It was July 12, 2005 when I heard the news that has forever changed my life. I was going to the Bowie City gymnasium as I did almost every day to play basketball, and start some pick-up games. When I arrived, started looking for my usual squad. I had my best friend Desmond Bowden playing the point, my friend Leon Willis playing the 3 guard, my other friend Kevin Baker playing the power forward, my main man Jeff Willis playing the center, and I played the 2 guard. Together we were unstoppable; we owned the gym. If there ever was a high school dream team we were it. I couldn't find anyone. None of my teammates were there. I started thinking where could they be. Then I remembered that Desmond had gone to Rhode Island for a college visit. But he was supposed to be back home last night. Maybe he missed his plane, I thought, but where was everybody else.
Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: ...
President Lyndon B. Johnson and Rev. Dr. Martin Lu...
Martin Luther King, Jr.I called Leon at home but nobody picked up. If he wasn't home, he was at the gym; that's just how things were. I called my other teammates and I got the same response. Nobody was home. I started to get scared because we all practically lived at the gym, and lived to play basketball.
I decided to go out to the front desk and ask Mrs. Hawkins, the manager of the gym, if she had seen any of my teammates. If anyone would know where they were, she would. When I asked Mrs. Hawkins if she had seen them she gave me this look that I will never forget. Her whole facial expression had changed from the looking like she was pleased to see me, to a look of sympathy, and sorrow. And she said to me, "You...