“Where am I?”

“You’re in the emergency ward of Harlem Hospital. You’ve been in shock from loss of blood. You were delirious when you were brought in here, and I had to give you a shot to calm you down. Your wounds have been dressed. You’ll be all right. Just don’t try to move around too much.”

“How long have I been here?” I raised myself up on the bed and winced as I felt some pain within the tightness of the bandages on my left side. My right palm also throbbed with pain and I noticed that it, too, was heavily bandaged.

“You’ve been here over an hour.”

“Who are you?”

‘”I’m Doctor Blue.”

“Where’s Otis? What happened to him? Is he all right?”

“Your friend didn’t make it.”

I tried to summon something up from inside of me but nothing came. “Did they catch the dude who did it?”

“I don’t think so. The police want to question you about the man who stabbed your friend and also about what happened to you. The people that were with you are also here, and your family has been contacted. But I told the police I’d let them know when you could talk to them. I don’t want you to have too much excitement all at once. I think you’ve had enough for one night.”

“Thanks.”

“Well, my reasons are not entirely medical.”

“Oh, no?”

“I wanted to talk to you. You interest me.”

“Why is that?”

“Do you have any idea how many stabbings and gunshot wounds I treat every weekend?”

I shook my head.

“They’re too many to count. But no matter how many dudes come through here, the reasons are always the same: money, pride, or a woman. To keep my sanity, I play a little game where I look at the wounds of every dude I treat and try to guess what category he falls under. I’ve gotten pretty good at it. Your friend was no problem. I guessed him right away. A simple case of trying to hide fear behind foolish pride. But you’re a little more difficult. I haven’t yet figured out what your problem is. Did you really try to take a bottle away from a kid?”

“Yeah, I tried.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t stop Otis from getting himself killed. I guess I figured I could stop those kids.”

“Just because they were kids?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“You guess! Don’t you know?”

“Hey, look, Doctor Blue. I really don’t feel like being psychoanalyzed, okay?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get on your case. I get a little carried away with my game sometimes. You can split if you want to.”

I slid down off the bed slowly. On the counter next to the coatrack was a turntable with a stack of records on it. “You play music in here?”

“You better believe it! Those sides keep me from becoming completely numb. Look, Ellington, I don’t want to get in your business, but did you just get out of jail yesterday?”