alabama ottz . d10 cb fin

"Promise me you'll find one of those nice white-collar jobs where the only things you're liftin' in those hands are a pen and a cigarette."

My daddy never got to see me lift off, jump, and climb up from his shoulders. He left me in the same spot where he was when he got sick. He'd go on for hours about how I could be just one ranch away from findin' a pretty lady that's just right for me. I still have his old sketches of the life he could've had if my mama didn't pass away when I was little. She came from rich folk who had a lot to give but chose to give very little. Something about daddy having premarital sex as if either of them needed some old fuck's permission.

Daddy thought promises were shooting stars in a clear sky. Can't fix hopes and dreams when you're stuck in a fixed world and fixed life. Even before he died, I learned that waving magnets around underneath the train station was a sure way to get money. Magnets pick up coins-- where there're coins there's money-- and where there's money, there're people losing it. If they don't know it's lost, will they really mind if I take it?

Damaris found me underneath the wooden panels of the station. She was charmin' at first glance, offering me a stay at her groupie's hangout. One thing leads to another and she's asking me to join! One of their top guns, Elio Somethinorotherforalastname, told me I could be of use gathering dirt on people. High schoolers love ratting out their parents' shit, and I learn a lot without sayin' much, especially with my Golden Boy looks, as they say.

"Daddy, I hope you're proud up there. It's not a pen I'm holdin' onto, and very rarely a cigarette. I'm liftin' my hands for hushed whispers and games of telephone, passing it all on to someone who knows what to do with it more than me."

White-collar crimes.