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Whether it was legal or not, the landlord would
make problems-for Lenny if he suddenly produced a
~ colored roommate. I'd never met his family. What
would they think? He’d never met mine because they
would bore him. I wouldn’ expect a lover to be
polite to people just because they were good.

“Lenny had all kinds of arguments to my reason-
ing. But I wouldn’t be moved—even if I wanted to
get out of Harlem so desperately. I'd do it some way
where it wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“That was the beginning of the end. Lenny wanted
a lover around the house. I helped him find one,
although he never knew it. By this time we were well
known at the little bar. I knew one fellow who had
an awful crush on him. They got together.

“I cried my heart out when Lenny said they’d
decided to shack up together. But a Harlem kid
~ knows the score. In the long run I'd suffer less.

“Their ‘marriage’ gave me a chance to step out in
the ‘gay world’—to meet all kinds of people. Yep, I
slept with them. There must have been hundreds. I
avoided the bums and the sodden drunks. There
weren’t many hustlers around in those days. Each
friend helped me a little bit more. They tipped me off
to job leads. Every time I changed I stepped up a
little bit further.