An Urban Drama Read Online Free PDF

here.”
    The worst thing about waiting for information is that you have plenty of time to speculate, and the three of us were off the chain with it. We had been sitting at Shay’s house for an hour, coming up with all kinds of stuff. When the lawyer did finally call, he didn’t do much to end all the drama. He confirmed what we already knew: both of them were charged with murder and conspiracy. He said that Chris was in jail and Lorenzo was in the hospital, and that he was on his way to see Chris. He couldn’t tell us anything else, and said that he would call back with more information as soon as he could.
    “What’s Lorenzo doin’ in the hospital?” Shay asked when I told them what the lawyer had said.
    “He didn’t know. Or if he did, he didn’t tell me.” I looked at Teena. She had been uncharacteristically quiet since we got to Shay’s. I mean, she was talking or whatever, but she wasn’t her usual self. She wasn’t talking any shit, and that’s what was uncharacteristic. I wondered if Chris was becoming more than just another nigga with money to her.
    The next day, the lawyer called me back to say that Lorenzo was the one who killed the cop. I went numb, only hearing half of what the lawyer said after that. I knew then that nothing about my life would ever be the same. At the time, I couldn’t even imagine how true that was.
     
Four
    I wasn’t allowed to see Lorenzo while he was in the hospital. They told me some bullshit about his condition. When I tried to get information, they told me that I needed to talk to the police, but the police weren’t telling me shit. After two days, he was released from the hospital and went straight to court. I was late getting there, so I had to see him when he got to jail. When he came into the visiting room, all I could say was “Damn! What the hell happened to you?” Lorenzo’s right eye was bruised and swollen, and his lip had stitches.
    “Cops.”
    “The cops did that?” I asked him, thinking it was more of a statement than a question. This wasn’t the first time I had seen the type of brutality that the cops could deal out. I just never in my wildest dreams, thought it would happen to anybody I knew, and definitely not Lorenzo. He was much too smart to put himself in a position for the cops to bust him up like that, but there he was, all busted up.
    “Yup. It looks a lot better now. Yesterday this whole side of my face was swollen.”
    “They say you killed a cop.”
    Lorenzo just nodded.
    “What happened?”
    “ Me and Chris were at the crib chillin’ when the cops come to the house with a warrant to search the place. I looked at Chris; he looked at me. I knew I had shit there, so I knew we were goin’ to jail, but we’d talked about this, you know what I’m sayin’? Keep your mouth shut and do what they say; don’t give them no excuses. So we’re sittin’ there on the barstools, like we always do, waitin’ for them to find the stash. While we’re sittin’ there, one of the cops is talkin’ big shit to us, but you know we ain’t payin’ that shit no attention.
    “So when they find it and they’re about to arrest us, this cop steps in front of me, points his finger in my face and says, ‘I guess you boys are goin’ to jail.’ Now, you know I hate that shit, so I stood up and said, ‘That’s all right. I’ll be back on the block playin’ stickball before dinnertime.’ Then he hits me in the face. And I don’t know, maybe it was reflex, but I swung back.
    “Another cop pulls out his club and hits me in the shins and I drop to my knees. I tried to get up, and then both of them start hittin’ me with their clubs and kickin’ me. All I could think about then was dyin’. I knew they were gonna kill me, Nina. I couldn’t just let them kill me, so I grabbed one cop’s gun and I shot him.”
    “Damn, Lorenzo. You killed a cop.”
    “It was self-defense. He was gonna kill me, Nina. I know it. After I shot the cop, the other cop