Scorpions

Jamal wakes up to gospel music on the radio. He used to share a small bedroom with Sassy, but he now sleeps on the pull-out couch in the living room since Randy was imprisoned. After he gets ready using Randy’s old aftershave, they have toast for breakfast because there aren’t any eggs. Mama tells Jamal that, during her visit at the prison yesterday, Randy asked that Jamal should see an associate of his, Mack, who has recently been released from prison. Mack is a fellow member of the gang the Scorpions, and Mama worries that Jamal is getting mixed up with them too. Jamal swears that he isn’t.

Both Mama and Jamal wonder whether he should see Mack or not. Jamal is wary of him because he has “a strange way of […] running his words together” and has “trouble understanding things” (13). Jamal also knows that Mack was in juvenile detention “for breaking a man’s arm with a baseball bat” because he “had stepped on his shoes” (13). Randy refers to Mack as his “ace,” the guy who backs him up when a situation comes to blows.

Mack was also with Randy during the attempted robbery that landed him in jail. They were trying to steal from a delicatessen with another accomplice named Willie Pugh. Jamal doesn’t know exactly what happened, but the owner of the deli was shot and killed. Mack bragged that he had done it. It’s possible that his bragging led to all of their arrests. Willie went to juvenile detention because he was 14. Although Mack was 15 and Randy 17, they were both tried as adults. Mack got a lighter sentence because it was said that he was the “lookout.”

Mama makes Jamal wait for Sassy to walk to school as she finishes getting ready. Jamal and Sassy banter over whether or not Sassy is “cute.” She claims that Jamal’s best friend, Tito, said that she was the “cutest girl” in her class.

When Jamal gets to school, he stops to talk with a boy called Malcolm in the hall, which makes him late for his first class. He is sent to the principal’s office where he has to wait to be disciplined. The principal, Mr. Davidson, asks how many times he had been late this year. Jamal just shrugs even though he knows the answer. Two of the four times happened the week that Randy was moved from a prison in New York City to one upstate. Mr. Davidson responds with: “I would ask you to bring you mother to school, but she probably doesn’t care any more about your education than you do” (16). Though Jamal feels himself tearing up, he looks Mr. Davidson straight in the face. The principal tells him that he’ll serve detention next time he’s late and sends him away with an insult about how he should “[a]t least try to talk as if you’re civilized” (17).

Jamal wants to leave school, which feels like a place where teachers just talk down to him, but he goes to Mrs. Rich’s class to find that he didn’t see the assigned homework that is due that day. Mrs. Rich scolds him: “Forget it, Jamal […] I’m sure you like the seventh grade enough to spend another year in it” (18).

Jamal and Sassy return home for lunch. Mama called to say that they should get some eggs or hotdogs at Evans. Jamal refuses to go to the store because when he went the day before, the owner told Jamal in front of other customers that “[h]e ain’t the welfare department” (19). Jamal and Sassy decide to skip lunch. Instead, they talk about getting summer jobs and play checkers.

Jamal passes the principal’s office on his way back to show that he is on time, but Mr. Davidson doesn’t acknowledge him. He heads to his favorite class, Grammar. It’s not his favorite subject, but he appreciates the teacher, Miss Brown. Miss Brown asks him and another student, Sandra, to stay after school to help with the set for the school play. They both agree, and Jamal is excited because he loves to draw and paint. He dreams about inviting Mama to come to the play to see the trees that he’s painted.

In Jamal’s last class of the day, he encounters Dwayne, who has a habit of bullying Jamal and does so today by teasing him that his generic sneakers came from the Salvation Army. Other kids watch and join in as Jamal tries to defend himself, hurling insults back.

Jamal escapes from Dwayne into the theater where he meets Miss Brown and the other students who are staying to help out. While the other students are assigned to paint the trees and bench in the scenery, Jamal is only asked to carry the paint and open the windows. He leaves disappointed.

Jamal returns home to find Sassy drinking Kool-Aid. She “sells” him a glass for the steep price of $2, which she adds onto his running tab. Jamal does his math homework. Mama was paid for a day’s work and goes grocery shopping. She makes Jamal’s favorite meal, spaghetti and meatballs.

After dinner, Jamal goes to the park with his notebook and draws trees. He wishes that he could get a sketch pad with plain white paper, which he adds to the wish list that he keeps at the back of his notepad. Jamal shows one of the drawings to Miss Brown the next day. She smiles and says that she’ll ask for his assistance next time she needs a tree drawn.

