Young Nigga$: The Novel

CHAPTER 1

I was born on the West Coast, raised in the beginning mainly by my Grandmother who was a prominent black educator throughout the bay area. Everyone knew Ms. Carter as a no nonsense teacher who was quick to put you in your place if needed but always going the extra mile for her students. Her in class tactics forced me to develop a good pair of hands and the nickname Scrap. She never knew I would have to defend her time after time. I would just make it home and let her put peroxide on my cuts. She would always finish with Corey you’re going to have to stop all this fighting. My only thoughts were as soon as you stop teaching I won’t have to fight no more.

My Grandmother raised me and my two siblings in a middle class neighborhood. My older sister Goldie and my younger brother Lucki all shared a deep bond with our grandmother; each one unique in its own right. My brother being the youngest was the baby and that’s what it was grandma’s baby. My sister being the oldest and the only girl; well we will just say she got all the nice name brand stuff and me being in the middle I couldn’t find a place to turn. So by the time middle school came around I was becoming a little too much to handle.

I can recall lying in a hospital bed with a fever of I don’t even know how high but tubes were everywhere; all down my throat resulting from alcohol poisoning. I can still hear Gramma’s voice.

Corey you’re going to have to pace yourself baby; you don’t need to grow up too fast.

I realize now she was only speaking in my best interest but at the time it was falling on deaf ears.

Riverside elementary was the after hour hangout spot for me and my relatives. We would be there every day after school playing ball. At this time we all had hoop dreams of making it big in the NBA or some other professional sport. Kids from all over the city would meet up at Riverside and have pickup games for hours. It was always me and my relatives that made up our team. We were really family orientated and if you had a problem with one you had to deal with all of us. For that reason alone some people had long days but they brought that upon themselves. We were always seven strong. The eldest of us was Tone after him Fella and Lee; then me and Los. The youngest were Twannie and Joe. This particular day was just as normal as any other day. The courts were packed and we had just finished a game and were taking a water break. A few unfamiliar faces were hanging around watching the games along with some of the neighborhood D-boys. We had just run up and down against the Arabian team who were known to be physical because they were so uncoordinated. Every game they played was interesting because you never knew what would happen next. Say what you want about them, they weren’t no pushovers. You couldn’t be growing up in the bay allowing that, they gave as good as they got.

After making it to the water fountains for a quick drink we headed back to the court. The schoolyard had a big green dodge ball wall that stood between the water fountain and the court. Once we got on the backside of the wall I noticed everything about this normal day was about to change. One of the local D-boys who would come watch the games from time to time was standing with a pistol raised at one of the unfamiliar faces. He meant business and the look on his face showed it. He shouted, didn’t I say I was gon get you?

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! I remember jumping in place where I stood then turning my back. I had never seen a body drop. I was so scared I probably cleared the fence with one step. To be honest I didn’t even know if he hit the guy I just knew I did not need to be around to find out.

Unfortunately I had gone to this school the year prior to this happening and the fence I jumped happened to be in front of the cafeteria lady’s house Pat or fat Pat as we usually called her. Well the shots brought her to her living room window only to recognize me jumping the fence in front of her house.

The police knocked on doors about the body that had been found on the school grounds. "Well! All I saw was Mrs. Carter’s grandson Corey jumping the fence and running up the hill,``Fat Pat said.

When the police pulled up to my Grandmother’s they nearly scared her half to death saying I was involved in a shooting and they would like to question me.

After I denied being at the school and said, Ms. Pat (yeah I knew how to be respectful when my elders were in front of me) must’ve mistaken me for someone else.

I guess they figured they wasn’t getting no answers from me. I was young and that was about the time Spice 1 was saying how snitches get stitches. When they pulled off my grandma just looked at me and shook her head. She knew I was barely going to school and I was out at all times of the night smoking weed and drinking. I think she had made her decision right then and there as the police backed out the driveway. She was sending me off to my mother who had just been released from prison out in Arizona. In her eyes she thought that would be the best for me.

Knowing I wouldn’t want to go willingly, my grandmother baited me with a pair of plane tickets to go visit my mother in Arizona. Using my relationship between me and my mother against me she knew I couldn’t deny wanting to see her since it had been years that we were together. I can remember as clearly as yesterday when Grandma pulled up to my relatives house down the hill.

Corey! She shouted from behind the wheel of her minivan with my sister Goldie in the passenger seat. Come here. I’m taking you to get a haircut so you can go visit your mama with Goldie in Arizona. You and your sister are going to spend some time with your Mama this summer.

It was the summer of ‘03. I had lived in Arizona before my mom had gone to prison but the memories had faded over the years. At that time my brother was off at summer camp. It didn’t feel right leaving without him but the thought of seeing my mother was enough to go. I remember my girlfriend at the time was there at my relative’s house when I pulled off with my grandmother. The last thing she said to me as I said goodbye to everybody was, If you get in that car I ain’t never going to see you again.

