To Honor A Fallen Hero

The Mural And The Spider Bite

Miles invited me to come visit his uncle, Aaron, who lived on the other side of town. "Uncle Aaron! Hey!" Miles called. "Were you scared?" Aaron chuckled, letting us inside the apartment. Miles goes straight to the huge punching bag. "What's up with school?" Aaron asked. "Going great. Got tons of friends. This is Phoebe, she goes to my new school." Miles introduced. "You can't tell me it's all bad there." Aaron said. "Smart girls is where it's at. Place must be full of them." "Yeah, like the new girl in physics." I added. "No, there's no one." Miles lied. "She's lying." "Yo, I can't have no nephew of mine on the streets with no game." Aaron chuckled. "Hey, I got game. And like Phoebe said, there's a new girl, and she's kinda into me. You know how it is." "What's her name?" Aaron asked. Miles didn't know. "We're laying down the ground work, right now." Miles lied. "You are not!" I laughed. "You know about the shoulder touch?" Aaron asked. "Of course I do." Miles replied. "But, uh, tell me anyway." "Tomorrow, find that girl. You walk up to her and be like: "Hey."" Aaron explains. "You serious, Uncle Aaron?" Miles asked. "I'm tellin' you, man, it's science." Aaron said. "So, walk up to her, and be like: "Hey."" Miles repeated, messing up a few times. "You sure you're my nephew, man?" Aaron asked. Miles and I both laughed. Miles checked his phone to see a text from his dad. "Is that her?" "We should probably go. I still got a paper to do tonight." Miles explains, looking down at his art. "Yo, you've been holding out on me?" Aaron asked. "You throw these up yet?" "Naw, man. You know my dad. I can't." Miles replied. "C'mon, I got a spot you ain't gon' believe."

Aaron took both of us to this abandoned track. "I'm gonna get in so much trouble for this." Miles said. "Hey, just tell him your art teacher made you." Aaron explains. "Question. How'd you know about this place?" I asked. "I did an engineering job down here." Aaron explains, jumping over the fence as we did the same. He showed us a secret area with lots of graffiti. "Whoa!" Miles and I gasped. "Brooklyn!" Miles shouted, hearing his voice echo. "There's a lot of history on these walls." Aaron said. "This is so fresh." He tossed a can of spray paint to Miles as we watched him bring his art to life. Sort of. "Is it too crazy?" Miles asked. "Wow." I said, chuckling nervously. "That's definitely unique." "Nah, man. Miles, I see exactly what you're doing there." Aaron replied. "Yeah. You know, me and your dad used to do this back in the day." "Stop lying." Miles laughed. "It's true." Aaron confessed. "Then he took on the cop thing, and I don't know. He's a good guy, just..." "He feels like a different person?" I asked. "Yeah." Aaron nodded as he checked his phone. "Alright, c'mon guys. I gotta roll." As Aaron walked away, Miles and I grabbed our stuff. "Hey, Miles. Let's get a picture of your mural." I suggested. Miles and I took out our phones and took a picture of the mural. Miles gasped. "Miles? You alright?" "Yeah, I'm fine." Miles replied, slapping his hand. "My uncle is probably waiting for us." I started getting a migraine, which I've been getting a lot lately. "You good, Phoebe?" Miles asked. "I'm good. I just get migraines every once in a while." I explained. "I started having them at a young age."