When I Was the Greatest Read Online Free PDF

to him only because they think Brother is going to make them look too young. And then closest to the door was Brother. Brother is a pretty regular-looking guy with a crazy thick beard that’s always picked and combed perfectly. It kindof looks like he straps it on every morning. Brother always smells like oils and incense, and he’s always kicking black facts to everybody. And even though he is always ranting about politics, he’s still a cool dude, and everybody respects him because he has the cheapest cuts in town. Plus, he’s known for busting a head or two if your lip gets too loose on him.
    â€œYoung brothers, young brothers, what’s good?” Brother said as we came through the door. There was a few other people in the shop hanging out, waiting for cuts.
    â€œSup, Brother,” Noodles said, giving him a pound with his fist.
    â€œWhat’s good, Brother,” I followed up, playing cool as usual.
    â€œSame ol’ thing. Seeing red, being black, and making green, baby.” We didn’t know what that meant, but we never really knew what Brother was talking about when he said stuff like that. We just assumed it had something to do with being black.
    â€œWhat y’all into today?” he said while brushing hair off the neck of the man in the chair, who was knocked out, asleep.
    â€œNot too much, man, just trying to find some yarn,” Noodles said.
    Now, when he said it, I kind of froze up. I didn’t think he was just going to blurt it out in front of everyone, plain as day, like it was a regular thing for two young Bed-Stuy dudes to be doing, let alone doing together. Everybody looked at us. Trini even took his eyes off his clippers and looked over at us. Awkward.
    â€œYarn?” Brother asked. “You mean like old-lady knittingyarn? What y’all young brothers doing, joining a nursing home?” Everyone started laughing because that’s pretty much what you do in the barbershop. You laugh at the barber who cracks jokes on the folks who come in. It’s the rule. Once this guy came in and said he was selling his R&B album. Brother told him that he couldn’t sell it in his shop unless he advertised it properly. Then he gave the poor guy a lecture on black business and how we need to do better, while Cecil gave him a history lesson on James Brown and Ray Charles. Next thing you know, that fool was doing a full-blown concert in the barbershop. Needless to say, everybody laughed. As a matter of fact, they laughed him out of there, but not before they bought a few of his albums, just to support.
    â€œYeah, man, some yarn. But it ain’t for us,” Noodles said.
    â€œOf course not,” Brother replied. We could tell he was being funny. “So who is it for, then? Your grandma?”
    I could see Noodles start to get a little upset.
    â€œNo, it’s for my brother,” he said. He balled up his fist and looked around the room. “Now what? Laugh!”
    Everyone was quiet.
    See, even though Noodles seemed to always give his brother a hard time, he wasn’t too cool about letting other people do the same thing. Like I said, he could slap Needles in the back of the head all day, but if Joe Blow from down the block did it, Noodles would flip his lid. And he was known for flipping out. I’ve seen him throw a whole pizza on the floor in the pizza place, just because they forgot to give his brother a soda.
    But that’s not why everyone was quiet in the barbershop. I mean, Noodles had a big mouth, but he couldn’t take on those old heads. They would’ve mopped him quick. The reason they all got quiet is just because they respected Needles. They knew he had a syndrome, but they also knew he was a good kid. He didn’t bother no one or nothing like that. Plus they knew it wasn’t cool to laugh at nobody with a syndrome, because you know, anyone’s baby could be born with one, and if you laugh, you’re pretty