5Born in Baltimore during the summer of 1968, Arlando "Tray" Jones, III, arrived in a world scarred by race riots that left Eager Street clouded by smoke and charred storefronts looted clean. One result of these tumultuous times was a spike in East Baltimore's drug trade, a business that Tray himself entered twelve short years later. Eager Street: A Life on the Corner and Behind Bars tells the story of Tray's rise to and fall from power in Baltimore's violent drug world. The tidal wave of drug culture and addiction washed over Tray, his family, and friends and often blurred the difference between who was good and who was evil. Young Tray was eager to make money. He was eager to gain respect. He was eager for discipline and direction, freedom and security. However, all these aspirations changed in a flash of gun fire. By the age of fourteen, Tray had become the trigger-man for one of East Baltimore's busiest dealers. By seventeen, he was tried and sentenced to life for murder. Written while in prison, Eager Street captures all the misery-raw and authentic-Tray has experienced as a direct cause of his decisions and actions. Eager Street is his story.