Raven is my cousin. We're the same age. But, I must say we're more like brothers than cousins. Every summer we'd go up to visit him and the rest of the family in Augusta. They lived in the projects---real projects; not like the ones I grew up in. There we had to sleep in the hall for a week because of drive-by shootings. Raven, his twin brother Ruben and I decided to retaliate against the rival neighborhood gang by finding and stealing their drug stashes. We gave up that adventure when "the tennis shoe boys" raided the neighborhood and made many arrests.

We got into plenty other adventures though. Mainly due to me being from the country and having no fear of going down the wrong street or picking fights with the wrong people. I was with him the first time that I had a gun pulled on me. We've been through a lot together; when my father passed away he took it as hard as I did, if not worse. All of this took place between the ages of 10-13.

But by the time Raven was almost 15 his mom decided to move down closer to the rest of the family---and also to keep Raven out of trouble. But it doesnt matter where one is. Trouble can be found even in the smallest of towns.

I joined CRIP, Raven did not and we began to go our separate ways. Shortly after that, Raven dropped out of school and was arrested for....being at the wrong place at the wrong time (yeah, I'll word it like that).

After a few years it was obvious that he was not to be released for some time. By this time I had left gang life altogether and was college bound. When I heard that Raven had been relocated to our county jail I pulled some strings/used some old contacts to make a past hours jail visit with Raven.

I had the whole visit planned out in my mind but it went nothing like I imagined. I noticed the glass that would separate us was smugged and covered in hand prints. As soon as Raven walked in, instincts kicked in and I found myself standing adding my own hand print to the glass; on the other side Raven added his own. We wept and caught up on lost time. We didn't see each other again until our grand father passed away: Jack Hill (a GA senator) was a long time friend of our family and pulled some strings to allow Raven to return for the funeral and spend time with the family. That was the last time I'd see him for several other years.

In fact, Raven was not released until June '05, a few weeks after his 23rd birthday.