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by Norah McClintock

  “I don’t see how you can stop a person from living where he wants to live,” the manager says.

  “I’ll tell you how,” Ardell says. He describes how Mr. Brisebois at the grocery store locks his door whenever he sees Jojo coming. He says that the man who runs the take-out chicken place has told his people not to serve Jojo. He says that the pizza place won’t deliver to Jojo’s house. Neither will the Mexican place.

  “I just run this store,” the manager says. “I don’t own it. I have a policy manual this thick.” He holds his thumb and forefinger a few inches apart. “I have to do what the manual says, and the manual says that we’re here to serve our customers.”

  “The people in this neighborhood have been your customers for a long time,” Ardellsays. “And they’re serious about this guy. If you want to keep all your customers—all your loyal customers—you have to make them happy.”

  He hands the manager the piece of paper with Jojo’s picture on it. “This is the guy,” he says. “And I can promise you that if your loyal customers see him with one of your DVDS, they are going to find some place else to rent their movies.”

  After Ardell leaves, the manager takes a long look at Jojo’s face on the paper. He takes it over to the cash and shows it to the cashier. He tells the cashier, “If this guy comes in here, you call me. Let me handle it.”

  I wonder what he will do.

  Chapter Twelve

  It doesn’t matter what Ardell does, because Jojo hardly ever comes out onto the street. He keeps slipping out through the alley to get whatever he needs. Ardell sits outside and sits outside, but he never sees Jojo.

  Well, almost never. Jojo answers the door whenever Shana comes to visit. He scoops the baby out of her arms and swings it up high. Benjamin laughs. Once I hear Jojo call him “my little man.” Shana smiles.

  Jojo also comes out at the exact same time every Wednesday morning. On those days, he has his mother with him, and they walk together to the curb to get into a taxi that Jojo must have ordered. They leave. They always return a few hours later. When Jojo’s mother gets out of the taxi again, she always leans heavily on Jojo. She looks really sick. On those days, she never comes out to sit under her umbrella.

  “Poor woman,” my mother says one day.

  “What’s wrong with her?” I ask.

  My mother looks at me.

  “She’s sick, isn’t she?” I say.

  My mother doesn’t answer.

  “What does she have?” I ask.

  My mother studies me. Finally she says, “She doesn’t want people to know about it.”

  “Know about what?”

  “You know how people talk around here,” my mother says.

  “I won’t tell,” I say. “Is she dying?”

  My mother looks stunned by the question, but she nods. “Probably,” she says. “She has cancer. She’s taking treatment, but Idon’t think there’s anything they can do. It’s spread too much. She’s lucky that Jojo is back.”

  That’s the first time I ever heard anyone say that someone is lucky Jojo is back.

  “He’s looking after her,” my mother says. “He cooks for her and does all the cleaning. He takes her to her appointments and holds her hand the whole time.”

  Now it’s my turn to be surprised.

  “I see her at the hospital most times when she comes in,” she says. “I see him with her. Sometimes I talk to her. You know, if most people saw him do what the people at the hospital see him do, they would have a different opinion. I’m not saying what he did was right, because it wasn’t. I’m not even saying that he’s changed since he went away, because I don’t know if that’s true or not. But he’s a good son. He looks after his mother. I don’t think there’s anything he wouldn’t do for her. And lately he talks to her about the baby and about Shana. I know he’s sorry he ever told Shana she shouldn’t have that baby.”

  She looks hard at me. “He was a wild boy, there’s no doubt about that. He caused a lot of people a lot of problems and a lot of heartache, including his mother. But he’s making up for it now, without anyone watching him, without anyone knowing.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Wednesday rolls around again. It’s a hot day, so I am sitting outside, trying to catch some breeze. My leg inside the cast is itching like crazy. I wonder what I can shove down there to scratch it. Across the street, Ardell is sitting on his porch. But this morning he isn’t alone. There are a bunch of his friends on the porch with him. They are all staring at the street.

