C15 (2/2)

As if he hadn't heard me, he put the change in his pocket and continued talking to himself as he walked away.

Continuing to the south, temporary tents began to appear on the roadside, and occasionally one or two luxurious open sports cars would fly past them.

”Have you seen a gypsy?” I asked a woman who looked younger than me.

She was wearing an ill-fitting shirt, her hair was tied up behind her head, and there were tattoos and needle marks on her arms.

”Handsome, buy me something to eat. I'll let you have whatever you want.” Her teeth were yellow and her mouth tasted of hemp.

I asked all the way. Some of them ignored me, some ran the train for a few dollars.

At noon, as soon as the sun rose, my sweat quickly soaked my shirt. After a few hours of nothing, I decided to go back the way I had come and find something to eat.

”Who are you looking for?” A voice came from behind me.

A middle-aged black woman with blue eyeshadow and purple lipstick, wrapped in a colorful artificial fur robe, holding a zebra bag.

Subconsciously, I fished out a dollar from my pocket. ”I'm looking for an old gypsy. He looks to be around 80 to 90 years old, about 5 feet 1 inch tall. He has a black turban wrapped around his head and his eyes are blind.”

The black woman looked at the money I handed her and didn't take it.

”Do you have a cigarette?” she asked me, and I shook my head.

”Why are you looking for her?”

”I... I just moved here, I've seen her before, and she gave me some advice. ” For a moment I didn't know how to answer. If I did say it, I might be taken for a lunatic.

The black woman stared at me for a while, as if to check if I was lying. Then she snorted in disdain.

”Follow me.”

I followed her across the street, back a block, and turned into an alley.

”You can call me Nina,” the black woman said as she walked, her heels clattering on the concrete. ”You don't live in the Joshua Building, do you?”

”How do you know?”

”How the hell did you get the nerve to live there? Do you people from the East really have nine lives? ”

After turning left and right for a while, I could no longer tell which direction was which.

”My wife and I found it in the newspaper ads. By the time we found out we'd been cheated, the rent had already been paid.”

”Move away while you're still alive.”

”Why?”

”No one lives there.” Nina suddenly stopped and turned to look at me, shaking her head. The Joshua Building is empty except for the sixth floor, but there are so many homeless people in the lower city who would rather sleep on the street than live in an apartment there. ”

”But... ”But there's a tenant on the sixth floor and an old lady on the sixth floor …” I argued.

Have you ever thought about how an old woman like her could survive a robbery in such a disorderly area, in a place where a young man like you would be robbed if he went out for a walk?” Nina asked me quickly.

I choked on Nina to the point where I was unable to speak. After a long time, I cautiously asked, ”Then …” ”Then how do you think she survived?”

Nina rolled her eyes. ”How would I know!?” Every day, poor people like us open our eyes and think about how to survive — we watch people's faces, who are Italian gangsters, who are drug addicts, who are murderers — just like mice that can smell cats from miles away, we are born with a keen sense of danger. ”

”That building is filled with the smell of death.” Nina paused.

After a few more minutes of walking, we stopped in front of a gate covered with graffiti. Nina took out her key, twisted it, and opened it.

Below was a long, narrow staircase, dark and endless.

I followed Nina, who came down the stairs in a familiar way, down the hall, and into the lock.

It was a bar.

The United States banned alcohol in 1920, and after that there were a number of underground bars, all hidden in basements and garages downtown. The ban on alcohol was later repealed, but there were still many underground pubs that operated in secret, offering, in addition to alcoholic beverages, hemp and pornography.

This bar was also filled with a kind of hallucinatory smell.

Nina came around the bar. ”Drink something.”

Nina had unlocked the door with her key, so it was obvious that she wasn't one of those homeless people out there. ”You work here?”

Nina ignored my answer and poured me a glass of whiskey. ”Only this bottle is real, not free. Five dollars.”

”You're the boss here?”

”This is a small business, I also came out from a cave of commoners. When there are many tips, I will buy some food for those poor bastards, ”Nina poured herself a cup of wine.” Those Gypsy will also be here to beg for food. In fact, they will be coming soon. You still haven't told me your true reason, but why are you looking for Vadoma? ”

”I actually had something that couldn't be explained with science. I think she could help me.”

”Puff …” Nina choked on her wine and laughed out loud. ”Haha, you really found the right person, do you know what Vadoma means in the Gypsy Language?”

I looked suspiciously at Nina.

”Foolish man,” Nina said, poking her head with her fat finger. ”Vadoma means' foolish man 'in Gypsy. She was crazy years ago.”