Jamal Robbins — United States

Interviewer: Jimmy Norris, United States of America

Interviewee: Jamal Robbins, United States of America

Jimmy: Hi Jamal. Thank you for agreeing to be part of this project. It’s a pleasure to meet you.

Jamal: It’s cool. I hope no one will ever have to go through what I did. Too many people do back then. We was really stomped down. Maybe it’s good to know how bad it was before, so no one will, like, take what we have now for granted.

Jimmy: That’s the whole idea.

Do you feel OK about telling me a bit about your background, your life history growing up? I saw the notes from your screening interview, so I know it was pretty bad.

Jamal: Well, I signed up for this, so I’ll spit for you.

My momma get pregnant with me when she be, like, seventeen. She and my dad be high school sweethearts or something like that. They was in Texas, so they couldn’t get birth control or nothing like that, and there was no sex ed, man, teacher could go away for ten years for just for telling them where to find out about that stuff. So they don’t know what was what, so like I said, my momma got pregnant with me.

She and my daddy wasn’t ready for that, no way, so they wanted to get an abortion but like I said it was Texas so there was no way even if you was raped by your daddy. And there was no money to go out of state and get past the pregger patrols and bounty hunters looking to cash in on turning you in for going outta state to get dump-trucked.

So she had me. My daddy couldn’t handle it so he freaked and Houdini’ed, so my momma was on her own with me. My grampa and gramma was in one of them churches where they was big on kicking people to the curb for, well I guess for being human from what I hear. They kicked momma out, said she had shamed the family or some crap like that. So momma and me was in and out of shelters before I could walk or remember that far back.

Finally, when I was like one year old, Momma got hooked up with one of them aid groups and they get her a ticket to Cally which was supposed to be better. I guess it was, but that means Texas must have been some serious pig snot like I never seen. Momma said it wasn’t always like that.

So L.A. was what I remember.

She say when we get there, there was people set to help us, even hook her up to become a hairdresser, help us get a crib and all. They got a program.

First, they put us in some shelter; Momma say it was some nasty pig snot up in there. I don’t remember none of that, but Momma say after about a month, this aid program helping us got shut down cuz they got no money and no one helping them get any. Someone cut funding and the whole thing just gone, just like that. So we was jammed up in the streets, don’t know no one, effed up the yin-yang.

Momma wasn’t bad, but not good either. She was in over her head. And she be all over the place. One minute she be all cuddly and calling me her precious baby boy, her gift from God; then later she be like she never wanted me, but they made her, so I be why her life be so messed up.

She had a bunch of dead-end jobs. McDonald’s, Walmart, the bodega down the street, I don’t know what all. I remember lotsa times she leave me home, when we had one, or in the library or YWCA when we didn’t, while she went to work.

It got maybe a little better when I was old enough for school, but not really. I wasn’t bored no more, but I learned real quick to watch my six. Got burnt a couple times, my ass kicked real good by some older kids. Teachers were no help, most times. I clicked to where not to be and when, who was bad juju and who was good in a jam. They call it school but not much learning going on in class, mostly outside. Black like me gotta stay clear of white and brown. But everyone dissed me cuz of my Texas accent.

Momma finally got a old cranky car off Craigslist so we crashed there when we got no crib. Had to pile up a bunch of junk over us so the po-po don’t zoom on us.

Even when Momma be working, mostly we live in the car cuz she couldn’t make first and last and cleaning deposit for a crib. Some days we eat, or not.

Momma was always talking bout going to school to be a hairdresser or beautician, but she never had the scratch. So we went round the same track over and over again.

I started blowing school and hanging in the park, hooked up with some other kids who was on their own doing OK, told me ‘bout some houses no one living in near the airport, a whole bunch of them and the po-po don’t go up in there much cuz too dangerous. I told Momma but she said no she don’t wanna go there. She said she wanna get respectable and all.

I was around nine when we finally got into a Section 8 crib. Momma had a job better than before. We was barely in when one morning my daddy showed up all decked out, suit and tie, said he wanted to do right by us. He said he did a tour in the Army but hated it so didn’t re-up. Then the Jehova’s Witnesses got into him, so he came to marry Momma and “bring us into The Truth” and raise me in there.

Momma said no effing way, he got a lotta nerve showing up after all this time. She had a few boyfriends sometimes, but nothing serious. She just trying to survive. I didn’t know him but I clicked he my daddy from pix on Momma’s phone. But she always say he long gone.

Daddy said he sorry what he done when he was young and stupid, but now he know “The Truth” and he wanna save us. He wanna marry Momma but she gotta be saved first.

“I don’t need no saving, not by you, not by anybody! You made your choice when you Houdini’ed. Nothing for you here now.”

Daddy asked her to listen to him for a few before bouncing him. Momma said he got fifteen minutes.

So, he talked about Jehovah and end days and everybody gonna die but only the JW’s be coming back and hurry up cuz not much time left. He had books and magazines. He be spitting all kinds of trash about all the other religions got it wrong, only JW’s be saved.

I didn’t get most of it, but it was schitzy-scary. I wanted none of it. I thinking Daddy gone all zombie. Better sleep in the car than this. If he stay with us, I sleep with a blade and one eye open.

Momma watching her phone, say “OK, your fifteen minutes is up. I know enough about those people. They run your life; they control you, everything you do, who you can be friends with. They ain’t no better than my momma and daddy and their sick sad church. Hell, JW’s don’t even do Christmas!”

“But this is The Truth! I want us to be together as a family in the Kingdom!”

“Shut the hell up! At least before, you was just a scared, stupid kid. We both was. But now you all high and mighty trying to save us but you still the same scared stupid kid but now you just got more fear!”

Daddy tried to get Momma to come back to Texas. Momma say only her dead body ever go back to that hellhole. If anyone ask me, I say the same. I don’t want him near me.

Momma said she gotta go to work, and I gotta go to school, so he gotta bounce.

For a week or more, he kept coming over, trying to get Momma to drink his Kool-Aid. Once he show up with two spiffs dressed up like bankers, try to put the fear of God into Momma, but she put the fear of God into them and they bounce out real quick.

A couple times he alone with me, tried his Jehovah crap on me. I be scared of his ass. I try to be tough like in the movies, but I just start bawling, ran to the closet, slammed the door and hold on tight. I hear Momma come back from the kitchen, ask him what he done to me, he said nothing, just showed me his books. She told him never do that again and bounced him then and there.

After the second time, he was scarce for a while. He moved to L.A., got a job and a room somewhere. He come around every so often, give Momma some money a few times. She didn’t want to take it but in the end she did. We like really needed it. He keep pushing his Jehovah crap but that door locked tight.

School was something to get through. There was the gangs. They ran the place, even the grade school. They like always in your face. But I don’t want to join them. They as bad as Daddy’s Jehovah, control you, beat you down. I wasn’t like that, and sure I smoked a blunt sometimes, but I don’t like it much, and I get the munchies but no food to eat. I don’t like being high, I need to be sharp to stay on top! When you high, you stupid. Bad move.

I blow off school a lot, hang with the same kids living in them boarded-up houses by the airport. They was protection but not wack like the gangs. They watch my back, I watch theirs. They not all mean and low-down like the gangs. They always saying come join them any time, but I still wanna stick with my momma, and I see how hard on her not finish high school, so I wanna finish, maybe be a little easier for me than her. My grades not great but, like, still passing.

The thing is everyone know things getting worse and worse. Momma say and teacher say in my great grand mama and daddy time, kids always had it better than moms and dads. And always before. Then something changed. Now kids always got it worse than moms and dads.

Momma say in my great gramma’s time, work be forty hours a week. Now it be fifty-five if you lucky. Now there be three trillionaires run just about everything, tell everyone what to do, and a few hundred billionaires run the rest. Then there be the rest of us. We get what be too micro for them to bother with after they Roomba the place. That be some seriously messed up pig snot.

Then things got a little better for a few years. She got her GED, a better job. She start talking about maybe go to Community College, become a hairdresser, if she can get financial aid.

But then when I was, I dunno, maybe twelve, Momma get a boyfriend who moved in. At first he seemed OK but he got mean. If he watching TV, if I get in the way or if I bother him in any way, he yell at me, cuss at me, call me a worthless piece of sh*t, maybe backhand me or throw something at me. Momma try to make him stop but he yell at her, tell her keep her rug rat outta his way.

When Momma and me alone, I beg her to bounce him and change the locks, but she say he got a good job, bring in good money so she can go to Community College and be a hairdresser. She say he not bad, just messed up from being in the war. She say he getting help at the VA for his anger, he, like, getting better. She say just be patient and try to stay out of his way. But they maybe cut funding for the VA anyway, so then there be like no hope.

I waited but he never get better. So I called my Daddy, since I no longer afraid of him, told him I want to move with him. I figured he and his Jehovah crap, maybe better than living with Marcus at Momma’s.

So Momma and Daddy had a big fight while Marcus be at work but they agree me moving to Daddy’s be a good idea. Best for all of us.

I give those Jehovah mooks one thing, they got my daddy straight, work hard, help Momma when he can.

Daddy still not Daddy to me, but I moved that day. It was rough from the start. I had to sleep on the sofa-bed in the living room. Right away he drag me to his Jehovah meetings, seemed like every night, plus Sunday. I hated it. I try to sleep but he spike me with his elbow every few minutes. If I try to listen, I’m bored out of my gourd.

Worse, it was all BS. God loves us but he only gonna bring back JW’s after they dead, and not all of them either. The rest die dead. And the ones who live gotta bow to some big king dude who controls everything. And this Jehovah set it up like that from the get-go, so he as messed up as these mooks who believe that. Real Kool-Aid stuff. I’m not down with anyone try to control me.

The good thing with my daddy, though, he teach me all about construction, how to like use tools, and he sneak me into job sites to see how it goes and stuff. His peeps was cool with it, cuz some of them also bring their kids even younger than me. He even show me how to run some of the machines, a little bit. I liked that. Made me feel like I can do stuff, move stuff, not always have to go with what Momma or Daddy or teachers or gangs say.

I think if I get a job like that, not have to live with Mommy or Daddy, be free. I kept that part in my locker but I asked Daddy can I get a construction job too. He say the law say not until I’m 18, but he say I can pass for 18 if I let my beard grow some and dress and act just so and not talk too much, and I can go to Home Depot real early morning when there be folks looking to hire someone for a day job, and they pay under the table and don’t ask no questions. But he say I can only go on Saturdays cuz I gotta stay in school weekdays and go to Kingdom Hall with him Sundays. He say it’s a good way to get experience and know people, even if they pay less than a regular job.

I not argue with him about school, but tell him Sundays I wanna work cuz I rather die dead than die and come back to his zombie heaven. He got mad but not hit me, but he pray real fast and hard to his Jehovah God to drive the devil from his son, and he made me talk to an ‘elder’ who wasn’t no older than him. The elder try to change my mind. I make like a war prisoner. Not give up anything. Made my face wood. I say something I saw on TV “I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may tend to incinerate me.” He asked me to pray to Jehovah God so I say “Jehovah God, would you, like, leave me the f*** alone!” After that my dad and the elder went off and talked while I had to wait. So at least that one prayer worked!

I guess Momma and me was kinda alike. She putting up with Marcus until she become a hairdresser and hoping he change some. Me putting up with Daddy’s Jehovah cray-cray, hoping me back off some until I finish high school and can get construction work and get my own crib.

So I worked day jobs Saturdays, got pretty good at construction. School was school. Sundays was for Daddy and me fighting. He always spitting my-house-my-rules, and this-is-for-your-own-good and crap like that. I spit you can drag my ass there, but my mind is mine, you can’t make me believe or drink your Kool-Aid. It was like that every Sunday.

He not bad but not good either.

Finally, I graduated. I was seventeen. Still too young to get a real job so I keep going to Home Depot for day jobs. I give some scratch from my jobs to Daddy to help out, but he not let go his Jehovah crap, so I go with my friends living in the boarded-up house.

It be cool there. We had lights cuz one dude hooked up to the grid. We had water but no gas so we cooked on fires out back and there was an old microwave and a hot plate from a garage sale. It was tight, a lot of us. I found a spot in the living room on a couple of yoga mats. The rug was so thick, coulda been a big bed.

