Derrick was a 40 year old small scrawny black man that I used to work with. The first thing that I learned about him was that he rarely stopped talking and most of what he said made no sense. The second thing I learned was that he was very aggressive. Derrick used to tell me all kinds of stories about his life. He used to call me E because he could not remember my name. 

One night he was working by the oven, and our boss, Jason, was drunk. Jason kept poking Derrick for no reason. Until finally, Derrick said, “If you touch me one more time I will beat you up”. Jason reached over and poked Derrick again. Then bam bam bam three punches and Jason was on the floor. Derrick went back to the oven. Jason got up and went back to work. I answered the phone. Everything continued as though nothing had happened. 

A few weeks later Jason brought his gun to work, and carried it in a holster around his waist. Derrick came over to me and whispered in my ear “E, Jason is making me really mad, carrying around that gun. If he ain’t careful I’m gonna steal it and shoot him.” Then he laughed and walked away. I was pretty sure that he was joking, but you could never quite tell with Derrick. 

Most people I worked with never graduated high school, and were not very intelligent, but Derrick was wicked smart. He loved to read, and we had interesting conversations about books we had both read. I often wondered how he ended up working in a pizza shop making minimum wage, and one night he told me. “E, have I ever told you the story of why I went to prison?” Derrick asked. “I didn’t know that you went to prison,” I said intrigued. “This guy tried to jump me on the street, but as you know I am a good fighter, and easily overtook him. But then two other guys came out of nowhere so I took out my knife and started stabbing the first guy to scare the others away. When I went to court they told me that stabbing someone nine times was too many to be considered self defense. This was a low point in my life. I had never done anything wrong, and now my life was turned upside down.” Everything about Derrick finally made sense. Why he worked at a pizza shop. Why he was so angry. Derrick told me, “E, be careful out there. The world is a dangerous place, one wrong turn and you will never get back to where you were.”

A few months went by and Derrick told me more stories, and gave me valuable life advice. One day he said “See you next week E” and walked out the door, as he did every sunday. I said goodbye, and looked forward to seeing him next week. Unfortunately I never saw him again.