The contender by Robert Lipsyte Matt bray

“He tried to sound casual. ‘You know James. He better hurry or we’ll miss the first picture.’ ‘He’s never been this late, Alfred. Why don’t you go upstairs and call his house? Maybe he’s sick.’ (1)” Aunt Pearl and Alfred are wondering where James is but they don’t know. So Aunt Pearl suggest to Alfred that he should go upstairs and call James's house cause he might be sick. But Alfred has more of a suspicion that something else is going on.

“ ‘He’s hangin’ out with those worthless punks, ain’t he, Alfred? Maybe you just better … Alfred!’” (2) Aunt Pearl is asking Alfred if James is hanging out with a bad group of people but before she can even finish Alfred is out the door running to go find him.

“‘No. They even leave money in the cash register so they won’t have to …’ He bit his lip. Water dripped into the mop sink, small explosions in the suddenly silent room. ‘Lets get it,’” (4/5) Alfred having finally found James was in some trouble. He accidently told the bad group that James was with that there is money in the cash register where he works. They all try to convince him to show them where it is but he doesn’t want them to do that because if he does and his bosses find out he will get fired from his job.

“Alfred stiffened. The burglar alarm, the new silent burglar alarm installed at Epsteins’ the other night. How could I forget about that? They’d never hear it go off. It would ring in the detectives’ office, and they’d call the police right away.”(8) Alfred having staid back while James, Hollis, Major, & Sonny went to rob the Epsteins’ completely forgot about a new alarm that was installed at the Epsteins’. He knew if he didn’t get to James into time that they would be caught and James would be in trouble.

“He waited on the stoop until twilight, pretending to watch the sun melt into the dirty gray Harlem sky (1).” Alfred lives in a poor neighborhood in Harlem and doesn’t have much to do and there are also people out there trying to get him to do bad things.

“Hollis and Sonny were sprawled on the long, sagging couch, snapping their fingers to a scratchy record. Major was flexing his arm muscles at the cracked mirror over the mop sink.” They a group of bad kids that don’t have jobs and they live in a beat up basement. If the scenery were differ they probably would have jobs and wouldn’t be a bad group of kids.

“A twig snapped outside. ‘James?’ he whispered. There was a soft, scampering sound, then quiet again. Squirrel.” Hes out in the wilderness hoping to find his close friend. But only hears the scampering of a squirrel.