Drama City

'Just called Curtis. A friend of mine's mother, she had it too.'

Now it was Lorenzo's turn to cut his eyes from hers.

'You feel like goin' out sometime?' said Rayne.

'Huh?'

'For coffee or something.'

'Sure,' said Lorenzo, standing straight. 'Or, you know, we could do something, like, all of us together. With Lakeisha, I mean. Go to, I don't know, Six Flags. Or go down to Hains Point and just walk around some. Somethin' like that.'

'That would be good.'

'But listen,' said Lorenzo, the words coming freely from him now. 'Before we go making plans, I got some things in my past that you need to know about.'

'You're under supervision,' said Rayne. 'You were incarcerated on drug charges.'

Lorenzo nodded slowly. 'That's right.'

'Seems to me like you got your head on straight now.'

'I'm tryin',' said Lorenzo. 'What else you know?'

'You got a little girl of your own, about Lakeisha's age. She stays up in Manor Park with her mother.'

'Okay.' Lorenzo stroked the hairs on his chin. 'Question is, how you know so much?'

'How you think?' said Rayne, smiling again.

'The old girl been tellin' you everything, huh.'

'She just being neighborly,' said Rayne.

'Mama,' said Lakeisha, moving her cheek off Jasmine's coat, where she had been trying to listen to her heart. 'Can I keep her?'

'No, baby. That's Mr Lorenzo's dog.'

'Tell you what, little princess,' said Lorenzo. 'You can visit with her anytime you want.'

'You gonna bring her back?'

'Are you?' said Rayne.

'I reckon,' said Lorenzo, tugging on Jasmine's leash, walking toward his grandmother's house.

'Bye, Jazz Man,' said Lakeisha.

Lorenzo turned his head and looked back at Rayne. 'I'm gonna call you, girl.'

Rayne sipped at her wine.

Lorenzo used his key to enter the row house next door. He removed Jasmine's leash and draped it over a jacket peg by the door. The house smelled of his grandmother's cooking.

Willetta Thompson came forward from back in the living room and hugged him roughly. She was a tall, strong woman with lively eyes, not yet sixty-five. A graduate of Strayer's Business College, she had worked as a HUD secretary, in the same office, for over thirty years. Her hair was shop styled and gray.

'Hello, son,' she said.

'Mama,' said Lorenzo.

They thought of each other that way.

'Saw you through the window, talking to Rayne.'

'Uh-huh.'

'That's a good woman right there. Responsible.'

'You just about gave her my whole life story.'

'Someone had to,' said Willetta. 'Didn't look to me like you were gonna do it.'

'That chicken I smell?'

'I saved the thighs for you.' Willetta pulled on his hand. 'I put a little somethin' aside for your animal too.'

'Dogs shouldn't be eatin' on chicken bones.'

'This one's plenty big,' said Willetta. 'She won't choke on it.'

Lorenzo and Willetta went toward the dining room, walking down a plastic runner Willetta had laid on the carpet to keep it new. Jasmine's tail wagged as she followed, sniffing at their heels.

CHAPTER 13

Rico Miller dropped Melvin Lee at his place on Sherman Avenue. They had barely spoken since the incident on Otis. For Lee, the silence had been excruciating.

Lee no longer communicated with his blood relatives. When he'd come out of prison, his siblings, who had never written or visited once during his stay, refused to speak to him. His mother had died long ago. He didn't know his children or where their mothers stayed. As for the friends he'd come up with, they were in the cut or dead. Only thing he had now was his work with Deacon Taylor. Closest thing to a son he'd ever have was Rico. And now he'd been punked right in front of him. He wondered if Rico Miller could ever look at him the same way again.