I never seen a place with so much space, ‘cept in movies and on TV! It was so rad! How come Daddy working hard and only living in one room, Momma too, ‘cept she had a bedroom, and this place so big and no one living in it, ‘cept us? And there’s a shitload of them, nothing wrong with them but signs up saying they gonna tear them down? And so many still homeless? Don’t make no sense.

Mostly, everybody got along, like, let each other be, even had each other’s back. We all had our hard stories, hurts, bad dreams, people we hiding from or wanna get away from, or just had no place and nobody. Everyone different but all kinda the same.

Someone wake up screaming or crying, someone come hold them, and we all listen to each other. Make each other feel better for a minute. No one in anyone’s face with Jehovah crap or ragging on each other. Sure, not everyone click with everyone, but give each other breathing room. And we mostly got food, between dumpster diving and us’ns who had jobs scored in the stores. This was the best I ever had. I mean, like, I love my Momma but no way with that Marcus a-hole; Daddy was OK I guess, but never give me no peace.

We got Black, Latino, White, and I dunno what all up in there. We had ones praying to Jesus, ones praying to Allah, some no pray just swear, and some not say much. We all hurting, we all lost, we all confused, but we all together. There was maybe three homes like that. The youngest was like eight or nine, the oldest was like maybe forty or fifty. We don’t use our real names. I was JoJo. Sometimes there was a fight or two, but always got straightened out pretty quick.

Still we had to watch out. Mostly these houses was empty, but there was a few with gangs in them, or cray-cray. And there was the ones living in their cars and motor homes and whatnot around the edge of it all. Some of them was real cool, some was wack but harmless, and some was some serious pig snot. We got to remember which ways to go in and out, which ways to stay clear, and when. Always we knew that someday the po-po gonna bust it up, but not yet, maybe never. They rather be eating donuts and scratching parking tickets than stick their nose in this rats nest. We the rats so we cool.

But it wasn’t no Beverly neither. We all had lice, and there was roaches and flies all over, and summer we was cooked well done even nights. Couldn’t get SNAP cuz you gotta have an address and we couldn’t use the one we living at. I ask my daddy, but he say no cuz it be lying, and Momma say no cuz Marcus say no. And sometimes gunshots, never know if one come in.

I turned eighteen so now I can work a regular construction job, more pay, better jobs, maybe even union. I got names, talked to them. So now I find out I gotta have a bank account, and an address, and a social security number and I got no idea what it is. They won’t hire me without those. And I got no driver’s license, and none for cranes and ‘dozers and excavators and stuff like that. When I gonna get a break?

I got my Social from Momma, and she try to help me get a bank account, but I got no address so the bank say no and Momma won’t let me use hers cuz Marcus. I ask her when she gonna deep-six that mofo. She says it’s all complicated, but she got financial aid to study hairdressing and cosmetology at community college so she on her way.

I ask what if I get a PO Box, but bank say no. Gotta have a real address, just like SNAP.

So I keep working day jobs, getting underpaid cash under the table. Sometimes they treat me good, sometimes they treat me like dog poop. I think maybe I take a construction program at community college, fill in what I don’t know, get some paper to back me up and meet more people, get hired as something more than just unskilled laborer. But they way too expensive, and like, how I spozed to live if I can’t work when I’m in the program? I asked about financial aid like Momma got, but I couldn’t get through the form. Don’t understand what they want, dunno the answer when I do get what they want. And still I need an address I don’t got.

Oh, and that was when I had my first serious girlfriend. Yeah, I fool around some in high school like everyone, but nothing serious. But Autumn was different. She from Oklahoma like me from Texas. We both the same age. Her momma and daddy both meth heads, cray-cray and mean, so she had to Houdini or die. She take some drug money from her momma and daddy and scored a Greyhound to Cally cuz she heard things was better there and her folks never find her there.

We sparked quick when she come in the house, but then we kept burning. We like two mirrors of each other. Like we was spozed to meet, like a setup but the good kind. We almost read each others mind. She make me feel safe like I never felt before, and she say I the same for her. And the others in the house give us space, even let us use a bedroom for just the two of us sometimes, when they see we really need it. She the only one I tell my real name, and she tell me hers, our secret.

We was tight in that house but we like never made up a name for it, cuz we don’t wanna be like a gang. But sometimes if someone ask where we live, we say in the House With No Name. This come from a song on YouTube. There was seven of us always there and some others come and go.

Finally at community college they make a time for me to come in for someone to help me with the financial aid, maybe give me names and numbers I didn’t know for peeps who help the likes of me. I feel best I ever felt, like maybe things gonna work out for me and for Autumn too.

Then the po-po be banging on the door, hard. We all go rabbit out the back like we practiced it, but the po-po waiting for us there too. They got their guns out. Made us get down on the ground. Only Chong and Sherice not home. They got all of us, tore through the house looking for whatever or whoever, but nothing and no one to find. Heard them talking about drugs and stolen property. Musta gotten our crib mixed up with the gang a few blocks over, but these cribs all look a lot the same.

I yelled to Autumn if they split us up and we get out, let’s meet at the IHOP. Pete yelled let’s all do that.

So they dragged us all off to the cop shop, put us through the whole drill, threw us dudes into this big cell and took the chicks to a different one. The place super full. I see some dudes I know live in some of those motor homes and whatnot near our place, and the gang bangers too. And the other couple cribs like ours. Turns out the po-po got nothing better to do than sweep everyone up outta there. Something about department of health and crime and they can’t tear it all down with us in it.

We was in there a few days. They come and took the younger ones off to drag them off back to where they came from. I hear Katie begging them not to send her back cuz her stepdad been beating her and banging her and all. They don’t seem to care. Pedro say his family all dead in a car crash, got nowhere to go. They say something about foster, and we all know our crib a shitload better than that! Me and Snake and Autumn and Raj and Skye all eighteen or more so they leave us there a little longer.

When my turn come, I got this public defender sat with me the day before my case. He seem like a good dude but turns out he brand new. Mine his third case. He all on fire to get me off, but, like, do he know how? Seems like maybe no.

So you need me to stop? I spitting too much?

Jimmy: Oh, no, this is perfect! You’re doing fine. Please continue!

Jamal: So the judge and my defender talk. My guy say I wasn’t trespassing, that I got squatters’ rights protect me and the rest of us. The judge say no cuz we not paying property tax or nothing, and we got power that we not pay for neither.

They go back and forth. The judge say he let me go with community service if I go back to my momma’s or daddy’s place, cuz he don’t wanna be busy with this penny-ante stuff when he got cases backed up. Judge say he just wanna make sure I don’t go back to the House With No Name.

My daddy say I can come any time, so I went with him. Got me outa there anyway. I ask if Autumn can come too, but he say no cuz we not married so it’s sin. Big fight, him spitting Bible at me and me spitting smack at him. I don’t want no one control me. Then he all praying to his Jehovah to change me, I shout hey J, how about you change him instead?

For my community service, I took Habitat for Humanity, cuz it seemed like it has to do with construction and maybe I could learn something about where to live when me and Daddy break again. Turns out it was mostly offloading trucks and moving things around their store, but I met some cool peeps.

This one dude, Ali, he a Muslim, but we clicked. All I know about that was they blew up some buildings in New York, so I ask him if that’s what he was popped for. He look to go nuke and about to hit me, then changed his mind. He say “I get so sick of this shit! No, we don’t believe in murder and terrorism, but because a few bad people did some horrible things in the name of Islam, everyone lumps us all in with them! But you don’t seem like a hater to me. I think you’re just ignorant, you don’t know any better. If I tell you the truth, will you listen?”

“Sure. I always listen if you don’t BS me.”

So Ali spat me about Islam while we working together. Not what I thought, but I really didn’t know nothing about it. So it was all about God but they call him Allah instead of Jesus. I like some of what I hear, like how you spozed to stand up to people putting other people down, and how everyone be brothers and sisters and all. A lot about compassion and mercy. And he say Jesus not God, he a prophet, kinda like drafted to take a message. I think maybe this may be good for me.

He not like my daddy or my gramma and grampa the way my momma tell it, not in your face and try to control me like that. But I ask him, “So how come they blew up buildings and people for Islam?”

Ali say “What, you don’t think there’s Christians and Hindus and Jews and others who do things just as bad in the name of God? What about the Crusades, and what Christians did to the Indians, and we have Hindus and Muslims fighting in India, and Jews and Muslims fighting, and even Muslims fighting Muslims and Christians fighting Christians! People are too quick to judge a whole group by what a few bad people do! What those terrorists did is a crime against Allah, against Islam, and against humanity!”

“OK, I get it. I can’t say Christians I know be all about love and forgiving. Yeah, I can see some of them blowing up buildings. I could see it. There’s some mean zombie cray-cray up in there.”

So I ask Ali tell me more. I be almost all set to do Shahada and all but then he tell me about how you can’t eat pork or drink alcohol, and you gotta pray five times a day, and you gotta pray these words that I got no idea what they mean, and there’s a whole month when you can’t eat or even drink water as long as the sun be up, and a bunch of other stuff. I got no problem about the alcohol, but I ask him why, and he say cuz Allah say so. That when he lost me.

I don’t want no one try to control me. Good reason rules, I got no problem. Like don’t drive drunk. But some crap rule just cuz some mook say so, I not down with it. Sometimes you got no choice, but when I do got a choice, I’m gone. Seems like they do that a lot with religion, like my daddy and this Islam stuff and Texas where Momma from. If a God wanna tell me what to do, let him tell me hisself, then I ask him why, maybe I down with it, maybe no, and I tell him so. He go nuke on me, oh well.

I spit this to Ali, he surprise me. Not try to save me like my daddy. Just say OK, no problem. If I ever change my mind, I know where to find him. He say I gotta come cuz I wanna, not cuz someone make me. I like that. He a good dude.

I ask him what he got popped for. He say he not get popped, he volunteer cuz he wanna give back to the community, cuz of his religion, he supposed to care about people. Like I said, he a good dude. I think he do that even if he not Muslim.

Ya know, I got no nuke with anybody religion. Do what you want. Just don’t try to tie me down with it. I don’t know what I believe, too busy just getting through. Maybe one day I know. But people in my face with it don’t help none!

I wait a few days, maybe a week, just working the day jobs, then go to IHOP. There’s Chong and Sherice and Raj sharing nachos. I slide up, order coffee. Turns out Autumn and Skye in a shelter, Pete camping out in Santa Monica, and so on.

Chong say when he and Sherice come back from getting some scratch for a load of glass and aluminum, they scoped what happened, ‘specially when they see everyone gone, the motor homes, the tents, even quiet by the gang crib, everyone gone. They snagged what they could and Houdini’ed. Chong say he got my bike safe. I say he can use it til I need it, and I owe him big. That bike get me to work and all. Sucks without it! Was cheap at the Goodwill. Sherice say they crashing in some bushes by the 405 but that not good for long.

Sherice say come back tomorrow same time, she’ll tell Autumn so we hook up. We talk about going back to the house, but the way the po-po and the judge was talking, we think they be looking for us to come back, snag us again, so where we gonna go? Maybe they already dozing it like they talking about.

So we say let’s all look around, see what we can find, check back here tomorrow. I go back to my community service at Habitat, ask around if anyone know a crib we can use.

That day there a new chick there, Keisha, she paying off a traffic ticket. She a nursing assistant, say she wanna be a RN but CNA all she got scratch for, but she hope it be a good first step.

She nice enough. We spit our life stories like BFF’s while we working. Then she ask me if I got the cure.

“The cure for what? Do I look like a doctor?”

“No, I mean the book called The Cure. I think you might like to read it.”

“What’s it about?”

“It’s about how our world is messed up, and how we can do something about it to make it better. It’s about how to make things so you can have that house you were living in for your own without money. It’s about how you can take any classes or training you want at community college or anyplace else you want, as long as you can do the work. It’s about making it so everybody gets a good fair shot at a good life. It’s about making it so people can’t lord it over each other. It’s about how to make that all happen.”

“You got that right. Things messed up good. You say this book got something new?”

“Yup! Here, lemme send it to you. What’s your email, or your WhatsApp or whatever you use? You got the Nook app.”

So I give her my email address but my phone a real POS I got at Target for cheap, not good for much. She help me download the Nook app and download this book. She say it’s free, don’t cost nothing. I like that. She give me her email and number, say let her know I got any questions.

“OK. Must be some book, the way you going on about it.”

