DeShawn here.  DeShawn Perkins.  Yeah, I'm still here; wanna make somethin' outta it??

I am getting fed up more and more about this area where I call home.  Just last week, my sister, Q'uirionka, was attacked by a guy; he tried to rape her.  She screamed bloody murder and was able to escape.  Ever since, she's had horrible nightmares just about every night; it's not unusual for me to be ripped out of a sound sleep by her screams.

Then a rat bit my other sister, QuaNeesha, in the face; she's now getting rabies shots at the free clinic.  Painful ones, too, right in her belly.

I worry that something is going to happen to my granny.  She's already been robbed or assaulted several times (a few of these times she's had to go to the ER to get treated), and I'm waitin' for that day when the police call me to tell me she's dead.

I am still working at the pizza joint a few nights a week, anything to earn some money, so we can get out of this horrible neighborhood:  it ain't safe for man or beast.  Just last week I saw some stupid goons beating up and kicking a pit bull--and they were laughing about it, too, like it was some sick game.

The poor dog was snapping, growling, and barking; I felt sorry for it.  It was only a puppy; it couldn't have been more than a few months old at the most.  Then the head goon kicked the puppy in the head and after a sharp yelp, it lay still, blood pouring from its nose and mouth.  It sickened me.

I tried to go after the goons, but they got away before I had a chance to even get close to them.  Meanwhile, that poor dog lay there, dying.  It made me sick inside.

I don't know what I am going to do if I don't get out of here.  Hell, I'm only sixteen now, but at times I feel more like eighty.  This hard life has aged me; I know I look older than my years.  People tell me all the time how mature I am for my age.  Well, life's done that, folks.  If y'all had to go through what I have had to, just in order to survive, then you'd be wise-for-your-years, too!

I've had to grow up sooner than my peers because of what I've had to go through and still continue to go through.

I'm a tough-talkin' teen tryin' to make a life for me and my family.  I'm the man of the house, so I have to try my best to provide. 

I just wish things would get a little easier, where we wouldn't have to worry so much about food, money, bills, clothes.

I believe in God, but don't go to church.  Can't; it's too far for me to walk, and 'sides, it's too dangerous, even in the daytime, to be out by yourself.  So I have church at home, every Sunday, with my granny and my baby sisters.  We read the bible and pray.

Pray that God gets us through yet another day, pray for a financial (or some other kind of) miracle, to get us outta here.  Life's gotta be better than what we're going through right now!

Well, Granny's callin', so I'd best run along now.  I will write in here again soon; just keep us in your prayers!  Thanks in advance; we'd really appreciate it!

~DeShawn.  :(

*To be continued.*