“So you’re upset because of the police and the political group?” Bonnie asked me between smooches.
I think she was looking for a way to talk me out of helping John.
“No,” I said. “I’m upset because I haven’t had a cigarette since early this morning.”
“Why don’t you have one then?”
“Because this is some serious business. I might have to move fast and I know from the stairs at Sojourner Truth that I don’t have much of a wind. I couldn’t trot around this block if I wanted to.”
“You’re a full-grown man, Easy,” she whispered into my armpit. “A man shouldn’t have to run.”
“Maybe there’s some white man somewhere think he don’t have to skip out now and then, but a black man anywhere in this United States better be able to run a mile and then another one.”
“I don’t want you out there running after trouble,” Bonnie complained.
“Then you don’t have to worry about me. I’m the runnin’-away kind.”
“That’s not true,” she said. “I wish it was, but it’s not.”
“You really wish that I was a coward?”
“I love the man,” she said. “Not the man who saved me, but the one who cared that I was okay.”
I looked into her eyes but her heart was too vast for me to comprehend.
When the phone rang I was deep in a dreamless sleep. I heard it jangling but there didn’t seem to be any reason to answer. My left foot was hanging out of the bed, feeling a slight chill, and my right thigh was pressed against Bonnie’s butt, warm as toast. Everything was right with the world.
“Easy. Easy.”
“Hm.”
“Easy.”
“Yeah, babe?”
“It’s the phone. A woman named Tina.”
I remembered the ringing. It seemed like many years ago. The only thing that mattered was my cold foot and warm thigh.
“Easy.”
And then I was awake, craving cigarettes and aware of the danger I’d crossed over into.
“Hello,” I said.
“Mr. Rawlins?”
“Uh-huh.”
“This is Tina Montes. We met the other night at the First Men.”
“I remember. Your people pulled a gun on me and threw me out of the car.”
I could feel Bonnie stiffen against my leg.
“I didn’t want that. Conrad and Mr. Strong get kinda rough sometimes.”
“What can I do for you, Miss Montes?”
“Miss Latour said that I could trust you.”
“You sure can do that,” I said. “On one condition, that is.”
“What’s that?”
“You can trust me if you don’t lie to me.”
“Okay.”
“What time is it?”
“One,” she said.
“In the morning?” I said with a sigh. “Tell Liselle to get the parlor ready. I’ll be over in less than an hour.”
I put down the phone and sat up in one motion.
Bonnie didn’t say anything until I was dressed and ready to leave.
“Easy?”
“Yeah, babe?”
She stood up all naked and womanly. From her purse she took a Camel cigarette. She always carried a pack because she sometimes smoked with her girlfriends. She lit the cigarette, took a drag, and then put it between my lips.
She kissed my cheek and said, “You need to be calm out there, Mr. Rawlins. Give up smoking some other time.”
“Aren’t you upset about some woman calling me in the middle of the night?”
“No,” she said. “You wouldn’t give our number to some bird you took a fancy to. You wouldn’t hurt me like that. I am worried about someone pulling a gun on you, though.”
“He wasn’t serious,” I said. “Just tryin’ to show me who was boss.”
— 27 —
Liselle met me at the front door. She looked even older late at night. The flesh under her eyes hung down and her shoulders did, too.
But, weak and tired as she was, she grilled me before allowing me to set foot past the threshold.
“I don’t want you worrying her now, Easy,” Liselle said. “You know that girl has enough problems. And I don’t want you bringing her down just because you wanna help that broodin’ Brawly boy.”
“You know Brawly?” I asked.
“He been here. Yes, he has.”
“What do you know about him?”
“Just that he’s sullen and childish. Start talkin’ to anybody like they supposed to care how he feels. Told me that he liked me ’cause I wasn’t cold like his mother. I told him that it’s much easier for a stranger to be nice than a mother who got to listen to a boy’s boasting he’s a man while she washin’ the shit stains outta his drawers.”
I laughed. “What he say to that?”
“Just frowned an’ never even said hello to me again.”
“I won’t hurt Tina,” I said. “I promise you that.”
Liselle held my gaze with her drooping, watery eyes for a good five seconds before leading me into the old-fashioned parlor, where Tina was seated on a straight-backed walnut chair.
The young radical was wearing baggy blue slacks and a coral-colored top that was also loose-fitting. Tina had a small nose and medium brown skin. She was pretty because she was twenty, more or less. By thirty she’d be no more than handsome, and by forty she’d be considered plain.
But right then she held the strong attraction of vulnerability. She looked up at Liselle and me like some condemned prisoner hoping for a reprieve but expecting the worst.
“Here he is, baby,” Liselle said. “But if you don’t want to talk no more, just stand up and come in to me. Just come in to me.”
“Thank you, Miss Latour,” Tina said.
Liselle walked into her small apartment, leaving her door slightly ajar. I waited a moment before walking over and pushing the door closed. Then I came back to the chair across from Christina Montes.
“How are you doing?” I asked.
“Okay. But you know three of our brothers are still in jail. One’s in the hospital.”
“Why’d the cops break in on you like that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Thanks for helping me get away.”
“No problem.”
“Conrad shouldn’t have put that gun in your face. Xavier says it’s because people think he looks white that he always feels he has to prove himself.”
“I’m not worried about him,” I said. “Liselle told you that I’m tryin’ t’help Brawly, right?”
“You told us that you were lookin’ for him in the car the other night.”
“Yeah, I forgot. Well, she told you that I’m all right, I guess.”
“She said that you could help people out if they’re in trouble but that I should be careful because you move with dangerous people.”
“I can’t argue about that,” I said. “But you put me to shame.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You got Conrad and Brawly stackin’ up guns with Brawly’s girlfriend—”
“Clarissa?” Tina was really surprised.
“No, the white one, BobbiAnne.”
“You got that wrong, Mr. Rawlins. Clarissa is Brawly’s girl,” Tina said. “He loves her.”
“I don’t know what the word is that he does to BobbiAnne, but she’s his girl, too,” I said with a great deal of authority in my voice.
“I don’t know anything about that or any guns, either. All I know is that Henry Strong is dead and I’m scared, scared for Xavier and the others.”
“What about Aldridge Brown?” I asked.
“What about him?”
“Did you know him?”
“Sure I know him. He’s Brawly’s father. A couple of times he bought us dinner at Egbert’s Coffee Shop.”
“So Aldridge was in the Party, too?” I asked.