“The Cosby Show? Please. A house? Nice clothes? A dad? Real life wasn’t like that.”

Wilson describes life on Division Avenue in Washington, D.C., where he spent part of his childhood living in his maternal grandparents’ home. Sandwiched between housing projects, the young men of this self-contained, eight- or nine-block universe know next to nothing about the outside world.

“That’s what my life was about: becoming so hard no one would mess with me. No one would come here, to my house, and hurt my mother.”

Wilson watches his mother suffer at the hands of her abuser-boyfriend, whom Wilson calls “the cop.” Wilson believes he should have done more to help her when he saw the cop repeatedly punching her. Bullied by his older brother Derrick, Wilson believes he is too soft, so he collects as many guns as he can.

“Some guys were working. There was a kid in the next dayroom over, for instance, always reading. I figured he was a short-timer, in for jaywalking or something, because he was neat, and his clothes looked rich. Then someone told me he had life.”

The young man in the dayroom at Patuxent prison is Steve Edwards, who will become Wilson’s tutor, inspiration, and best friend. This is the book’s first reference to Steve. Initially, Wilson thinks the man reading in the dayroom is a fool. After all, what is the point of trying to improve himself when he is in prison for life? This encounter inspires Wilson to begin thinking about his goals and his legacy.