Camp Pleasant (11 page)

“He’s all right,” I heard Ed say. “It’s just a little—” He broke off suddenly and glared at me as we came up. I avoided his small eyes as Miss Leiber plucked up Tony’s hand and examined it.

“Well,” she said in a disgusted voice, “This boy will have to come back to the dispensary again.”

“Why?” Ed asked.

“Why?” she said. I had to restrain a grin at the way she spoke to him. “The boy’s stitches have opened, that’s why.
Cleaning garbage cans
!
Uh
!
“

“You sure?” Ed’s voice was sullen.

Miss Leiber didn’t answer but, with a hiss, she grabbed Tony’s good hand and said, “
Come on.”

“Don’ wanna,” Tony said.

“Would you prefer
bleeding
to death!” she asked, half-dragging him off.

When I turned back, Ed Nolan was looking at me with an expression that made me glad Doc was there.

“So,” Ed said. “I guess ya think ya beat me.” “Beat you?” I said as blandly as possible. “I wasn’t trying to beat anybody. I was only concerned with—”

“I’m not
interested
in what you have t’say,” Ed interrupted. He reached out his right arm and poked my chest with a sausage finger. “As of now,
boy,”
he said, “You’re on my shit list. Before the summer’s over, you’ll wish ya’d never
heard
o’ this camp.” “We’ll see,” I said.

He tensed suddenly and I tensed with him, expecting the worst. Then, with what must have been a superhuman effort on his part, he forced down the anger and managed a twisted smile.

“Go ahead,” he said. “Be cute. Be as cute as ya like. You’ll be crawlin’ before I’m done with ya. You’ll be
beggin’
me t’fire ya.”

“Take it easy, Ed,” Doc said. “Harper was only trying to—” “Keep out o’ this, Doc,” Ed said. “This isn’t your business.” “I run this camp
too
, Ed,” Doc said, suddenly cold. Ed glanced at him, looking blank. “Awright, Doc,” he said. “Take it easy. I didn’t mean nothin’ against you. It’s this jaybird I got my eye on.” Finger pointing at me again.
“Good luck,”
I told him.

When I entered the Nolan cabin that night, Mack, Ed and two other counselors were playing poker at a card table, Bob was sitting in a wicker chair reading a book, Ellen was on the couch, looking at a
Life
magazine. I sat down beside her.

“How have you been?” I asked.

“Fine,” she murmured.

“Good,” I said, then looked over at Bob. “What are you reading?” I asked.

He held up the book. “I can’t see it,” I said loudly.

“Passage to India,”
he said.

“That’s a good book,” I said. “I read it twice.”

“I don’t care if ya read it ten times, Harper,” Ed cut in. “Pipe down if ya want t’stay here.”

“Sure, Ed,” I said. “Sure, I’ll pipe down.”

I looked back at Ellen. “You look very pretty tonight,” I said.

Her smile was more flustered than pleased. “Thank you,” she managed. I nodded, glancing at Ed who was just lowering wary eyes.

“That a new dress?”

“What? Why … why no, I’ve—”

“You heard what I said, Harper,” Ed Nolan said.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “Yes, I did.”

“Shut up then or clear out.”

“Sure, Ed,” I said. “Sure. I’ll shut up.” I looked at Bob. “Chess, Bob?” I asked.

He smiled nervously. “Okay,” he said softly.

“Excuse me, Ellen,” I said.

She didn’t answer but, for a moment, our eyes held and I got the feeling that she understood.

Bob and I set up the board on the other card table. As I put my men on the squares, I kept glancing at Mack. Abruptly I swept half my pieces off the board onto the floor and saw the poker players start out of their rapt concentration. Ed’s head snapped around and he glared at me.

“Butter fingers,” I said.

I made the first move without thought, then rested my chin on my palms and stared at Mack. From the corners of my eyes, I noticed Ellen looking at me and I glanced over and smiled. Her lips seemed to stir but she said nothing.

Then I stared at Mack again. After a few moments he glanced over.

“Whattaya
lookin’
at?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said, and he went back to his cards. I kept staring at him.

“Your move,” Bob said.

“My move?” I said loudly.

“Listen, boy—” Ed started angrily, and I made a face of much concern.

“Oh
… gee
, Ed, I’m sorry. I forgot myself.”

I made another thoughtless move and stared at Mack again. Mack glanced over at me, growing suspicious.

“You lookin’ at me?” he asked.

