Black Gum Read Free Page A

around outside of Walmart just smashing niggas and taking their bags. Run up behind them and pop, knock their ass out. Just tossed that shit into the trash, man.”
    Shane sat quietly.
    The heavyset kid laughed. “Word.”
    “There was the time he tried to set his moms on fire.”
    Shane flinched.
    The kid said, “Like, the house?”
    “Nah. Like, his actual moms. Just came in the house with some lighter fluid. It was the wildest shit I’d ever seen.”
    The kid held out a fist. Shane slowly tapped it.
    I put the Chihuahua down.
    “Or the time with that girl. That was the most brutal shit I’d seen since--”
    Shane addressed the heavyset kid. “Studio?”
    The Juggalo’s eyes lit up. “Yep.”
    “Let’s look at that.”
    The kid brought him into his room. Jack Skellington curtains and pumpkin bedsheets and a rail thin girl staring at the ceiling holding her chest. He leaned over her. “You alright, baby?”
    She smiled. “I’m higher than fuck.”
    He opened his closet. Cut up egg cartons lined the walls. A mic hung from the ceiling with a sock over it. “This is where I write my masterpieces.” Turned on his PC. Brought up some beats. “Let’s drop something.” Out in the living room, the Juggalos howled. A big girl lifted her shirt up.
    Charlie cut out a few more lines. Shane grimaced and grinded his teeth. “I’ve got shit to do.”
    His cousin glared at him. “‘Shit to do.’ Jesus. Put it in your fucking face.”
    “Charlie.”
    “Put it in your fucking face.”
    Shane railed the line.
    I didn’t need convincing.
    The beat came on, lots of snare rolls and bass and organ keys.
    The Juggalo said, “Grimy shit.”
    “Ugly.”
    “You got something for me?”
    Charlie cocked his thumb at Shane. “The homie has bars for days.”
    I peeked out of the room. A few kids wrapped themselves in Christmas lights and turned on a Kurosawa film. One of them just kept talking, going on about what a master this dude was, look at this shot, that shot, perfectly framed. No one else paid him any mind. Shane said, “That looks like fun.”
    Charlie said, “Drop some science.”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Drop knowledge. You’re a clumsy librarian.”
    “I might. I don’t know.”
    “Either do or don’t. Weigh your pros and cons. Do it.”
    Shane tapped his head. “There is no simple math in this dark thing.”
    The Juggalo let the beat ride out.
     
    Shane thrashed wildly. The Juggalo tagged him twice in his eye. He stumbled back. The heavyset kid moved in. Got him twice more on the chin. Shane landed on his ass in the dirt and the group cheered. Charlie stepped in. “He’s done. Enough.”
    Shane scrambled to his feet. He stalked around the back of his house and came back carrying a giant branch. The bony ends of it scraping against the streetlights.
    The Juggalos roared. Charlie held out his hand. “What are you gonna do with that?”
    Something left from behind Shane’s dilated eyes. He suddenly looked confused. “I’m gonna kill him with this branch.”
    Charlie picked the tree limb from his cousin’s grip. “Go home.”
    Shane hesitated.
    I wrapped my arm around his shoulder. “Come on,” I said.
    We stumbled down the street.
    Charlie turned to the Juggalos. “Normally I’d say come on home with us and smoke something. But when he gets like this…”
    Shane howled and I wrapped him up in my arms and carried him.
    Charlie shrugged. “I better get on.”

 

    PIRATE SHIP

    The next morning I woke up and Shane looked over at me from where he sat and said, “I’m hungry.”
    We walked to the Corner Store and waved hello the man behind the counter. Shane poured himself a slushie and bought some chips and talked to the clerk a bit and we went out front and sat on a picnic table off to the side and he ate his chips. Watched passersby slip on the ice.
    A man in a leather jacket came out of the dark and sat between us. He had a pirate ship tattooed across his face.
    He pointed at the tattoo