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.