The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [5]
He could hear their voices as they jabbered away about her dress, but he didn’t know what they were saying, and anyway, he didn’t give two hoots in hell. Girls had loose screws in their beans. Well, girls like his sister anyway. Girls like Lucy, or Helen Shires, who was just like a guy, were exceptions. But there he was getting soft again. He said to himself:
I’m so tough that you know what happens? Well, bo, when I spit…. rivers overflow... I’m so hard I chew nails . See, bo!
He took a last drag at his cigarette, tossed the butt down the toilet,-and let the water run in the sink to wash the ashes down. He went to the door, and had his hand on the knob to open it when he noticed that the bathroom was filled with smoke. He opened the small window, and commenced waving his arms around, to drive the smoke out. But why in hell shouldn’t they know? What did his graduating and his long jeans mean, then? He was older now, and he could do what he wanted. Now he was growing up. He didn’t have to take orders any more, as he used to. He wasn’t going to hide it any more, and he was going to tell the old man that he wasn’t going to high school.
The bathroom was slow in clearing. He beat the air with his hands.
Frances rapped sharply on the door and asked him to get a move on.
He waved his arms around.
Frances was back in a moment.
“William, will you please... will you please ... will you please hurry!”
She rapped impatiently.
“All right. I’ll be right out.”
“Well, why don’t you, then? I have to hurry, I tell you. And I’m in the play tonight, and you’re not. When you had your play last May, I didn’t delay you like this, and I helped you learn your lines and everything, and now when I have to be there... William, will you please hurry... PLEASE! oh, Mother... Mother! Won’t you come here and tell Studs to hurry up out of the bathroom?”
She furiously pounded on the door.
Studs was winded. He stopped trying to beat the smoke aid. The smoke was still thick.
“All right, don’t get... a .. don’t get so excited!”
He whewed, and wiped his forehead, as if there had been perspiration on it. That was a narrow escape. He’d almost told his sister not to get one on, and then there’d have been sixteen kinds of hell to pay around the house.
Whew!
You’d a thought he wanted to stay in there, the way she was acting. Well, he was going to walk out and let ‘em see the smoke, and when they blew their gobs off, he would tell them from now on he was his own boss, and he would smoke where and when he damn well pleased; and furthermore, he wasn’t going to high school.
“William, will you please... please... please let me in... Mother, won’t you please... please... OH, PLEASE, come here and make him get out. He’s been in there a half-hour. He’s reading. He’s always mean and selfish like that... Mother, please... PLEASE!”
She banged on the door.
“Aw, I heard you,” Studs said.
“Well, if you did, come on out!” she snapped.
He heard his mother coming up to the door, while Frances banged and shouted away. He took a towel... why didn’t he think of it sooner?... and started flapping it around.
His mother said:
“William, won’t you hurry now, like a good son? Frances has to go in there, and she has to finish dressing and be up there early because she’s going to be in the play. Now, son, hurry!”
“All right. I can’t help it. I’ll be right out.”
“Well, please do!” Frances said.
The mother commenced to tell Frances that William was going to let her right in; but Frances interrupted:
“But, Mother, he’s been in there almost an hour... He has no consideration for other people’s rights... He’s selfish and mean... and oh, Mother, I got to go in there... and what will I do if I spoil my graduation dress on his account... make him, Mother... and now I’m getting unnerved, and I’ll never be able to act in the play!”
The old lady persuaded. And she told Studs that she and his father couldn’t go until they had all the children off, and they would be disgraced if they came late for the entertainment on the night their son and daughter graduated.