I shook my head, a sincere expression of negation on my face. Then I saw him lean over and whisper something to Ed and Ed looked up at me, a contemptuous curl to his lips. I knew exactly what they were talking about.

“How come you’re not in your cabin, boy?” Ed asked me.

“My cabin?” I asked. “Why should I be in my cabin, Ed?”

“Thought ya might want t’tell your boys some stories,” said Ed, winking at Mack. Mack snickered.

“No, I’m not as good as Merv was,” I said. I could feel Bob looking at me.

“I bet you’re not,” Ed said, hopelessly unbland. “Loomis was good at lots o’ things, wasn’t he?”

“Yes
. He was. That’s because he was so intelligent.”

Ed and Mack exchanged a man-of-the-world look. “That’s because he was so intelligent,” said Ed to Mack.

“Oh, is that why?” Mack said. “I thought it was somethin’ else.” They both chuckled.

“No,” I said. “It was because he was so intelligent. What did
you
think it was?”

“Not a thing,” said Mack, exchanging a grin with Ed. “Not a thing.” Snicker.
“Dear boy.”

“Oh,” I said. Loudly.
“I
see. I thought maybe you had something intelligent to offer the conversation.”

Even Mack couldn’t miss that. I sat looking at his glowing face, thinking about the rain check.

“You lookin’ for trouble?” Arthur MacNeil asked me.

“Who, me?” I said. “No, not me. I never look for trouble. I like peace and quiet.”

“I thought ya would,” Mack said scornfully.

“Would
what
, Mack?”

“Wouldn’t want no trouble.” He glanced aside to a pleased Ed Nolan.

“Trouble, Mack?” I said, my voice getting harder. “That’s my middle name, Mack. Didn’t you know that?” I stared into the eyes of Arthur MacNeil without blinking.

He put down his cards.

“I think you’re all bull,” he said. “What d’ya think o’ that?”

“Ed.”
Ellen’s voice was faint, lost in the shuffle.

“I don’t think anything of it,” I said. “It isn’t worth thinking about. Have you got something in your files that’s
worth
thinking about?”

“Ya wanna step outside!” Mack flared.

“Now that’s worth thinking about,” I said.

“Listen, you—”

“Awright,
hold
it!” Ed ordered. He looked over at me. “Are ya just blowin’ off gas as usual, boy, or have ya got the guts t’back up all your noise?”

“No, I have no guts,” I said. “I’m scared to death. I’m quaking in my boots. All of us fellas who have an I.Q. of over
forty
always quake in our boots at the thought of a fight.”

“I thought s—” he stared, then figured it out. Red splotches moved up his cheeks and he stood up suddenly. “Maybe y’don’t wanna fight, Harper,” he said, “but you’re gonna.”

“Ed.”
Ellen unheard.

“Is that right?” I said. “Who do you have in mind, Ed?”

Mack was standing now beside Ed.

“Get your ass off that chair, Harper,” Ed said furiously, “and get outside.”

“Ed,
pleasel
” Ellen said.

“That’s enough, El,” Ed told her. He gestured with his head toward the kitchen. “Go on.
Getl
You’re gonna
fight
!
“

“Fight!” I said. “Fight! The very thought appalls me. We fellas who read books never fight! We fellas who like good music and have a vocabulary of more than twenty words are scared to
death
of fighting! We fellas who can conceive of anything in the world that isn’t brutish and ignorant and vicious and cruel!” A deep, shuddering breath emptied my lungs. “We never fight,” I said, “except—” I glared at Mack—”Maybe once in a while.” I flung off Ed’s arm. “
Let go,”
I said in a low voice, “I’m fighting him. You don’t have to escort me.”

“Ed,
stop
it,” Ellen begged, following. “You can’t let—”

“Stay
out o
this, El,” Ed demanded. “This jaybird’s been askin’ for it a long time. Now he finally talked himself into it.”

“Looks like it,” I said. “Sure looks like it.” I wasn’t feeling quite as flippant as I sounded. I took off my jacket. “Hold this, will you?” I asked Ed. He showed teeth. “Oh,” I said, “I thought you’d like to hold it.” I tossed it to a tight-faced Bob, then turned back to Mack.

“All right, Mack,” I said, “let’s get into high gear.”

He let go with a haymaker that would have ended the whole thing one-two-three if I hadn’t leaned back, fast. The impetus of his swing sent him flailing to one side and down on one knee.

