Blood is Thicker

by Paul Langan

  Furious, Hakeem snatched the notebook from Savon’s desk and glanced at the open page.

  “Dear Darcy, I’m scared about what’s happening with my Dad . . . , ” he read. It was a note he had written to Darcy several weeks ago. The truth hit Hakeem like a punch in the stomach.

  Savon had read his private writing!

  “I can’t believe he read my journal,” Hakeem said out loud, kicking a new pair of Nikes Savon had left in the middle of the bedroom floor. “That’s it, Savon,” he growled. His cousin had gone too far this time. For an instant, something in Hakeem’s mind snapped, and he saw the world in an angry red rage.

  “That’s it,” he said again, opening Savon’s closet. “Now let’s see what you’re hiding. ”

  Hakeem leaned forward and scanned the piles of clothes, mysterious bags, and stacks of boxes in the closet. He grabbed a small shoebox from one of the piles.

  Popping open the lid, he found a collection of old photographs. On top was a crumpled family picture of two young boys. Looking closely, Hakeem realized it was Savon and him. They were sitting on the front step together, each with his arms resting on the other’s shoulder. But Savon had a hand behind Hakeem’s head making a “V” with his thick fingers so that Hakeem appeared to have horns. Hakeem had never seen the picture. What struck him most about the photo was the smiles. Both he and Savon had wide, toothy grins. Hakeem couldn’t remember feeling as happy as he looked in the picture.

  “What happened to us, Savon?” he asked, feeling a wave of sadness for a time he could not reclaim. A time before cancer and moving. A time before he and his cousin learned to dislike each other. But the anger in his chest was stronger, and he put the pictures down and dug deeper.

  In a second stack of photos, Hakeem found a wallet-sized picture of Anika. Its edges were worn and frayed. On the back, the words “From your fly girl” were written in rounded letters. Anika looked younger, and her hair was in braids. The shot might have been three or four years old, he guessed. Hakeem felt a wave of jealousy. He put the photos back and reached farther into the closet.

  Along the back wall, Hakeem discovered an enormous stack of hip hop CD’s. It was the biggest collection he had ever seen outside a music store. It had to cost hundreds of dollars, maybe more. How could Savon afford so much music? Hakeem wondered.

  Just then, he heard footsteps from downstairs. It had to be Savon. Hakeem’s hands began to sweat.

  He quickly closed the box and put it back exactly as he’d found it. Then he quietly closed the closet door and crept back to his bed. The sound on the steps grew closer.

  Hakeem grabbed his guitar and began playing it softly, pretending to concentrate.

  There was a knock at the door. “Hakeem, are you awake?” came his mother’s voice from the other side of the door. Hakeem shook his head and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Yeah, Mom. Come on in. ”

  “Coop’s on the phone,” she said, opening the door.

  “For real?” Hakeem replied, happily surprised. “Why’s he callin’ so late?”

  “He forgot about the time difference. It’s only 8:30 in California. I told him you were in bed, but he said it was important. ”

  Hakeem raced downstairs and picked up the phone in the kitchen.

  “Coop!” he exclaimed.

  “Wassup, yo?” Cooper began. “When your mom answered the phone, I was like ‘What’s he doin’ in bed so early?’ But I forgot about the time difference. ”

  “Don’t worry about it, Coop. I’m just glad to hear your voice, man. So what’s goin’ on? How are you and Tarah doin’?” Hakeem asked, eager to hear news from back home.

  “We’re fine. Tarah’s on my back every day to take her here and there, just like she always was,” Cooper said. “I been workin’ real hard at the garage. Mr. Nye keeps promisin’ me a raise, but I don’t never see one. How’s your pops?”

  “I don’t know, Coop,” Hakeem confessed. “He still seems tired all the time. I get scared thinking about that next checkup. What if it comes back . . . you know?”

  “You gotta keep the faith, bro. Your pop’s a strong man. He’ll be all right. ”

  “I hope you’re right,” Hakeem replied. Cooper’s words cut to the emotions Hakeem hid from everyone else. For a minute, he struggled to tuck his feelings away where no one, not even Cooper, could see them. Be strong, he reminded himself.

  “So what ’bout you? How’s your summer goin’?” Cooper asked.

