Panic Attack

“Yeah, you still a pretty boy. I bet you gettin’ all the ladies, right?”

“I can’t complain.”

“Can’t complain? Yeah, I remember the times, we’d point to any girl in the schoolyard or wherever, pay you twenty bucks or whatever and bet you couldn’t go pick her up, and you’d take our money every time.”

“Not every time,” Joh

“Not every time,” Carlos said. “Check this guy out. You still got that sense of humor goin’ on. You still make me laugh.”

Joh

“Come on, hang out,” Carlos said. “Where you rushin’ to at three in the morning?”

“Long day,” Joh

“Come on, man. You ain’t seen your ol’ bro in how many years and you can’t sit down and have a drink?”

Joh

“I don’t drink,” Joh

“Joh

The train was pulling into the station, the brakes screeching.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Joh

“Nah, come on, sit down with me right now,” Carlos said. “We can get some coffee and cake. I got something I gotta talk to you about anyway, somethin’ where you can make some serious cash, know what I mean?”

Joh

“Okay, let’s go,” Joh

They went to the corner, to the Neptune Diner, and sat in a booth by a window with a view of the Grand Central Parkway, still a lot of traffic this time of night. Joh

Carlos caught Joh

“Sounds like me and you are the big wi

“Yeah, I’m doing okay,” Carlos said. “Not in jail anyway, and I got my HIV under control.”

“Oh, shit,” Joh

“Eh, it’s okay,” Carlos asked. “The fuck you go

Carlos was sobering up, and Joh

So when Carlos looked at Joh

Surprisingly, Carlos’s plan didn’t seem so bad- rob some fancy house in Forest Hills while the family was away in Florida. Carlos’s ex- girlfriend, the maid, had the keys and knew the code to the alarm system.

“Shit’s go

“What about your girl?”

“That’s the fu

Carlos was still laughing, wiping tears out of the corners of his eyes with his index finger.

Joh

“How do you know the family’ll be in Florida?” he asked.

“Because my girl works there,” Carlos said. “She knows everything.”

“And when we don’t give her a cut, how do you know she won’t rat us out?”

“Why’d she rat us out and get her own ass sent to jail? The cops, they’re go

Joh

“So,” Carlos said, “you in or out?”

Joh

“Ready to do it?” Carlos asked.

“Hold up,” Joh

“What’s wrong?” Carlos asked.

“Maybe we should’ve met at the house,” Joh

“You told me to park here.”

“The car’s okay. I’m talking about us. It’s not good if somebody sees us together.”

“So what if somebody sees us?” Carlos said. “We’re just two people. What did we do?”

“I mean if somebody remembers,” Joh

“After what? The people’re in Florida. It’s go

Joh