I hated Carter then. I wanted to know Daphne like he did. I wanted her, even if knowing her meant that I couldn't have her.
Daphne and I took the back path, through the bushes, to the little house. Everything was fine.
I opened the door for her. She hadn't had anything else to say after her story about the zoo. I don't know why but I didn't have anything else to say either. Maybe it was because I didn't believe her. I mean, I believed that she believed the story, or, at least, she wanted to believe it, but there was something wrong with the whole thing.
Somewhere between the foo young and the check I decided to cut my losses. Daphne was too deep for me. Somehow I'd call Carter and tell him where she was. I'd wash my hands of the whole mess. I'm just in it for the money, I kept thinking to myself.
I was so busy having those thoughts that I didn't think to check the room. What was there to worry about anyway? So when Daphne gasped I was surprised to see DeWitt Albright standing at the stove.
'Evening, Easy,' he drawled.
I reached for the pistol in my belt but before I could get to it an explosion went off in my head. I remember the floor coming up to my face and then there was nothing for a while.
I was on a great battleship in the middle of the largest fire fight in the history of war. The cannons were red hot and the crew and I were loading those shells. Airplanes strafed the deck with machine-gun fire that stung my arms and chest but I kept on hefting shells to the man in front of me. It was dusk or early dawn and I was exhilarated by the power of war.
Then Mouse came up to me and pulled me from the line. He said, 'Easy! We gotta get outta here, man. Ain't no reason t'die in no white man's war!'
'But I'm fighting for freedom!' I yelled back.
'They ain't gonna let you go, Easy. You win the one and they have you back on the plantation 'fore Labor Day.'
I believed him in an instant but before I could run a bomb rocked the ship and we started to sink. I was pitched from the deck into the cold cold sea. Water came into my mouth and nose and I tried to scream but I was underwater. Drowning.
When I came awake I was dripping from the bucket of water that Primo had dumped on me. Water was in my eyes and down my windpipe.
'What happened, amigo? You have a fight with your friends?'
'What friends?' I asked suspiciously. For all I knew at that minute it was Primo who suckered me.
'Joppy and the white man in the white suit.'
'White man?' Primo helped me to a sitting position. I was on the ground right outside the door of our little house. My head started clearing.
'Yeah. You okay, Easy?'
'What about the white man? When did he and Joppy get here?'
'About two, three hours ago.'
'Two, three hours?'
'Yeah. Joppy asked me where you were and when I told him he drove the car back around the house. Then they took off about a little bit after that.'
'The girl with'em?'
'I don't see no girl.'
I pulled myself up and went through the house, Primo at my heels.
No girl.
I went out back and looked around but she wasn't there either. Primo came up behind me. 'You guys have a fight?'
'Not much'a one. Can I use your phone, man?'
'Yeah, sure. It's right inside.'
I called Dupree's sister but she said that he and Mouse had left in the early morning. Without Mouse I didn't know what to do. So I went out to my car and drove toward Watts. The night was fully black with no moon and thick clouds that hid the stars. Every block or so there'd be a street lamp overhead, shining in darkness, illuminating nothing.
'Get out of it, Easy!'
I didn't say anything.
'You gotta find that girl, man. You gotta make this shit right.'
'Fuck you!'
'Uh-uh, Easy. That don't make you brave. Brave is findin' that white man an' yo' friend. Brave is not lettin' them pull this shit on you.'
