shit that no one should ever have to see or be around. I saw him break shit in our house, and trash everything we owned when he was down. He bought her a $8000 engagement ring, and all these clothes...and she loved it. She is addicted to money, a habit that she developed from being with my father, who always had a lot of money and took care of her, because he is in Health Administration. He worked with doctors and nurses and tried to help find a cure for Sickle Cell anemia. Anyways, I couldn't wait to move out, because I needed to be away from that situation. Like I said, they were all crazy. His entire family, they needed to be on medication. Some mental illness that was passed down from his mother, i don't even remember the name of it. But while his son was there, he would talk to himself, he would talk to the television, all types of crazy shit.
In the end, she moved out...she rushed to live him because he was doing drugs again. The whole family got together to help her out and get her out of that situation. She ended up living in a nicer place with family. So now I found out she has him living there, after 3 years of what we went through to help her out. I can't say that I'm disappointed, or pissed off...because I am so beyond that point in my life right now. But I just don't understand why people go backwards in life. When she is strong and on top of her game, she is the best person to be around, and listen to and get advice from. But when she is with him, she is as low as the dirt under my shoes.
Black man # 2 -
I never understood why women were so attracted to him. He's tall and young, but he doesn't have a job, and has never had a job. He can barely provide for himself let alone his two children from his first girlfriend. He never left the nest, unless there was a woman who would take him in. It seemed like every time he left his mother's house, he would come back with more babies. Now he has 9 children and he's not even 40 years old yet. All of his kids are under the age 18, and he has never been able to provide for them. He is lucky that the family get together to help out his girls. All girls. His parents threatened to kick him out all the time, but they couldn't stand the fact that their grandchildren would be living on the streets. So they let him stay. He sat up there, smoked weed, drank and did nothing, while his children just watched him. He wanted to write, and has it in him, because his father is a writer and a painter. A very talented old man, if I do say so myself.
Yet he never got off his lazy ass to do anything on his own. His father opened up a business, and offered to let him run it. He didn't have a car to get to the business. So his father bought an old car, and fixed it up for him. He couldn't afford the money to get the car running, registration, gas etc...So his mother gave him the money so he could take care of all that stuff. Somehow, he still couldn't make it to work. To a business that was basically handed to him. So his brother opened up a barbershop in the space, and is now very successful. His brother bought the store front next door, and told him, it is yours for a business. Somehow, he couldn't make it there.
Imagine almost 10 years of people helping you out, that wouldn't make you want to get up the courage to do anything on your own, now would it. So finally his parents decide to move, and retire in a smaller community in the desert, so they buy a home and tell their son, to stay there with his daughters, but he has to get a job to pay the mortgage. They told him that they were too old to continue raising his children and him. They had 7 kids of their own, and now it was time for them to worry about themselves. His brother offered him the shop next door again. He told him that it could be a convenient store, and that he would pay for all the merchandise, as long as he was there to run the store. He never went, instead he found himself another woman to lay up under. The house turned to shit, the girls ran wild because they no longer had guidance. The only parents they ever knew left them.
After months of pleading, his mother convinced the other brother to come live there with them, and to pay the mortgage, because they could no longer afford to pay for it, and their new house too. So he did, because he wanted to help out his parents. So he rented out one of his shops to a hair stylist, and he kept his barbershop, and now has a house. He only requested that his brother pay $200 a month for the utilities like, gas, electric and water. His brother was receiving welfare and unemployment checks every month, so he could have easily afforded the $200. If he would have gotten a job, than he could have definitely afforded it.
Six months went by, and he never once paid his brother the $200 a month, so his brother kicked him and his family out. He didn't want to, but everyone was fed up with him not doing anything, and at 36 it was about time he got his act together. It wasn't that he couldn't get a job, he didn't have any felonies or anything like that. He just refused to work. He was used to his parents taking care of him. He ended up living with a girl, and his daughters split up between their mother's house and his sister's house. He was supposed to give them money too, so the girl's could have some money, but of course after another 6 months, he never paid anyone.
He took his girls back, and got an apartment on his own, but after only paying the deposit and 1st month's rent to move in, he was evicted 3 months later. So now, his girls are back living with his parents, in their new house, and he is nowhere to be found.
So, what do you think about these two men? Are they similar or different? Why and How?
That is the end of my two men nursery rhyme.
