Warrick:
I don't have too many memories of my parents; most of them are in the form of pictures. My dad fought and died in Vietnam and I think my mother died of a broken heart. My Grams was the one who raised me from the time I was about two. As I got older, people treated me different for some reason. I didn't really understand what was so different about me compared to all the other kids in the neighborhood. I thought that I was just like them. A lot of them had just a mom or just a dad, a few lived with another relative like me, but still the fingers got pointed my direction. I was different. I wasn't really one of them because my dad was white, regardless of the fact that my mom was black. I really didn't know what that meant until I was nine; not that I didn't know the difference between white skin and black skin; I just didn't understand what racism was until then.
The fact that I had green eyes put me out there as someone to pick on, someone to beat up, someone to push down with all those books I carried home to read because no one wanted to hang out with me. I spent time learning to play the piano because it was a world I could get lost in and Grams loved it.
When I was nine, I found that I could avoid getting beat up if I at least tried to play sports. One of my teachers had a friend who worked at the Boys and Girls club and thought I might like to learn to play basketball. I think he felt sorry for me; a tall gangly black kid with green eyes, thick glasses and big feet just trying to fit in. Basketball turned into baseball and then football and even though I wasn't very good, I had started to make friends. And then I learned that I could make friends faster if I made a friendly wager on the outcome of the games we'd play. As I got older I learned that I had a good feel for how teams would do even though my own athletic skill stayed dormant until I was well out of high school. Gambling became a way that I could enjoy the thrill of winning without actually playing the game and I wasn't so banged up that I couldn't enjoy putting the swerve on the ladies in my Members Only jacket.
I wanted a dad, I needed a mom, and all I had was Grams. Don't get me wrong, I loved that woman dearly; if it wasn't for her I'm sure that I would have ended up on the street a lot worse off than I was with my gambling problem. If it wasn't for her, I might have gone to work in a casino instead of going to college, and I'm certain that I wouldn't have become a criminalist if it weren't for her. She instilled in me a passion for truth and for everyone being treated equally.
I think because I stood out as different as a kid, I can see the pain people feel and I want to help; I need to help. When I was nine, life was confusing as hell, but I know now that it was just part of the journey of life and life's just too damn short to not live it fully. Nick's experience taught me that; and impulsive or not, marrying Tina was just another step in that journey that I hope will go on for a long, long time.