Mic Check by Lina Jay (best ebook pdf reader android .TXT) 📕

The Reason Why……

September 1997

      Ten year old Malcolm grabbed his fitted cap that was in his bedroom and ran as fast as he could to catch up with his older brother, Sam. Twenty year old Sam stopped in his tracks and turned to face his little brother. “Where you going lil man?” Sam asked. “With you,” Malcolm turned his hat around so that the curved brim was on the right side of his head. “Nah, go back in the house,” Sam turned Malcolm’s hat around so that the brim covered Malcolm’s face.

     “But I wanna go with you!” Malcolm stomped his foot and adjusted his hat. “You goin’ cry and whine like a lil girl? Now you really goin’ stay here. Back in the house before I call Ma!” Sam had things to do and having his little brother tagging along was not in his plans. “Nah, I’m straight. I’m not a girl. I just wanna go,” Malcolm looked around at Sam’s friends. All of them, including his brother were significantly taller than he was. But he didn’t care, they didn’t intimidate him!

     He was going to go even if he had to fight all four of them! “Seriously, you wanna go?” Sam asked. “Yeah, man seriously. I wanna go,” Malcolm stuck his chest out to show his older brother that he could roll with the big boys. “This is grown folks business and you gotta be a man to ride with us. Are you ready for that?” Sam tried to intimidate his brother out of tagging along.

     “Sam! Come on man! We can’t have your punk ass lil brother coming along. We got shit to handle!” Brick, one of Sam’s friends protested. Sam turned to face Brick and got as close to his face as he could. “Watch your fucking mouth around my lil brother. And if you call him another name it’s going to be me and you. You’re one step away from being kicked out of this crew anyway so if I were you I’d keep my fucking mouth shut,” Sam whispered so that Malcolm wouldn’t hear him.

     “Whatever,” Brick walked away and towards Sam’s black Range Rover. Sam and his other two friends started to walk to his car when Sam stopped in his tracks. “You coming?” he asked Malcolm while keeping his back to him. Malcolm ran and jumped in the truck.

     The ride was buzzing with weed smoke, music and discussions about girls. Malcolm was enjoying the ride when the truck that his brother was driving came to a screeching halt. Everything and everyone was quiet; dead silence engulfed the air and it made Malcolm uncomfortable. “Is this it?” Sam asked Brick. “Yeah, park over there,” Brick pointed to the side of the building.

     When everyone stepped out of the car Malcolm tried to follow them. “Nah, man, you stay here,” Sam told him. “Why?” he asked. “You gotta watch the car,” Sam replied and tossed Malcolm his cell phone. “What’s this for?” Malcolm asked. “In case Mom calls. She’ll be calling soon, so answer it when she does because we have to pick her up from work,” Sam walked away. Malcolm didn’t want to stay but if he had to he was going to sit in the driver’s seat. Sam followed his friends inside the building.

     For the next fifteen minutes Malcolm imagined how his life would be if he was Sam. He imagined himself driving a big expensive SUV, having girls and plenty of money to spend. Another fifteen minutes passed and Malcolm was getting restless so he stepped out of the car and leaned on the door. He heard music blasting from inside the building but he could still hear someone arguing in the back of the building.

     Malcolm recognized the voice. It was his brother Sam! Malcolm ran towards the back of the building but stopped when he got to the corner. He used precaution and peeked his head around the corner. Sam had his gun pointed at Brick while his other two friends had another guy pinned up against the wall. Malcolm came from behind the building and watched in awe as Sam was seconds away from putting a few bullets in his friend.

     Suddenly the phone that Sam gave Malcolm earlier started ringing. Everyone turned in his direction and in a split second everything went tragic. The guy pinned up against the wall pulled out a gun from under his shirt and shot one of Sam’s friends in the chest. Brick sucker punched Sam, catching him off guard. The guy with the gun shot at Sam’s other friend who took off running in Malcolm’s direction. When Sam’s friend turned the corner, the other guy ran after him while still shooting.

     Sam punched Brick causing him to fall and then took off running after the gunman that was shooting at his friend. Malcolm had never seen anything like this and he was paralyzed with fear. He couldn’t move. His eyes were fixated on the gunman coming his way and didn’t witness what happened next. Sam pulled out his gun and shot at the gunman who was dangerously close to Malcolm.

