Walter Myers - Lockdown

Things are going okay. I tried to transfer to Frederick Douglass Academy but they didn't have any room at FDA. If I went to FDA I could walk to school every day. Also, there aren't as many fights up there.

Yo, Reese, I'll be glad when you get out because there isn't anyone to hang out with anymore. Everybody is either into a hustle or doing crimes. I'm trying to keep straight like you said, but I really need somebody to hang with who isn't being shot at or drugging up or getting into trouble.

My moms said if I got a college scholarship it would be good. I'd like to go away to school, maybe one of those big schools with a football team that plays on television and a million cheerleaders with fat legs (smile).

I saw your brother Willis the other day. He was sitting on the rail in front of your building. He looked like he didn't have nothing to do, the same as everybody else. Yo, Reese, when you get out we should maybe work for a year and then buy a car. We could have a gypsy cab business. I could drive it in the day and you could drive at night and once in a while we would switch up. Unless I got a scholarship. I'm not too hopeful about the scholarship anymore.

Anyway, take care of yourself and come home soon. Kenneth Bramble

K-Man was smart enough to get a scholarship and he didn't play ball or anything like that. Most of the white guys that got scholarships did a lot of extracurricular stuff. One white guy I knew even went to Africa and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with his grandfather. I wish I had done that. My mom's father had a stroke when he was thirty and could hardly walk. I never saw my father's father. My father never talked about him either.

The fight between King Kong Tarik and Toon was supposed to take place after supper. I watched Toon looking down at his tray and knew he was thinking about being beaten up again. Diego, that punk, was sitting with King Kong, making jokes and nudging him and stuff, and every once in a while he would look over at Toon.

There was always some little guy around for people like Tarik to beat on. It was like they spent all their lives looking for victims, somebody they could make feel bad.

Mr. Pugh was on the rec room detail but he always took long breaks because he was sneaking smokes. Diego and Leon were sitting next to Toon, and when Mr. Pugh got up to go to the bathroom, they pulled him out of his chair and pushed him toward King Kong.

King Kong knew Toon wouldn't fight back and started goofing on him, faking punches and winding up and stuff.

"Mr. Pugh is going to come back soon," Diego said. He was standing at the door looking through the window down the corridor toward the staff men's room.

When he said that, King Kong threw a hard punch and hit Toon on the top of his shoulder and the side of his head. Toon went down on one knee, and then King Kong started punching him in the back of his head.

Toon whimpered and put up one hand to block the blows.

"Put your hand down!" King Kong stood over Toon, ready to hit him again.

Toon lowered his hand and King Kong punched him on the back of his neck.

"Oh, man, that hurt!" Leon said.

Toon was down on his hands and knees.

"He putting his butt up for you to kick!" Diego said.

King Kong started backing up to get a running start. He backed all the way up against the couch and started toward Toon. That's when I tripped him.

King Kong stumbled, caught himself, and spun around. I clipped him upside his jaw. He was surprised and his hands went out to his sides like he was trying to steady himself. I jabbed him with my left hand and turned my fist sideways and hit him in the side of his face with everything I had.

"Here comes Mr. Pugh!" Diego called out.

I looked at King Kong, and he was down on the ground lying on his side. Play grabbed Toon and pulled him up and pushed him into a chair. Diego got back to a chair, but King Kong was still lying down when Mr. Pugh opened the door.

"What the hell's going on?" he asked, looking around the room. "I said, 'What the hell's going on?'"

Mr. Pugh went over to where King Kong was lying and turned his head from side to side. "You been cut?" he asked.

"He hit me!" He was on one elbow pointing at me.

"Ain't nobody hit him," Play said. "Clumsy sucker just fell."

Mr. Pugh wasn't buying it. He grabbed me and spun me around with one hand behind my back. He cuffed me and then dragged me out of the rec room and down the hall to the detention room.

"You trying to get me into trouble, you little punk?" He had his mouth just about on my ear as he unlocked the detention room door.

He didn't have to cuff me to the wall restraint, but he did. Then he put one fat hand around my neck and started squeezing.

"Leave a bruise, man," I said. "Leave a bruise!"

He lowered his hand and then threw his shoulder into me, bouncing me into the wall. I looked into his face. It was twisted and mad.

He said something I couldn't understand, spitting all over me as he talked. Then he left.

A minute later, I heard King Kong coming down the hall. He was yelling he didn't do nothing, and I knew Mr. Pugh had his ass headed for the other detention room. Even from where I was I could hear the bumps against the wall.

"Hit him one for me!" I called out.

Mr. Pugh and Mr. Wilson brought King Kong, Toon, and me into the large intake room and cuffed us to wall rings behind the long bench. We were about three feet from each other with me on one end of the bench, King Kong on the other, and Toon in the middle. Mr. Pugh walked over to the door, turned, and gave us the finger before he left, slamming the door behind him.

"I wish I could reach your black butt," King Kong said. "I'd tear your damned head off."

"If you can sing it, you can bring it," I said. "I ain't going nowhere. You'll get your chance. Then we'll see what happens."

"You won't be able to sucker-punch me next time, faggot," King Kong said.

Then Toon turned and spit at King Kong, which surprised me because I knew King Kong was just looking for a reason to beat Toon silly.

But I liked that. Toon couldn't fight and he was little and kind of punkish, but he still made a statement.

King Kong started telling Toon what he was going to do to him, how he was going to shotgun him and make him call him uncle and a whole bunch of other crap. Toon looked up in the air and shook his head like he wasn't hearing him.

Mr. Cintron came in with Mr. Pugh a moment later and told Pugh to uncuff Toon.

"Mr. Deepak, you are scheduled for one day in detention quarters and one week's loss of privileges," he said.

Mr. Pugh took Toon out of the room. All the while Mr. Cintron was looking at some papers he had in front of him. I thought he was going to come down on me the hardest. He didn't say anything until Mr. Pugh came back and he motioned for him to uncuff King Kong.

"Mr. Sanders, you are scheduled for five days in detention quarters and one week's loss of privileges," Mr. Cintron said.

Mr. Pugh took King Kong out but not before that stupid jerk could give me another dirty look.

"Reese, when you're standing up, perhaps reaching for something in your closet, and you sit down suddenly, do you get headaches?" Mr. Cintron asked.

"No, sir," I said. "I never get headaches."

"Well, that's kind of funny because your brains are up your ass," he said. "Aren't they?"

"No, sir."

"What do you want to call this institution?"

"You mean Progress?" I asked.

"Yes."

Mr. Pugh walked back into the room and came over to where we were.

"A juvenile correctional facility, I guess."

"James, you ever see a basket of crabs?" Mr. Cintron turned to Mr. Pugh.

"Yeah, I've seen them," Mr. Pugh said, smiling.