“He’s calling me,” Ollie said.
“I figured.”
They listened to Wiggy’s end of the conversation. Ollie opened a bag of potato chips. Carella finished his glass of milk. There was the sound of the phone receiver clicking onto the cradle. Ollie dipped into the bag of chips.
WIGGY:
Weeks is on the way.
TIGO:
That’s just great.
WIGGY:
You maybe seed him aroun the streets. Fat Ollie Weeks. He’s this big fat guy.
“Hey, watch it,” Ollie said.
TIGO:
You goan tell him you a drug dealer?
WIGGY:
No, I don’t have to tell him that.
TIGO:
Then how come youknow these people are sellin dope up here?
WIGGY:
I coulda heard.
TIGO:
Howyou coulda heard, Wigg? You goan tell the fuzz this man Hoskins come up here Christmastime, sold you a hundred keys of coke to distribute to li’l kiddies in the streets?
“Here we go,” Ollie said.
“Shhh,” Carella said again.
WIGGY:
No. But I could …
TIGO:
You goan tell him you shot this man Hoskins back of the head an dropped him in a garbage can? You goan do that, Wigg?
“Go for it, man,” Ollie said.
WIGGY:
I’m sayin’ it don’t seem right, what these mothahs are doin to our people.
TIGO:
They’s evil folk in this world, itis a shame.
WIGGY:
You know what the name Nettie stans for?
TIGO:
Nettie, you say?
WIGGY:
N-E-T-T-I-E. You know what word that name is hidin’ in?
TIGO:
No, I has to admit I do not.
WIGGY:
Counterfeit. That’s the word. You search that word, you find Nettie lurkin in there. You double-click on her name, you transported straight to Nettieland. You want to hear this, man, or you want to stay ignorant the ress of your life?
“This is all bullshit,” Ollie said.
“Let’s hear what the man …”
“He’s hallucinatin,” Ollie said.
“For Christ’ssake!” Carella said, and snapped off the recorder, and shot Ollie a look. Ollie dug into the bag of chips again. Carella hit the rewind button. Ollie looked offended.
WIGGY:
… hear this, man, or you want to stay ignorant the ress of your life? What these mothahs doin, they buyin fake money in I-ran. Hunnerd-dollar bills. So good you want to lick’em right off the page. They buy ’em at a fifty- percent discount. That means they pays half a century for a C-note, they ahead of the game by fifty already, you dig, man?
TIGO:
I’m listening.
WIGGY:
They takes this fake money to Mexico, where they buy high quality shit with it. You member what that white dude was sellin us aroun Christmastime?
TIGO:
The one you shot and thowed in the garbage can?
WIGGY:
The hunnerd keys we tested, you member it?
