“You know, you’re too predictable, Leroy,” she hollered in the quiet. Leroy realized Cypress must have had a very bad day to behave in such a manner first thing. He didn’t pick up on the querulous tones in her voice, but let them go right on by.

“Cypress, what’s the matter with you?” he said, without looking up from his work. Cypress stood still, holding her luscious treats specially chosen to seduce this man who wasn’t looking at her. She felt like she was three, and there was going to be no Sunday picnic, no swings, no watermelon. When Leroy took a glance at her, he burst out laughing.

“Look Cypress, whatever it is, come on out with it! Have you hurt yourself, or did one of your ‘marvelous’ teachers find you out of form?” Cypress started to cry, slow little girl tears, so her face stayed smooth and glowing.

“What do we live on, Leroy? How do we live here?”

Leroy seemed puzzled. “Well, I pay the bills and I give you money that you need to go to class, or whatever you want . . . I think . . . that’s all there is to it.”

Cypress slammed her fist on Leroy’s desk. “No that’s not what I mean. I mean where does the money come from? We don’t work. No—I know we work, but we don’t earn any money. We don’t have money to pay for a place like this, or my classes, or all this stuff I bought today.”

Leroy really thought she was funny, now. “Yes we do, honey, and there’s more where that came from.”

Cypress, totally befuddled, sat on Leroy’s lap while he whistled one of his tunes to her. The tune that meant there was nothing to fear. More than niggers could burn, more than blues and fury, found a voice in Leroy.

“Cypress, do you think you could hum ‘Air Above Mountains’? . . . Well, alright, let’s do a duet of ‘Theme of the Yoyo,’ the Art Ensemble’s soundtrack with Fontella Bass. I know you know it.”

Cypress said nothing.

“You think I might be doing something outside the law, huh? You think you might be in some mess like Sassafrass and that junkie of hers, don’t you?”

Cypress didn’t want to say, “Yes, that’s what I thought,” but she shook her head, yes, that’s what she thought.

“Wow, Cypress, do you think I’d be as good as you in a business like that?” Leroy had to rock her so she’d calm down, but she kept wrestling with him until he swore, “I’ll show you where the money comes from, okay?”

“Is it dangerous?”

“No darling, it’s benign.”