Concrete Rose

Two days out from the prison visit, Mav has definitively decided to kill Red. He has a plan. He’ll cover his face with a bandana and head to Rose Park to ambush Red as he cleans up shop. After taking care of Red, he will head to the cemetery and throw his hoodie and gun in the lake out back. Mav is sure of what he has to do, but he can’t stop shaking. In the living room, Ma and Moe are watching a movie. Mav asks Ma to keep an eye on Seven because Lisa needs him. Ma kisses Mav and tells him to be careful.

Mav walks through the darkening streets of the Garden to Rose Park, where he, Dre, King, and Shawn used to play basketball. That was just a few months ago, but so much has changed that it “seems like another lifetime” now (323). In this new life, Mav has a score to settle. He lurks behind a tree, watching as Red re-packs his car. Red is all alone in the park. Mav covers his face with the bandana and pulls the gun from his waistband. His stomach feels heavy, but there are rules when it comes to the streets, rules he feels are as natural and instinctive as breathing. If they were written down in a book, the most important one would read: “When somebody kills your family, you kill them” (324).

Mav sneaks up behind Red and forces him to his knees with the gun against the back of his head. Red denies killing Dre and pleads for his life, telling Mav that he has a baby. Mav shouts that Dre had a kid too. Red is shaking, crying, and begging God for mercy. Meanwhile, Mav prays that God will let him forget what he’s about to do. His finger is on the trigger. There is only one thing left to do. One motion will end Red’s life and finally make Mav his father’s son. He just has to pull the trigger.

In a single sentence, this chapter reveals that sometimes even killers have their prayers answered.

Tears blur Mav’s vision as he sprints to Tammy’s house. Lisa lets him in, and he sobs as he tells her about Red and his failure to carry out his revenge plan. Lisa asks why he didn’t kill Red. Mav says that he was thinking of what would happen to his family and Lisa if he were caught or killed. He feels like a coward, but Lisa counters that he “[sounds] like a man” to her (329). She is proud of him for not ruining his life in the name of revenge, and she still believes in him. Now, she and the baby need him to believe in himself.

Back at home, Ma and Moe are asleep on the couch. Mav heads to the bathroom and grabs the hidden Ziploc bag full of King’s drugs. When Ma knocks on the door, he drops the bag in the toilet in surprise, and several thousand dollars’ worth of drugs dissolve before Mav can save them. He hides the bag with its remaining contents under his hoodie and heads to bed after reassuring Ma that everything is fine. In Mav’s bedroom, Seven is still awake, as if he’s been waiting for his dad to come home. Mav picks him up. He feels just as scared as the first time he held Seven, but he knows that he will do everything in his power to be the father his son needs. Putting Seven back to bed, Mav settles down to sleep, but his eyes suddenly snap open as he realizes he has to tell King about the flushed drugs.

Early the next morning, King pulls up to the house. In his car, Mav gives back the gun, stating that Red didn’t kill Dre after all. King accepts this without many questions. He’s glad Mav paged him, because he wants to talk about the two of them taking over the King Lords’ dealing operations from P-Nut. He’s sure that they can handle it. They’re Li’l Zeke and Li’l Don, after all. Thinking of their fathers’ fates, Mav tells King that he’s out of the game for good. King laughs off this assertion but agrees to take back the product for now.

Mav hands over the Ziploc bag. When he explains what happened to the missing contents, King angrily threatens Mav with the gun. He eventually puts it down, but the damage is done. Mav looks at the person he used to call his best friend and realizes that he doesn’t know him anymore. Losing King hurts just as badly as losing Dre did. He promises to pay King back for the drugs, but King doesn’t want money. Smirking, he says that Mav will “pay [him] back another way one day” (338). There’s a dangerous look in King’s eyes as Mav gets out of the car.

As King drives away, Mav looks toward Mr. Wyatt’s garden and notices that the rose bushes he planted are blooming, even though it’s still winter. Mav lets himself into Mr. Wyatt’s backyard for a closer look. Appearing from inside the house, Mr. Wyatt reminds Mav that “roses can bloom in the hardest conditions” (340). Mr. Wyatt tells Mav that he has been a big help at work so offers him a full-time job at Wyatt’s Grocery after he graduates. Steeling himself, Mav admits to Mr. Wyatt that he flunked out of high school. Mr. Wyatt takes a deep breath. He tells Mav that if he goes downtown and signs up for GED classes, he can come right back to the store to start working full-time.

Back at home, Mav finally tells Ma about flunking out of high school and endures her subsequent anger. As he gets dressed to head downtown, Pops calls from prison. When Mav tells him that Red is still alive, Pops is deeply relieved. Hesitantly, Mav tells Pops that he’s not sure if he can continue to be there for his family as a King Lord and is thinking of leaving the gang. Pops says that that there are a lot of grown men who want to leave the game but are too caught up or scared to go through with it. Mav’s decision shows that he is thinking for himself, “like a man should” (345), and Pops is proud. Pops then suggests that Mav change his name to “Big Mav.”

Downtown, Mav enrolls in GED classes. He also signs up for a landscaping course, which will grant him a professional gardening certificate along with his GED. Afterward, Mav goes straight to Wyatt’s Grocery and processes a long line of customers. Mr. Wyatt walks in after the last customer, and Mav asks if Mr. Wyatt was testing him. Mr. Wyatt admits that he had a bet going with Mr. Lewis and Mr. Reuben that Mav wouldn’t make it through the evening rush without help. Mav surprised him. In fact, Mr. Wyatt is surprised that Mav has lasted so long at this job. He expected Mav to have incurred a third strike by now. Mav, too, never expected to get this far. He reflects that it might be time to start surprising himself.

Sitting in Mav’s kitchen, Lisa eats a rib plate, her reward for winning a bet she had with Mav about their baby’s gender, and feeds barbecue sauce to an almost one-year-old Seven. Lisa asks Mav if he’s told any of his friends that he wants to leave the King Lords yet. He hasn’t, and it’s not going to be easy, especially because he still owes King money for the lost drugs, but both he and Lisa have faith that he’ll figure it out. Ma gets home and is delighted to hear that she will have a granddaughter. Mav and Lisa haven’t picked a name for their baby girl yet. If the baby had been a boy, they would have named him Andre, after Dre. They decide to give their daughter the middle name Amara, a tribute to Dre’s middle name, Amar, but are still unsure about her first name. Ma mentions that she is thinking of quitting her second job, as finances have been easier since Moe moved in with them.

Lisa and Mav still aren’t a couple, but Mav hasn’t given up hope of one day making her Mrs. Carter. He has big plans for his future, including getting his own apartment and taking business classes, and hopes to prove to Lisa that he is dependable. When Lisa complains about the state of her hair, Mav offers to practice on her so that he will be ready when their daughter arrives.

On the back porch, Mav combs Lisa’s hair as they discuss potential names for their baby girl. There is no single name that covers everything that they hope their daughter will be, so Mav suggests they think of what she already means to them. Lisa and Mav agree that she has been a spot of brightness in a dark time for both of them. Mav looks up and sees that the night sky is full of stars, “hundreds of lights in all that darkness” (360). Suddenly, he smiles as a name occurs to him.