In a Bronx halfway house, twenty-four days before the hanging, Jimmi recounts his life story for us.
His dad
split when he was young, so it was just his mom and him growing up. He enlisted
in the military when he was seventeen, and left for training before finding out
his girl was knocked up.
By the
time he found out, he was overseas, but he planned to come back to America and
marry her when he got the chance.
One day,
a five-year-old ran past Jimmi at the city market. She had an IED strapped to
her and it malfunctioned and killed her—Jimmi talked to the girl as she died.
He woke
up a couple weeks later in the vet hospital recovery wing. He'd been hit by
rubble and was pretty shaken up by what he'd seen.
Jimmi
went back home and looked for his girl, but it was too late by the time he got
there, and she'd lost the baby and killed herself.
Eighth
months later, Jimmi works at the hospital as a sweeper, and does drugs to keep
his mind off things.
He's not
sure if life is worth living, but he writes little poems to keep him going.