Rhozier Brown - DC Noir 2 - The Classics

“My name’s not Charlie,” I said.

“Ain’t you Charlie White Man?” Ringo said, smiling.

“Go on, Ringo. Go on,” Billy said, looking at me apologetically.

“I got to admit that you is some fool, John,” Ringo said, coming over to me. “You all set to go and then you drop the quarter.” He laughed, closing his eyes, and put his hand on my shoulder.

I asked him if he wanted to rip the sleeve off this time.

“It look like you got a flower growing out of your shoulder,” Ringo said, putting a finger on the ripped white lining that was puffing out. “Man, you look like hell. You know that?”

I took out my pack of cigarettes and lit one. Ringo watched me. I gave him the pack and told him to keep it and go away.

“You scares me,” he said, taking my cigarette to light his. “I just can’t figure you out.”

Suddenly I got a terrible headache, and the room began to spin. Down the street another bus had appeared, but I decided it was no use even trying this time. I turned and looked at Billy, and he knew immediately that I was in some kind of trouble. “Don’t you worry, now,” he said. He pointed to the door that led to the bathroom. “See you soon,” he said.

I walked unsteadily toward the door. There must have been a disturbance in my middle ear, because the ceiling seemed to rush at me and then rush away. I fell down, and began to crawl on all fours toward the door.

“He think he a horse,” I heard Ringo say.

Billy helped me to my feet, steadied me, and walked me a few steps toward the bathroom. I told him I was all right and could make it the rest of the way. In the bathroom, I wasn’t sick, but I was so dizzy that I couldn’t stand up. I sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall for a few minutes, waiting for the dizziness to stop. Then I lay down and went to sleep.

Some time later, I felt someone nudging me lightly on the shoulder, and I woke up and saw Billy in his white apron, kneeling on one knee.

“You been in here about twenty minutes,” he said. “I got to worry about you.”

I stood up and walked over to the sink, feeling all right. The vertigo was gone. Billy switched on the light and stayed in the room while I washed up. “John, I think your luck is turning,” he said.

When Billy and I went back into the big room, Ringo was talking to the woman I had seen him with earlier, outside the store. There was also another man — a large, dark-brown, sleepy-eyed Negro whom the woman called Tracy. “All right, Tracy, go on, knock him down,” she said, pointing at Ringo.

Billy set a chair for me in the corner of the room farthest from Ringo and his friends. He saw that I was shivering, and he got his topcoat and told me to put it on. He also gave me another cup of Coca-Cola syrup, and said he was boiling some water for tea, and that I should just relax and take it easy.

“Knock him on his butt, Tracy,” the woman said, looking fierce.

“Aw, honey, now,” Tracy said, and then he smiled shyly at Ringo and folded his arms.

Ringo kicked some imaginary object, and turned on the woman. “Ruby, why you always want to make trouble?” he said. “Now, Tracy’s my friend.”

“I want to see you fight,” Ruby said. “You supposed to be a fighter. Well, I want to see you fight.”

Billy came over with a glass jar of tea and half a lemon. He put the tea and lemon on top of a milk crate near my chair. Then he went behind the counter and came back with a sack of granulated sugar and a spoon. “This gonna give you some strength,” he said, putting the sugar and spoon on the crate.

I thanked him, and, feeling comfortable and warm, sat back and watched the action. While Billy was bringing me the tea, Ruby had hit Ringo on the side of the head with her pocketbook, and now Ringo, looking pained, ignored her, folded his arms, and stared at the ceiling.

“Come on, Tracy, knock him down,” Ruby bellowed, but Tracy, who was about six feet four and two hundred and fifty pounds, just looked down at the floor and smiled. “Now, Tracy, here, done spar with Joe Louis. Now, Tracy was a fighter!” she went on. “A heavyweight!” She looked at Ringo with scorn.

There was a long pause, during which Ringo took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “It don’t matter what class a man fight in,” Ringo said finally. “It only matter if he any good or not.” He opened his eyes and looked at Ruby. “Now, I was a good middleweight.”

“Uh-uh. You only fair, baby. At the most, you only fair,” she said.

Ringo suddenly began to jump rope and put together some combinations, moving around the room with a wide smile and his eyes half closed. As he passed me the first time around, he winked and said, “How you doing, John?”

Billy was talking in a hoarse whisper to Tracy and Ruby. I couldn’t hear what he said to them, but they were smiling. Ruby clapped her hands and threw her head back and shrieked, “Aw, come on, man, you killing me!”

Tracy covered his mouth with one of his enormous hands, trying to stifle the laughter, but some of it got through. He seemed a little embarrassed and shook his head. During Billy’s whispering, Ruby looked at me from time to time and smiled and waved. Tracy looked at me once, too, and nodded shyly. Then Billy brought them over, and when I stood up, Ruby told me to sit down and save my strength.

“John, this here is Ruby Longstreet and Tracy James,” Billy said.

We shook hands.

“Well, John, we sure glad to know you,” Ruby said, shaking hands again.

I told her the pleasure was all mine.

“I seen you outside earlier, John,” she said.

“I was waiting for a bus.”

“I hear that fool Ringo done give you a fight lesson,” she said. She looked at Ringo, who closed his eyes. “Come on, Ringo, open your eyes!” she said.

But he shut them tighter, and closed his mouth tight, too.

Billy laughed. “John knock him flat,” he said.

“What you hit him with?” Tracy asked me.

“A left,” I said.

“He still blind to a left hand,” Tracy said.

I said that some rain had got in his eye.

“Some rain always getting in his eye,” Ruby said. “If it ain’t for the rain, he been champion.”

Billy laughed, and Tracy covered his face with his hands and shook. Ringo turned his back on us and began to take very deep, noisy breaths.

“Aw, shut up, Ringo, you fat fool!” Ruby said.

I was trying to drink the tea, but I began to laugh so hard that I had to put the jar down, and then the laughter increased all around, and Ringo’s breathing became noisier and his shoulders began to shake. I thought he was laughing, but he turned around and he was crying; tears were streaming down his face. “You all finish?” he asked.

“Will you look at that?” Ruby said.

I felt terribly sorry for him. “Come on, Ringo,” I said. “What’s the matter with you?”

“He just acting,” Billy said.

Ringo pulled out a handkerchief and blew his nose and wiped his eyes, and then pulled up a crate and sat down next to me. “John, I feel lousy,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

I told him I was feeling all right.

He patted me on the shoulder. “Well, I glad you feeling better,” he said. He offered me a cigarette from the pack I had given him, and struck a match and gave me a light. “John, you my friend,” he said. “They is some people don’t know what friendship is.” He looked around at everyone.

“Man, if you a friend,” Billy said, “then there ain’t no point having no enemy.”

Ruby began to laugh, and she came over to Ringo and kissed him on top of the head. “Baby, why you so stupid?” she said, smiling widely at him. “Maybe you is the dumbest man in the whole world.”