14

Krista Ramsey and Cara Owsley: Malik Nu’qman says the three things he values most in life are his brothers, his mother and his bike.

His family, in part because they’re the buffer between him and the harsher realities of his Avondale neighborhood. His bike, because it’s his means to get around it.

At 14, Malik feels a constant tension between wanting to venture into his community and the fear he’ll be jumped or shot if he strays too far. It’s not unfounded. This spring, Jashawn Martin and Tyann Adkins – both also 14 – were shot to death within eight days of each other, one in Avondale, the other in nearby Walnut Hills. Malik knew them both.

On a recent Friday afternoon Malik has just ridden his bike back from Bengals Park on Reading Road, where he spends weekends hanging with his friend Jordan until it gets dark and the park is no longer safe because of fights and drug-dealing. He walks the bike up the 24 steps leading to his house, which he says is slowly sliding down the hillside it sits on and will soon force his family to move. The bike can sit on the porch as long as Malik does, but at night it has to be stored in the living room beside the fish tank. In his neighborhood, he says, you don’t leave out what you don’t want to be gone.