Criminal Minded Read Online Free Page B

familiar?” I asked. I didn’t care if I was being nosy. I knew just about all the guys my age in my neighborhood, and his was a face I’d never seen before.
    “I just moved here from Queens,” he said. He seemed to search my face to try to figure out if I was real enough for him to level with. Then he put it out there. “I got kicked out of my last foster home, and they sent me to stay with her.” He nodded in the direction of a lady that my grandmother was talking to. I recognized the lady as Sister Bailey, and I couldn’t help wondering if she was telling my grandmother the same thing that Zion had just told me.
    “Oh,” I said. “What got you kicked out of your last foster home?”
    Zion grinned. “I got caught bonin’ my foster sister.”
    We shared another laugh, and I decided that I liked this kid. He seemed honest and unashamed. I admired that.
    “Well, Sister Bailey’s gonna have you in church every Sunday so get used to it. My grandmother drags me in here every week, too,” I told him.
    He nodded. “Well, at least now I got somebody funny to sit next to,” he said.
    Olivia walked over and I introduced her to Zion. He smiled at her and said, “Hi.” But he didn’t eyeball her like so many guys did. That scored big points with me, because it showed that he was respectful enough to not treat my sister like eye candy.
    “So, Lamin,” he said. “You play ball?” Zion made an imaginary jump shot to illustrate his question.
    I smiled. “Do I play ball?”
    Zion nodded his understanding. Looking at Olivia he asked, “He got game?”
    Olivia knew she better represent. “Of course!” she said, smiling.
    Me and Zion made plans to get a game going in the Big Park the following day. Although I was meeting him for the first time, I felt like
I’d known him for years. When he gave me pound at the end of that day, it began a friendship that would remain for a lifetime.
    Zion
    There was something about Lamin that I liked right away. At that point, nine out of the ten niggas I had met when I moved to Staten Island were cornballs. Wanna-be thugs. But Lamin seemed like a real nigga, and real recognizes real.
    When his sister stepped up on the scene, it took a lot of willpower for me to keep from telling her how fine she was. The girl was tall, dark, and lovely. I figured I’d get to know her a little better and see where her head was at. Time would tell.
    But, in the meantime, I decided to get to know this cat, Lamin.

THREE
    things done changed
    Lamin
    Zion and I got along well. We had similar interests: basketball , girls, hip-hop, and sneakers. We spent the rest of that summer chillin’ and getting to know one another. But nothing could take the place of Curtis. Curtis said he was adjusting to life behind bars. Whenever we visited him, Aunt Inez brought him books to help him pass the time. My moms wouldn’t let Curtis call us collect, so I wrote him letters in between our visits. He told me that he’d had a few fights, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. But no matter how optimistic he sounded, I missed my cousin, and I still couldn’t fathom the fact that he would be in his twenties by the time he was a free man.
    To make matters worse, my moms’ behavior was really beginning to disgust me. Now that I was getting older, it began to really bother me that my moms had so many different men in her bed. In my lifetime, I had seen at least five different men move in and out of my mother’s house (not including Olivia’s father!). Not to mention the ones who just came by late at night when she thought we were sleeping. Since Olivia and I were teenagers, she didn’t bother to pretend anymore. I started to resent her for the lack of respect she had for her kids.
    Sons feel naturally protective of their mothers. They treat them like flowers that have to be handled delicately. The son of a single mother automatically treats any man that comes around with suspicion. Daughters tend to be more trusting.