TO LIVE A LIFE
By
This is a magnificent story
about the ‘hood’ and everyday life in the tenement projects. The reader
is taken on a literary roller coaster as the author parades a kaleidoscope of
ethnic double-dealing, excitement and struggles not only to survive, but also
to stay alive. The author combines a
clever writing style, an ear for dialog, and chronicles everyday situations to
present a historically intriguing novel.
Manica S. Bryant began writing at age thirteen. She finished this exceptional novel at
nineteen. Her style is unique and her
message is clear. Her new novels are
‘Someone Like You’ and ‘When Momma Cry, Angel Sings.’
e-BOOK
To Live A Life
By
MANICA S. BRYANT
e-Book 2005
www.mittymax.com
Copyright 2005
TO LIVE A LIFE
By
Copyright 2005
e-Book
TO LIVE A LIFE
By
I dedicate this book to…my
friends and family; the ones whom helped teach me how To Live a Life. For without you, I would not have the knowledge and love it takes to
know that friends and family are what makes up a healthy life.
MANICA S. BRYANT
CHAPTER ONE
My mother, Lenshaye
No-Thotica Reid, was walking through the house.
It was on a Friday and she was headed to work. She got her coat, car keys and walked out the
door. That was the time I normally got
up, but not today.
Today when I got up, my mother was
already gone. DeJohn,
my brother, were still asleep in his bed.
After I got dressed and fixed myself a bowl of cereal, I turned on the
television to watch my favorite show, “Parent Hood”. A few minutes later, DeJohn
sat beside me.
DeJohn is my
seventeen year old brother who is very popular in the projects. He has two best friends who are the same age
as him, Jamal and Kenny Jones. Jamal is the best
looking one of them all. He is light
skinned with long curly hair. He talks
to all the girls with that gentleman talk that sways through the air with his
deep voice on the side. Jamal has his eyes on my best friend, Divine Bogins, who hangs around a girl name Tosha
Jones. Tosha
is the sister of Kenny. They both are
popular in the projects. Unlike anyone
of us, Kenny is a drug dealer who has been wanted by the police all over the
state. Since our area is gang related,
the police are scared to come in the neighborhood. Therefore, as long as Kenny doesn't leave the
projects, he would be all right.
All this stuff has been going on for
four years. Devonte,
the leader of a gang called Cold Cash, pulled the group back together. Six years ago his father, Dollar Bill, was
the original leader. Devonte
was only thirteen when his father first formed the gang. Only Dollar Bill's homeboys were in the
gang. He never let young boys or females
in the gang. He always said boys were
weak, females belong in the kitchen and it was a man's job to rule a
neighborhood.
It all started when D-Low, the leader
of another gang called Delinquents, came into our projects one day. We were having a cook out at Dollar Bill's
house. (He sure knew how to grill some
good ol' soul food on the grill. Momma said the secret to making it taste so
good was in the kitchen where the females did the real work. Because if it was
a women's job, then only a woman could make it taste good.) Everyone were outside laughing and talking,
just having a great time when D-Low stepped up with his boys and said,
"I'm looking for a punk by the name of Dollar Bill."
Dollar Bill turned around from the grill as
he asked, "Who wanna know?"
D-Low approached Dollar Bill. D-Low stood straight up in his face. As he stared in Dollar Bill's eyes, he said,
"I, D-Low, wanna know. I came to
warn you about sending your boys over to my projects disturbing our peace. Let
that be a warning to you."
Knowing for a fact that he had closed
the topic, D-Low turned away from Dollar Bill.
Unexpectedly, Dollar Bill mocked D-Low by saying, "I, Dollar Bill,
get to go anywhere I choose." D-Low
laughed as if what Dollar Bill said was just a joke. Dollar Bill, on the other hand, kept talking.
"Can't no punk gang called Delinquents tell me
where I can and can't go!" D-Low
just kept walking. When he was gone,
Dollar Bill turned to us and laughed.
"You see how easily I scared him off."
