She gave me a look so hard I said: “Wait a minute. You ain’t that hard, are you? You ain’t that bad, are you? Why don’t you let her have a beer? What’s it going to hurt?”

“It’s against the rules.”

“What rules?” I said. “Who makes up the rules?” I leaned over close to her and said softly: “Have you ever questioned the rules?”

“You so hot to take somebody out, why don’t you take me out?” she said.

What? And maybe get my throat cut? (An anecdote to testify to this madness: The night before, I got pissed off at my friend because he was drunk and I wasn’t and I was ready to go and he wasn’t, I begged him five or six times too but he wouldn’t hear it, he was jumping hot with this beavette, so I split. Right down the beach to our hotel room. I thought it was only a block and it was like four miles. I had to sit down and rest a few times, and I found out something. At night, that tide goes out. There’s no water there. And you wouldn’t believe the nasty shit that’s lying down there. I mean, dead rotten fish, and Coke cups and stuff, and it doesn’t look at all nice with that moonlight pouring down over that slimy sand. And I found out later that it had only been a week before when some guy got his throat cut down there, from ear to ear, on the beach, at night, late like that, probably in the same exact spot I was sitting in. Boy.) But boy I’d wanted me some of this for quite a while, just like every other white man. I almost did a double-flip hotswoon.

“Come on, baby,” she said. “Take a little ride wit me.”

I followed her out the door, the back door, where black guys were muttering in the dark and I couldn’t tell if they were shucking oysters or not. She had it parked behind the Dumpster, where the lights didn’t shine. When we walked up to that machine, it did. Brand new Henweigh, red, magnesiums on all four sides; she had the Alpine Stereo System. I was almost scared to get in the car with her. But I did.

“I got some cold cognac if you’d like some, baby,” she said, when she had the little jewel purring like a kitten at its mama’s titty. She sort of ran her hands up her legs and pulled the dress back.