Dealing with Problems

“Hey man do you have the stuff,” says the man that just walked into the alley.

“I have my part but I am waiting on you to fulfill your part of the deal,” Jamal whispers to his nervous customer. Ja-ron watches the man waiting for him to show a gun.

The man responds by saying,” Hey do not be rude or I will find a new supply,” a grin begins to grow on his face. His confidence is growing.

Ja-ron starts to get nervous and sweat begins to trickle down his cheeks. His hand goes into his jacket and grips the pistol. He begins to stare down the intruder that is joking with them. The situation is making him nervous.

The man gave the money to Ja-ron and Jamal threw the drugs at the man. Jamal says, “You had best be stopping the funny business or you are going to be looking for a new supplier.”

I split the money with Ja-ron and go home for dinner. The apartment we live in is one of the cheapest in Los Angles. It’s two floors but has only two rooms upstairs. The room I sleep in is upstairs but is only big enough for a mattress. My mom stopped me while I was on my way up.

She said,” If you do not quit messing around with drugs I am going to call the police myself. I know where you have been and where all this extra money is coming from. Your guilt is showing up all over your face. You should not be doing these things.”

I told her to stay out of it and walked up to the bathroom. I could hear her crying while I was getting undressed to take a shower. I looked at myself in the mirror. I did not realize how much I have changed in these past couple months. I look so much older and my tattoos are starting to fade. My hair is starting to grow so I will shave it after my shower. I had deep lines under my eyes to prove that I have not been getting much sleep. Ever since I got into dealing I have had a lot of problems with sleep. It does not come easy and I lie there for hours. The money has started to come easier and those people about the credit card debt quit calling my mother.

Later while I was sitting on my bed I called Ja-ron and told him what my mom said to me earlier. He told me not to worry and that she would not call the police. I got off the phone and started to think about our big deal tomorrow. This guy wants to get a lot of drugs and I have to tell him that the prices have gone up. Hopefully he takes the news well and everything stays on the down low. If not I know that Ja-ron has my back. Tonight I need to get some sleep I do not want to look weak during the biggest sale of my career. I have to look mean and sound mean in order to keep these guys in place. As I drift off to sleep I start to think about what would happen if I quit the drugs but I pushed the thought away and closed my eyes.

That morning I was getting up and I could smell the oven baked cinnamon rolls that my mom must have made for me. I went to the bathroom to get ready then I started to put my clothes on. I jumped down most of the steps and could hear my stomach growling. I needed to eat and get out of the house so that I would not be late. Ja-ron had told me last night on the phone to meet him at the café around noon. I slept in today so I had to hurry up. I left the house on time. I was walking out the door when I realized that I had not seen my mom this morning. She works the night shift so she is always awake when I get up. That’s really weird I said aloud to myself.

“Hey Jamal what’s going on brother,” Ja-ron yelled loudly from down the street.

I shook my head and replied,” Nothing brother, what’s up with your life?”

“Man you know that nothing is ever new in my life.”

“Yep I know but I just like to hear you say it.”

“Whatever man I just know that we have to get to our dealing alley before our customer, so put a little pep in your step.”

“Yep we better get moving before we miss it.”

“We can’t miss this deal. It is too big and the money we are going to get from it is enough for me to get away from my screwed up family and rent my own apartment for a month.”

“You really want to get away from them don’t you?” At first he did not answer my question. He paused and thought about his answer.

You do not know what it is like to live in that house. I have nothing and I have to support my brothers and sisters. I wanted to go to college and I was smart enough to but I had to drop out of High School in order to get a full time job.”

“Whoa! I am sorry, I never knew it was that bad.” Walking beside him I started to think about how rude I am to my own mother. I am going promise to myself to be nicer in the future to my mother. With those thoughts we walked the rest of the way to the alley in silence but it was not awkward at all.

The alley that we used to make the deals was nothing special. It had no meaning to us at all. In fact I would say that it was probably like all of the other alleys in Los Angeles. The only reason that we chose it is because it was a pretty good distance away from the places we work and our homes. When we picked this alley a couple months ago when we both started to deal drugs we were probably making one of the smartest choices of our entire lives. The alley was hidden from the streets but it was easy to tell our customers how to get to it.

Ja-ron and I walked in, pulled out the two chairs that we had hidden, made sure the gun that Ja-ron was carrying was loaded, and waited for our customers.

I started to talk to Ja-ron about Call of Duty. The sounds of footsteps were coming closer and we both stood up at the same time and put our game faces on. I started to get nervous but by now I knew not to show any emotions except hate while making a deal.

He said,” Hello, do you have the items that I have ordered?” He said this as though he were speaking to a child. It really angered me.

This deal was different, the person in our alley was a new customer. Most of the people we sell to have been customers for awhile and see us about every other week. The man that I was looking at looked like he thought that he ran the show. That does not happen in my alley. Ja-ron and I are the people in control around here.

“You need to show me the money right now or you are not going to see any drugs in your hand today,” I replied sternly.

He laughed which made me want to punch him in the face. He said,” Calm down I do not want any trouble. I just want what I came here for.” He reached into his pocket and I saw Ja-ron’s hand go into his pocket and grip the pistol that I knew he had stored in there. The man pulled out the cash.

“The prices have gone up. I am going to need an extra hundred dollars for the same amount of drugs,” I said and in my mind I knew that if I showed that I was weak the deal would not get made.

“You look like a reasonable man, maybe you can cut me a deal because I am buying so much.”

I shook my head while saying,” No new deal will be made because the prices for me to obtain this stuff rose, so does the price for me to sell it. I am not going to lose money on this deal.”

“The deal stays the same or things get messy.” As he said this two more men carrying guns appeared behind him.

“Hey man but if you aren’t willing to pay the price just leave.”

It all happened so fast. My ears were ringing when I saw the bullet hit one of the men that had guns. I guessed that Ja-ron fired first. Two more shots were fired and one hit me. I got hit in my right shoulder. It went completely through and it hurt really badly. The other bullet embedded itself right into Ja-ron’s chest. The two men that were not hit by bullets quickly ran away.

“Ja-ron are you okay?” I screamed at least four times. He never answered me. I took my cell phone out with my left hand and called 911. I could hear sirens but they would take too long to find us. I was laying there for what felt like hours when the police came back and saw us.

“Help my friend he got shot in the chest I will be fine.” They shipped us both off to the hospital in an ambulance.

I woke up in a hospital bed and my mother was sitting beside me. She was crying, but she smiled when she saw that I was awake.

“Hey mom, how are you?”

“I am fine honey, but I have some bad news.”

“What is it mom, is Ja-ron alright?”

“Jamal he is dead. The bullet punctured his heart.”

“Oh my god! Mom I will never do drugs again. I promise. I realize now that I need to change my life.”

“You can do this.”

“I know I can but I can’t believe that it took the death of my best friend to make me change my ways. Now it is too late and I feel horrible on the inside. If it is alright mom I would like to be alone.”

I told my mom to call the rehabilitation center so that I could get some help. I could hear her calling outside my room and I hoped life would be better.