Heexited the car reluctantly. His aunt and her friend strolled along oneof the park's walkways, with him bringing up the rear. On a parallelpath sev...ral joggers whisked by. The women gave him critical looks,thinking he was a girl showing off her trim figure. Guys flashedagreeable expressions, smiling and even throwing him brief waves. Hefelt so exposed that he wished he could scurry into the nearest clump ofbushes and hide until it was time to depart. But no such option wasavailable to. Kendra started mumbling an apology. I wouldn't hear of it. I smacked her hard across the face. Kendra's eyes blazed. I gasped. For a moment, I thought I had gone too far. Instead of rushing me, Kendra started crying. Actual tears. I couldn't believe it. I smiled and told her to clean the floor. She went to get a rag but I took the rag from her. I told her to clean the floor with her tongue. Amazingly, she obeyed. I watched this big and tall Black woman licking up fallen juice on my kitchen. I was on the way back to the freeway from the Addison place and got caught in that squall Friday." Bad luck! But aint no one around here wants to drive by that section of road in a thunderstorm, guess you know why." Yep" What can I do for ya, Larry? Or did you want to see Joey for something?" I noticed a little edge on his tone when he asked the last."Well, I was going to ask Joey if he'd ride up to the Addison's with me. I want to take another look at the place." Well, Joey's got chores." Same. She kept her head down and whispered “hello’ to the small Indian man who was standing near the reception desk as she walked past him in search of stairs or an elevator. He watched her as she pushed the button for the third floor, then dismissed her and returned to his work. He had indicated room 305 in his e-mail, and she chuckled to herself as she noted that it was the top floor of this particular hotel; usually where the more desirable rooms are in some hotels. There were cleaning carts on.