Street Pharm (20 page)

My hand was trapped under his. If he squeezed tighter, he’d snap a bone.

“Y-You have to find somebody else to take over the business, D-Dad. I-I ain’t making one more deal.”

“But you the only one I can trust!”

“I’m s-sorry, Dad.”

Purple veins bulged in his head. “I ain’t coming outta this hellhole to find I got no business!” He let go of my hand, throwing it away like I had a disease.

“When you get out, you can get the old customers back, or get new ones. You still got the account. There’s almost two hundred Gs.”

“That’s jack shit compared to what my business is worth!”

“Dad, I’m sorry if you think I let you down.”

He wouldn’t even look at me. “Those are just words, Ty. That ain’t gonna give me my life back when I get outta here.”

The fight was out of his voice. Now he just sounded broken.

J
ohnson, buddy, how are ya?”

The phone woke me up. I squinted at my alarm clock: 1:37 a.m. “Jimmy?”

“Yep. You haven’t returned my calls. And I’ve got customers waiting.”

“I told you I ain’t hustling no more.”

“Look, I don’t blame you for not wanting to do business with me after I freaked out on you that time. Gimme another chance, will ya? I was all fucked up because my girlfriend left me. I’m back on my feet now. I’ve got twenty grand burning a hole in my pocket and a bunch of clients depending on me.”

“You ain’t listening to me, Jimmy. I said
I’m outta the business.
”

“Ty Johnson walking away from the game? I don’t believe it.”

“That’s up to you. I’m going back to sleep.”

“Wait! Tell me what’s going on, Ty. Something got you spooked?”

“Let’s just say I figured out this business is a dead end.”

He was quiet for a few seconds. “So will you hook me up with another supplier?”

That was Jimmy. Always a businessman. Still a cokehead.

“Don’t take it personal, Jimmy. But I think you should give your clients their money back and check yourself into rehab.”

“
What?
Don’t turn this around on me, Johnson. You’re the one who can’t keep up. I’ll find another supplier, then.”

“Do what you gotta do.” I hung up.

A
few weeks later, I walked into Thai Take-Out and looked up at the menu. “I’ll take a number six.”

“Me too.” I turned around to see Rob Monfrey. He looked heavier and healthier than I’d ever seen him. We slapped hands.

We got our food and sat down. I said, “Thanks for meeting me, man. It’s been a while. How you feeling?”

“Clean.” He tapped a finger against his temple. “And clear, son. Clearer than I ever was. I ain’t saying it don’t still hurt sometimes. What about you? I heard some of your old customers be giving you a hard time.”

“That ain’t news. Still the eyes and ears of Brooklyn, huh?”

“That’ll never change. There be a lot of niggas wanting to take your place, you know.”

“I know. A couple of ’em even tried to get me to hook them up with my suppliers. I told them where to go. I ain’t taking sides.”

“You think there’ll be trouble?”

“Maybe. I don’t see one of the new hustlers rising to the top yet. If it don’t happen soon, there’ll be blood. But that ain’t my problem.”

“I heard they caught Sonny’s killers.”

“Yeah. Trial is next year.”

Monfrey must’ve heard the rumors. Rumors that I was freaked out by Sonny’s death. Rumors that I made money off it.

I didn’t care what anybody thought, since I had my own guilt to deal with.

It kept me plenty busy.

I changed the topic. “So you back at Sheepshead now?”

“Nah. They put me at your old school, Les Chancellor.”

I almost dropped my fork. “You at Les Chancellor?”

“Uh-huh. Edelstone pulled some strings.”

“You lucky.”

“I am?”

“Yeah. They wouldn’t let me back in when I asked. Hey, there’s this girl I used to know. . . . ”

“Alyse.” He scooped in more food. It took him a year to chew and swallow. “Yeah, I know her. When she found out I was from Sheepshead, she asked if I knew you. I said,
You bet your ass I know him!
”

“What she say about me?”

“She said you used to be good friends. She missed having you around school.”

“Is that all she said?”

He scratched his head. “Well, something like that.”

“Think, Monfrey. What
exactly
did she say?”

He slurped his drink. “What I told you. That’s what she said.”

