Summary

Eva and Brenda encourage Patricia to plan for a better life when she gets out of jail. Patricia plans to get her GED and Brenda encourages her to go to college, something Patricia never thought about before. Patricia resolves to "get my shit right" (154). In January 1992, Patricia is released from jail and Derrick comes to get her. She mentions her plan of getting her GED and getting a job, but Derrick is immediately dismissive and mocks her. Derrick makes Patricia doubt herself and change her mind about her plans. By the next week, she is back where she started, selling crack in the same place.

Patricia sells drugs in front of a laundromat and the owner, a middle-aged man named Hubert Hood, soon begins to befriend her and look out for her and her kids. Hood becomes a father figure to Patricia and...