ANY DAY NOW
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Then he was silent again; he twisted his body on the bed.
He looked over at Vivaldo.
"You put her in a cab?"
"Yes," Vivaldo said.
"She's gone to your place?"
"Yes."
"You going back there?"
"I thought maybe I'd stay here with you for a while-
if you don't mind."
"What're you trying to do--be a warden or something?"
He said it with a smile, but there was no smile in
his
voice.
"I just thought maybe you wanted company," said
Vivaldo.
Rufus got off the bed and walked restlessly up and down
the two rooms.
"I don't need no company. I done had enough company to
last me the rest of my life." He walked to the window and
stood there, his back to Vivaldo. "How I hate them-all those
white sons of bitches out there. They're trying to kill me, you
think I don't know? They got the world on a string, man, the
miserable, white c***suckers, and they tying that string around
my neck, they killing
me!'
He turned into the room again; he
did not look at Vivaldo. "Sometimes I lie here and I listen
-just listen. They out there, scuffling, making that change, they
think it's going to last forever. Sometimes I lie here and listen,
listen for a bomb, man, to fall on this city and make all that
noise stop. I listen to hear them moan, I want them to bleed
and choke, I want to hear them
crying,
man, for somebody to
come help them. They'll cry a long time before
I
come down
there." He paused, his eyes glittering with tears and with hate.
"It's going to happen one of these days, it's got to happen. I
sure would like to see it." He walked back to the window.
"Sometimes I listen to those boats on the river-I listen to those
whistles-and I think wouldn't it be nice to get on a boat again
and go someplace away from all these nowhere people where a
