NaNoWriMo Day 11- The Shoes of Baltimore

“We got a gun, we got a gun. That’s what he yelled at me as he and his associates stuck their arms through my mail slot. I was scared for my life. They terrorized me for 20 minutes before they finally left. Thank God you finally caught them before they did that to someone else.”

“That’s bullshit!” Jamie said. “We didn’t have a gun.”

“You flashed a knife at me through the window!”

“Is a knife a gun?” Jamie asked in a smart-ass tone. “Besides, it was just a Swiss Army. It wasn’t like we were walking around with switchblades. We were just joking.”

Jamie’s mom slapped him across his head.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you pulling out knives and sticking your arms through mail slots to begin with?”

“Ma,” Jamie said in disbelief. “You know how big mail slots are. You really think me or anybody else over the age of 10 could really get their arm through those things? I don’t know if a baby can even get their tiny ass arms through those things. And besides, she disrespected us! She called me and Rodney and DeSean thugs and said we shouldn’t be on her street. All we did was bang against that mail slot and asked her if thugs have Swiss Army knives. The hell we were there for 20 minutes. Maybe like two minutes. AT THE MOST.”

Flash back to twenty minutes earlier.

“I was sticking Vicky so hard. Looked like her eyes were rolling back in her head like some Exorcist shit.” DeSean was always telling the group if his sexual conquests. Rodney and Jamie started cracking up. “Yea, more like her eyes were rolling back in her head waiting for that shit to be over,” Jamie shot back. “Oh shit!” Rodney shouted. DeSean tried to put Jamie in a headlock and they were wrestling around on the street.

“Um, excuse me,” a young mother with a stroller and a dog said impatiently.

They stopped wrestling and stood to the side.

“Sorry,” Jamie said.

“Unbelievable,” the woman said under her breath but loud enough so Jamie, DeSean, and Rodney could all hear what she said.

“What’d you say?” DeSean said, walking forward to go stride for stride with the woman.

“I said it was unbelievable. Don’t you have any common courtesy to let a woman and her child through? Aren’t you aware of your surroundings and where you are?”

Jamie took that statement as meaning the woman didn’t think they should be there.

That’s what she meant in her heart of hearts, but not with that particular comment.

“What’d you say bitch?” Jamie said, joining DeSean in walking beside the woman.

“Don’t attack me!” the woman shouted.

“Attack you?” DeSean asked.

“She ran up the steps, bouncing the stroller violently. The dog looked like it was being choked as she pulled the leash to race into her home. She quickly got her keys out, shoved them in the door, and put the baby and dog inside before turning back to face the trio.

“You all should be ashamed of yourselves. Get away from here!”

She closed the door. DeSean spit on it and kicked her mail slot.

“Bitch think she’s so high and mighty, how bout I sock you with these brass knuckles?”

“My husband will be home any minute,” the woman yelled through the mail slot.

“Good, we’ll beat his ass too,” Jamie smirked.

Rodney wouldn’t back down if he stood up for something he believed in. But he also knew when to pick his battles.

“Come on, this shit is weak. Just a stuck up bitch thinking she’s privileged.”

Jamie almost made it back home before the cops showed up. The woman was called to identify Jamie. Since it was only a few doors down from where the cops caught up to him from his house, Jamie’s mom came out to see what the commotion was about. She was flabbergasted to see her son in handcuffs.

Flash forward.

“We didn’t find any weapons on him ma’am” the cop said. “He is still a minor, but he needs to curtail this activity now. Mrs. Hanerbee can press charges for trespassing if she likes.”

Mrs. Hanerbee gave Jamie the death stare.

“No” she said harshly. “But he needs to realize what he did is wrong. I don’t want anyone else to go through that.”

“We didn’t do anything wrong till you started shit talking,” Jamie shot back.

She turned to Jamie’s mother.

“Apologize to her now,” Jamie’s mother said sternly.

“But ma.”

“Now!”

