“Next thing I know they was going through my house turning over the furniture, tearing our clothes out the closets, breaking plates in my kitchen, pictures on my wall, trashing my house like our stuff was nothing but junk in the alley.” Jewel and Annette leaned in close, the climax impeded by Renelle’s sobs. Ma passed her a dish towel for the tears and Jewel rubbed her back, shaking her head in disbelief of the law’s wretched ways.

I could hardly keep from screaming, “Bitch, what happened to Leroy!?!” I went back to the stove for seconds and into the refrigerator for the Kool-Aid I knew the kids would soon be asking for.

“Next thing I know they was breaking up the tile in my kitchen, and that’s when they found it.”

“What?” And Jewel, her true idealistic self, really needed to be filled in.

“Well…” She was rightfully too ashamed to tell, but she knew she couldn’t come into another woman’s house and raise hell without resting it.

“My husband had been slinging a little rock—just on the side ’cause we been wanting to buy a house.” She sensed their disapproval, and hoped they weren’t street smart enough to know that no inner-city police department had time or resources to waste on “a little.”

“I knew it wasn’t right, I didn’t want him doing it. I had begged him to quit.”

With no word for or against, she picked up they must be against. I knew my place, which was not in a position to open my mouth. Junior slurped loudly as he emptied his grape Kool-Aid cup and held it up to me for more. I batted his hand away while his mother continued. I shook inside, waiting for Renelle to get on with it already. But the apology, not that she owed us one, had taken over:

“… the money helped. I mean, with the kids’ clothes and the bills. Leroy couldn’t get no real job with his leg messed up from that motorcycle accident back in the day. And well, because of his old record. But he was just trying to buy us a house. I thought about getting a second job but I’m pregnant and trying to finish nursing school and working full-time already … I just couldn’t handle no more … But I knew it wasn’t right. I should have done the right thing and made him quit. And those people never came to our house …”

Seeing no end in sight, Jewel finally interrupted: “Where is your husband now?”

Renelle shuddered. Telling the truth always actualized it.

“At Cook County. On ten thousand bail.”