Read Online 145th Street by Walter Dean Myers - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Walter Dean Myers
Tags: Fiction
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be more than what I saw on the block. Uncle Duke said I could be more, but if I put Harlem out of my heart I could end up being a lot less, too.
Yeah, well, I was ready to take my chances. What I wanted to do was to be a doctor and have a nice crib, and a Benz, the whole nine. Then the thing happened with Monkeyman.
Monkeyman was always quiet. He was down with the books and everything, but he kept to himself a lot and didn’t get into anybody else’s business. We used to call him Monkeyman because sometimes he would go to the park, climb up into a tree, and sit up there and read all day. We weren’t dissing him, we just gave him the tag and he seemed to like it, so it stuck.
Anyway, the Tigros turned out to be a new gang that were trying to build a rep in the ’hood. They were biting all the stuff they read in the papers about wearing colors and flashing signs and whatnot. It wasn’t a real big thing until they started terrorizing stores and then they beat up a lot of people and stabbed that one kid. After that you saw their tag all over the place, like stabbing a kid was something to be proud of.
What usually happens when a new gang makes the scene is they jump bad as a posse for a while until they step too far and their leaders get busted. Then, when they realize that their reps and tattoos and colors don’t keep them out of jail, they chill and their colors fade. But that hadn’t happened yet with the Tigros. They were still wilding and messing with people and putting out squad tracts. A squad tract is when somebody messes with a posse and they let everybody know they’re going kick his butt. When the word comes down that a gang is after you it’s scary, and one of the reasons I wanted to leave the area.
Okay, so here’s what happened with Monkeyman and the Tigros. It started when one of the Lady Tigros got into a beef with Peaches. The Lady Tigros were just as bad as the dudes and one of them slapped Peaches in the face. Peaches and the girl got into it pretty good and Peaches won the fight. Then, on the way home, two of the Lady Tigros went after Peaches and one of them had a razor blade. Monkeyman was coming from school and had stopped off to buy a soda on the ave. He saw the girl trying to cut Peaches and he ran out and knocked the blade from the girl’s hand. Bingo, the fight’s over because neither of those two girls wanted to mess with Peaches without a blade and they weren’t on their turf anyway. But one of the Lady Tigros went to the same school as Monkeyman. She went back and told the Tigros and before you knew it everybody on the block was talking about how Monkeyman was in big trouble.
There were signs painted on the walls— MONKEYMAN MUST DIE! and MONKEYMAN GOT TO FALL! It was all signed by the Tigros.
Uncle Duke saw Monkeyman in the barbershop and told him to lay low for a while. Fee told him the same thing but everybody figured that Monkeyman was going to get beat up and maybe even worse.
“You know any karate or anything?” I asked Monkeyman when I ran into him on the corner.
“I read a book on it once,” he said.
“That’s not good enough,” I said.
He shrugged and gave me this little grin. Okay, let me back up a little. Monkeyman is six feet tall, maybe even six feet one, and thin. He plays a little ball but he’s really not kicking hoops and he’s kind of mild-looking. He’s not a lame or anything like that but he’s more down with his mind than his hands. So we worried about him.
“We need to get together and help Monkeyman,” Peaches said.
“That’s hip,” Fee said. “It’s hip to help a brother in trouble and everything, but what you’re talking about is getting a posse together to go down with the Tigros and that’s heavier than it is hip.”
“We can tell the police,” Peaches said.
“A guy I know went to the police when he got into trouble with a numbers runner,” I said. “The numbers runner said he was going to cut him a new place to pee from.
Yeah, well, I was ready to take my chances. What I wanted to do was to be a doctor and have a nice crib, and a Benz, the whole nine. Then the thing happened with Monkeyman.
Monkeyman was always quiet. He was down with the books and everything, but he kept to himself a lot and didn’t get into anybody else’s business. We used to call him Monkeyman because sometimes he would go to the park, climb up into a tree, and sit up there and read all day. We weren’t dissing him, we just gave him the tag and he seemed to like it, so it stuck.
Anyway, the Tigros turned out to be a new gang that were trying to build a rep in the ’hood. They were biting all the stuff they read in the papers about wearing colors and flashing signs and whatnot. It wasn’t a real big thing until they started terrorizing stores and then they beat up a lot of people and stabbed that one kid. After that you saw their tag all over the place, like stabbing a kid was something to be proud of.
What usually happens when a new gang makes the scene is they jump bad as a posse for a while until they step too far and their leaders get busted. Then, when they realize that their reps and tattoos and colors don’t keep them out of jail, they chill and their colors fade. But that hadn’t happened yet with the Tigros. They were still wilding and messing with people and putting out squad tracts. A squad tract is when somebody messes with a posse and they let everybody know they’re going kick his butt. When the word comes down that a gang is after you it’s scary, and one of the reasons I wanted to leave the area.
Okay, so here’s what happened with Monkeyman and the Tigros. It started when one of the Lady Tigros got into a beef with Peaches. The Lady Tigros were just as bad as the dudes and one of them slapped Peaches in the face. Peaches and the girl got into it pretty good and Peaches won the fight. Then, on the way home, two of the Lady Tigros went after Peaches and one of them had a razor blade. Monkeyman was coming from school and had stopped off to buy a soda on the ave. He saw the girl trying to cut Peaches and he ran out and knocked the blade from the girl’s hand. Bingo, the fight’s over because neither of those two girls wanted to mess with Peaches without a blade and they weren’t on their turf anyway. But one of the Lady Tigros went to the same school as Monkeyman. She went back and told the Tigros and before you knew it everybody on the block was talking about how Monkeyman was in big trouble.
There were signs painted on the walls— MONKEYMAN MUST DIE! and MONKEYMAN GOT TO FALL! It was all signed by the Tigros.
Uncle Duke saw Monkeyman in the barbershop and told him to lay low for a while. Fee told him the same thing but everybody figured that Monkeyman was going to get beat up and maybe even worse.
“You know any karate or anything?” I asked Monkeyman when I ran into him on the corner.
“I read a book on it once,” he said.
“That’s not good enough,” I said.
He shrugged and gave me this little grin. Okay, let me back up a little. Monkeyman is six feet tall, maybe even six feet one, and thin. He plays a little ball but he’s really not kicking hoops and he’s kind of mild-looking. He’s not a lame or anything like that but he’s more down with his mind than his hands. So we worried about him.
“We need to get together and help Monkeyman,” Peaches said.
“That’s hip,” Fee said. “It’s hip to help a brother in trouble and everything, but what you’re talking about is getting a posse together to go down with the Tigros and that’s heavier than it is hip.”
“We can tell the police,” Peaches said.
“A guy I know went to the police when he got into trouble with a numbers runner,” I said. “The numbers runner said he was going to cut him a new place to pee from.
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