Dreadful Summit (11 page)

It was crazy, that music. It was like me trying to get up my nerve to do something, and then all of a sudden coming out with it like a big wave that goes crash on the beach. Then Marion was up against me, and I dropped the gun back on the chair and grabbed her as tight as I could.

I didn't have to worry about her laughing. I didn't have to worry about anybody laughing. She knew everything and she showed it all to me, and it was more wonderful than I ever dreamed in my best dreams.

Chapter Thirteen

F
IRST
when the noise came through to me I didn't think about it. I just lay there remembering about Marion and me and what it felt like and how I could do it again whenever I wanted. I could do it with her because of the way she liked me, but I could even do it with other girls now that I knew what it was all about.

That was the most important thing in the world, and when you had it everything else was kid stuff. Even school and books didn't matter then, because you knew all about the real thing and you weren't a kid any more. It felt so good thinking about it that I didn't want to stop, but the noise got louder and louder and I got all tangled up in my mind.

I figured it was the clock. The clock behind the bar at the Domino Club was ticking louder and louder because it was pretty near quarter after one and I had to go find Al Judge.

Then I opened my eyes quick because I knew it couldn't be the Domino Club. It was freezing cold in the room, and I was laying half off the couch without any clothes so I was shaking all over, and the noise was the needle on the record going around and around the way it does when the music is over and you don't stop the record.

The little light in the lamp was still on so I could see what I was doing. I got off the couch and went over to the phonograph careful so I wouldn't fall over, and hunted around until I switched it off. There were clothes all around the floor and I started to put my stuff on quick before Marion would see me. She was sound asleep on her back with the blanket up to her chin, and her mouth open with the lipstick smeared all around it, but I felt ashamed until I got some clothes on.

Then all of a sudden it hit me what time it must be and I got scared. I turned the big light on in the lamp so I could see better and then I looked all around the room for a clock, but I couldn't find one.

Then I really got scared. If Al Judge was already gone from the
Press
maybe I would have trouble finding him again, and before I could the cops might be on me for what I did to Peckinpaugh. I found the gun on the armchair and I put it into my pocket. Then I went over to Marion and started shaking her hard. First she just moved her head like the light was bothering her, then she opened her eyes and looked at me.

‘What's the matter?'

I said, ‘What time is it? I have to find out what time it is!'

She started sitting up with the blanket held up against her, and then she lay down again and said, ‘It doesn't matter. Tanya doesn't mind.'

I didn't know what she was talking about. I grabbed her shoulder and started shaking it again. ‘I have to know what time it is, don't you understand? Don't you have a clock?'

This time she sat all the way up. She held up the blanket with one hand and starting slicking down her hair with the other. ‘There's a clock in the kitchen. Do you have to go to work now?'

I didn't bother to answer her. I ran into the kitchen and the light cord bumped my face. I grabbed it and turned on the light. There was a refrigerator in the corner, and on top of it was a big alarm clock. I looked at it and thought I was crazy. It said four o'clock. I looked at it close. I even picked it up and listened so I could hear it ticking, and when I looked at it again it still said four o'clock.

There was a cupboard right next to the refrigerator, and a telephone was on it. I took hold of the phone, but I couldn't think of the number of the
Press
. Then I started shoving everything around looking for a phone book, but I couldn't find one. I made a lot of noise and Marion came in. She had the pyjamas on again, but she had a blanket around her too, because it was so cold. Only she forgot to fix her lipstick, so it was like a clown's mouth.

She said, ‘What's the matter? What are you doing?'

I said, ‘I need the phone book. Don't you even have a phone book?'

It was the first time I saw her face real good, the way the kitchen light was shining on it, and it was all like dough, and a smeared mouth, and stupid. It made me sick to think how I had kissed her, and everything, and how she was so dumb she didn't even know where the telephone book was. She kept shaking her head. ‘I don't know. It must be somewhere around,' and looking about like she expected it to come flying up to her. She looked like she was drunk.

The way the clock kept going turned my stomach upside down. It was burning like fire anyhow, and my mouth tasted so sour and dry, I felt I could drink a gallon of water. But if I got out I would find some place with a phone book and I could call from there, so I didn't have time to hang around. I pushed Marion away and went into the other room. I stuck the hat on my head and started getting into the overcoat, and Marion came running in. There was a wad of Kleenex in her pyjama pocket and she pulled it out and started to rub all around her nose with it. She said, ‘Have I done something? What are you carrying on like this for?'

‘I don't have the number. I have to call up, but I don't have the number.'

I was already at the door when she said, ‘Why don't you ask Information? Won't they have the number?'

Before she finished saying it, I ran back to the phone. I dialled four-one-one for Information, and all the while I was doing that and then calling the number they gave me, the clock kept going, and Marion kept rubbing her nose with the Kleenex so that I wanted to tell her to take the clock and get away from me.

Then somebody said ‘Daily Press,' and I held the phone tight and said, ‘I have to know if Al Judge is there. Can I talk to somebody who could tell me?'

Then a guy's voice said very loud, ‘Sports,' and I told him all over again what I wanted.

He said, ‘Mr Judge left here an hour ago. Is there any message?'

The only thing that worries me was this guy would hang up, and I had to think of something quick. I said, ‘Yes, I have a message for him, I have to give it to him right away. It's very important. Could you tell me where he lives?'

‘What do you mean, important? Can't it wait until he gets in tomorrow?'

I yelled, ‘No! It's important, don't you understand?' And then I remembered Dr Cooper and Mr Greenspan and what they were talking about and I said, ‘It's about his sister.'

The guy said, ‘Oh,' and from the way he said it I knew I was on the right track. I said again. ‘It's about his sister and I have to tell him right away. Just tell me where he lives and I'll go over there right away.

