Lee

It's been several years since I found out that one of my friends from years ago died. I used to go to my cousin's house quite a bit back in Jr. High and High school to play basketball. He lived in the Northwest corner of Houston. We would meet up with several of his friends to find some pickup games on different courts. I remember Lee and his brother Troy would occasionally come with us to find some competition. As time flew by, I started to see less and less of Lee.

By the time I moved into downtown Houston for college, we started playing paintball more than basketball. At one of our practice sessions (we had a team going into tournament competitions), I saw Lee again. He had shaved his head and wore extremely baggy clothes. He wasn't as talkative as he was before. One of our other friends asked him, "Hey Lee, when's your court date?" Lee answered, "Tuesday". I asked him what he was going to court for thinking that it was over a traffic ticket or something.

"Cap...urd..."

"What?"

"Capital Murder"

My eyes widened as I realized that this once innocent basketball friend of mine had turned to a different direction in life. I talked to him a little bit more that day simply because I didn't want him to think that I was against him in any way. Probably not too smart to confront a person being charged with capital murder. So, I just pretended like it never happened.

That was the last time I saw Lee alive. Years later, I was riding in my cousin's car. I don't remember why, but he told me.

"Oh, you don't know about Lee do you?"

I answered, "Did he get convicted and is in jail?"

"No. he's dead."

"What? What happened?!"

"Bad drug deal. One of his drug 'friends' decided that he wanted the drugs AND the money. Shot him right in the head. Guess to show you that there are no such things as friends in the drug world."

I don't know what happened to cause someone like Lee to choose that kind of life. His family wasn't wealthy, but none of our families were. It just doesn't make sense. I'm not really depressed about his death. I wasn't at the time I found out. He chose that life for himself. It's a shame he chose that direction.