  I can see by my watch that it’s time for Jojo and his mother to go to the hospital. Sure enough, I see a taxi turn onto the street.It’s coming toward Jojo’s house nice and slow, because there are always kids playing on the street this time of year. But before the taxi gets to Jojo’s house, Ardell comes down off his porch and waves it down. He makes a motion to get the driver to roll down his window, and then he bends down so that he can talk to the driver.

  I see the driver shake his head.

  Ardell’s friends stand in front of the taxi, blocking it.

  Ardell says something else to the taxi driver. Again I see the driver shake his head. A couple of Ardell’s friends press in even closer to the taxi. Ardell pulls out a piece of paper, the one with Jojo’s picture on it. I bet he is telling the taxi driver the same thing he told the manager of the video store. But the driver is arguing back. Driving a taxi is a hard way to make a living. The driver wants his fare.

  I don’t know what Ardell says that finally does the trick, but the next thing you know, the driver backs up the taxi and starts to turn it around. That’s when the door to Jojo’s mother’s house opens, and Jojo comes out.He runs down the porch steps, yelling at the taxi to “Come back! Hey, come back!” But it doesn’t. It drives away.

  Jojo is on the sidewalk now. Ardell and his friends are standing in the middle of the street. They stare at each other. Jojo hesitates. Then he goes out into the street where Ardell is. Jojo’s hands are balled up into fists. I can see the muscles in his neck. But he is trying to stay calm.

  “I told you I don’t want trouble,” Jojo says. “But if you want to press on me, you can go right ahead. My ma, though, that’s different. That taxi was for her. She needs to get to an appointment.”

  “Yeah?” Ardell says. “Well, my brother was trying to get himself to college, and look what happened.”

  Jojo looks right into Ardell’s eyes. He says, “My ma is old, and she’s sick. You got something against me, I guess that’s your business. But my ma never did anything to hurt you or anyone in your family.”

  Ardell looks right back at Jojo. “Nothing,” he says, “but bring you into this world.”

  Right then, Ardell’s mother comes outside. She stands on the porch for a minute, looking at what is happening in the street. I see a worried look on her face. She comes down the front walk toward Ardell and his friends. Ardell hasn’t noticed her. Neither has Jojo.

  “I’m going back inside, and I’m going to call another taxi for my ma,” Jojo says.

  “You do that,” Ardell says, “and see where it gets you.”

  Ardell’s mother has come around behind Jojo, probably so that she can see Ardell’s face. She touches Jojo’s arm, I think to get him to move out of the way. But Jojo hasn’t seen her. He doesn’t know who is touching his arm. All he knows is that he is standing in the middle of the street surrounded by Ardell’s friends and that his mother’s taxi is gone and Ardell is going to do what he can to make another one go away. And now someone is touching his arm. But the way Jojo reacts, you’d think someone grabbed his arm and was getting ready to twist it hard.

  Jojo swings around and, bam, his hands fly out and hit Ardell’s mother in the chest.

  She wasn’t expecting this. A woman like her would never expect to get hit by someone like Jojo. She falls right over and lands on her back in the street.

  That does it. Ardell gets right into it. He’s got the excuse he’s been looking for. He sees his moth
er lying there in the street. She’s dazed. She’s hurt too. You can tell because she’s having trouble getting herself to a seated position, never mind standing up again.

  But Ardell doesn’t go to help her. No, his eyes are blazing at Jojo. He rushes forward, his fists up. He’s going to pound on Jojo, and his friends are going to help him. But then someone grabs Ardell.

  It’s his father.

  Ardell’s father grabs Ardell and spins him around. He says, “We just buried your brother, and you’re out here looking for more trouble?”

  Ardell tries to shake him off, but his father holds tight. He drags Ardell to the sidewalk on the far side of the street. He yells at Ardell’s friends to use their heads. He tells some of them to keep Ardell off the street.He tells some other ones to help Ardell’s mother up. He yells at Jojo, “Get out of here. Just get out of here. You’ve been nothing but trouble ever since you learned to walk. Get out of here and let decent people go about their business.”

