"Mr. Grey?" he said after staring for a moment.

Ptolemy looked at the young man. His face was familiar, but that was nothing new; almost all faces looked both familiar and strange to him.

"I'm Beckford," the man said, "Reggie's friend."

"I know you," Robyn said then. "You used to come by on Thursdays when you worked on that fishin' boat. You smelled bad."

"Robyn, right?" Beckford said. "The cute little girl Reggie's aunt took in."

As the bus turned, the young man stood up and let the gentle centrifugal pull swing him across the aisle until he was on the seat next to Ptolemy.

"Yeah," he said as if someone had just asked him a question. "I was up in Oakland for the last two years or so. I remember one time me an' Reggie went to your house, Mr. Grey, and you bought us a pizza. How is Reggie?"

"He daid," Robyn said, showing no emotion. "They kilt him in a drive-by not two blocks from his house."

"No," Beckford said. "Who did?"

Robyn shook her head.

"d.a.m.n." Beckford sat back in his seat. "d.a.m.n. Why anybody wanna kill Reggie? He ain't in no gang. He ain't mess wit' n.o.body."

The bus driver hit the brakes and Ptolemy swayed into the young man's shoulder. In that moment he was back in the little room that Coydog called home behind the colored barbershop. Coydog was talking and through Ptolemy the words came out. "Don't worry, boy," he said. "Man do sumpin' wrong, man pays for it. There ain't a surer truth on G.o.d's green earth."

"Niecie still live at the same place?" Beckford asked.

"Uh-huh," Robyn said, and then she added, "We gettin' out here."

She helped Ptolemy to his feet and they went toward the exit.

"Nice to see you, Mr. Grey, Robyn," Beckford called after them.

The old man waved. Robyn was holding his other hand and watching his feet while negotiating her three bags and so did not speak to Beckford.

That was a nice boy," Ptolemy said as they walked toward his house.

"Yeah," Robyn replied, "we'll see."

"Pete!" a familiar voice bellowed from across the street.

Melinda Hogarth came at the man and girl like a freight train that had jumped its track at full speed. She had a broad grin on her face and her mannish hands were balled into big hammer-like fists.

"Oh no," Ptolemy whispered. His sphincter tightened and his chest ached. He didn't run but he wanted to. He didn't fall to his knees but his legs shivered.

"That her?" Robyn asked when Melinda was half the way to them, roaring in the middle of the street like a wild beast that just caught the scent of blood.

Ptolemy nodded and Robyn moved to stand between them. The teenager turned so that her left shoulder was pointed at the approaching juggernaut. Melinda was wearing blue jeans under a faded navy-blue dress that came down to her knees. She was two and a half times the size of Robyn, the color of a wild bull, and three sheets to the wind. Robyn could smell the alcohol when the woman got near.

"Move out my way, heifer," Melinda Hogarth cried, and then Robyn swung, starting from her hip. The bag holding both of the electric fans moved in a small quick arc, slamming the drunken mugger in the center of her forehead. The first blow set Melinda back a step. The second put her right knee on the ground. The big woman was on both knees and an elbow, screaming, by the fourth swing. That was when the bag tore open and the broken fans went flying.

Robyn reached into her shoulder bag. Ptolemy put a hand on her forearm. He didn't have the strength to stop her, but Robyn stopped anyway. She turned her face to the elder.

At first sight she looked like a demon to the old man. The slants of her eyes were reminiscent of horns, and her teeth showed without making a smile. And then she changed. She was the sweet girl again, a mild worry showing in her eyes and on her mouth.

"Don't worry, Uncle," she said. "I know what I'm doin'."

Ptolemy took a step backward and Robyn pulled out her six-inch knife.

"Look up here at me, b.i.t.c.h!" Robyn commanded.

The pile of quivering womanhood made sounds that were like the snuffling cries of a wounded animal.

Robyn kicked Melinda Hogarth's fat shoulder.

"Look at me or I'ma stab you up," Robyn promised.

Melinda threw herself away from the threat, landing on her backside. Her eyes were wide with the fear and the possibility of death.

"What's your name?" Robyn said, moving closer.

The prostrate woman was too frightened to speak.

"Tell me your name or I'ma cut yo' th'oat right here."

"M-m-m-melinda."

"Linda," Robyn said. "Linda, if I evah see you talkin' to my uncle again, if he evah tell me you even said a word to him, I'ma come out heah wit' my girls an' we gonna cut yo' t.i.tties right off. You hear me?"

Melinda Hogarth didn't answer the question. She walked backward on her elbows and heels until somehow she was on her feet. Then she ran down the street, screaming high and loud like a woman miraculously transforming into a fire truck.

After a long minute Robyn put her knife away. She picked up the fans. Now they were just blue and silver plastic pieces.

"d.a.m.n," she said. "Now we got to go back to that hardware sto' an' that yellah n.i.g.g.ah gonna start s...o...b..rin' on me again."

