Gwen looked at Allen and smiled as she responded the same then turned and walked away. Allen continued to look for the right flavor of Kool-Aid then headed for the checkout counter, the video store and home.
Allen reached his apartment in time to see the repairmen from the
Department of Water and Power re-root the fallen electric pole. As Allen
drove across the complex, he could see that power had not been fully
restored throughout the building, but looked as though it would be
shortly. Allen proceeded to his parking space, and began unloading his
car in the dimly lit, tandem-parking garage. As Allen walked the
stairwell on his journey to his home, the lights came on.
"It's good to know that I'll have power tonight,"
Allen said as he
reached his door.
Once Allen got inside, he relieved himself of the bags and headed for
his bedroom. He changed his clothes and made a pitcher of Kool-Aid.
He arranged the Zoo Zoos on a tray and headed for the sofa to begin his
evening. Allen put Tombstone, which was the first of the two videos he
rented, in the VCR. Allen enjoyed westerns and had a great respect for
black and white movies. Just as the introductory credits were ending,
the phone rang.
"Hello,"
Allen spoke.
"Hey, what's up," he continued.
"No, Cupid you
know what my Friday nights consist of. You brotha's go and hang, you
know where I'll be. Peace,"
Allen said as he hung up the phone.
Though Allen had seen Tombstone before, he couldn't pass up a good
western gunfight, nor could he pass up a good love story. As he reached
the mid point of the movie, there was a knock on his front door. Allen
thought of who would be knocking at his door unannounced before he
responded, then asked who it was.
"It's Cupid,"
the voice responded.
"My man,"
Allen said with disappointment in his voice,
"you know
how I feel about people just showing up at my house?"
"Man open the damn door,"
Cupid continued,
"everybody is
downstairs waiting for you to get dressed."
"Oh, first of all, I'm not opening the door. You need to go to that
phone booth downstairs and call me to let me know you would like to
come over. Secondly,"
Allen continued,
"I told you on the phone that I
wasn't going out."
"Nigga, you can go somewhere else with that phone booth shit."