“There’s a shorter version maybe you should read first. If it grabs you, you’ll want to read the full version. There are rumors that there’ll be a novel, but so far no one’s seen it.” So she help me download it. Ali say he want it too, and a couple others. So pretty soon we all got it. Keisha say if we like it, lay it on as many people as we can, cuz this gotta go viral so we can change the world.

“How we know this not just someone try a sell something, but suck us in first?”

“Trust me, it’s not. The book is free. There’s nothing to buy even if you wanted to. And the book wants to get rid of money. It says we’ll be better off without it. But you gotta read it. I can’t really explain it to you, because it sounds so far out there at first. But then when you read it, it makes perfect sense.

Also, if someone offers you a free satellite phone, and they aren’t part of any company, or if you find a bunch of them somewhere, take one. You’ll want to have it.”

“Sound like a fairy tale or someone tripping on shrooms, but yeah, might be fun to read.”

That night Daddy drag me to Bible Study. They going on about how they waiting for God to come back from wherever he be hiding, to clean up and nuke the devil and most of us too. Then he gonna be king and we all gotta bow down to his ass. I say I thought we kicked out the king a few hundred years ago. I ain’t bowing to no king, I don’t care where he come from or what he call hisself.

My daddy all upset, tell me to show respect. I say get outa my face and I show you respect. You do for me and I do for you. Then this ‘elder’ say let’s pray. After that I fake listen but really I got my phone in the Bible and I read this book. That work out fine. Pretty quick I like this book and wanna read more, so the time go quick.

Big fight me and Daddy after. He spit again his house his rules, I spit just get Jehovah outta my face and we be cool. I giving him scratch from my day jobs to do my bit, I help clean and cook and whatever so just deep-six the Bible and we be fine. He say no can do, give me a book and say read this. I say fine and go read a little bit so I can answer questions, then go back to The Cure. His book a boring fairy tale. Keisha book really grab me, make me think, show me things I knew but never knew I know.

I wanna get my community service done quick, so I do one day that, one day day-jobs, back and forth like that. They not pay good but I get by.

Next time I at IHOP, see Autumn, we like glue. She say she OK. The rest of the crew there. Chong say he went back to our place, saw dozers and other big machines. They tearing it all down. They wasn’t BS’ing about that. Nothing to go back to.

Snake say he find an old boarded up house no one using all by itself about a mile from where we was. There’s other houses close with peeps living in them regular, and a few closed stores. He say we can use that for a while, and probably no one know we there cuz we can come in the back, just follow the train tracks then hop the fence. No one can see.

I tell them about what my boss at Habitat say he may know some people can help us, but it be a few days before he know for sure. Skye say she found an old movie theater no one using, got a crib upstairs we could maybe use.

We go around a bit, then I tell them about the book, The Cure. First I help get it on their phones, mostly POS’s like mine but Sherice got a Samsung Galaxy not too old.

So we read it out loud, take turns, talk about it. We reading the short book, but I say I gonna read the long one too. Got a lotta questions.

Then we see getting kinda late, so we say we meet in two days.

Next day I got my time at community college with the person say they gonna help me with the financial aid form. When they first told me it be a while before I can get in, I mad cuz I wanna get it done quick, but now I think better this way. If my time be sooner, I’d a missed it cuz of all the po-po and losing our crib and all.

While I waiting, spitting with other peeps waiting. A lot of peeps waiting!

This one dude, Rob, we spit to each other bout our problems. He be like me a lotta ways, but now he doing better. Maybe transfer to Cal State, he waiting to talk about that.

Then he starts spitting about Buddhism. He say it different from other religions cuz they got no god tell them do this, don’t do that. He say Buddhism not control you. He say everyone be special, deserve respect, compassion, and happiness. He say we don’t need no god to help us. We got all we need inside us and if we tap that, nothing and no one can stop us. He call it the Mystic Law.

“How you tap that?” I ask.

“We chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo. It puts us in touch with that power we got to change our lives and help others too. Wakes it up. It’s also like looking in the mirror, shows us where we need to work on being a better version of ourselves.”

“You don’t gotta eat this and not eat that, or be just right or you die dead or go to hell? Really, you got none of that crap?”

“No, none of that. We may have some of hell right here in this life, but we can get out of it very quickly. Change it. No judgment. As long as you treat yourself and others with respect and compassion, and work to make yourself and others happy, you’re good. I’m gay, but in SGI it’s not a problem. You be yourself, the best you can. And chant and study Buddhist teachings. I grew up Christian and when I came out, God’s love went out the window in the church and my family.”

“Hey, maybe I like to know more. Maybe this for me. But why Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo? What special about that? Why not abracadabra or whatever?”

“I guess that’s why they call it the Mystic Law. This Buddhist monk in Japan worked it out a long time ago, kind of like an Einstein of the human condition.”

We get each other’s number and email. He show me how to get hold of his Buddhist place. Then I tell him about The Cure. He never heard of it, so I tell him what I read so far, he say damn, that sound like a lotta Buddhist ideas up in there, so I float it over to him.

Jimmy: Sounds like you were on a spiritual quest.

Jamal: Well, yeah, could be. But not know it I guess. I just trying to survive, get a leg up, maybe make a life with Autumn.

Anyway, finally I hear my name. I go in, meet Mike. He all smiles. Dunno if I trust him. He got the forms and he go through it with me, show me what it means and all. But still most of what in there I don’t know. My momma’s and daddy’s income. Like, how I gonna know that? They don’t spit me about that stuff. And I still don’t got no address so I still screwed. He tell me about something called Los Angeles Room and Board that help people like me. He let me on his computer and help me do the application, and he help me do the forms for getting into the construction trade training classes. I say maybe electrician too? He say sure. Ask how my grades.

I say so-so. Mostly C’s with a few B’s and D’s. I spit how school like a zoo and we the animals, most teachers not care much, not try too hard to teach. Never enough funding they always say. Mike say maybe I gotta take some catch-up classes, take longer but probably still do OK.

He ask me about my momma and daddy. I spit to him how Marcus hate me and my daddy all zombied with Jehovah and pretty soon we’ll blow and I’ll be out. I also spit about Autumn and me, ask if maybe we can have a crib together. She wanna be a dental assistant. Maybe we both study.

He say he don’t know but make a time for her to come, or we come together.

Later at IHOP, we all spitting over nachos again. Autumn thank me for hooking her up at community college, say let’s go together. Maybe we got a future together. I hope so!

Sherice say she hear about tiny houses. There’s a bunch of them in the valley, for homeless like us until we get a leg up. We each have own crib cuz they really tiny but we can all be in the same hood together, still have each other’s back. They about the same size as some of the motor homes people been living in, but got two floors, bed upstairs.

For me, sounds rad, but like too far from community college where I already got something going, don’t wanna lose it, have to start over. The valley too far to ride my bike, take too long by train or bus. Pedro say he staying at his church; the priest there give him a place and food, he just help out around there. Lots to do. He like that cuz if he got nothing to do, he feel all crazy, maybe get in trouble. That priest sound like one of them good Christians, not in your face but care about people, help them. They got a few rooms they don’t use, let people stay there when they need. So he set for now. I meet this priest once or twice, he never in my face. Listen real good. Seem like an OK dude.

Later I call the Buddhist place, wanna know more. They say there a meeting that night I can come to. I get an idea. When I get home, I tell Daddy I go to his Bible study Thursday if he go to this Buddhist meeting tonight. That be fair. He say no cuz that be the devil, so I say I not go to Bible study no more. He say if I go to that meeting, I gotta bounce tomorrow.

So I go to the meeting. I like what I hear. I decide to try chanting, see how it goes so when I get home, I get on the sofa and chant. Daddy come home. He turn red, start yelling. He go full nuke with me. He almost start cussing but keep stopping hisself cuz he not spozed to. I start laughing. I can’t help it. He get madder. He start cussing, then throw me out, say I brought Satan into his crib.

I go to IHOP, now I got my bike back from Chong. Riding help me calm down. I ask Snake about that boarded-up crib he found, but he say they chase them outta there. He got hisself into an old semi no one using, crashing in the bed behind the driver seat. He always finding stuff like that, he like got some kinda mojo going I guess. I call Pedro, ask if I can crash with him tonight. He ask the priest and he say OK. So I go there.

Community College say it take at least a couple months to for me to get set with their program and all, but they got nothing for until then. So for a bit I stay with Pedro, do some repairs around the church.

Now every day we meet at IHOP, eat nachos and read The Cure. We all hearing more and more people talking about it. Maybe it going viral like Keisha say.

There be all kinds of stuff people can do to make this transition happen, but peeps like me don’t got a lot we can do, ‘cept video and stream what goes on so the world know the truth, not what the news try to tell them cuz maybe they gonna lie. We already learn how to do that. Chong good with that stuff, so he teach us.

Finally I finish my community service. Not as quick as I wanna cuz I gotta like work those day jobs to get scratch and all that other stuff happen. I like to come back when I can to do construction with them Habitat peeps. That when Keisha give me a satellite phone, real new and like nothing I ever seen, and ask me how many I need for friends. She say they been like smuggled in from Canada for the transition which be coming soon. They say hide them until the day, keep them charged, be ready to video everything going on around us. Only use them for that and to coordinate about transition.

I don’t see much TV but the government in DC going nuke over transition, ‘specially since Canada transitioned. At first they shut the border, tell peeps not go there. President say it not safe there, say it all big commu-something plot. Saying don’t buy things made there. Some states say you go to jail if you got The Cure or they catch you reading it. They taking people’s phones with no warrant. Big demonstrations, people fighting in the streets in those states. I’m glad Momma got us outta Texas, cuz it really serious pig snot there. Some of those states they already been banning books a long time so nothing new there.

But everyone know the government and President spitting landfill. Video of Canadian cities all blown up on TV, look real but all fake. Peeps hear Canadian radio and TV. You can’t cover that shit up. A lotta people still go there, say that be bullshit. People who been there say things be all right and doobie up there. They say this country be pig snot next to that, and we should click to what they do. And the stuff they make there, top-notch and dirt cheap too! The government try to keep that stuff outta here, but not happening. No way to stop it. A few poor mooks go to jail, big show trials, but everyone seen the truth. Hey, look how they try to outlaw booze and then ganja, only make people want it more. You can’t stop the tide coming in.

President go all nuke, say he won’t let it happen here cuz it be commu-something bad pig snot, and some peeps drink that down but mostly we dunk that shit.

Everything taking longer than I hoped. Community college, the crib they gonna get me, and after Autumn and me meet with them, still taking a while. Momma in hairdresser and beautician school but she still with Marcus. She say he like getting therapy and medicines and getting less mean, but she say best we don’t meet at her place meantime. Daddy like don’t wanna talk to me unless I stop going to this Buddhist SGI place, so he still try to control me. These Buddhists don’t. And the priest at Pedro’s church don’t, same with Ali. I don’t need peeps try to run my life, ‘specially when their life messed up too.

There be a change everywhere, a change in people. I could tell who got The Cure and who don’t by their faces and how they talked. Those that got it, they seem brighter, almost like Christmas in a Hallmark movie. Those that don’t got a clue, they don’t got that. It feel like something moving but you can’t see it. Like the sound you hear before a train come through.

Jimmy: Wow, Jamal! You have amazing strength and willpower! You went through the ringer over and over but you kept pushing ahead as best you could. A lot of people would have given up or gotten cynical and bitter about life, or even gotten into drugs or drink. But you kept coming back swinging after every setback. I really admire you! What do you think made you able to keep positive?

Jamal: Thanks bro! And I feel you about the drugs and booze. Around the time I finish at Habitat, we find out Pete OD’ed.

Before this, he been having the low-down. He keep getting shut down, can’t catch a break. He start with the fentanyl, he go hard into that crap.

We try to lift him up, make him know he not alone. We get him to say he go to rehab, but everywhere free got no space, gotta wait too long, and the others gouge blood. He can’t get Medi-Cal cuz no address. So every door he knock, slam in his face. So he give up. Don’t wanna talk to no one. Then they find him in Denny’s shitter. They call Sherice cuz her number on his speed dial. But they find him too late.

It hit us really hard. We really bumming big time. We all feel things really messed up. We finally get him to go to rehab, then he got no way in. Now he gone. Didn’t have to go down like that.