"I got a fan on my back porch," Ptolemy said.

"Why the h.e.l.l didn't you tell me that in the first place?" she said angrily.

"You didn't aks me, girl. I didn't know what you was doin'."

With some effort Robyn smiled again and reached for Ptolemy's hands. He took a step backward.

"Don't be scared'a me, Uncle," Robyn said. "I just wanna make sure you can stand out on the street and not be beat down by that crazy woman."

Ptolemy's mind was scattered over nearly a hundred years. His mother and father, Coy's lynching, the one brief battle he fought in during World War Two. He saw Melvin Torchman fall dead in a barbershop in Memphis, and he was waking up again to Sensia dead in the bed next to him. And then a million bugs swarmed over her . . .

"Uncle?"

Robyn was holding his hands. He looked into her eyes and she was a friendly child again.

"Don't do that no mo', okay, baby?" he said.

Robyn kissed his big knuckle and nodded.

After dragging the huge gray tarp out to the curb, Robyn cleared two places in each room and placed an insect bomb candle in each s.p.a.ce. She only put one bomb in the bathroom.

"You go wait in the hall, Uncle," she told Ptolemy, "while I set these bad boys off."

He stood outside in the dilapidated marble-and-oak hallway. It was once a nice building that people kept up. That was in the old days, when black people came to Los Angeles to make a life away from the Jim Crow South. He hadn't stood in that dark hall for many years. He'd walked down it ten thousand times; between two and a dozen times a day when he was younger. But he hardly ever just stood there.

Once there was a young man stabbed and killed at the front door of the building. He'd pressed Ptolemy and Sensia's bell, but when n.o.body responded to the intercom they went back to bed. He was already old and she was fragile by then. They'd been burglarized and had put up the chain gate on the back window and door.

Hey, Mr. Grey," Robyn said.

She'd come into the hallway, dragging one of his pine chairs with a small suitcase lying in its seat. The slight scent of sulfur and smoke came with her. She also had a sheet of paper and the roll of masking tape they got from the hardware store. Using the chair to stand on, she put tape all along the cracks of the door. She put many layers of tape, one on top of the other, to make an airtight seal against leaking poisons. Then she taped the paper to the door.

"Insect bomb," Ptolemy read. "Stay away."

"You can read, Mr. Grey?" the child asked.

"Sure I can read. Anybody can read an' write they name."

"Can you read a book?"

"Hunnert pages, two hunnert pages, two fifty."

Robyn smiled and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go to the motel," she said.

The thought of a new house tickled Ptolemy. He walked briskly toward the front door of the building, happy, unafraid of Melinda Hogarth for the first time in years, and looking forward to the day outside, and a new man in the bathroom mirror.

Are you lookin' at my legs, Uncle?" Robyn asked coyly.

She took one of the single beds and the old man lay down on the other. He'd gone into the bathroom to change into his sleeping clothes. Robyn had brought his navy-blue sweatpants and a gray T-shirt. When she changed, all the teenager did was tie up her hair and put on a T-shirt over her panties.

The TV was on a show about three young black women who lived together in an apartment and argued all the time. Now and then Ptolemy would swivel his head to catch a glance at Robyn's strong brown legs.

"I guess so," he said.

"Are you a dirty old man, Uncle?"

"No, but . . . you sure do remind me of somethin'."

"What's that?" Robyn shifted on the bed but she didn't hide her legs. She was smiling at Ptolemy as if she was telling him something.

"Cover up them things, girl," he said. "You know I'm a old man but I still remember how much a girl can hurt you. I'm past ninety but that don't mean you could play wit' me like that."

Robyn slipped under the blankets and buried her head in the pillow.

The women on the TV program were screaming and running around a couch where a man sat with a perplexed look on his face. Ptolemy didn't understand what they were saying.

He got up from the bed and pushed b.u.t.tons on the side of the box. The first b.u.t.ton made the volume go up and then down. The second one changed the channel and suddenly there was a naked couple having loud s.e.x with everything showing.

"f.u.c.k it harder!" the woman cried out, and Ptolemy, his heart thumping in fear, pressed another b.u.t.ton, which shut the TV off.

The TV was the only light on and so the room went dark.

He made his way gingerly to the bed and climbed in. The blankets were tangled but he finally got himself mostly covered.

In the dark he lay awake. From time to time he'd forget where he was and fear would thrum in his ears. He'd wanted to jump up but the angry face of Robyn beating Melinda Hogarth would come to him and he'd grab on to his blankets, determined to wait for sunup to go home.

"Uncle?"

"Yeah?" he said, relieved that she sounded like the nice girl he'd met.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"'Bout what?"

"Dancin' around half naked in front'a you. I know I shouldn't'a done that."

"No. I mean. Baby girl, you are my angel. I, uh, I love you, you ..."

"What?"

"G.o.d done send you down here to me. He send you to help me save them chirren."

"Letisha and Artie?"

"Yep."

"How you gonna do that, Uncle?"