  Jojo stares at him. Jojo, who used to be so tough that people would cross the street when they saw him coming, has a hurt look on his face. He opens his mouth like he wants to explain his side of the story. But in the end, all he does is shake his head. He goes over to where Ardell’s mother is. She is on her feet now, and one of Ardell’s friends is holding her by the elbow.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Withrow,” Jojo says. “I didn’t see it was you.” And it was true—he didn’t. “I’m sorry.”

  Ardell’s mother looks up at him. Then she does what I’ve never seen a grown woman do before—she spits at him. And right then, for the first time, I feel sorry for Jojo.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Half an hour later, a car pulls up outside Jojo’s house. Ardell, who is up on his porch again, sees it and stands up. His father comes out of the house and gives him a look.

  Ardell stays on the porch and peers at the car. I don’t think he recognizes the driver. I sure don’t. All I can tell is that it’s a woman. I don’t think Ardell can see the front-seat passenger from where he is either. But I can. It’s Shana. The driver honks the horn, and Jojo and his mother come out andget into the backseat of the car. The car drives away.

  A couple of hours later, a taxi pulls up—it’s a different company this time—and Jojo helps his mother out. She leans heavily on him. He takes her up the walk and into the house. Ardell watches them.

  All afternoon there is a buzz on the street. People stroll over to their neighbors’ houses or wander across the street to talk to other neighbors who are outside. They all nod at Ardell’s house, so it’s pretty obvious that they are all talking about what happened. A few women who know Ardell’s mother well go to the house and disappear inside. When they come out, other women drift toward them to find out how Ardell’s mother is and what exactly happened.

  Word gets around.

  That night when the sun is going down, Jojo comes out the front door. He doesn’t go out the back way. He holds himself up tall, like he’s trying to make a point. He walks down the street, right past Ardell’s house. Ardell and all his friends are up onthe porch again. They have been there since late afternoon. They’ve ordered pizzas and eaten them and have been horsing around out there ever since. They get quiet when they see Jojo go by.

  Ardell stands up. The friends of his who have been sitting get to their feet. They all come down off the porch and follow Jojo down the street. But this time there’s something different on Ardell’s face and something different about the way he’s walking. He stares straight at the back of Jojo’s head. He walks right in step with Jojo. He makes fists with his hands. The rest of them walk the same way.

  This time, none of the neighbors follow. It doesn’t turn into a parade the way it did that first time. This time, when people see Ardell and his friends walk down the street grim-faced behind Jojo, they retreat to their porches.

  Not me.

  I have a feeling that something is going to happen. I make my way down the sidewalk on the other side of the street. When Jojo andArdell and the rest of them turn the corner, I turn the corner. Jojo keeps walking until he gets to the drugstore near the park.

  Jojo goes into the drugstore. Ardell and his friends wait outside. When Jojo comes out, he’s carrying a little white paper bag, the kind they put prescriptions in. I bet it’s something for his mother. He starts to go back the way he came. But Ardell and his friends block his way. So Jojo wheels around like it’s no big deal and walks toward the park.

  The park is a big one. To get into it, you have to walk down some stairs from the sidewalk because the park is way down low compared to most of the streets around it. Most people call it the pit instead of the park. It has a baseball diamond and a soccer field. It has a swimming pool and a wading pool. In winter it has a skating rink. It also has a playground with swings and slides for little kids, and benches where their parents can sit and watch them. Along one side there are trees and bushes where it’s nice and shady and where people go if they want to do something and not be seen. Guys takegirls in there. People say that drugs are sold in there. They say, “Who knows what else goes on in there.”

  Jojo starts to walk past the park, but when he gets to the stairs, Ardell catches him and shoves him. Jojo stumbles and disappears from sight. Ardell starts down the stairs. His friends follow him. By the time I get there, all of them are down near the bottom.