He said, ‘Hold the line,' and then it sounded like there were three or four guys talking right near the phone only I couldn't hear what they said. It took so long that I started to say, ‘Hello, hello,' into the phone when I heard the guy again. ‘Look, he's not home now. As a matter of fact, he's probably over at her place, but I'm not sure. You want to take a chance?'

I said, ‘Sure. Sure. Only what's the address?'

‘Here it is. West Twenty-eight Street. Two-ninety-nine. Have you got that?'

I said it back to him to make sure and he said, ‘That's it. But look, what's going on? Can you give us the tip-off?'

I said, ‘No. I have to tell him,' and then I hung up quick. I shoved my hand into my pocket to make sure the gun was okay, and I got that same feeling that my mind was working so it would figure everything out just right and my muscles were like iron. I had to pull my hand away quick though, because Marion pushed up against me and said, ‘Now you're not upset any more, are you?' and I said, ‘No. It's okay.'

Then I remembered I didn't have any money at all, and it would take too long to walk all the way to Al Judge's sister. I said, ‘Look, I don't have any money. Could you lend me some? I'll pay it back the next time I come here.'

That shows how it is when you stop being a kid, because she didn't ask me about coming again, but I figured it would be all right if I came even without her asking. That was the way the big guys did it, all right.

She went into the parlour and started hunting around and then she found a pocket-book. All I figured on was a dime or maybe a quarter, but she pulled out a bill and pushed it into my hand. I was so surprised I couldn't think of what to say. I just said, ‘That's okay,' and I started to go to the door.

She grabbed hold of my coat sleeve. ‘But you will be back, won't you?'

I was afraid she might get worried about giving me all that money and ask for it back, so I said, ‘Sure. I'll be back tomorrow night. I'll pay you back right away.'

She still hung on to my arm. ‘Don't you even want to kiss me good-bye?'

The way it felt with the gun digging into my leg, and knowing where Al Judge was, it didn't bother me any more, even with that smeared-up mouth. I gave her a kiss and she hung on until I started to feel funny again. Then I pulled away and went to the door. She opened it up for me, and when I was out in the hall, she said, ‘I'll be expecting you soon,' and stood there watching me while I ran down the stairs.

Before I went out the front door into the street I took a quick look at the bill and I knew why she said that. It wasn't a single. It was a five-dollar bill, and she was letting me know, only in a nice way, that I was supposed to pay it back right away.

She was all right. Even with that doughface, and that smeared mouth, and that funny way of looking at you, she was all right.

Chapter Fourteen

Y
OU
know the best thing Kipling wrote? It was about the English Army that got scared in India and started running away from the enemy. But there were two kids, not even real soldiers because all they did was play a fife and drum, and what do they do but turn around and start walking toward the enemy. Just marching that way toward the enemy all alone, and playing away like crazy on a fife and drum. It was so brave that all the soldiers from both armies just stopped and looked.

That's how I felt. Walking down that black street with the wind roaring away in my ears, I felt like everybody was watching me. My father, and everybody who saw what Al Judge did to him, and Marion, the way she was standing by the door and watching me go down the stairs, they were all standing around the big empty field and waiting for me to go out all alone and finish the job.

They would all know. Maybe not in so many words so I would get in trouble for it, but they would know anyhow. You look somebody in the eye and say, ‘Isn't it funny what happenend to Al Judge,' and they put two and two together right away. Then when you walk down the block or go into the candy store and they start whispering together, you know they aren't talking about being yellow or laying down. They're saying you're big stuff all right, but they wouldn't like to get in any trouble with you because you know how to even things up.

Every step I took, that music like waves went through me. I felt so wonderful and strong I wanted to yell as loud as I could into the wind. There was nothing around anywhere except a cat coming out of an alley onto the sidewalk in front of me.

Then I let out a real yell. It wasn't a cat at all. It was a big rat, bigger than any rat I ever saw in the bar, and it was flat on its belly with its whiskers twitching while it looked at me. The way I yelled scared it, and it took off like a black streak across the gutter, and right behind it out of the alley three or four more came running almost over my shoe.

I wasn't scared of them. I chased them all the way across the gutter yelling at them until they ran down into a basement on the other side, and I had to grab the lamp-post with the busted light in it because I almost fell over. I got mad at myself while I was hanging on to the lamp-post. If I used my head I could have pulled out the gun quick and shot a couple of them, but I forgot about the gun.

When I got down to the avenue, there was more light and a couple of people and some cars going by. I had enough money for a taxi, so I went out into the middle of the gutter and started waving my arms and yelling at the taxis when they went by. Only none of them was empty. There was always somebody riding in them, and the drivers would just yell back at me and swing around so as not to hit me.

I didn't have time to hang around any more, the way that music was banging away now and everybody was waiting for me. There was a subway on the corner, and I went down the stairs very careful and over to the change booth. An old guy with white hair sat inside on a high stool reading a paper. When I pushed the five-dollar bill in, he took a look at it and made a sour face. Then he put his face to the opening in the window and said, ‘Can't you read?' and pointed up at a sign there.

It was the one about how he didn't have to change anything bigger than a two-dollar bill, but way down in the tunnel I heard a noise like the train coming and I didn't have time to monkey around. I shoved the money at him and yelled ‘Give me my change! Don't you hear the train coming?'

The way Marion gave me the money because she was being nice and this crazy old guy didn't want to take it made me so mad I started to bang the sign with my hand as hard as I could. The guy pushed my money back again. Then he pulled a little gate shut across the bottom of the window and yelled, ‘Get out of here, you stew bum! Go on, get out of here!'

Then the train came tearing in and I didn't waste any time. I grabbed my money and ran over to the turnstile and jumped over it. The next thing I knew, the gun came tumbling out of my pocket all over the floor and I had to bend down and pick it up.