Strong Island Page #5

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Cause if you don't

I'll wax you down like a candle

Kill it or shoot it

Buy it or distribute it

But either way the two's

unconstituted

Styling and wilding

Constantly smiling

We'll keep trooping

In a place called Strong Island

So the first time I met him was in '85,

our freshman year at Howard University

in Washington DC.

And Ford was the only one

that had on a shirt and tie,

slacks, and some...

you know, a pair of dress shoes!

Everybody else was

in sneakers and shorts.

And it was strange,

because the first thought

you would think is,

"Is he a nerd?"

You know, was he a square, or...

But he actually wasn't any of that.

You know, he was just...

He liked to make

a good impression, you know?

The second semester

was the hardest for him.

He didn't love Howard, you know.

He wanted to be home, you know.

He wanted to be home. Yeah.

"January

30th, 1989.

I'm trying to keep

all aspects of my life balanced

and be successful in all of them.

I cut school today to go get a job.

I got a Sunday-to-Thursday

three-to-11 shift, driving a cab.

I need the money for Valentine's Day

and Mom's birthday,

and my other job doesn't start

until the 15th."

Untitled.

"Looking at her is peace itself.

He is at last where he

has longed to be.

Finally, a loving place

in her heart.

He looks upon her

and now begins to wonder

if the love of someone so radiant

can be possessed.

He likes holding her in his arms,

close to him, breathing together

as if from one heart.

He loves her gentle kisses

under his neck

that make him powerless

to stand.

Does she know that she is

the ghost that haunts his dreams?

Dream, and dream.

He begins to wonder.

He looks at her

because he doesn't want to lose

what he is not certain he truly has.

He will always look.

Anything she wants.

William Ford, Jr."

Some of the stuff,

I couldn't wrap my mind around.

I said, "Bread, man,

what are you writing about, man?"

But in retrospect,

it could have just been life,

man, you know.

William needed a job

to get him back on his feet,

and my mother helped him

get a position

as an assistant teacher.

He was assigned to the boys' school

on Rikers Island

and helped teach math to the

young men who were jailed there.

When Cornbread

started teaching

at Rikers, I think his

innocence was lost.

The tragedy...

to see others...

that... that look like you, are you...

still in bondage.

To try to wrap your mind

around what needs to be done,

at a young age,

realizing there's no quick fix,

and this was...

it was like a culture shock.

I think the... his experience at Rikers

deepened him, you know?

It deepened him,

to the point that...

he wanted to... to make...

make his... efforts count for something.

Yeah.

William walked towards the

garage and made a left.

It wasn't maybe two seconds,

three seconds...

I just heard, like, a pop.

By the time I got to the garage door,

William was backpedaling,

and he just kind of spun,

I mean, with the biggest eyeballs,

and he just looked at me and he goes,

"Kev, he shot me."

And... I wasn't strong enough

to hold him up.

We both kind of fell to the ground.

You know, once I asked the guy,

he was named Tom,

"What kind of gun is it?"

And he goes,

"Oh, it's a twenty-two. It's a rifle."

So I kind of chuckled and I...

you know, it's kind of something you use

to hunt rabbits or birds, you know?

I remember laughing,

and I'm holding Ford, and going,

"Dude you got shot with a .22!

This is hilarious!

Are you kidding me? Get up!"

And,

Ford wasn't saying nothing.

I'm like, "Dude, get up."

And...

Then I saw some kind of...

fluid, you know, on the pavement,

and I'm just, like, "What is that?"

And...

you know, it was never...

I never saw any blood.

I just remember things happening very fast

at that point.

The police came

and they're, like, grabbing me,

and pulling me to get away from Ford,

and I'm like, "You can't leave him there!"

And they're like, "There's a person

with a gun inside, get behind the car."

They put me behind the police car

and they left Ford there.

I'm like, "You can't leave him here."

And, one police officer was like,

"You better not move."

And the next thing I know,

they were walking out

with the guy that, you know, shot him.

And he never went in handcuffs,

and that was kind of odd to me.

I don't remember them putting him in a

police car. They put him against the car.

And there was a conversation that ensued.

That's the part that was just weird to me.

I kept paying attention to that part.

At some point, a limousine pulled up,

and I remember them walking this kid

to the limousine.

And I just stood there, like,

"This is crazy that he's not in handcuffs,

that he's going to get into a limo."

He was in there for some period of time.

I kept asking, I said,

"Where's the ambulance? What's going on?

I've got to go see Ford.

I've got to go see my friend."

And this cop is like, "You're not going

anywhere, you're coming to the precinct.

You have a lot of questions to answer.

You have to understand that a man

has been murdered here tonight."

It's how I found out that Ford

had already, I guess, passed away.

And I remember standing there,

and I'm like, "What?

What do you mean? He's dead?"

From the time that William was shot

and that limo pulled up,

the story got made then.

You know,

that this person...

was not going to jail, period.

You know.

It just wasn't going to happen.

So after William was killed,

I was...

I tried to have

eyes in the back of my head.

Am I saying what I really mean?

I remember coming here and I remember...

you know, kind of...

you know, kind of coming inside

and seeing you guys.

And your mom was sitting on the couch,

and I was kind of scared to approach her.

And she was, like...

She's like, "Come here."

And I kind of walked over

and she said, "Sit on my lap."

And she said, "Kevin, just two things."

She goes, "Don't desert me,"

and she goes,

"This is what Ford would have wanted.

He would have wanted you to be there."

That was just...

It took the air out of me, you know?

It left me constantly winded, man.

You know.

You know...

I decided not to let anybody see me upset.

Because then they would want

to talk about it.

And I don't want to talk about it.

Back then, I didn't want to talk about it.

So whenever anybody asked me

how I was doing, I said I was doing fine.

I started spending some time...

away from home,

because I couldn't be here by myself.

Or, you know, with Mom and Dad.

Mom just spontaneously crying, and...

If I wasn't with my friends after school,

I was here, either in my room,

or watching TV.

And just... just staying quiet.

After William was killed,

I was scared.

I was scared to leave my home,

I was scared to stay.

I was scared that my parents would...

Your father said to me,

"Don't do anything to hurt my daughters.

Don't do anything to hurt my girls.

These are vicious people.

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