  Hakeem leaned his back against the wall and looked to see if anyone was listening. Uncle James was asleep in his chair in front of the TV. Everyone else had gone to bed, except Savon, who hadn’t come home yet.

  “Busy, Coop. All I do is work. It’s different around here too. The people, the neighborhood. It’s only been a few days, I know, but man, I really miss home,” Hakeem admitted.

  “What about that cousin of yours?”

  “Man, you don’t even want to go there. The two of us don’t mix, Coop. And I think he’s headed for some serious trouble. ” As he spoke, Savon came in the front door. Hakeem turned around, lowered his voice, and spoke softly into the phone. “But I can’t talk about that right now. ”

  “You all right, bro?” Cooper asked.

  “I’m fine,” he said, glancing back to see Savon going upstairs. “So how’s Darcy? What’s she up to?” There was a pause on Cooper’s end.

  “Coop? You there?”

  “I have some bad news about Darcy,” he answered somberly.

  Hakeem felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. “What is it?”

  “It’s her grandma. She collapsed today, and now she’s in the hospital. It doesn’t look good. She’s really weak. ”

  Hakeem felt his entire body go numb. He knew how close Darcy had been to her grandmother. Normally, he would be there to comfort her, but now he was thousands of miles away. It was as if he was forced to watch an accident he could not prevent.

  “Hak, you there?” Cooper asked.

  “How’s Darcy holding up?”

  “She’s with her family. Tarah and I are keeping an eye on her. She’ll be okay. ”

  “I wish I could be there for her right now. ”

  “Bro, you got your hands full with your own problems right now,” Cooper said. “Just take care of things, and I’ll call you if anything changes. And remember what I said before you left. You got a place to stay here with me if you ever wanna come home. I mean it. ”

  “Thanks, Coop,” Hakeem said, wishing there was some way he could return home. “You’re the best, man. ”

  “Later, Hak. ”

  Hakeem felt stunned when he hung up the phone. There were just too many things pulling him in too many directions. Inside he felt worn, as if his spirit had somehow been rubbed raw. Wearily, he climbed the steps to Savon’s room, hoping his cousin was already asleep.

  When he opened the bedroom door, Hakeem knew something was wrong.

  Long eerie shadows stretched across the walls from floor to ceiling. They were cast by a dim lamp plugged in the far corner of the room. All the other lights in the room were out. Hakeem had never noticed the night-light, but even more unusual was the sound. The room was silent. Dead silent. The only noise Hakeem heard was the occasional whoosh of a passing car.

  “Savon?” he whispered. There was no reply.

  Hakeem turned on the light and scanned the room. The window at the foot of Savon’s bed was wide open. A mound of pillows had been arranged and covered on the bed to look like someone was sleeping there. But with the light on, Hakeem could see through the disguise.

  Savon was gone.

  Hakeem examined the window. It faced the street, but it was directly over the roof of the house’s front porch. The drop from the window to the porch was only a few feet. The porch roof connected to a black iron railing that could easily be climbed. Savon must have climbed out the window. Looking down at the street, Hakeem was sure it wasn’t the first time Savon had used the window to get out of
the house. That explained how during the past few nights he never heard his cousin climb the noisy stairs to bed.

  But where did Savon go, and what was he doing out this late? Hakeem wondered.

  Whatever it was, Hakeem concluded, it wasn’t good. He considered waking Uncle James and telling him immediately. But he knew it would create a huge scene. Everyone would wake up, including his parents. Perhaps someone would even call the police. Hakeem didn’t feel that all that was necessary, especially since he suspected it was not the first time Savon had crept out in the dark. He decided to wait. If Savon wasn’t back by morning, he’d tell everyone.

  Drained by the day’s events, Hakeem changed for bed and stretched out on his lumpy mattress. The minute his head hit the pillow, he fell into a fitful sleep. At one point, he dreamt he was playing his guitar for Anika on the back porch. But in the dream, Darcy was watching them from a distance and crying, a sound that was louder than the guitar music. The dream startled him enough that he woke up and glanced at the clock. It was 3:07 a.m. The room was still quiet, but then Hakeem heard something.

