Up the road two little girls were standing by the doorway of a house, bouncing a rubber ball back and forth between them. A young boy and a girl stood behind a lamppost kissing. Two men walked slowly behind us. They whispered something to each other and laughed.

Darius turned around and said to the men, “Are you asking for trouble?”

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

He ignored me.

“Look at him, he thinks he’s a big shot,” one of the men said.

Darius stood in front of them, blocking their way. The two men passed by him and quickly got into a red car. One of them was dark, thin, with a long face and tiny eyes. The other was fat, with his belly bulging out above his belt.

Darius began to follow them. I took his arm and tried to pull him away. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Get into the car,” he said to me, his eyes still fixed on the men.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked.

“I think those men said something about me that insulted Darius. The same thing happened once in a restaurant.”

“Pretty macho, isn’t he?”

The two of us got into the car. Darius threw a long, warning look towards the red car and got in too.

The two men had started the engine of their car and as they were about to pull away one of them shouted, “She sells herself to that American.” He let out a shrill laugh.

Darius began to follow their car.

“For God’s sake we’re going to get killed,” Tony said, sitting back tensely.

“Darius, please.”

He was pale and the veins on his neck stood out.

“Tell him to let us out of the car,” Tony said.

“Stop, stop,” I said to Darius.

Darius’s eyelids fluttered and he breathed noisily, in sucks. Then he rammed our car into the back of theirs. The red car suddenly jerked forward and began to move very fast, its back dented in. Darius tried to pursue them but finally he slowed down. “I could have killed them,” he whispered.

“He’s crazy,” Tony said to me. “We almost got killed.

“That’s the way he thinks he should act.”

After a moment, through the mirror, I could see the red car with the two men behind us.

“Look, they’re following us,” I told Darius.

“They’re hoping to get even with me.”

At an intersection with several crossing streets he suddenly turned the car around and drove speedily through a narrow lane.

“They will never find us now,” he said.

“We’ll be lucky if we survive this,” Tony mumbled, shaking his head.

We were quiet the rest of the way back.

18

“I’m afraid I just don’t like your brother. Have you really looked at him, at his eyes, the way he holds his shoulders?” Tony said in bed that night.

“He’s volatile.”

He hugged me. “I think the problem is that we haven’t screwed for a long time, since you left for this trip.”