The remainder of the nineties was great. Money flowed and their individual careers flourished. This afforded each the opportunity to explore and indulge their passions for gambling, liquor, weed, and the pleasures of women. However, the new millennium brought changes for all Americans, especially those Americans of color.

Travis was the first to feel it. Y2K had been a boom for those in the technology field, and most especially programmers. Once Y2K came and went without any major incidents, the technology bubble burst. Although his work was superb, Travis was one of the first programmers at his company to be laid off. “Not a problem,” Travis told Jackie and Ronnie. “I’ll have a better job by the end of the week.” But that wasn’t happening. The economy had started its historic downturn.

Ronnie had been working as a trader on Wall Street. As the economy continued its slide, so did Ronnie’s career as a trader. His pink slip was next. His firm dropped the news on him late one Friday afternoon. He wasn’t all that surprised. He had watched week after week as colleagues lost their jobs. It became known as the Friday afternoon death march.

On Friday nights, Ronnie always met Travis and Jackie at Cynt’s, a private gambling house with strippers. The place was run by Mike Black’s organization. By the time Ronnie arrived at Cynt’s, he had already been drinking with the other fired trader and came in cursing. “God-damn muthafuckas fired me today!” he told Travis and Jackie.

Travis had been out of work for two months by this time and was surviving on unemployment checks. “What! You bullshittin’, right?” Travis asked, but he could tell by the look on Ronnie’s face that he wasn’t. “Jackie got fired today, too.”

“Get the fuck outta here. You the best fuckin’ chemist they got.” Ronnie had believed Jackie’s job with Frontier Pharmaceuticals was secure. “Everybody out there knows that shit. Muthafuckin’ pharmaceutical industry doin’ fantastic. Last quarter’s numbers were phenomenal. Shit, all them fuckas poppin’ pills ’cause they got fired or ’cause they worried about gettin’ fired, shouldn’t be no fuckin’ layoffs in pharmaceuticals.”