Everyone knew that Dollar Bill didn't
scare D-Low away. D-Low left because he
was a MAN. D-Low came to the house, made
what he wanted to say clear and to the point without repeating his self, and
then when he was done, he left. Dollar
Bill thought he had D-Low scared. He
rounded up his boys as they went back to D-Low's projects to party. That night, only two out of ten members came
back home alive. Dollar Bill was one of
the lucky ones. The projects haven't
been the same since.
I
was only nine years old when it happened.
It was horrible to the ones who didn’t live in our neighborhood. Soon, we all just learned to accept the fact
that it was going to happen whether we wanted it to or not. We all knew that it was Dollar Bill's
fault. Everyone knew it except for Devonte.
Dollar
Bill drilled in his son's head that D-Low started with them first. Like men, Cold Cash had to handle it. After a while, Cold Cash ended up burning
Delinquents' property. Soon after that,
in return Delinquents killed Devonte’s mother while
she was coming out of the grocery store.
Later on, Delinquents told the police to look out for Dollar Bill. An
undercover cop came to his house and arrested Dollar Bill for possession of
drugs.
At the time, Devonte
was too young to know what was really going on. He had a sister name JaQuell who was also nine years old. They had no place to go; therefore, their
aunt took them into her house. It didn’t
work out. She kicked the two of them out
because she couldn’t take the pressure Devonte placed
on her. Everyday she would come home to groups of young boys claiming to be in
a gang with Devonte. Two of the boys were Devonte’s best friends, Ice and J.R. Devonte
wanted DeJohn to join the gang, but after seeing what
Dollar Bill went through, DeJohn wasn't down for it. Devonte called the gang Cold Cash.
Momma took them into our home where Devonte stayed until he turned eighteen. He moved out into an apartment. During that time, he was furious from the
thought of Delinquents murdering his whole family. Determined to protect the neighborhood, he
gathered up Cold Cash. After a year, Devonte became
so wrapped up in the gang, until he turned his back on the neighborhood. That's when Cold Cash went to bad.
DeJohn
walked in the kitchen with some blue jeans, a tank top on and a sporting wave
cap. He looked in the refrigerator. A
few seconds later, he came in the living room.
“Jack, what happened to the Kool-Aid?”
He asked me. DeJohn acted like he would die if
he didn’t have any Kool-Aid or bologna.
“All gone.” I said with my eyes glued to the television.
“What ‘cha mean, ‘all gone’?” He asked.
“Jamal
drunk it all.” I said. “He drunk da las bit yesta’day.” I finally looked at DeJohn. He was staring at me as if he was very
upset. I continued, “I told him not to
drink it, but he said you wouldn’t mind.”
DeJohn went
back in the kitchen. After not seeing
what he wanted, he came back. “Jack,
where’s da bread?”
“All gone.” I answered with a half smile because it was a
little funny to me to know that everything that he wanted was gone. “Why?”
I asked curiously.
“I wanted to make a bologna san’wich.”
“Oh,” I said sarcastically while also
trying to hold back my laugh. “I’m sorry
to hear that.”
“Don’t tell me...it's gone?” He
asked. He tried to hold back the anger
of knowing that he had nothing to eat.
I nodded.
DeJohn then
hit his hand on the wall with anger as he walked in his room. When he came
back, he had his car keys in his hand.
“You comin’?” He asked
signaling that he was going to the store. I turned off the TV as I left out the
door behind him.
At the store, we ran across a white friend of
ours, Jamie. I didn’t really like her because
her color said one thing, but she tried to be the other. Her parents are the same way. They stay in the neighborhood, too. (Why
couldn't everyone just be who he or she are and not try to fit in with the
group that they live around?) Jamie picked up a box of Tylenol and then turned
back around to us with her fist out. She then said, “Dap.”
I looked at DeJohn
and then down at her fist. I slightly
touched her fist with mine and then waited for DeJohn
to do the same. After me, DeJohn hit her hand.
“Ooo, I’m so glad I seen ya’ll.” She said.
