I give her a bottle. And so, we sit together companionably, smoke her cigarettes, and drink my beer.

“My name is Lily,” she said, kissing my lips.

Her lips were warm and smooth as silk. I don’t doubt that Lily is her professional nickname, which is far from uncommon amongst the working girls of Harlem. She speaks about herself openly, without pretense: she has worked the streets from the age of 15, she smokes crack, and, of course, drinks. She dropped out of school, lives in Black Harlem, but “works” in Spanish Harlem. According to her, the competition isn’t as fierce there.

Lily finished the beer and said with a sigh that it was time for her to go to work. She said that she was impressed by this place and would like to bring her clients and serve them here by the fence. She asked if I mind.

“No, I don’t.”

 She kissed me again and left.

I lit up a joint, a gift from Jamil-Africa. I smoked half of it. You have to be very careful when smoking this “thermonuclear” weed, or you’ll begin to hallucinate.

 She came, Annie the Rat. She came to see how I’m doing. She watches with her ruby eyes, cleans her whiskers. Annie is much more beautiful and larger than Brooklyn rats. It’s quite interesting—she is gray all over but she has a yellow spot around her tail.

“Today, Annie, I have nothing for you. I was in jail. I’ll bring you something to eat tomorrow.”

 Annie blinked in affirmation and ran off somewhere. I grew very depressed and lonely because I had been dumped by women long ago, no one needed me, not even the rats. All that was left was to talk to myself, with my parents in Poland, with friends, with folks, who already died or even never existed…

 I’ll drink the last of today’s beer and lie down to sleep. Where will I go tomorrow morning? I will not go to Ward Island, which is like a real bum’s city. Gangs of Poles and Latinos had sprung up there recently, and I don’t need to meet them. It would be better to collect some newspapers in order to know, from the headlines and pictures, what’s going on in the world, to buy a lot of beer, and retreat to the Hudson shore.