Page 16 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 5-8
“Whatcha planning to do with it?”
“Working on figuring that out.”
“You could turn it back into a church.”
“Yeah, but then how many people would attend? I’m not made of money. If I could afford to fix it, then what? I hand it back and it falls apart again?”
Miss Jozie pressed her lips together. “Young people don’t go to church like they used to.”
“And there’s not as many people here as there used to be.” Damian also grimaced. “Places like that take money.”
“Well, we all know that’s something we’re short of.” Miss Jozie gestured to the street.
“I figure it either continues to fall apart and I lose all my money or I have to do something with it to bring in outside money.”
Miss Jozie frowned. “You talk to Kalisha.”
“Kalisha? Kalisha Brown?”
“She’s been making noise. She had a kid and started going to meetings and listening to these radio shows on her phone, and now she’s just about ready to talk your ear off. She was over here last week asking me if I’d signed up for all my benefits. Had this list and everything. Got my gas bill right down real nice.” She nodded and smiled to herself, patting her flat belly through her housecoat.
“Is she still in the same place?”
“Same house. Living with her mama and her baby daddy’s daddy. Baby daddy gone. but she keeping the place together.”
“I remember the place.”
“Just don’t be bringing any trouble to her door. She done right by a lot of us.”
Jun put up his hands. “All my trouble is back in South Korea.”
Miss Jozie gave him another look and then shivered a little. “Well, I better get back inside where it’s warm. Next time you’re in the area, say hello, okay, Poko?”
“I’ll say hello,” Damian promised.
As they walked away Jun leaned into Damian. “Poko?”
Damian shook his head. “I’m not sure how it started. I had a Pokémon phase. Somehow that turned into Poko.”
“Pokémon, Poko, I mean, the first three letters are the same?” Jun gave Damian an incredulous look.
Damian laughed. He slung an arm over Jun’s shoulder and pulled him close. “It’s a thing. Just go with it. You don’t get to choose your nickname around here. It’s whatever sticks.”
“Great, so what am I going to be, Singsong?”
Damian chuckled. “Not likely. Come on, we’ll do a circuit. I’m not going to walk past my dad’s house, but we can take a stroll past Kalisha’s place. Then we’ll give Cedric a break.”
Cedric snorted. “Small mercies.”
They reached the end of the block and turned left. As they passed a heavily barred corner store, a group of three men stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of them.
Damian took Jun’s arms and moved Jun behind him. At first, it seemed like they were going to just pass each other. They weren’t that close, the three men walking in the empty parking lot and Damian, Jun, and Cedric on the sidewalk.
One man muttered something to the other two, and their attention all turned to Damian.
“Boy!”
Damian sighed. “Mr. Doyle.”
