Lee’s head was tiny, and his eyes bulged slightly. He looked like something that crawled up a wall. He wore a baseball cap cocked sideways on his head. He wore the oversize jeans. He was trying for that youth thing, but it was never going to work for him again. Man his age, to be dressed that way, it was just pathetic. He was going for down, but the vibe he put out was defeat.

The boy standing beside Lee had slack posture and nothing eyes.

“Dog man.” Lee looked Lorenzo over. “What, you done lost your mind or somethin’?”

Lorenzo did not cut his eyes away, nor did he stare with any sort of malice at Lee.

Lee stepped in. His breath smelled of alcohol and onions. “Someone give you permission to touch my whip?”

Your whip? What’d you do to get it? You ain’t never worked an honest day in your life.

“Didn’t realize I was touchin’ it,” said Lorenzo. Then he said something he never would have said, to anyone he was not close to, in his youth: “I apologize.”

Lee looked over his shoulder at the boy, then back at Lorenzo. “Now he gonna ’pologize. You hear that, Rico? After he done rubbed his dog-smellin’ self against my shit.”

The boy smiled, revealing teeth and gums that no dentist had ever touched. It reminded Lorenzo of the way an animal might smile, when it was hunting another animal, in a cartoon. Maybe it was the boy’s face. Thin, long, and lightly bearded. Only thing missing was the sheep’s clothes.

“You remember me?” said Lee.

Sure. I punked your ass out once in a club. You thought you could step to me, and I put you down with my eyes. You weren’t shit then. You less than shit now. So you just keep talking, if it makes you look tall and strong to this boy.

Lorenzo nodded, still showing no emotion.

Lee looked him over. “What happened to you? They turn you out in there?”