“Got them big ham hands?”

“Yeah, that freak,” Mary-Ann said. “You can’t be leaving no clothes around or he’ll have them. Especially shoes, he’s a freak for ladies’ shoes. He’s either doing that or beating people’s heads in. Tyrone uses him as a bouncer sometimes and as a bodyguard.”

“He ain’t got no idea who did it, so how’s he going to take care of it when Juno gets back?” I asked.

“Veronica thinks he knows who did it,” Mary-Ann said. “I’ve been thinking about quitting, but I don’t want to quit until this thing is over so he won’t think I had anything to do with it.”

“Yeah, if Juno was to mess with you, I’d have to blow his fat, greasy butt away.”

“You’d have to get you a silver bullet and shoot him through the heart,” Mary-Ann said. “Either that or burn his coffin when he’s out sucking blood.”

“How you like my suit?” I asked. “Want me to try it on for you?”

“No.”

“No? Why not?”

“Because I want to talk to you about something,” she said. She sat on the end of the bed and lay back. She was looking good. I hadn’t really noticed that she was getting kind of chesty, but she was. Not too much, but enough.

“What you want to talk about?” I said, sitting on the bed next to her and putting my hand on her knee.

“Us,” she said, pushing my hand away. “What are we all about?”

“You know I dig you,” I said.

“Well, what does that mean?” she said, looking at me upside down. “You want to marry me?”

“Marry you?”

“You ain’t never heard that word before?” she said. “It’s marry, you know, m like in marry, a like in marry, r like in—”

“Yeah, I know what you talking about.”

“You mad?”

“Lighten up!”

“That’s a real turnoff, huh?” she said. “Really puts your nature down, don’t it?”

“Where is all this coming from anyway?” I said.

“Look how mad you’re getting!” she said.

“Hey, I ain’t getting mad, so just cut it!”

“Now just for that I’m really going to get you mad,” she said. She sat up and spun around and came up with this hard-looking face. “Lonnie Jackson, I love you! I love everything about you! I know it makes you mad, but I don’t care. I love the way you walk, Lonnie Jackson, I love the way you comb your hair! How’s that?”

“Lighten up, chick,” I said.

“I love the way you kiss and the way you stretch in the morning!” she went on.

“Come on and knock it off, you’re getting worse than Cal.”

“Cal’s in love with you?” She stopped and looked at me.

“No, that’s not what I mean,” I said. “I mean—”

I didn’t know what I meant. I snatched my jacket and went on downstairs. I felt crowded in, like I was suffocating or something.