Home To Harlem

Back in Harlem, the streets are full of people, smells, and sights as always. One night, Jake is in his lodging room waiting for his landlady to bring him his meal. Heis sick, and a doctor has told him to stay in bed and to stop drinking if he wants to get better. Jake has his landlady to bring him pails of beer despite the doctor’s warning.

When Ray visits him, Jakelaughs at the irony of getting sick in the U.S. When he was in Europe, the doctors always warned the men about the need to use protection to avoid getting sexually transmitted diseases. He never got infected while he was abroad, but as soon as he came back to the U.S., he caught something. Precautions like those recommended by the military doctors always seemed to be something for educated men like Ray, not ordinary people like him.

Ray tells Jake that they don’t live in the Middle Ages. It’s a modern time in which protection from diseases exists, and Jake has to start using them. Jake tells Ray he is too embarrassed to use condoms when he is with woman. Ray says he cannot imagine anything embarrassing Jake.