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got a half smile on his face.
    â€œOkay, now we’re all here,” says Dre. He holds the picture up in front of him.
    â€œOne, two, three!” says Yvonne. She presses the shutter. The flash goes off once, twice, then three times.
    â€œOkay, let’s go,” says Ernest. He’s taking Marco to school. I told him he could have this moment with his little boy. I’m going to have my own moment with Dre.
    He doesn’t know it, but this day is just as big for me as it is for him.
    Ernest, Yvonne and Marco leave first. Then it’s just Dre and me.
    â€œYou ready?” I say.
    â€œYeah, I’m ready,” says Dre. He hangs LeVon’s picture up again next to the front door. “Let’s go.”
    Dre grabs his book bag and his jacket. On his way out the door he reaches up and touches the picture. He doesn’t say anything. But he does this every time he leaves the house. I know what it means. It means Thank you .
    LeVon had it rough. He said himself that making it to nineteen in the projects was like making it to ninety in the rest of the world. Sad to say, but for a young black man, that’s the truth. He was more likely to end up dead or behind bars than he was to succeed. That’s not right. But that’s the world we live in, until we choose to change it.
    Every time I see that face, I think of the fact that if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have my son anymore. So I touch LeVon’s picture too.
    â€œThank you for my son,” I whisper, quiet enough so Dre doesn’t hear. He gets embarrassed by me a lot lately. I don’t care though. Sometimes a mother is going to embarrass her children no matter what she does.
    Dre is already outside, waiting in the car. He’s not just impatient to get to school. He’s impatient to begin the rest of his life. He wants to do something noble with it. He’s got the fire in him to make that happen. Dre knows he has to live two lives now—his and LeVon’s. Nothing is going to slow him down. Nothing is going to stop him.
    â€œYou ready?” I ask him.
    â€œYeah, I’m ready,” he says.
    â€œPut your seatbelt on,” I say.
    â€œMama,” Dre says, “it’s on.”
    â€œSorry,” I say. I guess I just can’t help myself.
    That’s how it is when you’re a mom. You don’t stop being one just because your kid turns eighteen. Motherhood is for life. And I mean that in more ways than one.

Something Noble is WILLIAM KOWALSKI ’s third title in the Rapid Reads series, following on the success of The Barrio Kings (2010) and The Way It Works (2010). Kowalski is the award-winning author of four previous novels, including the international bestseller Eddie’s Bastard . He lives on the South Shore of Nova Scotia with his wife and children.

Titles in the Series
    RAPID READS
    And Everything Nice
    Kim Moritsugu
    Assault on Juno
    Mark Zuehlke
    The Barrio Kings
    William Kowalski
    Best Girl
    Sylvia Warsh
    The Fall Guy
    Barbara Fradkin
    Fit to Kill
    James Heneghan
    Generation Us
    Andrew Weaver
    Love You to Death
    Gail Bowen
    The Middle Ground
    Zoe Whittall
    The Next Sure Thing
    Richard Wagamese
    One Fine Day You’re Gonna Die
    Gail Bowen
    Orchestrated Murder
    Rick Blechta
    Ortona Street Fight
    Mark Zuehlke
    The Second Wife
    Brenda Chapman
    The Shadow Killer
    Gail Bowen
    Something Noble
    William Kowalski
    The Spider Bites
    Medora Sale
    That Dog Won’t Hunt
    Lou Allin
    The Way It Works
    William Kowalski
    When I Kill You
    Michelle Wan
    A Winter Kill
    Vicki Delany