"She was still young then in Watts, in her thirties, but she had all these ailments. She didn't' even have teeth; they rotted away many years before. This made her look much older until later when she finally obtained false ones. Despite this she worked all the time, chased after my brother with a belt or a board, and held up the family when almost everything else came apart." Chapter One, Page 23

"But on those days the perils came out too - you could see it in the faces of the street warriors, in the play of children, too innocent to know what lurked about, but often the first to fall during a gang war or family scuffle." Chapter One, Page 29

"It seemed Mama was just there to pick up the pieces when my father's house of cards fell. She knew it would." Chapter One, Page 31

"I secretly...