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     “You don't even know the guy.     
That's all I'm saying hon.”            
     One full minute was usually how   
long she gave me before giving me the  
skeptic's treatment, but all she said  
this time was, “I like him.”           
     “Beth, that's not the point. You  
don't even know the guy, and you just  
invite him in to cook for us? I mean,  
don't get me wrong. I love the guy, you
know, in a guy way. He's a great help  
to our group, but he's also a con man. 
He's not really a good guy.”           
     “I know, but I still like him, and
smell that shit he's cooking. Oh, my   
Gawd!” and then she hit me, “And, who  
in hell are you to call someone a bad  
guy.”                                  
     “What do you mean you know!?      
How...?” I began to ask, while also    
* rubbing my shoulder where she’d hit me.  
     “Bring your pigs back in the barn 
and simmer down for a minute,” she     
said, sat up, straightened her hair,   
and laughed, “I know, because he told  
me.”                                   
     I was instantly curious, “What'd  
you find out?”                         
     “Well of course you know he's a   
con man, a cat-burglar, and also a     
jeweler?”                              
     “Yeah, I know all that,” mostly   
from Detective Johnson, I thought to   
myself, and not from Darryl.           
     I sometimes say inappropriate     
things, at very inappropriate times,   
and Beth knows all about this, but was 
still shocked when I asked her, “Do you
love him?”                             



CHAPTER 10: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29th
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