A long way down book, Transcriptions of English

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For all the young brothers and sisters in detention

centers around the country, the ones I’ve seen, and the

ones I haven’t. You are loved.

DON’T NOBODY

believe nothing these days

which is why I haven’t told nobody the story I’m about to tell you.

And truth is, you probably ain’t gon’ believe it either gon’ think I’m lying or I’m losing it, but I’m telling you,

this story is true.

It happened to me. Really.

It did.

It so did.

MY NAME IS

Will. William. William Holloman.

But to my friends and people who know me know me,

just Will.

So call me Will, because after I tell you what I’m about to tell you

you’ll either want to be my friend or not want to be my friend at all.

Either way, you’ll know me know me.

I DON’T KNOW YOU,

don’t know your last name, if you got brothers or sisters or mothers or fathers or cousins that be like brothers and sisters or aunties or uncles that be like mothers and fathers,

but if the blood inside you is on the inside of someone else,

you never want to see it on the outside of them.

THE SADNESS

is just so hard to explain.

Imagine waking up and someone, a stranger,

got you strapped down, got pliers shoved into your mouth, gripping a tooth

somewhere in the back, one of the big important ones,

and rips it out.

Imagine the knocking in your head, the pressure pushing through your ears, the blood pooling.

But the worst part, the absolute worst part,

is the constant slipping of your tongue into the new empty space,

where you know

IT’S SO HARD TO SAY,

Shawn’s dead. Shawn’s dead. Shawn’s dead.

So strange to say. So sad.

But I guess not surprising, which I guess is even stranger,

and even sadder.

THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY

me and my friend Tony were outside talking about whether or not we’d get any taller now that we were fifteen.

When Shawn was fifteen he grew a foot, maybe a foot and a half. That’s when he gave me all the clothes he couldn’t fit.

Tony kept saying he hoped he grew because even though he was the best ballplayer around here our age, he was also the shortest.

And everybody knows you can’t go all the way when you’re that small unless you can really jump. Like fly.

AFTER THE SHOTS

me and Tony waited like we always do, for the rumble to stop, before picking our heads up and poking our heads out

to count the bodies.

This time there was only one.

Shawn.

I’VE NEVER BEEN

in an earthquake. Don’t know if this was even close to how they are, but the ground defi nitely felt like it o pened up and ate me.

she was kissing him good-bye.

AND MY MOM

moaning low,

Not my baby. Not my baby. Why?

hanging over my brother’s body like a dimmed light post.

NO. 3: QUESTIONS

Cops flashed lights in our faces and we all turned to stone.

Did anybody see anything?

a young officer asked. He looked honest, like he ain’t never done this before. You can always tell a newbie. They always ask questions like they really expect answers.

Did anybody see anyone?

I ain’t seen nothin’,

Marcus Andrews, the neighborhood know-it-all, said.

Even he knew better than to know anything.

IN CASE YOU AIN’T KNOW,

gunshots make everybody deaf and blind especially when they make somebody

dead.

Best to become invisible in times like these. Everybody knows that.

Even Tony flew away.