"Man, I'm bushed."
"You wanna beer, Waldo?"
"No, thanks. But I could kill a Minute Maid orange juice."
"I'll fix it. How'd it go?"
"Pretty good. A lot of folks left already, but I got addresses for them. The one's that was still here couldn't believe what they was seeing."
"But you did tell 'em not to thank Desire personal if they saw her?"
"I told 'em. But you know, Saifon, none of us can imagine her being modest, let alone generous."
"That's what she told me to tell everyone. She said she felt bad about everyone losing their jobs and she wanted to pay 'em up. But she didn't want no one embarrassing her with outward signs of gratitude."
"You see, honey? You dig deep enough and you'll find goodness in every one of God's creatures. Even Desire."
"Right." She handed him the glass of juice and watched it disappear down his throat in one swallow.
"Waldo, I gotta go."
"Go?"
"Soon as the passport gets here. I got enough money now to do what I gotta do." He leaned up against the sink unit and the pipes creaked all the way to the ground floor.
"This place has kind'a got used to your being here."
She'd been at Waldo's place for two weeks while they was waiting for a sleazy lawyer guy to do the paperwork. All you need is money to turn the illegal into legal in the good old US of A. It was a remarkable country in them days. Course, there ain't no corruption no more.
She'd been sleeping on his sofa. It was luxury compared to her pink Chevy. She knew he didn't want her there at first. But when she'd hit him with her idea, he was too stunned to kick her out. She really floored him that day she arrived.
-o-
"You want me to what?"
"Adopt me."
He grinned and looked around his room.
"This is Candid Camera, right?"
"I'm serious, Waldo." He could see she was.
"Ain't you …I mean ain't you a bit old to be adopted, girl?"
"Now I am. But you ain't adopting me now. You adopted me fifteen years ago."
"I did?" They sat down opposite each other.
There was a lot went on that Waldo didn't get. He was okay with facts and figures that was lined up on one level. But he couldn't keep two levels running at the same time, you know what I mean? So stuff like sarcasm, and hidden meanings, and them cryptic crosswords was all mumbo jumbo to him. If him and Aretha adopted Saifon, he was sure he would of known about it.
"Come again."
"Waldo, let me give it to you straight. I need a passport. To get a passport I gotta have an address, and relatives and all that crap." She lowered her voice as if anyone outside the room gave a shit. "And I ain't got none."
"You ain't got relatives?"
"Not a one."
"Dang, Saifon. That's too bad."
"It sure is if you need paperwork."
"How did you get a driving license?"
"You look real close at the picture and you'll see some other scrawny Asian lady. Her license found its way into my possession. The cops never look that close."
"What about your folks? You got a ma, ain't you?"
"Hell, Waldo. Being as I'm here, you'd have to assume I had a ma. I just never got introduced to her."
"That's real sad, girl." He really meant it.
"Come on man. Let's cut out the sentimental shit. This is business we're talking here. There's this lawyer who was a regular at the Butterfly. I remember you got the greatest respect for lawyers, but this one's as crooked as lightning. He can do me the papers for a passport, but he says I gotta have an address that checks out. I ain't ever had one of them. I can pay you."
"Can'tya make it up?"
"He reckons they check. And if they find out I been lying, they can make it real hard for me to ever get one."
"What does the lawyer get out of this?"
"Money. A lot."
"Can you trust him?"
"No, but I don't have to pay him in advance. It's cash on delivery. Waldo, there's something else."
"What's that?"
"If I put down that I was a state orphan, cause that's what I was, they'll run a check. There's stuff back there I don't want them digging through. I'd have to explain a lot of stuff. But …"
"But what?"
"But if I had papers to show you was my daddy, they'd check you out, and not me. See what I mean?"
"I think I do."
"This sleazy lawyer guy can do it all. He can draw up adoption papers backdated to when I was at the home. I'll tell you all about that some day."
She was fishing a dry lake here. She didn't think there'd be a lot of hope. He didn't owe her nothing. Waldo looked down at his tits, first one, then the other.
"Look, Waldo. If you don' t want nothing to do with this I understand. I got no right to ask you really. If you want me to rather off, I'll rather off right now and there won't be no hard feelings. I mean that."
Waldo stared over at her. She looked like a matchstick puppet on his big fat sofa. She was so tiny. He imagined her slipping down the back of the cushions with the dimes. They'd find her in a year and wonder when they'd lost her.
"You want me to be your poppa?"
"Well, yeah. Kind'a.
He thought about all them times him and Aretha talked about having kids. They'd get into it, give 'em names and all. They'd spend hours talking about what they'd do with 'em, and for 'em.
Saifon could see Waldo was getting all misty-eyed. She figured she must of upset the guy somehow.
"Waldo, you okay?"
"I ain't never been a daddy before."
"It ain't like you got to take me to school or nothing. And I already been told about the birds and the flies and stuff." That made Waldo laugh.
"Miss Saifon." With a bit of effort and some grunting and heavy breathing, he got to his feet. He stood straight like he was about to make the most important announcement of his life. Maybe it was. "Me and Aretha would be honored to be your parents."
Saifon was amazed.
"You would?" She got up and give him a hug and a kiss. It weren't easy reaching his face. "Shit. Thank you, daddy." She felt kind'a strange cause she knew it wasn't just the papers she was getting. She was getting the feeling of being wanted, too.