Free Man Enough For Me by Rhonda Bowen Page B

about none of that,” Easy said. “What I do know though is that one of them nights that she was extra heavy on me about staying off the road, was the same night them boys got shot at on the corner.”
    “Well, you know your grandmamma is crazy close to her Lord. I wouldn’t be surprised if He’s been talking to her directly.”
    Easy rolled Jules’s pen between his palms and stared pensively into the distance. She could tell that there was something bothering him—and it was more than his usual anger about his mother leaving. In fact, of late it seemed like Easy had more than his normal share of demons tormenting him.
    He looked down at his hands and shook his head sadly.
    “Them boys ain’t got nobody else but me, Jules,” he said, referring to the few young men he kept an eye on in the neighborhood.
    “Everybody else done walked out on them. I know what that feels like. I couldn’t do that to them.”
    “But if you’re lying dead in a gutter, you’re not much use to them there either, now are you,” Jules said. “You can’t take care of you, Easy. You need to let go and let God take care of you completely.”
    Easy chuckled. “You don’t quit, do you, baby girl.”
    He stood up and kissed Jules on the forehead before heading for the door.
    “Don’t worry ‘bout me. I’ll be fine. You just remember what I said ‘bout that dude.”
    “Easy …”
    “All I’m saying is be careful,” Easy threw back, before disappearing through the door.
    As Jules sat staring at the doorway through which Easy had just left, she silently wished that Easy would worry about his own self even half as much as he worried about her.
    *  *  *
    It was about 1 p.m. when Jules stepped through the doors of the Sound Lounge. She scanned the place quickly in search of Germaine. Instead she saw a heavy crowd characteristic of fifty percent Fridays—the one Friday in the month when the Sound Lounge sold all of their CDs at 50 percent off. It was a great marketing strategy, and an excellent way to clear stock before the new releases hit the shelves the following Tuesday.
    Undeterred by the crowd, Jules weaved her way to the checkout counter, where she found a skinny cocoa-colored teenager working the register.
    “Hey, Tina, is Germaine here?”
    “Yeah, Jules,” Tina said, not taking her eyes off the CDs she was cashing out. “I think he’s in the back.”
    “Thanks.”
    Shuffling through the thinning crowd toward the back, Jules couldn’t stop the tingle that ran up her spine. She was glad that Germaine was here. She had actually taken a chance, showing up without calling first. But she had wanted to surprise him and take
him
out to lunch for a change.
    The sound of muffled voices drifted toward her as she continued down the narrow corridor and followed the bend to the back where Germaine’s office was located. As she got closer, she noticed that the door was slightly ajar, and that there were two other men inside the office with Germaine. Their backs were to her, so she couldn’t see who they were, but from the expression on Germaine’s face, Jules could tell he wasn’t too happy to see them.
    Jules slowed her steps as she wondered whether she should interrupt and let him know she was there, or just wait until he was done. She personally hated when people marched into her office unannounced. But when it came to Germaine, she didn’t consider herself “people,” and in any case, his door was open. Maybe she should let him know that she was there.
    Before she had a chance to make a move, Germaine spotted her hesitating in the hallway. Jules watched as a mixture of shock and unease framed Germaine’s features. Before she could say aword, or his visitors could see her, he swiftly stepped outside the office, pulling the door securely closed behind him.
    “What are you doing here, Jules?” he asked in a tone that betrayed his discomfort and annoyance.
    Jules stepped back and looked at Germaine in confusion. He had