My Name is Jade

My father made a name for himself and to this day there are untold stories. I was reminded of some of them the other day while riding with my brother. During small talk my brother said, "man for a minute I swore we were a mob family", and I couldn't help but remember that he was not my dad's son (directly that is), so in some ways he didn't get the full understanding of my bloodline. I wanted to tell him that yes the black mob existed and yes we were surrounded by it daily, but I kept silent.
You see I learned early that silence is golden and it is very powerful. My father never hesitated to take me around situations. I'm not sure why he felt so comfortable doing so, but none-the-less, that's what he'd do. I remember a night where my father and I went to some ladies house and there were other kids there playing video games. He told me to stay put for a minute and that he'd be right back. He was dressed in all black and he was wearing a leather jacket (shoot I'd like to have that jacket now). I could tell that something wasn't right but I also knew that I needed to follow my fathers orders. No sooner than I turned my back to go play with the other kids, I heard "No, come on man, it wasn't me" and it was followed by 2 distinctive sounds. 1 was the sound of a man being slapped and the other was the echo that rang through the house which came from a bullet being fired into someone. I am not sure if you've ever heard a sound like that but I can promise you that it's a sound that you would never forget. Of course all of us that heard it, stopped what we were doing and starred down the hall awaiting for what was next and the what next would be my father coming and saying, "aight, let's roll pal". I'm smiling now, not because of what I heard but I remember that that was his name for me...Pal.
We never spoke of the sound or anything about the house, kids or anything. It was just an understanding that silence was golden. It's amazing what my ears have heard and eyes have seen, but what's more amazing is that I've never spoken of any of these things over the 30 years I've been around.
These are my memoirs and my name is Jade!