IBO - Brian R. Lundin (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

After flashing a gang sign, he said to John, “You muthafuckas ready to join?”
“I told you I didn't want to join no gang,” John said.
“What did I tell you little muthafuckas, either join the gang or don't come to this school, I’m going to kick your asses again.”

As Prince and Lloyd started to walk towards John and his friends, Eli suddenly grabbed Lloyd by the collar of his shirt and spun him around tripping him and throwing him to the ground. He grabbed, Prince and smacked him hard across the face, Prince rubbing his face, said to Eli.
“What you're doing man, you know who you fuckin’ with…”
Before he could finish, Eli had smacked him again.
“You better leave these kids alone. If I hear about you fucking with anymore kids around this school, I’m going to “kick your asses again,” you understand me?” Eli said shaking his fist at Prince.
Prince walking away with Lloyd and rubbing his face said to Eli, “You’re dead man, dead.”
Eli acted as though he was going to grab Prince again. As they ran away, Prince yelled back at Eli, “You're dead man, dead.”
For the rest of the semester Eli walked John to school but he did not see Prince or Lloyd again.
Grace’s older sister, Maggie was a retired school teacher. She and her husband Mack, a retired police officer never had children. They had moved to Warsaw, Indiana and had a nice house on Pike Lake. Every year the boys would spend their summers there, fishing and swimming. Grace did not want her sons in Cabrini doing the summer because it was too dangerous. Crossfire between rival gangs engaging in drive by shootings often resulted in young children playing outside, being killed. Gunfire and fights between the gangs in Cabrini filled the days and nights.
Eli, John and Billy looked forward to visiting their aunt and uncle, it was peaceful, and there were no gangs. Uncle Mack taught them how to fish and swim. Although Cabrini Green was located only about two miles from Lake Michigan, none of the boys had ever been there. That summer, Eli had decided he would not go to Indiana; he wanted to work full time and save some money for college.
It was the last day of school and all the kids were running and playing. It was a nice, warm, sunny early summer day. Eli and John were walking home from school eating an ice cream cone talking about going to Indiana; John was very excited about the visit. As they passed one of the abandoned buildings, Prince suddenly jumped out of the breezeway and pointed a gun at Eli. Before Eli could react, Prince fired three shots all three shots missed Eli, but two hit John. One shot hit him in the hand holding the ice cream cone and the other shot hit him in the chest. Prince ran as John began to fall and the ice cream cone splattered on the ground, but Eli was able to catch John before his head hit the pavement. Eli sit on the ground cradling John in his arms, he could see the fear in his little brother’s eyes and the tears starting to run down his cheek. The blood flowing out his wounds soaked Eli’s clothes and John tried to speak, but he could not, there was only the gushing sound of air escaping his body, his lips moved but no sound came out, except a last desperate breath.
The ambulance arrived surprisingly fast and the paramedics began working on John. One put an oxygen mask over his face and one applied a blood pressure cuff. The third paramedic applied direct pressure over John’s chest wound. Eli still holding his little brother wiped away the tears from his lifeless eyes.
“He’s gone son,” he heard one of the paramedics say, “He’s in a better place.”
John's death did not make the news; he was just another black youngster killed in the projects. Grace took John's death very hard for one of her worse fears had been realized; one of her children had been killed. After the funeral, she refused to get out of bed or eat. Maggie and Mack tried to get Grace to go back to Indiana with them but she refused. A week after John’s death Maggie and Mack took Billy to their home in Indiana. Eli reported the incident to the police but they could not find Prince and he doubted if they ever would. Eli arranged a meeting with his friend Ronald, a governor with the Vice-Lords.
“I want Prince, Ron,” Eli said angrily.
“You know how sorry I am about your little brother Eli, but you also know I can't give Prince up to you, he's a brother, but when we find him he'll be dealt with by us, he wasn't authorized to do what he did, and we’ll take care of it.”
Eli angrily responded, “No, I want Prince myself, I don't want any trouble with you Ron, but I’m going to kill Prince, sooner or later.”
“Eli, we are like brothers, but I can't let you do this, let us take care of it, please. You know what will happen if you do it, the law says that you and your family will be killed. No one can kill a Vice-Lord except a Vice-Lord.”
