The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives (2017)

Richard’s section of the story begins with “Book of Faces,” a poem describing pictures of himself he has posted to Facebook. In each, Slater describes how she sees Richard in two lines, then ends the poem with these lines:

None of it captures

how he looks in conversation 

How his eyes hold your eyes,

seeing you see him.

His own secret power:

that paying attention (60).

Next is “First Day,” another poem, this time about the sights and smells and sounds of the first day at school, not all of which are pleasant: “sweat, fryer grease,/body spray, reeking bathrooms, weed/smoke, morning breath” (61). The poem ends with the lines “That smell is the pungent eraser that wipes/ the whiteboard clean, so just/ignore the ghosts of last year’s scrawl/still there, still showing through” (61).

“An Old Friend” introduces Cherie, a “head-turningly pretty” (62) classmate of Richard’s. She sums up Richard by saying “He got on my nerves but I loved him to death” (63). 

“Oakland High School” presents Richard’s high school as a study in contrasts, where there were options to “steer clear” of trouble, but also plenty to be had: “a girl trying to slit her wrists in the bathroom, a fight in the hallway” (65). One-third of Oakland High Students did not graduate the year of the incident. Slater describes them as “drifting away […] into a future that was as hazy as weed smoke” (65) and says that future is the “one you never planned on. The one where everything was going to be that much harder” (65).

“Miss Kaprice” introduces Kaprice Wilson, Oakland High’s truancy coordinator. When Richard learns that she tries to “help kids that’s been in trouble” (67), he asks if he can be a part of the program. Kaprice is surprised as no one has willingly joined before, but Richard tells her “I’ve been to a lot of schools and I’ve been in trouble, but I’m really not a bad kid” (67).

Slater reveals that Richard spent his sophomore year of high school in a state-mandated group home after an arrest for fighting. Kaprice agrees to take him into the program if he promises to uphold what she calls “the family motto: Never let your obstacles become more important than your goal’” (68).

“The Princess of East Oakland” describes how Kaprice Wilson grew up in gang-infested East Oakland. At 14, she fell in love with 13-year-old Lil’Jerry, who was deeply involved in the 69Vill gang. Kaprice soon moved out of her home and began cleaning guns for Lil’Jerry. But rather than let her get pregnant and follow the same path as everyone else they knew, Lil’Jerry had different ideas. He insisted that Kaprice go to college and then made this speech:

‘You sound so stupid right now,’ Lil’Jerry said. ‘You know what’s going to happen? They’re going to kill me. And I do not want to have a baby out here without a dad. I don’t want that for you and I don’t want that for my child. There will be enough of those kids out there. You can take those ones in. Just know that those ones will be your and my children together, and when they get crazy and out of control, help them. Because they’re going to need help’ (72).

Lil’Jerry’s prophecy came true: he was murdered over an argument about respecting an elderly woman’s flower bed. Kaprice went to college and did well, and she ended up as a teacher who helps troubled kids.

“The Best Mother Ever” continues Kaprice’s story, now documenting her relationship with the students of East Oakland High School. She builds them into a family and gives them these goals: “go to class, get your grades up, graduate, stay out of jail, survive” (76). Slater describes how devoted Richard was to Kaprice, quoting Cherie as saying, “he really loved her” (76).

“Hopes and Prayers” shifts from Kaprice, a surrogate mother figure, to Richard’s actual mother, Jasmine. Slater describes how Jasmine became pregnant with Richard at age 14. She was too young to even realize what was happening to her body and didn’t learn about the pregnancy until she was more than four months along.

Slater traces the events of Richard’s early life: Jasmine and his father split; Jasmine has a new boyfriend, Derick. Richard’s father is “frequently” in his life though he occasionally is in prison for drug offenses. One of Jasmine’s sisters dies in a drive-by shooting, and Jasmine and Derick take in her two young girls, then have a baby of their own. Jasmine works a low-level, low-paying job and wants Richard to have more. Slater describes these as “big dreams in her part of town” (79), then she recites statistics about the number of African American boys from Richard’s neighborhood who graduate from high school and are college ready (about 100 out of 600) versus the fact that African American boys made up “nearly 75 percent of all juvenile arrests” in East Oakland (79).

“Where He Left Off” describes Richard in his junior year of high school, just after he entered Kaprice’s program. Slater quotes from interviews with Kaprice that reinforce Richard’s desire for “people to be happy, that was the thing everyone noticed about him. He was always joking, goofing around” (82). The section ends with a quotation from Richard’s cousin, who says Richard “lost a year of his childhood” (82) when he was sent away to a group home the year before.

“How it Was Before” begins the story of what happened to send Richard to a group home. Cherie describes their close-knit friend group, people with “good hearts.” In “Fighting” the kids get in two altercations: first on a bus going to the beach, then in a park, where Skeet, one of the friend group, accosts another kid with a skateboard.

In “Arrested” Cherie continues the story: the kids from the two fights have spoken to the police, and Cherie’s friend group is arrested and taken to Juvenile Hall. There, the kids find out that juveniles don’t get bail, and they are eventually sentenced variously to probation or group homes. Richard is among those sent to a group home, and from there, Slater writes, “everything went wrong instead of right” (88).

Skeet is the first casualty: in “Now It’s a Good Day,” Slater traces Skeet’s escape from a group home and then describes a series of Facebook posts he makes, including photos of him with a gun and “a bottle of cognac and a bottle of cough syrup” (90). Just a few days later, he is shot and killed; before the police can arrest his murdered, that man is also killed “in an outbreak of violence that left four people dead in one six-hour period” (90).

In “If,” Cherie says Skeet’s death negatively impacted Richard. In “Murder” (93), Slater goes over crime statistics that prove Oakland “the most dangerous city in California” (93). She underscores the randomness of the violence, quoting Cherie as saying, “bullets don’t have no names on them” (94).

From this section, Slater skips to “Working,” which describes Richard’s return from his group home looking for a new start. Richard gets a job and does so well his supervisor writes, “I am confident when I say that he has the potential to achieve anything that he wants” (97).

“Stripped” follows next and describes a day when kids rob Richard is robbed at gunpoint and take his “wallet, money, phone, shoes, coat” (98). “Trust Issues” is a poem describing Richard’s view of the world, ending with him saying “I don’t have any friends […] I have associates” (101).

“Resolve” ends Richard’s section of the book, presenting a snapshot of him in Kaprice’s office, telling her earnestly that he is going to try to turn around his reputation, finish high school, and make his mother happy.