The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

Moore provides statistics of graduation rates in Maryland, which are as high as 85% in some years. However, in Baltimore where Wes lived, “it was a dismal 38 percent” (108). Moore describes the graduation of Wes’s friend Woody, “who made it across the finish line kicking and screaming” (109).

After spending six months looked up for shooting Ray, Wes came home to Dundee Village. His sentence was so light because Ray suffered minor injuries, and so Wes was only charged with attempted murder as a minor, since the judge believed “he would not be a potential threat to the community” (110). Wes returned to school immediately, but he knew he wouldn’t last long. Because he hadn’t finished high school and had a criminal record, he found it very difficult to get a job to support his new baby. He lived with his Aunt Nicey and “[made] himself scarce” to avoid her strict conditions (110).

While he was out of the house, he ran his drug operation, which had a specific hierarchy of players. His team earned $4,000 a day at their peak. Statistically, “there was an obvious glut of addicts” (112), with more than 100,000 people using drugs in Baltimore alone. Given that incredible demand, “it was hard not to make money” (112). However, Wes became aware that “the drug game was raw capitalism on overdrive with bullets, a pyramid scheme whose base was dead bodies and ruined lives” (112).

One afternoon, an unfamiliar and clean-shaven man approached Wes to see if he knew where he could “buy some rocks” (114). This set off a red flag in Wes’s mind; he figured this man was probably a cop. Wes said no and walked away. However, he watched the guy, and the awareness that he didn’t make a sale wouldn’t leave his mind. He hid a small hit in a nearby phone booth and reapproached the guy, telling him where he might find something. While taking money from the man, Wes noticed his “hands were smooth and his nails were clean” (114), two sure signs he wasn’t a regular drug addict. Wes walked away with $20. Around the corner he was apprehended by cops.

The narration then shifts to Moore’s new circumstances as a “platoon sergeant, a cadet master sergeant, and the youngest senior noncommissioned officer in the entire corps” (115). Their standard motto was “no excuses, no exceptions” (115). Moore enjoyed military school because “they made it clear that they cared if [he] succeeded” (115), and so he came to care too. In his second year he received scholarship money that eased the financial burden brought on by tuition. Moore was also getting attention from colleges as he made a name for himself on the basketball court. He attended prestigious summer camps and was “cocky as hell” (116). He strongly believed he could make it into the NBA, even though he could still be schooled by his uncle Howard on the court. His uncle advised him to have a “backup plan” because the chances of making the NBA weren’t in his favor.

Moore reminisces about reading a letter from his friend Justin in the Bronx that carried news of Shea’s arrest on drug charges and of Justin’s mother’s struggle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Justin was trying to juggle visiting his mother with school and basketball practice, but his grades were dropping significantly. One evening, Moore and another sergeant of H Company named Dalio were walking to Wayne for a bite to eat. A red Toyota car pulled over, and Moore could smell alcohol. The young man said he was Colonel Bose’s son and that he was going to report Moore and Dalio for “unruly uniforms.” Not thinking much of it, Moore and Dalio continued to the pizza shop. The car came roaring back, almost hitting them. Only 200 yards from the pizza place, someone yelled “Go home, nigger!” (120). Moore turned around to have something hard slam against his mouth. His front teeth were jagged, and his mouth bled badly. Moore led Dalio back to campus, meandering behind trees and side streets; the “veil of security [he] thought the uniform provided had been lifted” (122). They ran into the same woods through which Moore had tried to escape Valley Forge. Aware of the irony, he reflects that he “ran through the same woods looking for safety” (122) that the campus provided—the same campus he had tried to run away from.