After she and her mother had finished putting each other down, we went down and sat on the stoop.

“She just stays on my case,” Mary-Ann said. Her eyes were red, and I figured she was ready to cry.

“You know what she’s going to say,” I said, “so just get used to it.”

“I don’t dig her always accusing me of ‘getting ready to do some dirt,’ ” Mary-Ann said. “If her stuff wasn’t so raggedy, she wouldn’t have the dirt on her mind.”

“Why I got to hear this?” I asked. “I’ve heard it a hundred times, and it don’t change none.”

“Who else I got to say it to?”

“Ease up, mama,” I said. “I didn’t come to start nothing. I just came over to see what Paul was doing, that’s all. Look, you want to catch a flick this afternoon?”

“I got to work,” she said. “She always waits until I’m just about out the door before she starts running her mouth.”

“All that means I got to go to the flick by myself?”

“You want to see me when I get off work?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Jive turkey!” She got up and gave me a smile that made me glad that Paul hadn’t been home. I watched her cross the street and head down the block towards the after-hours joint, knowing that she would turn around before she went in. She got all the way to the door and then turned and threw me a kiss. I threw one back underhanded, and she disappeared into the doorway.

I went back over to the Grant to get my sneakers. I had heard that they were looking for some ballplayers for some kind of tournament or something. At the Grant there’s Harrison sitting behind the desk, writing up a card for some dude and a white chick. The chick wasn’t bad. I’m just going to walk on by the desk when I see a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black, half gone, sitting against the wall. So I wait until this cat and his white chick go on upstairs, and I sound on Harrison. I know that better not be my stuff or I’m going to waste him right then and there.

“Hey, man, you drinking top shelf,” I said, pointing to the Johnnie Walker.

“I don’t like nothing cheap,” he said.

“Well, that ain’t cheap,” I said. “Wherever you get it from it’s going to cost you.”

“That right?”

The way he said that I just knew it was my stuff he was drinking. I just knew it.

“Look, man, you going to be here long?” I asked. “Because I’m going to go upstairs and check something out, and then I’ll be right back down if everything isn’t everything.”

“Your mama was by here a few minutes ago,” he said.

“Say what?”

“I said that your mama was by here a few minutes ago. She said she was sorry to bother you again, but the landlord came and said that she either had to pay the rent or leave the place. I figured since it wasn’t that much, I could lend her the money.”