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

but the two guards didn’t let go.
“You boys better move along. If you carry on like this, we’ll have no choice but to call the police.”
    That was enough to cool their blood. Both of them stopped struggling and stood there, breathing hard, wiping their mouths, eyeing each other up. The guards pushed them to get them moving and
barked, “Clear off, the lot of you!”
    We stumbled towards the two cars, Tony’s and Trigger’s, all of us a bit dazed by everything that had just happened.
    When we got to where the two cars were parked, Tony turned to face Trigger, who pulled himself up and scowled at him. “Trig, I’m warning you, blud. Be careful with dem Larkside mans.
You’ve got to take care of RDS now – protect what we’ve built – and that ain’t gonna happen if you get involved in a mad turf war with dem man.”
    Trigger twisted his face and snarled, “I ain’t afraid of no one, y’get me. Anyway, you ain’t part of the RDS no more, innit? So what you worrying about? Go back to your
mosque and leave man to take care of business, yeah?”
    Tony looked at Trigger for a long minute, then shook his head and sighed. “Juks, let’s go.” He turned to leave.
    “Nah, man,” said Jukkie, all quiet-like. “I’m gonna roll with da mans.”
    Tony looked at him, kinda hurt and surprised-looking. Then he shrugged and walked off to his car. He didn’t look back once.
    Heavy. Jukkie told me later that Tony had gone home and packed a bag, telling his mum that he was going to the Midlands to stay with ‘the brothers’, to ‘clear his head and
decide what’s what’. I think he couldn’t stand to see everything he had built being jeopardised by Trigger. Or maybe he just needed to get himself into the zone so that he could
‘do’ his Muslim ting properly, as he kept saying. All I knew was I was going to miss him, no doubt. I tried to write some rhymes when I got home but, true say, I wasn’t feeling
it. I felt mad jumpy, as if I could hear a timer ticking somewhere, the bomb about to explode any minute.

    Walking into school that day, my mind was working overtime. What happened between Tony and Trigger was major, y’get me. We RDS boys had always respected Tony, always
trusted him. Even if you didn’t like something Tony did or a decision he made, you’d go with it out of respect. Coz you knew that, any time anything went down, Tony had your back. But
now that Trigger was top dog, things were changing in RDS. Trig wanted to prove himself, innit. I knew one thing for sure: Tony would never have let things get this bad with Larkside. He
wasn’t about beef, no way. He just wanted to live good: make money and have girls.
    But Trigger? He was on a different flex. It was as if he wanted to prove to everyone how bad he was. Trigger wasn’t interested in partying. For him, it was all about control and respect,
making man fear him, know what he was capable of. The garmz and the cars were a side thing. What really got him off was the power. And I could see Jukkie becoming the same. Or maybe he had always
been that way but just couldn’t express it too tough with Tony in charge....
    I was so busy thinking, I didn’t watch where I was going. Suddenly I felt something bang into me.
    “Are you
blind
, rudeboy?”
    I staggered backwards, my bag weighing me down. When I looked round to see where the voice had come from, I saw Leon Mackay glaring at me. Though he was short, Leon was a champion boxer with the
biceps and six-pack to prove it. He was in Year 11 too, but in a different class from me. I didn’t really know him too tough but I knew better than to get into a fight with him. He was
standing with his boys, some of them from our school, others in hoodies and green bandannas.
    Green bandannas.
    Larkside boys.
    Leon looked me in the eye and snarled, “You’re Jukkie’s best mate, ain’t ya?”
    I nodded, not saying anything, trying to figure out what they wanted with me, what they wanted with