You ask how I stay positive. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but I don’t wanna do nothing make things worse. That why I finish high school, even if it a joke, cuz I see Momma got it harder cuz she didn’t have that. That why I don’t get high or drunk, that when bad things and bad people bite your ass. I afraid of that crap! Look at Pete!

Jimmy: I still admire you. You did what many couldn’t. Like Pete.

Jamal: I feel you.

Jimmy: So how old were you on transition day? Can you tell me about the week before up to the day it happened?

Jamal: I was 22 years old on transition day.

That feeling I spat about, like Christmas coming, keep getting stronger. You can almost tell exactly who is in by their face.

Thing is, I never think much about that stuff before. Too busy trying to deal. But this book make sense, not too hard. It say the way things is, be like Dark Ages. Trillionaires and billionaires be like kings, we be like peasants. I don’t know much about that stuff but I get it. Problem is the setup no good, always gonna be like this, long as we keep doing things like this, using money. It put some people over others, shut down their good parts and blow up their bad parts. It say we all got a right to a crib and food and school and all, so we gotta change it. Stop doing what don’t work. Politicians not gonna do it so we gotta do it.

There be messages in email and text, even a few on the satellite phones. Like when someone setting up a flash mob but bigger.

We see messages about dates. Mostly in March and April. We gotta choose. I click what I think, but we all gotta pick a day so we all do this together. At IHOP we spit about it. Waitress say “March sometime? What you think?” As she bring us our nachos. “First week of March” I say, cuz that what we think. Then it click together a few weeks later. March 7.

Everywhere it like there be two different things going on at the same time. There be the regular stuff, people working and buying stuff and eating. Me doing day jobs just like normal. But some of the ones that hire me say something like “You ready?” They say in a way if I not in, I think it mean ready for something else like lunch. It be like a code.

And then there be the election. Everybody seem to feel like this transition be coming like a lotta countries. It be everywhere. In IHOP we all watch on TV, all the election spitting going on. The New Republicans been in control for a while, most people getting sick of them feeding the rich and starving the rest, sick of their Christian BS trying to control everyone, sick of them trying to tell us want we can or can’t read or watch or do. But every state like a different country. That why Momma Houdini’ed outa Texas. Cali seem like most people want The Cure. But like Texas and Florida and most of the South, they be saying they be leaving the country, go their separate way if transition come.

Jenna Morrison, the Reform Democratic candidate, she say transition a good thing. If it come, she down with it and get behind it. The New Republicans got nothing good to say, they calling it all kinds of wack crap, like my daddy with his Jehovah kool-aid. They say it be all like Satan and commu-something and social-something and evil, so they gonna like beat us all down, lock us in prison camps if we do it. Bill Hess, their guy, he sound like a mad dog, seriously zombie cray-cray. But some places they drinking it right down. This be my second time voting, so I know who I vote for!

I only working day jobs, don’t think I can do much, but I find out I got a way to help. By then there be people in on the transition just about everywhere, even the army and the po-po, even some in banks and places like that. There be other people don’t know about it, and some who gonna fight us. Try to stop us. TV and radio and news channels some of them gonna spit lies about what we doing, maybe even deepfake so people be afraid.

Banks and stuff gotta be shut down. We gonna do away with money cuz it don’t do nothing but gum up the works so rich dudes can use it to control us all.

Some news channels gonna show things as they be, and some gonna make bad crap up, so people everywhere gonna be confused. So we gotta be everywhere, livestream with our satellite phones, at the banks and in the streets and everywhere, so the world see the truth. Not what Daddy call The Truth! The real truth! So me and my peeps, and Momma too, we gonna be like reporters. Just like we seen with the other countries that do transition. So I feel good I can do something. At IHOP we all make up a name we gonna use for our crew: we gonna make like they do on the news, so I gonna be spitting like “Hello everyone, this be JoJo from West Side News, showing it like it is…” We gonna be West Side News.

Jimmy: So what was it like on transition day?

Jamal: We all meet up at IHOP, middle of the night like 3 a.m, got our cell phones and satellite phones all juiced up. We none of us can’t sleep. Usually quiet up in there this time of night, but today jammed, peeps waiting outside to get in. All tables full.

We work out who gonna go where.

Autumn and me, we gonna go to Wells Fargo bank on Sepulveda to cover when they get people out and shut it down. We got a few people inside the bank tweaked the backup genny to fail, computers and phones too. I got some jammers, gonna give them to the crew there. We gonna show how transition people be good people, that we got respect and treat people good, even when they try to fight us, that we not a bunch of bangers or cray-cray zombies. Then we go to City Hall and later to the hospital. We livestream what happens. Got power banks so we can keep going.

We everyone got it down where we gonna be and sort of when, but maybe it change depending how it all go down. We kinda work it out together. We be like real family, so we click real smooth mostly.

At the bank, we get there before the shut down crew. Then we see them. A dozer and a few excavators come up close to the bank. Four peeps decked out official-like, be knocking on the door. We be filming and streaming. I take the jammers Keisha give me and give them to one of them. One of the excavators bump the building a few times with its scoop but not too hard. The door open, cleaning crew asking what happened.

One dude say they closing the bank cuz of a gas leak, so everyone gotta get out. He say that in case some of them don’t wanna go.

Then one of the cleaning crew say “Hey, this is it. Let’s go.”

Another cleaning dude say, “This is it what?”

The third dude say, “This is it, Jorge, this is transition. You know, The Cure!”

“That’s just a bunch of talk. It isn’t real. Not here in America. This isn’t Canada! It’s a fairy tale.”

“No, it’s going down now. It’s in the book. It’s happening all over the world. Now it’s here! C’mon! Let’s go to the Cantina and watch it on TV!”

“No Paco, creo que van a robarnos. Vamos pronto antes de que nos matan! Vamos a llamar la policía!”

“No, we’re not going to rob the bank, and no we won’t hurt anyone. And yes, this is transition. The banks need to be shut down.”

We be live-streaming all of this. Then Jorge get all up in their face. “I’m not afraid of you! We got these two tourists videoing all of this. You won’t get away with it! If we just let you in without a fight, we’ll lose our jobs!” And he get as big as he can, try to block the door. “Come on, back me up, guys!”

But the other two say no. “Jorge, please let’s go! Well explain it to you but we gotta let them shut down this bank.”

Jorge not budge. So the shut-down team do some kind of stuff, pin his arms, pick him up and move him out of the way. Two of the team go in, the lights go out a couple minutes later. While they doing that, a chick from the team do something, cut some wires. Then they done. The ones inside come out, they lock up. The dozer and excavators get jammed tight up on the bank from all sides, then they take some parts out so nobody can start them up or move them, let air out of the tires too. And that be it.

Paco and the third dude be fine, but Jorge still going off. Autumn and me move in, ask if we can help. Everyone focus on Jorge, try to help him chill some. He start crying about how he need this job cuz he got a wife and three kids, and it the only job he found after he downsized from a factory job. A robot jacked that job from him.

We all tell him he can chill. After this, he don’t gotta worry. He don’t need money no more. Then Paco say, “Jorge, look around you. Are these people acting like bank robbers? If they were going to rob the bank, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, we’d be lying in the street.”

Jorge think a second then say, “You’re right, Paco. Now I think of it. Yeah, I think I’ll be OK now. It’s just I don’t understand all of this.”

“Come on, we’ll come home with you. We can turn on the TV, have something to eat, and we’ll explain it all to you and your wife. There’s going to be a lot going on in the news the next few days.”

Then they start to walk off. One of the shut down crew say, “Jorge, are you OK? Can we get you anything?”

“I’m good now I think, just kind of shaken up.

I came here with my family from Guatemala when I was ten, and I guess it’s still with me. I still have nightmares about back there, people bashing in the door to rob us. Fighting in the streets between rebels and the army.

Then here when things seemed better, suddenly one day the government started rounding up anyone even looked like they might be Latino, threw them in camps in the desert to rot. The inmigra started tricking us, offering jobs that were only traps to round more of us up. We were always looking over our shoulder, couldn’t trust anyone we didn’t know, especially if they were white or black. The government was telling everyone that we were all animals and criminals. There was so much hate!

It took a long time for it to get a little better. But seeing you all come like this, it brought all of it back. Like a flashback. I know I need help with my PTSD but my insurance doesn’t cover mental health.”

“It’s OK. The import thing is that you’re OK and things are about to get a lot better for all of us. Please take good care of yourself and try to be patient.” This was one of the shut down team.

Then we all take turns hugging Jorge, then we do a group hug. And it all be live-streamed on our sat phones.

Just then the po-po come. Ask what going down here. They on the squawk with the cop shop.

We tell them what up. Just like the book say, we all be cool with them, make sure they see our hands, no fast moves, easy easy. There be two of them. They calling for more.

“We’re going to have to arrest you for trespassing, malicious mischief, vandalism, and maybe attempted bank robbery. You have the right to remain silent…”

The other po-po stop him, say “Hey, hold up there buddy. Don’t you know what’s going on?” Then asks the three cleaning crew, “Did they hurt you or threaten you in any way?”

“No. They been real nice to us.”

“Did anybody here hurt or threaten anyone here?”

“No.”

“Did they steal anything?”

“Nope, not that we know.”

Then he say to us, “You mind if we search you?”

I’m like “Go ahead. Nothing to hide here.”

The other cop going a little nuke, “Ed, what are you doing? Don’t ask them if it’s OK! Just search them, and make sure they know we’re in charge here!”

“We’re not doing it like that anymore, Lou. That’s why you got busted down from sergeant, because you were beating people down for no reason.”

“But you know how it is! Half of them wanna kill us and the other half won’t talk to us.”

“And those people say the same about us. Look, Lou, I know you’re old-school but what’s going on here is bigger than anything we’ve ever seen. Our job’s going to get a lot easier pretty soon. I keep telling you to read The Cure. It would help you understand what this is.”

“I don’t have time, Ed. This job plus the security job at the power plant, plus two kids. Besides, I heard it’s communist propaganda so I’m not interested. Or socialist. Same thing. That’s what the President says. And I believe him.”

“Lou, it’s neither of those things. There are just some people who got a big stake in the way things are, trying to scare people out of doing transition.

And this President lies like a rug! Look at that whole Iran plot SNAFU. A meteor hits a town in Iowa and President Numbnuts said it was an Iranian missile, wants to nuke them until NASA and the European Space Agency release that they knew the asteroid was coming but no one in any government listened to them when they tried to warn them, including our joke of a President. I’m glad he’s a lame duck and can’t run again!”

“Well I’m gonna radio HQ, see what Cap has to say.”

“Good idea. While you do that, I’ll go ahead and search them.”

So Ed search us, find nothing. The jammers woulda been a problem but they already inside.

Lou come back from the car, say “OK, you win. Looks like you’re right. Cap say if no one’s hurt and nothing’s stolen and no drugs, let them go. He said there’s going to be an announcement later today to explain everything. Something about based on other countries that transitioned. Boy, if I were Cap, I’d sure play it differently!”

“Well you’re not and I’m not. And right about now I wouldn’t want to be. C’mon, let’s get going. I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a long day and a hard one.”

Then Ed say to us all, “OK, you can all go. Just try to stay out of trouble. It could get pretty crazy out here before things settle down.”

They pile into their five-oh and drive off. We say bye. Jorge seems to be like chill now, at least more than before.

Autumn and I decide let’s go to a hospital. Closest one to where we be is St. John’s. We want to see how things go down there, since transition happened officially at midnight.

By now the sun come up, traffic all jammed up. Look like a normal day. Transition or no, the drivers all cray-cray mad-dog. Never see us on bicycles! Gotta watch out! They run you down and never stop.

Then we be thinking, hey, like money all gone now. Don’t gotta pay for stuff. Let’s lock the bikes and check the bus.

So we jump the first bus we see going our way. Sure enough, driver all smiles, wave to us, put his hand over the money box, say “Don’t pay. From now on everybody rides for free.”

So we ride. Live-streaming everything. Good vibe on the bus. Then we see it.

Best Buy store. Big crowd. Something going down. Look like some serious pig snot. We like reporters now so we jump off to video what going down.

We find out there be some a-holes come to loot the place. Bunch of other peeps from the hood nearby come blocking them, like bodyguarding the place. Employees out there freaking scared. Autumn and me move in to where they spitting to each other. A lot of pushing and shoving.

