ainât stupid, man. I just needed to get paid. Drugs and business donât go together.â
âI always wondered why they put those candles on the sidewalk,â Kelly said.
âWhat candles?â
âYou know, where they find the body,â he came back. âThey put candles on the street and write stuff on the wall like âJune Bug, we love you,â and âRIP.ââ
âThatâs a memorial to whoever it was got killed,â I said. âYou didnât know that? Where you live? If you from around here, you should know that.â
âYeah, I know that, but why candles and flowers after the killing when half the time they didnât even know the dude before he got killed? Or some girl got killed or some baby got killed,â Kelly said. âDonât make no sense to me.â
âSo you ainât the smartest sucker in the world,â I said. âNothing wrong with that. But those candles and the flowers and the good-byes written on the wall is like a sign of respect and love.â
âWhy you showing love to somebody you donât know?â
âLater for all this mouth running.â I was getting tired. âHow Iâm going to get out of here?â
âYou think the police are creeping up on you?â
The truth was that Kelly was creeping up on me. He was making me jumpy. He looked like street and he talked like street, but something was telling me different.
âAll I want to do is get some distance from here,â I said. âThatâs straight up. You got some ideas how I can do that?â
âBy changing something you did,â Kelly said, âmaking it all different. Look to me like youâve been making garbage for a while and dragging it with you. Now you need to get out of here, and that garbage is weighing you down.â
Somebody had their radio going, and I heardit playing a drum-and-bass jam. It was pounding like my heart was pounding, but it had more rhythm.
âIâm going to make something different with that television and your remote?â I asked. âYou got to come up with a stronger line than that, man.â
âYou got a better idea?â Kelly asked. âYou standing here shaking and sweating and wondering if you gonna make it through the night. You ainât got nothing going on, so you might as well keep watching the tube and working your brain to figure out where you need to be making some changes.â
âDid I tell you that youâre a spooky-ass chump?â
âI donât know about the chump part, but I like being spooky,â Kelly said. âYou know, like you meet up with somebody in the dark and they see you spooky, they start paying attention. Like you paying attention.â
âWhatever. Anyway, Iâm still working on that day. If that day was different.â
âYou mean getting up in the morning?â Kellyasked. âYou want to stay in bed?â
âThat might have helped, but Iâm really talking about what happened with the cop,â I said. âYo, you got any aspirins up in here?â
âYour arm hurting?â
âWhy you think I need the aspirins? You know my arm is hurt.â
âOkay, so letâs get back to yesterday and the cop.â Kelly ignored my arm hurting. âRico was tasting Dustyâs stuff, but you wasnât using nothing?â
âHow many times I got to tell you?â I said.
âThreeâs a good number,â Kelly said. âBut it donât make no never mind to me. You the one looking for a change. I donât need to change.â
âYou sitting up here by yourself watching television in this stink hole is what you want to be doing?â I asked. âYou look like you need a change to me.â
âCheck it out, Lil J,â Kelly said. âYou got the Nine and all I got is the remote and the television looking out on the world. But I can walk on out of