Right as Rain

'Well, it was.' Qui

'That's on your street.'

'We can walk to it,' said Qui

Juana went to get coffee and brandy from the kitchen. Qui

Juana's group house was nicer than most. Her roommates were grad students, a young married couple named James and Linda. He had met them when he'd arrived, and they were good-looking and nice and, as they had disappeared upstairs almost immediately, considerate as hell. Juana told him that James and Linda had the entire top floor of the house, and she had the finished basement for a quarter of the rent. The furnishings were secondhand but clean. Postcard-sized print reproductions of Edward Hopper, Degas, Ceza

Juana came out of the kitchen carrying a tray balanced on one hand. She wore a white button-down shirt out over black bells, with black waffle-heeled stacks on her feet. Black eyeliner framed her night-black eyes. She placed the tray on a small table and went around the room closing the miniblinds that hung from the windows.

'Wa

'Okay,' said Qui

Qui

'I downloaded all the stories they did on you last year off the Internet,' said Juana.

'Yeah?'

'Uh-huh. I read everything today.' Juana looked into the fire. 'The police force, it sounds like it's a mess.'

'It's pretty bad.'

'All those charges of police brutality. And the cops, they discharge their weapons more times in this town, per capita, than in any city in the country.'

'We got more violent criminals, per capita, than in any city in the country, too.'

'And the lack of training. That large group of recruits from back in the late eighties, the papers said that many of those people were totally, just mentally unqualified to be police officers.'

'A lot of them were unqualified. But not all of them. I was in that group. And I had a degree in criminology. They shouldn't have hired so many so quick, but they panicked. The Feds wanted some kind of response to the crack epidemic, and putting more officers on the street was the easiest solution. Never mind that the recruits were unqualified, or that the training was deficient. Never mind that our former, pipehead mayor had virtually dismantled the police force and systematically cut its funding during his distinguished administration.'

'You don't want to go there, do you?'

'Not really.'

'But what about the guns they issued the cops?' said Juana. 'They say those automatics-'

'The weapons were fine. You can't put a five-shot thirty-eight into the hands of a cop these days and tell him to go up against citizens carrying mini TEC-nines and modified full-autos. The Glock Seventeen is a good weapon. I was comfortable with that gun, and I was a good shot. I hadn't been on the range the official number of times, but I'd take that gun regularly out to the country… Listen, believe me, I was fully qualified to use it. The weapon was fine.'

'I'm sorry.'

'It's okay.'

'You're thinking, She doesn't know what she's talking about. Now she's going to tell me about cops and what's going on out in the street.'

'I wasn't thinking that at all,' lied Qui

Juana brushed her hand over Qui

'You didn't upset me.'

'I've never been with someone who did what you did for a living. I guess I'm trying to, I don't know, tell myself it's all right to hang out with a guy like you. I guess I'm just trying to figure you out.'

'That makes two of us,' said Qui

She moved closer to him, her shoulder touching his chest. They didn't say anything for a little while.

And then Qui

'Oh, please. You're not one of those people claims he doesn't see color, are you?'

'Well, I'm not blind.'

'Thank you. I was at a di

'I hear you,' said Qui

'You mean that nuclear-free bastion of liberal ideals?'

'That one.

'A lot of the people on the street I lived on, they had bumper stickers on their cars, "Teach Peace," "Celebrate Diversity," like that. I'd see their little girls walking around with black baby dolls in their toy strollers. But come birthday time, you didn't see any black children at those little white girls' parties. None of those children from "down at the apartments" nearby. These people really believed, you put a bumper sticker on your Volvo so your neighbors can see it and a black doll in your white kid's hands, that's all you have to do.'

'You're go

'Sorry.' Qui

'Yeah? What'd he want?'

Qui

'You were smiling just then,' said Juana, 'you know it? When you were telling that story, I mean.'

'I was?'

'It made you feel right, didn't it, to be back in it.'

Qui

'You like the action,' said Juana. 'So why'd you leave the force?'

Qui

'Enough of that,' said Juana, watching the frown return to Qui

'It's all right.'

Juana turned him and placed the flat of her hand on his chest. Qui

'I guess this is it,' said Qui

Juana laughed, her eyes black and alive. 'You're shaking a little bit, you know it?'

'It's just because you're so fucking beautiful.'

'Thank you.' Juana brushed Qui

'Well, what are you going to do now?'

'Keep working at the bookstore, I guess, until I figure things out.'

'I mean right now.'