The Street

Boots roars back towards the City in his car, going so fast that it terrifies Lutie. She thinks that he’s “playing a game, a dangerous, daring game” (163), and becomes terrified that they will drive off the road and into the river, and that “[n]o one would ever know” (164) about her small life. 

As they enter the Bronx, they get pulled over by a policeman. Lutie fears what the white officer will say when he sees that both she and Boots are black. But Boots bribes the officer, who leaves them alone, and Lutie marvels at the power of money: “Even if you’re colored, it makes a difference” (166). She believes that money is the only way to keep her and Bub out of “that street” (166), and creates a plan of “using Boots Smith” (166). She hopes to get a contract to sing in his band, while at the same time avoiding his “hard, seeking hands” (166). 

Boots lets her out far enough from her apartment that she takes a bus back. As she rides, she thinks about the difference between Boots, who had a “streak of cruelty” (168) in his face, and her estranged husband, Jim, whose face had been “open, honest, young” (168).