Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16

by Moshe Kasher

We robbed, got robbed, and one of us even got punched in retaliation for the karmic punches we’d sprayed into the world. We didn’t realize it, but it was perfect. Or maybe we did realize it. We piled back into the Suburban a bit lighter. The engine spat to life and we were off, driving back to North Oakland, to home and safety. We rode in silence for a few minutes, breathing through what had just happened to us. I broke the silence. “Hey, you guys wanna go rob somebody?” The guys turned and looked at me. Donny cracked a smile. DJ, holding his face, punched me in the arm and started laughing. We all started laughing. The noise filled that truck. We laughed into the truck and we laughed into the air. We laughed like lost boys. Dave put on some Gangstarr, a track called “Soliloquy of Chaos.” A fitting soundtrack to the evening’s festivities. Someone produced half a joint, pulled from the ashtray of the Suburban. A smoke, a drink, and the whole debacle was puffed away. I curled in and fell asleep.