Robin, From the Hood

By Sinclair

“Robin, From the Hood” is Sinclair’s first novel published; it is a fictionalized account of the many sufferings of undue sadistic abuse and heartbreak endured by protagonist Robin, and his best friend Gale; and the daunting path the two follow for their ultimate, sweet revenge, served ice cold!

Look for future novels, including “Condemned Man’s Angst”; the philosophical odyssey of a condemned death-row amnesiac. Also a thrilling, sexy, and sometimes humorous, adult urban fantasy spy series, “The Fixer”; Robert St. Clair, a handsome, brilliant, suave, sophisticated, street-smart covert presidential operative with a triple-zero designation, who partners with his genius Rat Terrier ‘dawgter’.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Sep 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665748957

Sinclair

Born in Harlem, NYC and a graduate of SUNY, with degrees in “The Streets” & “Academia (Computer Science[Computer Networking Technology] Multi-certified)-Switched majors in freshman year from philosophy; Published in two collections, as well as World of Poetry Anthology, “Journey...Nowhere” is his first totally independent effort”. Tries not to follow politics, but is often compelled to do so. A free thinker and an Independent Liberal. Animal lover, and likes people who are kind, sensitive, and calm, as he enjoys these qualities in himself. Retired from the tech industry, and is now a full time writer. Love’s his work! And, although he’s said to have some regrets concerning the past, “I am content with the person I am now”.

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ROBIN,

From the Hood

A Novel by Sinclair

Copyright © 2023 SINCLAIR.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written

permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this

novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Archway Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

844-669-3957

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed

since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not

necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-4894-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-4895-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023915660

Archway Publishing rev. date: 09/19/2023

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Epilogue

Dedication:

For Deborah M. duBoulay,

My loving connection to the past,

And treasured illumination in all my sunrises

Of tomorrow(s)…

And for my brothers (from other mothers),

Donald D. duBoulay

&

Neville A. Andrews,

Whom, regardless of time and differences-

Whose impetus had demanded we traverse

Life’s distant and separate paths,

I will forever love, and cherish,

With all my heart....

Prologue

Mama, tell me a bedtime story, P-L-E-A-S-E? Robin, Jean’s five-year-old son implored.

I don’t have time right now Sweetheart, Mama has to go to work, she said preparing herself for the ordeal of her job.

Please Ma, just a short one!?, Robin pleaded.

Okay, Little Man, one quick one. But first put on your jammies, and get into bed while Mama uses the bathroom.

Thanks Ma! - You’re The Best!-Robin said as he rushed excitedly to get ready for bed. His mother told the greatest stories in the whole-wide-world! – They made his imagination soar to fantastic magical heights! Although Jean had only gone up to the eighth grade in school, she was an insatiable reader, and she passed her love of books to her beloved son, Robin, who only in kindergarten, had a reading level of a junior in high school.

While her son readied for bed, Jean closed the door of the bathroom and fortified herself with a shot of heroin…her comforting escape from the harsh reality of her world as a drug addicted prostitute.

Mama, I’m in Bed! Robin yelled in anticipation of another wondrous story of beautiful damsels in distress and the handsome heroes who rescued them.

I’m coming Little Man, Jean said as she exited the bathroom and sat on his bed. She began, Once upon a time - then they heard a loud banging on the front door and an irate screaming voice, Come On Bitch! Let’s Go! – I Ain’t Got All Night! It was her pimp, Roland Peters.

Oh, Baby, Mama’s sorry, Jean said-sounding terrified, I have to go now; I promise I’ll read you a really good story tomorrow, one of my favorites called ‘Robin Hood’…A real hero with the same name as you. Tucking him in, she kissed him Good-night.

Come On Bitch! I Ain’t Gonna Tell Ya Again! -The pimp yelled as he pounded on the door.

Be careful Mama, Robin pleaded with his mother, knowing full well the scope of dangers her life-style presented.

I will. I love you!" -She said leaving his bedroom.

I Love You Too Ma! -Robin hollered…the last words he ever uttered to his mother.

Chapter 1

In the cold dilapidated room, he shared at St. John’s Orphanage with his best friend Gale Wends, Robin cried silent invisible tears…longing for his mother.

It had been three years since he’d been brought to the orphanage, when his mother had been brutally beaten to death after being viciously raped; a crime which, because of her station in life, only a cursory investigation was conducted, then deemed Unsolved and relegated to the Cold Case Morgue.

St. John’s Orphanage was a miserable home, run by a cruel Mother Superior named Sister Mary Gore, where punishment was the rule-without exception! Not even the nuns were exempt from her brutality. They were forced, routinely, to self-flagellate with a cat-o-nine tails on their naked backs, as she watched (in sadistic bliss) for the slightest indiscretion.

The orphanage was part of St. John’s Catholic Church and Catholic School, located on 153rd Street in Sugar Hill, Harlem. It was a fenced campus that ran from 152nd to 153rd and Broadway to Amsterdam, encompassing the entire area. As Mother Superior of the school and Orphanage, Sister Mary Gore ruled with an Iron Fist! The parish priests as well, were subject to the force of her intimidation. Her brother, Cardinal James Brooks, was the head of the New York Catholic Diocese, one of the richest and most powerful in the Catholic Church. His power extended to the Vatican itself, where he was a close advisor and confidant to the Pope; A fact that left Sister Mary Gore’s word unimpeachable and unchallenged!

