The lady unsticks me and puts a cotton ball and tape where she stick me. "I'm sorry Tank," she says. Then she yanks off her purple stretchy gloves, throws them in the trash can, and walks off with my red blood. My red blood like Jesus' blood, like my red tennie shoes, like tomatoes and cherries, apples and strawberries, like Fawquita's stretchy pants, like the perfume girls' lips, like azaleas and roses, like what a headache looks like from the inside.
The lady don't smell like roses. She smell like the hospital. The hospital smells like sand in my nose. Like swallowing salty river water. Like the time when I fell over the rail when Uncle Cloudy took me crabbing. I tried to crawl up out of the water and holler to Uncle Cloudy, but the water kept getting in my throat. It was black. Like poop. It tasted like a salty fart. I couldn't see. Uncle Cloudy snatched me out. He pushed the water out of me. The water came up out of my mouth and nose like that the time my stomach hurt, like rocks rolling around in it. Water came out and food I ate. I didn't see no rocks come out. I don't know where they went.
"Momma's away for a while," Auntie Bunt says. "She's sick. We gots to make sure you ain't sick, too. Now hush. Hush now, Willie B. Polite. Hush." Auntie Bunt rubs my head and holds my hand. She tries to kiss my head. I don't let her. I don't like her no more.
Uncle Cloudy rubs my head and pats my arm. "It's gone be all right, sonny boy. You calm down so we can get you out of here." I tried to crawl out of the water, but it kept getting in my throat. He snatched me out and pushed the water out of me, and the water came out of my mouth and nose.
The bed is hard. The Lady pokes me again with a needle. I close my eyes. Sleepy. I open my eyes. Lights in a bright white room. I ain't tied down no more. Uncle Cloudy and Auntie Bunt drive me home. Uncle Cloudy buys me a Big Mac, french fries, and a Co-Cola. Cartoons be on. I sleepy. Sunshine shining. Yellow. Shiny. Shining. I hear them motorcĭcles out on the street and thunder. Feel them under my feet. The air is not like perfume. Not like peppermint or soap or roses. It smells like pine trees boiling and eggs.
"I'll take you for shrimp after I get done at the car wash," Uncle Cloudy says.
Uncle Cloudy and Auntie Bunt leave me by myself. Cartoons be on the TV. "The TV will keep you company," Auntie Bunt says. "It do me."
I be sleepy and close my eyes.
"Momma is at the jailhouse," Auntie Bunt says. We walk over there.
Momma and me talk on the telephone with the glass between us. She cain't hug me or kiss me.
"You doing okay, baby?" Momma says.
"Yes, ma'am," I says.
"You gettin' plenty to eat?" Momma says.
"Yes, ma'am. When you comin' home, Momma?"
"Quit cryin', baby. You gots to be a strong boy for Momma, okay?"
"Okay, Momma."
"Here, Willie B. Polite, blow your nose," Auntie Bunt says.
"You have Uncle Cloudy take you to the sto' and get yo' chocolate so you get yo' tingly," Momma says.
"Okay." The phone be crackling.
"But don't be dipping inside the house," Momma says.
"Okay, Momma."
"Miss Francis been coming to see you?"
"She take me to the hospital. They stuck me." I show Momma my arm where the lady took out my red blood.
"I know," Momma says. "I'm sorry, baby."
Auntie Bunt walks me home.
Uncle Cloudy sits me down to see Miss Francis.
"The drug screen we did at the hospital came back positive for cocaine and marijuana," Miss Francis says.
"What?" Uncle Cloudy says.
"Tank's drug screen came back dirty," Miss Francis says.
"How?" Uncle Cloudy says.
"I don't know. I thought you might." Miss Francis says.
"I ain't the foggiest," Uncle Cloudy says.
"Well, he had to get it somewhere," Miss Francis says.
"What? Why that's somebody telling stories."
"I don't see what's so funny," Miss Francis says.
"Didn't dem policemen search the place when they arrested Naples?" Uncle Cloudy says.
"Yes," Miss Francis says.
"Well, did they find anything? I know they tore the place up."
"No."
"Well, why did they arrest her then?" Uncle Cloudy says.
"Because probation gave her a drug screen and it came back dirty."
"How?" Uncle Cloudy says.
"I don't know," Miss Francis says. "My worry is with Tank. She's endangering him. I want to know if she's giving him her drugs."
"Naw, naw, naw," Uncle Cloudy says. "That ain't right. That ain't right. That boy stay with me at the car wash all day Saturdays. His Momma take him to church on Sunday. We at church all day on Sunday. He don't bother nobody. He don't do nothing but read comic books and ride that cruiser of his. Go to the library sometime and read. Just read them little children story books and talk about them stories."
"Until he got kicked out," Miss Francis says.
"Huh?" Uncle Cloudy says.
"I'm going to send him to a place in Savannah for six to twelve weeks to get cleaned up."
"What?" Uncle Cloudy says. "Now that ain't no need. Ain't no need at all. He can stay with me for a while." Uncle Cloudy look at me. He make me smile. He don't smile back. "What about his chocolate?"
"We need to break him of that right now," Miss Francis says. She sit up and grab my mouth and peel my lips back with her fingernails. They scrape. "Look at his teeth." She got skinny pink lips. She pucker like she gone kiss me. Only Momma kisses me, when I go to bed.
"It all right, son, hush up," Uncle Cloudy say.
Miss Francis unpuckers, and pulls her fingers out of my mouth. "His teeth are rotten because of that filthy habit," Miss Francis say. "They need to be pulled. The snuff has done that."
"It all right, boy," Uncle Cloudy says. He pats my knee. "It's all right."
"Our department has a smokeless tobacco campaign," Miss Francis says. "Haven't you seen the billboards in town?"
"Naw. Only billboard I see be that lawyer one across the street from my car wash. He'll handle your divorce and drunk driving ticket for $300," Uncle Cloudy say.
Miss Francis's face turns redder. As red as her big shirt. And she spins around to her desk. She's let me spin around in her chair before. It made me loose like a noodle. Hard to walk. Round and round and round and round and round and round.
"Why don't y'all go ahead and pay to pull the boy's teeth out then?" Uncle Cloudy says. "We cain't afford no dentist."
"The Department doesn't have the money. Budget pressures," Miss Francis says.
"Well that ain't none of our fault," Uncle Cloudy says. "Seems like the State could pay to have his teeth pulled rather than send him away from home. You knows me and his Auntie Bunt take good care of him when his Momma's away."
"He needs a different surrounding for a while," Miss Francis says. "That will do him good."
"That boy is just fine the way he is, teeth or no teeth. Let them fall out on they own, in their own good time. Leave him be with his snuff. What y'all expect of him, anyway? Seem to me y'all just want to pick, pick, pick, pick, pick on this poor boy. Me and his Auntie Bunt love him. That's more than I can say for the government. Just leave him be."