I fell back into the couch. So much for Russell being a fool, I thought.
"Jenny Wade," I exhaled.
"The Wade's from Church Street?"
"Yeah," I whispered.
"Oh boy," Russell whistled. "You know how to pick 'em."
I shrugged.
"You could have knocked up a good Irish-catholic or Chinese girl or something -You had to knock up a Sicilian. Oh Peter, Paul and Mary." Russell fell back into his chair. The noise of Main Street drifted up and across the room. "Boy, never cross a Sicilian." Russell fumbled for a cigarette among the butts and roaches. After lighting it, he took a deep drag: "What she want to do about it? She want a keep it?"
"No," I answered.
"How much she shaking you down fo?" Russell exhaled a plume of smoke.
"Three hundred bucks."
"And you don't have it." Russell's glasses studied me.
"You broke the code."
In the apartment above a couple began arguing, a baby wailed. Russell paused, maybe listening to the argument, maybe considering if he should bother. Years later, Russell told me it was the argument that made his decision. He imagined the couple to be me and Jenny Wade.
"If I help you?" Russell said between his separated incisors.
"You'd be the shit," I smiled.
"I'm already the shit," Russell shot back. "How you going pay me back?"
"Uh, like I'll get a job," I spouted. "Yeah, I'll get a job!"
"You better," Russell inhaled his cigarette holding the tar and nicotine in his lungs - considering me with sightless eyes - before exhaling. "This here the deal. I get you the money you need - I take it you need it yesterday…"
"Tomorrow," I interrupted.
"Like I was saying - here's the deal: I get you the money; you pay me back in full with a little bit interest say by, mid-June."
"What kind of interest?"
"Nothin' steep, enough to keep you honest," Russell smiled, a sly smile.
"What's enough to keep me honest?"
"Boy, how's I see it, you in no position to negotiate rates."
"I'm not negotiating, I'm asking."
Russell laughed. A glass shattered against an upstairs wall. The wife screamed obscenities. I shivered - I thought of my mother.
"Ten percent," Russell laughed.
"Ten percent! That's robbery."
Russell roared. "Boy you is silly. You don't know a bargain when it bites ya. That's thirty dollars. Get money on the street and see what you pay."