A JUST RIDE

Four seventeen year old high school students nearly witnessed the death of a classmate and friend while socializing on a Friday night.  Harmonic, the host, stated, “We were just vibing at my place; my mom works second shift at the post office—so, you know, why not chill with my fam?” 

Royal suffered a severe asthma attack while the teens moved their bodies during a Zumba workout—a respite from hours of studying for the SAT. 

Harmonic gave voice to the dire circumstances in illustrating that “Royal suddenly stammered to the floor, on all four, wheezing for air, simultaneously and frantically searching the pockets of her backpack for her inhaler.”

Then Harmonic exclaimed that “I realized that Royal didn’t have the inhaler, so I pulled out my iPhone quicker than a power tripping racist redneck cop with hate and stereotypes of my people on his mind could have removed the gun from his holster—having the audacity to think Royal was packing muscle instead of an inhaler.”

If in a fit of animus, the teen took a deep breath and rolled her eyes. 

Harmonic stated, “I was finna to dial 911–”

The teen sighed and shook her head. 

“911 is most definitely a joke in this town—especially in my neighborhood.

There was no way I was about to dial that number.” 

 Legend, another friend present, recalled stating that the Napoleon wouldn't arrive until the day of Royal’s funeral.“It’s the pig who do the hunting ‘round here and us black folk are the huntee,” Legend added with a smirk.

When inquired about Napoleon, Legend articulated the following:

“People in our neighborhood like to say they’re four types of pigs: 

The Napoleon Complex Pig i.e. the cop who became a cop to compensate for shortcomings—who wants to play bully.

The Squealer Pig i.e. the cop who pockets a buck to shut-up or itches to snitch. 

The Snowball Pig, who sees the manipulation of the Squealer and Napoleon and attempts to avalanche the dysfunction; however he freezes up and melts from Squealer and Napoleon’s temperament.

The Old Major Pig, who recognizes the grimy pickle of the situation but re-majored and chose to turn a blind eye to the societal problems that lead him to get in the pigsty in the first place and thus  watches the pickle swell up like a syrupy sweet—and if never unjared—the pickle explodes. Four reasons why it’s just best to snort at the notion of calling 911 in our neighborhood.”

But Sahara—another teen at the study session— reportedly called 911 anyway. “She ain't from this neighborhood; she don't know no better; she’s a lil bit ignant to the ways of certain aspects of the marginalization of African Americans,” purported Legend. 

“Naive; I prefer naive, or perhaps gullible. Society has established a protocol for addressing emergencies; that protocol is to dial 911; excuse me for not knowing the unwritten rule that the protocol’s viability has been arrested in certain neighborhoods. Consider me a walking encyclopedia with a Phd in Googling, but there are some things that you just can’t google. You have to live through certain things in order to learn certain things,” asserverated Sahara. 

Panicking, seventeen years old Dream requested an XL LYFT. 

“Then I imagined what the LYFT driver would view upon arrival: four African- American teens carrying an African American teen towards the car. Call it internalized racism, but if I drove up on that, I might pretend I didn’t see nothin’ and back-on up outta there and cancel the ride.”

Dream displayed a facial expression of frustration and unease that’s pervasive amongst teens who, at one spectrum, recognize the bigotry and prejudice that’s splattered muddy animosity onto a pallet of whose culture has endured numerous stains and white-washing while at the opposing spectrum, identifying and stomaching the distaste of  haphazardly strewn splatter that’s too strong to swallow, that’s a mouth full of vitriol and embarrassment strewn by the culture itself. 

Composing herself, Dream removed her eyeglasses, as if to view the dilemma with the naked eye. 

“Alternatively, I requested a self driving rideshare XL vehicle. Instinctively, I figured a self-driving robot-of-a-car wouldn't have the internalized racist thoughts and the internal biases that us humans are wired with. Although, she laughed, upon entry the car did immediately ask if we wanted to listen to Hip-Hop and R&B.”

Fully recovered, Royal thanked her four friends. 

Police records did show that 911 operators received Sahara’s call. The report is under investigation.