“I can’t raise that kind of money.”
“Then you have to help me. For Ivy’s sake. For the sake of the kid. I’m like you were in that last Louis fight, Lew. If they lick me now, there’s nothing left.”
He remembered his promise to Ivy. “I’ll think it over. I’ll let you know.”
Jack Terrance brightened up at once. He clapped Lew heavily on the shoulder. “Sure, think it over. Six weeks of easy workouts and about fifteen minutes of mixing it up, and you get eight thousand plus. What the hell, it isn’t like you had a reputation to protect, or you were going after other bouts. This is the last one.”
“I’m not saying I’ll do it.”
“Let’s forget it for tonight. We’ll go out and have some steaks, just the three of us, like old times. We’ll tell lies and get tight, boy. Having you around again is just like a vacation for me, Lew.”
While Jack showered, Lew wandered back through the house. Chris was in his high-chair eating busily and noisily. Ivy sat near him. She looked up at Lew and raised her eyebrows in question.
“He told me,” Lew said heavily.
“It doesn’t mean anything to him that you might be hurt, seriously hurt. All he can think of is getting out of his own jam. He got himself into it. Now it’s up to you to get him out. I sound very loyal, don’t I? The good, loyal little wife! Sometimes I get so damn miserable sick of—” She stopped suddenly, put her face in her hands. He went to her, put his big gentle hand on her shoulder, feeling the warmth of her, the faint shudder of sobs through the thin cotton fabric. Chris was looking at her, his underlip protruding and trembling, on the verge of tears.
“Hey, take it easy,” he said softly.
She brought herself under control, stood up quickly. “Would you watch the animal eat while I change? Keep him from rubbing the food in his hair.”
“I don’t do that now,” Chris said firmly. “I did that when I was little.” The last word was said with lofty contempt.
Lew sat down while Ivy went back to her room. Chris eyed him solemnly. “Make a fist.”
“Like this?”
Chris nodded. “That’s big! Can I watch you hit somebody?”
“Just anybody?”
“Well, not anybody little! It wouldn’t be fair.”
“Keep eating there, or I’ll be in the doghouse with your mother.”
“She was going to cry.”
“But she didn’t, did she? Eat up, doc.”
Chris went back to eating busily. Jack came whistling out into the kitchen, rumpled Chris’ hair, went through into the small pantry and began to make himself a drink. “Something for you, Lew?”
“Tom Collins, I guess.”
By the time he had finished it, Ivy was dressed. She looked cool and crisp and very lovely. Jack was well on his way to being drunk. The sitter came and they took off in the station wagon, with Lew driving, Jack raising his voice in tenor song.
They had planned to go to the club, but Jack decided he wasn’t in the mood for “that bunch of stuffed shirts,” so they went to a roadhouse he recommended. The place was hot and packed with a swarm of feral-looking teen-agers, but Jack insisted that it was fine, and kept insisting that Ivy dance, first with him and then with Lew.
“Jus’ like ol’ times,” he kept saying.
The steaks were astonishingly good, but Jack ate very little of his. By ten o’clock he was maudlin. They were in a booth and Jack sat facing the two of them, his coat off and his beefy arms on the table. His eyes swam into focus as he smiled at them.
“Two bes’ people in the whole worl’. Bar none. Jus’ a stranger here myself. Always thought she’d marry you, Lew, ol’ pal, ol’ pal. Did a dirty trick. Got confesh... confession to make to both of you. Checked on ol’ Lew before sent wire. Ol’ Lew’s broke, honey. Busted flat — like me. Got two trucks and drives one of them himself. Checked up on him. Two ol’ crocks and both busted flat! But we’ll fool ’em all, won’t we? We’ll pull out o’ this hole. Isn’t she a sweet girl, Lew? Kiss her, Lew. S’all okay with me — all ol’ pals, the three of us. She wants you to. Can’t you see that, ol’ pal?”
“Shut up, Jack,” Ivy said icily.
“Go on, Lew, boy. I let an ol’ pal kiss my pretty wife. Shouldn’t tell you. She’s colder’n Admiral Byrd’s nip pocket, so there’s no harm done. She got a yen for you, Lew. Big yen. Can’t fool me. Married wrong guy. She can’t have love, so we got to help her have pretty things, you and me.” The warm maudlin tone had changed. Something small and evil looked out of his eyes.
“We’d better go, Jack,” Ivy said sharply. “Pull yourself together.”
Lew paid the check and they left. The avid, unlined young faces of the teen-agers made him feel older than mountains. As he was unlocking the station wagon, Ivy, behind him, gave a sharp gasp of pain. Jack giggled drunkenly.
Lew felt anger come up in him, filling his throat. He turned and grabbed Jack’s arm and levered him into the back seat. Jack sang sleepily all the way home and leaned heavily on them as they helped him into the house and into his room.
“Get him into bed, please. Lew,” she said. “I’ll drive the girls home.”
Jack made sleepy protesting sounds as Lew undressed him, rolled him under the sheet. Before he could turn out the light Jack had begun to snore stertorously. The evening had been rough and Lew felt emotionally exhausted. He looked in the boy’s room. Chris was sleeping soundly. Lew took off his coat and went out into the warm night. He looked at the stars and at the city lights, and his cigarette-end glowed in the dark. Jack’s plan would work. They still looked him up, once in a while, sending urgent letters to old addresses. The public had liked him. But once you quit you had to quit completely.
Headlights turned in the drive and Ivy parked by the garage, turned off the lights and motor.
“Lew?” she asked in a low voice.
“Right here. Jack passed out. I checked on the kid. He’s pounding his ear.”
Her dress was pale in the night. She came over to him. “I’m terribly sorry, Lew. He isn’t himself.”
“Now is as good a chance for us to talk as any. If you aren’t too tired.”
“No, I’m all right, Lew.” They went over to the metal furniture. The seats of the chairs were wet with dew and he dried two of them off with his handkerchief. When she leaned forward for a light her cheekbones looked sharp in the match-flare, her eyes shadowed.
“Was that true, Lew? What he said about you being broke?”
“True enough. I’ve got a little less than two thousand dollars. But it isn’t serious. I know the business inside and out now. One of the big lines has been after me. It will be a pretty good job. And a lot easier than trying to wildcat it.”
“What did you tell him about fighting?”
“Just what you told me to say. That I’d think it over.”
“Promise me you’ll turn him down.”
“Why?”
“You know why. I don’t want you going back into that. I don’t want you hurt. Sammy Hode is young and terribly strong, Lew.”
“It will take six weeks of easy workouts and about fifteen minutes in the ring. My end will be around eight thousand. The kid can’t kill me in fifteen minutes. You know that. And it will get lack out of a hole.”
“Will it?”
“Why do you say that, Ivy?”
“If he gets out of this jam, he’ll just head directly into the next one. It’s time he found he can’t beg and wheedle and angle his way out of responsibilities. Maybe he ought to be flat for a while. Maybe it would do us all good.”