Top Goon

By A. Paige Turner

Teflon Twin comes from Southeast, Washington, D.C. where his tight-knit family of street hustlers has but one goal in mind: getting to the bread. On the way to that goal Twin is not inviting any drama, but not ducking any either. This instructive work depicts in a ‘no-holds-barred’ fashion the many years of his struggle for unconditional loyalty, power, and respect.

In this piercing debut memoir, Twin outlines the levels of becoming a goon. The situations are real and could make you or break you, but like it or not, the message contained within these pages can be applied in real-life situations in ‘hoods across America today.

From the pen of A. Paige Turner and the mind of Teflon Twin, who have each been ‘50-played’ by snakes, false friends, and the worst betrayers of all: their own flesh and blood, you are invited to journey through the life of a real live goon. This book will fascinate, educate, and inspire any reader to have a vision and follow their goals, keep your mind free, and avoid becoming institutionalized. This true-life account depicts a world most people don’t want to face: the amoral, ruthless, drug-filled, and often...murderous world of a goon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A. Paige Turner
• Release date: Dec 23, 2013

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Son of a Hustler

CHAPTER TWO

Shacked Up

There came a point in my life where my mother and father had lost touch of the struggle. They started experimenting with drugs to the point that they ended up getting addicted to heroin and cocaine at the same time. At first, they were just using drugs, until it got to a point where they started abusing drugs. It didn't help that we had just moved to a neighborhood in Southeast DC surrounded by any and every narcotic one could want.

My grandmother and my two aunts also lived in the neighborhood. They didn't get along with my father and didn't like him at all.  While we were living on Green Street my mother and father, would get up every morning and leave out and go to this place called the Shack which was a spot down southwest, DC where all the heroin addicts would hang out and sell heroin and a lot of other drugs. It was a spot that my father pretty much monopolized, because he was a damn good hustler, just like his father was a damn good hustler too, so I guess it ran in the family. My parents would go to the Shack every morning to sell and buy their drugs and do what hustlers and drug addicts did. 

One morning my parents decided to take their kids with them, so we all got up around 8 o'clock that morning and went with them to the Shack. My dad made us sit on this front porch of a house that was around the corner from the Shack. He gave my big brother Makani, who was the oldest out of all six of us, ten dollars to get something to eat when we got hungry. We must've sat on them damn stairs until about 6 o'clock that night. Nine hours had ticked by before my parents came back for us to leave. In all that time I remember my mother came back just once to check on us to make sure we were alright. 

For the most part, my mother and father had put us in the hands of Mack and my big sister Almita, but mainly Mack was in charge, which was more a curse than a blessing because, my father used to lean on Mack the most and when anything went wrong they would blame him. I mean, for any and everything, to the point that the rest of my brothers and sisters and I used to feel so sorry for him, but Mack took his beatings like a man. He was a man long before his age.

We woke up one day and my father had sent him out to steal us some food from the corner store. Mack would usually be gone for some hours and then he would come back before it got dark, or sometimes as soon as it got dark. This particular time it was like 10 o'clock at night and there was still no sign of Mack. He didn't come home at all that night. 

My mother and father came home from the Shack and they asked us where was Makani and we said that we didn't know.

He hasn't been here? my mother asked.

Naw, he ain't been here, we said. We were all starving and hadn't had a bite to eat all that day. We wondered where Mack was too. 

That night we went to bed without eating anything at all. My mother told my dad go over Ellie's house. Ellie was Mack's aunt on his fathers' side and sometimes Mack went there to get food or money from his cousins or his grandmother. My dad left out the apartment and came back thirty minutes later.

He locked up. Makani got locked up, we gotta go get him, my dad said. They left out and called the bootleg man, who was the man who would come get you and take you anywhere you wanted to go in the city for ten dollars. The bootleg showed up and took them over to the jail. When my parents and Mack came back in the house, I could hear them talking to Mack. My dad asked him what happened and Mack told him that as he was leaving the store with the food in his jacket the man caught him and suspected him of stealing. 

The man asked me what did I have in my coat and I said I didn't have anything, I could hear Mack explain. 

Mack said the man tried to open up his coat up for him, so Mack punched the man in his face and almost knocked him out. Makani tried to make a break for the door and the 'bama that was behind the counter hit the button that automatically locked the door with a magnetic lock. The store owner called the police and the police came and locked Mack up. They charged him with theft. My mother and father didn't lean on Mack that night. They didn't punish him or anything, because they knew they were the ones that told him to go to that store to steal in the first place. 

