The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow [70]
I was doing. It was a while before I could think straight about it, having the shakes. But I wasn't afflicted long. From reasons of temperament. I went to school, missing only one period; I showed up for glee-club rehearsal, and at four o'clock went to the poolroom, and Sailor Bulba was sitting up in a shoeshine chair in his bell-bottomed pants, observing a snooker game. It was all right. Everything was already arranged with Jonas, the fence, who would take the stuff that night. I put the whole thing out of mind, and in this had the help of perfect spring, when the trees were beginning to bud. Einhorn said to me, "They're having bicycle races over in the park. Let's take them in," and I willingly carried him out to the car and we went. I had decided there wasn't going to be any more robbery for me, now that I knew what it was like, and I told Joe German that he wasn't to count on me for future jobs. I was prepared to be called yellow. But he didn't take on and wasn't scornful. He said quietly, "Well, if you think it isn't your dish." "That's just the way it is--it isn't my dish." And he said thoughtfully, "Okay. Bulba is a jerk, but I could get along swell with you." "No use doing it if it isn't in me." "What the hell for then? Sure." He was very mild and independent. He combed his hair in the gummachine mirror, fixed up his streaming tie, and went away. Thereafter he didn't have much to say to me. I took Clem out, and we blew in the money together. But I wasn't done with this matter by a long shot. Einhorn found out about it through Kreindl, who was approached by the fence to peddle some of the bags. Probably Kreindl and Einhorn decided that I should get a going-over for it. So Einhorn called me to sit by him, one afternoon in the poolroom. I saw from his stillness that he was getting up an angry blow against me, and of course I knew why. "I'm not going to sit by and let you turn into jailbait," he said. "I partly consider myself responsible that you're in this environment. You're not even of age to be here, you're still a minor"--so, by the ^y, were Bulba and German and dozens of others, but nothing was sver made of it--"though you're overgrown. But I won't have you doing "us, Augie. Even Dingbat, and he's no mental giant, knows better Kz 115 than to get into robbery. I have to put up with all kinds of elements around here, unfortunately. I know who's a thief or gunman or whoremaster. I can't help it. It's a poolroom. But, Augie, you know what better is; you've been with me in other times, and if I hear of you on another job I'm going to have you thrown out of here. You'll never see the inside of this place or Tillie and me again. If your brother knew about this, by Jesus Christ! he'd beat you. I know he would." I admitted that it was so. Einhorn must have seen the horror and fear in me as through a narrow opening. My hand lay where he could reach it; he put his fingers on it. "This is where a young fellow starts to decay and stink, and his health and beauty go. By the first things he does when he's not a boy any longer, but does what a man does. A boy steals apples, watermelons. If he's a wildcat in college he writes a bad check or two. But to go out as an armed bandit--" "We weren't." "I'll open this drawer," he said with intensity, "and give you fifty bucks if you'll swear Joe German didn't have a gun. I tell you he had one." I was hot in the face but faint. It could be true; it was plausible. "And if the cops had come he'd have tried to shoot his way out. That was what you let yourself in for. Yes, that's right, Augie, a dead cop or two. You know what cop-killers get, from the station onward-- their faces beaten off, their hands smashed, and worse; and that would be your start in life. You can't tell me there's nothing but boyish highjinks spirits in that. What did you do it for?" I didn't know. "Are you a real crook? Have you got the calling? I don't think I ever saw a stranger case of deceiving appearances then. I had you in my house and left stuff in the open. Were you tempted to steal, ever?" "Hey, Mr. Einhorn!"