Ishmael Beah carries a rap cassette with him until he joins the government army. Although he has no tape player with him, it stays in his pocket, a reminder of his boyhood and playfulness. More than once he and his friends are mistaken for rebels, and the cassette saves him: the villagers see when they play the music that they are only dealing with innocent boys. When Beah joins the army, the cassette is burned by the soldiers, and with it goes his childhood.