Reading with Patrick

While immersed in her new life in Oakland, Kuo received several letters from Patrick. He told her that he had been shuttled from one prison to another. The good news was that he had earned his high school diploma through a GED program.

One day, Patrick called, saying that he was being released from prison early due to overcrowding. Nine months after he returned home, Mary died after having a seizure. A month later, Patrick called again asking for two dollars. Kuo was in the midst of talking to a client. She noticed that he sounded drunk or high. She said that she couldn’t send him money and asked how the job search was going. He reported that there was nothing in Helena. She didn’t hear from him again for six months.

Kuo soon began volunteering for the Prison University Project at San Quentin. There, she encountered extraordinarily motivated students. She observed another East Asian teacher and assumed that he taught math, though he was a literature instructor, like her. Ironically, Kuo ended up teaching math due to a glut of English teachers.

Months later, Kuo heard from Patrick again. He found work loading tombstones onto a truck for the store that sold them downtown. He then drove to the cemetery, dug plots, and set the stones. Patrick liked working outdoors. He also reported that his family had to move to a cheaper place, now that they no longer had his mother’s salary to help. Another family moved into their old house, and another Black man was shot on that porch, in the face.

Patrick later visited a friend in San Francisco whom he met in Job Corps. He sent Kuo a text message, marveling at California’s size and beauty. When Patrick visited Kuo and her parents, who were in town for her wedding to Albert, the fellow Asian American instructor at San Quentin, her father reached out to touch his hair. Patrick took the gesture in stride, though Kuo was mortified. She told Patrick that she was still writing about him; he was fine with that. He told Kuo that his ultimate ambition was to be a truck driver and see the country that way. But, he knew that his record was going to stand in the way.

Later, when Patrick was 25, Kuo visited Helena and saw Cherish, now six, in her classroom at KIPP. Patrick had gone to Little Rock, where he thought that there would be more jobs. However, his felony record was always a problem. Kuo took Patrick to the library and helped him type his résumé and cover letter. She also showed him how to use Microsoft Word. They printed out copies of the documents and drove to a plant in western Helena. During the ride there, she handed him the collection of W.S. Merwin’s poetry and asked if he was still writing. He turned away from her, saying it was hard. Kuo suddenly recalled a passage from Baldwin about how the poor didn’t have the time or energy to read.

When they arrived at the plant, Kuo and Patrick were greeted by a red-faced man who was chewing on what seemed to be tobacco. He told Patrick that he would have to be clean and asked if he’d submit to a drug test. Patrick agreed. Kuo realized that Patrick would have to fight a new battle—re-entering society. This fight was going to be never-ending.

Back in California, Kuo retrieved Patrick’s old letters and began reading them voraciously. He wrote about his favorite Langston Hughes poem, and about getting his GED. Her favorite letter was the one he had written in response the Mary Oliver poem “Mysteries, Yes.” He had told her his favorite line, which was about how both contented people and scarred ones could find comfort in a poem.