Born a Crime

This white family also had a
black maid who lived in the
servants’ quarters in the backyard,
and I’d play with her son whenever
we stayed there. At that age my love
of fire was in full bloom. One
afternoon everyone was at work—
my mom and Abel and both of the
white parents—and the kid and I
were playing together while his
mom was inside the house cleaning.
One thing I loved doing at the time
was using a magnifying glass to
burn my name into pieces of wood.
You had to aim the lens and get the
focus just right and then you got
the flame and then you moved it