'Just like that safety man said, gambling thirty seconds against thirty years,' Conway said.

I pulled up in front of the hotel at Fifty-seventh and my other three riders, Smitty, Johnson and Pigmeat climbed in the back.

Before I started I turned to Pigmeat and said, 'I own some parts of you, don't I, buddy?'

'Get over, goddamnit!' Johnson snarled at Smitty in the back seat and pushed him. 'You want all the seat?'

'Don't call me no "buddy," man,' Pigmeat said to me. 'When I escaped from Mississippi I swore I'd lynch the first sonabitch that called me a "buddy".'

'There these niggers is fighting already,' Homer said, shaking his head.. 'Whenever niggers gets together that's the first thing they gonna do.'

Smitty squirmed over to give Johnson more room. 'By God, here's a man wakes up evil every morning. Ain't just some mornings; this man wakes up evil every morning.' He looked around at Johnson. 'What's the matter with you, man, do your old lady beat you?'

Homer thought they were going to fight. He decided to be peacemaker. 'Now you know how Johnson is,' he said to Smitty. 'That's just his way. You know he don't mean no harm.'

As soon as Smitty found out somebody was ready to argue he began getting bad sure enough. 'How do I know how he is?' he shouted. 'Does he know how I is? Hell, everybody evil on Monday morning. I'm evil too. He ain't no eviler'n me.'

'Shut up!' Conway yelled. 'Bob's tryna say something.' Then he turned to me. 'Don't you know what a "buddy" is, Bob? A "buddy" drinks bilge water, eats crap, and runs rabbits. That's what a peckerwood means when he calls you "buddy".'

'I ain't kidding, fellow,' I told Pigmeat.

He started scratching for his wallet. 'Now that's a Senegalese for you,' he complained. 'Gonna put me out his car 'bout three lousy bucks. Whatcha gonna do with a fellow like that?' He passed me three ones.