Then from the corner of my eye I saw Mr. Pirozzi's legs move. He stood up very quickly and moved toward the front door. I started running, crashing through the bushes. I heard him open his front door. I was down the driveway and into our backyard and behind the garage. I stood a moment, listening. Then I climbed the back fence, over the vines and on over into the next backyard. I ran through that yard and up the driveway and I began dog-trotting south down the street like a guy practicing for track. There was nobody behind me but I kept trotting. If he knows it was me, if he tells my father, I'm dead. But maybe he just let the dog out to take a shit? I trotted down to West Adams Boulevard and sat on a streetcar bench. I sat there five minutes or so, then I walked back home. When I got there, my parents weren't back yet. I went inside, undressed, turned out the lights and waited for morning…
Another Wednesday night Baldy and I were taking our usual short cut between two apartment houses. We were on our way to his father's wine cellar when Baldy stopped at a window. The shade was almost down but not quite. Baldy stopped, bent, and peeked inside. He waved me over.
"What is it?" I whispered.
"Look!"
There was a man and a woman in bed, naked. There was just a bedsheet partly over them. The man was trying to kiss the woman and she was pushing him away.
"God damn it, let me have it, Marie!"
"No!"
"But I'm hot, please."
"Take your god-damned hands off me!"
"But, Marie, I love you!"
"You and your fucking love…"
"Marie, please. "
"Will you shut up?"
The man turned toward the wall. The woman picked up a magazine, bunched a pillow behind her head, and began reading it.
Baldy and I walked away from the window,
"Jesus," said Baldy, "that made me sick!"
"I thought we were going to see something," I said. When we got to the wine cellar Baldy's old man had put a big padlock on the cellar door.
We tried that window again and again but we never actually saw anything happen. It was always the same.
"Marie, it's been a long time. We're living together, you know.
We're married!"
"Big fucking deal!"
"Just this once, Marie, and I won't bother you again, I won't bother you for a long time, I promise!"
"Shut up! You make me sick!"
Baldy and I walked away.
"Shit," I said.
"Shit," he said.
"I don't think he's got a cock," I said.
"He might as well not have," said Baldy. We stopped going back there.
27
Wagner wasn't done with us. I was standing in the yard during gym class when he walked up to me.
"What are you doing, Chinaski?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
I didn't answer.
"How come you're not in any of the games?"
"Shit. That's kid stuff."
"I'm putting you on garbage detail until further notice."
"What for? What's the charge?"
"Loitering. 50 demerits."
The kids had to work off their demerits on garbage detail. If you had more than ten demerits and didn't work them off, you couldn't graduate. I didn't care whether I graduated or not. That was their problem. I could just stay around getting older and older and bigger and bigger. I'd get all the girls.
"50 demerits?" I asked. "Is that all you're going to give me? How about a hundred?"
"O.K., one hundred. You got 'em."
Wagner swaggered off. Peter Mangalore had 500 demerits. Now I was in second place, and gaining…
The first garbage detail was during the last thirty minutes of lunch. The next day I was carrying a garbage can with Peter Mangalore. It was simple. We each had a stick with a sharp nail on the end of it. We picked up papers with the stick and stuck them into the can. The girls watched us as we walked by. They knew we were bad. Peter looked bored and I looked like I didn't give a damn. The girls knew we were bad.
"You know Lilly Fischman?" Pete asked as we walked along.
"Oh, yes, yes."
"Well, she's not a virgin."
"How do you know?"
"She told me."
"Who got her?"
"Her father."
"Hmmm… Well you can't blame him."
"Lilly's heard I've got a big cock."
"Yeah, it's all over school."
"Well, Lilly wants it. She claims she can handle it."
"You'll rip her to pieces."
"Yeah, I will. Anyhow, she wants it."
We put the garbage can down and stared at some girls who were sitting on a bench. Pete walked toward the bench. I stood there. He walked up to one of the girls and whispered something in her ear. She started giggling. Pete walked back to the garbage can. We picked it up and walked away.
"So," said Pete, "this afternoon at 4 p.m. I'm going to rip Lilly to pieces."
"Yeah?"
"You know that broken-down car at the back of the school that Pop Farnsworth took the engine out of?"
"Yeah."
"Well, before they haul that son-of-a-bitch away, that's going to be my bedroom. I'm going to take her in the back seat."
"Some guys really live."
"I'm getting a hard just thinking about it," said Pete.
"I am too and I'm not even the guy who's going to do it."
"There's one problem though," said Pete.
"You can't come?"
"No, it's not that. I need a look-out. I need somebody to tell me the coast is clear."
"Yeah? Well, look, I can do that."
"Would you?" asked Pete.
"Sure. But we should have one more guy so we can watch in both directions."
"All right. Who you got in mind?"
"Baldy."
"Baldy? Shit, he's not much."
"No, but he's trustworthy."
"All right. So I'll see you guys at four."
"We'll be there."
At four p.m. we met Pete and Lilly at the car.
"Hi!" said Lilly. She looked hot. Pete was smoking a cigarette. He looked bored.
"Hello, Lilly," I said.
"Hi, Lilly baby," said Baldy.
There were some guys playing a game of touch football in the other field but that only made it better, a kind of camouflage. Lilly was wiggling around, breathing heavily, her breasts were moving up and down.
"Well," said Pete, throwing his cigarette away, "let's make friends, Lilly."
He opened the back door, bowed, and Lilly climbed in. Pete got in after her and took his shoes off, then his pants and his shorts. Lilly looked down and saw Pete's meat hanging.
"Oh my," she said, "I don't know…"
"Come on, baby," said Pete, "nobody lives forever."
"Well, all right, I guess…"
Pete looked out the window. "Hey, are you guys watching to see if the coast is clear?"
"Yeah, Pete," I said, "we're watching."
"We're looking," said Baldy.
Pete pulled Lilly's skirt all the way up. There was white flesh above her knee socks and you could see her panties. Glorious. Pete grabbed Lilly and kissed her. Then he pulled away.
"You whore!" he said.
"Talk to me nice, Pete!"