The next time Silverfish saw Lady Mary, the girl looked good and she was cheerful and giggly, like before. They talked about just stuff: eyeliner, and whether they’d stay married to A-Rod even if he cheated on them — which they both would, it was a total no-brainer, a guy with that much money? And what guy didn’t cheat, come on, who cared? — and then a car slowed down for Silverfish (“Hey, you with the hair!”) and they said goodnight.
The time after that was pretty much the same, just her and Lady Mary, talking trash. But Silverfish was used to being right about bad stuff by now, and the next time, Lady Mary’s eye was swollen and the eyebrow had a big band-aid.
“What happened this time? Hey, girl, don’t look at the sidewalk, it didn’t ask you a question. What did you do, give Roach more lip?”
In a whisper, Lady Mary said, “I didn’t do anything.”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“No. I mean, I really didn’t do anything. He says I do better business when I’m messed up.”
Silverfish stared. “He did that to you on purpose for no reason? Just so you could get dates with those kind of jerks?”
Eyes brimming, Lady Mary nodded. A tear leaked from the swollen eye, dragging mascara down the side of her nose, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Girl,” said Silverfish, “we got to talk.”
“I can’t,” Lady Mary gulped, digging in her purse for a tissue. “I better get to work.”
“A quick cup of coffee. Come on.” Silverfish grabbed Lady Mary’s arm and pulled her along the sidewalk.
“Oh, what’s the point, Fish?” Lady Mary wailed. “There’s nothing I can do. It’s gotta be like this. Let me go to work or he’ll be mad.”
“You can’t work with your mascara all running. Come on. Just quick.” She didn’t let go. Tugging Lady Mary into the diner, she sat her down. Silverfish unzipped her purse. “It’s on me.”
Silverfish took Lady Mary for coffee three more times over the next couple of weeks. The third time, Lady Mary had a loose tooth and was kind of hunched over. She didn’t say a word until she’d let her coffee cool to where she could drink it past the tooth. She finished it, and then sat there for a while.
“I can’t do this anymore, Fish,” was all she had to say.
The next time Silverfish saw Lady Mary it was bright daylight and the girl was a mess. Silverfish woke up because her cell phone was ringing. The song was “Bustin’ Loose” and it was the ringtone she’d given to Lady Mary.
“Where are you?”
“The diner.”
Silverfish could hear the trembling in Lady Mary’s words. “Stay there.”
Silverfish got dressed and rushed out. To Danielle, who woke up and asked what was going on, she said, “Sorry! Go back to sleep.” To Rainbow, making eggs in the kitchen, she said, “Be right back,” and closed the door on whatever else Rainbow said.
Silverfish came back an hour later with two dozen doughnuts and Lady Mary. All the girls except Danielle were up. Iron Chef America was on TV, everyone cheering for the challenger because he was much hotter than the Iron Chef. They all looked up when Silverfish and Lady Mary came in.
“Here,” Silverfish put the doughnut box on the coffee table, cockeyed on a shapeless pile of magazines. “I saw those eggs Rainbow was working on before, so I thought you guys might want some real food. This is Lady Mary. She’s a friend of mine. Jacky-boy been by yet?”
Jacky-boy was the tricky part. Silverfish was worried. But when he finally came around an hour later, Lady Mary was brilliant.
“Roach never threw a girl out that could still work,” Jacky-boy said, munching on a jelly doughnut. “What the hell’s wrong with you that he don’t want you no more?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me. He found papers in my drawer. Kind of hidden but he goes through stuff.”
“What papers?”
“They say I’m HIV positive. And with herpes, too.”
“And you’re sitting here telling me nothing’s wrong with you? Are you crazy? Why would I want to run a girl like that?”
Lady Mary’s lip started to tremble.
“But the thing is,” Silverfish stepped in, “she’s not.”
“Not what?”
“I’m clean,” Lady Mary whispered.
“Oh, yeah, right. Sure, false positives, they happen all the time. Get out of my house.”
“No.” Lady Mary shook her head and sat up straighter. “Not false positives. False papers.”
“What?”
“I went to... to this guy downtown. I paid him to make me papers that said I was positive.”
“How stupid do I look to you? You expect me to believe that?”
Lady Mary didn’t answer.
“Okay, pretend I do,” said Jacky-boy. “Why?”
“So Roach would throw me out.”
That silenced the room.
“He always goes through our stuff. So I got the guy to make the papers and I hid them like I didn’t want him to know. He was sure to find them sooner or later.” Lady Mary reached into her purse and handed Jacky-boy the card she’d gotten last week at the clinic when Silverfish took her there. “See? I’m clean.”
Jacky-boy looked at the card for a long time. He asked Lady Mary what was the name of the guy downtown. Lady Mary told him the name and Jacky-boy called the guy. Looking right at Lady Mary, he described her. He put the phone on speaker so they all heard the guy drawl, “Yeah, that’s her, little and skinny, brown hair to her shoulders. I couldn’t figure out what the hell she was up to, either, but she paid cash up front so what did I care?”
Jacky-boy clicked off with a funny smile at Lady Mary. “You’re telling me a skinny little bitch like you got one over on Roach? How’d you know he wouldn’t beat the crap out of you when he found those papers?”
“Not Roach. He wouldn’t touch me if he thought I was all infected. Anyway, that’s what I was hoping. And if he did, I took the chance.” Lady Mary looked at the floor. “I had to get away.”
“And how do I know you’re not gonna want to get away from me?”
“’Cause,” Lady Mary said, eyes wide, “everyone says you’re not like Roach.”
Silverfish and Lady Mary left for work together that night. On the way to the corner, after they were out of sight of everyone else, Silverfish pulled the brown shoulder-length wig from her purse and stuffed it in the trash.
“You were great, girl!” She hugged Lady Mary.
“All I had to do is say what you told me to. You were so great, Fish. And you’re so smart. And no one ever did anything like that for me before. I can’t ever, ever thank you—”
“Stop sniffling! Don’t run your makeup. You’re starting a new job, girl, don’t mess up.”
Lady Mary nodded, found a tissue, dabbed her eyes. “You’re right. And I’ll be good, Fish. I’ll turn so many tricks Jacky-boy’ll never want to get rid of me! You’ll see.”