Topdog / Underdog (2 page)

 

But he didnt have a 10. All he had was a penny. So you took the penny.

All he had was a
20
. So I took the 20 and told him to meet me on the bus tomorrow and Honest Abe would give him the change.

 

Shit.

 

Shit is right.

 

Whatd you do with thuh 20?

 

Bought drinks at Luckys. A round for everybody. They got a kick out of the getup.

 

You shoulda called me down.

 

Next time, bro.

You making bookshelves? With the milk crates, you making bookshelves?

 

Yeah, big bro, Im making bookshelves.

 

Whats the cardboard part for?

 

Versatility.

 

Oh.

I was thinking we dont got no bookshelves we dont got no dining room table so Im making a sorta modular unit you put the books in the bottom and the table top on top. We can eat and store our books. We could put the photo album in there.

 

Booth gets the raggedy family photo album and puts it in the milk crate.

 

Youd sit there, I’d sit on the edge of the bed. Gathered around the dinner table. Like old times.

 

We just gotta get some books but thats great, Booth, thats real great.

 

Dont be calling me Booth no more, K?

 

You changing yr name?

 

Maybe.

 

 

What to?

 

Im not ready to reveal it yet.

 

You already decided on something?

 

Maybe.

You gonna call yrself something african? That be cool. Only pick something thats easy to spell and pronounce, man, cause you know, some of them african names, I mean, ok, Im down with the power to the people thing, but, no ones gonna hire you if they cant say yr name. And some of them fellas who got they african names, no one can say they names and they cant say they names neither. I mean, you dont want yr new handle to obstruct yr employment possibilities.

 

 

You bring dinner?

 

“Shango” would be a good name. The name of the thunder god. If you aint decided already Im just throwing it in the pot. I brought chinese.

 

Lets try the table out.

 

Cool.

 

They both sit at the new table.

The food is far away near the door.

 

 

I buy it you set it up. Thats the deal. Thats the deal, right?

 

You like this place?

 

Ssallright.

But a little cramped sometimes, right?

 

You dont hear me complain. Although that recliner sometimes Booth, man—no Booth, right—man, Im too old to be sleeping in that chair.

 

Its my place. You dont got a place. Cookie, she threw you out. And you cant seem to get another woman. Yr lucky I let you stay.

 

Every Friday you say
mi casa es su casa.

 

Every Friday you come home with yr paycheck. Today is Thursday and I tell you brother, its a long way from Friday to Friday. All kinds of things can happen. All kinds of bad feelings can surface and erupt while yr little brother waits for you to bring in yr share.

I got my Thursday head on, Link. Go get the food.

 

Lincoln doesnt budge.

 

You dont got no running water in here, man.

 

So?

 

You dont got no toilet you dont got no sink.

 

Bathrooms down the hall.

 

You living in thuh Third World, fool! Hey, I’ll get thuh food.

Lincoln goes to get the food.

He sees a stray card on the floor and examines it without touching it. He brings the food over, putting it nicely on the table.

 

You been playing cards?

 

Yeah.

 

Solitaire?

 

Thats right. Im getting pretty good at it.

 

Thats soup and thats sauce. I got you the meat and I got me the skrimps.

 

I wanted the skrimps.

 

You said you wanted the meat. This morning when I left you said you wanted the meat.

Here man, take the skrimps. No sweat.

 

They eat. Chinese food from styrofoam containers, cans of soda, fortune cookies. Lincoln eats slowly and carefully, Booth eats ravenously.

 

Yr getting good at solitaire?

 

Yeah. How about we play a hand after eating?

 

Solitaire?

Poker or rummy or something.

 

You know I dont touch thuh cards, man.

 

Just for fun.

 

I dont touch thuh cards.

 

How about for money?

 

You dont got no money. All the money you got I bring in here.

 

I got my inheritance.

 

Thats like saying you dont got no money cause you aint never gonna do nothing with it so its like you dont got it.

 

At least I still got mines. You blew yrs.

 

You like the skrimps?

 

Ssallright.

 

Whats yr fortune?

 

“Waste not want not.” Whats yrs?

“Your luck will change!”

 

Booth finishes eating. He turns his back to Lincoln and fiddles around with the cards, keeping them on the bed, just out of Lincolns sight.

He mutters the 3-card patter under his breath.

His moves are still clumsy. Every once and a while he darts a look over at Lincoln who does his best to ignore Booth.

