Delilah’s back was beginning to hurt from sitting so still. Cornelius looked like he was about ready to pass out, and that woman was still standing there holding that knife on them. It seemed like she had been here for hours. Delilah kept hoping that Officer Torres would drop in again, but it didn’t seem like she was coming back, at least not today. Cornelius swayed in the chair.
“Put your head down!” Delilah told him. He did. “Why you come here and threaten us like this?” she asked. “We don’t mean you no harm. You know we just a couple of old folks. Don’t nobody pay attention to old people no more. Why you got to be different?”
“I told you to shut up.”
Delilah could tell the woman was thinking, trying to figure out what to do. She figured that if she could hold her attention, without making her mad, it would take that much longer for her to decide.
“You know, don’t you?” the woman said.
“Know what?”
“Know about that jewelry, about what happened to that woman in the newspaper. All of it.”
“No,” Delilah said. “No, I don’t. You ain’t told me nothin’.”
“I didn’t have to. Unfortunately, as old as you two are, you are not stupid.” She pointed the knife at Delilah. “Him, he’s oblivious to everything right now. But not you.” She took a step closer. “Not you. You’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you, you old biddy.”
“Don’t you be disrespecting me!” Delilah pushed back the chair and started to stand up. “Your momma didn’t teach you no better than that?”
The woman lunged at her and Delilah felt a sharp pain in her stomach and then something sticky and warm, as she fell to the floor.