Hope in the Ghetto

Woke up to another day in the hood, nothing new, same room, same junkie for a mother. I always have to get my brothers up for school and get them ready because my mom always was too drunk or high to function. “Chance and Peanut” i yelled, “get up and brush your teeth, it’s time to get ready for school!” As i hear my brothers dragging themselves out of the bed, i slowly turn on some music and get some breakfast going and make them lunch because my brothers always got bullied into giving up their school food. We weren’t your regular kids from the ghetto though, we were really smart kids my brothers and i got nothing less then “A” on any assignment. I always stressed to them how important it was to get good grades so that one day we wouldn’t have to live in the projects anymore! Maybe, if God was on our side once we made it out if we were lucky enough we could get our mother off of drugs too. Even though my mother was abusive we all had memories of her before she got too far into her addiction. We always wanted the old her back and we never gave up hope of her one day being clean. As i walk my brothers to the bus stop i tell them one day I’m going to change our lives, little did i know that day would turn out to be today. After they get on the bus, i walk to my bus stop and wait on the bus. I had to take three busses to get to school because i went to a more upscale school in Pacific Palisades about an hour away but two hours away transit from Inglewood where i stayed.

While I’m waiting on the the bus, a Caucasian woman that i always see at this bus stop walks up to me and asks “what year do you graduate?” Confused on why she decided to ask me that question i answered hesitantly “i graduate high school this year.” She then proceeds to ask me more questions as we’re waiting on the bus, her last question she asks me as the bus pulls up was “Do you have any plans on going to college?” I answered “My dream is to go to Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia to study psychology but i lost my scholarship due to missing so many days of school, i have to look after my brothers because my mom is not mentally stable to take care of them.” She then goes into her gigantic nice Louis Vuitton bag and pulls out a small black notebook, she hands me the notebook and tells me not to open it and to meet her tomorrow at this same bus stop. I take the notebook and get on the bus, she then walks away, which was kind of weird because she normally always gets on the bus. As i sit on the bus, i keep pondering on what could be in the notebook.

I finally get to school, i see my best friend Tracy, i run up to her and tell her what happened at the bus stop this morning. She laughs while trying her best to convince me to just open the notebook and that the woman is probably some nut case. I pushed her to the side and yelled “forget you.” Tracy was always the kind of friend to turn up her nose because she and i were cut from two different strands of the cloth. Once i got to my home room class, i carefully put the black notebook in my book bag so that i can forget about it for the day and try my best not to be distracted with thoughts of why this random lady gave me a notebook and told me not to open it. Lunch comes around, Tracy normally would already have my plate (she would buy my lunch from the snack bar due to me being less fortunate) but today she tells me the line was too long and asks me to go get our lunch. I sit my book bag down and tell her to watch it while i go get our lunch. After standing in line for fifteen minutes i finally get our lunch, leaving us with about ten minutes to eat. We rush and eat our food just in time before hearing the bell ring to go to our next class. I give Tracy a hug, grab my bag and go to my last class of the day which was Gym, so luckily i didn’t have to use my book bag for the remainder of the day.

Once school ends, i get on the bus to go get my brothers from school, Chance and Peanut liked to ride the public bus back with me after school because they hated the kids on their school bus. When we get to the house, i get my brothers started on their homework and go up to my room, shut the door, unzipping my book bag looking for the small black notebook. I realized it’s missing and the first person i think of is conniving Tracy, i call her she immediately answers and says “i told you the woman was a nut case, nothing was in the notebook, you should feel stupid, i told you.” I express to Tracy how i no longer wish to be her friend due to her being untrustworthy, condescending and just an all around asshole. I hang up out of frustration also a bit scared because i remember the lady told me to meet her at the bus stop the next morning with the small black notebook.

After tossing and turning all night, the next morning rolls around, i follow my usual routine; waking the boys up, getting them ready, walking them to the bus stop then i return to the same bus stop awaiting my bus and also the mysterious lady. I sat at the bus stop for about 30 minutes, which wasn’t normal because the bus was running late today as well as the lady. As i go to look for my earphones i hear a voice say “do you have the notebook?” I instantly turn around to see the woman standing above me smiling. I immediately started explaining to her what happened and she begins to laugh hysterically, as i sit in confusion wondering why she is laughing. She then says “today is your lucky day, i ended up giving you the wrong notebook anyways, that was my address book, i meant to give you this one.”

Reaching into her gigantic Louis Vuitton bag she pulls out another small black notebook almost identical to the one she gave me the day before but this one zipped around like a case covering the notebook. At this point i look at her and say “is this a joke” she hands me the notebook asking me to open it. As i unzip the case opening the small black notebook, i was startled when i opened it to see 20,000 dollars.

First of all, I’ve never even seen 2,000 dollars all at once so to see that much money from a stranger was completely astonishing to me. I look up at the woman with tears in my eyes as she says “i bet you’re glad your friend took the wrong one now, i admire your strength i see you everyday looking after your brothers, going to school and trying to be better and make it out of Inglewood. I hope you can now put your family in a better area and resubmit to Spelman. Go put that money up, I’ll take you to school”