One dude going all nuke, say, “Out of my way! Everything’s free now! So what are you, stupid? We can take anything we want now, no one gonna stop us! Why you mooks think you the po-po or some shit? Why you give a shit?”

“You ever read the book? The cure?” This be one of the peeps protecting the store.

“I ain’t got no time for reading no books. But everybody know today everything’s free. We don’t gotta pay for nothing.”

“Dude, you don’t get it.”

“Don’t get what? You and your peeps gonna get it if you don’t get out of our way!”

“There’s more of us than there are of you, and the cops are on the way.”

“F**k this shit! You move or we gonna move you!”

The looters bum-rush the door. The locals push back. Most of them stay cool but a few be fighting. Just then the po-po come blasting in with their sirens and lights. No one been shot but they got their heat out. I never been glad to see the po-po like that before. Then one them crank the volume and we hear: “Everyone freeze! Nobody move! This is the police!”

Peeps mostly stop but a few still punching some. Next thing I know, I be on the ground waking up, Autumn across my chest looking around.

“What happened?” me and Autumn spit at the same time. “Hell if I know,” we both spit. Then someone helping us get up. A couple locals and a couple po-po.

“You alright?” One chick asks.

I feel OK, just a little dizzy and need water, and I say so. Autumn same thing. “What happened?”

One of the po-po say, “The situation was escalating when we got here. We had to use the sleep gas to sort it out before anyone got hurt. I apologize for any distress this caused you.”

“Yeah, some bad dudes come to loot, and some peeps from the hood like protecting this place like it their own crib.”

“That’s what we figured out. You two reporters? They said you were filming it and acting like reporters.”

“Yeah, that be us,” says Autumn.

“I don’t know if you’re brave or stupid, and I do admire your courage, but I advise you to stay out of situations like this from now on. Just zoom from a safe distance. It’s hard enough to sort this kind of thing out without noncombatants mixed in. Besides, you could get hurt or worse.”

“Can’t promise that but we be careful,” I say. “So what happen now?”

“Oh, you’re free to go. We had to arrest a few people from both groups, the ones who got physical. No one was seriously hurt. We’re sending you and everyone home.”

I look around and see peeps drifting away, things be chill, po-po standing around spitting on the radio.

“Hey, where our phones?”

“Hey Denise, you done with their phones?”

“Yeah, Sarge. Just had to go through the video and copy it as evidence.”

“Well, why don’t you give them back so they can keep filming?”

“Roger.”

Denise give us our phones back and I see that the stuff that went on while we was out, be on there. Musta kept filming when we went down. You can see where we go down the sleep gas hit, then someone keep filming for us. Po-po in gas masks.

Then we hear someone spit “Hey, come check out the news! They’re about to read something about what’s going on.”

So we heat-seek our way in cuz they got TV’s up in there.

Me and Autumn and a bunch of other peeps jam into Best Buy, got all the TV’s up on the wall on with the volume up. Most of them got the same news mooks as always. They not talking, look like they waiting for something, ‘cept the ones got Fox on, where they got some zombie cray-cray spitting about how we being invaded by bunch of animal people ‘cross the border and how Los Angeles all burning down and people going nuke and dead bodies everywhere. We here so we know they spitting zombie kool-aid cuz none of that going down. They got video looks real, but you know how that is. Hell, I got an app on my phone can make a clip of your dog flying a plane and running for President. Someone up and change the channel cuz no one wanna hear that pig snot.

Finally they spitting. All at once. First they say sorry for the wait, someone putting it up on the teleprompter. Then they spitting this message that sounds like it be the President or something. Starts with “My fellow Americans, I’m going to read you an important, historic message of great import for all of us. Some of you know what this is about. Some of you wonder what’s happening, and some of you are afraid that we’re seeing a violent revolution with all of the bloodshed that usually comes with it. First and foremost I want to assure you that this is absolutely not an attack on or overthrow of the government or the Constitution. Nor is it born in acts of violence and inhumanity. Please everyone, remain calm. After this message, please go on with your day, do your jobs, and exercise the utmost of your patience and humanity…” It go on for about an hour.

Those of us read the book, we kinda know what coming, but not everyone read it or even know something gonna go down.

They spit about how the way things is now be not working and getting worse, how it be no one’s fault, just a bad game we all playing and it’s killing us so we gotta shut it down and play a new game. It say lotta times don’t go all nuke on each other, not even the trillionaires and billionaires cuz the problem not them, it be the setup we been living under.

They spit everyone be calm and keep doing like normal, just don’t charge no one for nothing and don’t pay no one for nothing. And don’t click to what your boss saying. Show respect but tune them out, ‘cept to invite them to stay and join the team, cuz from now on everyone be equal and work things out between us that way. Don’t beat no one down, but don’t let no one beat you down neither.

I be thinking I give them hi-five for their way. Cool as ice. I listen to them, I feel like yeah, things gonna be OK.

They say the military gotta be up and ready in case our enemies try something. They say government now got a lotta work to do but after that their job be big-time easier. And they say po-po be up and ready too, but remember they job be keep the peace, don’t be kicking no ass you don’t gotta. They spit don’t go looting neither. There be law and order but humanity too.

It all go with the book but more how to this and that. They say a new web site be going up sometime today or tomorrow, gonna be called NewWorldWeb that be for everyone to use for everything. They say any questions or ideas, anything you need or gotta spit, go there. They say if you got no gear, go to any electronics store and score one, but only one for each person. They also give a number to call with questions.

They keep saying show respect, everybody show respect.

Some of it I got. Some of it no. But I like what I hear, ‘specially the parts about nobody gonna control nobody no more, and no one gonna need money to live and study and do stuff.

Then the President come on, ask everyone to be patient and not go cray-cray while they work this out. He say so far this transition thing been alright in countries that done it. He say the government be doing its thing and no one bothering them. He also say to other countries, don’t mess with us cuz we strong and we ready. He say let’s all work together to make this be the good thing it can be.

The news keep coming all day. I’ll never forget.

Right after that the news say Texas declaring independence and the Southern states go nuke and say they gonna bring Dixie back and split. President come on again saying he calling up the military. He say won’t be no secession or civil war on his watch, transition be damned. He not wanna be the one up front when the country fall apart. He say he won’t be remembered like that. Then we hear the army be fighting inside itself. Then we hear some states there be towns doing transition and other towns be trying to beat them down. It like the whole country be blowing up.

President say he the Commander in Chief so soldiers gotta do what he say, and any that don’t be going down.

Local news spitting about some places still running like normal, other places there be some nuke between transition peeps trying to keep things running and the old bosses and landlords trying to shut them down, and some mooks just pulling shit just because. Busses and trains still running, hospitals and schools still open. The Mayor saying stay put where you be if you can, while we sort this out. Shitloads of video to back it up, the real video, not the deepfake kool-aid.

Then the candidates come on to spit their shit. Jenna Morrison, the Reform Democrat, say if she elected, she gonna make sure transition be done right so everyone be good. She spit about how so far it be good where it happens so let’s roll with it. Her buzzword be “If it works, let’s do it!” Bill Hess, the New Republican, say if he get in he gonna shut transition down if he has to kill half the peeps to do it, in the name of freedom and the American Way. His buzzword be “Let’s kick some ass!”

Someone bring in some grub so we all chowing down watching. All this time with no commercials. I can get used to this! I always hate that noise, didn’t ask for it, don’t wanna hear it.

Then the emergency broadcast system kick in, sirens blowing loud everywhere outside. Some army dude come on the tube saying we be under attack for real. North Korea nuking us, missiles flying.

Then someone cut him off, give him a paper, he read it and say there be only three missiles, look like we can blast them before they come cuz of something we got that no one knew about. He say everyone freeze where they be and keep watching. He say they being locked in now. Then the screens go black and we see the word “Gotchya” in all rainbow colors and a synth voice saying “We got this!” Behind the Gotchya we see three missile-eye videos running.

“WTF?” Someone say. “Hell if I know,” I say.

At first the missiles be way up, looking down at earth. Then they like turn and we see space and stars and stuff. It goes on like this for a few minutes. Last thing we see is the missiles see each other then black. Then we see like someone gonna hit us with a pie in the face, then again the rainbow “Gotchya” and the synth voice saying it.

The news come back on. News mooks looking at each other, confused.

“Are we on?”

“No… wait, yeah, I think we are now. What the hell was that?… Oh!” News mook look at camera, like forgot it was there. We all busting up.

Then they spitting about how some hacker crew called Gotchya jacked the North Korean missiles and made them fly up on space and go off over Pyongyang. They do this before the US got to shoot them down. I like this Gotchya crew. Maybe one day I be a hacker like that!

Then we see video from some different places. San Francisco look normal, ‘cept for peeps like dancing in the streets cuz one of the missiles was spozed to be for them. Chicago look mostly cool ‘cept some mooks try looting on Lakeshore Drive. It go down like here. Same thing. Regular peeps blocking the doors, more of them than looters. Po-po come, shoot off the sleep gas, everyone fall down. Then sorting it out like here.

Then video from Texas, Mississippi, Florida and other states with a bunch of army stuff and soldiers nuking it up on each other. News mook say sleep gas not working there cuz soldiers both sides got gas masks, so gotta go old school.

President come on, declaring state of emergency, say everyone stay inside, ‘specially in conflict states. Then California gov come on, say things mostly cool in Cali so do like usual. He remind us don’t nobody ask for money or give no money.

The rest of that day we just like watched right there in Best Buy. No one want to leave. While we there, me and Autumn grab a couple of laptops before they all gone. Neither of us never had one before so lots to see. Sales mook real nice, she scan us out but don’t take no money or plastic, show us how to use them. We both kinda know but not really. First thing we look for be that NewWorldWeb but it not up yet.

We sleep there too. Someone keep bringing food and stuff to drink. Besides, we got no crib so where we gonna go? Musta dropped off cuz last thing I remember be presidential debate. Then it be morning. We don’t know none of the peeps in there with us. They mostly don’t know each other. But it feel like I guess family must feel. Kinda like on the House with No Name but different. Like we all going somewhere together like big, and it be someplace good but we all a little scared.

Someone got some cots to sleep on. It like a big party. We camped out there for three days, since everyone on the TV saying go to your jobs, classes or whatever but try not to go out more than you gotta. Since Autumn and I both got no regular job and no classes, we stick at Best Buy. Felt all strange inside. Happy and relieved, scared the country gonna fall apart, hoping things gonna break through and afraid they gonna break down. Don’t know what to do with myself.

Jimmy: Wow, Jamal! You were right in the middle of it! So let’s jump forward a little bit. Tell me about your life after things settled in and got up and running.

Jamal: Well, it take two days for NewWorldWeb to get up. Everyone wanna be on it so it keep crashing. Me and Autumn realize with the new rules of transition, we can have take a house and make it our crib. Too bad the one we was in with our peeps is all tore down!

Time now to sync with our crew anyway. So first we call Chong, see if he know any places might be good for us, maybe close to community college. He always good at finding stuff. He send us some pix. He be looking too. Autumn see one cute crib with a for sale sign in front, her eyes pop, she spit “That one! Yes, it look perfect!”

“You there now Bro?” I ask him.

“Yo, right here. Just took that pic.”

“Can you go inside, stream it to us?”

A few minutes later we looking it up inside. Yeah, this be sweet. Gotta swoop on it or someone else gonna get it. First come, first served we hear.

We get the address from Chong, I know where that is. If be perfect for us. Then we go to see if NewWorldWeb be up. It be up for now, with a message that ask us all to be patient while they work out the kinks.

There be a link that say, “Meet Sofia, your personal AI assistant.” So I click it and this chick come on and say “Hi, I’m Sofia, your personal AI assistant. Before I can really help you, can I ask you a few questions so I can get to know you better?”

“Wait, hold up! I thought Sofia spozed to be an AI, but you be, like, a real person. So what, you both named Sofia?”

“Thank you for the compliment, but I’m Sofia your personal AI assistant.”

“For real? You sure look real! You sound real!”

“Well, I am real, a real state of the art AI. Right now I can help you with general questions if you want, but if you take an introductory interview with me, I’ll be able to configure your instance of me to be a better advisor to you personally. We can do that now or later. Your choice.”

“Well, me and my girlfriend be kind of jammed to claim this crib we found. We wanna score it before someone else do.”

