I heard many frightening stories about Fraggle.
The boys said he knew me.
The boys told me he was involved in a shoot-out in the middle of a street.
The boys said Fraggle carried a gun every day, everywhere he went.
"T, dis nigga is crazy. He robbed a check cashing place."
"I was arrested with three of his firearms."
"Whenever he's around, niggas end up shooting at us."
"T, he said he knows you from the projects."
They described him.
"He's 24, real tall, and light-skinned."
"I don't know him," I said.
The boys would never admit it but they were afraid of Fraggle. It was obvious.
A mother of one of the boys' told me she didn't like Fraggle.
"He is too old to be hanging with my son," she said. "I told my son that I didn't want him in my house but when I got home from work the other day he was there. After they left I searched his room and found a gun. When my son got home I asked him where he got it. And he said, 'It's Fraggle's.'"
Her son begged her not to take it. He was afraid of what might happen if he didn't have Fraggle's gun. Like many mothers in the city she was torn between whether she should take the gun to the police or save her son's life.
The next day the boys and I were at an event.
"T," they yelled.
I walked over.
"T, this is Fraggle."
He looked me in the eyes.
I stared back.
His eyes were big and brown and beautiful.
He asked, "You don't remember me?"
"No," I said.
"I'm Fredrick," he said. "Tawanda's little brother."
I was speechless.
I looked into his eyes again; and remembered him as a little boy running around the projects begging for quarters with his four brothers. They cussed and threw rocks at you if you refused.
I regularly sold his mother and grandmother crack. Whenever I went to his apartment to sell to his mother, I brought her kids lollipops.
The Department of Social Services took Fraggle and his siblings, separated them, and placed them in foster homes. The last time I saw Fraggle he was six.
I loved this young man as a child.
He hugged me.
I held him tight.
I wondered whose fault it was that he has turned out to be the person he is.
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