Page 20 of Mine

I coughed softly. “Once.”

“And?”

“He wanted to see what a guy from the hood was like in bed.”

He scoffed.

I turned to look at his profile. “Why is that funny?”

“You? From the hood?” He snickered. “That’s good.”

I grunted because I knew it. My mother had married my father and they had moved to Troy, supposedly away from all the things that could hurt them. After my father was killed walking across the street on his way home, my mother went to work as an office manager for a man who owned a string of dry cleaning stores. She liked it, but it wasn’t enough to take care of her and my sister. So I helped out, putting my sister through college, helping my mother pay the mortgage and her bills, making sure that I stepped in where my father, Donald Bean, would have. I missed the man a lot.

Even after ten years, I still could have used his advice. Mostly I missed that he had never met Landry. I would have liked to see them sit together and talk. I had told him I was gay, and my dad had given me the nod and said okay. He wasn’t sure that I knew everything at fourteen, but he agreed that my sexual orientation was one of those things I could be sure of. He had been surprised but never judgmental or angry or anything. He was the sort of father every kid should have: kind, supportive, and loving.

“Are you listening to me?”

I hadn’t been, I realized. My mind was drifting instead of listening to Conrad. “No, man, I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right, but look, now, I need you to go into that glove compartment and get the gun there.”

I didn’t really want to, but what was I going to do if somebody broke in during the night? The bat I kept under my bed wouldn’t help if the guys invading my home were armed, and I had to be really close to use my butterfly knife.

“You need a gun.” Conrad shrugged. “The life you have, the life I can’t convince you to leave… you need one.”

“What’s with you and Gabe wanting me to open my restaurant now? You both know I don’t have enough, and I ain’t ready to go yet anyway. I figure three more years, maybe two, I’ll be done, but not right now. I only got sixty saved, man; I need more.”

“Landry can’t—”

“Landry’s money and mine don’t mix for dreams.”

“You used your money to get him started, and then he took out a loan for the rest.”

“Which he’s still paying off,” I told him. “Until what he sells completely covers his costs, all his profit has to go right back into his business. I mean, he’s close, you know. We go see the accountant together and I see his books, but there’s still a way to go.”

“It’s up to you.” He shrugged. “I just need you to understand that I don’t want to see you hurt. Gabe’s trying to get you out; that’s his idea of protection. Mine is a gun.”

“Okay.”

He nodded and tipped his head at the glove compartment. “Go ahead.”

I was expecting something out of The Matrix, of course, but what I got was a Glock 22. It was what most policemen carried, and basically once the safety was off, you aimed and pulled the trigger. Conrad promised to take me to his gun club on the weekend to show me how to shoot it properly, but until then, he wanted me to have it.

“Is it registered to you?” I asked him.

The look I got, like I was just so stupid, was one I actually deserved.

“Sorry. Do you have any guns that are actually registered to you?”

“Of course, just not one I would give you.”

“So what do I do if I’m being chased by a policeman?”

“Why are you suddenly contemplating a scenario where you would be chased by law enforcement?”

“It’s just a question.”

“Jesus,” he groaned.