Since Robin had come to the orphanage, he had been a source of extreme frustration for the Mother Superior. She resented his extraordinary intelligence, quick wit, amiability, and strengths of character and will. She hated him because of everyone she lorded over, only he, this lone lowly child was she unable to subjugate. She despised him so intensely, she resorted to such extreme measures as to foster Robin out twice, to couples she knew were unfit and known to be abusive! The last couple ran a child pornography ring from their home, which Sister Mary Gore knew of! There, he was forced to make child porn movies with other children, and was continually abused and raped by perverted adults. He ran away from both homes, only to be picked up by the police and returned to the orphanage. And, much to the chagrin of the Mother Superior, Robin was even more willful and defiant each time.

After his return the second time, her indignation with the poor child was beyond reason; her vexation with Robin was so excessive that she banished him to tiny room in the orphanage’s dark damp cellar. It was a locked room with no electricity, running water, or sanitation facilities, just a tin pail. There were no windows, and his only means of light was the candles smuggled to him by his best, and only friend, Gale.

Sister Mary Gore felt certain that the lack of common necessities, along with the isolation, would eventually break Robin’s spirit and willfulness. But, the one thing she didn’t know of was the Gift he possessed-given to him by his mother; the words, What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! Die or Grow, my Little Man, Die or Grow! Robin damn sure didn’t intend to die...not after all the suffering he’d gone through in his very short life! His single-minded determination was to grow into a man his mother would be proud of, and that certainly didn’t include succumbing to the Mother Superior’s cruel and sadistic will!

In the years that followed Sister Mary Gore made it her life’s mission to break Robin’s spirit. Her demented obsession gave rise to such cruelties inflicted upon Robin-the weight of which the most seasoned of men would have been crushed under! The abusive beatings, the filth and squalor he was forced to endure, was at best, sadistic, and at worse, pure evil! Several times he nearly succumbed because of Dysentery and other ailments related to the unsanitary conditions and mal-nourishing diet he suffered daily. But, he persevered, by the grace of God...and his friend of the same age, Gale!

From almost the beginning of Robin’s imprisonment, Gale had snuck into the Mother Superior’s office, took an impression of the cellar key onto some clay and had a copy made. He would smuggle to Robin food, medicines, candles, matches, and books! In those first years, because Gale was only a very small child with very limited resources, the things he was able to smuggle to Robin had to be meticulously conserved.

His most precious commodity was candles. Consequently, Robin spent upwards of eighteen hours per day in darkness…and inside his head. His vision(s)-outward and inward, became so acutely attuned to the darkness he could actually see in the blackness of his cellar confines as well as any nocturnal creature. And, because he spent so much time inside his head, the obfuscation of evil in the hearts of men/women…Sister Mary Gore, from the cold void of nothingness-came an explosion like The Big Bang-turning into a bright light...becoming a beacon hence, to guide his life’s interactions with others.

The isolation of the nearly sound-proof cellar served the opposite effect upon Robin for that which the vindictive Sister Mary Gore intended also. He disciplined his acuity of hearing to discern sounds of the most infinitesimal. It was so keen he could distinguish insects crawling on the dirt floor surface of his cellar room.

In addition to his enhanced senses of sight and hearing, Robin’s prowess to meditate became so perspicacious he was able to disassociate his mind from his body…he truly could astral project! It was a technique, on a rudimentary level, when with his mother he’d stumbled on as an escape mechanism times she would bring the occasional abusive John to their apartment to turn tricks with. Even with his limited skill, it proved enough to be his salvation when he suffered the seemingly endless perversions of sexual abuse.

Now, at the age of sixteen, combining his knowledge gained from his understanding of the human psyche and anatomy, Tai Chi, and Oriental mysticism, his threshold for pain was boundless and his ability to disassociate his mind from body was complete.

Robin loved books! That love for the written word was his most precious gift given to him by his mother. Though only possessing a junior high school education, through her insatiable thirst for knowledge (which she obtained through books and newspapers) and her ability to speak on world and current events, history, psychology, philosophy, and almost anything intellectually, everyone assumed she was college educated.

From the library of books Gale managed to smuggle to Robin throughout the years, he, like his mother, gained quite a formidable self-taught education. By the time Robin was fourteen years old; his knowledge base was comparable to that of a senior graduate student from any of the most elite Ivy League universities in the country. This was due, in part, to his self-taught ability to speed-read, attained through the necessity of limited time of allotted candlelight, and his innate gift of a photographic memory.

Robin loved all the books Gale had managed to smuggle to him, but the one book he loved above all else was a first edition of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, written by Howard Pyle, and published in 1883. How Gale managed to procure such a treasure, at such a young age with so little resources, was a mystery Gale refused to divulge to Robin. All he would say every time Robin asked was, Hey, don’t concern yourself about it! With all your suffering, you deserve something nice and special. Robin’s thought every time was, I love you Bro’! How can I not?!

Gale Wends, who had his own cross to bear at the orphanage, was Robin’s guardian angel. He was the antithesis of Robin in personality. While Robin exuded self-confidence, Gale was self-conscious and introverted, mainly due to him being the only White child at the otherwise all Black orphanage. He was a constant source of teasing fun for the jealous bullies there. Gale’s exceptional intellect was the binding commonality between him and Robin. There were three things that Gale loved in the world, computers, books, and his friend-and kindred spirit, Robin!

Many nights, whenever possible for Gale to sneak into Robin’s cellar room, the two friends would read and study by candlelight. They would talk about the future, joke, and laugh…sometimes all night. To Gale, Robin’s inner strength seemed to lend itself to him when