Ten Mile River (3 page)

‘How you want me to do it?' she said.

‘Huh?'

‘Your head.'

‘My head?'

‘Maybe the same but shorter?'

‘Um, the same but shorter.'

She went to work on Ray's head. ‘You're funny-lookin kind of.'

‘I am so.'

She laughed. She had a great laugh, loud and warm like goddam José's. ‘That came out bad,' she said. ‘Like, you look like you'd be funny, I mean.'

‘I'm like not that funny, though.'

She laughed through her nose, cut Ray's hair. ‘Hold still, sweetie pie.'

You did
not
just call me sweetie pie
, he almost said. Yolie called him sweetie pie all the time, but that was an old lady saying it. This was a real chick saying it now. Oh. My. God.

The girl spun the chair so that Ray faced her. ‘You a'right? Your head's turnin all red and you're breathin funny. You havin a heart attack on me?'

‘Swallowed my. Gum. It'll pass. Don't worry, no need to break out the defibrillator just yet.'

‘What?'

‘No, like I'm sayin I won't go into cardiac arrest on you, you gotta start the cardiopulmonary resuscitation.'

‘You a smart-type dude, huh?'

‘Psh, nah.'

‘Yeah, then what's this?' She grabbed the magazine he'd rolled into his hand. ‘
Scientific American
, eh? String theory? Most boys your age be readin
Hustler
.'

‘I read
Hustler
too.'

The chick winked. ‘I got the feelin you're one of those brainiacs, tries to hide it so your boys don't give you bad play. It's in your eyes.'

His eyes?
Her
eyes. He wanted to speak differently with her, to use almost proper English, maybe even half-decent grammar, God help him. He couldn't speak, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. He chewed his gum to work up some saliva to unglue his tongue.

‘Came back up, huh?' the chick said.

‘Huh?'

‘The gum you, ahem, swallowed.'

Shit. ‘Can't keep a good gum down.' Do not talk anymore. Do, not, be, a, loser. For five seconds. Try.

She offered her hand for a shake. ‘Trini.'

Ray stared at this Trini chick's hand. He'd never touched a woman before except for when he'd accidentally bump into one in the crowded street or when one cut his hair, and those times he knew the chick was just touching him because she had to. But here this chick wanted to touch him, to hold his clammy overgrown paw. ‘Trini?'

‘That's my name,' Trini said.

Ray nodded as he shook Trini's hand. Static electric shocks numbed his fingers. He wondered if she felt them too.

‘I don't suppose you have a name?' she said.

‘Yup.'

Trini laughed an aria. ‘What is it then, your tag?'

‘Ray. Mond.'

‘Mond? That's a slick last name, boy. Ray
Mond,
James
Bond
. P.S., you
seen
that new Bond boy? He's
off,
the, hook fine
, ohmygod.'

‘No, I mean like R-Raymond. All one word.'

‘Oh,
Ray
mond!'

That laugh. That music. Them eyes. Ray's legs shook. He was going to wet himself. ‘I got to go to the can.'

‘Go 'head, sweetie pie. It's in the—'

‘I know, thanks.' He'd only tossed off in there a hundred times while waiting for haircuts. He ran to the bathroom, his legs so shaky he had to sit to pee.

4

José was working the Grand Theft Auto stick when Ray kicked in the door, his arms full of supplies, a hundred bucks worth of Cap'n Crunch, roach spray, dog food, cigarettes, scratch tickets, and Hershey's syrup. Ray dropped the stuff to the floor, sank down against the wall. ‘My life is over.'

‘Whatever happened to
Hi honey I'm home
?'

‘You gotta see her. She's so fine she makes your guts squish.'

‘Whatever that means. And that's what you said about that chick what bags groceries at the bodega. Woman won't even let us steal gum, selfish hag.'

‘J, look at me. This is serious. She's
Playboy
pretty.'

José spun from the TV to Ray. ‘Where she at?'

‘Yolie's.'

‘Tt, Yolie.' José spun back to the TV, worked the joystick, killed two guys with head shots. ‘Hell, son, I seen that old lady. She ain't all that.'

‘Not her. She got a niece.'

José spun back to Ray. ‘You're messin up my game here.'

‘She's better-lookin than Miss Febs. Last year's calendar.'

José dropped his joystick and all interest in the video game. ‘I'm gonna ride all the way up there in the rain and I'm not gonna wanna kill you when I see her? Dag. Then let's go.'

