inch long. This was followed by three more strokes- creating the four sides of an uneven rectangle. He coughed pensively. 'I didn't tell them. No pity for a old man, neither. No class, just a bunch of lowlifes.'
'Who?'
Poppy made three X's in a row on the napkin. The rectangle looked catty-corner to the last X, but I was too far away to see it well.
'Who?' I repeated.
'Them boys who done this to me.' He examined his drawing with simian curiosity, then folded the napkin in half. 'Oh yeah.' He unfolded it. 'Almost forgot.' He looked at Allison plaintively.
'Yes?' she said.
'See there.' He stabbed at the box. 'I want you to write this for Jay so he will know.'
Colin Harrison
The Havana Room
'Sure. Where? Here?'
'Anywhere in there is fine!' He handed her the red lipstick. 'First put C.'
'Okay, C.'
He rolled his head strangely, like he had water in his ear. 'No, no, make it a K. It's a K!'
Allison made the correction.
'Then R, like ring-a-ding-a-bing.'
'R, yes, okay.'
He opened his eyes. 'Then, uh, put O.'
Allison caught my eye, her expression suggesting that we humor him. He seemed to be getting worse. 'Okay, Poppy, you're doing very well. We have K, R, O. What's next?'
He shut his eyes again. 'Put a W. Like whiskey woman. I knew a whiskey woman.'
'That's it? KROW, like crow, the bird?'
'Now L-A,' he insisted, eyes opening. 'Just like the city.'
'Pronounced la or lay?'
Poppy smiled at me malevolently. He seemed not just drunk but either crazy or brain-damaged. 'I seen lawyers like you. I used to beat on guys like you.'
'I'm sure you did.' I leaned over to look at the napkin.
'Hey!' Poppy put his hand over it. 'Take your eyeballs out of here, mister.'
I leaned back. I'd see it later, I assumed. 'That's it?' I asked. 'The whole thing?'
'I said L-A, right?'
'KROW-lay? KROW-la?'
'Yes.'
It sounded like the beginning of a Polish surname, something like Kowalski or Krawczyk, and I remembered that a number of Poles had settled in eastern Long Island in the early part of the twentieth century. Or maybe he had the spelling wrong and it was some other word, French perhaps. 'What's it mean? Is it somebody's name?'
Poppy shook his head. 'That's for Jay. I didn't come here to tell you.'
'The word makes no sense,' I told him. 'Krow-lay?' How could we tell this to Marceno?
Poppy handed the napkin to Allison with tender formality. 'Will you give it to him, miss?'
She nodded anxiously and tucked it into her purse.
'Allison,' Ha called down the stairs. 'Some men here to see you.'
'Okay,' she called, 'send them down here.'
We heard footsteps. 'This is a guy named Marceno,' I told her. 'The man who bought Jay's land. Lucky Poppy's still here.'
'But I'm going,' Poppy announced. 'Before they come.'
Ha appeared inside the Havana Room, eyes wide open. 'Miss Allison-' he began, then stumbled forward.
'Keep going, Buddha-boy.'
H.J.'s two men followed Ha down the stairs, with guns pointing at the floor. They looked around, took in the room. I remembered the taller one as Denny. 'Get back inside.'
'Who are you?' Allison asked.
'You may call me Gabriel,' said the other man, who wore a necktie and a rather good watch. 'We are seekers of mislaid persons.' He motioned with his gun. 'I suggest you all have a sit in this lovely wee underground bar.'
Denny pulled out a cell phone.
'Tell his greatness the fat one that his underpaid hoodlums are in the restaurant, that the great American artist named Wyeth is here and that he should come have a look.'
Denny punched in a string of numerals.
'Lucky day,' Gabriel said to me. 'And thank you,' he said to Poppy.
'For what?'
'You did just as we hoped, old man.'
'I did?'
'You drove into Manhattan and found your friends, your intentional community.' He pointed at me, then looked around. 'One could make a lot of noise down here and no one would hear it.'
We sat for ten minutes, saying nothing. I studied Gabriel and Denny, watched how fast they breathed. Normal, for the most part. Used to situations like this.
'I'm afraid that I have to use the bathroom,' Allison said.
'Too bad.'
'There's one at the end of the room.'
'You'll need someone to go with you.'
'All right,' she sighed.
Gabriel followed her to the men's room, looked in, then let her inside. He kept the door open with his hand. 'No, keep the door open there, too,' he told her.
I heard some small voice of protest.
'I don't care about your bloody privacy.' Gabriel stood, watching her. 'That's it. Very tasteful underwear, miss, quite expensive I'd say. Victoria's Secret?'
'Is it?' called Denny, looking back and forth.
'Can't tell.'
'How's her female equipment?'
'Standard. Working order.' He followed Allison's actions. 'Now the paper, hurry along, please.'
A moment later Allison emerged. 'Hope you enjoyed the show,' she said.
'Sit next to Buddha-boy there,' said Gabriel.
We heard a noise upstairs, a knocking. Maybe this would be Marceno.
'The boss?' said Gabriel. 'Already?'
Denny stood and went upstairs. Then we heard footsteps coming down. A tall black man in a heavy coat entered, checked out the room, and stepped aside for H.J., who arrived with expectant aggression, face wrapped by sunglasses and roundly enormous, his head a thick ball of shaved flesh.
'Lamont, I like this place!' H.J. announced, looking around, teeth gleaming. 'Very comfortable.' He fixed on me. 'The white dude lawyer! I told you to get my money, and you didn't and now you see we got a problem.' He looked at Allison and lifted up his sunglasses. 'Mmm, and who are you?'
'I'm the manager.'
'You can manage me.' He pointed at Ha. 'Who's the old Chinese?'
'He works here,' Allison said. 'He has nothing to do with any of this.'
'What's he do, clean the white man's toilets?'
'He's an excellent cook. A trained chef.'
'That right? Got a specialty?' But he didn't wait for an answer, instead waving his hand at the room, enjoying his power. 'All right, this is where we goin' to do business today. We goin' to get to the bottom of the whole damn thing. My uncle is sittin' in his little box of ashes waitin' for me to get this done. His ghost is tellin' me, Boy, make this right. Man works sixty-somethin' years, he ain't supposed to freeze to death. My aunt just sit at home and cry
