“Um…” I started, thinking I wasn’t exactly tiny but then again she really wasn’t tiny so it was all relative.

“Not that I think that’s bad, mind,” she went on as if I hadn’t uttered a sound. “Jermaine is one evil brother. I do not like him at all. Got my friend’s daughter, Shaneequa, pregnant then left her high and dry. No child support, nothin’. We was thrilled when we heard you kicked him in the balls. He deserved it.”

“Shirleen,” Darius said quietly.

“Well, he did,” Shirleen said. “Got his ass kicked by a white girl. I tiny white girl. I cannot wait to tell Shaneequa,” Shirleen said to me. “Hey, no!” she exclaimed. “Why don’t you come with me to see Shaneequa? She’d love to meet you. She’ll give you a big, fat kiss.”

“Shirleen,” Darius said again, sounding more impatient now.

I stared.

I couldn’t help it; this was definitely not how I expected this sit down to be.

Shirleen ignored Darius’s impatience. “I hear you work with them kids at that Shelter. Well, I got me another friend, last year, her boy, he went to the street. So young, that boy. Do not know why, but he did. His parents are good people, no reason why he’d take to the street. One of you social workers found him and talked to him, got him to the Shelter then got him back home. Lord knows what was goin’ on in that boy’s head. Still, they was glad to have him home, I can tell you that,” Shirleen went on.

Darius was now sitting back, his eyes were on Lee. He was looking harassed.

“What was the boy’s name?” I asked Shirleen.

“His name was Tye. Who names their child Tye, with an “e”? What is up with that?” Shirleen answered but I leaned forward.

“Tye?” I asked. “I know Tye.”

And I did. He was young, eleven and luckily I got to him early before he’d been chewed up and spit out. He’d only been on the streets a few weeks when I talked him into the Shelter. By that time, he’d been scared out of his mind. The reunion had been quick, maybe only a few weeks more.

“You do?” Shirleen was leaning forward too.

“Yeah. I got him off the street. He wasn’t one of my cases but we used to talk all the time in the rec room. How is he? Is he doing okay?” I went on.

“Got on the A and B Honor Roll last year,” Shirleen bragged, as if he was her own son.

“Oh, that’s great. Tell him I said hi.”

“Will do, girl,” Shirleen said to me. “Maybe I’ll get him to come over when we visit Shaneequa.”

“I’d like that,” I replied, smiling at her.

Then all of a sudden Shirleen’s eyes changed, they didn’t go scary, like the supplier’s had, they went kind. The change was so swift, it took me off guard and I had no chance to respond to it.

“Your time’s better spent in that Shelter than on the street,” she said.

My smile faded and I felt my head crackin’ mamma jamma coming over me. Luckily, before it got a full hold and I f**ked everything up, Shirleen continued.

“Darius and me been talkin’. We’re passin’ the business on slow like. Too much headache, now with dealers gettin’ smoke bombed and plastic wrapped. They’re unhappy, want us to whack a social worker. I draw the line at whackin’ social workers, un-unh. Not me. So, we’re makin’ deals.” She indicated the supplier with a nod of her head. “Boys wanna move up, we’ll let ‘em. We’ll start with passin’ off the dealers who deal to the kids. No more. We move on from there. The games are goin’ good. We’ll stick with that.”

I felt my heart racing. I could not believe she was telling me this. I could not believe they were getting out of the drug business.

The room had gone wired. Lee had tensed beside me, waves of something, emotion, disbelief, whatever, were coming off him and bouncing off me. I felt it at my back from Vance too.

I understood what it meant. It meant this was huge.

“You all right with that?” Shirleen asked me (as if I’d say no).

I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I just nodded.

“It’ll take time. You should know we don’t speak for the others. You take on the street, you don’t have no protection from us. We’re Switzerland when it comes to you. And this deal does not leave this room. Word hits the street before we pull out, it’s war. Got me?” Shirleen went on, her eyes were no longer kind, they were hard and they were sharp.

I just nodded again. She stared at me a beat then it turned into two.

Then the sharpness went out of her eyes and she said quietly, “Thank you for takin’ care of Tye.”

Oh my God.

She’d known all along it was me who got Tye off the street. I felt something hit my chest, a weight I hadn’t felt in a long time, not since Auntie Reba died.

I knew what it was. It was tears.

I swallowed and quickly pulled myself together. “Tye’s a good kid,” I said softly.

“They all are,” she replied just as softly.

Then abruptly she put her hand on Darius’s shoulder and stood. “I need a drink. Who needs a drink?” No one said anything. “Suit yourselves. Shirleen’s gettin’ a drink.”

Then she was gone.

We all stayed where we were and were silent.

Finally Lee, his eyes on Darius, asked from beside me, “She speak for you?”

Darius shook his head, not in the negative, instead, partially amused, partially beleaguered.

“You know Aunt Shirleen,” was all he said.

“You told Eddie?” Lee asked.

“We’ve set up a meet after this one,” Darius replied.

“This gonna go well for you?” Lee went on and Darius’s eyes changed, went hard, scary.

“I had to guess? No,” Darius answered.

More waves of something I didn’t get started pounding around the room.

“You know –?” Lee started but Darius interrupted him.

“I know.”

Lee nodded then his eyes cut to me. “Let’s go.”

I got up and followed Vance in order to leave the room, Lee followed me.

Before we got to the door, Darius addressed me for the first time and called, “Law.”

I turned and looked at him. He stared at me, his face blank. I stared at him the same way.

Then he said, “Tye’s my nephew.”

This news hit me like a physical blow. It was a miracle I didn’t stagger back but somehow I found the internal strength and kept myself under control.