Drive-By Read Free Page A

a great cook; even when it seems like there’s no food in the house for dessert, she makes something. She can make candy from grapefruit peel and apple pie from crackers. Sometimes she makes candy with leftover mashed potatoes, powdered sugar, and peanut butter.
    I climbed over the fence and walked slowly up to the back door.
    I opened the door and walked inside.
    The house was empty.

7
    I stood in the kitchen for a long minute.
    Even the refrigerator was gone. Little gray dust balls wiggled in a draft where the refrigerator had been.
    I looked on the counter for a note, then peeked inside the living room. What I saw made my blood run cold.
    Spray-paint graffiti covered the walls.
    A crew of taggers had broken into the house and written on the living-room walls.
    These guys write anywhere. One time I saw a guy shove his foot in the exhaust pipe on a bus. He jumped up and wrote his tag while the bus pulled away from the curb.
    I took another step.
    The floorboards creaked. I knew this house. I had lived here since I could remember. One thingI knew, the floorboards didn’t creak where I was walking.
    The sound came from the back of the house. Someone was inside with me.
    I crept from the living room to the hallway. All the time I prayed the other person in the house was Mom. I hoped she was packing my things. I wanted her to tell me what was going on.
    Another part of me knew the other person could be some bandit tagger or a gangbanger.
    I held my breath and hid in the first bedroom.
    The room was empty except for a broken Christmas-tree light on the floor.
    Floorboards creaked again.
    Someone was coming toward me.
    I pressed flat against the wall.
    Then I heard loud music. The music hurt my ears and made the walls vibrate. I eased to the window and peeked outside.
    A chopped black Chevrolet swerved against the curb.
    Suddenly someone grabbed my shoulder and yanked me into the hallway, then dragged me into the kitchen, pulling me with a force I couldn’t believe.
    Next thing I knew, I was facedown in the dirt in the backyard as if I had lost at mumblety-peg.
    That’s when gunfire opened on the house.

8
    I couldn’t breathe. Someone was on top of me. I tried to scream, but grass and dirt filled my mouth. Mud packed into my nose.
    Plaster and stucco flew around me.
    Terrible explosions thundered in my ears; then the gunfire stopped.
    Tires screeched.
    It was silent for about two seconds before police cars skidded to a stop at the front curb. Police radios crackled in front of the house.
    The weight lifted off me.
    I turned.
    Gus stood over me, brushing dirt off his jeans.
    I spit out dirt and grass. Then I wiped my nose on my T-shirt.
    “Man, you’re a sorry case for staying alive inthis city,” Gus said. “Don’t you know they’re after you?”
    “Me?”
    “’Cause of your brother, man,” Gus said.
    “Jimmy was no gangbanger,” I said.
    “Everyone in this town is ganging and banging,” Gus said.
    We heard steps inside the house, and then tires crunched gravel in the alley.
    “Run!” Gus yelled.
    “Why?” I asked.
    “You don’t know anything about surviving in this city.”
    He jerked my hand, and then I was flying over the fence with him, splinters sinking into my belly.
    I fell near Spider. Spider growled and pounced at me.
    I was dead for sure.
    Spider jumped over my head and lunged at Gus.
    Gus ran for the next fence and pulled himself up.
    Spider bit his jeans and held tight. The dog yanked his head from side to side and growled.
    The jeans slipped off. Gus fell behind the fence.
    Spider brought the jeans to me as proud as if he had caught a cat.
    I took the jeans and petted his head.
    Someone looked over the fence into Mrs. Washington’s yard. I could see the shadow on the lawn in front of me.
    I hoped it was a cop but I wasn’t going to test my luck and see. Maybe it was one of the guys in the black Chevrolet.
    I hid inside the doghouse with the jeans.
    Fleas thought I was dinner.
    Spider pushed