From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [219]
“But these tonight aint cruisers,” Angelo said. “Tonight is regulars. They carry checkbooks and pay for everything by checks.”
Prew was looking out the window at the Y. “Payday at the mines.”
“Thats it. And its really a racket, buddy, I mean. Any more. Us honest queer chasers aint got a chance no more. Half the Compny hang out there at the Tavern any more. You’ll see. You’d think the Tavern is a bivouac for George Compny. Harris hangs out out there, and Martuscelli, Knapp goes down, and Dusty Rhodes . . .”
“The Scholar?” Prew grinned fuzzily. “Him too?”
“Sure. And old Readall Treadwell, and Bull Nair, and Johnson. Bloom and Andy’s down together most every night. Christ, I dont know who-all. It looks like a Compny convention, out there.”
“That son of a bitch Andy,” Prew said. “I told him to keep away from there, especially if he with Bloom.”
Angelo shrugged. “They all there anyway. Hell, there aint enough queens to go around, any more. I’m thinkin of organizin a union, by god. Got to pretect us professionals from the steadily encroaching amatoors and scabs.”
The cab turned the corner out of the light into the dark tunnel of Richards Street between the Von Hamm-Young garage and the Palace Square grounds on the left with the light of King Street ahead of them down at the end of the block.
“Thats me,” Prew said. “I’m a scab. You and Petrillo.”
“Naw. You aint no scab. I’d get you in. Hell, pay your dues myself. You know, they’re funny things, queers. This Hal is really a pretty good joe, if he dint hate everything so much. He hates everybody. Everybody but me. I guess he’s bitter about being a queen. I spent a lot of time, tryin to figure out what makes them tick. Lots of guy’ll tell you if you even talk to them you’re queer yourself, that you ought to beat them up all the time. I dont figure like that. I figure those guys just hate them.”
“I dont like them,” Prew said thoughtfully. “But I dont hate them. I just dont like to be around them.” He paused. “Its just that they, well for some reason they make me feel ashamed of something.” He paused again. “I dont know what of.”
“I know,” Angelo said. “Me too. I spent a lot of time trying to figure it. They all say they was born like that. They say they been that way ever since they can remember.”
“I wouldnt know,” Prew said.
The cab driver turned his head slightly and for the first time spoke. “Thats a lot of bull,” he said. “Lissen, let me give you joes a tip. I’m a ex-serviceman myself. You steer clear of them queers. You keep runnin around with them long enough and you’ll be queer too. Thats what they want. They like to take young guys like you and make them queer too. They get a charge out of that. I hate the cocksuckers. I’d kill every one I seen.”
He swung the cab viciously out of the tunnel into the light of King Street, turning left past the Post Office and the gilded brown-faced statue of Kamehameha in his feather cape and helmet. The street was very wide here with two bus islands in the middle and the traffic was thinner and the driver speeded up a little.
“Yeh, I’ve heard that,” Angelo said to him. “But this guy never tried nothing like that with me.”
“Dont it make you sick?” the driver said.
“No. I dont like it so much, but it dont make me sick. I feel kind of sorry for them. If they was born that way, they can’t help it, can they? Christ! it must be tough, man, not to be able to stand goin to bed with a woman at all. Jesus! I’d hate to be like that.”
“I hate them,” the driver said.
“Okay,” Prew said. “So you hate them. You go right ahead and hate them, Mack. But dont tell us what we ought to do. We aint tellin you what you ought to do.”
“Okay,” the driver said, “okay. Dont get huffy.”
“I wonder if they really are born that way?” Angelo said. He was looking out the window tranquilly, held by the quiet peacefulness of the cab ride that, sitting on the inside and looking out as an observer, divorced them momentarily from the wild bottle-swinging ritual of Payday and helped sober them.
Prew felt it too. The big polyhedral square here