Sudhir Venkatesh - The Tomorrow Game: Rival Teenagers, Their Race for a Gun, and a Community United to Save Them

The Tomorrow Game

Rival Teenagers, Their Race for a Gun, and a Community United to Save Them

Sudhir Venkatesh

New York Times bestselling author of Gang Leader For a Day

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To Theodore and Violet

Truly landlocked people know they are. Know that they must content themselves with bank, shore, beach because they cannot claim a coast. And having none, seldom dream of flight. But the people living in the Great Lakes region are confused by their place on the countrys edgean edge that is border but not coast. They seem to be able to live a long time believing, as coastal people do, that they are at the frontier where final exit and total escape are the only journeys left. But those five Great Lakes which the St. Lawrence feeds with memories of the sea are themselves landlocked, in spite of the wandering river that connects them to the Atlantic. Once the people of the lake region discover this, the longing to leave becomes acute, and a break from the area, therefore, is necessarily dream-bitten, but necessary nonetheless.

TONI MORRISON, SONG OF SOLOMON

This is a work of narrative nonfiction. It is a true story, and names and geographic identifiers have been disguised to protect the people who participated. For more information, please consult the Authors Note on .

Frankie Paul sits at the clean, white picnic table. His hands are clasped in prayer and his palms are clammy with sweat. His restless feet throw squeaks up from the tile floor. He is only in the prisons visitors room, but it is enough to make him nervous.

A guard stares Frankie down. Frankie quiets his feet. Feels a lot like school, he thinks to himself.

The room for the guests of inmates is stark and antiseptic. The smell is of bleach and linoleum. Only one of the white walls is decorateda large sign hangs head high: NO SHOUTING ! NO TOUCHING ! NO EATING AND DRINKING ! NO CELL PHONES !

Two other visitors, a Latina woman and her teenage daughter, sit silently at a similar table twenty feet away. A low-pitched alarm rattles the metal bars that crisscross the windows. Frankie looks up to see Willie escorted through a thick steel door by an armed guard. His tattooed neck, arms, and chest bulge through the bluish-gray, government-issued jumpsuit. He has been working out.

Willie walks over calmly and slides gently into the seat opposite Frankie. He looks relaxed and unbothered, but Frankie knows that his older cousin is not happy.

Willie stares back at the teenager who decided to dress up for the visita Chicago Bulls warm-up suit, all white, from head to toe, and a bright offsetting MJ red hat. Willie does not say anything to his cousin, except to nod that he is ready to listen.

Frankie starts off with an apology that he has been rehearsing for the past hour.

Wasnt my fault, Willie, I did my best. We got a problem Frankie stammers. Willie, I know youre mad But but I need need to explain something to you.

Frankie starts to perspire. His speech is halting and he is losing his breath. He struggles to finish a sentence. Then Willie raises his hands and shakes his head. Relieved, Frankie stops talking. The inmates eyes turn steely and his nose flares. Willie has decided that todays conversation will now be a monologue.

You shouldnt be here, he says softly. But I do understand why youre here. I mean, I wish you werent here, cuz, but we got to get past that, right? Is what it is.

Frankie sits back and mashes his sweaty palms together. Before leaving for prison, Willie instructed Frankie to stay away from lockup. Far away. Specifically, Willie gave orders to remain in Chicago. Frankie should only send messages via Calvin, the prison security guard who Willies gang keeps on retainer. Willie warned Frankie that cops would be checking the visitation logs of new inmates. It is the easiest way to figure out who might be taking over the street drug trade of an incarcerated kingpin.

Over the past two months, Frankie has been using Calvin to communicate with his cousin in prison.

Calvin is happy to provide this service for Willie and other imprisoned gang leadersthe $500 per month, tax-free, is helpful given his salary is never enough to pay the bills. And, for Willie, Calvin is particularly useful since the two grew up together in Rosewood, the South Side Chicago neighborhood where Willie set up his drug business. Calvin shuttles back and forth between the downstate prison and Rosewood to transmit messages, keep tabs on Frankie, and provide general intel on happenings in Rosewoods underworld.

The most recent messages came in hot. Its all going to shit, Willie, Calvin reported. You got to do something. Calvin recommended that Willie step up his communication with Frankie and give him more direction on how to run a drug trafficking business. Calvin has seen this situation many times beforea newly imprisoned drug leader tries to keep control of their drug trade from behind bars. Managing from the streets is hard enough, but directing from prison is nearly impossible.

Calvins last two updates for Willie made it clear that his seventeen-year-old cousin was failing as the crew chief. His report to Willie was simple:

You gonna lose your business, Willie. Everything you worked for, Calvin said directly, a few days before Frankies visit. Niggers all around you looking to step intake your shit. Let Frankie come down here and talk with you. Your boy aint handling things well. That was all it took for Willie to accept Frankies request for a face-to-face.

At the visitors table, Frankie fidgets nervously. Im gonna say a few things, Frankie, Willie says firmly. And you gonna listen. Dig? Look around. Aint no need for you to say nothin in this room. Dig?

Frankie looks around and notices that the guards are watching them closely. He nods, though reluctantly. He wants his turn to speak. He needs Willie to understand just how difficult his life has become. He has never managed a gang, never sold drugs, never faced hostile competitors. Every day is new to him. He has come with a long list of questions for Willie: How do I deal with suppliers who are getting pissed at me? How do I get my crew to listen to me? Should I be nervous about the car sitting across the street that watches us all day?

As a rookie street manager, Frankie has been facing one stressful situation after another. It all started the day Willie announced that Frankie would be stepping in to lead the team. Hearing this, Willies team members quit in disgust. They refused to take orders from an inexperienced teenager. And they were angry Willie didnt have enough confidence to select one of them.

Frankie ended up replacing Willies veteran creweach member had been around for at least a decadewith inexperienced teens, much like himself. This action only further excited the local gangs who began plotting their rival takeover. Customers also took notice, immediately heading out to find a new drug supplierno addict wants to be caught in the middle of gang crossfire.