Memoirs of an Accidental Hustler

by J. M. Benjamin

  “Word? Okay! That’s what I’m talking about; get that paper for yourself. Fuck that workin’ for a muthafucka shit. All right, Mil, we get up, I’m gonna go get at Ant and ’em, but watch ya’self out here, kid,” Shareef said.

  “Yeah, no doubt watch ya’self, kid,” Ice followed up with as they both gave me dap.

  It was almost ten o’clock at night, and I only had six bottles left from the three clips I brought out, and Mal had nine. Combined we had sold about five clips, which I thought was decent, considering we came out at like 5:00 p.m. Today was our first day and most of the regular hustlers were out, especially Shareef and Ice. They wasn’t playing when they said they were coming to shut the block down. I know they’d G off like crazy.

  Ant and Trevor got rid of another clip and a half, and Mal and I had six more left between the two of us. He had four and I had two, but just as we were about to leave, a crack patient came up to me and said, “Yo, what you’ll give me for forty dollars?”

  I was so glad to be getting a forty dollar sale, after getting ones and twos all day. I told him six and on one day in as hustlers Mal and I had sold out what we brought out for the day.

  Once we got back to Ant’s crib, everybody counted up what they had made. Off of my three clips, I made $265, taking thirty-five dollars’ worth of shorts, and Mal made $280, so we made $545 off of six clips, which wasn’t bad. Ant said he made $242 off of two and a half clips, and Trevor made $189 off of two clips; they only took nineteen dollars in shorts between the two of them.

  “Damn! That was sweet,” Trevor was the first to admit.

  “Yeah. If only Terrence were here to see me, he’d be proud,” Ant stated.

  We all shook our heads in agreement.

  “Yo, why y’all take all them shorts like that?” Trevor asked.

  “That’s all that was comin’ to us,” I said.

  “I’m tryin’ to get dollar for dollar off our shit,” Ant said.

  “Money be comin’ out there, it’s just that niggas had regular customers. Long as me and Mil profit somethin’ that’s all that counts with us,” my brother said.

  “Yo, we about to roll out,” I told them. “We’ll catch you tomorrow after school.”

  “All right, yo, we get up,” they both said. “We’ll probably go back out a little later and try to rock some more,” Trevor said.

  “Mal, I’ll be there in a minute. I’m goin’ over Trina’s crib right quick to get at Mu.”

  “All right. Tell him what’s up and good looking for holdin’ us down today.”

  * * *

  When I walked in, Mu, Reecie, and Trina were eating pizza. Reecie waved while Trina jumped up as soon as she saw me. “Hey, baby! Want some pizza?”

  “Yeah, I’ll take a slice, but I can’t stay long ’cause I got to take it down so I can get up for school in the mornin’.”

  “What up, big time!” Mu shouted.

  “Nah, you the big timer. If I had your hands I’d trade mine in,” I said jokingly, as we pounded each other up.

  “Mu said when you get some time in on the block ain’t nobody gonna be able to stop you out there,” Trina said to me.

  “That’s what he said?” I asked, eating my slice of pizza.

  “Yep! And I told him I knew that already.”

  “All right, that’s enough blowin’ his head up,” he told Trina. “Mil, let me rap to you in the back for a minute. Excuse us, ladies, while us men talk.” Mu smiled at Reecie and Trina. I followed him to the back.

  “So what did you think?” he asked me.

  “It was decent. Me and Mal did all right for our first day.”

  “That’s not what I asked you. I know how y’all did out there because I watched every sale you two made. By the looks of things y’all probably moved the whole six clips. What I want to know is what did you think about out there and what did you learn?” he asked again.

  I thought for a moment before I spoke. “I noticed what you were sayin’ about how the patients are going to say any- and everything to get that blast, especially if they got a short. I seen how certain hustlers got their own steady customers and other just be runnin’ up to sales tryin’ to cut throat.”

  “What else?”

