As Stony walked down to the day room, his baggy white pants and oversized short-sleeve white shirt made him feel filthy and helpless as if he hadn't had his diaper changed all day. When he heard voices from the day room, his first impulse was to backtrack down the corridor, but he sucked in, put his hands in his pockets and casually sauntered into the room. Two black kids about Albert's age sat in wheelchairs by one of the windows. They wore the regulation St. Joseph's aspirin orange bathrobes over loose, pale yellow pajamas. They were arguing with each other, but when Stony walked in the conversation stopped.

At first Stony ignored them and made a big deal of examining a drawing of a boy sitting on an ocean liner taped to the wall. The liner docked on the lawn of a house. When the silence persisted he became intensely preoccupied with the texture of the curtains.

"Hey, man, you new here?"

Stony wheeled around a little too fast for his liking. "Yeah, I just started today." Stony felt terrified of the wheelchairs; they were too big for the kids, making them look like they were sitting in government issue thrones, with numbers stenciled on the sides. He tried to keep his eyes at shoulder or head level. They sized him up again. Stony was just about to split when one kid said to the other, "Let's as' him."

"Aw, man, he don't know."

"You just afraid he gonna say you wrong, sucker."

"What's the problem?" Stony forced a smile.

"Who you think is badder, Shaft or Bruce Lee?" demanded the fat kid.

Stony made a what-kind-of-question-is-that face. "Bruce Lee."

The fat kid laughed loud and flat. "This dumb motherfucker think Shaft is badder." He laughed again, teasing the other kid, a small big-eyed boy with a pointy head.

"All ah know is, that kung fu sucker come at me, I fuckin' drill him through, bawh, just like mah man Shaf'." The small kid glared at his friend and Stony.

"Yeah, an' Bruce Lee go choo!" The fat boy karate-chopped an imaginary bullet speeding toward him. He looked up at Stony. "You know kung fu?"

"Nah, I know somethin' better."

"What?" they both said.

"Garlic." Stony was thinking a mile a minute.

The fat boy frowned.

"Yeah, if some guy is comin' at you, you eat some garlic real fast an' when he shouts 'Kung fu' you just stick your face in his and say 'Wwhhoo cares!' "

Nobody laughed. Stony was trembling even though he tried to chuckle at his own joke.

"Man, you better get back to bed before they find out you missin'." The fat kid rolled his eyes. The other boy laughed as they slapped palms.

"Yeah, you better get back to bed." He looked at his friend again, then made circles with his finger at his temple. He was absolutely tickled at his own wit.

Stony flushed even though he kept smiling. His hands were soaked with perspiration. He hadn't taken them out of his pants pockets since he walked into the day room. "Little nigger bastard. I'll throw you right out the fuckin' window," Stony thought to himself.