When I saw Jesse he didn’t talk too much about himself. I had to ask questions, or guess. He didn’t say much about Metro anymore, either. I didn’t ask about Rodney. When Jesse did say something about the dance he was choreographing, he said he was watching men do different things to study their motion. He gathered his material, he said, from watching men strut with their ladies on Saturday nights or play basketball in the street, but I never thought that was his kind of movement. These are black men, he told me, dancing by themselves. And I said, maybe that’s why I’m dancing solo, and to my own music. No black men to dance with.

One afternoon the phone rang just as I was returning from the office. It was Abdul. Yes, I remembered him. He said he was living in a halfway house out in Brooklyn. Could I meet him for dinner? Yes. Movies? Sure. But I told him before he said anything further that I didn’t have any room at my place. I repeated my whole name, Ruella McPhee, and said how much I liked my name—all five syllables. You just can’t squeeze them all into one like Jesse did, calling me Rooms.

“My name used to be Gerald,” he said. “Gerald Washington, before I converted to Islam. Now my name is Ibrahima Abdul Assiz.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s an Arabic name. For me, it means that I know who I am. I can choose my own name. Not what anybody else wants to call me, like Ger or Gerry or even plain Washington. Sometimes in prison you even start to hate math because the numbers say you’re an inmate.”

“I like Abdul.”

“I like Ruella. There’s a tune to it. Are you a song in disguise?”

“Sometimes. What instruments do you play?” I asked, laughing. And he laughed with me.

“I live alone, Abdul. I like it that way, at least for the time being. I need all my space.”

“I know. Maybe I’ve already said too much.”

“No, you haven’t.”

“I’m sorry if I have. I just wanted to see you again. I don’t know that many people. Good people, like you.”

“Thanks.”

“Can I call on you again sometime?”

“Sure, I’d like that.”

“So would I.”