Black Sheep by Na'ima B. Robert Read Free Book Online Page A

pastor’s sermon and whether it
was relevant to my own life. And I closed my eyes and recalled an image of a tall black boy, with the same hooded top as Dwayne – looking
exactly
like Dwayne – crossing a busy
street in Camberwell, surrounded by a group of rough-looking black boys in hoodies, bandannas around their foreheads. I had to rub my arms hard to get rid of the goose-bumps.

Succession
    DWAYNE
    I was proper mash-up on Monday morning when I went to school. I couldn’t stop thinking about Trigger and Jukkie. That madness with the woman and her babies had been
playing on my mind all weekend – and then there was Lightning. We’d all gone to see him in hospital on Sunday morning and he was proper bruck-up, his eyes swollen shut, one side of his
face dark with bruises. His arm was in a sling and his leg was bandaged up. Dem man didn’t even care that he was just a little kid, a younger who didn’t know any better. They bruck him
up, same way.
    His mum went mad when she saw us at the hospital. We all went, even Tony. It wouldn’t have been right otherwise. Tony looked different, though, with less bling and a different look in his
eyes. I could tell that his time with the ‘brothers’ at the mosque was having an effect on him.
    “What are you doing here?” Lightning’s mum shouted, proper loud so that all the patients and nurses turned to look at us.
    “I’m so sorry, Mrs Appiah,” Tony said, all humble. “I don’t know how this happened... you know we’ve always looked after little Kofi.” That was
Lightning’s real name.
    “Looked after him?” Her voice was hoarse. “You’re the reason my son is lying there now! You and all these boys let him hang around with you even though you knew I
didn’t want him to!”
    “We tried our best to protect him, Mrs Appiah,” repeated Tony, looking down at Lightning. “This should never have happened.” Then I saw him cut his eye at Trigger.
Trigger shifted his eyes, quick-time. I didn’t understand what it was all about but I could see that Tony was vex’.
    “Well, you didn’t try hard enough.” Mrs Appiah’s words came out like bullets from a gun, hitting all of us where it hurt most. Lightning was one of us, a Younger. He was
our responsibility and we’d let him down, big time.
    When we got outside the hospital, Tony turned on Trigger. “What the hell are you
thinking
, blud?” he yelled, pushing Trigger against the wall.
    “
What
?” Trigger screwed up his face and tried to push Tony off but Tony pushed him further up the wall.
    “You
know
what, blud! Don’t act stupid!” The spit from Tony’s mouth landed on Trigger’s face as we all watched, tense, wondering what was going to happen
next. I was totally confused – what was Tony on about?
    “You! You and your foolishness with the Larkside man is what caused this!”
    Then I understood.
    “I’m not the one who beat Lightning, so get
off
me!”
    “You started this beef ting with Lockjaw and you knew that dem man wasn’t gonna walk away! You knew they wouldn’t back down but you went for them anyway! What you tryin’
to prove?”
    “Don’t try and boy me, yeah!” Trigger kicked out at Tony and his new trainer hit Tony in the knee. Tony staggered backwards and Trigger rushed at him, grabbed him by the collar
and pushed him up against one of the parked cars. I looked round quickly and saw one of the security guards coming towards us.
    “Allow this, man!” I said, pulling Jukkie by the arm. “We need to duck out of here.”
    But Jukkie stood still, as if he was in a video game stuck on pause. He was just staring at Trigger and Tony as they struggled between the parked cars. A vein in his forehead throbbed and he was
chewing his lip like crazy. I guess it must be hard to watch your elder brother being beaten up by your new mentor.
    “All right, you lot, break it up!” Two security guards stepped up to Tony and Trigger and pulled them apart. They struggled and cussed