“But why didn’t he pull out a gun or somethin’ then?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe enough time had passed that he knew where whatever he was looking for was.”
“But then why come to you at all?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know.”
“Well, you bettah know sumpin’ soon, man. Old Three Hearts not gonna wait forever. I dropped by Nadine’s house just to see how your auntie was doin’, and Nadine told me that Hearts was out day and night tryin’ to get a line on her son.
You know that’s gonna be trouble for somebody.”
“Shit,” I said. “Damn.” And with those two epithets my paralysis was completely over. “We need to look into these white businesses Useless was fleecin’,” I said. “We need to get in someplace and find out what he was up to.”
“Yeah, Paris. Yeah, man. Let’s do it.”
“Or maybe,” I said, “maybe I could sell my bookstore and take my savings and move to China. They speak English in Hong Kong. I could sell books there.”
“One night with Mum don’t make you a Chin’ee, man,”
Fearless said.
“How you know about her?”
“I saw her lookin’ at you,” he said. “I know that look.”
153
Wh e n e v e r F e a r l e s s c a m e to the beach he wanted fish and chips at Briny’s down 24 in Venice. Briny was an older white gentleman who had lost his left leg below the knee and his right eye during his years at sea. The one eye he had left was gray; so was his hair and the pallor under his tanned white skin.
The first time we ate at the dive, Briny was being harassed by an angry white guy. The guy, his name was Lux, had a torso that was as big as half a keg of beer. He looked as strong as any man I ever met. Lux had decided, for some unknown reason, to make Briny the object of all his hatred.
When we got to the restaurant that first time, Briny had seated us and served us without any strange looks or hesitance.
Negroes at that time appreciated fair service of that type in white establishments. But his acceptance went further than that. When he’d been whole he was a merchant marine and had spent some time down in New Orleans. We swapped stories about that city, even knew a name or two in common.
Fearless and Briny were getting pretty friendly when Lux came in.
“Hey you, Riley,” the big white man shouted. “Come over 154
FEAR OF THE DARK
here and make me some whitefish and eggs. I’m hungry and I’m horny as a toad. I got some pussy waitin’ down the street.
It’s old pussy, so I need eggs t’get it up and fish to cut the smell.”
No one could read Fearless like I could. His face darkened almost imperceptibly. His eyes shifted a thousandth of an inch.
Fearless didn’t abide rudeness, and there was no room in his heart for a man bad-mouthing a woman, whether she was there or not. Add that to the fact that he’d become fond of Briny in the hour we’d been in the dingy restaurant and you had a recipe for trouble.
Neither one of us liked it when Briny cowered and scuttled over to Lux saying, “Yes, sir, Mr. Lux.”
But still, Fearless would have probably let it ride. Then Lux had to go and throw his plate on the floor when he didn’t like his eggs. He slapped our host and unleashed a string of curses and threats that one usually only heard in prison.
Lux was in the middle of a complex description of Briny’s mother when Fearless tapped the big man’s shoulder.
There were seven other customers in Briny’s that late afternoon. They were all witnesses to the spectacle.
Lux turned his head slowly to regard my friend. Fearless is tall, but Lux was too. The white demon had at least twenty more pounds of muscle than did my friend. And Lux was fifty pounds heavier. All of those other customers must have thought that the foolish Negro was about to get his head torn off.
“What, boy?” Lux asked.
“Let’s step outside,” Fearless said, gesturing at a window that showed a small backyard Briny used as a kind of dump for large appliances gone bad.
Briny rubbed his sore jaw and gaped at Fearless.
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Lux nodded and gestured for Fearless to go first.
“You first,” Fearless told him. “You go out first and then I’ll come number two.”
It was like watching a fight on a television with the volume control broken. I have never seen my friend more vicious, accurate, or sadistic in battle. After he’d knocked Lux down for the fourth time, the big man stayed on the dirt. But Fearless wouldn’t have it; he beat the man on the ground until he got up and fought again. Fearless knocked out teeth and opened cuts all over the brutal bully’s face. He broke a whole rack of ribs and caused deep bruising that would follow Lux all the days of his life. When Fearless was finished, he removed Lux’s wallet from his
