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I was glad Richie come to help me, but now it was all just a nasty fuckin’ mess, the sort of thing I hope you never see. ’Cause Richie says so much and scares him so much he starts to cry.
    And Richie starts to laugh.
    He looks at me. Looking at Brest, Richie’s mouth was funny, lips pulled back tight over his teeth and his whole face savage like nothing I ever seen ’cept in some horror movie, but when he looks at me he shakes that off and smiles.
    You gonna tell me if this fucker punk does it again?
    I’ll tell, I say. I gotta agree ’cause I sure don’t want him mad at me. Fucker scares me, that’s the goddamn truth.
    You do that, he says, and kicks Brest again.
    Then he comes over to me and takes my hand. C’mon, Monkey Boy, get up, let’s leave this pile of shit.
    He pulls me to my feet and we walk off, back around front where we talk a minute leaning on his truck, him smoking a cigarette and smiling at the trees, happy with what he done.

Chapter Seven
    Back home I cleaned up some standing there over the sink, second floor bathroom, soap on my face. And after gettin’ a lil’ to eat I come in the living room, where I see my daddy sitting on that old ratty sofa we got crost the room from the old TV, which weren’t even turned the hell on.
    Hi, Daddy, I say.
    Hi, son, he says. He kind’f leans up and scratches, then leans back. And that’s all he does.
    Leezie, she’s over the side of the room near the hall where I come up, sort’f quiet but huffin’ and puffin’, her eyes all red with rage. She got a lot of makeup on’r face and I swear she looks like a sort’f angry, pretty clown.
    Daddy says, Billy, next time you go out do me a favor, would you? Get some boxes.
    What for? I say.
    We gotta pack, he says. He’s just staring at the dead TV set.
    For what? I say.
    We gotta move, he says.
    Why don’t you turn the TV on? I say.
    He can’t! Leezie screams. She’s standing right next to me and she yells it right in my ear and I jump back.
    Dang, girl! I says. You screamin’ in my ear! Let up on me, will ya?
    The TV’s been turned off, she says.
    I look around at the lights. What, the whole thing? They shut off the electric? How come the lights is on?
    Just the cable shows, my daddy says, staring ahead.
    I look over at the TV set. I can see us reflected, standing there in the green/gray screen.
    God damn, I says.
    Don’t curse, Leezie says.
    Scuze my language, I say.
    I stand there a minute and I’m thinking.
    Then I go on up to the TV. Stood there with my back turned.
    I can’t tell you how I felt. It was like the whole house was sitting on me, and nobody was doing nothing, and nobody was gonna even try to do anything. ’Cause you can see with what I’m telling you that nothing was comin’ from Daddy or Leezie, ’cause all they wanted to do was mope and give up and get boxes and move out to God knows where, ’cause there weren’t no place I knew we could go ’cept maybe the street, and that’s one thing I ain’t ever gonna do.
    They all just waitin’ on me, I thought. So I turned around and started.
    Daddy, we ain’t moving, I say.
    What? he says. He jerks like I kicked him.
    I said we ain’t moving. Ain’t losing the house. I won’t have it.
    What the hell are you going to do about it! Leezie shrilled.
    Make money, I says. Like I promised you.
    Ha!
    She moves crost the room and sits next to Daddy. Then she looks at me.
    You make any money today?!
    A little, I said. Yesterday and today.
    How much little?!
    I figure, I got twelve for lawn mowing, Richie gave me five, and out with Marvin eleven more.
    Right now, twenty-eight dollars, I say. But more’s comin’.
    That’s nothing! she says.
    Might pay the TV bill, I say. How much we get from Social Services?
    I didn’t say it before but there’s a whole pile of mail on the table in front of Daddy. Something like thirty envelopes. Them people at Social Services, they love sending letters. They tell you how much you spent, how much