“Are you always this good at it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Mm,” Diamond answers with a sympathetic murmur. “You shouldn’t be here.”
In that, Sam hears the true danger of her situation. This is a moment of life or death. She begins shaking violently. The next few potential minutes flash before her eyes. She imagines Diamond’s subtle nod to Will, him striding toward her and lifting the gun, the hands of men tightening around her arms to hold her in place. There would be a muffledpop pop.Sam has heard the sound before. Would they then leave her on the street as a warning? Would they take her body away to dispose of somewhere, so no gossip spreads?
A tidal wave rises in her chest now, a desperate will to survive. She has to think quickly.
Sam recalls the conversation she’d just overheard. Her tongue loosens in panic, and she blurts out, “You have seven of your people out here with you right now, including the three you sent to watch from the roof.”
Diamond’s eyes narrow. “Nosy little bird,” she says.
Sam keeps talking. “I can recite your entire conversation back to you.” She starts repeating everything Diamond and her associate had said, right down to the inflections in their voices.
Diamond laughs a little, and the others laugh with her. Will’s lips twist in irritation and he looks away from the scene. But as Sam goes on and doesn’t leave out a single word, Diamond’s laughter fades and she stares at Sam, pondering. Sam wonders if she is debating whether or not Sam is worth listening to a little longer. She reaches the end of her recited conversation and immediately begins saying something else. Anything to stretch the time.
“I can recite the numbers of pi longer than anyone else I know. I can remember a thousand digits of it.” She begins, her tongue stumbling over itself in her rush.
Diamond and her son exchange a glance. Then the woman takes several steps toward Sam and bends down on one knee to meet her gaze straight on. Sam feels paralyzed at her attention. Diamond isn’t beautiful, but it doesn’t matter—her eyes are as sharp and arresting as a hawk’s, a shade of brown so light that even in the shadows, they have a gold glint about them. As the woman waits, Sam goes on in an endless, terrified train of 3.14159265, until finally she holds up a hand. Sam’s voice fades away into nothing.
“Why are you really here, Samantha?” Diamond asks her again.
The woman’s voice sounds so soft and understanding that Sam feels an urge to cry.A lady with a heart.She nods without knowing why she is nodding. “Yes, ma’am,” she says. “It’s my mom. She lost her job. Got injured when the restaurant where she works had a gas leak.” She swallows. “People say you can make anything happen.”
“So you came here tonight looking for me,” Diamond says.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And what did you expect to get?”
“I don’t know, ma’am,” Sam says timidly, aware of the audacity of her actions, a child asking the most powerful woman in the city for a moment of her time. “Nothing, ma’am. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Diamond seems to catch the desperation in Sam’s words. She searches Sam’s face thoughtfully. “And your memory is as good as your ability to sneak around,” she says.
“It’s the best,” Sam says. The conviction in her own voice surprises her. Maybe she had come here tonight to prove herself. Maybe she wanted to know if she could becomemore.
“The best,” Diamond repeats.
“Yes, ma’am. I can remember a whole book after I read it once. Word for word.”
“Is that so? How?”
Sam struggles for an answer she thinks might make Diamond more interested in this conversation. “I just remember things,” she replies helplessly.
“You can’t be fucking serious,” Will says with a sigh.
Diamond ignores him and reaches into her pocket. It must be a gun. Sam feels dangerously close to losing control of her bladder.
But when Diamond’s hand reemerges, it holds what looks like a thin booklet. She opens it to the first page and turns it to face Sam.
“Show me,” she says.
It is a handwritten page of names, numbers, dates, and lists. Sam only has time to take one full look at it before Diamond closes the book again. She can feel the throb of her heart as it beats out its potential final seconds, the nearness of the men around her, and holds herself tight in anticipation of a bullet searing through her skin. She takes a deep breath.
Then she recites back every single name, number, and date.
As she speaks, Diamond looks at the page, checking her statements with a calm face.
