“So F. D. run, too. He like to lost that boy in the subway rush, but he pushed and scrooged along with him, and ended up in the garment center. When that boy run in and grabbed a hand-truck loaded with ladies’ garments, F. D. grabbed a hand-truck, too. So the man thought he was working there all the time and give him a invoice to deliver. When he come back, he give him another one. And they put F. D. down on the payroll as hired. That boy just went to work on his nerve.”

“It runs in the family,” I said. “That’s the way you drink, on your nerve—and your friends.”

“Come Saturday, I can borrow from F. D.,” said Simple.

“Where is he now while you’re supporting the bar?”

“I sent him to the movies. He is too young to invite in a bar. But if it was left up to me, I would rather have him in this nice noisy café which ain’t no more immoral than them jitterbug candy stores where they sell reefers and write numbers for kids. More junkies hang around a candy store than in a bar, also dope pushers, which I hope F. D. do not meet. What am I going to do with that boy when he starts getting around? Harlem is a blip. He cannot just go to movies every night.”

“What you are going to do about sending him back home or, at least, getting in touch with his parents, is the problem it seems to me you should be considering.”

“I should?” asked Simple. “I took for granted F. D. were here to stay. I ain’t none of his close relations that I have to correspond with his ma. And from what he told me tonight whilst we was eating in the Do-Right Lunch, in my opinion, he just as well not be with Mattie Mae. She’s married again and got seven children by another man, not F. D.’s father. They got more mouths than they can feed now. Which is maybe why that boy is so smart. He’s been working since he were eight-nine years old. So if he has to look out for his self anyhow, it might as well be in New York where the color line will not choke him to death. I ain’t even thought about F. D. going back home.”

“Don’t you suppose his mother will worry about where he is?”

“I will tell F. D. to drop Mattie Mae a card tonight when I get in. I do not intend to stay out until A.M. and set a bad example for that boy. And he better be home when I get there.”

“Do you intend to start bossing the boy around immediately?”