A friend of mine got murdered last night. I'm sitting here in shock that a guy I knew for five years got
beaten to death over a fucking
pot deal gone bad.
I used to smoke with Boom-Boom on a regular basis. He emigrated from Bangladesh 23 years ago. He lived in the same apartment his whole life in the US. His real name was Raj. I never could say, let alone spell, his last name. About five years ago I moved into an apartment four doors down from him.
By coincidence, I also worked with him at a screen printing shop. I ran the computers. He was a screen printer by trade. We used to walk to work together, sneaking tokes on the way. After work, we'd usually retire to his place and he'd roll us a phatty. We'd get high and talk to his birds. He had several parakeets a few of which talked. He loved his birds.
I remember one time he went back to Bangladesh for a few weeks. He had me feed the birds for him. He dictated a list to me of things to be done for the birds, and he told me several times to make sure I talked to them for a while each night.
This morning he was found bound and gagged with his head caved in. Somebody smashed his head against his own porch. Fucking animals. I just got back from leaving flowers at his place. A crowd of people was gathered round and the general buzz was that it was a pot deal gone bad. Unless Boom-Boom changed his buying habits in the six months since I last saw him, that means he was killed over less than $30.
I'm sorry I don't feel like linking this right now. I'll do it later, I just had to get this shit out of me. Fuck me, my little girl and I lived four houses from him. WTF?
I'm going to tip a 40 for my boy. If you think that funny or flippant, it ain't. Another casualty in the war on drugs. Another 40 to tip.
Update 0000717: Went to Boom-Boom's (
closed casket) memorial during lunch today. I met his brother, and I realized I had met him one time before. Boom and I went to his house to look at his computer. It was an old 286. I helped him buy a new
Dell. My bosses were all at the wake to. The whole
Muslim community of Peoria was there, including many of my co-workers. Bad day.
I tipped my 40 Saturday -- shared it with Boom. I also left him a cup of coffee (the man drank coffee 24/7), and some cigarettes.