Dope Sick Read Online Free PDF Page A

on his ankle and I told Rico to check his ankle. Then everything broke out.
    â€œThe cop hit Rico with his shoulder and tried to push him back, but Rico got the gun up again and told the cop to chill or he would blow his ass away. Then the cop said for us to chill and everything would be okay. He was calm too. I went down to his ankle and found his gun.
    â€œRico said we was taking the dope and the money, which was the right thing to do. Then weasked him if he had some handcuffs, and he did. We handcuffed the fool to the banister. We knew he had some backup outside, but we had another way of getting out the hallway. We told the cop if he hollered we were going to come and shoot him. We started down the hall and Rico, thinking with his dope instead of his head, said he was going to check to see if the cop had a wallet. I told him we needed to get up out of there, but he went back. I heard the guy saying ‘Don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me!’ Then… Pop! Pop! Pop!”
    â€œRico just wasted the dude?” Kelly asked.
    â€œYeah. Yeah. Then he run by me toward the door. We come running out through a yard. There was a cop in the yard in plainclothes. He had on a uniform like the ones the guys who climb poles to fix telephone lines wear. We surprised him and Rico took a shot at him. I jumped the fence and started running, and Rico must have jumped after me. I felt something hit my arm. I didn’t even know I had been shot. You know, the adrenaline was pumping.”
    â€œYou were scared.”
    â€œYeah. Yeah. I was so scared, I couldn’t even catch my breath. I was like huffing and trying to suck in some air. I ran down the street, cut through an alley, and then wound up back on the street. I was down on 122nd Street, across from where that warehouse used to be. There was nothing happening on the street except a whole crowd of brothers hanging out, as usual. I slowed down to a walk and headed downtown. I wanted to run, but I was trying to keep cool at the same time.”
    â€œWhy you keep the cop’s gun?”
    â€œHow you know…? I was scared to have it on me and scared to throw it away. I was in, like, a panic. You know what I mean? I knew if the cop was dead, it was going to be all over if they got us. You can’t kill a cop and look for mercy. We could have got away clean if Rico hadn’t gone back for the cop’s wallet. He probably didn’t even have no wallet on him.
    â€œI circled around and went uptown to HarlemHospital and got some coffee in that little restaurant right off the lobby. The guy had the news on, but there wasn’t nothing about the deal, and for a while I thought maybe the guy wasn’t a cop and maybe Rico hadn’t really shot him anyway.”
    â€œYou believed that?”
    â€œNaw, but I wanted to believe it. I really didn’t know what to believe. All the time I was thinking about what had happened and steady hoping for the best. At home I told my mother that they had run out of her medicine and I would get it in the morning. She asked me if I had got the job and I said no. I had the Baggie from Dusty’s loads, and I cooked that in the bathroom and popped it so I could relax.”
    â€œWhy you say you weren’t using?” Kelly asked.
    â€œIt ain’t really your business,” I said.
    â€œWhat? What you say?”
    â€œNothing, man. I know I was using. I ain’t happy with it or nothing like that,” I said. “You don’t be getting off scraping the streets looking for no dope and you don’t be getting off being half sick all the time.”
    â€œYou nodded out?”
    â€œNo, I was too uptight. I lay across my bed in the dark feeling bad. Rico called me and said he had taken the money over to Dusty and he had some cash and a taste for me. I wanted to ask him if he had killed the cop, but I guess I didn’t want to know. He sounded like nothing had went down, like it was some