The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer [309]
Polack walks inside to the cigarette counter.
Whadeya want, kiddo? the candy store man says.
Uh, I want. . . He looks out the doorway. Mister, that kid's stealing your papers! And the confederate tears down the street with the owner starting after him. Polack grabs a couple of packs, thumbs his nose at the owner's wife, who is screaming at him, and runs away in the opposite direction.
Ten minutes later they rendezvous outside the wall of the orphanage. One of them boosts the other up to the ledge and then scrabbles after him, holding to his arm. They sneak through the empty corridors, give Lefty his cigarettes, and are in bed a half hour after they have left.
Nuttin' to it, Polack whispers to the kid next to him.
One time Lefty gets caught smoking. For the real bad offenses there is a special punishment. Sister Agnes lines the boys up in a file, and makes Lefty straddle a bench with his can up in the air. Each of the kids is supposed to walk by and give him a clout on the butt.
Only, they are all afraid to, and one after another walks by giving him only a pat. Sister Agnes is furious. You're supposed to hit Francis, she cries. I'm going to punish everyone who doesn't.
The next kid gives Lefty a mild thump, and Sister Agnes makes him hold out his palm while she hits him with the ruler she is holding. Each of the kids in turn taps Lefty and holds out his palm for the blow.
Sister Agnes gets very upset. Her gown rustles with anger. Hit Francis! she cries again.
But no one will. The kids file along, take their crack on the hand, and gather in a circle to watch. Lefty is laughing. When they are all done, Sister Agnes stands still, and it is obvious she is debating whether to make them do it over again. But she is defeated, and very coldly she tells the boys to march to class.
Polack has learned a powerful lesson. He expands with admiration for Lefty. He does not know the words yet, but he shakes his head.
Boy, Lefty is okay.
Two years later, Polack's mother brings him back to her house. One of the older sisters is married, and two of his brothers are working. Before he leaves, Lefty gives him the secret handshake.
You're okay, kid, I'm gettin' out next year an' I'll look ya up.
Back to his street and the new sports fitting his age. Hitching rides on trolleys is commonplace, stealing from stores is a source of income. The real sport is holding onto the tailgate of a fast freight truck and highballing it fifteen miles out of town. His mother makes him get a job working as delivery boy in a butcher store, and he does that for a couple of years.
It has its moments.
When he is thirteen one of the women to whom he delivers meat seduces him.
Oh, hello, she says, opening the door, you're Mrs. . . Mrs. . .
Mrs. Czienwicz's son, lady.
Yeah, I know your mother.
Where you want the meat, lady?
Over there. He puts it down, looks at her. I guess that's all.
Sit down, you must be tired.
Naah, I got a lot of orders.
Sit down.
He stares at her. Yeah, all right, maybe I will.
Afterward, he feels as if his education is completed. He has known for a long time that there is no man you can trust, but women have not concerned him. Now he is positive that women too are as unreliable as the altering sands of mutual advantage.
I'm leaving. . . Well, so long. . .
You can call me Gertrude. She giggles.
He has not thought of her as possessing a name. Even how she is Mrs. Something, a door at which he drops meat.
So long, Gertie. I'll be seeing ya.
It is only hours later that the advantages, the beauties, the absorptive recollections of this act he has known by name for so long catch up with him. The next day he drops in to see her, is there often for the rest of the summer.
His years elapse, and he grows older, even wiser within the rigid gamut of his wisdom, but he hardly alters. He goes from job to job, becoming a butcher, working in the stockyards, even chauffeuring a car for some people who live