“What was the look on her face?”

Monfrey put on a sad, lovesick face.

“You playing?”

“Exaggerating, maybe. But that girl got a thing for you. And you got a thing for her. What happened?”

“She found out I was a hustler.”

“So? Don’t she know you quit the business?”

“No. We haven’t talked in a while. But, anyway, quitting the business ain’t enough. I lied to her. She’ll never forgive me for that.”

“C’mon man, don’t you know anything about women? They love to forgive. Show her a few tears and she’ll be all yours.”

“I don’t know, Monfrey. That don’t sound like me. Just do me
a favor, will ya? If Alyse says something about me again, tell me.”

“Sure.” He grinned. “Kinda like old times, eh? Passing on information?”

“Right, but this time, I’ll pay you in Thai food.”

Monfrey laughed. “Deal.”

O
n the morning of February twentieth, I walked into the office of a guidance counselor.

Ms. Anderson, a light-skinned lady with a weave in her hair and two cups of coffee on her desk, shook my hand. “Remind me of your name?”

“Tyrone Johnson.”

“Right, you called. Please have a seat.”

“Thanks.”

“So, what brings you to the Adult High School?”

“Today’s my eighteenth birthday, so I’m eligible.”

“Oh, well Happy Birthday!” She looked at her desk calendar.
“The second semester’s been under way for almost three weeks. You’ll have to work hard to catch up.”

“I’ll work hard.”

She pulled her glasses from the top of her head to her nose. “Now let me take a look at your file. . . . Your old school sent it over. I thought we’d look at it together.”

I swallowed, watching her flip through the stack of files on her desk.

“Maybe it’s lost?”

She looked up and smiled, but kept going through the files. “If it is we’ll just continue with the interview and—look! Here it is.”

“It ain’t that great.”

Opening my file, I saw her eyes widen. “Coming from Les Chancellor, I see.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Your first two report cards look good, but in the third marking period you just seem to drop off the attendance roster. What happened?”

“I was in the hospital. After that, I lost my motivation to go back to school.”

“Why were you in the hospital?”

I didn’t like where this was going. “I got shot.”

“I see. A gangbanger, are we?”

“No.”

She flipped back through my file. “Well, it looks like you haven’t been very serious about school over the years.”

“School wasn’t my thing. But I don’t have a criminal record, and I ain’t on probation. All I’m asking for is a fresh start.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.” She smiled. “Welcome to the Adult High School.”

I ended up taking eight courses. My schedule was every day from 8:30 a.m. to 1:20 p.m., and Monday and Thursday nights from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Flunking wasn’t an option. I needed to do better than just pass if these credits were gonna help me.

An hour later I went to my first class. The bell just rang, so I walked in with a bunch of people. I’d thought people in the class would be twice my age, but they were mostly in their twenties.

I went up to the teacher, who was erasing the board from the last class.

“Are you Mr. Sallahi?” I asked.

“If not, I’m in the wrong place.”

“I’m Ty Johnson. I’m starting here today.”

“Nice to meet you, Ty. Have a seat and let’s get started. You’ll have a little catching up to do, but I’ll discuss that with you later.”

“Thanks.”

I found an empty seat.

The second bell rang. As the class started, I looked around. Nobody knew who I was, or where I been.

I felt a smile come to my face. Here, in this classroom, I could be whoever I wanted to be.

I
never made a big deal about birthdays. But I knew this birthday would be different from all the others.

Mom made me dinner last night. She figured I’d be going out with friends on my birthday, and I didn’t correct her. Truth was, it was always Sonny that took me out and got me wasted.

I could’ve called up Cheddar or Monfrey and dropped some hints about my birthday, but I didn’t. With Sonny gone, I didn’t feel like celebrating.

Dad didn’t call. It was no surprise.

After finishing my homework, I called up to order a pizza, then sat down and watched some TV.

I had more than a hundred channels and still couldn’t find nothing interesting. Screw it. I popped in the
Friday
DVD. Couldn’t go wrong with that.

A while later, I heard the buzzer. I pressed the button to let the pizza man in and got the cash ready.