My dad said, Well, just don't go to that store no more, find another store.

By this time my mother and father were on their issue and fucked up in the game. They had lost all touch with reality and were just straight caught up in their addiction. To the point where it became Mack's and Almita's sole responsibility to look after the four of us, me, Angel, Paul and Half Pint. Paul and Half Pint were identical twins. 

We used to go to school and get in so many fights because of my mother and my father and because of our gear. Our clothes were just terrible and I used to just be in school kirking out. If somebody said something about me or my gear I used to fuck people up. I would get kicked out of school and made to go home and everything and at this time I wasn't in nothing but the second grade.

But to get back to the Shack, the next time my father and mother took us there my father was beefing with somebody. We all knew it because, before we left the house, he grabbed a thin saw blade and wrapped the end of it with black electrical tape to substitute for a handle. He stuck the blade down in his side and we headed to the Shack. When we got there we saw my father stash the blade in the bushes. That was the first and last time we ever saw him with a weapon that wasn't a pistol. Every time after that he was strapped.  

During this process of my mother and father using and abusing drugs, things at home started to deteriorate. My grandmother and my aunts started sicking Child Protective Services on us, so CPS came by our apartment to check on our living conditions, because my aunt had called and said it was a sign of neglect that my parents would leave us in the house by ourselves. Like I said, we had just moved into this apartment around Green Street though, so we didn't have any furniture except a dining room table and my parents bed and we didn't have any carpets, just hardwood floors and linoleum. 

They asked us a bunch of questions about were we eating and were we hungry, and we didn't know those people. We didn't trust them, so we told them just what we needed to tell them. Then things quickly went from bad to worse. 

CHAPTER THREE

The Line of Fire

One night my parents were supposed to have a party, I woke up in the wee hours and heard what sounded like yelling. It sounded like it was coming from the front hallway of my parent's apartment. My three brothers, my two cousins, and I, were sleeping in the boys' room while our sister Almita, and our cousin Tish slept in the girls' room. There were just three bedrooms in the whole apartment for the six of us children plus my three visiting cousins, their mother, Aunt Tatum and her boyfriend, Trevor. My little sister, Angel was two years old and still small enough that Mama let her sleep in the bed between her and Daddy. Aunt Tay and Trevor were supposed to sleep in the living room, but they actually barely slept at all.

I crawled over my cousin Luke's bony legs to get to Makani. Before I could put my hand on his shoulder to shake him awake a loud crash outside our door beat me to it. Makani opened his eyes. 

Mack, you heard that?, I whispered.

Yeah, what was it?, Mack asked me. He wiped the cold away from his eyes and tilted his head toward the sound of my voice. Our room was pitch black except for the peach-orange glow of the streetlights that spilled from the edges of our shaded window.

I think Mama and Aunt Tay fighting again, I said.

So what? They always fighting, go back to sleep, Mack said. He refolded the pillow underneath his head and straightened out the pallet of blankets he'd made on the floor.

Earlier that day, my mother had been preparing to have a party for the grown-ups at our apartment that night.

Twin, yell out the window for Tay and ask her to ask Granny if she can spare some hot dogs, my mother told me.

Yes, ma'am, I said as I ran to the bedroom window in the room where me and my brothers slept. I looked out of our fourth floor apartment window and saw my Aunt Tatum on the front steps of my grandmothers building on Green Street. I knocked on the window to get her attention, but she did not look up. I struggled to push the window up with both my hands and tried to get her to look up.

Aunt Tay!, My mama said can you ask Granny to send over some hot dogs when you come back? I yelled down to her. My mother and father hadn't paid the phone bill in months and the service was eventually cut off.

I can't hear you boy!, Stick your head out the window, my Aunt Tay said.

I leaned further out the window and cleared my throat. There was a ladybug crawling on the outer side of the windowsill. Mama said!, Can you bring back some food when you come back?, I yelled down again. Below me I could see the tops of the trees that barely had any leaves at all even though it was spring time. The neighborhood kids had yanked off just about every leaf within jumping distance. A few feet away from my aunt a cat ran from under a car and disappeared behind a trash can.

I still can't hear you boy! Stick your head out some more!, Aunt Tay yelled back.

I stuck my body out the window even further. I had the majority of my four foot frame hanging out the window and tried to brace myself with my shins and my feet against the bedroom wall. I yelled, Mama said--!

