The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer [289]
Only, they are all afraid to, and one after another walks by giving him only a pat. Sister Agnes is furious. You're supposed to hit Francis, she cries. I'm going to punish everyone who doesn't.
The next kid gives Lefty a mild thump, and Sister Agnes makes him hold out his palm while she hits him with the ruler she is holding. Each of the kids in turn taps Lefty and holds out his palm for the blow.
Sister Agnes gets very upset. Her gown rustles with anger. Hit Francis! she cries again.
But no one will. The kids file along, take their crack on the hand, and gather in a circle to watch. Lefty is laughing. When they are all done, Sister Agnes stands still, and it is obvious she is debating whether to make them do it over again. But she is defeated, and very coldly she tells the boys to march to class.
Polack has learned a powerful lesson. He expands with admiration for Lefty. He does not know the words yet, but he shakes his head.
Boy, Lefty is okay.
Two years later, Polack's mother brings him back to her house. One of the older sisters is married, and two of his brothers are working. Before he leaves, Lefty gives him the secret handshake.
You're okay, kid, I'm gettin' out next year an' I'll look ya up.
Back to his street and the new sports fitting his age. Hitching rides on trolleys is commonplace, stealing from stores is a source of income. The real sport is holding onto the tailgate of a fast freight truck and highballing it fifteen miles out of town. His mother makes him get a job working as delivery boy in a butcher store, and he does that for a couple of years.
It has its moments.
When he is thirteen one of the women to whom he delivers meat seduces him.
Oh, hello, she says, opening the door, you're Mrs. . . Mrs. . .
Mrs. Czienwicz's son, lady.
Yeah, I know your mother.
Where you want the meat, lady?
Over there. He puts it down, looks at her. I guess that's all.
Sit down, you must be tired.
Naah, I got a lot of orders.
Sit down.
He stares at her. Yeah, all right, maybe I will.
Afterward, he feels as if his education is completed. He has known for a long time that there is no man you can trust, but women have not concerned him. Now he is positive that women too are as unreliable as the altering sands of mutual advantage.
I'm leaving. . . Well, so long. . .
You can call me Gertrude. She giggles.
He has not thought of her as possessing a name. Even how she is Mrs. Something, a door at which he drops meat.
So long, Gertie. I'll be seeing ya.
It is only hours later that the advantages, the beauties, the absorptive recollections of this act he has known by name for so long catch up with him. The next day he drops in to see her, is there often for the rest of the summer.
His years elapse, and he grows older, even wiser within the rigid gamut of his wisdom, but he hardly alters. He goes from job to job, becoming a butcher, working in the stockyards, even chauffeuring a car for some people who live on the North Side, but he exhausts the possibilities of the jobs very soon, knows their limitations almost before he has begun.
In 1941, when he is eighteen, he sees Lefty Rizzo again at a ball game, and they sit down together. Lefty is putting on weight already, looks prosperous. With his mustache he looks eight years older than twenty-two.
Ay, Polack, what the hell you been doin' with yourself?
Play in' the percentages.
Lefty laughs. Still the same old Polack, boy, are you a card. Why the hell ain't ya been around to see me? I coulda fixed ya up with something.
Never got around to it, that's a fact. (But it is more than this. His code, never formulated, has been at work. When a pal has hit it, y' don't touch him unless he asks ya.)
Well, I can use ya.
Whah Novikoff, ya lousy Russian. Let's see ya hit somethin' besides air. Polack sits down after shouting, cocks his feet up on the seat in front of him. What was that ya said?
I can use ya.
Polack makes a face, purses his lips. Maybe we can do business, he says in dialect.
He buys a car, using for the down payment his savings from the first two months' work. He drives around at night after supper going to the candy stores and barbershops to collect the numbers receipts. When he is done he rides over to Lefty's house and drops the receipts and cash, goes back to the new furnished apartment he has rented for himself. For this he gets a hundred dollars a week.