Tales of the Hood Read Free

with red watery eyes then left.
    We carried on with the ceremony but the atmosphere was incredibly intense. Even though my mum was peacefully laid to rest there was still so much hurt being felt. When I saw all the flower wreaths and condolences left by many friends and family it finally hit me that she was gone. My mum, the woman that raised me from birth single-handedly was gone.
    ***
    That evening, Vanessa and I stayed at Maurice’s. I think we all needed each other for support and stability right now, especially Maurice. The sheer embarrassment he experienced today was ego-crushing. My mum’s death made me think that I wanted to make something of my life just for her. I was into music but I didn’t think it would get me very far. There were so many obstacles to avoid when starting from the bottom. It’s like people never want to give you a chance to showcase what you can really be. That’s why Chipmunk was one of my idols. It was good to see a boy from a deprived area making it big, using only the limited resources he had. It inspired me to make something big of myself too and I knew music was the way to do it. It was in my nature and it was in my blood.
    The next day I went to the studio with Maurice. It was the best way to release any negativity we had and I knew if I wanted to do this music thing I needed to be able to drop a couple of bars properly. Maurice fixed up a beat and I tried my best at free styling.
    â€œGrowing up on the streets was a damn rough life,
    every other yute rolling around with their pocket knife,
    man watching my every movement,
    man listening to my every word,
    pricks shouldn’t be watching what I say,
    watch battyman Maurice he’s gay.”
    I finished laughing until my abdominals hurt.
    â€œYo that was sick still, but don’t go talking like that often,” he laughed. ‘I think you can actually get somewhere with this,” he added.
    â€œI know but I have to be dedicated to this and we both know I ain’t one for making commitments. Plus trying to find out what happened to my mum and working on this is going to be a mission,” I said thinking about her.
    We both sat down and thought about the best way to go about things. In the end we just packed up and hit home. It was too soon to dive into anything major. My mind wasn’t 100% and I had too much resentment inside me to spit passion on the mike. Since the murder I’d been staying at Maurice’s house. Seeing the image of my mum’s body on the floor had left me somewhat traumatised. The wall where she lay was stained red. It was like every time I closed my eyes that one wall turned into the gateway of hell: roaring red flames surrounding a question mark in the position where I tried to put a face. It was hard. Staying in that house would bring back so many bad memories that I didn’t want to forget but at the same time didn’t want on my mind. I lay down that same night and thought about life. I hadn’t seen Jamal around the ends for a while. Maybe he was trying to lay low because he knew what he’d done and he knew that it didn’t end here. I punched the mirror with anger and watched my blood drip; staining the white material of my sheets; conjuring up the image of the blood-stained wall I tried my best to erase from my thoughts. I was so paranoid these days. Every boy that looked in my face resembled Jamal. I wasn’t certain it was him and there was actually a possibility he could have nothing to do with it but it was unlikely; very unlikely. Remembering the last thing he said to me after the fight gave me a pretty good idea that he was going to do something.
‘Remember, I know where you live.’
Those words were like a horrible lullaby ringing in my ears. I made up my mind. I was going to find him. Find him and kill him! Regardless if it was him or not, he was a chip on my shoulder that wouldn’t shift. Some might say it was karma but