Page 159 of Duty and Desire

“I don’t,” Mo returned.

“Right, I’ll go out and turn it down,” the man allowed.

“Awesome. Thanks. But have a mind. My woman says it happens a lot. I don’t wanna be comin’ over here all the time asking you to have a mind.”

The man glanced behind Mo, decided to save face and puffed up his chest. “I can do what I want in my own house.”

Mo nodded. “Yeah, you absolutely can. You can even decide to be an asshole and not give a shit about your neighbors in your own house, all because you wanna hear a baseball game. And I’m free to come to the door and ask you not to be an asshole. Somethin’ I don’t mind doin’ if it bothers my woman. I also don’t mind callin’ the cops and makin’ a complaint. Now, you can deal with that hassle, or you can decide not to be an asshole. Your choice.”

On that, Mo turned to leave.

And on that, the man called, “You know, it’s not cool to come over and try to intimidate me like that!”

Mo turned back. “I made a request, did it as polite as I could in the face of you not bein’ polite at all. And you decided to act your version of a man which is your call, but I’d argue it wasn’t the right one. I didn’t use intimidating language. I just asked you to turn your TV down and have a mind to that in the future.”

“You’re big as a house, you got ten big guys behind you and you told me you’re gonna call the cops on me for listening to a stupid baseball game.”

“I got ten big guys behind me because they’re all my woman’s family, and like I said, she had a bad day and needs her family around her and her neighbor not to act like a jerk. And I simply informed you what I would do if you continued not to behave in a neighborly fashion. Last, I can’t agree baseball is stupid, but if you think that, why would you go to the mat for it?”

The man’s face was getting red. “I?—”

“Listen,” Mo cut him off. “You’re workin’ yourself up for no reason. Just turn it down and have a mind.”

The man’s face twisted and at that point he decided to work out what were probably some life issues, considering the fact he wasn’t all that tall, and not built at all.

“You know, guys like you think they can do whatever they want just because they look like you do,” he clipped.

“What I know, even the way I look, I’d have a mind to the people around me and wouldn’t turn my TV so loud, it’d disturb them,” Mo returned. “But mostly that’s because I don’t think the world revolves around me and I couldn’t give a shit about the fact that it actually doesn’t. I use my turn signal too.”

The man’s face got even redder at that.

He didn’t use his turn signal.

Mo sighed and through it said, “I think we’re done. Thanks for your time.”

The second he moved out, Eddie moved in and stated, “And just to confirm, I’m family. I’m your neighbor’s brother-in-law.I’m also a cop. And any noise complaint reported on this address will be expedited. So in the end, you’d have been better off dealing with just Mo, considering he has courtesy, patience and restraint, like you’d have been better off just apologizing and turning down your TV. Every day, we can learn new things. This is today’s lesson for you. Now you folks have a nice evening.”

Mo didn’t turn back to see the response to Eddie’s message.

Because Lottie and the rest of the Rock Chicks were crowded on her front stoop.

Well, not all of them. There were too many. Some of them were poking their heads out of the front door.

She had her arms crossed on her chest, that top dropping down her shoulder, and it might be insensitive, but he hoped with all the love and support she’d gotten that day, his blowjob was a lot less indefinitely delayed.

“Your neighbor is kind of a dickhead,” he told her when he got close.

“I knew that the first time he played his TV loud,” she replied and tipped her head, the mass of her hair she’d arranged at the crown after her shower falling to her shoulder. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”

He stopped two steps down from her. “Nope.”

She smiled down at him, white and huge.

Then she listed forward, like a tree falling.

Mo caught her.

And stepping through a sea of Rock Chicks, he carried his smiling girl into her house.