• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Let’s!” Studs said, forgetting his moodiness.

“Hey, lads, look!” Pat Coady said, pointing.

They saw Barney tagging after Elizabeth Burns.

They laughed, and when Barney came back, unsuccessful, they kidded his pants off. Barney retorted by kidding Paulie, telling him a married man had to keep his feet from smelling and take regular baths.

“Let’s do something,” Studs said.

II

Studs glanced around the saloon. He watched a big bloke at the rail spitting into a spittoon. Some of the birds at the bar, like that red-faced guy in khaki at the end, looked tough. Suppose there would be a free-for-all fight? Might get mashed. He imagined himself in a brawl, fighting like a demon.

“Dempsey’s too damn small to take Willard,” Kelly said.

“My dough’s on Dempsey,” Studs said.

“Say, Willard’s sixty pounds heavier,” said Red.

“And that sixty pounds is crap,” said Barney.

“A good little man can often trim a big guy,” Studs said, hoping they’d think of himself.

He took a sip of beer and ate a pretzel, because the beer didn’t taste as bitter with the pretzel.

“Barney, what you gonna do after Prohibition?” asked Coady.

“Become a nun!”

“No kiddin’, Barney?”

“Get married like this punk,” Barney said, wiping his chin with his coat sleeve.

“Who’d have an old man like you?” asked Paulie.

“Listen, punk, there’s plenty of stuff left in Barney Keefe!”

“Horse,” said Paulie as they loudly reminded him of Elizabeth Burns.

“Come on, Barney, tell us what you’re going to do after Prohibition?”

“What am I gonna do after Prohibition...What am I gonna do after Prohibition... What am I gonna do after Prohibition? Ask me something brighter!”

“Isn’t Prohibition a goddamn bright idea,” Red said.

“Like hell,” Fitz, the pest, answered seriously.

“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do ... I’m going to stay drunk,” Barney said; they laughed.

The beer began to make Studs a little dizzy. He didn’t like it, didn’t want any more. He saw Lucy in his head, and suddenly she spun around, and his head whirled like a merry-go-round. They ordered more, and Studs grunted he’d have another with them.

Slug Mason joined them. He was a bruiser over six feet, broad-shouldered, a leathery, stupid face, and hands like steel cranes. He looked like a brute to Studs.

“After the first of July, they’re planning on deporting all you Irish along with the bullshevicky. The bullshevicky kill you with bombs, and the Irish with the whiskey breath,” Slug Mason said, changing all his t’s to d’s, dropping the h from his withs, and slurring the pronunciation of most of his other words.

They laughed.

“Say, Slug, didn’t you have a tryout with the Sox?” asked Fitz.

“Long time ago when they had Ed Walsh. Nineteen eleven or twelve. But I was supposed to be there at twelve, and for three days, goddamn it, I couldn’t wake myself up that early,” Slug said.

“Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” Kenny said, apropos of nothing, and raising his mug aloft; they laughed.

“You punks ought to be home in bed,” said Fitz.

“A guy going to bed early never meets a regular guy like myself,” Barney said.

“Say, Barney, do me a favor. Lose your head back there in the can,” Pat Coady said.

“This Lothario, Haggerty, better be early to bed and early to rise, or that wife he’s got will knock his tail off,” Barney said, ignoring the crack.

Slug talked about women. Everybody bragged how much he had had. Studs felt out of it, because he hadn’t had so many girls like that, only Iris, and that Hallowe’en in 1918, when they had gang-shagged some bum they had picked up on Wabash Avenue. Red Kelly bragged, and Studs, even though drunk, knew Red was throwing bull all over the place. He wanted a girl. But he felt so lousy, he couldn’t keep thinking of it. His belly seemed bloated; he was dizzy in the head. He could only sit straight by exerting all his will-power.

Charlie Bathcellar joined them. He told them he’d just closed a deal, selling the poolroom to a Greek. The guys were sorry, and got sentimental. Suddenly Charlie remembered that Paulie’s wife had been around,