I'm so glad you're here. I have so much to tell you.
Things are finally going to be different. Okay, you remember my daughter, Leila that I
told you about, right? She makes everything better.
I have figured out some ways to change some things so that I can take care of her.
Okay. I'm not gonna need disability.
I'm going to write a book about my experiences. I've already started.
I've already started. I've already filled three notebooks.
In fact, do you have more notebooks that you can give me?
I know a publisher. He is going to publish it.
It is going to sell a million copies
and then I am gonna take Leila around the world and I am going to show her everything and she
is going to have a better life than I did.
Okay, I have to go and write this down before I forget, have you been on a plane
because I want to go on a plane. I wanna go on a plane and I wanna share my
book with the world.
Yeah, and then - when I'm in Europe, I'm going to eat great food and I'm going
to meet interesting people.
Have you ever been on a plane? Because I wanna go on a plane.
I wanna go on a plane and I want to talk about my book.
What do you think should be on the cover? Yeah.
Are planes scary? I don't know.
Thanks! I gotta go.
I got to go.
I'm sorry if I kept you waiting. I was sleeping.
Do I look okay?
Steph says that we met a while back.
I don't remember meeting you but it was probably just before I got arrested.
They sent me to the hospital for a while and now I'm here.
I can't tell you how many times I have told my story to a counselor but Steph
thinks these benefits are really gonna help so if she thinks you're okay, then I'm okay talking
to you. I don't mind.
I'm so tired.
I just can never fall sleep and then
when I finally do fall asleep,
suddenly I'm awake for no reason.
When I'm not here, I sleep in my car but I could find the best possible parking
space and something will still wake me up.
You have to be careful where you park. You do.
Like, if I'm parked near a store then I have to get up and move my car by six.
I try to stay away from people.
I, sometimes, I walk until three or so in the morning.
I can't sleep when normal people sleep. I can't.
Sometimes if I'm lucky I get a few hours here and there, you know, in the daytime,
never at night.
At least the guards here are pretty nice.
Well, you know, compared to the ones that I've met over the years.
Social workers, drug counselors,
parole officers, cops, all those people think they know me.
Here she comes again, Collette Rose.
They only see me at my worst.
They don't know who I am. They don't understand me.
They always want me to talk about things
that I want to forget, and those stupid groups, in front of other people.
My life is none of their business!
You need to know more about my story so you can help with this application thing.
So, the only thing that ever made me happy was school.
Did you know that I was an A and B student?
I thought that I would go to college.
I didn't even make it out of the 9th grade.
Too many things kept happening.
Too many things.
I didn't finish school because I don't finish anything, but that is why I have got to
get Leila back.
I really need to see this one through
but I'm sure someone or something is going to stand in our way, like my 16-year-old
son, James.
He is doing time in juve right now
and he's, I don't think he's gonna wanna see me when he gets out.
He never does.
No men wanna see me.
They just - they just when they're around you, they just wanna take from you.
They really don't care what I want
and then when they don't get what they want,
they just leave just like my father.
I hate it. It makes me so sad.
My mother always had men coming and going.
You never knew what was gonna happen.
Like one, one night, this guy he beat her up and then he chased me but I ran
and then I learned from that time on to hide.
Every time someone came in that apartment.
My mother had a nerve problem and she drank a lot.
When I was 11, she quit and then about a year later, she got married to Rick
and then she got pregnant and they had three kids together but I was just - I was never
part of that family and then, I had some problems with Rick.
The joy and pain of being Collette.
I really don't want to talk about it.
Let's just say that he liked me a little too much and I hated him.
Can we end this?
I really need to lie down for a little while.