Free I Kill Monsters: The Revenants (Book 2) by Tony Monchinski Page B

Like that time earlier in the
summer when they brung that slow girl from across the way over,
talkin’ bout can they use DeAndre’s moms’ place to run a train on
the hoe. Running a train and hoe the
words they used; DeAndre would never refer to a female that way.
His momma had taught him to respect women. Terry that time having
the good Christian sense to tell Luke and them hell no .
    Well, maybe his brother hadn’t said hell no , but what Terr’d said, he’d said their
momma’d be coming home from work anytime and that’d sent Luke and
them somewhere else.
    The rec room of building four from what
DeAndre heard.
    Carlotta was the name of the girl they’d
called a hoe. DeAndre knew her from school. ‘Lotta in the special
class. Wasn’t right.
    “… lines that astound me / lines that confound me …”
    “Red!”
    “Huh? Whut? Sorry.” Fred lowered the volume
on the stereo, Larry Fishburne on the television handing the kids
in the fast food place coins for the video games, saying no offense to their grandmother, handing her a hundred, telling
her to get the kids whatever they wanted.
    DeAndre’s momma persisted in believing in
something called the American Dream. That with enough hard work
they would make good, even as she worked her ass off at two jobs to
keep food in their mouths. In Ronald’s mouth, DeAndre
corrected himself, looking at the fat bastard sitting there. Their
momma at work more than she was at home. Their momma at work now,
with these fools in her living room smoking weed, wasting their
electricity on the television and the stereo.
    Luke with his legs up on her chair and Terry
ain’t sayin’ nothin’ to him about it.
    Fred stepped away from the stereo and its
speakers, going to the bathroom, not even bothering to shut the
door. Fred was gonna piss all over the bowl like always. Leaving it
for someone else to clean up. DeAndre knowing that someone else was
going to be his momma. Not like Terry was gonna clean up after his
nasty-assed friends.
    On the television the cops had come into the
chicken joint, had Fishburne cuffed and bent over the counter.
David Caruso telling him it was his luckiest day, they had a
witness. Fishburne’s Jimmy blurting “I don’t leave no
witnesses!”
    “Oh yeah motherfucker? Well you must be
getting old.”
    DeAndre wondering where these older boys got
their ideas of what it meant to be a man, to be an adult. None of
it was any dream or plan he shared. Luke in his momma’s chair
talking on some kind of upcoming criminal exploit he’d planned or
was planning. Luke liked to talk, especially when his head was up
behind some weed.
    “Word?” Caprice said to Luke. “Shit. Hope you
know what you getting’ yourself into, rollin’ with Dodd.”
    “Dodds’ no joke,” said Terry. “I heard he was
away behind icin’ somebody.”
    “What I heard too.” Ronald stuffed Chinese
food in his mouth.
    “And the nigger no snitch, neither.” Luke
talked like he knew the man. “Kept his mouth shut, did his time
like a G.”
    “Yo, youse niggas is trippin’ yo.” Caprice
motioned with the joint in his hand, its red tip glowing. “I heard
the man’s a registered sex offender.” DeAndre listenin’ in on their
conversation as he transferred his sandwich to a plate, having to
smile to himself. Knowing what Caprice was doing, Caprice messin’
with the others. Caprice in some ways the smartest of his brother’s
friends.
    “What?” asked Luke.
    “Yo, don’t let nobody hear you talkin’ bout
that.” DeAndre not sure if Juan was in on the joke or thought he
was being serious.
    “ What ?” Luke sat up in their momma’s
chair, actually taking his legs down off the arm rest.
    “No, I’m for real. Dodd come out of Dannemora
or wherever it was they had him, nigga had to go round knockin’ on
peoples’ doors lettin’ them know who he was, what he was about. Ask
your moms.”
    “Like my Uncle Darryl that time,” volunteered
Ronald.
    “You serious?” Luke