True Stories from Childhood

This story actually took place in Harlem, New York circa 1992. The names have been changed but they sound real enough so you would think that they are real people

I was about 11 or 12 years old and I had just gotten out from school. My friends and I didn’t feel like going home so we went to the Polo Grounds to play basketball at the Willie Mays’ basketball courts. It was me, Kareem, James, Raheem, and Chris the Puerto Rican. So we began to play a quick game of 21 when I noticed Jamal and his goons, Jay and Fat Boy sauntering up the courts looking for trouble. I was the only one that lived in that part of Harlem so I knew who was who in the neighborhood. Jamal was an older kid who had developed a reputation as the neighborhood bully. He got his rocks off by menacing younger kids and intimidating them with his size. In retrospect, he really was a punk, but I digress. Anytime, I saw Jamal I knew trouble loomed. He made his way to our court and he asked if he could “get a shot.” Of course, we were all terrified because he was older and menacing so we said yes.

He missed his first few shots because he was the worst basketball player in the projects. But Jamal, ever the intimidator, insisted on shooting until he made it in. Anybody else would have said, “Thanks fellas, here is your ball back.” But not these guys. Jamal then takes the ball and he and his friends engage in their own game but they decided not to pass the ball to us. They were in a sense playing “Saluchi” with our ball. For those not familiar with the term, Saluchi is a child’s “game” in which an article of clothing or an item belonging to someone else is taken from that person and tossed around amongst the participants of the game so that the owner has to keep running from person to person to retrieve what is rightfully theirs. One can imagine how torturous this must be for a child. As the three young men, tossed the basketball around amongst each other, Chris the Puerto Rican yells out, “Give us our ball back!” Huge Mistake! Jamal immediately threw the ball over the fence and walked towards Chris. Kareem and James, sensing that trouble was about to brew, quickly grabbed their bookbags and jetted off the courts. Me, Chris and Raheem were the only ones left on the courts with these three who were considerably bigger than us. Jamal grabbed Chris by his shirt and threw him up against the fence and asked him:

“What’s your name?” Chris responds. He then asks him,

“Do you have a brother?” Chris nods.

“Where is he?” Jamal asks.

“Puerto Rico” Chris responds.

Jamal immediately headbutts Chris in the stomach so hard that Chris was doubled over in pain with tears coming out of his eyes.

Jamal moved over to Raheem and asked him the same two questions:

“What’s your name?”

“Raheem.”

“Do you have a brother” Jamal asked.

“Yes.”

“Where does he live?” Jamal continued.

“Trinidad” Raheem replied.

Jamal then headbutted Raheem and left him doubled over in pain. He then makes his way over to me, grabbed my shirt asked me the same questions:

“What’s your name?”

“Edgar” I replied.

“What?” Jamal asked.

“Edgar” I repeated.

“What kind of a name is that?” he demanded.

I stayed quiet because one never really knows how to answer a question like that so he ignored my silence and continued:

“Do you have a brother?”

“Yes” I answered truthfully.

“Where does he live?”

“Brooklyn” I answered.

Jamal promptly let go of my shirt and apologized for disrupting our friendly game of 21. He sends Fat Boy to retrieve our basketball from over the fence and the trio continued on their merry way.

I oft wondered to myself if he didn’t headbutt me because I told him my brother lived in Brooklyn or did he not headbutt me because I told him my brother lived in close proximity? Raheem had a brother but his brother lived in another country. If I had told him that my brother lived in say…Staten Island, would the result have been different? I don’t know but what I do know is Brooklyn definitely has a reputation not just in New York but nationwide. I live here now and I have grown to appreciate it but I still don’t understand people’s love affair with the place. At any rate, I will never quite understand Jamal’s motives for approaching us the way he did and I wouldn’t mind finding out but if he turned out as reckless as I thought he would he is probably upstate being bullied by someone else.