‘Now?'

‘No, next year. Grab your board.'

‘Lemme grab my board then.'

‘I just said that.' José rummaged his clothes pile, did the sniff check on a shirt, decided it passed, headed out and uphill.

Ray looked at the fat dope dog that had settled at his feet to slobber all over its paws. ‘Why'd I do that, Fatty? Why'd I tell him? Now she's gonna fall in love with him. She liked me, man. She thought I was smart. I'm a goddam idiot.'

‘Yo Ray!'

‘Comin, dammit!'

Yolie's was closed, the door sign flipped to
WE'LL BE BACK
AT
…and then there was a paper clock that had lost its hands. The hail stopped and left behind a muggy-ass drizzle.

José took off his shirt, wiped the rain off his trick bike.

‘Wipin down his bike with his goddam shirt. It's okay to
wear
your shirt once in a while too,' Ray said. ‘They got rags for the bike wipe.'

‘Then you got a
rag
on you,
Mom
?' José ran his fingers over the nicks he'd earned during his overcareful, twenty-eight-minute shave that morning. He was shaving goddam near once a week now.

Ray shaved once a month. He didn't need to. He fussed with a zit.

‘Let's swipe us some cold beer,' José said.

‘Let's.'

They swiped beer, coasted double on José's trick bike down the Drive to Ten Mile River and crashed the bike in the high grass. They drank and José fell asleep.

Ray lay back and watched the last clouds hustle east. The breeze picked up and bent the grass over him. The sun was strong but the air had dried out. Seeing this peacefulness, Ray got the feeling he was on the edge of understanding something big, but he didn't get past being on the edge. He sipped his beer, drifted, slept, dreamed of the Trini chick. She was putting her hand into his shorts—

He woke up, José's finger poking at the bulge in his shorts. Ray stood up fast. ‘Yo, get off, man. The fuck? Yo, this ain't juvie, son.'

‘You're funny, Ray-man. You're yellin at me and you're still hard, man.'

‘Am not either. That's normal.'

José fell over laughing, thrashed in the high grass. ‘That's normal,' he says. Then we gotta put you out to stud, homie. That or the circus.
Check it out check it out
check it out, Boner
Man! G'head, homeboy. Tame that snake. Go do what you always do ten times a day, “Yeah, I'm-a go check out the
river
,” he always says. “Be back in like five minutes.” Ha!'

‘Yeah, and what about you, all them trips to the woods. “Gonna go pitch a stool.” Right. Bringin your
readin
material with ya. Can't even read, ya bastard.'

‘Don't need to know how to read to git the gist of Miss Febs's story.'

‘Pokin my package. Hell is wrong with you, man?'

‘Look at the way he's lookin at me,' José said. ‘Yo, I'm a proven matador, man. I
been
with chicks. You ain't even kissed one.'

‘You ain't been with chicks, lame-ass liar.'

‘Have so. I even sucked titty. I got milk.'

‘Look at this bullshit artist. A chick got to be pregnant to lactate.'

‘Lackate?' José said.

‘Make milk. Or else she got to have just birthed a kid.'

‘No she
don't
.'

‘I read it in a book.'

‘Damn readin,' José said. ‘Really? Maybe it was my spit mixin with the baby powder she sprinkled into her bra.'

‘Maybe it was her roll-on, you was suckin her
arm
pit. Breast milk, he says. Li. Ar.'

‘I tolt you, that one chick who works the ice cream truck with her pops, that time I helped her wash the truck, I sucked her titties for like at
least
twenty seconds.'

‘You sucked your
mama's
titties for twenty seconds,' Ray said.

‘I sucked
your
mama's titties and made her take me shoppin after.' José sucker punched Ray, a gut shot.

Ray body slammed the J-man. They rolled themselves filthy in the riverside clay. José wiped himself off. ‘Hoo… Dag, I ain't laughed like this since yesterday.'

‘Yeah.'

‘Yeah.'

The boys caught their breath. José slapped the back of Ray's head. ‘How much money we got, kid?'

‘None.'

‘Sounds about right. Let's go get us some money and hit the flicks, Ray-Ray.'

‘Sounds about right. Y'all keep your hands to yourself from now on.'

‘Relax, son. You kill me, you just about do.'

5

‘Back so soon?' Jerry said. The shop was cranking, new windshields going up assembly line style.

