Into the Abyss Page #5

and I was eating supper,

and he rushed me with a gun.

So we fought

for about 45 minutes

with a gun to my head

in this girl's house.

It was a .22 caliber

single-shot pistol.

Yeah, he held... held it

to my head,

banged me in the head with it.

We were fighting all through

the house with the gun

till I locked myself

in this bedroom,

and he was gonna

kick in the door,

so I just opened the door

and let him in

because I didn't want him to

tear this girl's dad's house up,

and after that,

we started fighting again,

and he pinned me on the bed,

and he pulled the trigger.

- Where did the bullet go?

- Nah, it misfired,

because the bullet

come out the gun,

and you could tell on

a 22 bullet, there's like...

it's just that round,

flat piece on the bottom.

Well, if the firing pin

ain't long enough,

it don't hit it, and...

and it don't... it won't go off,

but it hit it, but I don't know

why it didn't go off.

- You were lucky.

- Yeah.

- Very lucky.

- Yeah, I kind of

blacked out there.

But, yeah, real lucky.

And then him killing

those people, man,

I feel sorry

for their families.

Me and my friend Big Justin

was up at the bar one time,

and he come up there with these

new cars, him and Perry,

and we're like, "Man",

where'd y'all get

these new cars at?"

He's like,

"oh, we was holding hands"...

him and Perry was holding hands

and scratched off

a lottery ticket together

and won them two cars.

Well, me and my buddy

knew it wasn't right,

because they're both felons,

you know what I mean?

Ain't nobody gonna sell them...

ain't neither one

got a driver's license,

so, you know, and... and the cars

were, like, fully loaded,

CD's, skateboards,

and stuff like that in there,

and so we knew something...

something was up with it,

and he started giving people

joy rides up at the bar.

- Jason and Michael

came up to the bar

to show off two new vehicles

that they had purchased,

and at first, we...

nobody really understood.

They explained that they had

purchased a lottery ticket,

and that's how they got

the money to buy the cars,

and at that time, it started

getting a little weird.

- What didn't sound right

about this?

- The amount of

the lottery ticket was $4,000.

They said they cashed it

in a gas station.

That doesn't usually happen.

The vehicles themselves

didn't look like

they just came off a car lot.

- You drove these cars?

- I rode in them.

I didn't drive them.

Yeah, they...

Jason and Michael

were kind of giving everybody

test drives,

and I rode in both vehicles.

The... the red Camaro,

when I rode in it,

they were showing off guns.

There was a 12 gauge shotgun,

and I don't remember

the other one,

but I did see 'em in the trunk

of the red Camaro that night.

From what I heard, rumors,

you know, they were into...

initially planning on stealing

a car of my roommate

at the house I was staying at,

and that scared

the hell out of me,

'cause that could've been me.

You know, if he would've

decided to come

and get the car in my driveway,

where would I be?

I've... I've managed

to block it.

I've managed to try

to not deal with it

and not think about it.

I guess being in the situations

that I've been in,

just from being employed

at that bar,

I have seen so many awful things

that I don't deal with them.

I just kind of put them back.

- Did Jason brag about crimes?

- He never bragged to me

and my buddy Big Justin.

We didn't even know

what had happened,

and they was... they come got us

from Justin's house,

the police did,

and they took us up there,

and they was like,

"Y'all read the paper?"

And I told 'em, well,

I couldn't read,

and then they didn't

believe me,

and they looked at my record

and found out I can't read,

and then, so they read

the paper to me,

and they told me

what they had done.

- Mm-hmm.

Do you read now?

- Oh, yeah.

- So late, you started to learn

how to read.

- Yeah, I learned how to read.

- Wonderful, yes?

I find this

a great achievement.

- Yeah, it is awesome.

- You are much more

connected now.

- Yeah.

- How does it feel

not to be able to read?

You have to be much smarter

than the others

to understand the world anyway.

- Yeah.

It's... it's kind of tough

out there when you can't read,

but, I mean,

'cause they ain't always have

somebody gonna read it for you.

But, I mean,

I learned how to read in jail

so I could write letters

and read the letters,

and other than that,

I don't plan on going back,

but I'm glad I learned

how to read there.

- And you are doing good now?

- Oh, yeah.

Staying busy at the paint

and body shop.

- Reading?

- Oh, yeah.

- Writing?

- Not much writing.

A lot of sanding.

- I'm interested in your

relationship with Michael Perry.

How did you two meet?

How does this thing happen?

- In 2000,

I had a girlfriend in 2000.

She had a friend named Miranda.

I ended up going to jail,

and Miranda, I seen her

on the side of the road

arguing with Michael Perry,

and I said...

I pulled over, and I asked her

what was going on,

and she said,

"He's living in my trunk,

"and I can't get him...

"you know, he can't live there

no more.

"My dad's seen him.

"My dad got in a fight with him

this morning.

He can't live there."

So he was living

in the trunk of a car,

and I said, "Well, I don't know

what to tell you."

And she asked me,

"Can he live with you?"

And at that moment, I told her,

"No, he can't live with me."

And then, I looked at him,

and she's, like, sad and crying,

and she said, "Please, let him

live with you just for a month."

This was when we were living

in the camper trailer,

and I told him,

"You can live with us.

Get your stuff, put it

in my truck, and come home."

And from that day on,

I fed him, gave him money,

took care of him.

He was like a...

like a little brother,

kid brother

that was pushed on you,

and... and when they... he's older

than me by a few months,

but I had to take care of him

because he had nothing.

He had nobody.

Little did I know he had

a very supportive family.

His mom and dad

were both supportive.

He just didn't want

to follow rules.

He was just like me

and didn't want to follow rules,

and that's why he ended up

living with me,

'cause they said,

"Work and you can live with us."

He didn't want to work.

- And you were sent on a

outward Bound trip into Florida.

What happened?

What was that, yeah?

- Well, you know,

I'm a city boy at heart,

you know what I'm saying?

I'm really not into

the nature and bugs

and... and the weather

and, you know.

So, you know, when... they sent me

on a two week canoe trip.

- Which sounds wonderful

for me, but...

- Yeah, you know, you know,

I like to canoe,

but what it...

what was...

It wasn't the canoeing

that was bad.

It was that it was

in the Everglades.

I mean, we're seeing alligators

everywhere.

Now, my question is...

and I didn't even realize that

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