“Girl, you just keep telling yourself that!” The woman chuckles, turning her attention back to her coloring book. “I fell in love with the wrong man once. No, make that twice—or three times . . . You know what? They’re all bad. Those men are all just a bunch of horned-up motherfuckers if you ask me.”

Again I burst out laughing. But the woman keeps her eyes on her coloring book, her pen moving swiftly over the page.

Glancing at her work I’m surprised to see how meticulous she is about staying inside the lines. The picture is of a mother and daughter walking hand in hand through a park. She’s colored the landscape in shades of green, yellow, and lavender, making the already pacific scene seem joyful and alive.

I once saw the world that way, back when I was young enough to hold my mother’s hand.

“But not all of God’s creatures are bad,” the woman continues. “Last night a raccoon came through here. Walked right up to me, gave me a nod hello, and then just kept on walking. Like a real gentleman.”

“You gotta be careful of those things,” I warn. “Some of them have rabies.”

“Yeah, well, at least a rabid raccoon has an excuse for bein’ mean. What’s the men’s excuse? They all got rabies too?”

“No, they’re just men.” I study her for a moment. “What’s your name?”

“Mary,” she says as she selects another color from her collection.

“Are you hungry, Mary?”

She looks up again, her wide brown eyes answering for her. I reach into my bag and hand over the Clif Bars. “Hope you like Blueberry Crisp.”

She puts her colors down as she tears open a wrapper. “Chocolate Chip’s better.” She takes a bite, her eyes still on me. “Don’t let him hurt you, okay, honey?”

“Oh, don’t you worry. No one’s going to hurt me, not ever again,” I say before turning to walk the last block home.

I try to convince myself of my own words as I walk up to my building, but as I glance at the bars on the first-floor window my confidence wavers. I can handle living in a poor area, but damn do I hate these bars. They scare me so much more than the drug dealers on the corner. I can escape men like those, but you have to be Houdini to escape a cage.