The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [209]
“Say, I’ll be damned, if the Jew isn’t selling Curley a suit,” Red said.
Tommy yelled for Vinc not to buy a suit. Phil protested that he wasn’t selling anything.
“Oh, say, Davey Cohen’s back,” Red said.
“How is he?”
“He hasn’t grown hardly an inch since he left, and he looks like hell. I tell you, if he hasn’t got the con, I’ll eat it on State and Madison at high noon.”
“What’ll we do?” Studs asked, observing that it was eight‑thirty.
“What do you say, Doyle?” asked Slug.
“How about you, Kelly. Any bright ideas?” asked Tommy.
Slug called Vinc over and asked him if he wanted to go to a can house. It merited some more buffoonery. Phil button-holed Vinc again, and warned him not to let the barbers get his goat. Studs sneered, and moved more closely to them. He overheard Phil telling Curley that a new Sankey, Hatfield, and Cohen society suit would make a man of him, make him attractive to all the girls. Vinc said he’d think about it, and propositioned Phil again about the movies. Phil said he couldn’t because he had a date with Fritzie Lonigan. Studs frowned and ambled back with Doyle and the guys by the radiator. Slug said that the punks had caused the poolroom to close, because they’d always hung around, and never spent any jack. Phil got razzed as he left.
Studs looked at the clock: eight-thirty-four. He watched the second-hand sweep around once. Another minute gone. Carrigan hurt the feelings of Dapper Dan O’Doul by telling him he could never succeed in outsheiking Phil Rolfe. Phil was the one and original.
“Jesus, let’s do something. I can’t stand the sight of these goofy young p—s and their goddamn gab,” Studs said.
“Wait a couple of minutes, and if the rain stops, we’ll walk down to the Michigan,” Red said.
Malloy spoke loudly about the way Phil rooked in all the boys, telling them to come down, pay their first deposit, get the suit on the budget plan, and then not pay any more. He said that he got his commission anyway and didn’t care. He had rooked Rooney in that way and Rooney could tell them how he had been dunned and forced to pay.
The store manager interrupted Fat, and asked the crew to leave because they were blocking the door and injuring business. They sulked. Everybody wondered what to do. It was still raining heavily. Vine got in Studs’ way, and Studs booted his tail. Studs looked at the clock in the window: eight-thirtynine. Studs hated the manager, wished he’d clouted him. Getting kicked out of the store because of the punks!
Finally they went to the show. Coming back with the boys for coffee an’, Studs noticed that Dapper Dan was still mushing around Sally. He laughed. He wondered out loud if she could be made. He consumed his coffee an’ quickly and said good-night to the boys. He stopped for cigarettes, and asked Sally what she was doing after work. She said her boy friend came and got her every night. He left. Another goddamn night wasted, and the movie had been punk too.
II
After supper, Studs walked out of the dining-room with Loretta. He side-glanced at her, this girl, his sister. She was smaller than he, hardly more than up to his shoulder. Everyone said she looked like him. Well, she did. All four of them looked alike; they had the same broad brows, the same complexion, the same eyes. Only the girls had dark hair, and he and the kid brother had lighter hair, brown.
“Say, I saw Phil last night,” Studs said, not knowing how to commence, feeling what the hell business was it of his anyway, but still believing that he ought to say something.
“Yes, I was to College Inn with him.”
“Have a good time?”
“I had a perfectly grand time.”
He couldn’t but wonder how far Phil, how far any guy, could go with her. They said any girl could be made by the right guy, and maybe so, but, Jesus, he hoped that that kike was not the right guy. All those punks were always talking about making girls. He wondered how much of it was just crap talk.
Hell, for years now, he’d hardly spoken to her about anything much. He’d lived in the same house, seen at breakfast and supper, talked a little bit now and then, but almost never about anything that was important. She was his sister, and she was a stranger. But goddamn it, she could find someone better than a cheap kike.