DOUBLE STANDARDS

Chapter 2

Me and my brothers were Uncle smooths right hands. Cash made the dope, Brittany weighed the dope and I sacked it up. To be 15 you would have thought Cash had been doing this shit for 25 years. This nigga made sure all his shit was on point and every batch must have been just that because fiends stayed coming to snatch that shit up. He got up early to make enough to last throughout the day, so that meant me and Brittany would have to be up early with him. He was very strict about us at times and we listened to him not out of fear but out of respect. No matter how late we stayed up we had to be in the kitchen shirts off, hoopin' shorts and gloves on at 5 am, no exceptions. Brittany who was 12 was more of the jokester out of all three of us. "Aye y'all What the banana say to the vibrator? Why you shaking she bout to eat me." He was smart as hell but he played a lot. He wore this chain all the time that our oldest brother got for him before his body was found in a ditch, bullet hole through his dome. Brittney didn't need a scale he would eyeball the shit and know where he needed to cut it before he cut it. He was so cold at the shit that he would help me sack because he would have a mountain of rocks waiting for me to bag. "Guess what y'all?" they both said what in unison like they'd been impatiently waiting for somebody to talk about something. "I got my dick sucked last night." Cash whirled around so fast you would have swore I'd just told him the laws was coming through the door. "What you just say, I know Uncle Smooth didn't let that shit happen you to young." I looked at him not wanting to hear his shit because I was a man now. "You act like you so much older than me Cash you be gettin' yo' dick sucked too nigga. So fuck you" You could tell he was furious when he said, "Nigga I'm fuckin' 15 years old you only ten that shit sick. I bet he wouldn't let shit like that happen to Pooh." Pooh was ten like me, she was Uncle Smooths daughter but she stayed with her mama. We would see her like every other weekend and Cash was right Uncle Smooth didn't play about Pooh. "What y'all boys talkin' bout?" Uncle Smooth asked while reaching into the refrigerator to get some orange juice. We all looked at each other scared to tell him, but fuck that I was a man.  "Nothing Unc I was telling them about that hoe from last night and Cash say I'm to young to be getting sucked on and if it was Pooh you wouldn't let it happen so it wasn't right for me either. But shit fuck that I'ma man and you gon' show me everything right Unc?" His jaws tightened but what came out his mouth next was anything but anger. "We are put on this earth to run women or protect them. So hoes should be ran and the women in your family should be protected. Men become providers younger than women because that's what we were put on earth for. Cash you the one who told me you needed somebody to help you weigh and bag. You suggested that I let you mold yo brothers in the game right. So why is it not ok for me to put them all the way in the shit lil man. Let me tell y'all something when I was locked up me and my roommate both were looking out the window, my roommate said 'say man that grass sure do look good you can tell they cut it today'. But I couldn't tell because I was to busy looking past the fence that kept us from freedom. I wanted to be free and he wanted to know what lawn mower they used. Everybody's out look on life is different. All I'm saying is y'all gon' learn in this game you either run it or get ran over. He was gon' eventually become a man I just made sure I was there so she wouldn't try to handle him like a little boy." We all sat in silence listening to our uncle preach to us. I was taking it all in loving the knowledge my uncle was dropping on us. Brittany just smiled probably thinking about his next joke to tell and Cash who's face was now more relaxed went back to the stove. As Uncle Smooth was walking towards the door he told us, "Protect the women in your family at all cost." Before he closed it he turned and said,  "You right  though Cash, I wouldn't ever let shit like that happen to Pooh, just ask King."