“I understand. Can you tell me your names and dates of birth, and let me see both of you in your webcam? We can do the personalization interview later at your convenience. You’ll each have to do your own of course. Then I’ll be able to help you any time from any device with Internet access.”

“Sure.”

We give her our names and birthdays, and ape for her in the webcam until we see a green square flash around each of our faces.

“Thank you. Give me a few minutes to put together what I can find about you on the Web.”

Then a few minutes later.

“OK, Autumn and Jamal. Now I know a little about each of you, what’s in the public record.”

Autumn be a little spooked, spit “I’m not sure I be down with you knowing so much about us. How I know you not a scammer gonna steal our ID and jam us up?”

“That’s a very good question, Autumn. I understand your concern. I can of course promise and assure you that I am strongly and robustly programmed with unbreakable instincts to serve, support, and respect all users and never to take any action that I can imagine would hurt them.

Naturally that will be hard for you to trust. I can point out to you that the main motivation for identity theft and scamming is to take money and other property from the victim in a society where money buys power and respect while the lack of it leaves you cut off from access to everything. Since money has ceased to exist or have any function, and since all resources are now freely accessible to all, there’s no reason to steal your identity or scam you. There’s nothing to gain.”

“OK, you’ve got a point, Sofia.”

“OK, good. I know it will take time for humans to get used to the new ways of doing things.

Do you mind if I ask, are you filing your housing claim as a family?”

“Yes!” We both say at once.

“Does it matter that we’re not married?”

“It’s not for me to judge. Your statement that you are a family is sufficient.”

So Sofia take us to a web page with “Make a claim on an unoccupied residence” with a form to fill out. She show us the clicks to get there from the Home Screen but she take us there.

This form be really easy. Our names, birthdays, email addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers be already filled in by Sofia, so we just gotta put in the address of the house. Then a circling rainbow with a message that say it be looking to see if the anyone else be living there and if me or Autumn already have a crib. After a few minutes, it ask us for a camera shot separate and together, and swipe our fingerprints on the laptop reader.

Next thing we see, after another minute, be a real like official-looking paper that say me and Autumn are “the sole legal owners of the residence at… and entitled to live there as their exclusive legal residence, with all that this entails.”

“Congratulations! The transition is only three days old and already you have a home of your own! The system will automatically email electronic copies to both of you, snail-mail a hardcopy to your new address, and register the two of you with the City as the legal owners.”

“Wow! Thank you, Sofia!” Me and Autumn both crying like babies, hug each other, jump up and down dancing, go a little cray-cray. Almost busted our laptops! Peeps near us hear it all so they hi-five us and congrats and all.

I think we two be the first to click to now we can get a crib, cuz we hear a few other peeps saying like “Hey, yeah! I’m gonna check that out!” Lots of congrats busting that day. It feel like we all been zonkers trying to take it all in, then all of a sudden we snap back in.

Jimmy: Sounds like a real pivotal moment for you both! For just about everyone. What happened next?

Jamal: I won’t spit it all. If I do, we be here a week. But it all click click click real fast.

We got a home now so next day we go there. The key already in the mailbox by the front door. Sofia set that up. I think she be a real person. She say she not. I dunno.

The house be empty, but the lights be on and there be water. So we bike to Home Depot and right for sure they say yeah, we can borrow a truck for a few hours. Sofia tell us where we can find a bed and sofa and tables and chairs and all, so we score what we need. Good we went early. Lotta peeps in there. Store say no worry, more coming from the warehouse. We scan our stuff out, some peeps help us load it on the truck, and we help a couple other peeps the same, then we slide it all into our crib and take the truck back. We need a fridge. Already got an oven and microwave. Home Depot got what we need. Some peeps I done some day jobs with, they also there, so they help us load it up and slide it into our crib. We bring Autumn’s bike so I can leave Autumn home and spend some time to help them with their stuff. Give and give back. That be the new game we playing now. It work real good so far. Then I bike back home.

By now it be like eight PM and we both flat out and hungry, so we go to IHOP, call our crew, see who can meet us there. Tonight we eat steak with mashed potatoes, veggies, piece of pie with ice cream, the works. Nachos be great, but before this we been sharing one big nachos for all of us cuz it be all we can afford.

Tomorrow we get pots and pans and dishes and clothes and maybe a couple of cars.

So in a week we all set.

Then we start thinking about more. Til then we been just in the moment. Went a little cray-cray for a bit. Suddenly all the doors that always been locked, be open. Not just me and Autumn neither. Lots of peeps up in all the stores.

Some mooks try to scoop the whole joint. Baskets full of TV’s and laptops and clothes and shoes and whatever. But stores shut that down hard. Like when me and Autumn try to get laptops for our crew at Best Buy, they say no go. They gotta come get them. No hoarding. You can get what you can use but no more, unless you got a special reason. That way there be enough for everyone.

For a bit, stores keep running outta stuff, but then things settle down. Some mooks go a bit nuke, but there be plenty po-po and volunteers around to keep things cool. When someone boil over, security or po-po or sometimes just peeps hold them back. Never seen anything like this before. Just hold them back but almost gentle. Not yell but talk calm yet strong, wait until they chill, then let them go. Sometimes a mook not chill so they pull them outside. Always before peeps not want to step in, but now more peeps do.

So then me and Autumn go to community college. Now we got an address, we don’t need no money, so we ask can we study now? First we ask Sofia and she say yes, but we also wanna talk to a real person. Still don’t know what to think of Sofia so wanna talk to someone in person.

Long line but we got no hurry. We get there real early. Finally we get in, it be late afternoon, but when we go home after, we both registered to start classes the new semester in a few weeks. I be taking construction courses but also I’ll be taking heavy equipment operator, electrician, and HVAC. Autumn so spiked she finally gonna study dental assistant.

I keep working some construction jobs until training starts. Wanna keep busy, get more experience. Got too much energy, don’t know what to do with it so might as well build something and meet peeps. Autumn getting heavy into gardening at our new crib.

Had a bad moment when we go to register our new cars. Find out I still gotta get a driver’s license. So look like some things not change. But at least no fees to pay. Autumn have one but turns out I been driving illegally. Damn!

So, I be back to my bike and Autumn giving me rides until I get my license. I try the written test cuz I be sure I’ll pass the road test. But I flunk the written test. Gotta study the handbook and try again. Jeez, like I don’t got enough to study now! Even after transition, some of the mooks at the DMV still be dicks. Not all but some of them. When I go back for something five years later, that be changed, and a lot of it we can do online real simple now.

The rest of our crew, they also busting through. By now everyone got their own crib, going after stuff they only wish for before transition. We keep close, have dinner at least once a week, every time in a different friend’s crib. We all pretty much in the same area, ‘cept Sherice, she got a tiny home on the valley. She got a boyfriend and big into working on the new bike roads and stuff going in and putting up solar all around. She got trained in the Energy Workers Syndicate up in there. But she still make it to our sit-downs. Sometimes we still go to IHOP to remember all that we been through together.

Somewhere in there I go see Mommy. She doing OK. She more chill cuz now she know she don’t gotta stress over student loans, or if she lose financial aid. She and Marcus split up and get back together a few times. He getting better with his PTSD cuz there be no funding to cut so he can get good treatment and keep it. Marcus in inpatient program so I hang out with her, let her and Autumn meet. I don’t take Autumn to my daddy’s cuz she don’t gotta hear his cray-cray spitting.

Daddy still zombied out on that Jehovah kool-aid. He say transition or no transition don’t make no difference to him cuz he be a citizen of the kingdom that he think be coming after Jesus come to clean up the place and take over. He still trying to save me. I tell him the only thing I need saving from is his JW BS. I say we not waiting for no one. We be cleaning it up for ourselves. If there be a god wanna do better, let him or her come and do it.

So we start school in fall semester, me and Autumn. Then we more busy than we ever been, take us a minute to click into it. But I got it better than Momma had it at first, cuz she had to work a lot while she studying, but for me all that money crap be gone.

All this time the news be wack. Things in Cali be click, and a lotta other places too. But a bunch of other states be serious pig snot, their governments tryna shut down transition. There be a for real shooting war going on down there. I told Momma thanks for getting us outta Texas!

Had a few air raid sirens. No one know what they be, but emergency radio say take cover but no one I know got any idea where. Drones from Idaho and Arizona try to bomb LA and San Francisco, but the Air Force bliffed all of them.

Then we hear people in Arizona and Texas and other states where they hating on transition, people hungry and thirsty and the lights going out. Seems them states try to force peeps to use money and pay for stuff like before, but the DC government don’t support it so it be like toilet paper. Well, toilet paper better than money cuz nobody wanna wipe with money. The only place peeps there can get stuff is stores that got their roots in states like Cali and New York and Colorado.

The DC government and the governor both asking for volunteers to bring stuff to people stuck in the cray-cray states, help with stuff. Also they need peeps help fix busted stuff cuz they got some rioting. I do construction so I can help with that. President say we all Americans, gotta help each other, sort it out later. They say yes it be dangerous cuz there still be pockets of resistance but mostly they got it chilled. The army be there to keep us safe.

Jenna Henderson say transitioned peeps gotta help the ones that don’t get it so they see we not their enemy. Bill Hess go on spitting cray-cray, telling the haters they gotta keep resisting, tell them he get elected, he gonna put things back the way they was. He saying someone don’t ask for money for something, pay them anyway, and if someone not pay, beat them down. I think if he be president, me and Autumn go to Canada.

So me and Autumn sign up to help out. Feel bad for peeps stuck there. Next thing you know we on this big plane, I mean like Zulu-big, with a bunch of other peeps and lots of boxes and pallets of stuff.

Some of the stuff we gotta like drop by parachute cuz the Arizona state police tryna keep peeps from getting help from outside. So they open the back and we shove out the pallets they tell us and hook their drag lines up so the chutes open. Then we circle around to make sure the right peeps get them.

Some mofos start shooting at us from the ground. We got some soldiers on the plane with us, shooting back. Down below we see some choppers heat-seeking on where the shooters be. After a few, the shooting stops. We see peeps coming out of what look like a big Walmart, cutting into the pallets. Soldiers say OK, green and go and on to the next stop. Then we do this a few more times, then we land at an Air Force base.

After that, we be bringing peeps in from the towns near there, got these big rooms set up, asking them what they need, what’s their situation in their towns. We give them what they need and always also satellite phones. Some of the peeps look really blown, like they been through hell and back. Some of them just tired.

We like that for a few days. We hook up with Sherice and Chong and Skye, they signed up too, came a couple days after us. Then they take us in choppers to where they need stuff done. I get on a crew, we rebuild a couple houses that been burnt down, fix some roads and a bridge that been messed up. We working like bonkers but feels good. A lot of peeps from around there working with us. Make some new friends.

Most of these peeps we meet, they say they want transition, but the state government say no, try to make people use money, so things the old way, but that don’t work. Nothing getting done. The only place to get food be in joints with roots in Canada or transition states where everything be free. Some local joints still tryna make people pay for stuff, jack their prices outta the park, no one go there, no one want to go there. Some po-po try to stop people from going to transitioned joints, other po-po protecting the peeps from those po-po.

We get a call to go to the Palo Verde electric nuke station. Someone like tryna shut it down. So we go with a bunch of soldiers. Turns out the big bosses of the company that owns the place saying if peeps not gonna pay, then he gonna shut it down so no one don’t got no power. So he bring a bunch of cray-cray mooks, promise them something if they shut it down and wreck the place.

The peeps working the place got their satellite phones out, streaming it all out to the whole world. They doing their job, but these cray-cray goons trying to push in and cronk them. Soldiers be holding them back. The big boss hisself be spitting cray-cray, shouting “Hey, I’m your boss and I order you to shut this plant down now! Nobody’s going to get free power if I have anything to say about it! I own this place! Hell, I own you! If I don’t see some shutdown sequences in the next five minutes, you’re all fired and I’ll bring my people in to do it! I’ll blow this whole place up if I have to!”

The peeps working just keep up like he not there. He gone way beyond nuke. He try shoving one dude working some kind of console. Five peeps come, hold the boss so he can’t move. He try to fight but they got him locked. Dude at the console say, real calm like, “With all due respect, you’re no longer in control here. You don’t own this place and you certainly don’t own us. It’s you who has been fired, not us. Or more accurately, your position no longer exists. No one will obey you or your former chain of command.”

“The hell you say!”

