The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [75]
make a dash for the door, and Kenny told them to leave and say he had the bill. He told Weary to hold the door for him. To stall time, Kenny fooled around the candy case, took a couple of Hershey bars, and ordered some mixed chocolates. While Joseph was weighing the chocolates Kenny dashed. He and Weary caught up with the guys, who were crossing the north drive of Garfield Boulevard. They all tore down Prairie, and got away easily. They returned toward Fifty-eighth Street, laughing over it. After a lot of squabbling, they divided the dough evenly. They wondered what to do. Kenny and Davey goofed over a cigarette butt. Studs and Benny Taite sparred. Weary told some new dirty jokes. Paulie Haggerty then asked Weary about school, but Weary said the hell with it. He pointed to the objects in the street that symbolized school for him. He said the family had taken him back home, and wouldn’t make him do what he didn’t want to, because they were scared to hell that he’d bust out and become a holdup man. Studs thought it would be a good thing to run away from home, but he felt that he never would. They wondered what they would do. Two kids came along, and they were stopped and asked where they came from. The kids said Fifty-ninth and Wentworth. Red Kelly said it was an Irish neighborhood and all right, so they let the kids go. They wondered what to do, and Kenny thought he’d like to play his cat trick. The last time he had played it, he had caught a couple of cats and dropped them from a roof, and one cat had almost landed square on a cop. The cat trick was best, though, when he could get a dog, and cart the cats to a third floor or a roof and then sick the dog on them so they’d have to jump. There were no cats to be found, so Kenny said he’d like to rob ice boxes. They trailed over to a building at Fifty-eighth and Michigan, and on the way picked up Johnny O’Brien. Three buildings stood in a row facing Fifty-eighth and extending to the Michigan Avenue corner. There was a narrow walk, and a few feet of dirt in the back, and the porches extended all the way along, with no banisters dividing one from another. It was easy for the guys to split up, and for each group to take a floor, while Davey stood downstairs and Johnny O’Brien hung outside in the alley to give jiggs. They got milk, tomatoes, eggs, catsup, and butter. Kenny got most of the loot, because Kenny had a style of his own. Studs got one bottle of milk; he had been a little leery about getting caught, and in a hurry, or he could have hooked some tomatoes. He whewed with relief when they all got safely over to the vacant lot at Fifty-eighth and Indiana. No one was hungry, so they wondered what they would do with their haul. Kenny lammed a bottle of milk against the wall of the three-story gray brick house where O’Connell lived. Red Kelly said it was a shot for the lanky bastard. They flung the other bottles of milk against the wall, and watched the milk trickling into the sandy prairie. Johnny O’Brien saw goofy Andy Le Gare. Johnny flung a tomato, and it smacked Andy square in the mush. Wiping his face with a dirty handkerchief, and stuttering curses, Andy came over. He socked Johnny, who was a year older and bigger than him. They fought and Johnny gave Andy three dirty socks. He was too big for Le Gare, but the fool kept on fighting, getting himself smacked. Benny Taite suddenly gave jiggers. The janitor from the O’Connell building and the one from the building they had looted were coming across the prairie after them.
“The Germans are comin’!” Paulie yelled.
“Boushwah!” Kenny yelled at the janitors.
He flung his last tomato and it caught one of the janitors in the neck. The other guys flung their eggs and tomatoes, and then rocks. They legged it, yelling like a band of movie Indians. They ditched the janitors around Fifty-fifth, and marched on toward Fifty-third. They laughed, and Weary said they could have licked the lousy foreigners anyway, only it was more fun getting shagged. They decided to get the two of them on Hallowe’en. Kenny said every day was Hallowe’en.