SONNY'S BLUES
329
started collecting my stuff. I thought I'd better get home and talk
to Isabel.
The courtyard was almost deserted by the time I got downstairs.
I saw this boy standing in the shadow of a doorway, looking just like
Sonny. I almost called his name. Then I saw that it wasn't Sonny,
but somebody we used to know, a boy from around our block. He'd
been Sonny's friend. He'd never been mine, having been too young
for me, and, anyway, I'd never liked him. And now, even though
he was a grown-up man, he still hung around that block, still spent
hours on the street corner, was always high and raggy. I used to run
into him from time to time and he'd often work around to asking me
for
a:
quarter or fifty cents. He always had some real good excuse,
too, and I always gave it to
him,
I don't know why.
But now, abruptly, I hated him. I couldn't stand the way
he looked at me, partly like a dog, partly like a cunning child. I
wanted to ask
him
what the hell he was doing in the school courtyard.
He sort of shuffled over to me, and he said, "I see you got the
papers. So you already know about
it."
"You mean about Sonny? Yes, I already know about it. How
come they didn't get you?"
He grinned. It made him repulsive and it also brought to mind
what he'd looked like as a kid. "I wasn't there. I stay away from
them people."
"Good for you." I offered him a cigarette and I watched him
through the smoke. "You come all the way down here just to tell
me about Sonny?"
"That's right." He was sort of shaking his head and his eyes
looked strange, as though they were about to cross. The bright sun
deadened
his
damp dark brown skin and it made his eyes look yellow
and showed up the dirt in his conked hair. He smelled funky. I
moved a little away from him and I said, "Well, thanks. But I al–
ready know about it and I got to get home."
"I'll walk you a little ways," he said. We started walking.
There were a couple of kids still loitering in the courtyard and one
of them said good night to me and looked strangely at the boy
beside me.
"What're you going to do?" he asked me. "I mean, about
Sonny?"
