Hello Mum by Bernardine Evaristo

Author:Bernardine Evaristo [Bernardine, Evaristo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141044392
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

School of Life

Delmar got a text, jumped down from the wall and stamped out his cigarette end.

‘I’m bored,’ he said. ‘Let’s rock over to Dexter’s.’

Those were the magic words I’d been waiting to hear ever since I started hanging with him. I wanted to meet the man who ran this hood, ya get me? Dexter was King. He was the Main Man. The Mash Man. The Big Daddy. He was Da Don.

We began to walk again. The air was so heavy it was like the sky was falling down on us and covering us in a blanket. The crowds was so thick everyone became a blur of faces and voices. It was like being at Oxford Circus last Christmas Eve when you let me go to Nike Town to get your present for me – my first pair of Nike trainers! Brap! Brap!

Cars was honking their horns and rubbish music coming out of the rubbish shops. Some people smelt rank too, yeah? Like they had a curry and beer the night before and didn’t know what soap and Sure Maximum Protection Deodorant was. There’s me walking along and some tall bloke in a vest scratches his head and almost puts his wet, hairy armpit in my face. I thought I was gonna pass out with the fumes, man. Stinking up the place. Pure badness!

Even Delmar couldn’t walk in a straight line no more. Everyone was bumping everyone as well, worse than usual. It was like playing dodgems. Delmar had gone quiet, like he was thinking. I didn’t like it when he went quiet. I thought I’d done something wrong. So I started talking about that rapper called Chipmunk who’s only eighteen. I mean he’s good, like, but way too cocky, way too cocky. I know you’ve never heard of him, old lady! Don’t pretend you have.

Silence.

So then I started going on about whether the beef between 50 Cent and The Game was really over like it says in The Game’s song, ‘Better on the Other Side’. ’Cos Michael Jackson tried to stop their beef, and now he’s dead they’re supposed to be cool with each other. And I was saying how if those guys wasn’t careful they’d end up like Tupac and Biggie Smalls. D-E-A-D.

Some wicked lyrics came to me: Six feet under/ And ya gonna miss yo mama/ ’Cos ya didn’t turn the other cheek/ ’Cos ya didn’t want to be seen as weak.

That’s when Delmar punched his fist in his palm and spat out, ‘Squash it, JJ!’

It was like he wanted to punch me. I knew Delmar was well-hard, Mum, but he’d never shouted at me before. I hadn’t done nothing, yeah? He was the worst bumper, too, even with grown-up men who looked harder than him. Like he was angry no one in the crowd was respecting him no more. If some big mandem decided to teach him a lesson then everything would go nuts. If that happened, I wasn’t gonna stay around. No way.

That’s when

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