Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum

Author:Susan Nussbaum
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2013-05-05T21:00:00+00:00

Ricky Hernandez

After I unload all the kids from Hoover, I run into Jimmie. She wants to talk to me. We walk over by the cafeteria, sit down. The place is empty but the food-service people are cooking something for dinner. Smells like cheese sandwiches.

“Okay,” Jimmie says, “I know you keep an eye on Pierre and I wanted to give you a heads-up on something. You know he keeps food up in his room?”

“I know he has a thing about food,” I say. “I know he worries over it, like if he feels he might not get enough, he might snatch some extra. What happened?” I’m starting to get a sick feeling in my gut, and I think I better brace myself ’cause I’m about to hear something I don’t wanna hear.

“This is just what I heard,” Jimmie says, sighing. “Okay. Toya told me that Louie changed Pierre’s treatment plan because Pierre’s been acting out, like, you know, stupid stuff, like Pierre took off his shirt when he wasn’t supposed to and he wouldn’t go to his room or something—just the usual. So Louie’s been getting Pierre’s meals withheld. This afternoon Louie found some food under Pierre’s mattress—”

“Where’s Louie?”

“Ricky! Chill, chill, okay? You need to be cool or I can’t tell you this.”

“Where’s Pierre? Time-out room?”

“Well, yeah, but there’s more to it. Louie lost his cool. Like he went looking for Pierre and when he found him he dragged him up to his room and sorta—he was Louie, okay? He was a pig. Toya said it was not cool. Pierre just—he just shut down, you know?”

In my head I’m sorting through what Jimmie’s saying, but at the same time I’m thinking of tearing Louie’s nose off.

“So Toya goes in there while Louie’s going off on him,” she says. “Now Pierre’s on the floor, sitting on the floor, and Louie kept telling him to get up. But Pierre won’t do it. Louie starts shouting in Pierre’s ear, ‘Get up! Get up!’ but Pierre won’t budge. Toya said she tried to butt in but Louie was screaming, you know, like Pierre not getting up was this big thing and he had to get up. But the more he yells, the stiller Pierre gets. So he grabs Pierre up by the arm—”

“That fuck! I’m okay. I’m okay.”

“—and he’s walking real fast holding Pierre’s arm and Pierre’s just—he couldn’t keep up. Toya said she followed but she couldn’t take on Louie. Of course. I mean, of course. When they get to the time-out room Louie puts Pierre inside and leaves. Toya went over and looked in on Pierre but he didn’t want to come out.”

“Did Louie hit Pierre?”

“I really don’t know,” Jimmie says. “I don’t think so. Toya’s up in Pierre’s room cleaning up, so maybe you want to talk to her.”

I take the stairs. I don’t wanna run into anyone. All I see on my way down the hall to his room is a few of the boys. Tony, Michael, DeLeon. In Pierre’s room, his roommate José is in there putting on shaving cologne.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.