Anita knocked on the bedroom door. “Maria, it’s Anita. Why are you locked in?”

Maria gestured for Tony to remain silent. “I didn’t know it was locked.”

“Open the door.” Anita rattled the knob again. “I need you.”

Tony placed his hand full across Maria’s mouth. “Give me a second,” he whispered. “Tell her to wait a second.”

“One moment, Anita,” Maria called. “I was asleep, and it is still in my eyes.” She turned to Tony. “Where are you going?”

“To Doc’s,” he continued in a whisper. “If you’ll go away with me, I’ll wait there. You know where it is?”

“I walked by today to see if I could see you.”

“He’ll help us with money,” Tony whispered as he stepped over the sill. “You’ll meet me?”

Maria was silent as Anita tried the door again. “You’re talking to someone,” she called through the closed door. “Maria!”

“At Doc’s.” Maria placed a finger on Tony’s lips. “As soon as I can.” She watched Tony go quickly down the fire escape, then moved slowly toward the door. “Coming, Anita!”

Anita pushed by to look from the bed to the window to Bernardo’s sister in her slip and bare feet.

“Did you see Chino?” Maria asked. “He was here before, and he was like a wild man.” She paused because Anita continued to stare at her. “All right,” she challenged Anita. “Now you know.”

“You tramp!” Anita screamed and darted toward the window to slam it shut. “There isn’t a whore in the world who would have done what you did! He killed your brother and you rewarded him by going to bed with him? What would you do if he killed your father and mother? Walk the streets for him?”

She was too spent, too tired to explain. She reached for Anita’s hand, but Anita retreated to a corner of the room, to stare as if Maria were something so unclean, so ghoulish, she would never admit having seen her.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Maria said to the sobbing girl. “And he feels the same way.”

“He should have died instead of his friend! Bernardo should have killed him!”

“Then Bernardo would have killed the boy I love.”

Anita covered her ears. “I don’t want to listen to you. Whore! I don’t want to look at you!”

Maria walked slowly to the window to lean her forehead against the glass. The surface was cooler than the air in the room, and she wondered where Tony was now. Would he be able to evade the police and Bernardo’s friends?

She wanted to tell Anita how she had felt; how, after Chino had told her of the murder, she had hated Tony, and how he had wanted to die.

“Chino has a gun,” Anita said. “He’s sending the boys out to find Tony.”

“If he hurts Tony, touches him, I swear—”

“You’ll do what Tony did to Bernardo?”

“I love Tony,” she said simply.

Anita shook her head; nothing that had happened tonight could be comprehended. She had worn the Black Orchid, waited impatiently, looked at the first star and made a big wish. Now she would have to get a black dress for the funeral. “I know,” she said to Maria. “I loved Bernardo.”