Makani walked in the room. Boy! Get your ass in here and get out that window before you fall! What the hell are you doing?! he said.

I was yelling for Aunt Tay, cause Mama said--, I explained.

I don't care what Mama said! I know she ain't say go kill your self boy!, Mack exclaimed, Aunt Tatum don't care nothing about you falling four stories down, can't you see that?

But she at Grandma's house..., I said. I failed miserably trying to explain, but everybody knew that Grandma's house was the house for the family. Aunt Tay should've brought back the hot dogs with no problem, I thought to myself.

Granny prolly over there and told her to do it! Makani said. He walked over to the window, looked at my Aunt Tatum and slammed the window shut.

Don't I always get us some food, Twin? Don't I always come back in this house with something even if I leave out with no money?, Makani asked me.

Yeah, I said, remembering plenty of times that my mother and father sent Makani to go to the store to steal us something to eat. Makani always went and did what our parents told him to do without complaining.

Alright then, it's some cold cuts and bread and mayonnaise downstairs and some packs of Koolaid. I'm bout to take a bath. Go ask Almita can she make y'all something to eat, he said, as he walked towards the bathroom.

I stood at the window for awhile after that wondering if Aunt Tay was really trying to make me fall. I watched her through the window as she tilted her face up towards me and laughed. She lit a cigarette, balled up her empty pack and walked into my grandmother's building. I decided right then that when she brought my two cousins over to stay with us, me and my brothers and sisters were going to get even.

I'm gon push yo son out the window, I said to myself, and take his baseball cards too! I left the bedroom and headed to the girls' room to find Almita.

Almita, I yelled through my sister's closed door, Can you fix me and everybody some sandwiches please?

We got some food? my sister asked as she opened the door.

Yeah, Mack just came back with some from the store. He in the bathroom trying to take a bath, so can you fix them for us? I asked. It was four thirty in the afternoon and none of us had eaten a thing all day.

Yeah, shoot, but if I make them I'm getting two and y'all can only get one because I'm the one fixing them, my oldest sister said smiling. She pushed past me and ran down the hall to the kitchen.

I walked in the kitchen behind my sister and my twin brothers, Half Pint and Paul and my younger sister, Angel, followed behind me. We all sat watching Almita as she made each one of us a sandwich and one for herself.

I knew you wasn't gon make two, you don't never eat that much, I said, already wrapping my hands around my sandwich. Ay, when mom and dad have this party we gon jump our cousins, I said with my mouth full of bologna and white bread.

Why you say that?, Almita asked me.

Cause, Aunt Tay get on my nerves and she too big for me to beat up! I said laughing.

Our mother came strolling into the room. Alright, I want all this cleaned up before anybody leave this kitchen. I want all this food put up because I am not having no bugs in my house!, she said. She was fidgety as usual but something seemed a bit off about her. She worked her mouth in a funny way and kept looking around as if she'd lost something.

Me and your Daddy 'bout to run to the Shack so I need y'all to sit tight and just eat your food and remember to clean up after yourselves. Remember what I told you now, you hear me? Almita?, my mother looked at herself in the hallway mirror and made sure her makeup and hair looked good, Almita, I want that bathroom cleaned up, that bathroom is a mess!

Almita looked up from her sandwich and sucked her teeth.

What did you say? my mother said. She stopped touching up her pin curls and looked at my sister with liquid brown eyes.

I said, 'yes, ma'am, my sister said. She tried to smile.

Alright, and don't forget to use the key and lock the door behind us, my mother said. She adjusted her bra and looped her pocketbook over her arm. She opened the purse and poked around in it, placing a few bills in her bra. She hollered for my father. Marco! C'mon now, before they gone!, she called down the hallway towards their bedroom.

Who you yelling at? my father asked. He came out the bedroom and was tucking the tail of his white button down shirt into his black slacks. He had on a dark green ostrich leather belt and shoes to match with no tie.

I was just making sure you heard me, baby, now come on please before them people leave out with our stuff, my mother cooed.

Ain't nobody gon leave the Shack with my stuff. Now, you can take that to the bank, my father said.

Alright, now y'all be good and we'll be back later. Make sure you lock this door. Where's Makani? my father asked. He had one hand on the open door and let my mother walk out first.

He in the bathroom! I yelled around a mouthful of my second sandwich. I was little, but I could eat. I was hoping to sneak a third sandwich with just one piece of bread, but looking at the pack of meat Mack brought in, it looked like he might not get a sandwich at all. I took the rest of the pack of meat and sat it in the refrigerator beside a jar of pickle juice, a half gallon jug of milk that was almost empty, and a cardboard box that said 'cheese' in block letters on the side.