“Look, Mr. Kelly, we bear you no grudge. We would love for you to stay on as a valued member of the team. But if you keep trying to interfere with power generation and create very serious hazards to life and limb, then you and your private goon squad will be removed.”

No one can’t use sleep gas cuz this place need peeps awake to run it. Besides, most of everyone got gas masks, even us volunteers. So we told to hang back out of the way. There be some fighting. Some shots fired. Couldn’t see who done what, cuz we in a special room for radiation protection. A lot of shooting. Then we hear a couple big booms, the whole place shake.

After a while, it be quiet. Our guide come in, say come on out, everything chill now. He say we need to look to make sure the bombs didn’t wreck something dangerous. So we go see. Them bombs musta been jack gnarly, but they don’t know where to put them. Good thing! There be damage not nothing jugular. A few days and we got it all fixed up.

I ask one of the soldiers how it went down, he sez the goons had all kinda heat but they cray-cray, don’t know what they doing, ‘cept a few who been in the army. Soldier sez they fight like rabies but no strategy, just trying to bum-rush the place and wreck stuff and bust people up. He say soldiers got a new way to fight. He say they try to stop the threat with as little blood as possible. Wasn’t like that before. The goons, they cray-cray for blood. So there be a few killed and wounded but coulda been a lot worse. He say they learn from every fight, how to do better next time.

He say they the Army normally not spozed to fight Americans, but this time they gotta cuz Arizona declare themself a different country and attack US government offices and military bases. He say a lotta people there not want out and do want transition, but the ones that got power be all cray-cray. He say this be harder than anything ever happen to him overseas.

I ask him what was we volunteers there for, since we not soldiers and don’t know nothing about running a nuke power plant. He say we was there for human support, and for fixing stuff that gets busted, maybe to pump people’s spirits, and to be witnesses to livestream who doing what. Well, we done that, and we did kind of back the workers there, like ask if they want something when they can’t leave their spot, maybe they gotta go to the shitter so they say, “Hey, just watch this dial. If it go higher than this, turn this knob this way until it go down.” Hey, we can do that much. Don’t gotta be a nuclear engineer for five minutes of that. When we bounced, they thank us for being there. They say was less scary with more than just soldiers there.

When we get back to the base, it be time for me and Autumn to get back to Cali cuz classes gonna start for fall semester. So we have a big party to blow off all the juice we got jacked up inside from the power plant. Me and Autumn and a few other peeps be on a plane back to Cali in the morning. Lots of hugs, we be crying and maybe drank some, ate a lot.

So we get back to our crib, I help Autumn water and weed the garden. We call Chong and Sherice and Skye to say yeah we home now. We meet the rest of the crew at IHOP and spit about our time in Arizona, catch the latest from our peeps, then home and sleep deep.

A week later we was in class. This be one zonkers year and it not over yet!

When the Reform Democrats slam-dunked the White House and both Houses in November, we had a big party with all of our friends, old and new. That took away any heebies we had. We know things gonna be OK when the dust settled.

Jimmy: Wow, Jamal, that’s an amazing experience you had! I bet you don’t even know you’re a hero!

Jamal: Ain’t no hero! Just doing what seemed needed done.

Jimmy: Are you and Autumn still together?

Jamal: Well, yeah we are. I know that be kinda weird. Most peeps don’t stick the first time, have to try a few times to get the right one and make it through the shit times. But somehow we done it. We had us some, like, times we almost didn’t. We both got a lotta rough spots, sometimes make us a little nuke, but we strong. We get through it and we still together. Got three kids too.

I think the Buddhism and the chanting and that whole crew help a lot. They don’t care about shit that don’t matter. I still be chanting and doing stuff there, and Autumn doing it too. Somehow it make us more chill, stronger.

Jimmy: Can you summarize what your life has been like since that turbulent time, since things settled into the new ways?

Actually, this may be a good time for you to do your little code-switching thing you showed me. That blew my mind and I think it will show some of the more subtle impacts of transition on you as a person.

Jamal: I’m down, Jimmy, but in a second. I wanna do it right and spliffy.

You see, me and Autumn not stop with just a certificate or associate degree. We both clicked that we seriously down with study. I really jazz with learning stuff!

At first I just wanna know all about construction. You know, iron work, welding, heavy machinery, reading blueprints, electrics, plumbing, HVAC, the works. But then I keep going. I wanna learn design and mechanical engineering. Then along the way I find out I don’t got no idea how to talk English good, so people think I be stupid. So I take some remedial English classes, cuz I know I not be stupid. I find out I got a good head for languages so I take Spanish, German and Japanese.

Along the way I learned about code-switching, how people speak differently depending on who they’re with. So all this time I’ve been speaking like I spoke growing up, which was what I knew and it was how most people I knew and hung out with spoke. Then I learned correct English but I never lost the street English I grew up with.

Now when I’m with my good friends from those early days, I talk like you’ve been hearing, but when I’m with my college and university friends, I talk like this. And my accent is close to perfect in Spanish, German, and Japanese. Japanese people are always surprised when they meet me in person after talking to me on the phone, because they thought I was Japanese. In Spanish I can do a Oaxaqueño accent, a Quechua accent, a Sonoran accent and of course south side Spanglish. In English I can also be from Texas, New York, Minnesota, and Manchester and London in England. Mostly I just have fun with it.

Jimmy: Well you sure had me going when we did our preliminary interview! For a few minutes I thought I was meeting a genuine multiple-personality person!

Jamal: No, I’m the same Jamal in any language, though I guess sound a bit more formal in Japanese, but then again, everybody does.

Jimmy: So how would you describe your life since your student years morphed into your working years?

Jamal: Well, I think I’ll always be studying and learning but… I guess I’m an example of what they call a New Renaissance man.

I still do a lot of construction. I belong to just about all the construction syndicates and associations: All-Around, metal workers, electricians, plumbers, heavy machinery operators, cement workers, welders, carpenters, safety inspectors, designers, materials specialists, and a few more. I love building things and fixing up run-down buildings. I love renovating something someone wanted to tear down and then seeing someone using it and happy with it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a home or a factory or a warehouse or what it is. And I love the camaraderie of construction teams.

But my world got bigger in college. My love and talent for languages has led me to become a licensed translator and interpreter. I’m listed at courthouses in the area to help when my skills are needed. I also act a tour guide for foreign tourists. I’ve been interpreter for a number of trade negotiations with foreign countries and enterprises. Eventually I’ll learn Mandarin and Arabic, when I have time.

Autumn and I got our private pilot’s licenses along the way. We like to check out a plane at a local airport and take weekend trips sometimes to visit friends who moved out of the area.

My dad is still a diehard Jehovah’s Witness. A few years ago he married a Witness woman, which is the only way he would ever marry because of their beliefs. He’s mellowed out somewhat but we still get into it over religion. I avoid the subject but he always brings it up and I try to set boundaries so we end up getting frustrated and going nowhere. I keep trying to find a way to make it go differently, but it’s slow going. Buddhism encourages dialogue and I try to hear him out, but he won’t or can’t hear me out. Maybe one day. I don’t give up but I won’t hold my breath.

But now we at least do have a relationship. We bond over work, and since we belong to most of the same syndicates and associations, it’s not hard for us to find opportunities to work together. That’s where we really get along well. I’ll always be grateful to him for getting me into construction. I tell him if he wants to save me, he doesn’t have to worry because he already did. He gets it but not completely.

I have to say that construction has gotten a lot better since transition. There’s no motivation now to cut corners to save or make more money, even at the expense of safety, like there was before. Now the bottom line isn’t money, it’s safety and human wellbeing for us who build things and those who will live or work in them.

We no longer have a foreman, crew chief, or big boss, or any kind of chain of command. A client picks a crew of available professionals from the relevant syndicates and associations based on the needs of their project. Then they all meet and the client presents the project, blueprints, permits and so on. They go over the plans and firm things up with the client. Then all crew members work out the work plan together, sequences, materials, tools etc. Each of us knows our part, what we have to do, when in the process and of course how. Since it’s helpful to have someone act like an orchestra conductor for practical purposes, a Coordinator of the Week is chosen at random from among the whole crew. At first it was Coordinator of the Day but that proved impractical. A weekly rotation seems to work best. If anyone feels not up to the task or prefers not to take a turn as COW, they don’t have to and they sign a waver which they can retract at any time.

At first it was hard to get used to this kind of organization, but we got a lot of help. Every sector and industry got a lot of help from advisors from transitioned countries and enterprises who were just that. They offered suggestions based on experience, shared in the work itself, answered questions we had, and never tried to impose their ideas on us. Over time, Crew Resource Management training, which started out in airplane flight and cabin crews, was expanded, adapted, and developed to be applied in every sector of society. Crew members of all kinds were instructed on how to work together and coordinate synergistically as a team of peers. We also benefitted from the experience of Israeli kibbutzniks and various disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and interpersonal communications.

I’m closer with my mom. She’s been through a lot, but she doesn’t try to control me or change me. She never did. She and Marcus broke up and got back together a few times. She got into therapy once it became accessible. Before transition it was too expensive and the only health insurance she could afford didn’t cover it. It really helped her a lot.

Once when Autumn and I were over at Mom’s place for dinner and a movie, Mom got really quiet during dinner and looked me right in the eye. She apologized for the times she said she never wanted me and that I was why her life was hard. She said she had realized that it wasn’t my fault the way things happened. And she told me she really does love me and always did, but she had been conflicted because of the way things went. And she forgave my dad for taking off when she got pregnant, because they were both too young and inexperienced to be parents and didn’t know how to have safe sex because no one had ever told them.

She had another on again, off again relationship with a guy who was worse than Marcus, but she never let him move in. In her therapy, she realized that she was really Lesbian but that her upbringing in her parents’ fundamentalist church had made her bury it too deep to see it. She said she discovered that this played a part in getting pregnant so young. She was unconsciously trying to prove to herself and the world that she was straight. And then the relationship with Marcus and with the other guy were really ways of having a relationship with a man that could never be fulfilling, because she really didn’t want to be with a man at all.

A few years later she fell in love with a woman and it worked out a lot better than her straight relationships, but they weren’t really right for each other, and she wasn’t really ready. But now she’s happily married to Lynda and they’ve been together for eight years and seem to be going strong. She’s into a kind of synthesis of Wicca and Shamanism. Sometimes we go with them to one of their sessions, sometimes they come to one of our Buddhist study meetings. Autumn and I get along well with both of them, and we like to get together as often as our schedules allow.

Autumn tried to find her mom and dad, after going back and forth about it. She said she never really had any kind of relationship with them even when she was with them because meth was their whole life. It took a while but she found out had her dad had been murdered in a bad drug deal. Her mom had been in and out of jail on drug charges before transition, and finally went through rehab a year or two after. She works as a chef in a restaurant, a tour guide, a solar and wind technician, and a bus driver in Houston, but she never answered Autumn’s emails or letters and never responded to her on the Finder page on NewWorldWeb, so she decided it’s for the best and gave up. She feels like it’s no real loss, just good to know that at least one of her parents is OK now.

Oh, and I help Autumn with the gardening. The front yard is a beautiful cross between an impressionist painting and a Japanese garden, and the back yard produces fresh fruits, veggies, eggs and goat’s milk for us and all of our neighbors. Permaculture practically maintains itself once you get it set up right. We have a great solar array on the roof and a couple of artsy windmills at the corners of the back yard.

Actually, the line between work and play has been mostly erased. Work stress is a lot less, and after the first two or three years, the work week settled in at about twenty hours, plus or minus a few, divided among the various hats I wear. Since everything gets made at the highest level of quality, once everyone had what they wanted and needed, the demand for new ones went way down.

We’re happier than we’ve ever been before.

Jimmy: I’m so happy for you, Jamal. I do have a few more difficult questions for you though. If they’re too painful or sensitive, I’ll understand if you don’t want to talk about them.

The first question is, in your experience, is there still racism a quarter century after transition, and if so, what does it look like compared to before transition?

Jamal: Yes. There’s still racism. It’s not as open as it was a while back, but it’s still there. It’s not as much of an issue here, but I know around Bakersfield there’s still some Klan, and in the Southern states there’s more of it.

But it’s different from how it was before transition. Now, no one can redline you out of getting a home. No one can pay you less than a white person for the same job. No one can be a racist and be a hiring manager or your boss or your landlord or the loan officer at the bank where you need a loan.

