"They're in Texas, right?" Tyrone picked his nose.

"They really got needles in 'em?"

"Well, you know, stickers, like a rose but bigger ones," Stony said.

"Ugh! I hate needles." Derek made a bitter face. "Las' night I dream I run aroun' the hospital an' break all the needles and when Mrs. Le Pietro come in the mornin' to give me a needle, it all broke an' I jus' laugh."

Tyrone jerked his head back and looked at Derek with scorn. "You crazy nigger! You do that an' lotta people gonna get sick! If ah don' get a needle in the mornin' ah die!"

"What?" Stony sat down and stared horrified at Tyrone.

"He got diabeanies." Derek nodded gravely.

"Tha's right! An' I got to getta needle every mornin' or ah die! But it don't hurt no more. They even teachin' me to do it mahself," Tyrone said cheerfully.

"My mamma stick me once." Derek held up his left hand and pointed to the center of his palm. "Wit' a sewin' needle right here." He stabbed the spot repeatedly.

"She did whatStony felt barraged.

"Yeah, 'cause I was bad. I was a little kid, like six." Derek squinted at the ceiling. "Yeah, I was six."

"What you do?" Stony and Tyrone asked simultaneously.

"I was playin' with matches."

"Did you cry?" Tyrone was hypnotized, eyes big as saucers.

"Shit yeah! I was a baby, man! That sucker hurt! She jus'put mah hand out on the dinin' table and went wham!" Derek jabbed his palm again.

Tyrone twisted away in his wheelchair. "Stop!"

Derek laughed. "Tyrone, you still a baby!"

"Wait a second, wait a second." Stony put out his hands. "You mean to tell me she took a friggin' sewin' needle and put out your hand onna table or somethin' an'..."

"Right through, look." He held up his hand, revealing a small star-shaped white scar dead center in the palm. "Hey, Tyrone! Look!" Tyrone kept his face buried in the crook of his arm. "Tyrone, look!"

"No!" A muffled cry.

"Tyrone, you a faggot," Derek taunted.

"I don't fuckin' believe it," Stony said to no one.

"You think I'm lyin', man, you can ask my mother. She jus' upstairs."

"She's visitin'?"

Derek laughed. "No, man! She's in the psycho ward. She bus' up mah legs wit' boilin' water. Tha's why I'm inna wheelchair. She try an' come down everyday, but ah jus' hide under the covers. When ah get out I'm gonna live onna farm wit' my granma in South Carolina."

"Hold it, hold it." Stony was getting dizzy. "Your mother's upstairs onna eighth floor?"

"Right! An' they gonna keep her there too! Look!" Derek raised his pajama legs, revealing blistered skin." The worst of the burned tissue was smeared with a yellow salve. Stony fought back the impulse to vomit. "This lady come an' she say to me, ah don' have to see mah mother anymore if ah don' want to. They gonna sen' me down to my granma when mah legs get better."