I was in no mood to give up an afternoon of Stepper and Uncle Robert for one with grownups I increasingly resented and could not fathom.This wasn't th... end of it with Stepper. A few weeks later at the end of March, he met me in the Lauderdale Courts project. He'd brought with him his pride and joy--a leatherette bag of genuine cat's-eyes marbles given him for his birthday by his Aunt Harriett. I knew this to be a prize, as an entire bag of 24 cat's-eyes cost more than many poor black families. Bring us something to eat.’ I briefly wondered how she knew where I lived but quickly rushed next door to get a big batch of burritos from Janie’s Gourmet Junk Foods and sped home. It took a while for me to hear the entire story. Carly was famished and Shirley had to be careful with her food so talking had to wait for the end of the burritos. The gist of it was that Shirley’s husband was now in jail under assault charges and had a restraining order in the works as well as divorce papers. The. I want you to put eachshoe on, and then lock the ankle strap on the shoes. I don't want themcoming off during our games. And you better hurry. The pledge teststarts in a few minutes, and if you are not ready I'll have to lock theoffice for the evening and leave you to fend for yourself untiltomorrow."I did exactly as I was told. I locked the high heels on my feet. Now Icouldn't remove them either."That's a good girl. Now take yourself and your tits to the back of thetrailer, and you will see a. No, not my woman, but my brother. My level of disappointment, while not exactly destined to be legendary, was pretty high-end. Oh yes, very high-end.“Blake, not that you’re not good looking or what all, but you’re not as good looking as the one I was hoping to see first!” I said. I was smiling, but I was also demonstrably disappointed.“I wanted to be here first to make sure you were all right,” said Blake, “and to see if there is anything that I might be able to do for you that, well, Ava could.