Free The Heart of Revenge by Richie Drenz Page A

silence. He always
seemed to look at his black and red football boots he had bought
four years ago before he answered Patrick. His boots were ontop of
the shoe-box it came in and still he had never worn it before. It
was still brand new and house dust was in his boots more often than
his feet were. His reply would often be,
    “No. Mi have to go help out with something by
the club,” and by the club he meant by HYC. His friends all knew it
was a lie and knew that was always the answer he gave. They
purposely stopped and asked every time they were going to play
football just to shout back at him saying,
    “Yow, you a gal! Sissy! Sissy Vance! Mi never
see you play no sports yet. You a big sissy! Hahaha.”
    When they were gone, Vance would leave the
house and go into the old lady’s next door garden. Even if Ms. Merl
wasn’t outside he’d still go into the garden by himself, all alone,
just him and the flowers. It was true though. He didn’t play any
physical sport and he couldn’t, because it’s a life and death
situation with his heart if he ever tried to get too physical. If
his heart worked too fast, it may lead to his death, a heart
attack.
    And that was how Vance earned the name Sissy Vance . On Saturdays when Mom was at the
market and the healthy footballers were passing by, knowing Mom
wasn’t there, they would not call him Sissy Vance. They would call
him by the name they called him more freely in the streets,
Battyboy-Vance.
    But even with that, Vance would not let
anyone know the real reason he could not kick ball with them, nor
play any other sport. He remained silent and took all the degrading
names, insults and shame.
    In the streets, Vance always wore his navy
blue New York cap low to his brows, hiding his eyes. He didn't walk
with his chin up either. He kept his eyes on the ground, hoping he
would not hear any of his nicknames Sissy-Vance or
Battyboy-Vance.
    He had only one close friend and that was
Beanie-Boy. Beanie was not like the others. Apart from the fact
that he loved fashion and he was hype nuh pussjook, he had never
called Vance a sissy. Or a battyboy, even though Beanie wasn’t
aware of his heart condition. Vance had no problem lending Beanie
his stuff, mostly clothes . I had bought a black leather band watch
for Vance for his fourteenth birthday that he really loved, but
three weeks after he didn’t have it anymore. Beanie had borrowed it
and still hadn’t return it. Vance didn’t have much clothes but
Beanie still borrowed Vance’s shoes, shirts. He got in a squabble
with Vance when he wanted to borrow Vance’s blue New York cap and
Vance told him no.
    On the contrary, because Vance stayed away
from parties and going out, he had never borrowed clothes from
Beanie. On a couple of occasions when Beanie really wanted stuff
from Vance and he refused to lend, him he resorted to calling him a
big gal, a bigger gal than Cecile and Angel together, and so. Vance
took it, smiled and didn't let it get the best of him and up till
that point Beanie still didn’t bring back Vance’s black watch.
    One thing that never failed to put a smile on
Vance’s face during these rough times was his HYC meetings. On
Sunday nights, after the meetings, he’d be so perky and happy. Only
once I saw a gloom on Vance’s face after he came from one of his
meetings. It was when he was sixteen; he was sitting in the sofa. I
put down the ice tray I was filling with water by the kitchen sink,
turned off the pipe, walked over to him and had a seat beside him.
It had to be something really terrible that happened to get his
spirit down after a meeting. I had to find out what it was. I
touched him on his knee and asked,
    “Why the sad face?”
     

CHAPTER 10
Vance Has A Good Friend
    by: Leelia Lexings
    “Nothing.” He shrugged his shoulder but he
didn't look up from the floor he was looking at.
    “Come on, I know you better than that, what’s
wrong Vance?”
    “I just don't understand people, it’s like
they