McCall writes, “I witnessed the power of the gun, close-up, one night when I saw Scobe shoot a guy” (64). Scobe was the first one in the neighborhood to get into guns, and he stockpiled an arsenal. Scobe had guns, everyone else didn’t, and everyone knew Scobe would use his gun: “That was power” (65). McCall held his first gun at age 15. He was immediately captivated, even by the bullets, as “each one carried within its shell the power to take a human life” (65).

At 15, McCall and his friends went to Woodrow Wilson High School, which was not only racially integrated, but also had downtown black boys. This melting pot created many new tensions. McCall and his group established a reputation as combative young hoods, and they often attended events with weapons. The group got into their first real rumble with another group called the Cherry Boys, also from Cavalier Manor, over the perceived slight of the Cherry Boys rapping to girls who lived in McCall’s section of Cavalier Manor:“It was a dumb excuse to fight, but we were so pumped up and anxious to fight somebody—anybody—that we went along” (67).

McCall brought a gun to the fight, and even though they outnumbered the Cherry Boys and had them easily beat, McCall pulled the gun, pointed it at a Cherry Boy, and launched into a

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