My dad rarely talked of the dark part of war. He would sometimes talk about living conditions, how walking through agent orange soaked swamps made it so he couldn’t grow hair on his legs, and he’d sometimes joke about how I had at least 30 older half brothers and sisters would receive all of his money when he died. That was about all he like to talk about when it can to war. One detail that he didn’t need to talk about, a detail that always went without saying was his complete loyalty and love for the brothers he served with. As a boy, I remember random guys would stop by and they would give each other man hugs would talk like brothers. My dad would introduce them to me and tell me “this is your Uncle Frank, Uncle Pete, or Uncle Jake”.
I had more Uncles than anyone I knew.
Hell, I even had an Uncle Shithouse. I knew no other kids with an uncle Named Uncle Shithouse. I was pretty damn lucky.
Most of these uncles had some of the same military tattoos that my father had. The “De Opresso Liber” Shield seemed to be my dad’s family crest. I knew to respect these men with “yes sirs” or “no sirs” or my dad would kill me.
Curious about the friendships my dad had with these men..one day when I was around twelve years old I asked my Dad how he got so many best friends.
He replied:”Ed, I’ve gone through the darkest kind of hell with those men. When you are in hell with bullets flying and blood draining... just when you want to fall down and die you look around and see men who care more about your life than they do about theirs, Its then you realize that you don’t need to have the same mom to be brothers.”
My Dad ran his knuckles through my hair with a half-assed noogie, smiled and said:
“If it wasn’t for my buddies, you’d probably have some pussy-hippy dad named Milkshake”.

I never understood that kind of friendship until I was Incarcerated in La Mesa.
My friend JD became my friend on day one. Not because he had to be, but because he wanted to be. On many occasions he had my back in scrapes and I had his. I knew he’d take a bullet for me, and I would have had no problem taking one for him. I could write another 20 chapters of the demons that we fought together.
La Mesa was hell. Maybe not even close to the kind of hell that my Dad knew, but it was a hell, and when it got dark in that hell, I knew JD was there willing put my life above his and I without question would do the same for him. He was my brother.
Unfortunately, just like war, La Mesa can take a friend and a brother pretty fast.

About the time Jesus was writing the note to my Father before leaving for LaMesa, I was waking up from another nightmare ridden night. JD and I liked to workout early in the mornings, so I got up, took a piss and a drink and headed over to JD’s Caracas. On my way over I passed a couple of guys who gave a me a look like something was off. Way off. It kind of gave me an uneasy feeling.
Once I arrived to JD’s Caracas, JD was still asleep as usual. I kicked him lightly to wake him up. Not even looking down, I didn’t notice the blood coming from underneath his blanket..blood that was slowly draining across the concrete. I kicked again, that time my foot slipping on the blood. My heart sunk to hell as I looked down and saw the blood soaked blanket. I dropped, pulled the blanket off JD’s body only to see a deep cut across his throat. His eyes stared blankly off into space. No movement besides a slight quiver in his fingers. Upon further inspection I noticed that Not only had his throat been cut from ear to ear, but Both of his Achilles’ tendons has been cut.
I immediately knew who I was going to kill.
I stood up, heartbroken, and trying to keep my shit together walked to the nearest guard and told him of JD. The guard looked up from his newspaper and said: Uno Momento.
My reply was: “Get your fat ass up and take care of my friend or I am going to punch a hole through the back of your skull.”
This particular guard didn’t know English, but sensing the seriousness in my voice got up and walked with me to JD’s Caracas and quickly blew his radio up. Within 15 minutes the body was removed. No investigation, no questions, just a La Mesa bodybag. Business as usual.
My Friend, my brother, my pal. Deader than hell. Just like that I lost my brother. The best friend I’d ever had. Dead.
In a daze I walked back to my Caracas where a few of my other American friends hung and told them the news. They took it hard. Everyone loved JD. He was the best kind of person. The best person to ever walk through the doors of La Mesa.
In shock, I looked to My American Friends and said:
“I’m going to kill Felix and I’m going to kill him today”.

To be continued.
All my love
No homo
Ed

• How to run a cycle in the Joint

1. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 01: Mexicana Boogaloo
2. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 02: La Mesa
3. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 03: Mi Casa
4. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 04: Trial
5. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 05: Arraigo order
6. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 06: The cycle
7. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 07: El tercer piso
8. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 08: The hole game
9. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 09: The Sancho
10. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 10: Papa
11. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 11: The old man cometh
12. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 12: The Ritual
13. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 13: Achilles
14. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 14: Sympathy
15. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 15: La mano de dios
16. How to run a cycle in the joint Volume 2 chapter 16: Brothers