Free Death in The Life by Dorothy Salisbury Davis Page A

front without being asked. Fine. She preferred to look down to him than to look up.
    “How about Rita? A friend of hers?”
    “An acquaintance.”
    “Where is she?”
    “I’ve been wondering the same thing myself, and that’s the God’s truth.”
    “If it ain’t, I’ll find out and it won’t do you any good, sister.”
    “I don’t know that I’d tell you if I did know, but the simple truth is, I don’t.”
    “That’s twice you don’t know. Once more.”
    “Same answer.”
    “She come to you, didn’t she, saying how she’d like to quit The Life and go home? That’s bullshit. She’s the best little hustler on the street, but she’s so jealous of me taking a new girl, she cuts out every time.”
    “Well,” Julie said, feeling a little sick, if this were so, at having possibly involved Doctor Callahan, “you know her better than I do.” Rita had admitted Mack was breaking in a new girl. What Julie thought was something like disgust might have been jealousy.
    “Straight people don’t understand how my girls feel about me.”
    Julie shrugged. Then, on impulse: “How do you feel about you?”
    “I like me a lot.”
    Julie just nodded.
    “Don’t understand that, do you?”
    “That’s right, man.”
    “The only way to dig The Life is from the inside.”
    “Goldie said something like that to me the other day.”
    “That man’s something else, isn’t he? Now if you was to ask me how I feel, a white man in a black man’s trade, that’d show you understood a little.”
    “You know what, Mack? I just realized something: I’m not really curious. I don’t give a damn.”
    “Then don’t try getting my girls out of The Life, because you can’t do it.”
    “I keep telling you, that’s not my mission. Where did you get the idea it was? How come you’re here anyway?”
    “My girls take care of one another when I’m not around. Wife-in-laws, do you dig that?”
    “Not mathematically.”
    “You’re too damn smart, too smart for your own good.”
    “Sorry,” Julie said. “But I would like to know where the idea that I’m into religion came from.”
    “Don’t get me wrong, sister, I’ve got no objection to religion as long as it don’t get in the way of business.”
    “Okay, Mack. It doesn’t matter. If I see Rita I’ll tell her you were looking for her. Okay?”
    “Just tell her to get her little ass back on the street. I got a big weekend coming up and I need the cash.”
    “I’ll try and remember that,” Julie said.
    He got up like a model about to promenade. He checked the wave in his hair, the fold in his scarf, using the glass of the door for a mirror when he closed it behind him. Before moving away, he blew a kiss up to Mrs. Rodriguez. Juanita, when he looked down at her, offered him the handful of coins she had gathered, a gesture that made Julie sick. He took them and again flung them over the sidewalk. Across the street a flaming red sports car was waiting for him, a youthful black driver at the wheel.
    Julie went out to where she could speak to Mrs. Rodriguez. “He’s an elegant hunk of shit.”
    Mrs. Rodriguez did not understand. “Bad, bad.”
    “I thought maybe he was a friend of yours.”
    “I don’t want friends like him. Gangsters. I don’t like him coming here.”
    “I don’t much want him either.”
    “You saw with Juanita?”
    “She shouldn’t be down here alone. Why isn’t she in school, Mrs. Rodriguez?”
    “Mind your own business.”
    “Okay. But don’t think I’m going to look out for her.”
    “The street is public. You don’t own the building.”
    “Come on, neighbor. I’m not looking for a fight. I didn’t ask that guy Mack to come here. I don’t want to mess with any of these cats. They’re out of my class.”
    An expression Mrs. Rodriguez probably did not understand. “Don’t you be bad to Juanita.”
    “Oh, hell,” Julie said and went back indoors. Juanita had pretended to give each of the dolls a coin. Now she was