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By Root 10586 0

with some woman or other. They caught up with him. One day when Studs was walking down Fifty-eighth Street, he saw two dicks taking the guy away. The bunch found out, through Red Kelly, whose old man was a police sergeant, that Schreiber was in on a white slavery rap. Three-Star Hennessey discovered that the back door of the candy store wasn’t locked, and all the kids in the neighborhood raided the place. For five days they were filling up on sodas, having fights with ice cream and whipped cream, carting away candy. They stole wagons from little kids, and bikes, and carted the stuff to George Kahler’s basement. It was a swell feed they had. Most of them couldn’t eat supper for a week. But with so many hogging it, the loot didn’t last as long as it should have. Anyway, it was a time to remember for your grandchildren. They talked about it, and laughed.

“Well, it’s August already,” Paulie said.

“Yeh, Goddamn it!”

“I wonder what school I’ll go to next year?” Paulie said.

“Can’t you go back to St. Patrick’s?” asked Studs.

“Jesus, I don’t think so. And if I did get back, they probably wouldn’t pass me anyway... Say, why in hell is school?” asked Paulie.

Studs shrugged his shoulders and cursed school.

“Say, why don’t you bring your old lady up to see Bernadette,” said Studs.

“Maybe I will. Hell, St. Patrick’s gets more holidays and is out sooner in June than the public schools. Only I got bounced out of there three times already,” said Paulie.

“Well, maybe you can break the record,” said Studs.

“That’s something,” said Paulie.

They walked along. Paulie sniped a butt and lit it.

“Doesn’t Iris live here?” said Studs, pointing at a red brick, three-story building.

“Yeh, and I’d like to bump into her,” Paulie said.

“Me, too,” said Studs.

Studs suddenly resented Paulie. Paulie couldn’t fight as well as he but got more girls, and knew what it was all about.

Iris, fourteen, bobbed-haired, blue-eyed, innocent with a sunny smile, walked out of the building. She had a body too old for her years; the legs were nice and her breasts were already well-formed.

Iris was glad to see them. Paulie asked her how was tricks. She said what tricks. Paulie said just tricks. She said he was naughty-naughty. She flung lascivious looks at them, and Studs was thrilled as he had never been thrilled by Lucy. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, and studied the sky. Then he became absorbed in his shoes. They were high ones, scuffed and dirty, very much like army shoes. Paulie asked how about it. She said her mother was home. Paulie said they could go over to the park. She said no, because she had to help her old woman clean house. She cursed her mother, glibly. Hearing a girl call her mother names was different from hearing a guy, and it shocked Studs. Paulie asked how about it. She said some other afternoon. She told Studs she especially wanted him to come and see her some time, because she had never met him before and everybody said nice things about him. She looked at him in that way of hers, and said she’d be nice to him. Then she tripped toward Fifty-fifth Street, and they watched her wriggle along. They had a discussion about the way girls wriggled along. Studs said the one who had them all beat at wriggling was Helen Borax. Paulie said Iris was no slouch though. Studs wondered if girls wriggled on purpose, and how about decent ones. He told this to Paulie, and added that he hadn’t ever noticed if his sister did or not. Paulie said all girls had to wriggle when they walked, and he guessed there was nothing wrong with it. He said that anything a girl did was o.k. with him, as long as she was good-looking.

They met Weary at Fifty-eighth Street. Weary had his long jeans on. He looked at Studs; Studs sort of glowered back. Paulie suggested that it was foolish not to shake hands and settle old scores. They shook.

Studs tried to be a little friendly. He asked:

“What you been doing?”

“Workin’ in an office downtown,” said Weary.

“Off today?” asked Paulie.

“I took the day off, and my old lady got sore and yelled at me. I had a big scrap