The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [97]
Studs wished the hunch had thought of doing this a couple of years ago. Would have been fun. It still would, if they’d all come around. Nope, punk stuff.
“Yeah, great sport,” Screwy said for the seventh time.
In his mind, Private Lonigan, with a steel helmet, and in khaki, dodged star shells, crawled through the shell holes of Flanders Field, and flung a hand grenade into a dangerous German machine-gun nest. And with fixed bayonet, he leaped into the nest, and frightened all the Germans that were still alive into yelling:
“Kamerad!”
He led them back across the shell-torn midnight of No Man’s Land, and turned them over to that same sergeant, who’d said:
“G’wan home, children, and get your diapers pinned on!”
The men from Studs’ man’s-world departed. He watched the punks, alone. He glanced towards Fifty-eighth Street to see if she was coming back yet. Mrs. Dennis P. Gorman, the lawyer’s wife, stopped by him. and Studs perfunctorily tipped his hat. She remarked that it was very dangerous and rowdyish and disgraceful for those boys to play that way. She passed indignantly on.
War reigned in the vacant lot. And in the mind of Studs Lonigan. Suddenly, a randomly-flung tin can hit the young Buckford baby. It squawled, with irritating loudness. Young Horn rushed over and wheeled the buggy out on to the sidewalk. The punks gathered impotently around it, accusing each other of having thrown the can, while the baby continued to yell. Studs singled out Young Horn, who was a snotty kid with a head that seemed three sizes too big for his body, and told him he ought to be socked for leaving the baby where it could be hit like that. Young Horn shouted that it wasn’t his fault. Women surrounded the baby, and slobbered baby-talk over it. Young Horn turned his back on Studs, and, poking one lady in the thighs, said:
“Hey, what the hell, that guy ain’t hurt.”
The woman continued to slobber baby-talk.
“Hell, lady, last week I had him down the block and you know what he did, he fell out of the buggy on his bean, right on the stone, and it didn’t hurt him none. Hell, lady, you can’t hurt that guy’s bean.”
Dick Buckford dragged his kid brother aside, and told him to shut up and take the baby home. He kicked Young Horn in the tail. Horn shrieked. He got his face slapped, and the cooing women were appalled. Horn wheeled the baby buggy off. He turned, a hundred yards away, and yelled at Dick:
“Wait till I tell Mother on you!”
The punks continued the battle, but the spirit of fun was gone.
Studs turned and walked down Indiana towards Fifty-seventh. He wished he’d see Dan Donoghue or some of the old Indiana bunch he’d gone with from St. Patrick’s. He felt like going over to Fifty-eighth and Prairie to see if any of the Fifty-eighth Street guys were around. But he waited for Lucy to come back, walking slowly down towards Fifty-seventh. He passed and re-passed, and re-passed her house, looking furtively at the gray stone building. And last year, she’d stood on the porch and blown him a kiss. And he’d been a damn fool, and proud, and when someone had scrawled those things about him loving her, he’d been just dumb. She’d stood there as it was getting dark and thrown him a kiss. He belched. His stomach still felt like lead from those bananas. He came back to the prairie, but the punks had gone home for lunch. The twelve o’clock whistles blew, piercing the scene. They made Studs very lonesome. When would she speak to him again? He wanted to kiss her again too. He shook his head, thinking that he sure did have his troubles. He didn’t see her coming back either, and there was no one else around, and he couldn’t go home and eat. And if he’d only get into the war, he’d be a hero. And he’d sat in the tree with her, and the way she’d swung those legs that were now so pretty and had such shape, and her lips that were now redder, and then, she hadn’t hardly any breasts to notice, and now she was like... like a growing flower... and he wanted to kiss her again. He glanced at the deserted trenches. He went over and looked