L drags you back into The Life.

After violence, sometimes, there are those who see they must get out of The Life. Violence grazes them, and they realize they can no longer live so near it, that the lifestyle they have led is all too dangerous. These people get out of the District. They go to Maryland. They try to get their GEDs, go to technical or vocational schools and get jobs. And just when they think they've left The Life behind, just when fear does not occupy their every living second, we drag them back. 

They will be coming home or going to a relative's home or a friend's place. They'll pull up into the driveway, and we'll get out of the car we've been waiting in. They'll see us coming and they'll know what we're here for. They'll try to walk away and then try to convince us they don't know anything. We'll nod along and apologize as we serve them the subpoena ordering them to appear in court. 

They show up in court and testify. And they are watched by those in The Life they left behind. And someone in The Life they left behind will not like their testimony. And they will drag them back into The Life. 

I think it's hard to leave The Life, and it's harder to leave The Life for more than a year or two. I think the past catches up to us no matter how hard we try, or how much we change.