  “I peeped how when Shareef and Ice came out nobody couldn’t really get no money, and I caught how guys be turnin’ down a lot of shorts ’cause that’s all Mal and I really been takin’ all night.”

  “Don’t worry about takin’ the shorts,” he reminded me. “Like I told you before. But all the shit you said you picked up on was what you was supposed to. You did good,” Mu told me.

  “The only thing you did that you should have shortened was kickin it with the patients and with Shareef and Ice when they came up. While you talkin’, niggas is makin’ sales. Shareef and Ice got dough so they can afford to talk. The patients are gonna talk you to death until you sell ’em those rocks. The name of the game is cop and go, ’cause time is money and money is time, but like I said, you did good and you’ll do better. Tell Mal that I was diggin’ his hustle. He’s a smooth nigga,” Mu said. “What you make off them six clips?” he then asked.

  “Almost five hundred fifty dollars,” I said. “We made five hundred forty-five, fifty-five dollars in shorts.”

  “That ain’t bad, considerin’ what y’all tryin to accomplish, but make sure you keep track of that because when you movin’ a lot of clips it’s easy to take over three hundred dollars’ worth of shorts. If y’all get to three hundred forty dollars’ worth of shorts before you sell out, then you gonna have to pump the rest of ya product for straight dough. Never go under what you said you wanted to bring back,” Mu ended.

  After our conversation was over, I went and ate another slice of pizza, chilled with Trina for a little bit, then went home. I replayed my conversation I had with Mu to my brother while we were in our beds, and then we took it down for the night.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  The hood was out today and the hustlers had definitely brought their hustle game with them. It seemed like there were more people out today than yesterday. Both Ant and Trevor were in the midst of all that was going on out there and they had their running shoes tied tight. Mu was supervising his workers, but when he saw us he waved me over.

  “How was school?”

  “Same ol’, same ol’,” I said.

  “Yo, money is comin’ out here, so go snatch some work up for you and Mal and come back out. The same amount as before.”

  Yeah, money was coming because as soon as Mal and I got out there we pumped a couple bottles. Some of the same people who copped from me yesterday looked for me today saying that my product was good, and this time they had correct money. Some of them told me that my product was better than what Clyde’s workers had. They had said Clyde’s workers were selling B-12. I didn’t know what that was, but I knew it wasn’t anything good. Mu told me later that it meant the product was garbage.

  “Li’l man, you workin’?” a short, dark-skinned crackhead asked me.

  “Yeah, how many?”

  “Let me get six for fifty dollars.”

  Before I pulled out the clip that I was working out of, I look around like Mu had told me. The clip only had three left in the rubber band, so I pulled out a second one. The crackhead seemed to be acting kind of strange to me, but when he paid me for the six bottles, I brushed it off.

  “Good lookin’,” he said and then took off running. The money was partially balled up when he gave it to me. Something told me to check the money as soon as he handed it to me. When I did, I saw that the fifty dollar bill was a fake.

  “Yo, Mal, grab that nigga right there!” I yelled to my brother as I took off running in the direction of the crackhead who just beat me. He was just darting past my brother when Mal tripped him up. Mal had him on the ground by the time I caught up to them.

  “I didn’t do nothing,” I heard the slim crackhead scream.

  “Shut the fuck up!” Mal said. “What this nigga do
?” he asked me.

  “He just beat me for six bottles with a fake fifty dollar bill,” I chimed.

  “Nigga, where my brother shit at?” Kamal punched him in the face. “You think we sweet, muthafucka? Mil, check his pockets,” Mal told me while he held the crackhead man around the neck. After I checked him, I found the bottles in his right pants pocket. I pulled them out and then stood up and kicked him right in the stomach. As soon as Mal released his neck he bent over and grabbed his gut.

  “Nigga, if you ever come around here again and try that shit I’m gonna stomp the shit out of you. You hear me?” I said. My adrenaline was pumping.

  “Yeah, I got you, yo,” the crackhead bellowed.

  “Now get the fuck outta here.” For good measure, I kicked him in his ass as he hopped up and fled.

