Cut to Englewood: Part one

Photo from Homes.com.

“You shot him, g,” I heard Ric say over the blood pumping in my ears.

Blade squirmed, sprawled on the concrete, as I stood on the porch, gun in hand. On the same street, the police sat in their car, having responded to shots fired earlier in the day.

On the ground, Blade looked up at me, at himself and then lay his head back on the concrete, defeated. Somewhere in the background, sirens wailed, drowned out by the sound of my own heartbeat. The gravity of what had just happened didn’t sink in until hours later.

At the time, I was a recent college graduate back in college earning my masters degree. On this day, I remember Blade looking me in the eyes and saying, “You got a new baby, a new job, a girlfriend and an apartment to afford. You ain’t gone do nothing.” At that moment, I knew what I would do if it came down to my life or his, but I didn’t respond. I didn’t respond because I had considered him a friend, less so recently. It was this lack of reaction that led him to push the altercation to a physical level.

Having graduated college less than four months previously, in the moment of the altercation with Blade, I could only wonder how I got here.

Cut to Englewood: Part One is a collection of nonfiction pieces that are part of a larger series detailing Jermaine Reed, MFA’s time in Englewood which came to a stop after an unpredictable shooting. The series reflects on some of Jermaine’s strongest relationships, the events that led up to the shooting of one of Jermaine’s closest friends and many of the other heart-racing encounters you can only experience on the south side of Chicago.