Gayl clamped her hand on top of it. ‘Thank you,’ she said. She knew exactly what was inside.
Gayl took my envelope over to the window and pulled down the blinds. I had stayed standing, tall.
‘I’m going to sleep now,’ Gayl said. ‘You want to be in the bed with me or what?’
I knew that Lee would be freaked and my dad would be freaked that I wasn’t at home. I thought they would ransack my computer and find all my porn.
A streetcar shrieked on the road, its headlights flashed under the blind. Maybe I did want to be in the bed with her.
‘He shouldn’t be able to do that to you,’ I said.
Gayl didn’t look at me. She got into bed. I watched her twist herself up in the sheets, settle down. I waited for a click, a sound from the door. I thought of Lee and Wils, Aaron and Chris, Jen and Charlene, Ms. Bain and Mr. Rotowsky, all reading my paper on the liberation of the slave. I walked to the bed and stood over Gayl. Sensing me, she turned out the covers.
‘How come you stay with him?’ I whispered.
Gayl reached up for me.
‘It’s a mystery,’ she said.
I climbed in there with her. Her arm swung over my shoulder, landed on my neck. It was fiery. I couldn’t fall asleep. She smelled like coins and smoke and blood.
§
A grey sheet hung and stuck on my face. My back was twisted. I woke up under the three-legged table. One of the sheets from the bed had been placed on top of me. An electric-blue crack lit under the blinds. I was all bruised. I didn’t know why I was on the floor.
Elijah and Gayl were in the same bed, the bed I’d been in. Gayl held Elijah, his humpback knotted with nodes for the spine. The first time I saw him, he was sweating on the beach, cracked grey toes and a walking stick. I was the stranger in this room. I thought about the door. I walked to the door.
Please please please let there not be a lock anymore.
Please please please let there not be a lock.
‘You are not leaving with your money, little bitch.’
My master was standing behind me, way too close. Bitch had lost its meaning now.
‘What?’ I said. I did not turn around.
What? is not a plan, Lee would’ve said.
What? was weakness, according to Gayl.
‘Come back to bed now.’ Elijah grabbed my upper arm.
‘Everyone knows where I am,’ I said.
Elijah tightened his grip on me. ‘Doesn’t matter. Turn around. I want to see you.’
I knew Elijah was naked and spectacular. I didn’t turn around. He blocked me with his body against the door.
‘Let me go,’ I said quietly. ‘She has the money.’
‘I really like you.’ Elijah put his lips to my ear. He bit my earlobe. I felt my knees hit the door. ‘Don’t you like me, Angel? I like you, don’t you like me?’
I turned my head and we started kissing. My stomach cramped. Elijah’s mouth was on my mouth, his tongue moved inside and he kept pressing up into my body with his whole body.
‘You have my money,’ I said between breaths. ‘I just want to leave now. Please.’
‘You don’t want to leave. Look at you. You’re burning up, baby.’