Truth is.

Look before you cross

Mama di sun hot ee mon, I whined.

When we a sell you will forget about the sun so hurry up and go look customers, she snapped back.

She grabbed up some of the food  in a clear plastic bag and put in my hands to go walk and sell from the stall in downtown Kingston. Yeah right in the arcade. Not far from Denham town.

She shouldn't be doing this on her day off  but that is my mother, a born hustler, any little thing to make us alright.

Yeah mon even though she has two children, niece nephew , Aunty ,uncle, grandparents everybody mama fend for.

I think she makes herself busy to avoid what happened with daddy. Boy I dont even want to think bout it. Nothing good comes from it anyways.

Speaking of no good.

DANTAE! AYE BOY ,MAMA NEVA SEND YOU TO BUY FOOD FOR HER ! I shouted .

I  crossed the road not even looking both ways.

I ran up to him ,scanning my big brother from head to toe. Cause something must've happened to him ,if not I was going to make sure something happen to him.

"Dante what happened mama sent you out from 10:30 to beat the lunch line it's now midday ", I sternly said.

He sucked his teeth and remained quiet.

"Watchya yah so you get dumb?"

"I going make sure mama sign language her hands cross yuh face, stay here".

I looked away from Dantae as I heard a comment.

"You really goin make yuh little sister talk to you like that ?she how old by the way? Sixteen? You are the only man in your household ennuh",blacks stated.

That's when I realized my brother wasn't alone he was with his friends. I scanned each of them from head to toe shaking my head.  For persons who grew up together they continued the tradition of being retarded One bunch of retards. There were 7 of them including my brother,blacks, Paul, bowy, ratty, Andrew and Dada .

"This pissytail boy? Man of the house make sure their mother don't have lunch?"while asking that I grabbed the money from my brothers hand about to run away.

Cause I know my brother would kunk me on my forehead like it's not already big.

Aliyah Yuh chat too much!, watch it from yah suh mon Dantae shouted.

Nothing was there for both of us but my brother is now becoming a man his physical appearance gave him dominance. He was slim and copper colored like me but a little taller than me and had muscles. Stupid! That's the word. So I couldn't tell him to come along.

As I turned around I ran into something ,someone?

Bomboclaatt!!
I winced and held my forehead,I ran into an elbow?
It was a tall figure but by looking up the sun was in my eyes.
I stepped back into the gang of boys to see who it was.

As he finish putting on his white t-shirt his face appeared to me.

It was DADA.

"Yh mon see because you feisty it should of been a wall you run up in, bowy said.
After little chuckling from the boys my eyes met dada's.

It was silent when he looked at me even the market seemed muffled.

I looked around to see what was the reason but there wasn't any.

Dada was 19 years old he was the second oldest in the group. He is tall and his skin is was a smooth brown. He had light brown eyes to match and a fresh cut fade. He was and will always be the neat one out of the group especially with the mother he has.

Looking down on me ,he asked if I don't look where I'm going before I move?

I never replied.

I hated dada out of all my brother's friends.
His reputation, his influence , his ego, his girlfriends, he was what they called a "hot head"too. I chose to stay away from him.

God knows what he was doing before he strayed here.

"Where you coming from bredda we were waiting for you, so long you take to deal with Abby dawg?"Andrew asked.

They all dapped him up and greeted him with their laughters.

He chuckled and shook his head "who?" He winked and said "I'm coming from my mothers store".

Nasty ,all of them.

I took up the goods from off the floor and turned to buy my mother's food.

"Aye what you have in the bag?"Andrew asked.

I always liked Andrew he was the kind one and he atleast had the most sense. He would look out for me and made sure I was ok. He was like a second brother to us. He and I were almost on the same height. He was dark skinned and had a little fat on him.He was ok looking guy.

"Peeled Oranges and pineapples"I said.

"I want them I haven't had anything from morning."he begged playfully

"Bredda didn't you just done browning food?"ratty questioned.
"You a watch man food now ratty? "Andrew snapped and asked.

I smiled at the exchange of words.

He rubbed my forehead and hushed me before He purchased all the fruits and requesting to not bother tell on my brother.

Know how to bribe people.

"This is your little sister Dantae?"Dada asked.

"Yh , ugly don't?"

"How come This is my first time seeing her?"

Dantae chuckled "It's not the first time it's because she's not wearing her glasses and her hair grew and dem tings deh ,pointing to my breast"

That was my cue.
Gyal run!

"Alright you can leave to mam now"Andrew interrupted.

Walking away dada shouted "Aye look before yuh cross!"