Read Online Dope Sick by Walter Dean Myers - Free Book Online

sometimes.”
    â€œSound like you feeling sorry for yourself,” Kelly said.
    â€œHey, I’m the one in this skin looking out,” I said. “I might be feeling sorry for myself the way you said, but I’m the one being messed over, right?”
    â€œAin’t you messing over yourself?”
    â€œDoes it matter? Does it really matter if it’s some white dude downtown or some brother on the corner or me all by myself if the result is the same?” I asked. “Does it really matter?”
    â€œYeah, it does,” Kelly said, looking away from me. “’Cause if it’s somebody who ain’t in your skin, you don’t feel the punches when you fight back.”
    â€œWhatever. You think it’s going to be safe for me to split once it gets light?” I asked.
    â€œIt won’t be light for a while,” Kelly said. “Go on with your story.”
    I didn’t feel like going on with it. Kelly was right when he said I was feeling sorry for myself. I knew that. That’s why it was better sometimes just not to feel anything. I didn’t know why he wanted me to go on, either, but he did.
    â€œWhen I got back to Harlem, I fell into my old place. My moms was glad to see me, but she waslooking bad, stringy and skinny. She asked me where I had been and all, but she wasn’t acting like she was missing me, more like she was mad that I wasn’t there. She was coughing and spitting up stuff. It was kind of disgusting. She was on Medicaid and taking all kinds of pills. I scoped her pills, and from what Sabrina had taught me, I knew I could get a buzz on from what she had. She had them time-release capsules, and I took them apart and cooked them up and went for the line. I didn’t worry about OD’ing on painkillers, so that’s why I went for the line instead of just skin popping.
    â€œI looked for a job and got back into the same old routine. Once in a while I found some pickup work. They started a new company where you go to this office and they send you out here and there to work. Whoever you working for don’t pay you, they pay the company and then the company pays you. It’s crappy, but it’s some pocket change.
    â€œI could also sell some of my mom’s pills downtown on Forty-Deuce. Sometimes on Sundays when there was a football game, you could sell pills to the guys going to the game. I guessthey go over there and drink they beer and take some pills and enjoy themselves. You could sell more pills when the Jets were playing than when the Giants were playing. That was funny, but everybody knew it.”
    â€œYour mama know you left tonight?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œYou want to call her?” Kelly asked.
    â€œYou got a…? Yeah, you do. No, I don’t want to call her. I don’t know what to say to her.”
    â€œShe might like to hear from you,” Kelly said. He handed me a cell phone.
    I wanted to peep Kelly’s faves in case he was a cop. He could have had Homicide or Detectives listed. I didn’t, because the brother had me scared. I dialed home and waited for four rings before I heard Mom’s voice.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œYo, Moms, me, Lil J.”
    â€œWhere you at? The police been in here looking for you. You didn’t shoot no cop, did you?”
    â€œNo, but I got to get my stuff together so I can prove it,” I said. “How you doing?”
    â€œBoy, my nerves is gone! Those cops were so nasty. They tore up the place looking for you. Took all my dishes out the cabinet and put them on the floor. Now how you going to be in there?”
    â€œDon’t worry,” I said. “I’ll be all right.”
    â€œWhere are you now?”
    â€œI’m at a friend’s house, but I can’t tell you where.”
    â€œOne of the detectives gave me a card with a number to call so you can give yourself up,” Moms said. “But I don’t trust them cops. I