Terror Kid (5 page)

Rico had been working late into the night, so when he was woken early in the morning by the noise his parents were making getting up, he tried to ignore them. They were leaving for their weekly shop at the supermarket. He listened as the car drove away and then he curled up to try to sleep some more. He tried, but he couldn't. He was physically tired, but his mind began working overtime. He worked best at night, and he was planning to work hard that night too, so he needed the night more than he needed the day. He kept telling himself to go to sleep, but the more he told himself, the harder it was to sleep. He eventually began to drift off, but then his phone rang. He reached over, and picked it up, putting the phone to his ear without opening his eyes.

‘Hello. Who is it?' he groaned.

The voice on the phone was upbeat and wide awake.

‘What's going on, brov? Long time.'

It was Karima. Rico was surprised to hear her.

‘Where are you? he asked.

‘I'm out.'

‘You're out already?' Rico said. ‘I was thinking of coming to see you but I've been busy, and I didn't know where you were.'

‘Don't worry about it. Just done a few weeks. Good behaviour, you know what I'm saying?'

‘I know what you're saying, but I don't believe you.'

‘What do you mean, you don't believe me?' asked Karima.

‘You can't do good behaviour,' Rico replied.

Karima laughed. ‘I can, you know – well, I can make people believe I'm doing good behaviour. Anyway, I'm out now and I wanna see you. Important stuff, you get me?'

‘No problem,' said Rico. ‘Give me a call tomorrow or something. Come round in the afternoon, maybe.'

‘Tomorrow! I'm talking about today, brov. What you doing now?'

‘I'm in bed.'

‘Get up. I'm coming now.'

Rico groaned. ‘Oh, what? I wanted to lie in. I'm tired.'

‘What you been doing?' asked Karima.

‘Nothing,' replied Rico.

‘Well. Get up. Let's talk about doing something. I'm coming over.'

Rico reluctantly dragged himself out of bed, to the bathroom, to the kitchen and to the living room, where he waited for Karima. It wasn't long before she turned up. She rang the bell and knocked on the door at the same time. Rico jumped up and ran to the door.

‘What's your problem?' he said.

‘Thought you might still be in bed. How you going?'

‘I was OK until someone got me out of bed.'

‘Be cool,' said Karima. ‘It's all good.'

‘What's good?' asked Rico.

‘It's all good,' said Karima. She saw that Rico wasn't in the best of moods, so she tried another approach.

‘Hey, so you not pleased to see me?'

‘Yes. I just wanted to rest today,' replied Rico.

‘You got anything to eat?'

‘Of course I haven't got anything to eat. I told you, I just got out of bed.' He paused, smiled, and said, ‘We got cake. Sit down.'

They both sat down and they began to drink fruit juice and eat cake. Karima ate as if she was starving, but she didn't let it stop her from speaking.

‘So, what did you get?'

‘What do you mean?' asked Rico.

‘What did you get at court?'

‘I didn't get anything. I didn't do anything, they didn't see anything, so they let me go from the station.'

‘You're lucky.'

‘No, I'm not lucky,' said Rico. ‘I didn't do anything – you mean I was unlucky for being arrested in the first place.'

Karima wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and leaned back into the seat.

‘Were you still in the police station when it got firebombed?' she asked.

‘I was out by then, but I saw it,' replied Rico. ‘Do you know who did it?'

‘No,' said Karima. ‘But whoever did it did a rubbish job. I hate the cops, I hate the whole system. They mess up our lives and when we react they lock us up.'

‘Well, you did go robbing shops,' said Rico, reminding her of the fact that she had chosen to go ‘shopping'.

‘That's not robbing,' said Karima. ‘We were just reclaiming stuff. They got me and my crew locked away in a Young Offenders' Unit, they messed with you – so here's what we gonna do. Revenge. We got a plan. We got an amazing network of people on our phones, they're angry, brov, so we're gonna do August all over again. This time it's gonna kick off here in Birmingham. We got north, south, east and west Birmingham covered, so when the city's burning then the rest of the country will kick off. Yes, brov, the last riot is going to look like a street party. This time we're gonna do real extreme shopping, you get me?'

‘I get you,' Rico replied. ‘But you ain't got me. What you doing that for? That ain't going to do anything. You'll end up where you just came from.'

Karima became even more animated.

‘Look what they done to us, we can't let them get away with it. If we hit them back we can inspire others, and all over the country people will rise up, rob the rich and start burning up cops. It just takes someone to start it and then others will follow. Let's do this.'

‘I'm not doing this,' said Rico. ‘Trust me, it don't make sense.'

‘So what you going to do? Nothing?'

Rico stayed silent, so Karima continued.

‘You can't do nothing. These people have been provoking us, watching us and searching us for so long. Wake up, brov. Even you said you're sick of being stopped all the time. The riots sent a message to them, but we got to keep the momentum up, we got to let them know what time it is.'

‘It's time for me to go back to bed,' said Rico quite seriously.

‘Is that all you have to say?'

‘That's all I have to say. No – there's something else I have to say. Don't do it. Smashing a few shops and getting some new clothes is nothing, it's not going to change the world, and, anyway, you can do better than that.'

Rico was not interested in Karima's plan. He never would have been interested in it. Rico hated violence and Karima knew this. The only reason Karima thought he might be interested was because she thought he would be as angry as she was. He was, but he believed in changing the world by non-violent means.

