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With no recollection of moving, vexed by the situation, Kareem walked down the pathway and felt out of place. It seemed as if all eyes were on him. All the way to the entrance doors, Kareem had not encountered any black people. Where had his grandmother left him? Was he in some sort of cruel nightmare, and he really started school the following week with the rest of the Philadelphia students?
As he made his way through the graffiti free corridors to his advisory, he was in awe. There were no broken or dim lights, and all of the lockers were about 5’6, Kareem’s height. None of them were stacked, so there would be no traffic jams while changing classes. In fact, students were not allowed to stop at their lockers between classes, which left no room for lateness. At his previous school, lateness and absence was as common as a lion living in the jungle.
Outside of room 214, Kareem found a cluster of black students. Boy, was he relieved. He kept his cool and smoothly walked toward them as he discreetly sized up the bunch. He walked by them and felt like the new guy. One of the girls tapped another girl’s shoulder.
The bell rang, and in the classroom, a short portly teacher introduced himself as Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns handed each student their roster, and Kareem learned that Mr. Burns was also his AP English teacher. After 16 minutes of perfunctory “Hi, my name is..,” the school bell rang. Kareem mentally heard, “And they’re off.” And his first day of school had officially begun.
***
Dre arrived at Aunt Renee’s neighborhood and shook hands with the corner boys. They accepted Dre on their block despite his being from Uptown.
Aunt Renee had a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene and a bad crack habit. Her behavior was highly irresponsible and harshly criticized by her family and friends, but that didn’t stop her from stealing to buy her high. Her two children, Rhonda and Quaron, had accepted that their mother stole their things to sell, lost job after job, and lost her motherly appeal. Rhonda was eighteen and took up her mother’s slack, raised Quaron, and worked hard to be sure that they didn’t fall victim to selling drugs or doing them. Rhonda loathed her mother’s life style and worked to shelter her brother from her misdeeds.
Dre should have followed Rhonda’s lead, but she was closer to Kareem. Besides that, Dre fled his suburban environment to take part in teenage hustling. He was to be like the teenage boys from North Philadelphia, and not his cousin, who had just graduated from high school. Many of Dre’s peers were forced to choose between selling drugs and starving, and Dre fell right in line with them, even though he wanted for nothing. Whenever he could, he did sling crack-rocks on the corner, and offered to their community a chief cause of its deterioration.
Dre had dropped Dawn off at Renee’s shabby two-bedroom duplex and hit the block. He had a measly $100, which he used to buy an 8-ball (two and a half grams) of crack. By the end of his shift, he hoped to have $200 to hold him over until the next week.
***
Shortly after 5:30 p.m., Dre had finished dealing his package. He went inside Aunt Renee’s house to get Dawn, because he had to beat his parents home. Aunt Renee greeted him dressed in dingy tights and a T shirt with a mustard stain.
“Hey, Aunt Renee,” Dre said and gave her a hug. He ignored her street stench.
“Don’t hey me. You got something for me. I did babysit.”
“Babysit? I seriously doubt you watched her, rather than the other way around. He quipped and then added, “I ain’t got nuttin’.”
“No, I seriously doubt you want me to get my baby sis on the line. Delores would love to know that not only were you down here, but you were dealing rocks. You know that she doesn’t want you down here, and definitely not Dawn, down here in this ghetto.”
Dre could not believe her gall. He gave in, though. Delores would spit fire like a volcano if she even thought he went to the hood, much less took Dawn there. That would force her to draw blood. He tossed Renee $20 and tried to leave.
“Twenty-dollars? What am I supposed to do with this, but call my little sister and tell her that you were selling rocks? She’d love that.”
Dre tossed her another twenty and she tucked them both into her pockets. She said, “That’s better. Now get to that bus station and get home. The bus leaves every ten minutes.”
Dre grabbed Dawn’s hand and walked to the bus station. He could not believe that his Aunt Renee had blackmailed him. She had practically extorted him of his small come up, and he hated that. He was now short to get the Kobe sneakers that he wanted.