Teen runaway Fluke Crowley is fast on his feet--key to surviving Alphabet City’s cruel streets in 2001. Fluke steals a messenger bag from a guy in a lower Manhattan restaurant, which holds the crude manuscript of the man’s life story: Conrad D’s descent into drug treatment, his stormy relationship, his love for Jack Kerouac. Fluke notes the strange coincidences in their vastly different lives, and his and Conrad’s paths eventually, inevitably and unforgettably cross—learning about each other, themselves, the human condition and the colorful Tompkins Square Park neighborhood they share from their interaction. An intriguing history of punk and protest in Manhattan's East Village, When I Was Punk is Part Two of Michael J. Malone’s Tompkins Trilogy series.