From Survival Math, which will be published in March by Scribner. Jackson is an associate professor of writing at New York University and the author of The Residue Years. He won a 2016 Whiting Award in fiction.

What the fuck we gon’ do now? That was the question top of mind that summer of ’93, a summer we—the “we” being me and the brother who out of love I’m calling Brother A—were the newest alumni of Jefferson High School, known as the School of Champions and, so it seemed at that time, a school of fledgling dope dealers. What…