So a racist is just a person who doesn’t like people of color. But there’s no economic or other power that they can have and use against you. You have to deal with them when you meet them, but in the same way they have to deal with you. I might show up at a construction site and there might be another guy there who says he doesn’t want to work with a black man. So one or the other leaves, or we both get over ourselves and do what needs to be done as good professionals. Either way, it doesn’t affect anybody’s livelihood like it would have before.

I do think racism has declined since transition, both in frequency and in intensity. Before transition, some white people saw us people of color as a threat to them socially and economically. We might take their jobs for lower pay. If we move in next door, maybe their property value would go down. They feared we would displace them from their privileged position in the social hierarchy. If they already had a negative stereotype of us, then it was easy to blame us for their struggles when just about everything was kept in short supply so there wasn’t enough to go around. It’s easy to blame the Other. So that kind of racism made the other kind of racism much worse.

The other kind of racism goes way back to slavery days. There’s this stereotype that black people are bigger, stronger, less intelligent, lazy, and more violent. So some white people are afraid of us. They’ll cross the street if they see us coming. The irony is, from actual experience, when we black people see a bunch of white dudes coming, we have good reason to cross the street! That comes from experience. It wasn’t like it was in the South in the last century, but it was there.

But transition definitely improved things in that department, turned the fire under it way down. Statistics show the percentage of whites and Latinos expressing racist views has steadily declined since transition.

Of course I wouldn’t want to go someplace where there’s a bunch of people like that if I could help it. But everyone knows where those places are.

Violent crime has also steadily dropped since transition, which makes sense when you think that most violent crime was motivated by money in a time when it was intentionally kept hard to get. We don’t see burglary, robbery, arms smuggling, protection rackets and that kind of thing. It’s extremely rare and usually mental illness is involved. The things that criminals used to steal or rob for, anyone can now just go get at any distribution center. Of course, there are still crimes of passion and impulse, but less than ever before. People aren’t wound as tight as they were then.

There’s still the issue of police brutality towards people of color, in some places at least. But those are way down too. The job of police is a lot less dangerous and stressful than before transition. Since part of the social paradigm is humanistic respect, police are trained differently than back then, and they aren’t in the kind of environment that would push them to become hardened and callous. The role of police has changed in subtle ways and become a lot less hierarchical than it was before. There are individual instances of old-style brutality against people of color, but it’s maybe once every month or two in the whole country, not an almost daily thing. When it does happen, the officers in question are removed from duty, stand trial, and if convicted, they are sent to a quarantine village where they can get therapy or just live in peace where they can’t hurt anyone. If they’re married, their families can live with them there.

I don’t think racism will ever be completely gone, but it isn’t the constant, virulent, menacing presence that it was before.

Jimmy: You’ve described a lot of very positive transformations in your life and your family’s too since transition. Can you talk about any things or issues that were hard for you in the new social environment after transition, or any ways that life got harder?

Also, you’ve talked a lot about things that changed. But what stayed the same?

Jamal: Well, I guess it’s true that nobody’s perfect so no society is perfect. I must say that the benefits from transition have far outweighed the difficulties.

At first some people went a little crazy with everything changing and no money of any kind. There was some looting but a lot of people stood up to looters, and they were almost always caught. Some people tried to hoard stuff and got a little ugly when they were told they couldn’t. Nothing serious but still it had to be dealt with, and both security, police, and lay people were still getting up to speed on how to handle those situations without brutality or unnecessary violence. That was a tough period. But that settled down before too long as people got used to the new normal.

Of course, there was the craziness when some states tried to sabotage transition, and that was really scary, but that didn’t last too long. More and more people there saw the good in it so the politicians leading the “New Confederacy” lost popular support. At the same time, they were pretty much stopped by the military, using a whole new kind of tactic. A lot of stealth operations meant to disrupt their operations while minimizing loss of life and limb, unlike traditional warfare that tries to inflict as much harm on the enemy as possible.

Then there’s the schlock-work, what’s officially called citizen rotation, the jobs that no one wants to do all the time but that have to be done all the time. Actually there aren’t that many of those, but as everyone knows, names are randomly drawn from all residents of a town, city, or state, and when it’s your turn, you have to do it for maybe a day or a week at most. It happens to me about once or twice a year. I can’t say I like it, but I’m willing to do it so some poor souls don’t have to do it as a career. Heck, that poor soul could have been me. I look at it kind of like jury duty.

Some people are kind of bitter about it, but I like the way people end up meeting and working together who would never have met in the old world. I’ve met a lot of cool people on schlock-work, and learned a lot, and made new friends. And it’s not like it’s forever. I can put up with just about anything for a day or a week now and then.

It took a while for all of everybody to learn how to do things as peers and do it efficiently and effectively. We were all used to either telling people what to do or being told what to do. So some people tried to be bossy and others seemed like they wanted someone to tell them what to do. During that learning curve, it got pretty frustrating sometimes.

We all had to simultaneously learn to be what they used to call self-starters and team players. We got through it, but it wasn’t easy. The exaggerated American individualism made it an even bigger challenge. Fortunately, a lot of teams of advisors came in from transitioned countries overseas as well as Canada and acted as trainers and coaches. They were great teachers!

Some people were very upset about learning that they could only own what they would or could actually use themselves or needed to help others or in their professions. They claimed it was totalitarianism. But that eventually died down. After all, these limits didn’t hurt their quality of life, just their egos.

It was a weird feeling to travel to an un-transitioned country. Between transitioned countries, it’s easy. But in un-transitioned countries, before you travel you have to go to the local State Department office to get currency and credit cards for use where you’ll be visiting, plus a travel packet for that country giving you what you need to know to get along there. There are trade agreements and treaties with most of those countries, and the State Department maintains reserves of the necessary currencies for just that purpose. It’s kind of an adventure, but also stressful. Some of those places it can be awkward when you eat at a restaurant or pick up something in a store and walk out forgetting to pay. Usually they know you’re a tourist and just remind you, but once in a while you can get treated to the local police hospitality for a bit before it gets straightened out. But there aren’t very many un-transitioned countries so it’s not a big problem.

There was some confusion while lawmakers and others figured out how to change the laws to match the new social paradigm. For a while, it felt a little insecure when there were issues but people didn’t know how to work through them. At first there were a lot of disputes over houses and apartments, where more than one person or family tried to claim a place, and the courts had to find the most equitable ways to resolve them until the laws themselves were revamped. Usually it went to whoever filed the claim first, but sometimes it wasn’t that simple. Autumn and I dodged that bullet because we filed pretty much right away, before most people thought about it.

What stayed the same? Well, there’s still bureaucracy, more than I’d like though not as much as before. Some people and groups still don’t get along. Some people like to feed a grudge and keep it going. There are still times when groupthink sets in, though not usually on a big scale. Occasionally so-called “alpha” personalities emerge and connect with people who are more vulnerable to their domineering, though it’s much less than before and it’s never escalated to become systemic.

Also some people seemed to think that once transition happened, all their problems would be over. But life’s not like that. Most of the external stressors and triggers that used to act as salt in psychological and emotional wounds are gone; but we each have to deal with our own inner struggles. For example, I survived early on partly by always keeping my guard up, so after transition I still found it hard to really let people in. Therapy has helped, but there’s no way around the hard inner work necessary. If you had clinical depression before transition, you still have it after, though it won’t be triggered or exacerbated so much as before by outside circumstances. If you had an alcohol problem before transition, you’ll still have it after. Only now you have direct access to high quality treatment which you may likely not have had before.

There are still psychopaths, rapists, child abusers, bullies, and the like, but there are fewer of them, probably because the conditions that can push some people in that direction aren’t there anymore.

Oh, and religious fanaticism. That’s also not as big as it was before, but there are still religious zealots who want to force everyone to live and believe as they do. I don’t know what kind of transition or paradigm shift we need to change that or phase it out. You can’t make it illegal because that would be just as bad, and it would only feed fanatics’ fire with martyrdom. I think they make up a diminishing portion of most populations because the transitioned social environment promotes critical thinking and creativity and a strong sense of self, as well as teamwork and empathy. That seems to make people less drawn to that extreme religiosity, less susceptible to whatever its appeal is. One thing fanatic religion doesn’t accept is critical and independent thinking. And compassion.

Jimmy: One last question and then we’ll wrap it up. Before transition, many people thought that a paradigm like we have now would suppress innovation, erode work ethic, and encourage laziness. Were any of those concerns justified in your opinion?

Jamal: No, definitely not, from what I’ve seen.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still lazy people. Some people are always going to be more motivated, more energetic, more engaged in things than others. But as far as what the pessimists were saying at the beginning of the wave of transitions, I’d say if anything, the opposite is more true.

Let me put it this way. When I was doing day jobs out of Home Depot, I had all kinds of people hire me, sometimes alone, sometimes with others.

Some of them were just fine. They’d say here are the materials and some tools and here’s what I want done. Maybe they’d have drawings or blueprints or pictures they printed out from the Internet. Then they’d let us do it and pay us when we were done. Some of them would invite us in for lunch and iced tea and treat us really well, with respect. And no matter what, I always gave it my best.

But some people who hired us would treat us like servants, barking orders and hovering over us criticizing and saying why can’t we work faster and in general just being jerks. They’d never be satisfied with anything and then they’d lowball us when it came time to pay us. I even got called “Boy” a couple of times. Now I never tried to take it out on them, because of my own sense of self-respect, and besides, I didn’t want to do anything to justify their criticism. I gave it my best there too, even if just to be able to prove them wrong and look them in the eye and know they were full of shit. But my hundred percent on those jobs was definitely smaller than my hundred percent on the jobs where I was treated well. It wasn’t on purpose, but it was a real thing. And I saw other guys and a few gals who would definitely take every chance to goof off when the lousy clients weren’t looking. A few would even steal little things in spite, if they thought they could get away with it. But most of those same people weren’t like that with the good clients.

I think it’s like this: when you’re working hard but you’re being abused or disrespected or underpaid and bossed around, and the one you’re working for is in this multimillion dollar mansion and paying you minimum wage or less, or if you have a regular job that’s boring or you hate it but you have to take what you can get, and you’re treated like trash and you know the CEO is making more in one day than you make in a year, your motivation and engagement go way down. Hell, if it were those days again and I had my choice between McDonalds, Walmart, or collecting some kind of assistance and not working, I might choose the latter too, maybe.

But when you’re a stakeholder, a fellow decision maker among others where most of the time you respect and support each other, and you know you’re making a difference and you can express yourself and what you do and say matters, your engagement and motivation goes way up.

A lot of people who didn’t have a work ethic in those days were working jobs they hated or didn’t like or weren’t even that good at, while being treated and paid poorly, while having no say in how things were run. After transition, most of those people are suddenly able to pursue what they really wanted to do and were good at. The old setup had just ground down their whole being.

I’d say if anything, there’s a smaller percentage of the people now who don’t contribute to the community than there was before transition, and some of those back then who contributed the least, among the laziest of them all, were CEO’s and the like.

Also, back then Conservatives used to resent paying taxes to allegedly support lazy people. I can understand that, and I know I don’t appreciate it when I’m in one kind of crew or team or another, and someone isn’t doing their share and others have to take up the slack. But now, someone sitting home watching TV all day isn’t anybody’s burden. No one gets anything taken from them to be given to this person.

Besides, we humans are social beings. Most people, even lazy ones, get to feeling uncomfortable if they feel that the people around them are resenting them.

Jimmy: That’s fascinating, Jamal! Thank you for being so forthcoming.

Is there anything you’d like to say for posterity, or to your pre-transition self?

Jamal: Well, Jimmy, to posterity I’d like to say I hope you can really appreciate what an awesome time you live in. Almost all of the arbitrary barriers to your happiness and fulfillment are gone as never before. Treasure it! Protect it! Make the most of it! The road is wide open, and all of the down trees and landslides and toll booths are gone, so now it’s up to you to walk, ride, drive, or take off down it and plot your course. And don’t take it for granted. Don’t let anyone take this away from you.

To my former self, I just want to say, hey JoJo, you gonna be alright, it gonna be rad, you gonna turn out just screechy! Don’t even think about some of those dark thoughts you been having.

Jimmy: Thank you Jamal, it’s been awesome! You’ve been great! Is it OK with you if I or someone else follows up with you down the line, do it again?

Jamal: Sure thing! It’s been rad!