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In Barry Keith's books, cocaine walks and talks.

Keith, an Accokeek resident who released his fourth book, "The Silence," last month, has his main character interact with the personification of the dangerous drug, which is relentless in its tempting.

Keith knows that temptation well. In his early 20s, Keith became addicted to cocaine and remained hooked for a decade, making money as a waiter only to buy another high. Keith, now 48, describes Frank Carson, the main character in "The Silence," as his "alter ego," living through the same pain and torment he survived on the streets of Alexandria, Va.

"It was a desperate sort of life," said Keith, who teaches drawing and painting at Suitland High School in District Heights. "I was just living to do the drug. … It was something I befriended and something I prayed to. I was glad to see it, like it was a friend, and I was sad to see it go, like somebody had died."

"The Silence" is a sequel to Keith's 2002 book, "The Cycle," which documents the early days of Carson's addiction. "The Silence" is set in 2050 in a United States that has seen its African-American population ravaged by AIDS, rampant violence and drug addiction.

There are only 2 million black Americans left, and they are isolated in reservations spread across the country. The book's events take place in a reservation just outside of Washington, D.C.

More than 40 years after Carson's initial battles with the personified drug, he reluctantly accepts to take over as deacon of his reservation's church. Keith, a deacon at Fort Foote Baptist Church in Fort Washington, said Carson sees a spiritual emptiness even among the community's avid churchgoers, who drink hard and gamble plenty outside the church doors. This leaves the reservation's child population with no guidance — a reality he has seen as an educator in Prince George's County.

"Our [county's] megachurches are packed, but why aren't these youths getting the message?" said Keith, who is married and has a 9-year-old son, Cameron. "People aren't forming a relationship with God. If they did, there wouldn't be as many kids in the situation they are in. Something just doesn't add up here."

"I see lethargy among the kids of Prince George's County," he said, expressing a frustration shared by Carson — who continues to battle with the cocaine character as a senior citizen — in "The Silence."

"But despite that, there still are a lot of good kids out there in the community."