Steemit Guide to "How to Survive the HooD": Part 2

Enz never came back to the block. I went back to Seth Low  later that night to see if i could find him but he was ghost. The next day i went to his crib and asked his brother Tahriq if he came home. "Naw sun...enz got locked.",he said looking mad as hell. "They took him to juvi(Juvenile Detention),my moms went to go get him out just now". I looked at him sadly as i knew his mom was gonna bust his a$$ for getting in trouble. "Dam kid...ya moms must be mad vexxed", i said shaking my head in disbelief. "Yo tell him to holla at me when he get home", i said and gave him a pound as i left. 

Now juvi was one place you didn't want to end up other than Rikers Island. That place was full of kids who would cut your throat for a pair of jordans in a second. I seen plenty of kats come outta there never being the same mentally. Alot of homeless and abused kids end up there and their minds were so fu$ked up they had to either go to a mental institution or upstate ny to a long term juvi. I was praying for my boy that he got out safe with his moms. 

Me and Enz was close. He was the first person i drank 40's and smoked w33d with. His family was from a caribbean island so when they moved he had a strong jamaican accent and no understood him but me because i was the only kid listening to reggae music and picking up the lingo. My mom loved old school Motown but she also loved Bob Marley. While all the other kids was only listening to Mr.Magic on WBLS I was learning about marley ,super cat,shabba ranks,dennis brown,etc. Don't get me wrong rap is my birth music. But because my mom had such a diverse palate she showed me there's so many genre's to enjoy.

So me and enz became homies because i was the only "Yankee" that could understand patwah(caribbean dialect). We chilled and played basketball and exchanged cultures until we were teenagers. So when his brother told me the popo took him to juvi i was devastated. And anytime a hardship became to much to bear we always turned to drugs unfortunately. For the next few days i went from house to house getting high and drunk with my other boys like we were mourning a death lol. 

About a week later we were playing basketball at the park when we heard our "hood call", see we had this call like a loud bird sound that we would do to get another homies attention. It was like "oooh oooh" hard to explain but it was distinct to our block and if u heard it you knew it was one of your peoples calling you.  When we turned around it was Enz!! He had two girls in each arm walking towards us eyes red as a tomato smiling ear to ear. " Whatsgood Sun? Yall missed ya boy?" he said holding his arm out wide in a hug position smiling. We all stopped playing ball and ran over to him and gave him a pound and half hug. "Oh $hit sun i thought u was going to Rikers!!", I said smiling and lightly punching him. 

"Naw sun they can't lock dis ni$$a up. Me Caan Dun.Meh too ruff " he said with a slight jamaican accent. He began to tell us of how the police had snatched him off his bike that night of the fight and he and Quan ended up going to juvi with a few others. They luckily kept them separated the whole time. They let him go after his moms came to get him out but Quan got sent upstate cause he had a burner(Gun) on him. My eyes lit up when he said that part as i realized how close i came to dying that night. "So we won't see dat pu$$y for awhile",he said smiling. "Ni$$a buy me sum w33d, you owe me!" he said looking at Len who we fought for to keep his bike. "I got you sun,lets go to da spot",as he dug in his pocket to see how much money he had. The spot was a bodega storefront where u could buy drugs from 24/7. They had food mostly cereal in the window blocking the view inside. The food in the window has been there for YEARS!! so don't ever buy nothing from there to eat lol.

On a side-note my boy Black bought some cereal from there one night cause he had the munchies and came to my crib to smoke and eat. We got high and then he said "Yo sun go get sum milk i got a box of cereal". I went to get the milk and some bowls. We started eating when i stopped to look at my spoon and saw something moving!! I looked closer and saw a maggot wiggling around!! I dropped my bowl and was like" Oh $hit Sun!! Yo dis cereal got maggots in it!!" looking at Black as he chowing down spoon after spoon lol. "What!!??,Ni$$a you high ain't no magg...." then he looked in horror at his bowl and spit all over the place. He ran to the sink and began trying to flush his mouth out with water cursing the whole time! I felt sick but i couldn't contain my laughter looking at him. "Yo where did you get this cereal from?" i asked him. "I bought if the spot wid a couple dime bags"Black said. "Ni$$a is you crazy!!?? dat food been in there since u was a baby!!" i said laughing at his dumb a$$. He looked at me with a drenched face and then his eyes changed like he had an epiphany. He then smiled and said "Ma Bad" and ran to the bathroom to throw up. Luckily i had only ingested about two spoonfuls, where he dam near ate the whole bowl of cereal!