Different Seasons - Stephen King [179]
'You come on and try it, you slimy little bastard.' Milo stood back, grinning and waiting.
'No!' I shouted. I got to my feet, grabbed Teddy by the loose seat of his jeans, and pulled him off the fence. We both staggered back and fell over, him on top. He squashed my balls pretty good and I groaned. Nothing hurts like having your balls squashed, you know it? But I kept my arms locked around Teddy's middle.
'Lemme up!' Teddy sobbed, writhing in my arms. 'Lemme up, Gordie! Nobody ranks out my old man. LEMME UP GODDAMMIT LEMME UP!'
'That's just what he wants!' I shouted in his ear. 'He wants to get you over there and beat the piss out of you and then take you to the cops!'
'Huh?' Teddy craned around to look at me, his face dazed.
'Never mind your smart mouth, kid,' Milo said, advancing to the fence again with his hands curled into ham-sized fists. 'Let 'im fight his own battles.'
'Sure,' I said. 'You only outweigh him by five hundred pounds.'
'I know you, too,' Milo said ominously. 'Your name's Lachance.' He pointed to where Vern and Chris were finally picking themselves up, still breathing fast from laughing so hard. 'And those guys are Chris Chambers and one of those stupid Tessio kids. All your fathers are going to get calls from me, except for the loony up to Togus. You'll go to the 'formatory, every one of you. Juvenile delinquents!'
He stood flat on his feet, big freckled hands held out like a guy who wanted to play One Potato Two Potato, breathing hard, eyes narrow, waiting for us to cry or say we were sorry or maybe give him Teddy so he could feed Teddy to Chopper.
Chris made an O out of his thumb and index finger and spat neatly through it.
Vern hummed and looked to the sky.
Teddy said, 'Come on, Gordie. Let's get away from this asshole before I puke.'
'Oh, you're gonna get it, you foulmouthed little whoremaster. Wait'll I get you to the constable.'
'We heard what you said about his father,' I told him. 'We're all witnesses. And you sicced that dog on me. That's against the law.'
Milo looked a trifle uneasy. 'You was trespassin'.'
'The hell I was. The dump's public property.'
'You climbed the fence.'
'Sure I did, after you sicced your dog on me,' I said, hoping that Milo wouldn't recall that I'd also climbed the gate to get in.' What'd you think I was gonna do? Stand there and et 'im rip me to pieces? Come on, you guys. Let's go. It stinks around here.'
"Formatory,' Milo promised hoarsely, his voice shaking. 'Formatory for you wiseguys.'
'Can't wait to tell the cops how you called a war vet a fuckin' loony,' Chris called back over his shoulder as we moved away. 'What did you do in the war, Mr Pressman?'
'NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESSr Milo shrieked. 'YOU HURT MY DAWG!'
'Put it on your t. s. slip and send it to the chaplain,' Vern muttered, and then we were climbing the railroad embankment again.
'Come back here!' Milo shouted, but his voice was fainter now and he seemed to be losing interest.
Teddy shot him the finger as we walked away. I looked back over my shoulder when we got to the top of the embankment. Milo was standing there behind the security fence, a big man in a baseball cap with his dog sitting beside him. His fingers were hooked through the small chain-link diamonds as he shouted at us, and all at once I felt sorry for him-he looked like the biggest third-grader in the world, locked inside the playground by mistake, yelling for someone to let him out. He kept yelling for a while and then he either gave up or we got out of range. No more was seen or heard of Milo Pressman and Chopper that day.
13
There was some discussion-in righteous tones that were actually kind of forced-sounding-about how we had shown that creepy Milo Pressman we weren't just another bunch of pussies. I told how the guy at the Florida Market had tried to jap us,
and then we fell into a gloomy silence, thinking it over. For my part, I was thinking that maybe there was something to that stupid goocher business after all. Things couldn't have turned out much worse-in fact, I thought, it might be better to