CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
2001 – Freeze Tag
I made my second attempt at the GRE in late August and killed it. My score was top tier, applications were all tight and I’d come up with some excellent references- it was guaranteed I’d get accepted to NYU. My goal was to mail everything off by second week of November. And then begin the wait.
That wait was enforced by 9/11. That day froze every fucking thing.
Port activity came to a screeching halt- all shipments were put on hold. Thankfully, Hopeton was back in Brooklyn when it all went down. Motherfuckers were scrambling, My BlackBerry was blowing up and my phone- never a public point of contact- was ringing non-stop.
Hopeton mobilized, and it was all hands on deck- we immediately pivoted to emptying PanStar the fuck out. We needed to get rid of everything in stock. Hopeton’s goal was to be clean by December. This came as a relief. My mental state wasn't that good at this point. I felt like I was hanging on to the edge of a cliff by three broken fingers.
The next two months were light on activity. I had time to catch my breath, work on my applications, take that girl out a few times. Her name was Laís- she was very pretty and much smarter than me. And she was from the Bronx, so that Brooklyn bullshit did not work on her.
Workwise, my only duties were to take a few meetings Bolo had set up- let our partners know we were wrapping up operations for the time being and reassure them that all orders would be fulfilled, as long as they made the payment deadline.
