I stand up and move the chair back to the table.

Percy gathers up the newspaper, careful not to drop hair clippings on the linoleum.

--Yeah, he sneaky.

He stuffs the paper in a garbage pail under the sink.

--But he sure as shit did not kill Luther.

He comes back to the table and lights up.

--Luther done that to his own damn self.

He looks at the clock above the stove.

--Let's go see 'bout makin' you a place to sleep.

We're in the parlor. I help Percy tuck a sheet into place on the couch.

--Why?

He pins one end of a pillow under his chin and works a pillowcase around it.

--Why what?

--Why'd Luther kill himself?

--Don't know.

He drops the pillow on the couch.

--Tired of livin', I guess.

He goes to the closet and pulls down two musty afghans.

--Know how that is, don't ya?

I take the blankets and spread them on the couch.

--Not yet.

--That so? Don't get tired of life yo ownself?

He sits on the old recliner that faces the TV. I accept the cigarette he holds out to me.

--Yeah, I guess sometimes I do.

--Sure you do. Me, I feel that way most all the time now.

We light up.

Percy touches the remote. The TV blips on. He flips a couple channels, then turns it off. I lean over and knock some ash into the tray resting on the arm of his chair.

--How'd he do it?

--Like they say, stabbed hisself in the eyes.

--How'd he manage that?

He looks at me.

--Ever meet the X?

--Nope.

--Man had willpower.

--Why you think he did it that way?

He pulls the lever on the side of his chair and it tilts back until he's looking at the ceiling, blowing smoke at the fixture above his head.

--Didn't like what he saw no more. Didn't like what he saw comin'.

He talks to the ceiling.

--See, back when that picture was taken, we had us a time. Had us a fight. All this up here was Coalition. Till the X. He made it happen. Revelation. Revolution. Once that was done, once we was our own masters, things still wasn't easy. No more of that Coalition welfare blood comin' in. Had to work, find new ways to keep people fed. Had to integrate the brothas and sistas with the Latinos. Havin' the revolution, that was just the start. But we got there, the X made damn sure we got there. An' for awhile then, things was easy. People start forgettin', don't remember what the cost was. Got people like Papa sayin' it time for a change. Sayin' Luther had his time, now we stable, now we at peace, now we start communicatin' with the Coalition again. Time to let bygones be bygones. War was war, but now we got prosperity. Hook up with the Coalition and it be even more prosperous. Bull. Shit. They just comfortable. Want to be more comfortable. Ask me, Papa's on the Coalition tip. Ask me, that spook Dexter Predo whisperin' in his ear.

Saying Predo's name, he turns his head and spits at the floor.

--So maybe Luther looked at all this. Saw his people getting fat, saw his old friend gunnin' for him, saw another fight on the way, maybe he saw all that, and he decided he didn't want to see no more. Maybe he said to hisself, Time to go out. Go out on my terms. Go out and maybe leave a little gift behind, something my boy Digga, my smart boy Digga, can turn to his hand. So maybe that why he did it that way, the hard way. Man's got daggers in his eyes, ain't no way no one gonna say he did it hisself. Somethin' like that, it like to cause an outrage when Digga stand up an' say, Coalition did it! White devils assassinated our king! That a rivetin' image: a king with knives in his eyes. That rallied the troops alright.

He picks up the ashtray and hands it to me.

--Put that on that table there.