"Why don't you quit bothering me, boy? You trying to give me what?" she said looking over her shoulder.
I held up the bill. "This," I said.
She craned her head around. "Boy, what you got there?"
"It's money."
"Money? Good God, boy!" she said, almost losing her balance as she turned completely around. "Where'd you get all that much money? You been playing the numbers?"
"That's it. My number came up," I said thankfully -- thinking, What'll I say if she asks what the number was? I didn't know. I had never played.
"But how come you didn't tell me? I'd have at least put a nickel on it."
"I didn't think it would do anything," I said.
"Well, I declare. And I bet it was your first time too."
"It was."
"See there, I knowed you was a lucky one. Here I been playing for years and the first drop of the bucket you hits for that kinda money. I'm sho glad for you, son. I really am. But I don't want your money. You wait 'til you get a job."
"But I'm not giving you all of it," I said hastily. "This is just on account."
"But that's a hundred-dollar bill. I take that an' try to change it and the white folks'll want to know my whole life's history." She snorted. "They want to know where I was born, where I work, and where I been for the last six months, and when I tell 'em they still gonna think I stole it. Ain't you got nothing smaller?"
"That's the smallest. Take it," I pleaded. "I'll have enough left."
She looked at me shrewdly. "You sho?"
"It's the truth," I said.
"Well, I de-clare -- Let me get down from up here before I fall and break my neck! Son," she said, coming down off the ladder, "I sho do appreciate it. But I tell you, I'm just going to keep part of it for myself and the rest I'm going to save for you. You get hard up just come to Mary."
"I think I'll be all right now," I said, watching her fold the money carefully, placing it in the leather bag that always hung on the back of her chair.
"I'm really glad, 'cause now I can take care of that bill they been bothering me about. It'll do me so much good to go in there and plop down some money and tell them folks to quit bothering me. Son, I believe your luck done changed. You dream that number?"
I glanced at her eager face. "Yes," I said, "but it was a mixed-up dream."
"What was the figger -- Jesus! What's this!" she cried, getting up and pointing at the linoleum near the steam line.
I saw a small drove of roaches trooping frantically down the steam line from the floor above, plummeting to the floor as the vibration of the pipe shook them off.
"Get the broom!" Mary yelled. "Out of the closet there!"
Stepping around the chair I snatched the broom and joined her, splattering the scattering roaches with both broom and feet, hearing the pop and snap as I brought the pressure down upon them vehemently.
"The filthy, stinking things," Mary cried. "Git that one under the table! Yon' he goes, don't let him git away! The nasty rascal!"
I swung the broom, battering and sweeping the squashed insects into piles. Breathing excitedly Mary got the dust pan and handed it to me.
"Some folks just live in filth," she said disgustedly. "Just let a little knocking start and here it comes crawling out. All you have to do is shake things up a bit."
I looked at the damp spots on the linoleum, then shakily replaced the pan and broom and started out of the room.
"Aren't you going to eat no breakfast?" she said. "Soon's I wipe up this mess I'm going to start."
"I don't have time," I said, my hand on the knob. "My appointment is early and I have a few things to do beforehand."
"Then you better stop and have you something hot soon as you can. Don't do to go around in this cold weather without something in your belly. And don't think you goin' start eating out just 'cause you got some money!"
"I don't. I'll take care of it," I said to her back as she washed her hands.
"Well, good luck, son," she called. "You really give me a pleasant surprise this morning -- and if that's a lie, I hope something big'll bite me!"
She laughed gaily and I went down the hall to my room and closed the door. Pulling on my overcoat I got down my prized brief case from the closet. It was still as new as the night of the battle royal, and sagged now as I placed the smashed bank and coins inside and locked the flap. Then I closed the closet door and left.
The knocking didn't bother me so much now. Mary was singing something sad and serene as I went down the hall, and still singing as I opened the door and stepped into the outside hall. Then I remembered, and there beneath the dim hall light I took the faintly perfumed paper from my wallet and carefully unfolded it. A tremor passed over me; the hall was cold. Then it was gone and I squinted and took a long, hard look at my new Brotherhood name.
The night's snowfall was already being churned to muck by the passing cars, and it was warmer. Joining the pedestrians along the walk, I could feel the brief case swinging against my leg from the weight of the package, and I determined to get rid of the coins and broken iron at the first ash can. I needed nothing like this to remind me of my last morning at Mary's.
I made for a row of crushed garbage cans lined before a row of old private houses, coming alongside and tossing the package casually into one of them and moving on -- only to hear a door open behind me and a voice ring out,
"Oh, no you don't, oh, no you don't! Just come right back here and get it!"
Turning, I saw a little woman standing on the stoop with a green coat covering her head and shoulders, its sleeves hanging limp like extra atrophied arms.
"I mean you," she called. "Come on back an' get your trash. An' don't ever put your trash in my can again!"
She was a short yellow woman with a pince-nez on a chain, her hair pinned up in knots.
"We keep our place clean and respectable and we don't want you field niggers coming up here from the South and ruining things," she shouted with blazing hate.
People were stopping to look. A super from a building down the block came out and stood in the middle of the walk, pounding his fist against his palm with a dry, smacking sound. I hesitated, embarrassed and annoyed. Was this woman crazy?
"I mean it! Yes, you! I'm talking to you! Just take it right out! Rosalie," she called to someone inside the house, "call the police, Rosalie!"
I can't afford that, I thought, and walked back to the can. "What does it matter, Miss?" I called up to her. "When the collectors come, garbage is garbage. I just didn't want to throw it into the street. I didn't know that some kinds of garbage were better than others."
"Never mind your impertinence," she said. "I'm sick and tired of having you southern Negroes mess up things for the rest of us!"
"All right," I said, "I'll get it out."
I reached into the half-filled can, feeling for the package, as the fumes of rotting swill entered my nostrils. It felt unhealthy to my hand, and the heavy package had sunk far down. Cursing, I pushed back my sleeve with my clean hand and probed until I found it. Then I wiped off my arm with a handkerchief and started away, aware of the people who paused to grin at me.
"It serves you right," the little woman called from the stoop.