At each comer our ranks swelled, thickening the primer with another coat. The hitting of all those feet on the pavement became a drum roll. When we got to the precinct, some police were waiting on the steps. A beefy one with a chest studded with trinkets that might have been left over from the sale of Manhattan stepped forward.

“What seems to be the trouble?” he asked.

“We wanna know what happened to the boy you arrested,” said the man we’d followed.

“Are you speaking for all these people?”

“No, I’m speakin for myself. But we’re all here for the same reason.”

“He’s all right. We’re just asking him a few questions.”

“We wanna see him.”

“Everybody can’t come in, but since you seem to be the spokesman, you can come in.”

“I’m goin in,” he hollered back to us.

“Don’t you go in there alone, blood!” someone shouted.

“It’s either you or nobody,” the policeman said.

“I’ll be all right,” he assured us and went in.

After about fifteen minutes, the boy came out. A brassy cheer went up as the boy disappeared into the crowd. Everyone began to leave, and I was about to go when I saw the beefy policeman put his hand on our spokesman’s shoulder. He nodded to what was said to him and then followed the cop back inside the precinct house. In the jubilation over the boy’s release, this went unnoticed.

I waited around after everyone had left to see when he would come out. When he did, it was almost dark. His head was down and his arms were wrapped around him as if he were trying to hold himself together.

“What happened?” I asked as he passed me. He raised his head and looked at me with eyes floating in pools of red.

“I didn’t move fast enough,” he said.

“Ain’t you gonna tell anybody what they did to you?”

“What for?”

“So something can be done about it.”

“There’s no way to prove it. They beat up on me in a way that don’t show.”

“But if everybody knew what happened—”

“They know.”

“But how? I’m the only one that saw them take you back inside.”

“There were others besides you that saw what happened. You just the only one that didn’t know what was goin on.”

“You knew what they would do?”

“Yeah! I made em look bad. And they didn’t dig it. So, in exchange for them cuttin the kid loose, I had to take the ass-whippin he was gonna get.”

“But if you knew what was gonna happen, why did you speak up?”

“I didn’t intend to. It just happened. Most a the time I don’t trouble trouble till trouble troubles me. But this time I just couldn’t play it safe.”

“But how do you know when not to play it safe?”

“When it happens, you’ll know. Just don’t let nobody else tell you when… What you lookin at?”

“Your eyes.”

“What about em?”

“They’re red.”