“Lay him on the sofa,” I said. “Mateo, call 911. Now.”
Mateo already had his phone out. Good boy.
I stepped in front of them.
Dev had been jumped two blocks over. Badly. Somebody from the crowd he’d been trying to get away from had decided to make an example of him.
Andre was furious. Rico was worse.
“We’re not letting this go,” Rico said, already heading for the door.
Andre grabbed his keys. “I’ll handle it.”
I stepped in front of them.
Andre tried to step around me. I planted both feet.
“Move, Nana.”
It was the first time Andre had called me that.
“No.”
His whole face tightened. “They hurt him.”
“And if you go out there angry, they will hurt more than him.”
Rico slammed his palm against the wall. “So we do nothing?”
Andre looked away first.
“Calling an ambulance is not nothing. Keeping him alive is not nothing.”
Andre tried to step around me. I planted both feet.
“You want to honor Calvin?” I said. “Then do not walk out that door and become the thing he was trying to save you from.”
Nobody moved.
I pointed at Dev, pale and shaking on my sofa. “That boy needs you alive. Not arrested. Not bleeding. Not dead.”
Andre looked away first.
