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on my heels.
    “You might want to talk to your counselor before you leave,” he suggested.
    “He’s not here.”
    “I know. So we’re gonna have to go to the office and give him a call.” He pressed the issue.
    Frustrated with Mr. Macer, I stopped in my tracks and stood in front of him. “Look, I don’t have time to be making calls. I’ve got to leave now,” I snapped, because he was holding me up. I was trying to get out of there before Denise realized I was gone and had run off with her money.
    “You know if you leave out of here without talking to your counselor, you won’t be allowed to come back to this program.”
    “Right now, Mr. Macer, this program is like the furthest thing from my mind.”
    “Remember you begged me to let you in the front door,” he reminded me.
    After he reminded me of the day I cried to come through these doors, I knew I could no longer stand there and look at him. Shame was beginning to consume me all over again. I turned my head and looked toward the end of the hall where the exit was located.
    “So, you’re leaving just like that?” he asked.
    “I’m sorry, but I’ve gotta go,” I said and continued toward the front door of the facility.
    “Faith, you’re making a big mistake! And Mrs. Williams is going to really be disappointed with you.” I heard him yell from behind me.
    I didn’t look back. I kept walking until I exited the building. And when I got outside, it felt like I was free. I thought back to the day that I first arrived here and witnessed the man walk out that very same front door. He had the biggest smile on his face. And today I had to admit that I shared his sentiments.
    I walked away from the drug rehab with a couple changes of clothes and one hundred seventy dollars. It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was enough for me to get some food and a place to stay for the night. I hopped on the HRT and took the city bus uptown. I got off at the Virginia Beach Boulevard and Tidewater Drive stop and strolled into Burger King for a bite to eat since I was in walking distance of the restaurant. I ordered the big fish combo with cheese and a diet Coke and took a seat in the lobby area of the restaurant to eat.
    After I ate my food and gulped down my drink, I left the restaurant and headed to the hotel next to Burger King. Everybody who frequented this low budget, roach infested hole in the wall was either a dope fiend or a dealer. Personally I didn’t want to see either one of them. All I wanted was a place where I could rest my head and think about what I was going to do next. But unfortunately, that wasn’t about to happen, because as soon as I walked to the front desk of the hotel to pay for my room, I ran into this clown named Bee.
    Bee was a small time dope hustler from Tidewater Park. He had to be in his early twenties because he didn’t have a speck of facial hair, but he carried himself like he was an old G who had plenty of weight and plenty of connections. I couldn’t tell you what he was really working with because I’d never been in the company of a man who actually had it going on like that, but I had seen enough TV to know that he was our local block hustler who wished he was big time like Scarface. I was sure every cat in the state of Virginia wished they had the money and the power Scarface had in that movie. But since there were a lot of snitches floating around here, no one would ever be able to rise up and gain that much power.
    As I stood in front of this average looking, tall, dark, lanky young guy, he smiled at me with a mouthful of gold teeth and asked, “Where you been at, stranger? You look like you been getting you some sleep.”
    “I was in a drug rehab center in Virginia Beach for ten days. I just got out today.”
    “Oh, so that’s why ain’t nobody seen you.” And then he changed his tone. “Hey, wait a minute. Don’t you have something for me?”
    When he asked me if I had something for him, I knew he was talking about