“I’m all right. Glad to be outta there.”

“I hear you,” he says.

“Well, at least it’s a nice building,” Janelle says, looking around at this sterile-ass place. “It doesn’t look anything like I thought it would.”

I don’t bother to respond. I just follow behind them. Paris doesn’t say a single solitary word until we’re outside, standing next to her blue rental car. It’s a Cutlass. I ain’t drove one of these in years. “How far away is Mama’s car?” she asks.

“Don’t worry, Paris,” I say, “I’ma pay back all your money. Don’t even worry about it.”

“I’m not worried, Lewis. I never worry about when you’re going to pay me back. Who’s keeping tabs? Answer my question, please.”

“I don’t know. But it can’t be that far,” I say, and light a cigarette.

“You know you can’t smoke that thing in the car, so hurry up,” she says. I take two more long drags and then get in the back seat, next to Dingus. Paris whips out her cellular phone and gets directions to the place. It’s only a few blocks from here. As usual, she takes care of everything. Janelle follows us in Mama’s car. I can see Paris’s eyes in the rearview mirror. She is totally disgusted with me, but it ain’t her I’m worried about, it’s Mama. It’s a for-sure lecture. In a few minutes, I’ma have to be fourteen all over again.

“When we get to Mama’s,” Paris says, “don’t you say a solitary word about any jail or her car being impounded, do you understand, Lewis?”

“Yeah. I mean, no. Why not? You mean she don’t know?”

“No, she doesn’t know. Let me refresh your memory: she just got out of the damn hospital! This is all she needs on her second day home, wouldn’t you think?”

Here we go. Rubbing it in my face. I’m the devil. The bad seed, I guess. I just listen. No sense in arguing with her about nothing. Plus, she’s right. Always right. “So—how’s business?” I ask.

“What?”

“How’s business?”

“Business is fine, Lewis. Stop trying to skip the damn subject.”

“I’m not. You made your point. Now, tell me. What’s the name of your outfit again? I forget.”

“Wild Thyme,” she blurts out. “Wild Thyme.”

I fall asleep in the back seat. When I open my eyes, we’re parked in front of a furniture store. I’m in here by myself. The engine is running. The air conditioner’s on. When I see Paris and Janelle coming through the store doors, I close my eyes again, fast. I leave ’em like that, even after they get in. I wonder where Dingus is, but I ain’t opening my eyes till we get home. Speaking of home, that’s what I need to do: go home. But the big question is how? “Y’all took long enough,” Mama says when we walk in the front door.

“You ready?” Paris asks her.

“I been ready,” she says, and gets her purse. “Who’s going and where exactly are we going?”