What one sniff can do

(1269 total words in this text)
(993 Reads)  

"Me deh pon det' row to blouse and skirt! How di 'ell mi reach ya eeh? Yuh did falla too much fren fool! An weh dem deh now mm? Dem a hide yes, but dem nuh deh pon det' row! Lawd God!

It was the day before Tyrone was appointed to die. It was frightening enough just knowing that you were going to die.

Knowing when was a totally different feeling. As Tyrone sat in his prison cell he was thinking, seriously thinking, and reflecting on his past. At the young age of 23 he was to be put to death. Most young men would have been planning for marriage or jobs, but not Tyrone. His future was almost over.

At the age of nine Tyrone took his first sniff of cocaine. He was then, just a curious boy in the wrong place at the wrong time. His cousin, known as Rude Boy, had invited his older brother over for some 'fun'. Tyrone had sneaked into his cousin's car and gone to his cousin's house with no one knowing. There he saw them take packets of what he thought was flour, pour it unto a table and line it up using a razor. The group of about three or four persons, including his brother, all took turns sniffing up lines of the flour.

"Dem can eat flowa jus' so? Dats all dem a go do?" Tyrone thought.

But he soon realised that this was not just flour. The older boys started to look sick, one of them bleeding at the nose, but still sniffing. After about two hours, they were all passed out on the floor of the room.

Stepping over the unconscious bodies, Tyrone went to the table. Curious, he took up one of the straws they had been using, bent over the table and sniffed a whole line of the flour-like substance.

That was the beginning. The exhilarating feeling that took over his body got the best of him and he sniffed the rest of the emptied packet. Walking out of the house, he felt like he was floating on air.

"Brown dawg! A wah dat man, dah ting deh tuff!", he said out loud, and another innocent one fell into the trap of drug addiction.

Since then, Tyrone would search his brother's side of the room every night he was away for some of the 'stuff'. He got lucky sometimes and would show it to his friends, telling them of his experience with it. One of them told him his brother had some and called it coke. They would all share the coke evenly.

By the age of 15, Tyrone no longer wanted to get coke just by finding it, occasionally, in his brother's room. He wanted his own packets. So one night he followed his brother to another side of town and to a surprisingly nice house for the area. He saw the man from whom his brother got the coke and heard the price the seller quoted. From then on he went to the seller using his money to buy his own coke.

However, this proved to be a problem after a while. Since he was still in school and had no money, he had to depend on the allowance he received from his parents and the lunch money he would get and save in order to buy the coke. Soon the money was not coming fast enough for him.

Desperate, Tyrone turned to stealing to get money. He stole from his parents, brother, friends and strangers. This road proved to be so successful that he decided to go big and get a lot of money at once. How? By robbing a store in his area.

With help from friends, Tyrone got a gun with ammunition and planned how he would rob his first store. When he finally selected the store he planned how he would rob it. Then he went into action. He walked right into the store that day, stood in front of the owner and got straight to the point, not even bothering to disguise himself.

"Gimme all a yuh money now!" he said brandishing his gun, visibly nervous, knowing the reality of what he was doing. Pointing it at the owner he shouted at him, filled with fear at what he was doing.

"A wamp' to yuh, yuh nuh ear mi seh fi gi mi di money? Come man see di bag yah mi a wait!"

"Please, no shoot!" the owner, an old Chinese man said, holding his hands up palms facing Tyrone.

"Here. I put money in bag no?" he said starting to fill the bag with money. Out of Tyrone's sight was the silent alarm and he pressed it without Tyrone's knowledge. About two minutes later the sound of police sirens pierced the air.

"A wah dat, a wah dat! A wah yuh do chiney man! Yuh call police!" he screamed, shaking his gun. "Is a shot yuh want den bwoy?"

Tyrone's hand shook almost uncontrollably and the owner became frightened, afraid he would fire the gun with his hand shaking so badly. Afraid for his life the owner pleaded.

"Please mister, no shoot. Run! They no reach!"

The sirens resounding in his ears, Tyrone looked at the terrified owner, grabbed the moneybag, flashed a smile and ran shouting, "Thank you" to him. When he reached outside the police cars pulled up in front of him. Running back inside, he looked at the store owner who gave him a smug smile and took out his gun.

"Sorry boss a fi yuh fault!" Lifting the gun he shot the owner three times in the chest.

Running through the back door, Tyrone jumped the fence, moneybag in hand, and ran toward an old building where he hid while he listened to the police sirens circling the area until they left. Rising out of his hiding place, Tyrone thought to himself.

"Dat neva hard! An a nuff money mi get! Mi cris!" Running outside he planned his next robbery while walking. During the next few years, Tyrone dropped out of school declaring it a "waste oftime" and got himself a career as a robber and murderer.

He was on the police most-wanted list but in his desperation for drugs he went to the extreme, living life on the edge, dodging the police. Even with his parents pleading he would not stop. He had to have his drugs, no matter what. Slowly, his life went down the drain.

Now, a year later, he was on death row for killing over 12 persons, all in cold blood. The police had finally caught up with him six months earlier and the judge had wasted no time in declaring the sentence.

As he lay on his cell bed the night before he was to die, he thought of the many ways he could have prevented this day from coming and wondered why he had not done any of them. He could have told his parents what his brother was doing, He could have stopped when he thought he was dying, when his nose bled constantly, but he had not. And now he was paying for it by being put to death at his young age.

The next day, he was shaken awake by a guard who told him that the priest was ready to see him. Going into the priest's room, he waited for him to speak.

"Would you like me to pray for you? Would you like to pray to God yourself and ask him for forgiveness, or anything?" he asked.

Tyrone nodded his head and bowed in reverence to God and began to pray.

"God a just one ting me want from Yuh alright? Jus sen me s'body wid little coke nuh do..