‘Are you scared?' asked Karima.

‘Of course not. I'm not scared of anything. It's just a waste of time. You go on the streets, cause a few fires, break a few windows, nick a few jeans, and you think you're bad. If you really wanna be bad you'd do something that really makes a difference, not just something that gets you locked up again.'

The expression on Karima's face went from intense concentration to a bright smile.

‘You really missed me, didn't you? And you really care about me, don't you?

‘Well …'

Before Rico could continue Karima threw her arms open.

‘Come on. Give me a hug.'

Rico stepped over and put his arms around her. As they hugged, Karima spoke in his ear.

‘Sometimes you make me think, you know. But, you know, I got my style, you got yours.'

‘That's one way of looking at it,' replied Rico.

‘Do you remember the last time I was here?' asked Karima.

‘Yes.'

‘You got me when I wasn't on form. I'm ready for you now.'

Rico pulled away and went to a corner of the room where he connected a computer game console to the television. They played computer games for two hours. This time Karima was victorious. When the games were over she left, but before she did she checked up on Rico.

‘Are you good?'

‘I'm good,' he replied.

‘No, I mean, you're not going to say anything, are you?

‘What you saying, you can't trust me? No,' Rico said defensively. ‘I'm not going to say anything, but I still think you should just stay cool and be careful. They're going to be watching you. You got a police record now, and I don't want to see you back inside. That's all I'm saying.'

 

Thunder roared and echoed and lightning lit up the night, but neither the activities in the sky, nor the rain that was falling heavily outside disturbed Rico as he worked late into the night. He was now running all four of his computers, and he was getting close to completing the website job.

Aware of what his mother had said about not seeing him much, he decided to take a break and join his parents in the living room. It was Sunday night, his parents would normally be watching television together, but when he entered the room the television was on and Stefan was reading a newspaper on his own.

‘Where's Mum?' asked Rico.

‘She's gone to bed. She's so tired lately. Every time she stopped moving today she fell asleep. She works too hard.'

‘I know,' said Rico, sitting down and picking up the TV remote control. ‘Is there anything good on?'

‘I don't know. I haven't been watching it.'

Rico started flicking through the channels. He liked watching TV documentaries, but tonight there weren't any, none that weren't repeats that he'd already seen. Sunday night television was safe family viewing, films, game shows and talent contests. After he surfed through all the fifty-two Freeview channels he decided to watch BBC world news. He focused on the television, concentrating and trying to understand as much as he could of the issues of the day. It was more of the same. People demonstrating in New York against the shooting of an unarmed young man by vigilantes, women demonstrating for equality in Saudi Arabia, and the aboriginal people of Australia demanding better job opportunities. What really caught Rico's attention was a report that was closer to home. The government was considering passing a new law that meant that all the public's digital communications would be stored and made available to the government or the security agencies. Rico stopped listening to the programme and got lost in thought. He was instinctively against anyone storing his information; for him the Internet represented a space where information and ideas flowed freely, and things were only saved or shared when the creator of the content had chosen to do so.

‘I'm just reading about that,' said Stefan. The government wants to know everything about you. It's not good enough for them just to have a copy of your birth certificate, now they actually want a bit of your blood.'

‘It's your DNA, Dad.'

‘I know. It's the same thing. They got
your
DNA already.'

‘I know,' said Rico. ‘The first time I got arrested they took it. They said they would destroy it but how do I know they will?'

‘They're always watching you, always listening to you, and always taking your money. There's no freedom.'

Rico turned the television off and sank even deeper into thought. Stefan folded his newspaper and placed it on his lap.

‘You know what we need,' said Stefan. ‘A workers' revolution. The working class should rise up, the unions should unite, and we should just take over. We need mass strikes all over the country – the ruling class can't rule without us, so we should put down our tools and take to the streets.'

‘That's so old,' said Rico. ‘The workers hardly have tools any more. It should be like, put down your laptops, or put down your smartphones. And as for taking to the streets, look, I go on demonstrations all the time – they're important, but I know they hardly get noticed by those in power. They just stop the traffic for a while and then people go back to their jobs and get on with their lives. The new way should be cyber.'

Stefan pointed to Rico. ‘Well, you know more about that cyber stuff than me. All I know is that something has to change, and if you look at history, change has only happened when people have taken to the streets. You were on the streets just last week.'

‘Yes,' said Rico. ‘There were thousands of us, but I'm beginning to wonder what it changes. I'm fed up of pounding the streets, and speeches about the workers, the people and the unions. We've got to find another way.'

‘I agree,' said Stefan. ‘I'm just not sure if you're going to find it up there on your keyboard.'

They both stayed quiet for a while, as if they were contemplating each other's point of view. Then out of the blue, Stefan said, ‘Just over a week and it's back to school then. Are you looking forward to it?'

‘Yes.'

‘Really?'

‘Yes. What's so strange about that?'

‘Nothing. I just thought you might want a longer holiday.'

‘I've got work to do, but I'm actually missing school a bit. There's loads of friends I haven't seen for a while.'

‘Talking about your friends,' Stefan said, ‘how's your friend Karima now?'

‘She's OK,' said Rico.

‘Good. I like her.'

‘Why do you like her so much?' asked Rico.