Corey Ryan
Tookie Williams’ Diary
September 23, 2013
Period One
I believe Tookie Williams changed/didn’t change.
Who picks you up: Johnny “Blacky” Smits, Suzy “Q” Collins & Big Smalls Johnson.
What kind of car do they pick you up in: 1979 Cadillac. All black. Tinted windows. Stereo bumping. The bass could be heard from miles.
Where is the first place you go: We’re going to Suzy’s house to try some Angel Dust/PCP, so he thinks.
What did look like, sound like outside the prison when you walked out? People with signs saying “Go Back To Jail” were screaming all around. People were holding up pictures of children killed by gangs. A bunch of people were swinging blue bandannas in the air.
The first five days Tookie/You are out of jail.
No less than half a page for each day; no more than one full page for each day. Min 2.5 pages/Max 5 pages.
Dear Diary:
I never imagined that freedom would taste so good. I can look up at the sky and see blue. No white clouds. Only blue. This is a sign. As I stroll outside holding a pair of pants, a shirt and a pair of shoes that I turned in way back in 1979 I toss them in the garbage can. They don’t fit. People are lined up on the prison’s grass. I walk down the sidewalk and they scream murderer at me. They don’t even know the half of it. There a signs with young kids, killed during gang fights. But that is the way of the streets. They don’t come from the streets so they don’t know. I keep walking.
Then I hear it. A deep, dark, duuuuummmmmm, duuuuuummmmmm. I feel it in my teeth.
“YO!”
Suzy Q runs up and jumps in my arms. I hold her and squeeze and give her a big kiss. I haven’t felt the sweetness of a girl’s lips in a long time…then Blacky and Big Smalls stroll up behind her. They’re doing some weird dance. They call it Crip walkin’.
Blacky lets me drive.
He gives me directions to Suzy’s house. We pull up. The grass is brown and the front windows have gates over them. There are no windows, just boards. We step in to the house. Every wall is blue. The furniture is also blue. She puts on some rap. She tells me it’s Snoop Dog. It’s chill.
I’m hoping for some PCP. I missed that stuff. I missed that power. They all laughed at me like I was stupid. I punched Blacky real hard. He almost cried. Wimp.
They tell me there’s no more PCP. It’s gone. It’s some new stuff out: Crystal Meth. Suzy unfolds a piece of tin foil and shows me this blue rock that looks exactly like candy. She says this is the Heissenberg special.
I say whatever. She loads the rock in a glass pipe and she lights it for me and I inhale.
I’m back I say as my eyes roll back in my head and I fall back onto the couch. Let’s get some payback…
Dear Diary:
I slept so much while I was in prison; I haven’t slept since I’ve been out. Meth is some good stuff. If they had that around back in 1979 there wouldn’t be a single white person left in Compton.
Oh, well. I got time to make it up.
This morning Suzy Q and me and Big Smalls smoked a bunch and jumped in the Caddy. We all knew where we were headed and
Describe Stop-n-go Scene. Allude to asking for a smoke and sweeping and mopping. But no shooting in the back…
Day 3: Allusion to something “good” that he had done. I’m thinking he goes to the local Barnes & Nobles all cracked out on Meth and signs some books for people and gives a little speech.
Day 4: He has a rough day. They are out of drugs and he has to lay around all day thinking of how they can get money-like before. Only this entry will be more of a flashback to his solitary confinement days.
Day 5: Back to the gang. He has a meeting with the new upper echelons of the Crips. The new guys do not want Tookie in charge. There’s too much heat surrounding him and they’ve been doing just fine without him; however, he starts a new gang-the Tookers. Ha. He starts the new gang to protect his neighborhood...
Corey Ryan
Tookie Diary
September 23, 2013
Period Two
I believe that Tookie did change.
5 days. Min=1/2 page. Max=1 page. Total=min 2.5 or max 5 pages.
What do I see: the sky, people waving books at me, bloods and crips crying and hugging and exchanging bandannas, San Quentin, People holding signs, people selling blue and red sno-cones…
Who picks you up: Reverand Smith and students from his anti-gang foundation.
What are your plans for the first day: Speak at Compton High School about gang life and redemption and eat lunch with the students. Red and blue chips...
Dear Diary:
I look up at the sky. It is clear and blue. Just like the old days. Only today, blue doesn’t mean so much to me anymore. In my hand, I hold the clothes that I went in with. Clothes from 1979. Man, they’re funny. Super pimpin’. But that ain’t me no more.
Kids are everywhere. They’re holding their dad’s hands. Books in the dad’s hands, books in the son’s hands. A girl, a pretty, no a beautiful white girl throws a Sharpie at me and I catch it. Fans hold books out for me to sign. I sign my name: TOOKIE. And I write . And I mean peace. I’ll never let go of my freedom again. I will always fight for peace.
Reverend Smith is waiting next to his van. Compton Cares written in red and blue flies down the side of the van. The letter “o” is my afro. It’s got me laughing until my stomach hurts. Young me, stupid me, with my afro blown out looking all pimp. Man, those days are gone.
The Reverend opens the driver’s side door for me. I haven’t driven in thirty years, but it’s like riding a bike (which I haven’t done in thirty years either). Rolling down the window, I put my arm out and wave at all my fans. Wave at the lives I have saved.
Reverend tells me to buckle up-there are laws now he says. And I do what he says. I’m not going back to jail for a seat belt. Ha! The Reverend and the kids are all buckled in. I put the van in drive and slowly drive away.
San Quentin is in the rearview mirror. I might miss that place. Sike. I watch the prison recede into nothingness, into the road. A road to freedom, hope and redemption. I glance again in the review mirror and I see the kids. Black, white and brown. All smiling.
I know for sure, no matter what, that I am truly a new person. The proof is in the shine of their smiles and the shine of my (imaginary) Noble Prize medal that hangs around my neck.
Day 2: Continuation of Day One
Him preaching in front of the folks at the Compton Center
Day 3: Opposite/challenge
The Crips come by and try to kill him. A drive by in a blue Caddy
Day 4: Flashback-must use an event in the text; what did he learn; how did it influence him...
Flashback to the point that he first “found” religion or whatever. That epiphany that caused him to enter redemption.
Day 5: Start something that will be continued...
Begins writing a new book. This will be the first lines, maybe an outline-like he’s really writing it and stuff...
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