“Preach, brother.”

“Is that a dog in that bag?” the preacher asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Jesus had a dog. Very few people know that.”

“What kind of dog did Jesus have?” I asked.

“A Chihuahua. Named Jeremiah.”

“My dog is named Trigo.”

“Can I tell you one thing, brother?”

I nodded.

“Just remember this. If you forget everything else, remember this. If you awake and don’t know nothing about nothing, know this. Are you ready? Are you ready, son? Are you ready to hear it?”

“I am,” I said.

“Will you remember it?”

“I will.”

“Hallelujah.” He looked around and then leaned slightly forward. I thought he might fall off his Tide box. He said, “Negation is affirmation, but neutralization, nullification, and, dare I say, even repudiation are not the same as nonexistence.”

The witness on the bench sat up. “You mean nonexistiation.”

“So right, brother. A benediction for your rectification.” He pointed to Eigen and me. “Remember that the actuality and veracity and factuality of this recognition and legislation is that I am nobody. You am nobody. All God’s children am nobody. Say it with me, I am nobody! Now sing it with me!

“I am nobody and nobody is me

Walking the land or swimming the sea

Searching for Jesus or Allah or Buddha

Shiva for you and Vishnu for me

“I am nobody as nobody can see

Tremblings from the heavens on high

No answers will find us, we are done

We is borned, we is loved, we cry, we die

“Amen hallelujah can I get a motherfuckin’ witness?!”

We left the preacher and walked west along Massachusetts Avenue.

“Wala, what are we doing? We’re just a couple of math professors. Shouldn’t we go to the police?”

“And tell them what?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve met the authorities. They’re worse than Sill. I’m not even certain that I saw him kill that man.”

“Kill?” Eigen stopped in her tracks.

“In Miami. We were sitting at the table and the floor opened up and down he went. A Brazilian man.”

“I don’t remember that at all.”

“Gloria told me he was fed to sharks,” I said.

“Who is Gloria?”

Not being able to recall these things was causing Eigen to feel considerable anxiety. “We need a place to sleep,” I said. A Holiday Inn sign was brightly lit a block away. “We can get a room there.”

4

We secured a room with cash. It turned out the motel was a hub of illegal activity. I was in no way street savvy and, in fact, when it came to reading the workings of the world in general, I was just this side of illiterate, but even I could see drug deals that were not covert and even I could spot hookers who wore orange fishnets and price tags pinned to their breasts. As poorly read as I was, Eigen didn’t even know the alphabet. She greeted each and every person on the way to our smoke-sour petri dish of a room with a bright How are you? As dirty as our room was, the crusted carpet, the stained bedcover, the aforementioned smoke, the washroom was surprisingly clean. That was something. I pulled the cover off the bed and let Trigo out of the bag.