“I’m scared of the dark,” I replied.

Carlotta smiled.

Sam admired her through his cigarette smoke. “You’re really something, you know. I’ve known Sally for a year and never noticed that she slept with the light on.” He smiled all over her. “And you know all about the American Indians.”

They smiled at each other. I sat at the foot of my bed wrapped in the other blanket. Sam’s footprints were all over the rucked sheet.

They carried on looking at each other. I fished a cigarette out from under my clothes on the floor. Sat puffing at them.

“You’re in my bed.”

They looked at me.

“That’s just to remind you that I have some rights around here. What are you up to?”

They grinned. I noticed Sam wore a new shirt. A clean one, anyway.

“Carlotta’s moving into my place. We want you to come and help. A kind of housewarming. We’ll get Rennel to bring his car. Then I’ll take us all out to dinner. We can go to Hung Far Low.”

“Don’t you have to live in the dormitory?” I asked Carlotta.

“I’ve been sharing a house with Beth.”

“You know Beth, the Eurasian?” Sam asked. “Carlotta even has a red phone next to her bed.”

“I have a dog, too. Angelina. I’ve had her since she was a puppy.”

“But right now?” I asked. “What is it? Three in the morning?”

“We haven’t paid the rent in a couple of months,” Carlotta explained. “Beth moved out yesterday. I’m afraid I’ll get stuck for all of it.”

“Ah, well,” I conceded. “Get out of here. Sit on the stairs or something while I get dressed.”

When they were at the door I saw that Carlotta was taller than Sam by an inch or two. She stopped to tie a red scarf around her head in a tight band.

There’d been a frost overnight. White fuzz thickened on the grass. Sam walked in between us, Carlotta on one side, me on the other. We walked slowly, but her long legs moved slower than mine and Sam’s. We chugged along, out of step.

“Is this it? I think so. Yes.”

Rennel’s place. Another dump. I suppose we all lived in houses like that, too run-down to rent to honest welfare cases. We liked it.

The door was unlocked, the bottom floor dark. I stepped on something hard. Sam ran into something ahead of me.

“Ow! Rennel’s motorcycle. Watch out.”

I could smell the oil. No cat shit here. Nothing living. We went up the dark stairs. A toilet and tub gleamed out of the dark bathroom. A square of night sky shone in through a window. A thin, yellow line of light from under Rennel’s door. Sam tapped.

“Go away,” Rennel grunted.

“It’s Omar.”