  There aren’t many lights down there. The city and the cops don’t want people going down there at night. Who knows what they might do. And it’s too hard for the cops to get down there. Because it’s so dark, there aren’t many people down there. The few I can see are little dark smudges. I can’t make out their faces. I can’t make out much about them. If I hadn’t seen Jojo and Ardell and the rest of them go down there, I wouldn’t know it was them. It’s too hard to see.

  I stand at the top of the stairs and watch them move across the park toward the trees and the bushes where no one will be able to see them. I can’t be sure, but it looks like they are pushing Jojo over there. A coupleof times I see someone fall. I’m pretty sure it’s Jojo. Then I see someone bend down and drag him up again. At least, that’s the way I imagine it. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Jojo is being helped up, not dragged up. Maybe it isn’t even Jojo who fell.

  Then they all disappear behind the trees and bushes. I stand at the top of the stairs, waiting. I stand there for what seems like a long time. No one comes back. I tell myself that there are a lot of ways out of the park. They could all be home by now.

  Finally I turn and make my way home too.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next morning while I am at the hospital getting my cast looked at, the cops show up at Jojo’s mother’s house. They tell her that Jojo is dead. They say that he was hit on the head with a rock. I find this out from Megan Dalia’s mother when I come back from the fracture clinic at the hospital. My mother is still at work.

  “The police went up and down the street, asking people if they know who would have killed Jojo,” Megan’s mother tells me.

  When I ask her what people said, she says, “Near as I can tell, they all said the same thing. They said Jojo was no good. They said no one around here liked him and it’s too bad they let him out so soon after what he did. But they said they don’t know who killed him. They didn’t see anything. No one saw anything.”

  I want to ask her “What about you?” But something stops me.

  That night, while I’m watering my mother’s flowers for her while she does a double shift, Ardell’s father walks across the street. He stands on the sidewalk watching me for a few minutes. Then he says, “Those are pretty flowers.”

  “That’s my mother’s doing,” I say. “Not mine. I don’t know the first thing about flowers.”

  He smiles at me and nods. A few moments later, he says, “I saw you walk down the street last night after Jojo.”

  I look at him.

  “I’m glad Ardell was home all night last night with me and his mother,” he says. “I�
��mglad all his friends were home safe too. So is everyone around here. Otherwise, the police might think that Ardell had something to do with what happened to Jojo, and that would be a shame, wouldn’t it?

  “Ardell’s going to college this year. It’s a miracle he got the grades he did, he was so broken up about what happened to Eden. It would be a shame if the police thought he had anything to do with Jojo. It would be a shame to see a good boy’s life ruined over someone like that.”

  He stands there a little longer, watching me. Then he goes back across the street.

  I wait to see what happens.

  Nothing does.

  Ardell comes and goes at his mother’s house, like usual. People nod at him and wave at him—the same people who turned and went back onto their porches when Ardell and the rest of them followed Jojo down the street to the drugstore.

  I think about that walk. I wonder if anyone up near the drugstore saw Ardell following Jojo. I wonder if any of them willsay anything to the police. Then I remember all those pictures of Jojo that Ardell showed around. I remember him talking to all those shopkeepers. If even one of them talks to the cops, maybe the cops will take another look at Ardell.

  Still nothing happens.

  One day a taxi arrives in front of Jojo’s mother’s house and Shana gets out. She is dressed in black. She goes up to the house and gets Jojo’s mother. She’s dressed in black too. They get into the taxi.

  I think, They’re going to Jojo’s funeral, and they’re going alone.

  Later, Megan Dalia’s mother tells me the police have been around again. She says they keep asking about Ardell, but everyone tells them the same thing—they don’t know anything. Besides, Megan’s mother says, Ardell’s parents say that Ardell was home all night that night.

  I think about that. I think about what Ardell’s father said to me. I think about allthe people on our street. I think about Eden Withrow and how he’s dead because of Jojo. I think of Jojo and how he’s dead now. I think about how everyone thinks that Ardell is a good person, even now. I think about the two years Jojo did for the life he ruined. Then I think about Ardell again, about what he did and what he knows and what he thinks he knows.