Chapter 13

“There's a lot of black people here.” 

I look up after I take a bite of a Big Mac and notice that Annie's racial observation is quite accurate. Most of the customers are black, and all of the employees are black, except for an old Mexican manager. The McDonald's smells like hot sweat. 

“Give me some of your fries”

I push over the fries to Annie and remember why I am here in the first place, and without any clue of how to integrate this question into the conversation, just blurt it out after swallowing acidic soda.

“Annie, I gotta ask you, are you pregnant?” 

“What? Mom told you to ask me huh? This is why we're getting something to eat all randomly. You honestly think that I am pregnant?”

“You're right, your mom did ask me to ask you, but she's the one who thinks that you're pregnant, not me.”

“Well I am not.”

“Are you sure?”

Her eyes flared and she stood up and walked outside to the car and I followed her and we got in the car and drove home in silence.

Thomas greeted me at the door with a squirt gun. Annie walks into the house and disappears and I pick up Thomas and run through the yard and trip and fall but he lands on me.  He runs back inside and I yawn and walk down the sidewalk past Fay's house and I notice the old man who fertilizes his lawn with piss. His piss. He sprays it allover his plants and bushes. I know because Fay told me, and because you can smell it when hes spraying.

I call Lucas on my cellphone and he answers on the third ring.

“Hey Steven! Whats up man?”

“Look Lucas I saw you at the bookstore--”

“Oh yeah I thought I saw you. I just thought I was tripping out.”

“Right. I ignored you because I was with my daughter.”

“That's okay man, I understand. Hey why don't you come over to my place, I want to show you something bad a*s.”

“Okay, give me like twenty minutes.”

“Yeah sure. Just knock three times when you get here.”

“Will do.”

I hung up and walked back to the house and found Andrea in the living room watching some angry housewife show. She looked at me and stood up.

“Well Annie seems pissed at me. What did you say?”

“I asked her what you wanted me to ask her.”

“I didn't ask you to ask her anything. You told me you would find out. You offered to be the detective.”

“Well she's not pregnant anyway.”

“And how do you know?”

“Because she told me. She wasn't lying.”

“Wasn't lying? How do you know she wasn't?”

“Because. And we would find out eventually if she was.”

She sat down and eyed the ground. She grabbed the remote and turned the television off and walked out of the room. I walked outside to my car and grabbed my school bag. The bag was filled with the students essays and I found Ericka's and folded it up and put it in my pocket.