It wasn’t the swimming thing, it was the drowning thing.
Kaddri wanted to learn to swim.
Sign outside the YMCA.
Learn to Swim.
Do they teach lessons outside the water?
Can I learn this skill without getting wet and like…apply it when I’m in the water?
Are there pools that are only a foot deep, like…everywhere?
How come no one swims in fountains?
Is it illegal?
Kaddri banished the fountain thought.
Bird shit.
Kaddri knew bird shit couldn’t kill him, but hated birds almost as much as he hated the thought of drowning.
When Vandlin got shot, they thought he might make it. There was a candlelight vigil outside Receiving Hospital. Girls were crying, praying, singing.
Kaddri knew that if he drowned, there wouldn’t be the same reaction.
Vandlin, Kaddri’s cousin, was walking down the street, he tried to go to Pooh’s Perfect Potato, they were closed, walked back toward home, got robbed, got shot.
Probably should have given the dude his money.
But it made sense to not want to give some stranger your money.
People understood that. And Vandlin got a candlelight vigil.
It didn’t make sense to swim for no reason, just because you wanted to swim.
The prayers didn’t work.
They pulled the plug on Vandlin, lost too much blood and his brain was never gonna be the same.
He was a victim, and that made him a hero.
Their other cousin Murray Hill Timmy made shirts of Vandlin with the years he was born and died, a picture of him from the night Anita Baker played Chene Park.
People wore the shirts to the roller rink.
Kaddri looked up to the sky like he didn’t know it was light out.
Course it was light out.
He’d go to the roller rink after dark.
No birds at the roller rink, no bird shit, no chance of drowning.
Wasn’t sure why he even thought about swimming.
Maybe someone at the roller rink would be wearing a shirt with his cousin’s picture on it.
One day they wouldn’t wear the shirts anymore. That was how it worked.
Kaddri knew he’d never get a shirt with his picture on it if he drowned.
It just wasn’t as glamorous as getting shot.
He didn’t want to get shot either.
Kaddri looked around to make sure there wasn’t any bird shit, then sat on the stone wall outside the Y.
An idea struck him and he laughed, just a little, out loud.
He’d learn to swim.
He’d take a lesson.
And he’d get Murray Hill Timmy to make shirts.
A picture of him, a selfie from the night Lil Yachty played the Fox Theater.
The shirts would have the year he was born, and it would say “Kaddri Ain’t Gonna Drown.”
People would have to wear the shirts to the roller rink for a long time, because he’d be alive, and he’d call them out on it if they didn’t.
***
Kid's got spunk.
I like his style.
This was great, Jimmy. The train of thought on this guy is so real.