The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [154]
“Boys will be boys!” Red said.
“Makes you want to puke,” Studs said.
“Say, Studs, why do they do that?” Curley asked, innocently.
“Shut up!”
“Say, Red...”
“Curley, you talk too goddamn much,” Red interrupted.
The bouncer explained, in answer to Red’s question, that they dumped them out in the morning.
“Say, most of the guys who work here look like they bought their faces at a second-hand auction,” Studs said.
They returned to their tables. The girls were there. Slug whispered to a big, angular-faced, high-cheeked, blond Polack in pink teddies.
“Gimme the dough now,” she said, pronouncing her words as Slug did.
He whispered to Studs, Doyle, and Red. They handed him some change. He slipped two bills to the Polack broad.
“Hello, Vincent,” she cooed, draping herself on his lap.
“Say, how did you know my name?” he asked, as drinks were set down on the table.
“Vincent, a little love-bird whispered it in my ear.”
Vinc turned from the girl and called to Shrimp. Haggerty was busy telling the girl on his lap that he got tired of his wife, and needed a change. Vinc yelled to him. He turned.
“Do you want to go to the Michigan with me tomorrow afternoon, and see the picture?”
They roared. Studs told his girl that the goof had water on the brain; born that way, and no hope.
The jazz blared. Arnold, Studs, and Shrimp belly-danced with their girls. The Polack led Vinc onto the dance floor. He protested that he couldn’t dance. She said she’d teach him. She rubbed against him. His face looked as if it were on the verge of being consumed by flames.
When he came back, he was kidded. He couldn’t understand them. He suddenly called Mush Joss to say the other day Mush had said he had lived in the neighborhood a long time. Vinc said well he would bet ten cents he had lived in the neighborhood longer than Mush.
“You wouldn’t bull me,” said Mush.
“Come on, big boy, kiss me!” the Polack said.
“And kiss your maidenhead good-bye, you, you goddamn fathead,” Studs said.
“But, Studs...”
“Daddy, don’t you like to love?” the girl asked him.
“Don’t do that,” Vinc protested feebly, as she placed his hand on one of her wobbly breasts.
“Dearie, you don’t know what loving I’ll give you,” she said.
“Take your hand away. Why, I wouldn’t even let my mother touch me there,” Vinc said, convulsing them.
She made a little moan. He threw her off him; she landed on her can. Two bouncers grabbed Curley and they carted him to the door by the seat of the pants and the collar. He got a clout in the jaw, and landed outside.
“For Christ sake, what the hell kind of a fluke is he? Does he want me to beg him,” the Polack said.
“That’s all right, girlie, come on over here,” Slug said.
“I never had one as goofy as that. All kinds of crazy people come to me, and want all kinds of things done to them, but I never had any guy as goofy as that.”
“You know, I got four sisters, and they’re all the most decent girls in the world. You know, my four sisters are as pure as a lily,” Arnold Sheehan bragged drunkenly, and the girl on his lap curled her lips.
“Sing ‘em, Sheehan!” Slug said.
“They’re as pure as a lily. I shouldn’t even walk on the same side of the street with them, after I come here. And anybody that says my four sisters ain’t pure as a lily has gotta fight me,” Arnold said, pounding the table.
“My two sisters are as pure as yours,” Studs said.
“Say, are all these guys queer?” the Polack asked Slug.
“Polluted. The boys is out for a good time,” Slug laughed.
“Well, why don’t they shut up talking and prove themselves upstairs. A man only proves himself in a bed. No girls are pure and those that pretend they are are just yellow. They all want it, and they get it too, and they pretend like hypocrites,” the girl on Amold’s lap said.
“Sally!” the girl with Shrimp remonstrated.
“I don’t care. I’m sick of these guys coming here and telling me I’m a whore and not as good as their goddamn wives, and sisters, and sweethearts.”
“Sally had a fight because she wasn’t getting enough towels. She’s cranky tonight,” the girl on Shrimp’s lap said.
“Hey, cut it. The show is starting,