Thinking she was trippin, I pulled off and was on the way to the barber shop; then to go pack for my flight to Arizona.

CHAPTER 2

Arizona had felt as if we moved from the moisturizing sunshine to dry heat. I forgot about how hot it was. People looked at me and Goldie as if we were crazy because we had on jackets that were not needed at all.

What I had forgotten soon resurfaced when we pulled up to the house I remembered. It was a large step down from grandma’s middle class. Now it was just trying to survive. It didn’t bother us we were happy to be with our mom and it was only going to be for the summer. One memory that never faded was the Boys and Girls Club of America Holmes Tuttle branch. It sat right in the middle of the neighborhood. This is where I recalled having the most fun away from home. So after I unpacked and spent a little time with my mom I asked if I could go to the boys club. I had made it about three blocks away from my house before I was side tracked by a redbone female sitting on her porch. She was bad. She had a light skinned complexion with light red freckles and her hair pressed down to her shoulders. I had to approach her and me not being shy at all was not letting this opportunity slip by. I had to see if my game would work away from home. I called her to the gate to come and speak with me and asked her how are you doing? My name is Corey.

Hi Corey, they call me Rih.

What you doing sitting out here? You look like you need some company. She laughed at my comment.

Nah I’m straight, in fact my dad gon say something any minute now.

Well that’s too bad cuz I heard I keep good company. She smiled again and like clockwork her dad popped outside.

Rih! He called.

She rolled her eyes for me to see she wished he hadn’t come out.

Rih! He called again.

Look I gotta go but I’ll see you around Corey.

Alright then, I’ll be lookin for you.

She turned and walked inside the house and as I watched her, her dad looked at me like he would break my neck if I ever gave him a reason to. I made my way to the club thinking I didn’t even get her number then I realized we don’t even have a phone.

The Boys and Girls Club was located on 36th Street. Walking up to the entrance I remembered some of the good times I had there and wondered if I would run into some of my old friends from the neighborhood. When I walked through the double doors I was all smiles; but soon after checking in at the front desk I felt the tension in the air from the cold stares from the other youngsters. Being familiar with confrontation I changed my smile to a mug instantly. I wasn’t sure what the problem was but I was ready for whatever, whenever, however. That’s when I met JBang. We were the same age and he eventually broke down all the politics to me in the neighborhood. Once he realized I was as green as Kermit the frog he explained to me why everyone had their mug on was because of the colors I wore. I now lived in gangland where the color of your outfit could mean a whole lot and it happened to be that day I was dressed like a rival when the actual fact was I was more like a foreign exchange student.

Gangs existed in the Bay Area but it was more of a Mexican thing. We were all family orientated within the Black communities. However, in Arizona I had to learn quickly where you lived meant a lot. The gang culture was everybody from the low to middle class Blacks, Mexicans and Whites that grew up amongst the minorities. This was the summer I was educated on the gangbang.

My neighborhood is Western Hills, located on the South central part of town. It is a fairly nice sized neighborhood that was patrolled and represented by three separate organizations, the Vista Bloods and the Vista Brown Prides which made up the Hispanic part of the neighborhood; and then the Western Hill Bloods which made up the Black part of the neighborhood. 36th street was the border and if you had no affiliation with any of the above named organizations you had no business around the area of Western Hill bloods or Pueblo Gardens. The Gardens was the neighborhood on the other side of 36th street. By the end of summer I was educated on this way of life.

My closest friends were Hawk, JBang, Vamp, and Studder. We had become like my family in the bay; if you messed with one you messed with all.

The day everything changed for me was at the end of the summer. I had made it home from the Boys and Girls Club only to see my sister had all her bags packed in the living room. It was about 2 1/2 weeks left of summer when Goldie hit me with the brutal truth.

Scrap! Gramma only got one set of roundtrip tickets and that was for me; you’ll be staying out here with Mama.

Right then it all unfolded like a cheap suit. I knew I was set up from the beginning and my girlfriend’s words echoed in my head as Goldie began packing her bags into my mom’s car. I know my grandma felt she was doing what was best for me but at the time all I felt was betrayed. Goldie was a part of that betrayal and because of that reason alone I didn’t help her put her bags in the car nor did I ride with her and my mom to the airport.

After Goldie was gone I had to deal with the reality of addiction my mother had suffered with from the years before I was born. One noticeable and repetitive characteristic I peeped was that she would spend a significant amount of time in the bathroom. I would act as if I didn’t notice but the truth was I did notice, in fact I noticed everything. The cold part of it was me, Vamp, Hawk, Studder and JBang were all going through the same thing; only my problem was in-house for the time being.

When the summer started I was the freshest kid on the block, the new kid from California. Now that school was starting I was as stale as a bag of potato chips