Rollo, Tally and Mariko were sprawled in the turquoise-upholstered chairs around a big table in the middle of The Black Cat. Rollo was talking. Mariko was typing on her laptop. Matt could see she was linked to a brokerage account.
"Buying low and selling high, I hope," he said as he sat down next to her.
"A girl's got to take care of herself," she shot back.
"Two words: Persian barbecue. Aggressive marketing techniques. Go long."
Rollo, a Jamaican tae kwon do teacher Mariko had taken some lessons from, continued his story.
" ... so me dad has her movin' in, sleepin' with him in the bed where he slept with me mum just a few months ago."
Tally, Rollo's friend, an Israeli kickboxing champ Mariko and Matt had met through Rollo, got up and started jumping rope.
"Ew," she said. "That's disgusting."
The cafe was empty except for the quartet and a fat man at the far end of the restaurant, wearing sunglasses and sketching with a piece of charcoal on a large white drawing pad. The waiter brought three large bowls of cappucino and set them down while he looked at Matt. Matt raised his hand slightly and shook his head to let him know he didn't want anything.
"Udovic," Tally said to the waiter, a Serb in a fedora, "I saw you smoking back there."
"Call 911," he said. "Oh, I forget. You still kickboxer?"
"Second place in women's regionals."
"Oh," Udovic said. "Then I better vatch my ass." He walked away.
"Damn right," Tally shouted as he disappeared back into the kitchen.
Mariko noticed Matt was thrashed up.
"You look like you could use a double cap," she told him.
"I'm past the point where that would help. It hasn't been your typical day. I'll tell you later."
"How old is she?" Mariko asked Rollo.
"Madelaine? She's 19. But that's not the worst part."
"Madelaine?" Tally asked.
"Ooh, ooh, I know what happened," Mariko chimed in, smiling wildly, pleased with herself that she'd guessed what was coming.
Rollo saw she'd figured it out.
"Yeah, yeah, but let me tell you. See me dad took off to Anaheim on a bodyguard job _ one of the Mighty Ducks was signing autographs at some school, and the last time he did that some arsehole walked up and said he slept with the mon's wife, just so he could sue the mon after the mon punched him _ anyway, me dad's gone, and I'm teaching me greenbelt class at the park, and I get home. And there's Madelaine, in the back yard. She's sittin' out by the the pool, getting a suntan. She's naked."
"Ew," Tally said."Madelaine."
"So I'm like: Oh, sorry, didn't mean to intrude on you. But she's all: Oh, no, don't be sorry. And she comes into the living room and says: I was actually kind of hoping you'd come."
"Oh," Tally said, still jumping rope. "Madelaine!"
"I knew it!" Mariko cried triumphantly, then took a sip from her giant cappucino.
"And?" Matt asked Rollo.
"And." Rollo answered with a shrug.
"Oooh, Madelaine," Tally concluded as she stopped her jump-roping.
"So in walks me dad, and she pushes me off her and climbs up from under me and she's all: Oh, Rollo, Rollo, I'm sorry."
"She told YOU she was sorry?" Mariko asked.
"No not me, me dad. He's Rollo, too. I'm Rollo Junior. So she's like: It was an accident."
"An accident?" Tally asked.
"So," Rollo said. "Livin' in me car and out of a job."
"Should I talk to my dad?" Mariko asked.
"No, I'll stick with tae kwon do teaching. I'll just have to find another donjon to work at, being that me dad's not wanting me there no more."
"How're you doing?" Tally asked him.
"Oh, I think I'm getting where I need to be. I think I'll take regionals this time, better than last year."
"That's great," Mariko said. Then she turned to Matt. "You should take from Rollo. He's real good. Rollo, show him."
"Nah," Rollo said, shrugging.
"Oh, please, please," Mariko said, hands clasped.
"Well, OK."
He walked to the far end of the cafe, then performed a series of ka tas as he moved toward them. Slowly at first, and then faster and then back and forth across the Black Cat at lightning speed.
"I can't go half that fast," Tally said.
Rollo climbed atop a table and jumped to another, still showing off his moves.
"Vat da fuck yoo doink?" Udovic said as he walked from the kitchen, blowing smoke.
"Moves," Rollo answered. When Rollo got next to him. Rollo kicked at his head. Before Udovic could flinch, the fedora was flying across the room.
"Ya, OK, moofs," Udovic said as he walked away to pick up his hat. "Just get da fuck off da table, ya?"
"I should take some lessons," Matt said. "How long do you think it'd take me to learn that?"
Rollo looked him up and down.
"Not a good candidate, mon," Rollo said. "Coolness. Angles. Efficiency. Too stiff."
"Whaddya mean, too stiff?" Matt protested.
"Look," he pointed to Tally, languid in her chair. "Warm. Flexible."
"What about me?" Mariko asked.
"Oh, you, you're very good," he said. "Very, very flexible."
"You guys," Matt dismissed them. "You think you're all that."
"Look," Rollo told Matt, and walked across the cafe in a military march, mocking Matt.
"Now look," he said, and walked back rolling his hips and shoulders.
"Oh, come on," Matt protested again.
"You can always learn," Tally comforted him. "Maybe."
Rollo took Mariko's hands and lifts her from her seat, leading her into a dance to the music on the cafe's stereo, a slow, funky techno beat with a melodic synthesizer line on top.
"Ah, the dance of the zephyr," Matt kidded her.
"The gods speak through my body," she replied. "It's not me."
Mariko broke away from Rollo and took Matt's hand, raising him from his seat as Rollo had done to her. Matt joined them in their dance, bobbing his head slightly and snapping his fingers. The music changed to a reggae song and Tally tied the jump rope between two chairs.
"Lim-BO!" she declared. "Lim-BO! Lim-BO!"
Rollo bent over backward and slid under the rope, then joined Tally's chant.
"Lim-BO! Lim-BO!"
Tally, then Mariko bent over backwards too, swaying their shoulders rhythmically as. They both barely cleared the low passage.
"Lim-BO! Lim-BO! Lim-BO!" the three of them chanted in Matt's direction.
"No fair," he said. "I'm taller."
"Lim-BO! Lim-BO! Lim-BO! Lim-BO!"
He gave it a try, but as soon as he bent his knees and tilted his head back he fell over backwards, catching himself on his palms. The sun had gone down and the neon light was glowing in the window, which was catching headlights as they flashed past on Melrose. Matt sat on the floor and laughed. Mariko, Tally and Rollo danced around him to the reggae beat, chanting.
"Lim-BO! Lim-BO! Lim-BO! Lim-BO!"
The fat man in the corner sketched furiously.
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