We all knew that if my mother and father were going to the Shack they would be gone for hours, maybe even all night. But tonight was supposed to be a party to celebrate my dad getting a new gig playing the guitar with a singing group called the Wanderers. He and Aunt Tay's boyfriend Trevor had a silent competition between themselves about being the best dressed and most talented. My mother always won that competition between her and Aunt Tatum, because Aunt Tay had no taste at all. I just wanted the party to start so I could see what kind of baseball cards I could get my hands on from my cousins.

Ten hours later, I was up staring at the ceiling trying to go back to sleep. My cousins came over and didn't have a single baseball card between them. They were always faking anyway.

Ahhhhh!

I heard a scream move from the kitchen to the living room, Yooooouuuuuuu Bitch! Didn't I tell you not to touch nothing of mine! That unmistakeable soprano voice belonged to our mother. Mack sprang straight up and moved silently towards the door of our room. I followed right behind him as Paul and Half Pint, and our two cousins, Luke and Dominique, all started to move around in their sleep.

I watched as Mack eased our bedroom door open. Straight ahead was our parents room where we could hear Daddy listening to his records with the door shut. It sounded like The O'Jays, which meant he might be trying to relax and make sure Angel stayed asleep. Angel loved music and could be kept calm as long as it was playing. To our left, we could see down the hallway into the living room. Mack motioned for me to lay down so we wouldn't be seen peeking. We watched as our mother punched Aunt Tay dead in her mouth, smearing her knuckles with Aunt Tay's greasy red lipstick in the process. She stumbled backwards toward the front room near the front door of our apartment. Aunt Tay felt her lip and her hand came away with blood on her fingertips.

Bitch, I done let you and all your kids and your worthless boyfriend...Punch!...stay with me and my husband...Slap!... in MY house...Punch!...and you got the nerve to take from me? Mama said, her words were strong and loud. She wasn't out of breath at all, but Aunt Tay was about to be out of hair if she didn't learn to bob and weave from my mother's fist action. My mother was punching Aunt Tay with one hand while holding her head still with the other. Aunt Tay tried to fight off my mother by digging her nails into my mothers face.

Bitch, don't nobody care about yo' damn husband no way! Don't nobody in the family fuck with that nigga! Not me, not Mama, not nobody, bitch!, Aunt Tay yelled. She had a good hold on Mama's face and one by one her fake red nails were popping off, landing on the peanut butter colored hardwood floor that Mama had just mopped, because Half Pint spilled sticky green Koolaid on it the day before.

Aunt Tay done took something she wasn't 'sposed to, Mack said, he spoke just above a whisper. The way he was repeating what we had just heard Mama say, I knew he was thinking about what we should do to help. Mack was the oldest; therefore, he was the war secretary and I was his first lieutenant. Technically, I was the smallest and youngest boy in the family, but Mack always favored me over any of our other siblings. To this day, I don't know why, but his is one of the surest definitions of love I've come to know.

What you think they finna do?, I asked Mack.

Shhhh, they finna keep fighting, that's what!, Mack said, but if Aunt Tay gets the best of Mama, then we gon have to beat up Luke and Dominique for real, so be ready when I give the signal.

Okay, I said. I wasn't scared to fight my cousins at all. Me and Mack had beat up Luke and Dominique a million times, small or not, I had enough heart for a boy twice my age. At the time, I was six years old.

The front door opened and Aunt Tay's boyfriend Trevor walked into the house. He had a smile on his face that quickly faded as soon as he saw Tay's brunette wig on the floor and not on her head like it was when he dropped her off twenty minutes earlier.

Youse a motherfucking lie! Ain't nobody touched none of your stuff. Why don't you check your nose for it, huh, bitch? Check your husbands' nose too! While you over there questioning me!, my Aunt Tay screamed right back in my mother's face.

Trevor jumped in the argument, I know you ain't accusing my woman of taking shit from y'all, that bet not be what I'm hearing, as much money as we done gave y'all, Trevor said. He'd barely had a chance to get the words out of his mouth when my father came out of his bedroom.

Everybody in the family knew not to mess with my dad, because my dad didn't play no games. None at all. He would kick you just as soon as kill you and you better know it. As my father approached Trevor, I wondered if Trevor knew it.