Summary

As the narrator leaves the school he sees a young man that resembles Sonny, but the young man is actually Sonny’s friend. The narrator never liked him, but sometimes gave him money when asked. The two walk toward the narrator’s subway station. The narrator asks him why he wasn’t arrested along with Sonny. Sonny’s friend replies that he wasn’t there, that he stays away from “them people” (p. 2). He goes on to say that he isn’t smart, because if he were smart he would have reached for a pistol long ago. He mentions that he feels sort of responsible for Sonny’s drug arrest, because Sonny had asked him, long ago, how it felt to do heroin, and the friend told him it felt great. However, he never gave heroin to Sonny.

The narrator wonders out loud what will happen...