“Good show,” I said. “That’s what I like about you, Mack. You know exactly what you’re doing.”

Mack lunged at me again, his right fist driving into my left shoulder. I staggered to one side and drove a right into his face which grazed his cheek. He fell back a little, then dove in again. We clinched and I saw the glaring bulb over the kitchen doorway spinning around us as we ripped and stumbled over the uneven ground. I could feel the hard blocks of muscles in Mack’s arms too and I realized, with not a little shock, that he was probably three times as strong as I was.

Abruptly, his right hand was free and he drove it at my stomach. My flung-down left arm deflected his hard fist a little but it drove into the flesh over my left hip, sending a knife of pain into my guts. I sucked in air through gritted teeth and managed to knock aside the left he was throwing at my face. I could feel the wind of it.

Before he could recover, I drove another right into his face and got me a rewarding splash of blood from both nostrils. “Son-of-a- bitch!” he snarled, leaping at me again. I jumped to the side, gasping at the pain under my heart. “Temper, temper, Mack,” I managed. “You mustn’t—”

He caught me on the chest with a miscalculated blow at my head and I fell back toward the tree that stood before the kitchen window. In a flash of side vision, I saw Ed Nolan’s face, twisted into a mask of vicious exultance. It gave me back the strengthening anger I needed to regain balance as Mack rushed in again.

I knocked aside his right but it was so strongly driven that it still grazed the side of my head. I threw a right at his stomach but hit his belt buckle instead. I felt his left driving into my right arm, numbing it and, with a lunge, I rammed my left into his face again, putting my body behind it. More blood.

“Son-
of-a!” he gasped, wiping the blood away furiously.

I should have taken advantage of his pause but I stood there, breathing heavily, until he caught his breath and advanced on me again, slowly now.

“That last one was for Merv,” I said, wondering why I was trying to make him angrier than he already was. “The one on the nose, I mean.”

“Queer!” he snarled, swinging at me.

I jumped in so close that his wrist banged against my shoulder. Then I drove a hard left into his chest and a right to his jaw. A flash of terrible pain ran up my right arm as I hit his rock-like jaw. I tried not to show it. Mack staggered back.

“Queer?” I gasped, grateful for the temper he was recalling. I drove a furious, body-weighted right into his face and couldn’t help the groan as fiery pain flew up my arm again. With a furious sob, Mack drove his right into my stomach and that was almost that. I doubled over with a gasp, then felt something like a mallet blow on my head and went reeling back into the tree, getting my breath knocked out.

“Finish
‘im!” Ed cried suddenly and, once more, gave me the strength to get up.

Three Macks came running out of the wavering night and one of them hit me—hard. I went flinging back against the tree again, banging my head against the trunk.

“Stop
it!” Ellen screamed but no one did.

Mack drove a fist into my stomach again but I doubled over so fast he missed with his next punch at my head. I felt him stumble heavily, off balance, against me and, straightening up I accidentally drove the top of my skull against his jaw. I don’t know what he felt but, for me, it was like getting hit with a shillelagh.

Mack staggered back, one hand to his face. I took a feeble swing at one of him but it was the wrong one. He lurched forward and hit me in the face. I put what I had left into a left to his stomach and, this time, got a sucked-in breath for my efforts.

“Bastid!”
Mack gasped.

“Get ‘im!” roared Ed. “
Get
‘im!”

Mack swung and missed as I ducked and I hit him weakly in the nose again. He cried out in furious pain, then, with a lunge, threw himself against me, pinning me to the tree and pummeling at my body. It felt like someone beating me with a log. I started slumping.

I don’t know when it was he drew back a little to get a final ending haymaker at my jaw. It seemed like days. All I know is that I could see it coming and sensed that either I got out of the way or it was all over. So, as it came, I fell heavily to one knee and jerked in my head.

Mack’s cry of agony was awful as, swinging with all his might, he hit the tree instead of my face.

I fell back limply against the trunk and, through a mist, saw him stumble back, crying hoarsely, “My
wrist
, my
wristl “

“Come ‘ere, boy,” Ed ordered suddenly, rushing to him

Everything was silent then except for Mack’s teeth-clenched whines.

“Uh-oh,” I heard Ed say. “Let’s get t’the dispensary.”

I watched dizzily as he led the whimpering Mack up the path. I tried to struggle up but fell back weakly against the tree. Legs appeared beside me, then a blurred face and I felt a hand slide under my armpit.