as if they had been thrown back in time and began to giggle like grade-school children.
“It’s late,” said Cassandra. “I thought that you had forgotten about me.”
“We had kung fu practice tonight,” explained Doug.
As the three continued into the living room, Cassandra found it hard to conceal her excitement. “The reason that I asked you to come over,” she said, “is because I wanted both of you to meet my little brother Kenneth, who just moved here from Compton.”
“Compton?” Charles asked. “Where’s that?”
“Here in California,” replied Doug, “somewhere near Los Angeles.”
“You got that right, Cuz!” said Kenneth, his voice startling Doug and Charles. They observed as the six foot tall African American man entered the room wearing a blue pendleton shirt, blue Levi jeans with a blue bandana hanging out from his back pocket. He had a tattoo on his right neck that displayed the insignia of the Compton Crip gang that he is a member of.
“This is my brother,” Cassandra said, placing her arms around his.
“Nice to meet you,” said Charles, reaching out his hand to greet him.
Kenneth did not respond to the gesture; instead, he stood defensively, looking over the two young men. Turning toward Cassandra, he whispered into her ear, “Who did you say these two little motherfuckas were again?”
Startled and embarrassed by her brother’s rude behavior, Cassandra tugged sharply on Kenneth’s arm. “Kenny,” she said, pretending to ignore his rudeness, “these are the friends who are teaching me kung fu, remember? The ones that I told Mama and you about over the phone.”
“These little niggas?” scoffed Kenneth, not trying to conceal his amusement. “You’d get your cap pealed [beat up] trying that karate shit in Compton, Cuz.”
“All right! That’s enough, Kenny!” snapped Cassandra, who had become increasingly irritated by her brother’s rude behavior toward her friends.
Grabbing his sister by the arm Kenneth, pulled her a few feet away from Doug and Charles. “Look, Sandy, I told you not to call me Kenny. My name is Kenneth.”
“Boy, have you lost your mind?” she said forcefully. “I will whup your ass if you don’t take your hands off of me right now.”
Kenneth released her arm.
“Now I want you to apologize to them right now.”
“For what?” asked Kenneth.
“For being so rude,” responded Cassandra, noting the defiant expression on her younger sibling’s face. “Boy, don’t have me call Mama and tell her that you’re up here acting a fool.”
“I ain’t gonna say a damn thing to these little motherfuckin’ bustas,” he replied.
Before Cassandra is able to respond, she is interrupted by Doug, “Excuse me, Cassandra. I don’t mean to interrupt you, but it’s getting late, and Charles and I have to go to my house to meet some of my mom’s family that just came into town.”
Cassandra responded to the understanding tone in Doug’s voice by nodding her head in agreement.
“It was nice meeting you,” said Doug, extending his hand to Kenneth in a gesture of kindness.
Refusing to take Doug’s hand, Kenneth stormed angrily into the kitchen.
While Cassandra walked Doug and Charles to the front door, Kenneth used this opportunity to slip outside through the side door of the kitchen. Running along the side of the house and down the driveway, he positioned himself at the end of the pathway, directly in front of the street. It was there that he waited with plans of intercepting the two boys as they came out of the house.
“I’m really sorry for the way that my brother acted,” she said as they stood on the front porch. “I don’t know what’s gotten into that crazy boy.”
“Aw, don’t worry about that, Cassandra,” said Charles. “We had to go anyway, so we’re not trippin’ on him.”
Casandra smiled and gave them each a hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, smiling one last time before entering the house and closing the door behind her.
“Man, she’s beautiful,” said Doug. “It makes you wonder how a woman like that could have a brother like Ken.”
“Yeah, he’s a real asshole,” said Charles.
As they stepped off the porch, they could see someone standing in the shadows at the end of the pathway.
“Uh-oh, do you see him?” Charles whispered to Doug.
“Uh-huh,” replied Doug. “Just stay cool.”
As they continued down the pathway, it became apparent to them that Kenneth was intent on blocking their passage onto the street.
“So, what’s up?” said Kenneth, in a hostile voice.
“Nothing much, Kenny,” replied Charles as he and Doug casually stepped off the path in an attempt to enter the street by walking around Kenneth.
“Nigga!” said Kenneth, stepping directly in front of them. “My name ain’t Kenny, motherfucker. It’s Kenneth. You heard me tell my sister not to call me that, Cuz, so why you think I’d let a little ass busta like you disrespect me?”
“Sorry about that man,” Charles said, raising both hands up attempting to calm Kenneth down. “I didn’t mean any disrespect.”
“That’s right motherfucka. Cause I needs my respect,” Kenneth said, pointing his right index finger to his chest. “I’m twenty-one years old. I’m a man. I takes cares of myself.”
Kenneth points at a late model blue-colored Cadillac, which is parked in the driveway. “You see that over there? I bought that. I paid for that.” His voice became louder with each angry word.
Just at that moment, the front door of the house swung open, and Cassandra stepped out onto the front porch. She looked toward the driveway and saw Doug, Charles, and her brother, Kenneth, standing next to his car.
“What’s going on out here?” she asked.
“Nothing,” replied Charles.
“It doesn’t sound like nothing,” she said. “It sounds like you’re out here fighting.”
“No, we’re not fighting,” Charles said, trying to sound convincing. “We were just talking to your brother about his car.”
As Charles takes a few steps in Cassandra’s direction, Kenneth, seeing that Charles’s back is turned, swings his right fist, sending it crashing into the back of Charles’s head.
Charles felt his body jolting forward from the impact of Kenneth’s fist hitting him. Extending his left foot forward and placing it firmly on the ground, he is able to quickly regain his balance. Instinctively pivoting on his left foot
