Percival Everett - Erasure

“Who dat?” I say.

“Who dat?” he ax. Then he start laughin. He strike a match and light a candle. It’s that Willy wino muthafucka.

“Put that candle out, nigger,” I say.

“Shit, they gone, boy,” he say. “What they want you fo’?”

“Some rich boy. I kick his ass and now he comin back wif his posse. Muthafucka. I bet not catch his ass alone.”

“You bad, huh?”

I look at his red eyes behind that candle. “Yeah, I’m bad.”

“I used to be bad my ownself,” he say.

“You sho ain’t bad now,” I say. “No, man, you worst.” I laughs at my joke.

“You a funny nigger too, huh?” he say. “How yo mama?”

“Don’t be bringin up my mama,” I tell him.

“She still got that mole just under her tittie?” he say.

I get up and I’m bout to kick his ass.

“Sit down, boy,” he say with this hard voice that don’t sound like it could come out his head.

I sit back down.

“Listen, boy, I’m gone tell you somethin. I done fucked up my life.”

“No shit,” I says.

“Shut up and listen,” he say. “I don’t want you fuckin up the way I did.”

“Who the fuck you be to me,” I say. “I don’t know you from shit.”

“That don’t matter none,” he say. “I don’t want you messin up and hurtin your mama. She been through enuff.”

“What the fuck you talkin bout?” I ax. “I’m gettin the fuck outta here.” I move to the door.

“Yo mama is a good woman,” he say.

“Yeah and you a wino,” I say. “So, what your point?”

“Don’t fuck up,” he say.

“Yeah, well, you too,” I say. “And Merry Christmas and Happy Easter.”

At the pool hall Tito in the back gettin his dick suck by that fat ho who come around sometime. That what Yellow tells me. I halfway wants to go back there and watch, but I don’t. The ho might get after me and I don’t want none of that shit. Tito let anything suck his dick. Yellow be lookin at me.

“What you lookin at?” I say.

“Why you sweatin?” he ax.

I thinks about tellin him about that Jeep muthafucka, but I don’t like the way runnin sound in my head. “I took a coupla shots over at the hoops,” I say.

“You was shootin baskets,” he laugh.

“What so funny?” I ax.

“You out there shootin baskets,” he say. “What really happen?”

“That’s what happen,” I say. “Now, shut the fuck up.”

Tito in back and he hear us. “What’s goin on?” he say.

“Nothin,” I say. “Nigger just gettin on my nerves.”

“Yeah, well I ain’t the only one be gettin on nerves,” Yellow say.

“Watch where you steppin, funky ass muthafucka,” I say and I gives him a hard look.

“Fuck you,” he say.

“Fuck you,” I say.

“Fuck you,” he say.

“Fuck you,” I say.

“Fuck you,” he say.

“Fuck you,” I say.

“Fuck you,” he say.

“Why don’t you two niggers just go outside and fuck each other,” Tito say.

That fat ho come from out the back and walk past. She wave her fingers at Tito.

I shakes my head. “How can you let that ugly bitch put her mouth on yo thang?” I ax.

“She better lookin than yo babies’ mama,” he say. “At least she know what she doin.”

“Don’t be talkin bout my babies’ mamas,” I say.

“Like you give a shit, nigger,” he say. He pull out a cigarette and strike a match.

Fatman yell over to him. “No smokin!”

“It too cold to be outside, Fatman. Let a nigger have his fix.”

Fatman must be tired cause he don’t say nothing else.

Yellow chalk up a stick and smile at me. “So, what happen with that jailbait,” he ax.

“I knocked it out big time,” I say.

“What could that little girl do for a man?” Tito say.

I just look at him.

“Fuckin children and havin babies don’t make you no man,” he say.

“What yo’ problem,” I ax. “Why you comin down on me?”

“Let’s play pool,” he say.

Now, I’m really upset. We shoot a game without sayin nothin. Tito be smokin his fourth cigarette and be puttin ‘em out on the floor. Fatman come over and look at Tito.

“See, that another reason I don’t want you niggers smokin in here. Look at this shit.”

“Shut up, Fatman,” Tito say. “You gots to sweeps the fucka anyway.”

“Yeah,” Yellow says.

Fatman grumbles and walk on back to his stool behind the counter.

“You guys ever look at the Willy the Wonker muthafucka?” I ax.

Tito sink the five and look at me. “You mean the wino over near the courts?” he ax.

“Yeah,” I say.

“I seen him,” Tito say. “Why? What he to you?”

“He ain’t nuffin to me.”

“Why you be askin bout him then?” Yellow ax.

“You shut the fuck up,” I say.

“Suck my dick,” he say.

“Whip it out, muthafucka,” I say.

“I would but I don’t wanna make you cry,” he say.

“Listen to you two niggers,” Tito say. “Sound like you be twelf years old. Talkin shit like that.”

“Fuck both you,” I say and I walk out.

Next mornin I gets up and I wash my pits cause they real funky from workin and gettin on that gash. I puts on some clean drawers too, then I sit on the bed and look at the Mickey Mouse clock I got during the riots. Niggers was laughin at me left and right, pointin at the clock. They had TV’s and stereos, but, shit, I liked the fuckin clock. Made me think of Dissyland. I was there once and all I can remember is that Main Street and me thinkin “this is what it s’posed to be like.” Fuck ‘em for laughin at my clock. The shit work. Time just keep movin, them hands keep sweepin and that make me think about work. I work there two weeks and I’m gone have enough for my gun. And then, watch out. Van Go gone be gone and went.

I go out to the table and Baby Girl already be sitting there workin on a bowl of Life cereal. “You like that shit, don’t you, Baby Girl,” I say.

Mama turn around at the stove and say, “Don’t be swearin’ in fron’ o her like that, boy.”

I don’t pay her no ‘tention. I sit down and eat the eggs she slide in front of me. “Ain’t you got no meat?” I say.

“No, that’s it,” she say.

I think about gettin up and walkin out. No meat? What kind of shit? But I be hongry, so I eat.

“How you like yo job?” Mama ax.

“It a job.”

“Lois say they house is like a mansion,” Mama say.

“It is a mansion, Mama,” I say. “That nigger is loaded.”

“Don’t be callin Mr. Dalton that,” she say.

“You call me that,” I say. “’Cause he gots bucks he ain’t no nigger? ‘Cause I ain’t got nuffin, I am?”

“Shut up, nigger,” she say.

She look at me and I look at her and we bust out laughin. It feel good to laugh with Mama again. We laugh for a few minutes and then I tells her I gots to get to work.

“Okay, nigger,” she say.

We laugh again.

I get on the bus and start my trip over to the hills. I’m still laughin in my head about what Mama say. She give me three dollars ‘fore I left. So, I be sittin on the bus and this white girl get on and sit cross from me. She look like she goin to work.

“Goin to work?” I ax.

She nod and look away.

“Where you work at?” I ax.

“I work at a store,” she say, still not lookin at me.

“What sto?”

She don’t say nuffin.

“What sto?”

Nuffin.

I leans forward and put my elbows on my knees. “You ‘fraid I’m gone walk into the place you work at and say hello?”

She shake her head.

“I come in there and say hello and yo’ boss take you aside and say, ‘Who that nigger?’ That what you ‘fraid of?”