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He raised his light brown, bushy eyebrows, looked at the bracelet and put it down.

"Where'd you get it?" he asked moving only the right corner of his thick lips.

"It was a birthday present. My sixteenth," I added to impress him.

"I can give you a hundred and ...twenty-five." "Oh, we need more than that!" Beni exclaimed. "It ain't worth more to me," he said.

"I know it cost close to five hundred," I said, "and that was nearly a year ago."

He laughed. It was more of a grunt with a half smile, jerking his shoulders.

"If you paid that, you were robbed."

"It has real diamond chips on it!" Beni pointed out. "You have to give us more!"

He stopped smiling abruptly.

"I'll go one-fifty," he said, "but that's final."

Beni and I looked at each other, mentally adding our own funds. With the one-fifty, we had a total of two hundred and twenty-two dollars. I thought for a moment and then reached up and undid the clasp around my cross necklace.

"Can I get twenty-eight dollars for this?" I asked him putting the cross in his palm. He smirked, but turned it around in his fingers. "It's a real gold chain, too."

"Gold ain't worth what you think," he said. He sighed. "All right. I'll give you twenty-eight."

"Rain!" Beni said. "Mama's going to notice you don't have it."

"We'll get it back. This is supposed to be just a loan, right?" I asked him. "You won't sell it."

"Not right off, but most times, you people don't come back and I get stuck with this stuff," he said.

"We'll come back," I swore. I turned to Beni. "Afterward, I'll get Roy to loan me the twenty-eight."

"You'll need more for the interest," the pawnbroker said.

"How much more?"

"Depends how long it takes you to come back." _ "I'll be back fast," I vowed.

He shrugged and put everything in his counter. Then he opened his lock box and counted out the money. I recounted it to be sure and we left.

"I'm going to throw up," Beni declared. "I'm so scared of Mama finding out."

"Just don't think about it," I told her.

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Make believe it's all just a dream," I told her. She laughed at me.

"How come you know so much about lying to people?" "I don't, Beni, but I know a little bit about lying to myself," I said.

The idea was like a small bird too fast and too high for her to grasp. She just shook her head in confusion and walked on, stepping over the sidewalk as if we were both barefoot on ice.

Roy called near dinner time to say he had to stay at work and finish a job for Slim. They had promised a customer he would get his car in the morning. Slim had done him so many favors lately that Roy felt obligated. He said he and Slim were going to send out for a pizza.

Actually, I felt a little relieved that Roy wouldn't be there to hear me tell Mama my lies. I was even afraid he would follow us out to see if we really did go to study with friends.

Mama was occupied with some bills that had come due and she pounced on Ken the moment he entered the house. He flailed about like a man being chased by bees and promised her he would get work soon and start paying off some of the debt, but he continued to curse the family that had given me to them.