She said, “All right, it’s like this. When Raymond threw Raf out, Raf called up Reba . . .”

“Of course, naturally.”

“Well,” Jewels said. “Raf doesn’t have a lot of money.”

“But he sure has friends.”

“Hey, sweets, don’t climb on me. I’m not in this. I got a set situation with Julio. You mind if I ask about something, though? I can’t quite feature you with Raf.”

I bit on that, gave Jewels an assenting nod. Finally I said, “We’re a lot alike, have a lot in common. . . .”

“Yeah, I can see that. You’re much too straight for the Raf I know.”

“I meant underneath,” I said. I really didn’t want to try for words on what was between Raf and me.

“Sex?” Jewels said.

“That and everything. We need each other. Otherwise we can’t feed or dress ourselves. We don’t know what to think next.”

“Oh,” Jewels said, gesturing acceptance with her raised eyebrows.

Outside a tomcat squealed.

“So Raf came over and he collected Julio, and then as soon as Reba got off work, they all three went to The Anzac Club and the New Texas Motel.”

“I’ve seen it.”

“Don’t it give you the sicks, that place? They were there awhile though, and then at Reba’s, and today they’re either coming here or going to Facinita or over the border.”

“I hope you didn’t mean that last.”

“Wish I didn’t,” Jewels said.

With her kimono she wore slacks and padded white shoes, like nurses’ shoes.

“Did you just get off work? When did you last talk to any of them?” I asked.

“Few hours ago. . . . I gotta take a bath,” she said. “You’re more’n welcome to wait here. They might come, who knows? Or you could try Facinita. It’s a dance place for Hispanics? But you know what? I think you could pass. You’re brown as toast. You’d get hit on but they got security, no big deal. You should wear a bra if you go.”

“What if they decide on Mexico?”

Jewels shrugged and moved through the door with the flowered cemetery cross.

I heard a torrent of bathwater.

She came back and undressed while she chattered at me. I thought this could be an act of competition, that she felt close to Raf and wanted to show me what I was up against. Or maybe she was like a kid, treating me as a sister, never imagining a same-sex erotic context. Or she was ready for anybody, anytime.

“Raymond quote the Bible to you? That shit drives me lupo. He never used to, I’ll tell you that,” she was saying.

Anyway, she didn’t make a bad show. The room was hot and she had the sheen of perspiration she wanted. Tattooed around her ankle was a fine-link chain in indigo ink. I couldn’t guess her age—eighteen or thirty-five—either way.