Hood Roots

Hood Roots (The gun) Part 5

Summer of 1985.

My mom doesn't always let us outside but today was one of those days where I guess she was feeling rather jovial.
I was sitting on the ground under the awning in front of the house.
Cletus walks over to me.
Cletus was the preteen stud muffin of the hood. His family just had great genes. His mom was the MILF of the hood. Nobody had a backside like Ms. Dee Dee.
Not only did she have a nice ass but she was downright beautiful. Cletus had a sister too. Her name was Peggy. She was just a younger clone of the mother. Most of the time you couldn't tell who was the mom and who was the daughter. From the back, they looked like a couple of bookends.
Cletus was the most popular kid in the fifth grade. He not only had the look but he had the swag and he could play basketball.
What most people didn't know was he was a little gangster.
What's up Lamont? What up "Clee"?
He didn't like to be called Cletus so we just called him Clee. Man, I really like your shoes. Your mom must have spent some money on those.
My mom didn't buy these, I did.
Cletus always had nice clothes as well as shoes.
You know you can get a pair just like these if you wanted.
Yeah, how?
All you got to do is work for me. Doing what I clamored.
All you got to do is sell this.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a big sack of what looking like that green shit you put on spaghetti.
This right here will get you those shoes and plenty of pocket money too.
What is that? This bud man he answered back.
Oh, no man I can't sell that. Don't you go to jail for selling that stuff?
Man stop being a mother fucking punk.
You will sell this shit for me and I will give you 40 bucks for every baggie u empty.
I can't do it. Mother fuck I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.
Cletus reaches into his pocket, pulls out a gun and presses it to the side of my head.
I damn near pissed my pants. I had never been this close to a gun or should I say I've never had a gun this close to me.
Cletus puts the bag of bud in my hand and removes the gun from the side of my head.
We have an understanding right. Yes, I replied.
If you don't sell that shit you can never walk the hood again, do you understand what I just said? Umm, yeah, man.
I went into the house and threw the weed on the bed. I sat next to it and cried.
What the hell am I going to do now?
My sister Charise walked into the room.
What's wrong with you? I showed her the bag of bud.
Damn! Where did you get this shit from?
Cletus told me I got to sell it or he would shoot me. Shoot you? Yeah, he put a gun to my head.
Put that shit in his mailbox and tell him you won't do it.
He will shoot me. No, he won't. Give it to me. My sister took the bud and walked out of the front door. She opened Cletus's mail slot and pushed the bud into it. She came back to the house. Tell him I'm the one that put it in his mailbox if he asks, don't cry.
A couple of days passed and I had forgotten all about Cletus and the whole drug thing that was until Cletus crept up behind me with that damn gun as I played in front of the house.
Why the fuck you put that damn bud in my mailbox? My mom found that shit.
I didn't do it, man, holding up my trembling hands. My sister did it.
Your sister?
What's your sister's name? Charise I replied. Charise? Yeah, they call her C- Mac.
Cletus removed the gun from my head. C-Mac your sister? He walked away.
I told my sister what had happened later on that day. She didn't say one word. She just walked away.
Two weeks later I saw Cletus and noticed he had two broken legs.
Damn dog!
What happened to you?
I hurt myself playing basketball he said as he kept walking with crutches in hand.
To this very day, I'm not sure if my sister had anything to do with what happened to Cletus but he never approached me in a negative way again. In fact we were pretty cool after that. I also learned something from the experience. I definitely needed to toughen up if I was going to live in this neighborhood.