  Mal and I started laughing about how the little crackhead took off running down the street when we let him go, holding his stomach with one hand and his jaw with the other one.

  “Bet he won’t try that shit around here again,” Mal said to me.

  “Word,” I said, still laughing. Even though I was laughing and found humor in the incident, on the inside I was surprised by my actions. I couldn’t believe I had just handled the situation the way I had, but all I kept thinking about was that Mu was watching and he had told me that there was no room to be soft in this game.

  “I’m goin’ back up the block,” I told my brother.

  “All right. Hold it down up there and start checkin’ that money from now on before you give ya shit up.”

  Mu must’ve had an idea of what happened because when I got back up there he was shaking his head and laughing. A couple of guys out there saw me and Mal on the other end and asked me what happened and I told them. They had told me how the crackhead always came around trying the same thing.

  With the exception of the patient trying to beat me, things were going smooth for us. Mal and I sold out our normal six clips and Ant and Trevor had almost finished their whole twelve, which made sense because while we were in school they were out on the block.

  It was only a little after nine o’clock and we were shutting down for the night. Mal wanted to rock some more while I went to cool out with Trina, but I told him we didn’t have to rush anything and that we were just going to stick to six clips a day for now. Besides, I wouldn’t have felt right knowing that he was out there and I wasn’t out there to watch his back.

  Before I went to Trina’s crib Mal and I tallied up. We had did better than yesterday at taking shorts. That day we only took thirty-three dollars in shorts, which meant we had made $567 for the day. We were doing good. In two days we had made our $800 back, plus $200 and some change more. From there on out everything would be a profit.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  “Yo, what made you want to get in the game?” Shareef asked us riding home from school in his ride.

  “Man, we’re not tryin’ to live in the projects for the rest of our lives,” Mal started out with. “We’re used to having, not wanting. When our dad was here, our family didn’t want for anything. Now it’s up to us to get it back like that and until we graduate high and finish college we’re not gonna be able to do that. We the only men in their lives they got to depend on, so we gots to get this money so they don’t have to struggle for the rest of their lives, either,” Mal said. He almost quoted verbatim what I had told Mu.

  “I’m with you on that, kid,” Shareef said. “I’m tryin’ to help my mom get a house right now ’cause she’s ready to get up outta those projects too. She’s been up in there going on twenty-one years now, before I was even born.”

  “Word. Our grandmother was one of the first to move in them raggedy muthafuckas when they finished building them twenty-three years ago,” Mal told Shareef.

  “That’s crazy,” Shareef said back.

  “Yo, if y’all need my help or anything just get at me and let me know. Y’all my boys and I love y’all like we came out of the same womb. We got to stick together.”

  “That’s good looking,” Mal and I said.

  It was time to re-up and we were ready. Off the twenty-seven clips and four bottles Mal and I wound up making $2,500, instead of the $2,400 we thought we would. We only took $240 worth of shorts out of our whole package. With the $350 we still had after our first flip we had $2,580.

  We took the fifty dollars, spilt it, decided to flip another $800, and put two Gs up. Ant and Trevor were flipping $600 this time but they didn’t tell us how much they brought back, and we didn’t ask.

  After Mu finished cooking up, this time Trina cut and bottled my work up, and I helped. Mu cooked his own work up while Reecie cut and bottled his. Mu got us more extras than before so I figured we’d get more clips than the last time if Trina could chop up like him, or close to it. When Trina was done, I banded forty-eight clips and two loose ones. Mu said he could’ve gotten me fifty, but what she got was still good. Like before, I gave Ant and Trevor enough clips to triple what they had flipped, and Mal and I kept the rest, leaving us with a little over three Gs worth of product.

  Mu tested me by asking how many I was going to give Ant and Trevor. I told him eighteen clips. Then he asked me how much shorts I was willing to take, and I told him no more than $320, which would have let us make at least $2,700, but he said no.

