In the Heart of a Mustang

Over the next hour, Julius told Hunter about his life. He had been born in the bad part of Chicago where the police were afraid to go and gangs ruled the neighborhood. His mother had gotten pregnant as a teenager and never finished high school. They lived with his grandmother and paid their bills with welfare checks. His mom had been the third generation in her family to live from one welfare check to the next. He had never known his dad but he heard from an uncle that he was killed in a gang shoot-out.

When word of his father’s death reached his mother, she sat him down and told him that she was not going to let that happen to him. She said that the cycle of poverty and violence she had lived with was going to end with the two of them. She packed up their few belongings that very day and walked him through the littered streets bordered by broken down cars. With head held high, she marched past the graffiti covered buildings with broken windows to the nearest bus station. His mother bought two tickets to Salt Lake City, which was as far as her meager funds would take them.