Afterward they talked a little and touched each other and lightly slapped each other’s flesh here and there. “Stella,” Felix said with a sigh, “that’s the best piece of pussy I ever had in my life.”

This made her laugh. He always said it, and she always laughed. “Fact,” he said solemnly, which set her off again. Felix dressed—undressing and dressing in the dark were old skills for him—and after some whispering together, he gave Stella some money, which pleased her, but which was not the whole reason she met him. “I don’t mean to encourage you to do this kind of thing for money, you understand.”

“No, sir, I don’t.”

He made a show of astonishment. “You mean everybody is free except me?”

“What you mean by ‘everybody’?”

“I don’t flatter myself you make do with one old man.”

“Don’t you throw off on yourself, Mister Felix. You fuck as good as anybody, and that’s the truth.”

“Well, it’s nice of you to say so, my dear, even if it isn’t true. You’re a good girl, Stella.”

When he left her, sometimes he paused in the back yard before going indoors, to look up at the sky, perhaps to light and smoke a cigar before bed. Tonight he did so and was barely a quarter into the cigar when Floyd stepped out of the darkness and said, “Evening, Mister Felix.”

“That you, Floyd?”

“Yessir.”

“Getting some air—heavy food all day, you know. Needed a little walk around. Everybody seems to have gone to bed. You been—ah—up to something or other?” As he grew older, Felix discovered that he liked to tease younger men about their sexual adventures. It gave a pleasant edge to his own wilting lust.

“No.” Floyd smiled, understanding and not minding. Felix looked at him again more closely.

“Floyd?” Floyd did not answer, stood waiting for Felix to register the implication of his present appearance. He was dressed in his best every-day, and beside him on the ground was a good-sized canvas-covered bundle, neatly tied, in which were his other clothes. “Well now,” he said slowly after a minute or so, “has everybody except me known you plan to leave us tonight?”

“Nobody knows,” Floyd said. “Mama knows I am, but not when.”