Starrell checked the stalls. No one was there. He took off the sunglasses, the sweatshirt, and the T-shirt that advertised the name of a New York fashion house. He grabbed the bag of clothes from Willie and pulled out a crumpled white dress shirt. Anjean sat on a sink, and Willie stood by the door.

“Now he puts on the disguise,” Anjean said, as Starrell started changing clothes. “I-Spy shit, man!”

“You must’ve been in a hospital,” Willie said to Anjean. “Like when momma was there.”

“Nah, when we was little, they wouldn’t let us come and we stayed with ‘Tie Rita. And after she said I couldn’t come home no more, well, I figured she don’t want me visiting her at no hospital. I almost was in one night before Halloween. We was at the video store and when we came out, this black Wagoneer came by loaded, and they start shootin’. They blew out the window. Randy whipped out his piece and shot up that Wagoneer. Got the back window. Like an explosion. Then I see Mouse-man on the ground. He’s cryin’ like a baby. ‘I’m fuckin’ wet,’ he says. ‘I’m fuckin’ wet.’ So Randy gets his Jeep and we put Mouse-man in it. Randy’s shoutin,’ ‘I’ll fuck you up you get blood on my Jeep.’ Mouse-man keeps cryin’, ‘I’m wet, I’m wet.’ We kick it to D.C. General. And Mouse-man gets real quiet. And when we slide to at the hospital, Randy says, just put him by the … what you call it?”

“The curb?” Willie said.

Starrell was doing the buttons on the white shirt.

“Yeah, the curb. And I say, ‘We got to bring him inside.’ Randy says, ‘Don’t think like a bitch. We blew those niggers away. They’ll be lookin’ for us. Leave him there, they’ll find him.’ Couldn’t say that ain’t so, right? So that’s it. Right by the door. But not inside.”

Starrell stared at Anjean.

“He died, right?”

“Sure did. But he was almost stiff when he got there. His blood was on E. So made no diff, man.”

Starrell took a blue tie with red stripes out of the bag and looped it around his collar.

“You know how to do this, Willie?” he asked.

Willie helped Starrell with the tie.

“But I bet you’ve been in a hospital,” Willie said to his brother.

“Bet what, man?”

“You have to send momma some flowers.”

“She don’t want zip from me.”

“You think she don’t want zip because that’s what she says. But that don’t make it what she really wants.”

“Yeah, and what you putting up?” Anjean asked.

“Next time you want to hide something in the house I won’t tell you to bounce yourself the fuck off.”

“You got it,” Anjean said.

Willie straightened the tie.

“Stay here for five,” Starrell said. “Then go wait outside.”