Before Ja’nae and me even knock on Mai’s back door, it opens. Mai’s got a sandwich in one hand and a mouth full of food. “Let’s go,” she says, bread crumbs flying. “I don’t want them to see me,” she says, licking her lips and locking the door. By the time we get to the front of the house, The Cousins are standing on the porch.

“We’re going,” Su-bok says. She’s got on salmon-colored sunglasses. They match her shorts. She and Mai go at it for a while. Then Su-bok says she’s gonna tell on Mai if she can’t come along. “You’re not supposed to leave the house anyway. You’re still on punishment for mouthing off.”

Ling takes a pinch of Mai’s sandwich and sucks on it till it’s gone. “Please. We’ll be good.”

Mai shoves the sandwich into a trash can sitting by the curb for pickup. “Whatever,” she says to The Cousins. Then she ignores them for the next few blocks.

Ling starts complaining right away. “My hair itches,” she says, pulling on it, like she can take it off.

“Oh, shut up,” Su-bok tells her. Then she grabs Ling by the arm, squeezes her between her legs right where we’re standing and starts French braiding her hair.

Ling pushes her away. “Not you. I want Raspberry to do it.”

I don’t braid all that good. I tell Ling to let Ja’nae do it.

Mai is getting madder and madder, saying this is why she didn’t want The Cousins to come. I am getting mad too. It’s hot. I’m wearing the wrong jean shorts and top and my skin can’t hardly breath.

Ja’nae whispers something into Ling’s ear while she braids her hair. Ling laughs. She hugs Ja’nae, and asks her to carry her. We look at Ja’nae like she’s stupid when she picks her up.

“I ain’t doing that,” I tell Ling. “So don’t ask me.”

Su-bok and Mai say the same thing.

We are headed to my old apartment building. We gonna start cleaning up the place. We’ll just sweep and pick up today, and do the really hard, dirty stuff next weekend. I get fifty percent of what we make. Ja’nae and Mai split the other fifty. We’ll give Ling five dollars and a coloring book.

When we get to the apartment building, nobody wants to go inside right away. I do, ’cause I don’t want to run into Miz Evelyn. “Y’all ready?” I ask, after we been on the front steps for a while.

Ling’s digging in a flowerpot, making pancakes with spit and dirt. Mai’s on the top step, staring inside, asking me who moved into our old apartment. Right away my heart drops. Miracle, I think. She musta finally gotten kicked out her old place.

I lean over the railing and look in through the window. The lights are on. You can hear Reggae music and smell bacon cooking, even though it’s lunchtime. I look across the street at Miz Evelyn’s place. Then back inside. “Let’s go,” I say, hoping to sneak in without Miracle knowing.

I unlock the front door and run up the steps. The door to our place flies open. A woman holding a big stick is right behind us. “Y’all better get out of here, ’fore I call the police.”

I show her the key. “We working for Odd Job.”

She says her name is Carol. She moved in three days ago. “That apartment up there is a mess. I wouldn’t clean it for four hundred bucks.”

I am the first to go inside. I walk into the kitchen and get pop out the fridge. Odd Job said he’d leave some there for us. Su-bok, Mai, and Ja’nae go from room to room, shaking their heads. Dry leaves and sticks crack under their feet. Empty beer cans with spiders crawling over them are all over the place. The toilet bowl ain’t got water in it, just a thick, green ring of mold.

“I—” Ling says, sucking her thumb, “I don’t like it here.”

Su-bok goes into the kitchen. “The sink’s gone. Even the pipes.”

Ja’nae gets pop out the fridge. “It smells.”

“Like pee,” I say.

“Like the house we worked in that time,” Ja’nae says, talking ’bout the boarding house we cleaned last year.

It takes us three hours to bag the broken glass and cans. To pick up the tree branches and leaves. I want to work another hour. Ja’nae and Su-bok want to leave. Ja’nae’s going to the movies with Ming. Su-bok just wants to go home.

“I’m staying,” Mai says. “So you take Ling.”

Su-bok’s not going for that. She tells Mai that she’s supposed to be on punishment, not trying to make extra money.

They argue a little, but Mai and me end up with Ling anyhow.

By the time we head out the building, it’s five o’clock. We’re too tired to walk, so we go up the street and wait for the bus. Mai and me take turns holding Ling. When the bus finally comes, we are so tired we can’t hardly lift our legs to get on it. Ling is doing what she did when we first started out—whining and sucking her thumb.