Tito is waiting for Jamal after school. They banter and swap clothes. Tito likes to borrow Jamal’s stuff. They meet an eighth grader called Celia who asks to borrow some money. She agrees to swap kisses for the money if Jamal gives it to her, but he doesn’t have any. They run up to check on Sassy. Sassy shames Tito into telling the truth about whether she’s cute or not by reminding him that it’s a sin for a Catholic person to lie. Tito blushes, and Jamal teases him good humoredly. They run off and Jamal asks if Tito wants to accompany him to see Mack. Jamal gets upset about Tito telling his relatives about Randy being in jail. Tito decides to follow along but at a distance.

Jamal goes to find Mack in a crack house where he knows that he hangs out. It was once a store, but now the building is abandoned and boarded over. They see a couple of “runners” inside with beepers, guys who earn money by delivering drugs like Randy used to. They ask about Mack, but he’s not there. While they wait for him outside, leaning against a silver Mercedes, Jamal thinks about Randy being sentenced. Randy and Mack claimed that the robbery was Willie’s idea and that Willie had shot the owner. Willie claimed that he wasn’t even there. Jamal believes that Randy is responsible for the stickup and murder.

Randy told Jamal before the guilty verdict came in that Jamal had to be “the man of the house” and “take care of business if things went wrong” (38). Jamal is “real mad” at Randy for making Mama cry, and for “looking cool” when he was being sentenced even though his mother was sobbing.

The man who owns the Mercedes smacks Jamal and yells at him and Tito for leaning against it. He threatens to beat them up if he catches them touching it again. Jamal is looking for something to hit the guy and his car with in retaliation when Mack arrives wearing his Scorpions jacket.

Jamal, Tito, and Mack sit on a bench on 116th Street. Jamal thinks that Mack turned Randy in, but Mack claims that he told police the “truth”: that Willie did the shooting because he was high. Mack says that Randy wants Jamal to take over the Scorpions so that they can earn the money (now $2,000) for Randy’s appeal by running drugs for some Spanish dealers. Jamal thinks that they are too young, but Mack says that the Scorpions only want younger kids because they won’t be tried as adults if they get caught and have to “cop” someone to get a plea deal. Mack will protect Jamal by being his “warlord.” Mack says that 12 isn’t too young when you’ve got a gun: “I got the heat karate can’t beat. Miss three five seven and a ticket right to heaven” (44).

Jamal doesn’t immediately agree to Mack’s proposal, but he agrees to think it over and meet with him in a couple days’ time. Jamal and Tito head to Tito’s apartment. Jamal’s thinking about what to do, and Tito tells him to “look alright” otherwise Abuela will know that something is up. Abuela feeds them. Tito tells Jamal that he cannot and definitely should not lead the Scorpions, and they think about how long it would take them to earn $500 if they both worked as delivery boys at a grocery store. They think they might have a better chance of earning more if they work for “one of them big white stores downtown” (48). They joke about Tito getting and fat and what they’ll tell their teachers if they get asked about their unfinished homework, and Tito says: “Jamal, I don’t think you should mess around with no gun, man. […] When I think about that, it makes me sad” (49).

The following day, Mama is cooking dinner. Jamal tells her about running into Mack, who said they need $2,000 for Randy’s appeal. In spite of her pressing him, he doesn’t mention anything about the Scorpions or the gun. Jamal convinces her to call the lawyer to see how much the actual cost would be. The lawyer can’t remember the case at first, but then says that it will take $2,000 for an appeal with at least a $500 down payment. Mama apparently borrowed money from Mr. Stanton to pay the initial lawyer’s fees—$700—and it took her working six months without remuneration to pay off the loan.

Mama is disheartened. She wearily retreats to her bed while Jamal makes dinner. Both he and Sassy are upset by seeing their mother sad. Sassy says that she hopes that Randy is released soon. Jamal responds, “I hope he don’t never get out” (55). Sassy tells on him for saying it, which upsets Mama even more. Jamal accuses Sassy of making Mama cry, but he honestly feels what he said because Randy has been in trouble many times, putting Mama in a terrible spot emotionally and financially time and again. Sassy tries to apologize, but Jamal doesn’t want to hear it.