Telling his story, for Antwone, meant that he began life in foster care. But to his psychiatrist, that was NOT the beginning. Williams observed:
Have you ever considered that you come from somewhere? ... Because, by the way, you do come from somewhere. You may not feel like you have a mother, but you do. Everybody does. Everybody comes from somewhere. (Finding Fish, page 287)
But how would a young man, with no idea of his family history, learn where he came from? And how would that young man, who had been repeatedly told he was “worthless,” come to distinguish the lies from the truths in his life?
Long hours at sea gave Antwone time to think. While assigned to the
USS Schenectady (LST-1185), a tank-landing ship, he discovered he was a good writer.
Aboard the still
operational
USS Cleveland (LPD-7), one of the Navy’s amphibious
transport docks used by Marines
during war to transport and land troops, equipment and supplies, Fisher discovered HE could lead. Through the encouragement of his superiors, he began to believe in himself as he responsibly guided returning Marine helicopters safely aboard ship.
And, during a two-year assignment at the naval station in Sasebo, Japan, Antwone discovered something else. In the place where a heavy U.S. military presence in Japan has been most felt since the end of WWII, and near Nagasaki City (which was struck by the second atomic bomb), Fisher fell in love for the first time in his life.