— Hello.
— Hello! — I answered with much more enthusiasm than him.
— What is your name? — He asked me;
— Adri, and yours?
— Alex — He looked at me carefully while he sat informally on the chair —. So, you… come here and offer conversations?
— Yes, I come here once a week to offer free conversations. What about you? What brings you here?
— Well, I’m a cop — Alex was making fun of me. He wasn’t a cop, I think.
— Mmm… Police, wow.
— Well, I… well… .I pass by here you know? .. And if… I find a pickpocket I need to use my walkie to call the cops… You know? So my morning is about catching pickpockets!
— I did not imagine that there were figures like you in the street.
— Well, I… I’m a bit special, hehe— He said, while lighting a cigarette —. Do you smoke?
— No, I don’t.
— Well, I do —He said as he lit a cigarette, smiling.— Well. I found four today.
— Four what?
— Pickpockets, I already told you!
— Ah… I got it… and have you been doing this for a long time?
— Two years now, I never really thought I’d do something like that.
— Why is that?
— Well, before I was one of the bad guys, specially since I met Toni. Toni and I were in the same class. His parents were divorced. Well no, because they never got married and besides, he didn’t know his father, who was a Moroccan.
I was the good guy in my group of friends, and he was the handsome and popular, the girl I always loved fell in love for him but it mattered little to me because I began to be the best friend of the popular guy, Toni. Every year we were getting closer friends even if we had totally different background: I came from a totally normal family, with a father and a mother, my parents worried about my grades at school, about my German classes and about my swimming lessons. His mother… did not care about him, well she was a good woman but her weak character was not enough two rebellious children.
In school Toni and I used to make mischief like jumping off the balcony, stopping going to class, smoking between classes or even drinking! The only difference is his mom would not get angry at him, and my dad would slap me even before I start speaking.
When we were 14, we started going to nightclubs and then everything started to get complicated. We drank every Sunday, then on Mondays we would face a terrible hangover and every time we got into trouble Toni would be mean to teachers and then I would be blamed, you know? Then my parents would punish me, and I would get angry with them. My parents forbade me to see Toni but that only made me hate my parents more. Toni used to hang out with the worst in the neighborhood and sell drugs but he had a good heart. He started selling weed, then hashish and continued with cocaine and LSD and that was when police caught us. One day we sold 3 grams of cocaine to the wrong guy. He was a secret police agent. We were arrested, and police jailed us for a night until my father came to pick me, I didn’t know how to look him in the face.
We didn’t talk the whole way from the police station to our home. We were in complete silent, it was so uncomfortable, but no matter how uncomfortable it was, it was less uncomfortable than talking, believe me I’m telling you the truth. My parents didn’t scold me and that hurt more than any scolding, especially hearing my mother cry behind the bathroom door. I didn’t realize the pain they were going through.
A few days later Police called me to show up in Police station. Upon arrival, I was surprised not to see a tape recorder on the table like in the movies hehehe. Well, long short story, they told me that I could be saved from going to trial if I helped them patrol the streets. People hate the police but that day they saved my life because since then I became a better personI was the good guy in our class, and he was the handsome guy, the girl I always loved fell in love for him but I did not care as now I was the best friend of the popular guy, Toni. Every year we were getting closer even if we had totally different background: I came from a totally normal family, with a father and a mother, my parents worried about my grades at school and about my German classes. His mother… did not care about him, well she was a good woman but her weak character was not enough two rebellious children.
