This story was inspired by the song, Stick up kid...
“No, but you will never forget me after today... Any last wishes, brotha?”
“Last wishes? ... you must be trippin--”
Before he could finish his sentence, Jungle had him by the neck, lucky knife pressed up against his throat. He struggled, but Jungle elbowed his balls, making him double over in pain. He clenched his jaw and stayed still. “Now as I was saying, any last wishes, man? I want you to look at my face and remember me for the rest of eternity.” Before the pimp could make any objections, Jungle slit his throat, cutting his head clean off of his shoulders. He then patted his pockets and took all the money he had. He left his insignia at the scene, a palm tree with the word Jungle on it, and turned to leave.
He then noticed the hooker still kneeling on the pavement, staring at him in shock. He swaggered over to her, bent over, and whispered in her ear: “You lucky you cute, Mama. Go home and don’t tell nobody what you seen.” He then slapped her ass one good time and walked away from his newest crime scene.
~~~
Jack$Boi:
A Tale of Urban Terror
By Darrell King
Jungle is not your average boy from the hood. He was born in Haiti and at the age of 11, he was given a knife by a commander of a youth army, which he called Shakita. He was smaller than most of the other boys who bullied him so Jungle worked hard to become one of the best. His stealth skills won over his lack of size and soon he was a stone-cold assassin. His reward, he showed those bullies that their claims that he would be out before training was over, was...totally...wrong... He had 50 kills thanks to Shakita...
Then the warlord over the group of boys was overtaken by NATO. He was taken to Baltimore, Maryland, and put in child care... We all know he was placed in a situation so alien from where he had been that he wound up being moved from place to place because of his fighting and troublemaking.
Jungle had been sent to therapy due to what was happening in the various places he temporarily lived...he had never found a home... I noticed almost immediately that the book had not said that his therapy was aimed at what had happened to him in Haiti... Duh...
This is my first reading of Darrell King, but I understand he's "king" of flash fiction. He just might be... I thought there was sufficient content and topical coverage to completely tell the story the writer wanted to share.
Now those of you who have not read urban or street lit should be aware that the language and violence is graphic...but not so much in the flash fiction that it became a problem for this reader.
Especially since the story turned out as it did...
Jungle's night life is a secret so that he's also working daily, but at low paying jobs. He uses his skills to stick up individuals in the evening, for their money...Sometimes, such as when he came upon a pimp beating up his prostitute, he decided Shakita would take care of this bad dude. Sooner or later, readers begin to realize that he is going after the guys who are not good for his neighborhood... Kinda ironic, but soon I was seeing the real Jungle come out in the open... For instance, he didn't do night work on Sunday just in case God was really real, so he'd try to not mess up a possible relationship with Him and keep his sacred day holy...
Then he met a prison guard who seemed to take him under his wing and walked with him as he cleaned...Jungle was feeling like he might have found a friend to share with when the guard started talking about a group of bad cops who were killing or roughing up Black teens...
I loved Janay, a perfect counterpart, as Jungle's sometime girlfriend and loved how their relationship evolved as the story went on... But nothing really had given me any indication of how the story would end. It was perfect, in my opinion...
This story is well written and I believe it is the best street lit short story I've read so far... Darrell just might be the Flash Fiction King, after all...Let me know what you think of the story!
Highly Recommended.
GABixlerReviews
Novelist/Journalist, CEO and Founder at Darrell King Productions, Inc. Earlier, author at American Book Publishing.
Darrel King has been writing ever since the age of eight. His first published work of fiction was penned during the fall of 1976 as a student of Mary Field’s Elementary School on South Carolina’s Daufuskie Island. This effort was an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Hobbit,” that he also wrote and illustrated. It was published in the school’s quarterly periodical, “The Daufuskie Kid’s Magazine.”
Darrel King has written stories and numerous poems, several of which were published in the 1995-1996 “Poetry Anthology” by the National Library of Poetry in Owings Mills, Maryland.
During the 90s, Darrell King became inspired by and attracted to the lurid tales of inner city crime. Dramas he read in novels by great writers such as Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim captivated his attention. These tales prompted Mr. King to begin his literary career writing his very own stories of urban crime and inner city drama.
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