  First there was a dull thud, then a slight metallic rattle followed by the sound of something scampering. Hakeem looked at the window and watched Savon’s face appear in the glow of the dim night-light. He wore a black do-rag around his head as he climbed like a thief through the window. Immediately he unplugged the night-light. Hakeem couldn’t believe his eyes.

  In the dim shadows of the darkened room, Savon quietly put something in his desk drawer and changed his clothes. Within minutes, he was in bed. Hakeem listened as his cousin’s breathing grew steadily deeper and turned into a gentle snore.

  Annoyed and exhausted, Hakeem rolled over and faced the wall. He tried to imagine what Savon was doing and what he would say to Uncle James in the morning.

  Could it be that Savon was seeing a girl somewhere? Probably not. There’d be no reason to be so secretive about that. And what about the CDs, new shoes, and unexplained money? They had to be connected.

  Suddenly, something clicked in Hakeem’s mind.

  The robberies.

  Maybe Savon had something to do with all the stores that had been robbed in the area. The idea made complete sense. Savon was out the night the dollar store was robbed. Savon’s involvement would also explain why Uncle James’s store was spared. No wonder he had the dark clothes, the mysterious schedule, the money, and the jewelry.

  Savon was a thief.

  The shock of the idea hit Hakeem in waves, fighting for a while the sleep that tugged irresistibly at his eyelids.

  At 9:00, Hakeem awoke dreading the day ahead of him. He was tired. It was as if he hadn’t slept at all. He could not imagine what he would say to Uncle James today. To Savon.

  In the daylight, the events of the previous night seemed cloudy and dreamlike. Maybe he had dreamed that Savon was sneaking around in the dark or that Darcy’s grandmother was sick. But he knew he was fooling himself. He had learned when Dad fell ill that good things in life usually turned out to be fake, like Santa Claus. But unpleasant things, like cancer, were almost always too real.

  At least I don’t have to work, Hakeem thought. It was the morning Uncle James had given him off so he could talk to Savon. That idea seemed like a joke now. If what he saw last night was true, Hakeem knew he should talk to Uncle James, not Savon. Still, what if what he had seen was somehow innocent? There was no way to know for sure unless he had proof.

  As Hakeem debated what to do, Savon snorted, rubbed his face, and got up. Without a word, he yawned and headed to the bathroom.

  Alone in the room, Hakeem glanced at Savon’s desk. The night before, he remembered his cousin had put something in the top drawer before he went to sleep. Eyeing the desk, he wondered what it was.

  Hakeem listened. He could hear water running in the bathroom. Savon was probably brushing his teeth. That meant he still had a few minutes before he returned.

  Jumping out of bed, Hakeem rushed to the desk and opened the top drawer. It was filled with CD’s, a few silver chains, an old watch, some pens, and several notebooks. Running his hands into the back of the drawer, he felt a curious bundle of papers wrapped in rubber bands. He grabbed the bundle and looked. It was a folded wad of cash an inch thick.

  Hakeem’s eyes widened in surprise. Savon was the robber.

  Through the walls, he heard the abrupt clunk of the pipes, signaling that the water had been turned off. Savon would be back in seconds. He shoved the money back and closed the drawer. He had to face Savon. Now.

  Hakeem heard footsteps coming up the hall. He took a deep breath and braced himself.

  “Savon, we need to talk,” he said as soon as his cousin entered.

  “Huh?”

  “I saw you come in the window last night,” Hakeem said,

  “Man, get outta my face,” Savon said, rolling his eyes. “You trippin’. ”

  “I know what you are up to—”

  “You don’t know jack about me!” Savon roared, the veins in his neck bulging.

  “I saw you put the money in your desk. I know—”

  “What do you know?” Savon challenged, stepping closer to Hakeem.

  “I know enough to see that you are headed for trouble. ”

  “Why? ’Cause I don’t come home early? ’Cause I won’t spend another summer working at the store with my Dad? Or is it ’cause I ain’t Mr. Perfect like you, cuz?” Savon stretched the last word out as if it was a curse.

  “Savon, I’m tryin’ to help you, man. ”

  “I don’t need your help! You think you’re better than me. That’s what this is all about,” he hissed. “You can take your help and your guitar back to California for all I care. ”

  Savon’s words hit Hakeem like a slap in the face. He’d done nothing wrong. He was trying to help, and yet he was being treated like the bad guy.

