“Those old women never tell you they love you.”

“Of course not. You just feel it. You know what the feeling is, Fire? It’s the feeling that no matter what you do or turn out to be in life, good or bad, they will always love you. Their love is constant. They don’t love you for a reason. They love you because they just love you. They don’t know any other way to feel about you. And if you ask them if they love you they look at you as if you’re an idiot—”

“And if you ask them again they lick you with the brush.”

“But you know they love you.”

“Do you want me to oil your scalp for you, sweet girl?”

“Hmm-hm.”

“Go bring the comb and the oil for Granny. And don’t forget the brush. You just might decide to misbehave.”

She stayed between his legs when he was through with her hair, and they sat together watching a rerun of The Muppet Show, which he thought was one of the most brilliant TV comedies in recent history, along with Roc, Seinfeld, and The Tracey Ullman Show.

“Hey, Sylvia, you used to watch Sesame Street?”

“Yeah.”

“I have a question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Cookie Monster. What’s his story? I mean Sesame Street is educational TV for kids, right? Is he supposed to be like a special ed monster? Everybody else is articulate. Even Elmo, and he’s only five or so. But grown-ass Cookie has a vocabulary of like nine words and his grammar is all screwed up. ‘Me want now cookie eat.’ What the hell is that? Really now, what is his story? I mean everyone pretty much knows that Ernie and Bert are a gay couple, but what’s up with Cookie?”

“I used to ask the same question,” she replied, laughing. “And one day a girl in my class solved the problem. Her name was Shaquina—I’ll never forget. Her claim to fame was that her parents used to be Panthers. Now according to her, Cookie was an African monster, that’s why he didn’t speak English very well. Cause if you checked it out he was the darkest one on the show. But in Africa, she claimed—and she said it all earnest and Cicely Tyson—Cookie was the biggest star on Sesame Street … bigger than Big Bird, who only went over in America cause he was a blonde.”

“Right on!”

“You know what else I used to wonder about?” she asked, enjoying the silliness.

“What?”

“Rastas. Now … there’s a religious basis for locks, right? So what happens when a dread starts to lose his hair? Does God overlook that, or does it count toward his time in hell?”

“Okay, people who look alike,” he said. “Yaphet Kotto and Koko Taylor.”

“Morgan Freeman and Jimi Hendrix.”

“Snoop Dog and Chuck Berry.”

“Denzel Washington and Al Green—”

“No way—”

“Yes, way. Look at the cover of Let’s Stay Together. Trim up that afro …”

He was not convinced.