I got in with him. We just sat there in the car for five minutes. Finally he spoke.

“Wanna tell you summin. Made me mad, them mufuggers put my bro in jail. Ain’t right. Din have nobody ride aroun with. Rode aroun by myself. Talk myself.”

“You feeling all right, man?” I said.

“What? Kme? Lin. Em mufuggers put you in jail, again, you caw me. I’ll come up and get in jail too. Keep you compny. Play cards. Yona beer?”

“I got one,” I said.

“Good.” He pulled the shift lever down into reverse. “We gone ride aroun some.”

“Can you drive, man?”

“Drive fine. Lin. Mufuggers give you shit, you caw me. I got a ungle, Ungle Dick! Ungle Dick has been messin with them sumbitches years. Stick at money in back pocket, see. Rest you, ain’t shit.”

He’d backed over a couple of discarded bicycles by then, but I didn’t say anything. I reached over and put my foot on the brake, stopped the car, and pulled it down into drive.

“Thain you. We gone ride aroun while. Got date later. Cain’t stay long, gotta picker up at six. Ain’t stay long. What time it?”

I looked at my watch. It was six-thirty and the gloam hadn’t even started yet. I had about half of a hot beer.

“You got any cold beer?”

We’d started rolling down the driveway, but he slammed on the brakes and we slid in the gravel. He ratcheted the shift lever back and forth for a while until he got it into reverse. He started backing up the driveway. I reached over and stepped on the brake.

“You got any beer?”

“What?”

“You got any cold beer?”

He opened the door and fell out. I stepped on the brake a little harder and put it up in park. He was crawling in the gravel, heading for the trunk, muttering something.

I got out and asked him why didn’t he just let me drive, but he didn’t answer me. I had to help him back into the car. It wasn’t even dark yet. I got him onto the back seat and stretched him out. About the cold beer I’d been right. The trunk was full of it.

I got one and got into the driver’s seat.

“Who’s your date with, man?”

“Wha?”

“Who’s your date with?”

“Vemma. You know Vemma?”

“Velma? Velma White?”

“Yeah. Less go pick up Vemma.”

He had his eyes closed talking to me. I didn’t know why he’d chosen to get so fucked up right before a date. I was hoping he wasn’t supposed to meet her parents.

“Tell you what, man. Why don’t you give me her number? I’ll call her and tell her you can’t make it.”