At the Crossroads by Travis Hunter

Author:Travis Hunter [Hunter, Travis]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-7582-6242-4
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2010-09-05T04:00:00+00:00

16

Franky sat in the living room waiting while Rico talked on the telephone with somebody. Franky could pick up bits and pieces of their conversation, and he was grateful because Rico wasn’t very forthcoming with anything. Her heard Stick’s name mentioned several times, and he was happy because that meant Rico wasn’t sticking to the dumb no-snitching street crap. Over the last few days, he had become obsessed with finding Stick. The bum’s mother wasn’t answering her door for anyone, and although there was movement in the house, Stick seemed to have up and vanished into thin air.

“What did she say?” Franky asked as soon as he heard Rico say good-bye.

“Nothing,” he said. “Let’s go. Have you seen where I put those car keys?”

Franky shook his head and stood up. He would prefer to catch the bus because Rico’s driving was atrocious. He walked out on the front porch and waited for Rico to findthe keys he seemed to lose every day. He stood there, noticing how quiet the streets were for a Saturday morning. In his old neighborhood of Jefferson Parish, Saturday mornings were filled with people out in their yards working. Cutting grass, jogging, chatting with neighbors about the trials of the previous week and just enjoying the morning sun. Suddenly, all of the differences between his past life and his present were coming to mind, and he wondered why that was.

“Let’s go,” Rico said as he locked the door behind him.

They walked out to the car, and Franky got into the passenger’s seat.

“How much money do you have now?” Rico asked.

“I have a grand,” Franky said. “But I have three hundred more coming in on Monday.”

“That’s good,” Rico said. “Let me get it.”

Franky reached into his pocket and handed Rico the money.

“I know what you doing to get this money, Franky, and I know you think I don’t care, but I do and I don’t like it. I’m not in a position to do too much about it right now, but once this is over, I want you to stop, ya heard?”

“I don’t want any part of it, either, so that ain’t no problem,” Franky said, not even bothering to try covering up his new gig.

“I also know that you gave dem boys some cash to get started. Now, I’m gonna ask you one more time. How much money did you get from that so-called backyard find?”

Franky huffed. “I got six hundred dollars, and I didn’t find it in the backyard. This dude was running from you and Stick, and he jumped in my window. He gave me thesix hundred because I hid him from y’all. I gave Nigel half to pay the rent, and I gave the other three to them dudes at school to make this money for Nigel’s lawyer. That’s the truth.”

“You hid him?” Rico snapped. “Let me tell you some-thin', lil whoadie. We family and family don’t take food outta each other’s mouths. You might not like what I do, but you don’t ever go against me, ya heard?”

“Man,” Franky said, “that boy was scared to death.

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