Jamie looked down at his feet. He couldn’t believe he had to apologize to this stuck up chick. She was just being racist because DeSean and Rodney were black. She probably wouldn’t have even cared if it was two white people horsing around on the sidewalk. Jamie thought to say as much. But he wasn’t looking forward to dealing with his mother’s wrath, and he didn’t want to make her even angrier.

However, Jamie had perfected his phony apologizes. His mother knew when he was faking it, but that was about it.

“Sorry ma’am. I knew we were fooling around in the middle of the sidewalk, and we should have paid attention. I know you didn’t want anything to happen to your baby and you were just looking for it and your dog. We won’t rough house on the street anymore.”

Mrs. Hanerbee’s expression soften. She wasn’t glaring like she had been a few minutes earlier.

“It’s okay,” she said, sounding relieved.

That dummy probably thinks I’m really sorry, Jamie thought.

“I did get nervous when your friend kicked the mail slot. But I know your young and kids just act out. But please, there’s just no need for that type of behavior next time.”

Jamie nodded.

Everyone, except his mother, was satisfied.

Mrs. Hanerbee was the first to leave. Then after taking Jamie aside and trying to give him a heart-to-heart, the police office left.

Jamie and his mom were left standing on the corner.

He smiled at her sweetly. “You know she was a bitch,” Jamie said.

“Don’t use that language,” she quickly shot back.

“Sorry. But you know it’s true. She was just racist and didn’t like seeing DeSean and Rodney on her walk with her Uggs and pumpkins Starbucks latte. She was mad she couldn’t take a picture without having some dark colored people in the background.”

“You’re probably right. But that doesn’t give any of you an excuse to act like idiots. Who the hell do you think you are? Who do any of you think you are that you can just go up and kick someone’s door? I don’t know where the hell they got that from, but you sure as hell was raised not to do that.”

“But we didn’t do anything,” Jamie argued.

“You guys pulled a knife out to show her? Where is the knife then?”

“Okay, that part was made up. DeSean had brass knuckles. I know he’s not supposed to, but I wasn’t going to say that in front of that cop.”

“You know I have nothing against those boys because of the color of their skin. But if you are going to hang out with people who kick doors and terrorize people, you are going to end up in jail. That’s a fact. I’m getting to the end of my rope Jamie. You keep doing these stupid things. You don’t get in a lot of trouble because the things you do are just stupid. But this will catch up to you, and something bad is going to happen if you continue down this path. You are either going to get beat up, shot, end up in jail, or killed. I don’t know if I have the heart to deal with that. I can’t just sit there and wait for any of that to happen. You’ve stressed me out so much already in these 13 short years you’ve been here. I can’t bare anymore.”

Jamie learned to zone out his mother during this speech. He heard something similar the first time she caught him smoking a cigarette when he was 11. She said something similar when she caught him drinking and smoking marijuana at 12. She gave him the speech when she caught him with a girl in the bathroom at 12. She also gave it when he got in a fight with older kids at school at 12. That was a wild year for Jamie.

“Okay ma, okay.”

“Okay ma, okay,” Jamie’s mom said mockingly. “I know you just tune me out. I know you think you know better than anyone. You are smart. There’s no reason lying about that because you know you are. But you just need to realize you don’t have all the right answers right now. You need to realize that whatever you think you’re doing by hanging out with those boys, it isn’t right. I know you think everyone else is phony and this is being real, but you need to realize this “real ness” is going to break you at some point. You don’t have to run around and act like some gangster. There are other people you can spend your time with. Other people who can help you become a better person. These people you’re spending time with right now aren’t going anywhere in life.”

“Ma, Rodney is chill. And DeSean, he just acts up sometimes. But you can’t just let somebody just disrespect you like that bitc… Like that woman did. It’s not fair!”

“You better learn real quick that life isn’t fair. And if you just keep trying to keep it”real” then you’re going to have a “real” lesson on what that fully entails.”

“Okay ma. I’m listening. I’m listening. I get it. The world ain’t fair. And you’re going to get disrespected. I’ll talk to the guys. I’ll tell DeSean it wasn’t cool what went down tonight. Okay?”