“Ron, you do what you have to do, but I’m going to kill Prince,” Eli said as he left the room.
Ronald watched Eli leave, he knew Eli and he knew that some way, somehow, Eli was going to get Prince and the only way he could stop it was to kill Eli, and he couldn't do that.
Eli knew about the gang codes and he knew that Ronald had no choice but to uphold them. Billy was safe, being with his aunt in Indiana but he was concerned about his mother. He thought to himself that maybe he should let the gang take care of Prince, but he changed his mind when he remembered how his little brother looked before he died. A month passed since John's death, Grace grieving for John got worse, and she would not get out the bed, leave her room, or eat.
She stayed in her bed all day; crying and often she soiled herself and the bed. Eli felt alone. The apartment was empty now; he missed the laughter of his brothers and the love that was in their home. Eli was working full time at the store, but he would come home after work to see about his mother. Eli suggested again that she goes and stays with Maggie and Billy for a while, but she refused, again.
Eli was very worried about her, she was depressed, and he heard her at night talking to John. One night after coming home from work he found his mother laying on the floor dead, in her room, she had cut both of her wrists. After the funeral Maggie and Mack tried to get Eli to move with them to Indiana, he refused, he had unfinished business.
Prince was scared, for some reason he could not stop sweating and had a splitting headache, the throbbing in his head sounded like jungle drums beating out the rhythm of a last battle. He sat alone in his room, silent, and locked behind his bedroom door. He knew that the gang and Eli were looking for him and he knew that if the gang caught him he would be severely disciplined, maybe killed, he did not know what Eli would do. He had been hiding in Stateway Gardens, with his older sister, Donna, but Stateway Gardens was State Street Boys territory and he was a Vice-Lord.
He could not go outside the apartment but he knew he had to find a way to get out of Chicago. He had a thousand dollars he had gotten from selling drugs, hid in his room at home; he had to get it. Donna told him about their cousin in Kansas City and if he could get there he would be safe, but Prince had to get the money from his room.
Eli did not know where Prince was hiding, but he knew that eventually he would have to come home, it was just a matter of time, and he could wait. He was told by a friend of John’s, that Prince was hiding in Stateway Gardens, and was planning on sneaking home late one night this week to get some money so he could get out of town. Every night between 10:00 pm and 8:00 am, Eli waited in an abandoned car parked in front of Prince's building. The building only had one entrance and that faced the parking lot. After waiting for three nights, on the fourth night, around 3:00 am he saw a shadowy figure walking close to the walls of the buildings about a block away. The figure was moving very slow and was hunched over. Any type of movement on the street, a passing car or people walking on the street would cause the figure to stop moving and try to hide, either by hugging the walls of the building or laying on the ground, Eli knew it Prince. Eli noticed five young men about a block away walking towards Prince this was his chance. He watched as the men approached Prince, who hid behind a trash dump.
Eli bolted from the car and ran to the entrance of the building. There was a sign on the elevator that read "Out Of Service.” Prince would have to take the stairs, which was to the left of the elevator. The air in the stairwell was foul with the stink and sickening smell of stale urine, a dim light illuminated the entrance, but the lights were out on the second and third floors. Eli waited on the second floor landing just around the stairwell turn from the first floor. He pulled from a black scabbard a fishing fillet knife his Uncle Mack had given him last year when they were fishing. It had a long slender blade and was razor sharp; Eli heard footsteps in the lobby. He peeped around the wall and saw Prince entering the stairwell as silent as a cockroach. Relieved that the lights were out on the second floor Prince thought he was safe, he would get the money, sneak back out of Cabrini and be on his way to Kansas City before daylight. As Prince bounced up the stairs two at a time, he did not know he was running to his death. When Prince turned the landing to the second floor he was suddenly pinned against the wall in the narrow dark stairwell.
Prince never saw the face of his killer, who whispered in his ear,
"This is for my little brother."
The sharp fillet knife smoothly sliced through the skin around Prince's throat, he tried to scream, but could not, his windpipe have been cut. He was dead before he hit the floor of the stairwell. Eli went home, packed his clothes, and caught a bus to Indiana.
Warsaw was a quiet little country town, no projects, or gangs and mainly white. All of his classmates were white and their parents were farmers. Many of them had visited or passed through Chicago, but Eli was the