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paid, he’s not likely to throw you out. Am I right?”
    â€œYou’re making sense. But he knows I can’t pay, or I’d have done so already.”
    â€œAh, there’s a secret to dealing with men like him.”
    Mum looked up from the table.
    Bea spoke slowly. “You must appear calm and confident when you talk to him, like this.” She paused, Susan guessed, to let the effect of her voice sink in. “Never show despair. Even if you’re frightened to death of him, don’t let him know it.” Then her tone became urgent. “I tell you, Rose, despair is our worst enemy. Men like Lester will use it against us time and again. They’ve always used it against us. They know it makes us roll over and give up, rather than fight.”
    Susan was confused. Who was Bea talking about? What did she mean by us ?
    Mum’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know, Bea. I can’t see Lester being fooled by a change in my attitude.”
    â€œI’m not thinking he’ll be fooled, simply unsettled. He’ll see you can’t be frightened by his bullying, and—” Bea’s eyes darted to Helen and Susan, both listening intently, then back to Mum. “We’ll talk about it later, Rose, all right?”
    Mum nodded, but Susan thought she still looked doubtful.
    Anxiety lay heavy in Susan’s belly. She wanted to believe Bea was right, but she was almost afraid for Mum to try what Bea suggested. It seemed like playing with fire to try to trick Lester, even if Bea said it wasn’t really a trick. What would happen to Mum when Lester realized she had been stringing him along? Susan didn’t want to think about it.
    She asked to be excused and headed to the fire escape outside her window. The fire escape was Susan’s retreat, a place she could be alone to think or to watch what was going on in the street below. Russell’s fire escape was two windows over from Susan’s, and sometimes they met out there to talk, away from the listening ears of parents and brothers and sisters.
    As soon as Susan stuck her head out her window, she saw Russell on his fire escape, reading. Her first reaction was disappointment; she’d wanted to be alone. Then she decided it might be a relief to talk to him.
    â€œHi, Sue,” he said as she climbed out. “I’m just now getting started on my book for the essay assignment. Great Expectations . I can’t seem to get interested in it.”
    Susan smiled. Russell said that about every book he had to read for school. “Russell, the essay’s due in three weeks.”
    â€œI know, but I haven’t had time to read, what with working two jobs. Did I tell you about my new job at the barbershop over by Penn Central Station?”
    Susan rolled her eyes. “Only two or three times.” In fact, Russell had been bragging ever since he got the job about all the money he was making selling morning newspapers and shining shoes at the barbershop after school and on Saturdays.
    Russell went on about his job as if he hadn’t heard Susan. “My boss, Mr. Delaney, takes a cut of all our tips—he says it’s his right since it’s him who hires us out to the barbers—but I still average around two bits a day. I give half of that to Ma, but the rest I add to my newspaper money and save. You’ll see, it won’t be long now before I can buy a bicycle for my delivery service.” Russell had been saving for over a year to start his own delivery service when he finished grammar school.
    â€œThat’s grand, Russell, grand,” said Susan. “I would think you’d be a favorite with your boss, making him that much money every day.”
    â€œOh, yeah.”
    An idea was taking shape in Susan’s head, a tiny grain of an idea that grew with every word Russell said about his job. It was a way she could help Mum get caught up on the rent. She believed it would work, if only