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"So I told her, I may be a scalp specialist, but I aaled the chuckling women in the shop "Hey there, Mehter

"Lord, that boy is handso herself with a irl?"

"On every block!" Mrs Jordan laughed

Memphis kneas handsoh cheekbones thanks to some Taino blood down the line Floyd at Floyd’s Barbershop kept Memphis’s hair close-cropped and oiled sweet, and Mr Levine, the tailor, made sure his suits were sharp But it was Memphis’s smile everyone noticed first When Memphis Campbell decided to turn on the full power of his charm, it always started with the sht, accoot even his aunt Octavia to relent so late, ladies"

"So it is" Mrs Jordan kept her hot co the hair of the wo Got those numbers from Aunt Sally’s Policy Players Dream Book Gonna make me rich soe wo a copy of the New Amsterdam News announced with a snort

Mrs Jordan pointed the hot coht, Memphis?"

Me the saain of his disquieting drea after all Maybe it was a portent of good luck, not bad "Say, Mrs Jordan, does Aunt Sally’s book say anything about a crossroads or a stor in, I think Storm is fifty-four"

"Is not, either! A stor And it’s eleven you play for that"

The ladies set to squabbling about the various interpretations of drearee on any one right answer That’s part of what --all those possibilities

"What about an eye with a lightning bolt underneath?" Memphis asked

Mrs Jordan paused, the hot cohtly know But soht could tell you Why you ask, honey?"

Meain into that char s I saw in a dream is all"

The customer in the chair bristled "Ow! Fifi, you about to burn my scalp off with that hot comb!"

"I am not! You’re just too tender-headed is your trouble"

"Good day to you, ladies I hope your number comes in," Memphis said and beat a hasty retreat

Above Harle a perfect blue sky as Mestore, where he and his little brother, Isaiah, liked to stop in for haie He crossed the street to avoid the Merrick Funeral Home, but he could not sweep away the memory It crept up from deep inside, still with the power to squeeze the breath out of hi up front in the open casket covered with lily of the valley, her hands crossed over her chest Isaiah asking, "When Ma the party, and all these people here to see her, too" His father sitting on the cane-back chair, staring down into his big, tru hands whileLoeet Chariot" The feel of the dirt in Merave The soft thud as it hit the top of the coffin, the finality of the sound He re up their apart Memphis and Isaiah to share the cramped back room of Aunt Octavia’s place a few blocks farther uptohile he went off to Chicago to look for work He’d promised to send for them when he was settled That had been two years, tenthe back room at Octavia’s

Me, as if he could chase away the past His skin itched with restlessness, a feeling that the world was about to be ripped wide open And he was sure it had to do with the drea, it had been the sa to hi sky, and the dust clouds rising on the road just ahead of whatever was co to where he was afraid to sleep