“I think Msila and Slider are working for Joseph America,” I say.

Azile seems so concerned that I have to answer her honestly, and I go on to tell her what I’ve seen.

“You have to do something.” There’s not a flicker of doubt in the way she says it. “Report what you guess, so that the cops can investigate; keep an eye on them.”

“But how can I?” I’m the one with all the doubts, painful doubts that have my mind writhing. “Msila is my brother.”

“I know it’s difficult.” Now her voice softens. “But you’ve said yourself that he wasn’t much of a brother to you, letting you get into drugs and all that. You don’t owe him a thing.”

“I don’t know.” The agony of uncertainty is getting worse, clawing at me. “What if Msila is arrested? It would break up what’s left of our family, wreck the home – not that it’s much of a family or much of a home, quite honestly.”

“You can’t know what will happen, I get that.” Azile lays a hand on my arm, and her touch makes me forget everything else, but only for a moment. “But think of those little primary school kids, Lukaya. Kids like my brother, like you used to be, getting sucked into all that misery, losing their way and their values.”

I am thinking of them, and how they could end up, because I’ve so been there. The stealing from my mother and grandmother, begging money from strangers, threating Gogo with a knife, turning into someone I didn’t recognise, hating myself yet unable to stop …

“Yes, I have to do something.” I say what I’m thinking. “But … I don’t even know who the good cops are, the ones who’ll take action.”

“Tell my father first,” Azile says, and her eyes are shining with something that might just be respect. “He’ll help you, advise you. He has kept good contacts in the police since what happened to my brother, and because of wanting to help other kids in trouble.”

“Yes. Yes, that’s what I’ll do.”

Now that I’ve made my decision, I feel sort of light, like a weight has gone from inside me. It also helps, knowing that Azile and her father will be supporting me.

That look is still there in her eyes. Respect. But even more important is that suddenly I also respect myself. It may cause a mess, and pain, and family division; it may only help a little when you consider how big the drug scene is, but I’m doing the right thing.

 ***

Tell us: Do you agree that Lukaya is doing the right thing? What can we do to keep ourselves and others safe from drug addiction?