(4/12) “One night I was at a talent show in the Bronx. And somebody came up behind me and grab
(4/12) “One night I was at a talent show in the Bronx. And somebody came up behind me and grabbed the back of my head. It was Koreh. It had been almost a year since I’d seen him, and he’d changed. His voice was deeper. I could feel the presence of the people he was with. It felt like he had power. Growing up he’d never taken himself seriously. He was always dancing in class, or blurting out something stupid. The teachers gave him warning after warning. My grandmother always told me that he was a bad influence. But to be honest, she loved him too. She’d invite him in her apartment, and feed him. He’d kiss her hand. He’d be like: ‘You’re so beautiful Ms. Smith, can we read the Bible together?’ Koreh didn’t care nothing about God. But he’d turn on some gospel music, and grab the tambourine. Sometimes he would overplay. I remember one day he called Ms. Brown a ‘B,’ and the school called his emergency contact number. This tall black dude showed up and smacked the shit out of him. Right in front of everybody. I’d never seen this guy before. I’d been to Koreh’s apartment a lot of times, and I ain’t never even seen an adult. It was a potato-chips-for-dinner type situation. There were no rules. Koreh never had a curfew. If I was ever out after dark, my grandmother would come looking for me. But nobody ever came looking for Koreh. One time he stopped coming to school for a few weeks. None of us knew where he was. And when he finally came back, he told me that he’d gone to his mother’s funeral in South Carolina. He wasn’t bawling, but there were tears in his eyes. We never really talked about it again, but after that day Koreh kinda turned into a monster. It seemed like every year he’d take more and more risks. He was always involved in some kind of situation. He tried his best to keep me out of it. Even when he was selling drugs with his cousins, he’d be like: ‘Leave Jon alone. Jon’s gonna be somebody.’ But a lot of times I couldn’t help but get involved, cause we was always together. Like that time in eighth grade when we were walking down the street, and we saw this house. And Koreh’s like: ‘Yo, let’s break in.’ And I’m stupid, so I agreed.” -- source link