She had a wooden cockroach, inch and a half long, hanging from each ear, and I told her, "Man, Neena, I can get you the real thing twice that size. We raise them bigger than Rottweilers in here. Nastier, too. You want a breeding pair?"

She laughed, showing them big cow teeth of hers. "I done had my fill of breeding." She was big-boned, like my father, but short. When she sat down across from me in the interview room, her legs hidden under the shelf on her side of the partition, she looked like a little girl about to slide under the supper table.

I didn't want to talk about her kids. Even though this was a regular visit, I thought of it as different. We had a "topic." Neena had just gone to that celebration them people put on to honor our mother. I wanted to hear about it, but I didn't want to come at it straight on. So I pointed my finger at Neena's earrings and asked her if she wore them to the Big Show.

"You know I did," she said, all sass.

"Ain't you the rebel." I smirked. I knew maybe I shouldn't have pulled that attitude on her, but what the hell. I ain't getting no time off for good behavior.

Neena's got skin the color of pine wood, but her eyes are as dark as mine and when she gets mad this sudden smokiness comes across them; they turn hard and scary, like rocks with lightning trapped inside. I didn't want them to catch too close a look at what I was thinking; so I dropped my eyes down to her mouth.

Her lips were painted a deep red, like pig's blood. They curled tight as drum skins and barely moved when she said, "No, I ain't no rebel, but I am me."

Maybe I should've kept my mouth shut at that, too, but man, I started telling her we're all just ourselves, even when we're making excuses for who we are, pretending to be someone else, and when someone tries to really be themselves, all shit breaks loose because the powers that be--

"I don't have time for that bullshit," she said. "Save it for the guys inside. You want to talk to me or what?"

I leaned onto the back legs of the plastic scoop chair and closed my eyes halfway. I caught a look from Jimmy, sitting at the next seat down, taking a visit from his own sister. Holding his look, I told Neena, "You got a captive audience." Jimmy laughed.

"You did send my regrets," I said as I moved forward to stare Neena in the face, "that I wasn't able to attend due to a previous commitment?" Jimmy laughed harder. Neena flashed me a look, and I raised my hands up.

Her head ticked back and forth, but she decided to let it pass. She folded her hands on the counter and said, "Mama's award was for community service. For all the good things she done for so many people in our county."