Against the Grain Read Free Page B

All you had to do was sit back and let them clean your car until it was spotless. Kay only trusted one dope fiend with his car, and the others knew to stay away. Scatter was his man. Scatter was a junkie like the rest, but Kay had respect for him. They had a history together, from years ago, when Scatter was the king of the streets.
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    Kay was coming home from Shake & Bake Skating Rink when four boys surrounded him and demanded he give them his sneakers. Kay wouldn’t give them up so they started pushing him around. Back then Scatter was the big man in the neighborhood; he was the dope man and the numbers man. This meant big money. He owned five or six cars, three houses, a club, and pimped some of the finest hoes the city of Baltimore had ever seen. On this particular day, he and some of his pimp friends were standing outside his club on Pennsylvania Ave. They were shooting dice and Scatter was winning when he looked up and saw what was happening to Kay.
    “Look, ya’ll,” he said, pointing across the street where Kay was being harassed by the four boys. The other pimps knew Scatter always liked the underdog so for them this was the perfect opportunity to get back some of their money.
    A pimp called Sweets spoke up first. “Yo, Scatter, I got a grand that say shorty gets his ass kicked and his sneakers took.”
    Scatter looked at him. “Nigga, what the fuck I look like, the Salvation Army? I ain’t donating no money to your sorry ass. It’s four of them; of course youngin ain’t got no wins. Now if you let me referee so that the punk gets a fair fight, I’ll bet you that grand.”
    This was too good to pass up. All seven of the other pimps wanted the same bet. Scatter took bets from them all before they headed across the street toward the little boys. “What the fuck are ya’ll doing to that damn boy?” Scatter yelled. The young boys’ first instinct was to run but they couldn’t. They were surrounded by eight grown men who had no intention of letting them go anywhere until they won their money back. Scatter addressed the crowd. “What? It takes all of you little motherfuckers to take this little nigga’s sneakers?” None of the boys said a word. Scatter reached into his pocket and pulled out an enormous knot of money. He peeled off four five-dollar bills.
    “I’ll give each of you five dollars apiece to fight this little bastard, one-on-one, and whoever beats his ass first, I’ll give ’em five more dollars and I’ll take the nigga’s sneakers myself and give them to you.” Kay took off his coat and dropped it on the ground. Scatter could see in the boy’s eyes that he wasn’t scared. It wouldn’t have mattered whether Scatter and his crew had crossed the street or not. Kay wasn’t giving up those new sneakers without a fight. Before the first kid could get his coat off, Kay had already scooped him up and slammed him headfirst on the ground. He was out cold. After Kay’s initial attack, fear crept in on a couple of the other boys. Kay moved in for the kill. Within fifteen minutes he had beaten all of them. One of them, he whupped twice. When the last boy fell, Scatter picked up Kay’s coat and brushed the dirt and debris off the sleeve for him.
    Kay snatched the coat from Scatter and arrogantly told Scatter, “Stay away from me, pimp. You paid them to beat me up. But I fooled you, didn’t I? I ain’t no punk.”
    Scatter laughed at Kay. “That’s not how it went down, kid. I spent twenty dollars to make seven thousand dollars. I put my money on your little scrawny ass. What’s your name anyway?”
    Kay stood there silently for a minute debating whether to tell this pimp his name. “It’s Arkadian.”
    “Alright, Arkadian. Can I call you Kay for short?” Kay shrugged his shoulders then nodded in agreement.
    “Kay, you want a soda or something?” Scatter offered. “Come on over to the club.” Scatter put his hand on Kay’s shoulder and