 

((((Watch me close watch me close now: who-see-thuh-red-card-who-see-thuh-red-card? I-see-thuh-red-card. Thuh-red-card-is-thuh-winner. Pick-thuh-red-card-you-pick-uh-winner. Pick-uh-black-card-and-you-pick-uh-loser. Theres-thuh-loser, yeah, theres-thuh-black-card, theres-thuh-other-loser-and-theres-thuh-red-card, thuh-winner! Cop C, Stick, Cop C! Go on—))))

 

((Shit.))

 

(((((((One-good-pickll-get-you-in, 2-good-picks-and-you-gone-win. Dont touch my cards, man, just point to thuh one you want. You-pick-that-card-you-pick-uh-loser, yeah, that-cards-uh-loser. You-pick-that-card-thats-thuh-other-loser. You-pick-that-card-you-pick-uh-winner. Follow-that-card. You-gotta-chase-that-card!)))))))

 

You wanna hustle 3-card monte, you gotta do it right, you gotta break it down. Practice it in smaller bits. Yr trying to do the whole thing at once thats why you keep fucking it up.

 

Show me.

 

No. Im just saying you wanna do it you gotta do it right and if you gonna do it right you gotta work on it in smaller bits, thatsall.

You and me could team up and do it together. We’d clean up, Link.

 

I’ll clean up—bro.

 

Lincoln cleans up. As he clears the food, Booth goes back to using the “table” for its original purpose.

 

My new names 3-Card. 3-Card, got it? You wanted to know it so now you know it. 3-card monte by 3-Card. Call me 3-Card from here on out.

 

3-Card. Shit.

 

Im getting everybody to call me 3-Card. Grace likes 3-Card better than Booth. She says 3-Cards got something to it. Anybody not calling me 3-Card gets a bullet.

 

Yr too much, man.

 

Im making a point.

 

Point made, 3-Card. Point made.

 

Lincoln picks up his guitar. Plays at it.

 

Oh, come on, man, we could make money you and me. Throwing down the cards. 3-Card and Link: look out! We could clean up you and me. You would throw the cards and I’d be yr Stickman. The one in the crowd who looks like just an innocent passerby, who looks like just another player, like just another customer, but who gots intimate connections
with you, the Dealer, the one throwing the cards, the main man. I’d be the one who brings in the crowd, I’d be the one who makes them want to put they money down, you do yr moves and I do mines. You turn yr head and I turn the card—

 

It aint as easy as all that. Theres—

 

We could be a team, man. Rake in the money! Sure thered be some cats out there with fast eyes, some brothers and sisters who would watch real close and pick the right card, and so thered be some days when we would lose money, but most of the days we would come out on top! Pockets bulging, plenty of cash! And the ladies would be thrilling! You could afford to get laid! Grace would be all over me again.

 

I thought you said she was all over you.

 

She is she is. Im seeing her tomorrow but today we gotta solidify the shit twixt you and me. Big brother Link and little brother Booth—

 

3-Card.

 

Yeah. Scheming and dreaming. No one throws the cards like you, Link. And with yr moves and my magic, and we get Grace and a girl for you to round out the posse. We’d be golden, bro! Am I right?

 

 

Am I right?

I dont touch thuh cards, 3-Card. I dont touch thuh cards no more.

 

 

You know what Mom told me when she was packing to leave? You was at school motherfucker you was at school. You got up that morning and sat down in yr regular place and read the cereal box while Dad read the sports section and Mom brought you yr dick toast and then you got on the damn school bus cause you didnt have the sense to do nothing else you was so into yr own shit that you didnt have the sense to feel nothing else going on. I had the sense to go back cause I was feeling something going on man, I was feeling something changing. So I—

 

Cut school that day like you did almost every day—

 

She was putting her stuff in bags. She had all them nice suitcases but she was putting her stuff in bags.

Packing up her shit. She told me to look out for you. I told her I was the little brother and the big brother should look out after the little brother. She just said it again. That

I should look out for you. Yeah. So who gonna look out for me. Not like you care. Here I am interested in an economic opportunity, willing to work hard, willing to take risks and all you can say you shiteating motherfucking pathetic limpdick uncle tom, all you can tell me is how you dont do no more what I be wanting to do. Here I am trying to earn a living and you standing in my way. YOU STANDING IN MY WAY, LINK!