“Not one,” purrs Quarta. She recognizes that his attention has stayed with her longer than with the others. Her slanted brown eyes stay fixed on his. The other cobras observe the non-verbal contact. They know that mesmerizing a man is the most important part of the catch. If they cannot get a man with their boobs or the rest of their body, they can get him with their eyes. Quarta has the best eyes of all of them. Completely cataract-free. Shame on her. She knows her advantage.

They begin a long, slow hiss. Quarta knows her place in their club. She knows to stay at the bottom in order to stay within the top social group. High school cool girls never disappear, they just get older and become millionaire widows.

JJ stands and begins to walk around the table toward Quarta, but Quinta steps out in front of him. Quinta is blocking his path. His view. His possibilities. JJ must handle her delicately.

“Hey, yeah,” swoons Quinta. “I just wanna say that I have a kid too.”

JJ wonders how high Quinta is. “Well, that’s good!” he says, again all too loud.

“Hey, cool,” whispers Quinta and plops into her chair like an accordion folding back into a square.

“I’m wondering,” JJ begins as he approaches Quarta, “it’s something that your people like to ask, and it goes something like this.” JJ looks down at Quarta’s melon breasts and whispers, “Where you from, eh?”

Quarta giggles. She recognizes the common question that only her own pose. She recognizes and feels a sense of home. A place far into the North that she hasn’t placed her feet onto in decades.

“I’m from Iqaluit,” she says. “I was born and raised there but I haven’t been back in a very long time. What about you?” Quarta knows to keep his attention. She keeps her eyes locked on JJ as she draws him into the chair next to her with her chin.

“So, you’re a Native woman.” JJ phrases it more as a statement than a question. “I’ve never been with one of those.” His eyes spark with curiosity. “Tell me about that. What’s it like to live up there?”

“Oh, it’s not as glamorous as the movies make it out to be. There’s a lot of bad stuff in the North, but I can still miss it some days.” Quarta takes a big swig from her glass of wine. These white guys, she thinks. These white guys and all their dumb questions. I already know what the next question will be. She takes a second swig of wine. She gives JJ her most inviting smile and calmly begins to count inside her head. Amid the numbers, the theme music for the Jeopardy final question begins to play.

“Did you ever eat raw meat?”

BINGO! thinks Quarta. He’s right on target!