“I’ve been trying to call ya’ll but someone kept hanging the phone up on
me. At first, I thought ya’ll was doing
that on purpose, but then I was like-why would they do me like that, you
know, because I’m ya’ll friend,
right?”
“Right.” We both said.
“Ya’ll wouldn’t
do me like that-”
“Nawl,” Cried DeJohn. He tried not to laugh in her face. “But I wonder who was doing such a bad and
cruel thing to such a loyal and caring person like you... Jackie?” DeJohn hit my arm with his elbow. Then, Jamie
looked at me as if DeJohn was telling her that I did
it.
“You know it wasn’t me!” I confessed to her while I gave DeJohn a dirty look.
“It was probably my momma. She
got tired of Levon dem
calling the house with those prank calls.”
I lied. It was I who was hanging
up in her face. It wasn’t that I didn’t
like her; she was just aggravating to me.
I didn’t feel like talking to her.
She always wants me to teach her how to speak Ebonics as if I know a lot
about Ebonics. Anyway, I wasn’t
alone. DeJohn
would hang up on her, too.
“Well, I’m glad I seen ya’ll today
because I’m having a party and I want all ya’ll to be there.” She said.
“It’s going to be the bomb.”
DeJohn, like
myself, added a confuse look on his face.
Trying not to let her notice that I wasn’t interested in her party, I
looked down at the floor. After feeling
that someone was walking up the aisle, I looked over in the direction of the
person. It was Ricky, our neighbor. He was also one of DeJohn’s
many friends. Jamie had a huge crush on him.
He never could stand to be around her at times. He always took advantage of her and she knew
it, too.
Jamie looked up in the direction that
I was looking in and seen Ricky. Her
eyes lit up with joy. “Ooo goody, Ricky.”
She said with joy. She was about
to say something else but stopped when she seen the same confuse look on
Ricky’s face that was on DeJohn’s and mine.
“Ooo
goody!” Ricky mocked her. “Nawl, Baby!”
He said while shaking his head.
“It’s whuz up?”
“Oh!”
She said. “Whuz up, Ricky?”
“Nuttin’ but you as normal.” Ricky teased her as he laughed in her
face. “How many times do I have to tell
you? If you don’t know who’s calling you
on your line then hang it up.” He was
using sign motions with his hands as he talked.
Confused, Jamie looked at us. DeJohn shrugged his
shoulders signaling that he didn’t know what Ricky was talking about. “Okay.”
Jamie said to Ricky in a form of giving up the thought in process. “Well, I’m having this bomb party and I
wanted ya’ll to come.”
“At yo’ house?” Asked Ricky.
She nodded.
“With yo’ crazy fine momma and crazy
fine sista’?”
He continued.
She nodded again. “Yep. And me!” She said. “So, is ya’ll coming?”
My first thought when she asked us that
were to think of some kind of a lie to tell that wouldn’t hurt her feelings.
“Fo’ Sho’!” Said Ricky without any hesitation. “We’ll be de’re.”
All eyes flew on Ricky. I didn’t know what DeJohn
was thinking, but my second thought was to kill Ricky first and then think of
some kind of lie to tell her. “Great!” She said.
“Be there at seven o’clock tonight.”
She smiled and then walked away with the Tylenol box in her hand.
DeJohn
folded his arms as he stared at Ricky.
“How can you speak for me like that?
You know I don’t roll wit’ dat clique. You know dis.”
“I know
you trippin’.”
Ricky said. “All dem crazy fine hos gonna be de’re.”
“And you know I ain’t trying to get
what dem STD infected creatures got.”
“Come on man, get tha
picture?” Ricky begged.
“Get this picture.” DeJohn said. “Me, in
my house, sitting on my couch in front of my TV watching the music awards
wondering how glad I am that I ain’t at no lame party of hers missing the
chance of seeing Ashanti and Nelly getting their awards.”
“Just go if not just for one
second.” Ricky continued to beg. “Please!”
“Fine!” Yelled DeJohn
hopping Ricky would leave him along.
“I’ll go.”
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