Page 72 - The Jazzsipper Novel

71

THE JAZZ SIPPER

producing actions. And those actions had to be self-evaluated for effectness
every step of the way through the whole process.

Vance got up and turned on the TV, he wanted to see if any arrest were
made yet in Babu’s murder. There it was, the news reporter was saying that
a 21 year old man had been gunned down in the streets of downtown New
Orleans inside of the city 7th ward district round midnight. And police had two
men in custody along with possibly the murder weapons, both men were
arrested without incident. Both had extensive criminal records. Vance allowed
himself to smile briefly; his pressing problem was dealt with. Vance knew that
some people would think he broken the code of the streets by giving the police
the information they needed to solve his friends murder, but to him it was an
eye for an eye. Besides he thought, what choice did he have, to take them
down himself and probably get caught and possibly sent to jail for the rest of
his life or do nothing and let them get away with killing his homeboy. Neither
of those two options was viable to him. No, he thought the right move was to
do what he did; he did not owe the streets anything. If anything the streets
owed him and from this day going forward he was going to collect. He finally
understood the saying that he favorite so much, that his mother Lizzie use to
say all the time, Chuck A Luck, Chuck A Luck the more they put down the
more you pick up. To Vance it meant to come out on top no matter what, be
the last man standing.

Vance thoughts shifted to checking on Shelia and seeing how she was
holding up and how she was going to come up with the money for Babu’s
burial. Vance opened the door to his room and went into the kitchen. Aunt
Jessie and Uncle Frank were sitting in the kitchen, Vance said good morning.