  He told me we had been out there a whole week, so customers knew our faces now, so this time around we could still take shorts but to try to bring back as close to three Gs as we possibly could.

  Since we had more product than last time, Mal and I started bringing out four clips apiece instead of the three we brought out before. I couldn’t believe that after only one week, patients were asking for me. I even had some ask me if they could run me some sales, which worked out good for me because they brought to me people I would normally see copping from one of the other guys out there. It didn’t matter how many a person wanted; I was giving the runner one bottle for every five sales he brought me. That wasn’t bad at all, considering he moved almost two clips for me. I gave him an extra one just on the strength. He told me that he’d be out there tomorrow to help me again if I needed him, but I knew he was lying. They all did.

  “Five-O!” I heard somebody yell as the narcs rolled up on the court and jumped out.

  I was standing there between the field and the basketball court when they jumped out. I just froze. You could tell by who ran who had drugs on them or had warrants. The narcs knew who was out there clocking because they chased certain guys and hemmed them up. Ant and Trevor were walking toward me as I saw Mal stepping toward the crib. When we looked, they had both Shareef and Ice posted up on the wall along with some of the other hustlers. I didn’t see Mu anywhere in sight, which I was glad about. We didn’t want to move or anything to look suspicious, so we just acted like we were playing in the field. We looked so young and were so small that the narcs overlooked us.

  After they finished searching everybody who was on the wall, they started putting the handcuffs on Shareef and Ice, and let the rest of the guys go. We went to let Shareef’s moms know what happened, and then we called it a night. Mal went home and I made my way over to Trina’s.

  Mu was in the back with Reecie when I got there, so I didn’t bother him. I chilled with Trina for a few hours sexing and just bugging out with her. She was happy for the little quality time that I was able to put in here and there. We had grown closer in the short period I had been a hustler. At ten thirty I went home.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  “Kamil? Is that you?” I heard my mother yelling as I came through the door.

  “Yeah, Ma, it’s me,” I said.

  “Get your butt in here right now!” she shouted. It had been years since I heard my mother’s tone sound like that. My spider senses immediately went off. I knew something was wrong.

  “What did I do, Ma?” I asked, trying to sound innocent as I reached my room door.

  When I walked in the bedroom, I saw Kamal sitting on the bed
with his arms crossed with a odd look on his face. I instantly drew my attention to my moms. My heart nearly dropped out of my chest at what I saw.

  “What the hell is this?” my mother asked, holding up what looked like a fresh clip of bottles.

  “I don’t know,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. I tried to cut my eyes over at Mal in search for some type of answer, but my mother shut me down.

  “Don’t look at him,” my mother yelled. “So you mean to tell me that this junk isn’t yours?” she asked.

  “No! That ain’t mine,” I shouted back.

  “Don’t you lie to me, Kamil.” Before I knew what had hit me, my mother had smacked me across my face with all of her might. The blow nearly dazed me. “I swear to God I will kill you in here,” my mother shouted.

  I refused to cry but the tears began to come out on their own. I no longer felt like a man. I was a kid again and my mother had the upper hand.

  “So it’s not yours and it’s not yours?” my mother said, looking back and forth between me and Kamal. “And neither one of you know where it came from? That’s what you’re trying to tell me?” she asked.

  We both remained silent.

  “All I do for you two and as hard as I bust my butt so that I can make sure you have clothes on your back, food in your mouth, and a roof over your head, and this is how you repay me? By going out there in the streets, like your father, selling this garbage? Well, I won’t tolerate it, not in my house and not in my mother’s house. You will not live under this roof running the damn streets. I don’t care how old you are. If you think you’re grown then I’ll treat you like you’re grown. Since you want to be running them then that’s where you’ll be!”

  The tears were coming down hard from my mother’s eyes as she breathed uncontrollably. I hadn’t seen her cry like that since my dad had betrayed her. Now here my brother and I had inflicted a similar pain.

  “Get out!” she yelled. “I want you and your brother out of here tonight. Pack your things and get out!” she yelled again.