One of the last times I died, I didn't go to Heaven with Uncle Joe, I just saw myself laying on the bed. The doctors were doing CPR and using the defibrillators but nothing was working. Everyone was sitting or standing around the room, hugging each other and crying on each other. Then, I saw Uncle Joe standing next to Dad and Uncle Jamie with his hands on their shoulders. Dad had his head down shaking his head. Uncle Jamie turned around and stormed out of the room.

I was in the coma for six days. I watched as they finally got me alive, and I felt a huge jerk when I woke up. I sat up really quickly and scared everyone in the room. Everyone started to cry tears of joy but I just started to ache all over. I was checking out my bruises and scars all over my body. Jack walked over to the side of the bed, and slowly mumbled "I'm sorry." I could barely hear him because one of my eardrums were busted. I just looked at him, confused and tried to ask him what he said. My voice wasn't working because I had gotten kicked in the throat. I kept trying to speak and kept getting so mad that it wasn't working that my blood pressure started to spike, and it caused some type of alarm to go off. I just sat back on the bed and started to cry.

Everyone was gathered around me and I was getting claustrophobic. I tried to push them away with my feet but if I tried to move them, it shot agonizing jolts of pain up through my spine. Uncle Jamie still wasn't back. I waited until I gained enough energy, and could move my legs without hurting them to make my move. I reached down, grabbed the IV and the other tubes they had in me and I pulled them out. I got up and ran out on pure adrenaline.

I didn't stop until I got to a phone booth down the road. I didn't have any pockets in the shirt they gave me at the hospital, so of course, I didn't have any cash. I was too short to reach it either, so a nice elderly lady gave me money and handed the phone down to me. I told her what numbers to dial and she did. I stood waiting, listening to it ring when I heard a phone start to ring and it was getting quieter and quieter, so I thanked the old lady and ran after it. I had memorized how everyone in the family walked, so when I saw the way one guy was walking I knew who it was. "Uncle Jamie! Uncle Jamie!" I yelled at him while chasing him down. I don't know how I could talk during this whole thing, as soon as the adrenaline wore off my throat hurt even worse from trying to yell.

I don't know why now, but at the time, it seemed obvious to run across the road, without looking, to get to him. He turned around really quick as if he was hearing something, and saw me about to run into the road. I started to run across the road at full speed when I heard "Joseph!" I stopped for a second and turned around. I knew who it was as soon as he spoke. It was Uncle Joe. He motioned for me to come back over to the sidewalk, so I did. I turned back around and Uncle Jamie was running across the street to get to me. He wasn't paying attention to the traffic, and was about to get hit by a truck going way too fast for a red light. I yelled as loud as I could but I was getting more and more tired. Uncle Jamie didn't hear me, but Uncle Joe did. He got in front of the car and slowed it down enough to where Uncle Jamie backed up and it barely missed him. Uncle Jamie told me later that he was surprised the car slowed down just enough.

Uncle Joe came back to beside me and Uncle Jamie ran over to me. When Uncle Jamie got over there, Uncle Joe smacked the back of Uncle Jamie's head "That's for running across the street without looking 'Harvard'. " Uncle Jamie turned around and started rubbing his head. I looked up at Uncle Joe and we both started laughing to ourselves. Uncle Jamie grabbed me and hugged me so tight I started to hurt again.

I started saying "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. Uncle Jamie, you're hurting me." He sat me back down and ran his hands over my face and the bruise on the side of my head. He put his head down and started to say something then stopped. He took a deep breath in.

"What happened to you, buddy? How did you even get with those kids?" I looked at Uncle Jamie and was silent.

In my head I was thinking "Uncle Jamie I wish I could tell you, but if I did, you would be disappointed in me, and the last thing I want is for you to be upset with me too." He could tell I was holding back something.

He looked at me and said, "Joseph, I need you to tell me what happened and how you got into the situation. If you don't then we have no way of finding the other three guys that got away."

I looked at him in the eye and started telling him everything. "They were Jack's older friends. Jack was supposed to be with us, cause we were going to go see a movie. I didn't have a ride other than the kids that were there. So they drove us to wherever you found me at, and we were going to play basketball, but then they pulled out a pack of cigarettes and one thing led to another and then they were beating me up. I don't remember much after that." Uncle Jamie looked at his feet then crouched down to be lower than me.

"Xavier you have to tell me everything that happened. I don't know what the one thing was that lead to another." I reached up and put my arms around his neck and he stood up and held me. I tried to talk and then started to hurt all over. The adrenaline had worn off.