“I leave the door, you’ll try to break it down.”
“I promise I won’t.”
“There are guys out there in the hallway with you, they’ll break down the door.”
“No, I’ll ask my boss to make sure they won’t. You go find out if Lisa wants something to eat, okay? Maybe we can get her something to eat. If she’s hungry. You must be hungry, too, you’ve been up half the night. Maybe I can…”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Then go see if Lisa is, okay?”
“You promise me nobody’s gonna break down this door?”
“Jimmy, if that’s what we wanted to do, we’d’ve done it already.”
“Not with me standin here with this gun in my hand.”
“The men out here are wearing bulletproof vests. They could break down the door if they wanted to, Jimmy. That’s not what we want to do. What we want is to make sure nobody gets hurt. Not us, not you, not Lisa. I’m sure you don’t want Lisa to get hurt….”
“I don’t.”
“I know that.”
“You better know it. Why the fuck you think I’m doin this?”
“I don’t know why, Jimmy. Can you tell me why?”
“To keep her from gettin hurt, why do you think?”
“How do you…?”
“Why do you think I chased him outta the fuckin apartment?”
“Your brother, do you mean?”
“Tommy, Tommy, who do you think I mean? He was beatin the shit out of her last night, I told him to leave her alone or I’d blow his fuckin brains out. I told him to get outta here and never come back. That’s why I got her handcuffed to the bed. For her own good. She lets him beat her black and blue and then they fuck all night long, I’m tryin’ a protect her, for Christ’s sake!”
“Is that what woke you up last night? Him beating her?”
“Everynight, the son of a bitch.”
“We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen anymore, Jimmy.”
“Sure, how you gonna do that?”
“There are city agencies your sister-in-law can talk to. There are ways to restrain your brother from…”
“I just can’t stand it no more. She’s no bigger than a nickel, he’s always beatin the shit out of her.”
“We’ll put a stop to that, Jimmy. Meanwhile, go ask her if she wants something to eat, okay?”
“I’ll go ask her,” he said, and hesitated. “But I’m gonna close the door and lock it.”
“I’d rather you didn’t, Jimmy.”
“Who the fuck cares what you want? I’m the one has the gun.”
“That’s why I’d rather you left the door unlocked. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, Jimmy. I don’t want any accidents to happen here.”
“Fuck you and what you want,” he said, and slammed the door shut.
In the silence of the hallway, she heard the deafening click of the lock tumblers turning.
“WHAT I THOUGHT was we do something new and startlin for the gig,” Silver said.
New and startlin like what ?” Jeeb said.
He never liked it when Sil came up with these new and startlin ideas of his. Like the time he come up with the notion just the two girls rappin in falsetto , their voices weren’t high enough already, right? Sil goes Nobody ever done this before, man, two girls singin falsetto, gonna send chills up ever’body’s spine. Jeeb told him never mind the chills, people don’t like to hear things that’ll startle ’em, they want to hear the same stuff every time out, man, the same beat, the same voices doin the rappin, they don’t want to be no kind of startled , man. Only things enjoy gettin startled is pigeons , man, they get a kick out of being startled. You go whoooooo to a bunch of pigeons in the park, they like to wet their pants with joy being startled like that and making them flap up in the air. But people don’t like to be startled, Jeeb told him. People hear a coupla chicks rappin in falsetto, they’ll think it’s a police siren or somethin, an air -raid siren, they’ll run for cover, man.
Turned out Sil was right, though, son of a bitch was always right. Next gig they done—this was in Philadelphia—Grass and Sophie done this song in falsetto, like the song was called “China Doll” and it was about dope comin in from the Orient and pollutin the black youth of our cities, and they rapped it in these high falsetto voices like supposed to be comin from Chinese chicks, you know, these high singsongy voices comin from these two gorgeous black chicks, the crowd went wild. Sil didn’t say I tole you so, though he could’ve. Was Grass did all the I tole yous, cause she was the one sided with Sil from the beginning. More he thought about it, Jeeb figured there was somethin goin on between her and Sil. That was gratitude for you. He’s the one taught the girl everythin she knew about any thin, and she ends up beamin at every word Sil utters. Sheer gratitude.
“What’s this new and startlin idea?” Sophie asked.
“Tell us, Sil.”
This from Grass. Beamin at him fore he even opened his mouth. He was prolly gonna ask the girls to sing bass this time. Drop they voices down in they shoes, bust all the woofers. Tell us all about it, Sil. Grass lookin at him adoringly. Tell us your new startlin and brilliant idea so we can all fall down dead at your feet.
“Before we go into that,” Jeeb said, “I want to tell you ’bout this conversation I had with Ackerman. I tole him there’s been three ads in the papers so far, an none of them mentioned Spit Shine as prominent as the other headliners. This thing’s gonna run for two straight days, he’s booked an even dozen groups, all kinds of rap and all kinds of rock, some of them nobody ever heard of but they mothers. He’s the fuckin puh-motor, how come we gettin dissed like that? He goes Look, fair is fair, Jeeb, only some of the headliners got bigger mention in the ads. So I go Look, Mort, maybe you don’t realize how many times we topped the charts this past year, and he goes Anyway,I’m not the one placin the ads, it ain’t Windows Entertainment takin the ads, it’s the bank , it’s FirstBank. I go Come on, Mort, you’re the fuckin puh-motor, what does the bank know about rock or rap or anything but elevator music, for Christ’s sake! He says he’s tellin me the God’s honest truth, but he appreciates what I’m sayin, and he’ll go to the bank, the guy at the bank who’s feedin the ads to the papers, and tell him he’s had complaints from some of the artists…”
“Who else complained?” Sophie asked.
“Group named Double Damn.”
“Never heard of them.”
“I tole Ackerman some unknown group gets its name in the ads same size an prominence as Spit Shine, he’s gonna have an hour an a half, two hours of dead air on that stage, time we’re supposed to be performin. Cause we just won’t show, man, he can let Double Damn open the fuckin concert!”
“I’m not even sure i like that opening spot,” Sophie said. “Biggest crowds’ll be there at night, we ought to be next to closin on Sunday.”
“Sunday’d be bad,” Grass said. “People got to get up early, go to work the next day.”
“Who’s got next to closin Saturday night?” Sil asked.
“Guess.”
“Yeah,” Sil said.
“Anyway, Ackerman’s gonna let us know what the bank has to say. I tole him to remind the bank that we’re the ones doin the gig free , it don’t reflect too kindly when a fucking bank sticks up somebody instead of the other way around. He said he’d tell them. He better.”