Summary

This second story starts, as the name implies, with a late night meeting in Socrates’ tiny apartment. There are five men at the meeting; Socrates, Right Burke, Markham Peale, Stony Wile, and Howard Shakur – all men who live in Socrates’ neighborhood and who he has formed acquaintances and friendships with during his eight years there. The subject of the meeting is a young junky named Petis, who Howard Shakur’s daughter saw stab and kill a young local man named LeRoy while robbing him. There has been a series of stabbings in the neighborhood recently and, although this is the first one that has been witnessed, it has been widely assumed Petis is responsible for them. The meeting is about what, if anything, the men should do.

Although the other men make suggestions, such as going to the police or telling the rest of the...