Page 39 of Dick

ELEVEN

Jess

“IT’S really complicated,” Dick said. “And it’s best that you just don’t know. Can we leave it at that?”

“I thought we already did. I didn’t ask, you offered.”

We sat in a restaurant, talking. It seemed he was wanting to reach an agreement with me that I wouldn’t ask about his profession, but I hadn’t since we were at Drake’s house, and I had no intention of doing so again.

I felt my asking seemed to annoy him, and that was exactly what I didn’t want to do.

He twisted the tips of his chopsticks through the soup and raised a bundle of noodles to his mouth. “I just think you’re pretty cool. For a chick, anyway.”

For a chick?

It seemed so sexist. “What? Like girls can’t be cool? What the fuck, Dick?”

“I said you were cool.”

“For a chick.”

“Yeah.”

“Whatever, Dick. Thanks. I guess.”

He grinned, raised the noodles in acknowledgement, and then poked them into his mouth. As he ate, I dug through my bowl with my spoon. Eating the soup with sticks was impossible, and fitting two-foot long noodles in the one-inch wide spoon seemed more impossible yet.

I decided to sip the broth until it was gone, and then deal with the noodles.

“Do you want a fork?” he asked.

“Is it legal? Can you use a fork in one of these places?”

He chuckled. “I thought you were a criminal?”

I shook my head. “I’m not a criminal in a criminal sense, at least not yet. I just don’t like cops.”

He lowered his chopsticks. “Oh, is that it? Why?”

I placed my spoon to the side of my bowl. “They’re supposed to serve and protect, right?”

“That’s what it says on the sides of their cars, anyway.”

“Well, tell that to every kid they end up shooting for no reason. I can’t log onto the internet without MSN’s newsfeed giving me another link to look at. Always the same shit. Some cop shot another unarmed citizen. And they always find in favor of the cop. They’re never held accountable. Except in some closed-door hearing. It’s like they’re untouchable.”

“Interesting.”

“What? That cops abuse their power or that I realize it?”

“Your position on it all. It’s interesting.”

“Really? Do you think they’re in the right when they do that shit?”

He shook his head. “I don’t care much for ‘em, either.”

I sighed in relief. “Good. I thought we were going to have to throw down.”

He chuckled. “So now you want to fight me?”