     The bullet hit the guy in the shoulder and the guy turned to shoot at Sam. “NOOOOO!” Malcolm screamed at the gunman. But before the guy could shoot at Sam, Sam was shot in the head and fell down. Malcolm took off running to get help when he heard another gun shot. He ran and jumped into a nearby dumpster. Malcolm knew that if he made a sound it would be his last one.

     “Where’d he go?” someone yelled. After a few minutes Malcolm heard Sam’s car start up and drive away. Malcolm refused to cry, he had to stay strong. Sam would call him a girl if he found out that he was crying. It was a half an hour later when the police and ambulance were on the crime scene before Malcolm stopped thinking about what happened to Sam. At that moment the phone that was still in his pocket started ringing again. Malcolm looked at the caller ID and noticed that it was his mother.

     “Hello?” he whispered. “Oh my GOD, baby where are you? Are you okay?” his mother was frantic. Malcolm started crying and told his mother that he was hiding in the dumpster. A few seconds later, a police officer lifted the lid and pulled Malcolm out. His mother rushed to him to give him a hug but the only thing that was on Malcolm’s mind was Sam.

     Where was his brother? Just then, Malcolm’s eyes went straight to two men pushing a stretcher with a covered body on it. He broke his mother’s hug and went running after the stretcher. Malcolm pulled the bloody cover back to reveal the person under it. When Malcolm realized that it wasn’t Sam he went running back around the corner. Everyone but his mother ran after him to stop him but it was too late.

     Malcolm saw his brother lying in a large puddle of blood with a hole in his head. Before he could react, a police officer grabbed him and took him back to his mother. There was a lot of crying, a lot of screaming and a lot of blood lost.

     Between the police and a few of her family and friends, Malcolm’s mother was coaxed into going home. The ride back home was long with Malcolm’s mother crying and praying but he was certain of one thing. Malcolm didn’t know whose bullet killed his brother but he knew that he had to avenge his brother’s death. By any means necessary!

……So it begins

Tony

a.k.a.

T-Money

June 2010

     That’s right! You heard me right! A battle royale will be held two weeks from now but the auditions are tomorrow afternoon! So get down to Jordan Auditorium and show the judges that you have skills. From the weakest to the best MC’s in the city, if you can battle your way to the top you will receive $250,000! Just imagine what you can do with all that money!

     $250,000 would help out a lot, Tony Saunders said to himself as he rubbed his seven year old daughter’s back to soothe her so that she could go to sleep. Tony had the radio on low so that he wouldn’t wake her. He listened to the radio DJ talk about a rap battle competition that was worth trying out for. After his seven year old daughter, McKenzie fell asleep Tony walked into the living room where his mother was sewing the buttons back onto his blue uniform shirt.

     He worked at a full service car wash and his shirt got caught on a customer’s door and the buttons came off. “Here you go Tony, be careful next time,” she handed him his shirt. She looked the same as she did the day she gave birth to him, twenty three years ago. Even though she was a teenage mother she did the best that she could and Tony loved her for that reason. She was disappointed when Tony became a teenage father when he was sixteen but he stepped up to the plate and took his responsibilities like a man.

     He wanted to be the man that his father never was. “I can’t help it if the beauty of my customer blinded me,” he leaned forward and kissed his mother on the forehead. “I told you about these fast ass girls!” his mother scolded him. “I love you too, Mom,” he sat down next to her on the couch as she watched T.V. The only girl that his mother liked was McKenzie’s mother, Nicolette. Nicolette was his first love and he was devastated when she was killed a few months after McKenzie was born.

     He wasn’t there when a car full of guys did a drive-by. After hitting a few people and killing three, including Nicolette, the shooters still didn’t get the guy that they were aiming for. Tony desperately wanted to get out of Braddock Housing Projects but he was struggling to do so. He had intentions on moving himself, his daughter and his mother out of Braddock.

     “You won’t believe what I heard on the radio a few minutes ago when I was trying to put Turtle to sleep,” he said rubbing his head. Tony kept his hair cut extremely low. Even though the cut wasn’t a bald cut, it was a close enough cut to be considered one. Tony had curly hair, thanks to his Puerto Rican father. And with his light skin complexion he was always a target for women. He had too much on his plate to deal with another woman right now and that’s why he kept his hair low. He also tried to stay in the sun in hopes of darkening his complexion. But it never worked.

“What?” his mother, Joyce, asked him.

“They’re having a rap battle over at Jordan.”

“Are