things. The name seemed harsh to me.
'You want to go out,' I said. 'Big key opens the front door downstairs. Other one opens my door. Pearl should stay in until I get back.'
'I never been in Boston before,' she said.
'Of course not,' I said. 'It must be forty miles.'
'I never been anywhere,' she said.
I wrote my address and home phone number on the back of one of my business cards and gave it to her.
'You get lost, take a cab back here,' I said. 'Or you call me.'
'I don't have any money,' she said.
Of course she didn't. I gave her some.
Chapter 32
THE SOUTH BAY SHOPPING MALL was tucked in under Southampton Street, just west of Andrew Square across the expressway. It was dark when I got there and met Major Johnson in front of the Home Depot. There were a number of other youngish black men with Major, and none of them seemed impressed with me.
'So,' Major said. 'Whitefish, wha's happenin'.'
'Wha's happenin'?'' I said. 'I keep telling you, Major, you African guys aren't going to integrate with our culture if you insist on talking funny.'
'Fuck you,' Major said.
'There you go,' I said. 'White guys say that to me, too.'
Major grinned at me suddenly.
'I forgot what you was like,' he said.
'How could you,' I said. 'Jose arrive yet?'
'He be along,' Major said. 'Gonna meet us over there by the fence, where the tracks are.'
'Why don't I go over and wait for him?' I said.
'No. Tole him he could come in first, set up like he wanted. We'd walk in on him.'
'Make him feel secure,' I said.
'Sho',' Major said.
'He know about me?' I said.
'Knows there a honkie muthafucka wants to talk with him.'
'Think he'll recognize me?'
Major grinned again.
'As opposed to all the other honkie muthafuckas that be with us?' he said.
'Good point,' I said. 'You'll know when he gets here?'
'We'll know,' Major said.
The stores had started to close and a lot of people had left the parking lot when Jose Yang showed up. A smallish coffee-colored kid with tattoos and corn-rows came across the lot and spoke to Major.
'He here,' the kid said.
Major turned and looked at the rest of his crew. He didn't say anything, but they moved as if he had, fanning out as they moved across the parking lot toward the railroad fence.
'Le's go,' Major said to me.
There was no concealment in the parking lot. It was brightly lit and sparsely occupied. By the fence at the far side, I could see two cars parked side by side, parallel to the fence, their noses pointed toward Southampton Street. As we walked, people got out of the cars and stood behind them. Major's crew was now fanned out around them in a semicircle. They stopped about fifty feet from the cars. Major and I kept walking.
When we were maybe twenty feet away, one of the men behind the cars said, 'Stop there.'
We stopped. We all looked at one another. The man who had spoken was more Asian-looking than Animal, but I could see the familial connection. He was shorter than Animal, with sloping shoulders and longish arms. His black hair was long. He wore a sleeveless T-shirt, and both his thick arms were heavily tattooed.
'You want to talk with me, Snowflake?' he said.
'More racial animosity,' I said to Major.
'Nobody like you people,' Major said. 'You got to unnerstand that.'
'It's so unfair,' I said.
'You want to talk or not,' the guy with the tattoos said.
'You Jose Yang?' I said.
'Yeah.'
