'He fills out any more-'

'Hold up, Janine. You know what we're doing right here?'

'What?'

'It's called "doing the dozens."'

'That so.'

'Uh-huh. White man on NPR yesterday, was talking about this book he wrote about African American culture? Said that doing the dozens was this thing we been doin' for generations. Called it the precursor of rap music'

'They got a name for it, for real? And here I thought we were just cracking on Jimmy.'

'I'm not lying.' Strange buttoned his coat. 'Get that bill out to Simmons, will you?'

'I handed it to him as he was going out the door.'

'You're always on it. I don't know why I feel the need to remind you.' Strange nodded to one of two empty desks on either side of the room. 'Where's Ron at?'

'Trying to locate that debtor, the hustler took that woman off for two thousand dollars.'

'Old lady lives down off Princeton?'

'Uh-huh. Where you headed?'

'Off to see Chris Wilson's mom.'

Strange walked toward the front door, his broad, muscled shoulders moving beneath the black leather, gray salted into his hair and closely cropped beard.

He turned as his hand touched the doorknob. 'You want something else?' He had felt Janine's eyes on his back.

'No… why?'

'You need me, or if Ron needs me, I'll be wearin' my beeper.'

Strange stepped out onto 9th Street, a short commercial strip between Upshur and Kansas, one spit away from Georgia Avenue. He smiled, thinking of Janine. He had met her the first time at a club ten years earlier, and he had started hitting it then because both of them wanted him to, and because it was there for him to take.

Janine had a son, Lionel, from a previous marriage, and this scared him. Hell, everything about commitment scared him, but being a father to a young man in this world, it scared him more than anything else. Despite his fears, their time together had seemed good for both Strange and Janine, and he had stayed with it, knowing that when it's good it's rare, and unless there's a strong and immediate reason, you should never give it up. The affair went on steadily for several months.