Vance McConnico

English 2 Pre AP
Webster
May/8/2021

Chapter 18. FUTURE

TYRELL
This year has been difficult for everyone because of the pandemic, but
because of what happened recently it is important for me to come home to
Underhill from college. After hearing about the death of George Floyd I couldn’t
help but think about Tariq. I’m sure that everyone in town is thinking the same
thing I am, so I’m heading home. It’s been five years since Tariq died but I
remember it like it was yesterday. I wonder how things are going in Underhill,
especially Tariq’s family.

VERNESHA
These are troubling times and the incident with George Floyd is only adding
more problems. Of course I understand the outrage from people all over the
country, the same kind of thing happened after Tariq was killed. I just don’t like all
of the riots and huge protests there are. Even Tina wanted to go to a protest but I
wouldn’t let her. Sometimes those can get out of control and become dangerous.
The last thing I need is to lose another kid.

TINA
I don’t understand why mom won’t let me go to a march for Black Lives Matter. I
would think that she would understand because of Tariq but I guess not.

TYRELL
Travelling is difficult with this stupid virus but I finally made it home.
“Hey Dad,” I say, “Hey Ty” he responds.
“Did you hear about George Floyd on the news?” I ask, “How could I not, it's all
over the news. Even more so than Tariq.” he answers.
“I’m going to stop by Johnson's house and check up on them. I have a feeling that
this is bringing up bad memories for them.”
As I am walking to Tariq’s house I see the last person that I want to be, it’s
Brick. He's with some new members I guess, I’ve never seen them before.
“Hey Tyrell, hows college?” he says, “Shut up Brick, like you care.” I respond.
“Calm down Ty, I was just asking a question. What are you so mad for?” Brick
says. “I’ve got to go Brick, see you around”. I started walking faster and left Brick
and the gang behind.

BRICK
What a weird kid. He’s in college but he’s still scared of me. I’ll never
understand that punk, but I think he made the right choice not joining the gang. He
still hasn’t changed at all.

TYRELL
Once I got to the house I became nervous all of a sudden. I didn’t know what
to say to them when they opened up the door. Right I was about to knock, the door
opened. It was Tariq’s mom and Tina. “Oh, Hi Tyrell, what are you doing here?”
she asked, “I just wanted to stop by because I just got home from college and I
wanted to see how you guys were doing.” I replied, “We are doing fine. We were
just on our way to the cemetery to see Tariqs grave. Do you want to come?” she
said. “Sure that sounds good,” I answered.

VERNESHA
As we were in the car on the way to the cemetery Tyrell asked me how I felt
about the death of George Floyd and I told him that it reminded me of Tariq. We
didn’t talk much after that.

TYRELL
I couldn’t stop thinking about the knife that Tina and I buried here. I
couldn’t stop thinking about whether or not Tariq was truly a part of the Kings and
did things that he never told me about. Even if he was and he did those things, I
would never think that he was a bad person, he was just himself.
Artist’s Statement

When I was writing a new chapter for How it Went Down I wanted to make
sure that I included the knife in the chapter because that was an important symbol
in the book. The knife symbolized a different side of Tariq that Tyrell, Tina, and
Vernesha didn’t know about, which was Tariq being in the Kings. It is later
revealed in the book that the knife is Tariq’s but it is his friend Junior’s knife who
is in prison. Tariq was holding on to the knife so Junior wouldn’t get in anymore
trouble. A motif in How it Went Down is the presence of racism. In the case of both
Tariq and George Floyd there is a debate whether or not the motivation of the
killings were because of racism.
When I wrote an additional chapter following chapter 17 in How it Went
Down, I wanted to make sure that I organized the chapter like the others were in
the book with the names at the top of each page. The names at the top signify
whose perspective the page is going to be from. I tried to include as many
characters as I could into my chapter that would make sense for the story in this
chapter. I also wanted to make it clear which character was which by making them
act differently and have different opinions than the others, and act like how they
did in the rest of the book.