Restlessness

"Hey man, you need to leave the dorm. Now."

These were the words I heard shortly after waking up today. For some reason this guy thought I had snitched on the guys involved in the heart check. (See entry Thursday, August 6, 2009.) The Hispanic gang involved had told one of the white gangs to take care of it. I had three options.

"You can either leave now, go ahead and fight me, or wait for about fifteen of these other guys to get over here and smash you."

"But I wasn't involved in the any of that. There's no reason I would be." I protested. "I'm not gaining anything with those guys gone."

"Sorry. I'm giving you a chance. I don't think you want to get beat up. No arguments. Leave or that's your only option."

I was able to get the guy calmed down to the point where we worked out that I would go to music practice, he would go to rec, and if nothing was found out, I would leave after dinner. At music practice I shared the situation with the other guys and we had a time of prayer. One guy offered to come back to the dorm with me but I told him I would be okay. In my head, I was half expecting to get jumped as soon as I got back, all for some dumb rumor.

Instead, I was greeted by suspicious stares. I talked with the only members of the Hispanic gang in our dorm (who was also involved in the heart check) and tried to tell him that I didn't rat anyone out and would have no reason to do so. He said he didn't know for sure either way, but he was being pressured by his gang to take care of me. We worked out that I would stay until tomorrow after we went out to commissary. Again, if nothing was figured out, I would leave.

Tonight, when I was in cell block working, I talked to some guys in both gangs and all of them thought the situation was out of control. They wrote notes for me to take back to the dorm to hopefully calm the guys down so I didn't get evicted. So far they haven't listened to anything I've said. Maybe they'll listen to their own guys. I'm pretty on edge until tomorrow.