Back in the 1990’s when I was a teen there was two Brothers in my old neighborhood in Brooklyn called Sam and Mike.
I really hated those two bastards.
Sam and Mike terrorized other kids in our sector all the time and they were known to carry guns and stick kids up so they got away with a lot of b******* in East Flatbush. The s*** that pissed me off the most about them was their arrogance. They thought no one was gonna ever touch them.
Now I was a double kid, with one set of friends I was a take no s*** kid who would fight you at the drop of a hat and with my other friends I was a nerd. Sam and Mike only knew my nerd side because they used bully some very smart kids I used to study with and hangout with but I was also protected by the crew I grew up with on my block which had a big reputation for taking no s*** and dishing out most brutal punishments, so they knew better than to f*** with me, I had juice and there would be consequences if they robbed me.
One night I while walking on Avenue D I witnessed Sam & Mike with two other kids sticking up a kid I knew from Midwood at gunpoint. He was a cool Haitian kid who was always about his schooling and his sneakers. He used to come into our sector to visit his girlfriend who lived a block over from where I lived. Sam and Mike robbed him of his Jordan’s and a chain. I also knew that kid’s Cousin Jimmy he led a notorious crew in Vanderveer who had a reputation for clapping up anyone for the littlest thing.
Anyway A few weeks after that incident, I saw Sam and Mike harassing a girl I liked, but I wasn’t thug like them. Yeah I had hands but wasn’t a low life gun toting bully. So I wasn’t going to get myself shot over her.
Weeks after that Sam decided he was gonna f*** with me. He asked me how come I never say what’s up to them or show them any respect. I was in a foul mood that day so I said because no one respects you or your f****** Brother. And then Sam pulled his gun on me daring me to say that s*** again.
I thought he was gonna kill me anyway so I just looked at him with seriousness and he said he was just kidding and he let me slide. I was both scared and angry but I never told any of the guys on my block.
Instead I went into Vanderveer and found Jimmy who I told him what just happened to me and how I witnessed Sam and Mike robbing his Cousin. Jimmy didn’t believe me so he told me to step, and I went home.
A few nights later I saw Jimmy again at the White Castle on the Junction and asked to me take a walk with him around the block. While we walking Jimmy says to me I believe you, you’re a good kid then hands me a knot of cash. I took a livery cab home with a bag of White Castle.
When I got home I counted the money he gave me, it was $3,200. Just like that a well known gangster gave me money just for letting him know that Sam and Mike robbed his cousin.
A week later Sam the meanest of the two Brothers, the a****** who pointed a gun at me got clapped up two weeks after that Mike’s body was found in the bushes at Catherine McCauley High School with a pair of bullets in him.
Some say Mike got shot in Vanderveer while trying to kill Jimmy but one Jimmy’s henchmen clapped Mike who ran and hid in the bushes at McAuley where he bled to death.
Now the only reason Mike would try to kill Jimmy was because he must have gotten word that Jimmy clapped Sam. I held all of that inside because I knew my seeking Jimmy out for help was behind Sam and Mike getting clapped.
I stayed low key because I was worried if anyone found out in my sector that it would start a war between my block and Sam and Mike’s block. A year later Jimmy is on my block with 911 Porsche chopping it up with one of the O.G.’s on my block he motions me over and gives me a pound and asks me if I’m good then hands me another knot.
Now dudes on my block looking at me wondering how I’m cool with Jimmy like that. Jimmy saw how uncomfortable I was so he told them how I’d walk through Vanderveer with no fear and how I was a cool dude.
Sam and Mike was our secret until now. Jimmy passed away two days ago of cancer. He was only 56 years old. Life is odd that way…
