Fate is a fickle mistress and she certainly played a hand in the impromptu road trip that led Lee Bevins to his destiny. If he hadn't happened to glance at the happenings section of the Sunday paper announcing the event, he might have missed it altogether. There was a lot of time to reflect about his fantasies on the hour-long drive to Philadelphia and a lot of time to chicken out. Having arrived early, he settled into his seat and nervously fidgeted around. An expert at telling lies, he calculated how he was going to tell anyone that questioned him about his presence there that he was really just there to get a copy of the book signed for a friend who couldn't make it that evening. He was overly paranoid that someone was going to recognize him but he didn't have to worry one little bit because no one was paying attention to him at all. He was insignificant in the proceedings and he seemed to fade into the setting like so much mediocre fodder in a pack of hungry alpha wolves. In that moment, he knew what Ralph Ellison must have felt when he penned his seminal work, The Invisible Man.
It was standing room only at the Borders bookstore as Scottie Lowe prepared to read from her recently published book, In Loving Color, which was to be followed by a brief question and answer period and signing copies of her very controversial collection of erotic stories. The place was packed and everyone was abuzz, copies in hand, anxious to speak with the writer and have her sign something of meaning to them in their books. Black women were in the house without a doubt, with their seemingly impeccablely matched outfits, perfect hair and makeup, and expensive designer stilettos that made even the shortest of them appear to monstrously tower over the diminutive Lee. They were huddled together with the pages turned to their favorite stories, discussing the characters like they were real people with real dramas and relating to them in ways that seemed transcendent. There were Black men in the place for sure and Lee found it odd that they all seemed to be so articulate and politically outspoken. He'd never really been around Black men that were scholars, and certainly not so many at one time, but they seemed to be staging some serious dialogue about the social commentaries in the book and trying to holla at the fine ladies as well. Lee made note that the white men in the place all had the same look of fear on their faces as he had, petrified someone was going to call them out for their secrets that Scottie had so expertly illustrated in black and white. He had found a seat next to the only white woman in the place and tried to make polite conversation without eliciting too many questions. She was cute, not gorgeous but cute. He dared not ask her too many questions about why she was there because he didn't want her to ask him in return.