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"
Ndongo sits on Harrison Avenue,
outside
Boston City Hospital,
feeling pavement grit through his brown striped pajamas.
The paper bag of medicines rests between his slippered feet
... " (p. 94)
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" ...
As he chants silently in
Yoruba,
his dreadlocks quiver through the tear in the green shower
cap. He eyes the white woman as she circles the bus shelter
... " (p. 94)
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" ...
And, lioness be shooting finger webs because ...?"
Because she is stupid, he thinks; because she has
cassava
for brains. She sits next to him now
... " (p. 95)
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" ...
He dances to
"Kansas City,"
which plays in his brain without stopping.
Ndongo lay next to him one night in Mattapan
shelter and could hear it echo: They got some
crazy little women. Lord, Iīm going get me some
... " (p. 95)
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" ...
he is not certain if he is in the twilight going into
coma or the dawn of awakening. Is the encounter with
Chiruwi
behind him or is it yet to come?
... " (p. 96)
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" ...
He sees the ring on his nipple through the waistcoat.
A giant poster showing a
pink triangle
with SILENCE=DEATH
printed beneath, covers one wall of the office.
Ndongo remembers the poster from the last time
... " (p. 96)
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" ...
The bottle has your name on it, James.
Why donīt you take it?
AZT
does do something, you know.
Itīs not totally worthless
... " (p. 96)
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" ...
This disease; thrusting us together if you will.
We are not taking it lying down. We are fighting it.
Reagan,
Bush
... I canīt begin to tell you." The white woman stands outside
like a
Benin bronze,
looking through the window
... " (p. 97)
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" ...
The year after he arrived from Nigeria he dropped out of
Northeasternīs Nursing Assistent course -
there was more money to be made loading trucks at the
Flower Market
by day and driving
Red Cabs
at night. One night he picked Ftwabe and her mother up in
Dorchester
and made talk with them when he found they were from
Ibadan.
... " (p. 97)
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" ...
and delivering smack from
Roxbury
to phone-ins in
Newton,
Melrose,
Malden,
Brookline,
Brighton
and - some nights - even
Hingham,
Saugus,
Framingham
... " (p. 97)
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" ...
past the vacant lot where a billboard lies face
down, to where the
Orange Line
is being extended to connect with the
Green Line.
He leads her aroud a ditchwitch
... " (p. 98)
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