“I was … I mean, I went up on the Sunset Strip because this guy Eddie Turkel that I work with was makin’ fun’a me for livin’ at home and he said that I wouldn’t ever do anything different or wild. I told him that I was gonna go up to the Sunset Strip and go to a go-go club. And I did too. I took the bus up there at about eight o’clock and met this white girl named Ruby sellin’ flowers out a plastic bucket on Fairfax.” Evander said all this in a trancelike delivery. “I saw her and she was nice to me and I kissed her.…” He looked guiltily over at Esther, but she just smiled. “I kissed her and … and she had a pill or something in her mouth and I swallowed it. We got food and walked around. We dropped by this big fancy house and then went to this place with prostitutes and stuff. She was doin’ makeup and I sat on a chair waitin’. And this man, Maurice, came up and asked if I was solo. By that time I was seein’ things that weren’t there and feeling stuff really deep inside. I told him that I didn’t understand and he said let’s go and I went. I don’t know why I did but I did.
“He took us to the Flamingo Motel on Hollywood Boulevard. There was this cottage out back that he had rented for the night. He told me to put on these dark clothes that were too big. It was a sweatshirt and a trench coat. Then he drove us to somewhere downtown and told me that we were gonna play a joke on someone there. He said that he’d pay me fifty dollars to do that, and I said okay but really I wasn’t listenin’. I mean, I heard what he said, but at the same time I kept on seein’ things and hearin’ things, and it was like everybody and everything was in this play and I was in it too.
“Me and Maurice went into this empty building and then we went into this closet and closed the door mostly, so we could see out but nobody could see in. These two guys came passin’ by and Maurice jumped out with this gun and told them to stop, and even though I was high on that acid Ruby gave me I could still tell that those men was scared for their lives. One guy was gettin’ ready to hit Maurice but he hit him in the head with his pistol. The men was both carryin’ these burlaplike bags and Maurice told me to take them. I was scared then that I might get shot. I didn’t know that man. I was so scared that he had to yell at me to grab the bags. As soon as I had them Maurice shot the guy standin’ closest to him in the chest. It was really weird, because the guy looked so surprised. The man Maurice shot fell on me and he was bleedin’. Most’a the blood got on the bags, though. And thèn, just like that, in less time than anyone would have to think, the other guy, the one Maurice had hit, pulled out a gun and shot Maurice and Maurice shot him back. I lit outta there with the bags still in my hands. I was holdin’ on to them as hard as I could and I ran down the hallway. There was more shots and I thought I heard Maurice shoutin’ again but I just kept on runnin’. I ran outta that buildin’ and into the street.
“I had them bags and there was monkeys jumpin’ all around and the street signs said bad words and my name. I was so scared that Maurice would get mad if I lost his bags, but the blood on ’em was like it was a neon light or somethin’, so I took off the trench coat and tied the arms together and the flaps at the back and made another bag for the other two. You could still see a little blood but not that much.
“After that it gets a little confused. I waited at a bus stop, and when the bus came I told the driver that I wanted to go to the Flamingo Motel on Hollywood Boulevard.
“He must’a told me somethin’, because I remember gettin’ on another bus and another one. People talked to me but I couldn’t answer them. When I got to the Flamingo I snuck around to the cottage out back and climbed in through the window.
“After that you know what happened.”
I let the story breathe a moment, wondering how much of it was true. I didn’t doubt that Evander believed the tale, but he was on an acid trip.
“When did you remember all this?” I asked.
“It’s like … it’s like I always remembered it, but it was in a part of my head that couldn’t get to my mouth. I mean, when I woke up I saw the money and the blood and I was just scared. But … but in the back of my mind I knew what happened. I knew it but couldn’t tell anybody. That’s why I went lookin’ for Ruby. I wanted her to tell me so that I could remember.”
“And when were you able to speak it?” I asked.
“When Esther took my hands and told me to calm down this morning. I woke up sweatin’ and she wanted to know about the nightmare.”
“And that was what you just told me?”
He nodded and looked away, ashamed about something.
“You two have to keep this story a secret,” I said. “Don’t tell your mother, Esther.”
“I won’t.”
“And you, Evander, don’t you breathe a word about this. Not a word to anyone—ever.”
He nodded again.
“I put the money with a man who will know how to handle it,” I said. “I’ll ask him to make sure your mother gets a certain sum each month for the next ten years or so. That’ll help with you and your sisters.”
“What happened to Maurice?” he asked.
“He’s dead.”
“And the other two?”
“One’s dead and the other one is soon to be arrested. I wouldn’t worry about them.”
I didn’t mention Keith Handel. Why bring up problems that might never arise?
“Thank you, Mr. Rawlins,” Evander said. “You saved my life.”
He held out a hand and I grabbed it, saying, “And you saved mine.”
“I want to thank you too,” Esther said.
Their gratitude was in its own way payment. It was like in the old days when I traded my skills for favors and friendship.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you all this stuff before, Mr. Rawlins.”
“That’s okay, Evander. It wouldn’t have helped anyway.”