"I’m gonna shoot Diamond in her ass.”

Diamond and Crystal were twin sisters. Big, built like men. Old as my mother. Intimidating, and they knew it. And they were crack heads.

They bullied people in the projects. They hustled them. They robbed them. And no one did anything about it because they were two BIG bitches.

I got word that one of the twin sisters, Diamond, had robbed my mother.
I was fed up, fuming, and wanted revenge.

T-Bone had a pretty chrome-plated 25-caliber pistol.
"Let me borrow your 25."
"For what," he asked.
"I’m gonna shoot Diamond in her ass."
I explained why.
"I’m going with you," he said.

I heard she was hanging by the playground on the other side of the projects.
T-Bone and I walked to the playground.
I didn’t want to kill her. But I thought about it.
Adrenaline rushed through my body.
I so wanted to let her know not to fuck with my family.
I took offense to anyone who bothered my family members.
A friend called my cousin, Tony, "retarded." I was tired of hearing her mouth. Suddenly my fist found her face. I punched her until Danny pulled me away.
I couldn’t do that to Diamond. She was too big.
But I knew a way to bring her to her knees.

T-Bone stood behind the dumpster while I looked for her.
She wasn’t there.
I couldn’t find her.
After a while, T-bone and I got restless. We walked back to the other side of the projects.

The next time I saw Diamond we were in the same unit at the Suffolk County House of Corrections. She smiled when she saw me being brought onto the unit. I did not smile back.

But because she was bigger than me, and T-Bone’s 25 wasn’t handy, I waved.