Too Much Trouble by Tom Avery

Lil’ Legacy song that my friends, Asad and Ikram, had been singing all that time ago.
    I stopped and Terri turned to me.
    â€˜Why have you stopped?’ she hissed. And then, more gently, ‘And what are you smiling for?’
    I was smiling. A sad smile. A remembering smile.
    ***
    The rest of the afternoon was much the same. Almost steals and missed steals. Terri didn’t take much more and we were worried. Worried that Mr Green might be angry. But in the end Mr Green had something else to be angry about.
    We arrived back at the meeting place at the same time as Prince and Kieran. Prince punched me on the arm and said, ‘All right, bro!’ His mouth was smiling at me but his eyes weren’t.
    â€˜All right,’ I replied and tried to smile back. Terri stood a pace behind me, like she always did when any of Jamal’s friends were around, even Prince.
    Most of the others were already waiting. Mr Green hadn’t arrived yet. Ibby was showing anyone who would look, three watches, all strapped to his wrist. Jamal glared at me for a moment, then beckoned Prince and Kieran over. I saw them begin to compare loot.
    â€˜Who are we waiting for?’ Terri asked me. ‘Apart from Mr Green, I mean.’
    We both looked around the group. Most of them were laughing and joking. Carla and Sofina were wearing matching hats today, bright pink. You couldn’t miss them.
    â€˜Erm,’ I began to reply, ‘Julia. . .’
    â€˜And Sastre,’ Terri finished. ‘That’s not like them, being late.’
    â€˜All right you lot, what you got?’ Mr Green’s voice was clear over the top of everyone’s laughter, his London accent strong as usual.
    One by the one the kids brought their takings to Mr Green. He inspected, praised, even gave a few winks. It was nearly my turn to approach Mr Green when someone shouted, ‘Oi, watch out!’ and Julia came crashing into the middle of the group, panting.
    â€˜It’s Sastre,’ she spluttered. ‘He’s. . . he. . . I think he got caught.’
    Ibby was giggling but Mr Green soon stopped him. His large, pale hand swung up and hit Ibby on the back of the head.
    â€˜What?’ Mr Green exclaimed, not loudly but with real power. ‘Where? Show me. Now!’
    Julia straightened up and began to lead the way.
    â€˜Jamal. Prince.’ Mr Green barked and both boys followed. When they were a few paces away, Mr Green called over his shoulder, ‘The rest of you wait right there. Stick everything in the bag.’
    We knew what he meant by that. Whenever he met us after work he brought a great big, black hold-all. He put all the stolen stuff in it. Me and Terri threw our loot in quickly and waited. Like all the others we waited in near silence. We waited a long time, maybe half an hour, maybe an hour. After a while people started chatting again, but there was no more laughter.
    Jamal and Prince returned first. They told us what they knew. ‘He was nicking from a shop, the idiot. A fat security guard grabbed ‘im,’ Jamal said.
    â€˜Mr Green’ll kill him if he finds him,’ Prince chipped in.
    A few minutes later Mr Green returned with a sobbing Julia. She was holding one side of her face and there was blood on her swollen lip.
    No one spoke. Mr Green picked up the hold-all and we followed him.
    As soon as we arrived at another new house Mr Green exploded. He tore open the hold-all and poured the contents on to the floor.
    â€˜What is this?’ he screamed, kicking a wallet aside. Julia began sobbing again. ‘You lazy little. . . !’ He looked around at us all. Then, in a lower but equally scary voice, he said, ‘How can I look after you if you can’t look after yourselves?’
    No one answered.
    â€˜All of you, keep your heads down. If you cause me any more trouble I’ll do more than make you cry.’ He said this looking at Julia, then grabbed Jamal by the collar.