Chapter 2 – Extract 8 from The Paradise Induction! 

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There was no warning; while we discussed WWF wrestlers, it was as simple as the two of them shouting, “Now!” then using me as a practice dummy for all the wrestling moves they’d seen on Cable Television.

“Where are you heading?” said the tall security guy.

“The Pharisee Islands,” I said.

He nodded. “What’s the reason for your travel?”

“I’m heading to work out there.”

“What’s your occupation?”

“I’m going to be a bartender.”

He looked me in the eye, then back at the other security workers. They gripped their mouths and their cheeks puffed in restraint. Likely because they wanted me to know that I was the butt of their joke.

I kept my face blank and unreadable.

At my local church Sunday School, two black boys—twin brothers—branded me with a name I’d heard many times already; a label that I would become further familiar with in my teenage years and early twenties.

“You’re a coconut,” they exclaimed one day with a laughter that conceived unease. This came with no reasoning. It was said as randomly as a Russian Roulette gunshot to the head.

For plenty of Sundays after, it was my title.

What did it mean?

Why was I a coconut?

All I knew was that it was intended to hurt me, because of the laughter that would ensue afterwards.

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