“You better start doing something about it, cause if you don’t you gonna be punk of the month. Look, I don’t care one way or the other. I’m just trying to tell you something for your own good. Dudes will try to give you things and get you involved in a lot of jive conversation… It’s all a setup to turn you out. Watch yourself when you take a shower. Don’t walk around half nude. And for your own protection, make sure you stay on a top bunk. The main thing is to be a man. If someone comes at you with some silly shit, knock hell out of em. If you get your ass whipped, you get your ass whipped. At least you’ll get some respect and dudes will know where you comin from.”

From then on, I became very self-conscious and Chilly didn’t help the situation any. He was always on me about some mannerism of mine that betrayed something funny. It didn’t matter if these things seemed natural to me. I had to avoid being labeled a punk. So I watched the way I ate, held my hands, crossed my legs, and walked.

“Every man got some bitch in him,” Chilly said. “Some just got more than others. In here you either check it or let it all hang out.”

One afternoon a fight broke out in the laundry room between two blacks. Physically, it was a contest of extremes. One dude was thin to the point of being frail, while the other was taller and very husky. Surprisingly, it was the smaller of the two who was selling the most wolf tickets.

“Come on, man. You said you wanted some ass. Well, come on and fuck me now!”

“I’m gonna see how bad you jump when you ain’t got an audience,” the larger dude said, visibly shaken from being louded in front of so many people.

“Unh, unh, man. You got to cop now!” Throwing up his hands, the smaller of the two men began dancing for position and then fired a right-hand punch, catching his man flush on the temple. The hacks moved in quickly to break it up and no other telling blows were landed. Everyone talked about how the youngblood had sucker-punched the big dude and in general made him look bad.

The next morning on my way to the dorm after breakfast I was surprised by an inmate on the stairway as I turned to go up the next landing. The lapels on his khaki jacket were turned up, making his weightlifter’s shoulders stand out. His Magic-Shave head and dark glasses gave him a cagey look. He looked like the kind of person capable of slipping under doors and through keyholes.

“What’s happenin?” he said.

“Nothing’s happening.”

“That ain’t the wire I got on you. The word is that you sho nuff stuff. Now, I don’t wanna disrespect you so I’m comin to you like a man to find out what’s what, cause if you do mess around you gonna need someone to take your weight when the vultures come around. If you hook up with me you won’t have to worry about nobody fuckin with you.”