The man’s red, puffy face broke into a cautious smile. He took a deep breath and poked through one of his coffee cans. “I get . . . I don’t know . . . nervous, sort of.” He found a pill, swallowed it. “It’s a blue devil. Makes you feel nice. Makes you feel all comfy. Want one?”

“Uhm . . . ”

Soldier, do men take a drink occasionally?

Sir, I don’t know, sir.

Well, they do. Here, have one.

I don’t think I—

Take a drink, Soldier. That’s an order.

Well, sir—

You’re not a pussy girl, are you, Soldier? You have titties?

I . . . Sir, I do not, sir.

Then drink, Soldier.

Sir, yes sir.

Jodie repeated, “You want one?”

“No,” Stephen whispered.

Jodie closed his eyes and lay back. “Ten . . . thousand . . . ” After a moment he asked, “You killed him, didn’t you?”

“Who?” Stephen asked.

“Back there, that cop? Hey, you want some orange juice?”

“That agent in the basement? Maybe I killed him. I don’t know. That wasn’t the point.”

“Was it hard to do? Like, I don’t mean anything, I’m just curious. Orange juice? I drink a lot of it. Pills make you thirsty. Your mouth gets all dry.”

“No.” The can looked dirty. Maybe worms had crawled on it. Maybe crawled inside. You could drink a worm and never know it . . . He shivered. “Do you have running water here?”

“No. But I have some bottles. Poland Spring. I stole a case from A&P.”

Cringey.

“I need to wash my hands.”

“You do?”

“To get the blood off them. It soaked through the gloves.”

“Oh. It’s right there. Why do you wear gloves all the time? Fingerprints?”

“That’s right.”

“You were in the army, right? I knew it.”

Stephen was about to lie, changed his mind suddenly. He said, “No. I was almost in the army. Well, the marines. I was going to join. My stepfather was a marine and I was going in like him.”

“Semper Fi.”

“Right.”

There was silence and Jodie was looking at him expectantly. “What happened?”

“I tried to enlist but they wouldn’t let me in.”

“That’s stupid. Wouldn’t let you? You’d make a great soldier.” Jodie was looking Stephen up and down, nodding. “You’re strong. Great muscles. I”—he laughed—“I don’t hardly get any exercise, ’cept running from niggers or kids want to mug me. And they always catch me anyway. You’re handsome too. Like soldiers ought to be. Like the soldiers in movies.”

Stephen felt the wormy feeling going away and, my God, he started blushing. He stared at the floor. “Well, I don’t know about that.”

“Come on. Your girlfriend thinks you’re handsome, bet.”

Little cringey here. Worms starting to move.

“Well, I—”

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?”

Stephen asked, “You got that water?”

Jodie pointed to the box of Poland Spring. Stephen opened two bottles and began washing his hands. Normally he hated people watching him do this. When people watched him wash he kept being cringey and the worms never went away. But for some reason he didn’t mind Jodie watching.