‘Buck fifty this time, Jerry, and I mean it.' José folded his arms.

Jerry laughed. ‘Kid, you gotta wait a while before you pop more shields. People'll get suspicious.'

‘No they won't. We'll do the other side of Gun Hill, you know, Woodlawn, over by the seminary. Right, Ray?'

‘Cemetery,' Ray said.

‘Nah nah,' Jerry said. ‘They got too many shops over by Gun Hill Woodlawn for anybody to come down to my place. Nah look, come back next week.'

‘C'mon man, we gotta see the new
Spider-Man
. Give us twenty bucks.'

‘Yous kill me, you know that, right? Yous frickin slay me. The movies they gotta see now. Frickin Spidey.' Jerry sucked his teeth, squinted at the boys. ‘Tell yous what. Here.' He flipped them a fifty. ‘That's a tip there for yous, for this mornin.'

José took. He looked at Ray. Ray shrugged.

‘Yous don't say thanks?'

‘Way I see it,' José said, ‘that's what you owe us.'

‘You kids are too much. 'Ey, c'mere.' Jerry took them into his greasy office, shut the door. ‘Yous wanna make some real money?'

‘As opposed to fake?' Ray said.

‘Round Face, calm down, okay? I'm tryin to tell you something here.'

‘Tell it,' José said.

‘You know how all the pimps park on the park there, by Jerome Ave?'

‘We seen 'em.'

‘You see the same cars there, right, night after night, maybe not in the same exact spot but close, right, a block north, south, either way, right? Tonight go pick out a new Escalade or a Navigator, you know, somethin that goes like eighty, eighty-five long, like all souped up.'

‘We know what you mean,' José said. ‘Yeah?'

Jerry winked. ‘Keep an eye on it. Get to know where it lives night to night. The coast is clear, you're gonna grab the VIN number. It's by the registration sticker, on the dash. You can see it through the windshield. Bring me the number, I'll have my girlfriend dress real nice. She—'

‘I thought you was married,' Ray said.

‘I am.' Jerry looked from Ray to José. ‘What's his problem?'

‘Never mind him,' José said. ‘Keep goin. Your gal-friend dresses nice—'

‘She goes to the Lincoln dealer, bats eyes, bumps the counter with her double Ds, tells them she lost her key, she gives them the VIN, they cut her a new key, I give yous the key, yous boost the car nice and easy.'

‘We can't—'

‘Hold up, Round Face, lemme finish. Yous're Joe Citizens drivin all nice, right, speed limit, stop signs, lights all perfect, right, yous wear a shirt and slacks at the waist, right, no monkey pants and prison tees, okay, no crazy nigger stuff here.'

Ray chewed the inside of his cheek.

José winked. ‘We don't drive crazy nigger style, Jerry. We don't drive period.'

‘You do now. C'mon, I'll give yous lessons.'

‘I'm fifteen,' José said. ‘He's fourteen.'

‘In the back of the lot here, nobody's gonna see. C'mon, you and your boy Round Face here, I'll have you boys ready to race NASCAR before the week is out. All yous gotta do is get from Jerome to the shop, what, a mile max.'

‘Let's go, man.' Ray started for the door.

‘Wait.' José squinted at Jerry. ‘How much, for the Lincoln?'

‘Buck fifty, and I won't short you.'

José laughed and walked. ‘C'mon, Ray.'

‘Wait, wait, c'mere,' Jerry said. ‘Okay. I'll give yous a grand.'

‘Each,' José said.

Jerry laughed and walked.

‘Where you goin, Jerry? This is your office. Eight hundred each,' José said.

‘I'll give yous fifteen hundred, split it how you like. We'll do a car a month. Who wants to drive first?'

A week passed, they both knew how to drive. José went to steal them nice clothes. Ray went to get a haircut.

The Braid Palace was packed. Yolie looked tired but smiled and called everybody amor anyway. For twenty minutes Ray tried to make himself get out of his chair to go talk to Yolie, but each time he almost got up, he leaned back and pretended to read a computer magazine he found in the trash can. Then he got a chubby and had to stay in the chair, figured he'd read until his chub went away, settled in for the long haul, read an article by this guy at MIT, said that eventually humans won't need biological bodies, that our brains will be computer code, our bodies computer chips, that we'll be able to e-mail ourselves across the universe, and that's when we'll know for sure God doesn't exist.