When the knock came, I swung open the door and stopped dead.

“Did I scare you?” Alyse grinned.

“Uh, no.” I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah, sorry.” I backed into my crib. “Uh, let me get your coat.”

“Thanks.”

I put her coat in the hall closet. Was Alyse really here?

She kissed my cheek.

“What’s that for?”

“It’s a Happy Birthday kiss.”

“How’d you know?”

“Don’t you remember writing it in my student planner a few months ago? You took up the whole page.”

I laughed, remembering.

We went into the living room.

“I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything. Were you about to go out?”

“Nah.” I sat down in the easy chair, and she sat too. “I was just chilling.”

“I thought you might be heading out to a club.”

“Since I hung out with you, I got to like staying in.”

She smiled. “Well, maybe you have school tomorrow. Rob Monfrey told me you were going to register at the Adult High School today. How’d it go?”

“Good. I’m taking six courses in the daytime. Plus, I’ll be going two nights a week.”

“Wow.”

“So Monfrey’s been talking about me?”

“Yeah. That guy thinks a lot of you. He said he used to do errands for you. But he also told me that when he got hooked on crack, you took him in and forced him to get clean.” Her eyes were soft. “He’s thankful for that.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“I know you had a rough time the past few months. I heard about your friend Sonny.”

I still wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t deserve her sympathy.

“Rob said you quit the business.”

“Yeah. I won’t even sell you an Advil.”

She laughed, but her face stayed serious. “Were you going to tell me? I mean, that you quit the business and decided to go back to school?”

“I was gonna send you a letter in June telling you everything.”

She looked confused. “Why in June?”

“Because I wanted to give you a copy of my report card.” I looked her straight in the eyes. “I wanted you to see me get all A’s.”

“Are you serious?”

“Dead serious. I wanted you to see the proof that I got it together.”

“I already see the proof.” She reached over to take my hand.

I squeezed hers back.

“I got you a birthday gift.” She pulled a card out of her handbag and gave it to me.

I opened it. Two Knicks tickets dropped out.

“These are some hot seats, yo!”

She grinned.

“Alyse, wait. These tickets must’ve been mad expensive. Let’s make a deal. I pay for the tickets and a babysitter, and you be nice enough to come to the game with me.”

“Thanks for the offer, but the tickets didn’t cost me anything.”

“How’s that?”

“I didn’t want to go to that other Knicks game without you, so I scalped the tickets, thinking I’d buy us tickets in the future. I actually made a profit.”

“Scalping tickets is illegal,” I said, trying not to laugh.

“Well, I’m not going to make a business out of it.”

“Good call.”

Feeling bold, I moved over to the sofa. I had to be closer, to be surrounded by her. “Does this mean you’re giving me a second chance?”

She nodded.

“Why?”

“Because you shine, Ty. Don’t you know you shine?”

“I know I don’t deserve you, Alyse.” I took her face in my hands, and made her a promise. “But I will.”

I
slipped back into the alley and whispered into my cell, “It’s on. Pup’s approaching the car.”

Seconds ticked by. I watched Pup slide into his shiny black Mazda. Bass thumped inside. If the cops didn’t pounce soon, they’d lose him. That better not happen. I’d spent weeks tracking his movements in preparation for this. His car was definitely full of Diamond Dust and who knows what else.

Sirens wailed, and three cop cars streaked in from all sides. Pup slammed on the gas, ramming one of them. He flung open his door and started to run, but they were on him in seconds.

Pup put up an impressive fight, but it only got him zapped by
a Taser. Finally they cuffed him and shoved him into the back of a cruiser. Off he went.

I smiled. Seeing Pup get arrested was a pleasure. He was a key player in Diamond Tony Walker’s operation. Cruel and unusual was his thing. That’s how he got his name—short for Sick Puppy.

Pulling my hood forward, I walked out of the alley and crossed the street, avoiding the security cameras around the all-night deli. Everybody knew those cameras didn’t miss a thing. If Diamond Tony suspected a snitch, he’d get the tapes. He could have anything he wanted in this neighborhood.

I wasn’t going to get sloppy. A sloppy informant is a dead informant.