“Then that kid took his eyes off me for the first time. He looked down. In fact he looked like he were going to cry.

“‘O.K.,’ he said, ‘I guess I can’t sleep here. And I’m not hungry. So so long, Cousin Jess.’

“He got up and reached for his hat which were on my dresser. In my mind I was going to say, ‘Go on back home.’

“Instead I heard my mouth say, ‘Hey, you, F.D.! Hang your clothes on the back of that chair. You can sleep over there next to the wall—I got to jump out early when the alarm goes off. I’m telling you, though, I’m a man that snores when I’m in my licker, so if you can sleep through—’

“‘If you don’t mind a fellow that kicks in his sleep, Cousin Jess—’

“‘Did you bring your toothbrush?’

“‘No, sir, just the clothes on my back.’

“‘Well, you can get a toothbrush tomorrow.’

“So that’s the way it were. My big old landlady let F. D. in to wait for me when I wasn’t home. Now, what am I gonna do?”

“You say he’s going on eighteen. He’s practically a man, isn’t he? So he’ll know his way around soon.”

“I don’t know my way around yet,” said Simple.

A Million—and One

A Million—And One

“WHEN I first come to Harlem, I remember, some of them folks that was here then are gone now. It’s true, all right, as that man told F. D., ‘They come and they go.’ New York is too much for them. Some can’t make the riffle, just can’t stand the pace. Some go to Sea View, some to Lawnside Cemetery, some to Riker’s Island, and some go back home. Some get off trains back down South where they come from—and stay. They been North, like that man said.

“If I had not told so many lies myself in my time, I would believe F. D. was lying. But I know that sometimes a lie is the truth. And some things that really happen are more like lies than some things that don’t. F. D. couldn’t make up nothing like his story about that ticket that would be that true. So I know it was true. That boy wanted to come to New York so bad he wished himself up on a ticket. Then he had sense enough to believe the ticket was real. It were real. And here he is!