  “Man, you are the biggest punk I know, Savon,” Hakeem said, unable to restrain his own anger any longer.

  “What’d you say? ”

  “You think I like sharing this room with you? You think I wanted to leave my friends to be here? You think I like that my dad’s sick, and we lost our house?” Hakeem fumed, his hands shaking, the frustration of the past weeks spilling out like venom. “No, Savon, you didn’t think of any of that, ’cause all you can think about is you. ”

  “Boy, you better shut your mouth!” Savon exclaimed, moving his face inches from Hakeem’s.

  “Oh, so now you’re gonna threaten me, right?” Hakeem challenged, his frustration at the past month’s events fueling his anger. “You haven’t done nothing except dis me since I got here. Go ahead, hit me,” he goaded, shoving Savon back away from his face.

  “That’s it!” Savon barked, charging Hakeem like an enraged lion.

  Chapter 6

  Savon slammed his shoulder into Hakeem’s chest, sending him crashing against the far wall of the bedroom.

  The impact ignited the flame of Hakeem’s rage into an all-out firestorm. Balling his hands into fists, he punched Savon, once in the stomach and once just above the eye, the blows fueled by anger at his cousin and at the events of the past year. Both times, his knuckles struck with a solid wet thud.

  But Savon was fast. He responded with an arching punch that landed like a brick against Hakeem’s cheek. The impact made Hakeem’s ears ring and his legs buckle.

  And Savon kept coming.

  Surging forward like a linebacker, he tackled Hakeem, dragging him to the ground with enormous force.

  In blind fury, Hakeem slammed his elbows and fists into Savon, trying unsuccessfully to free himself from his cousin’s grasp.

  “What’s going on in there?!” Uncle James’s voice thundered.

  Hakeem and Savon froze as the bedroom door opened.

  “Nothin’, pop,” Savon said, instantly letting go of Hakeem. “We just messin’ around. ”

  “Don’t you lie to me, boy. I’ve about had it with you,” Uncle James bellowed, barging into the bedroo
m. Hakeem’s father was right behind him. “Y’all are cousins. Y’all are family. Blood is thicker than anything else. And family shouldn’t be fightin’ like that. Now Hakeem, go downstairs. ”

  Hakeem’s face burned with shame, and his cheek began to throb.

  “But Uncle James, I started it. ”

  “Don’t try to cover for him, Hakeem. I know what’s goin’ on around here. ”

  “But Uncle James—

  “But nothin’. Just do as your uncle says,” Dad ordered. Hakeem hurried out of the room as Uncle James approached Savon.

  “Boy, I am embarrassed to call you my son right now. You don’t do nothin’ around here but disappoint me,” Uncle James roared. “You got anything to say for yourself?”

  “We was just playin’ around, that’s all,” Savon replied. “Things got outta hand. ”

  Uncle James slammed the bedroom door closed, but Hakeem could hear his uncle’s raised voice in the hallway.

  “I could deal with you ignorin’ me, leavin’ the store, and wastin’ your summer with your friends, but I’m not about to let you turn this house upside down,”

  he hollered. “There’s gonna be some changes around here starting right now. ”

  “Let’s go,” Dad said, leading Hakeem downstairs.

  Uncle James’ voice boomed through the walls. Hakeem felt a stab of guilt as he slumped in a chair at the dining room table. Not only had he failed to do what his uncle had asked; he had started a fight with his cousin. What bothered Hakeem more was that Savon didn’t even try to blame him. Instead, he denied what happened.

  Embarrassed to call you my son. The words echoed in Hakeem’s mind . They were like weapons, more harmful than fists.

  The yelling upstairs continued like a storm overhead. Dad took a deep breath, crossed his arms and leaned against the wall of the dining room. At one point, Hakeem heard a thud from upstairs, followed by an even angrier outburst.

  Hakeem lowered his head, wishing he could block the sound from his ears. He could feel his father’s eyes boring into him.

  “Dad, I’m sorry,” he said, seeing the strain in his father’s weathered face. “I just lost it. ”