When her car pulled out of the driveway, I pulled the money out from under the cushion and counted it. Six-hundred and forty dollars. Maybe if I’d felt better I could do the math, but I got a calculator to figure out how many pins I could get. Enough. I could get enough, enough to last and make plans for next steps, next steps that maybe included going to the doctor. And, I figured, I could even get myself more time, more time to make more plans.

I left Mom’s to go to Meekew’s. He doesn’t live on the reservation—he lives in Overtown in an apartment his parents pay for. Maybe that’s why Fellis hates him so much: he’s got everything taken care of for him, so I don’t even know why he sells drugs. It might be one thing if he took them, but he doesn’t use at all. He’s got that type of future where he knows he’s going places. Everyone knows he’s going places. Because he is.

I get why Fellis hates him.

Before going to Meekew’s, I stopped off at Jim’s Corner for a pack of smokes and a Slim Jim, which I ate in the store up near the door because it was pouring hard. I finished it and was thirsty so I bought a short can of Sprite for fifty cents. I drank it in five swigs. I couldn’t find a garbage so I just put it in the stand with all the potato chips. The rain didn’t let up when I left.

Meekew’s apartment is across from a bank, and the bank’s digital clock outside said it was only going on 9:00 AM. I wondered if he was still sleeping or if he was up. The lobby door was open, and I took the stairs up to the fourth floor to apartment 409. I knocked several times, but he didn’t answer. Maybe I just need to give him time, I thought. I sat down in the hall with my back against the wall and waited and waited and waited, but I didn’t hear any noise from that apartment.

The hallway smelled like cigarettes, so I lit one up and stayed sitting on the floor. I had no idea how long I’d been sitting there, but I was committed to waiting. Hours must have gone by. I put my head in my knees and took drags from cigarette after cigarette until I heard the noise, not from the apartment but from down the hall and through the doors, and, when they opened, I saw Meekew.

I stood up and felt how wet and heavy my clothes were.

He stopped walking for a moment and looked at me, and when he figured out who I was he walked down to his door.