The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [40]
As they were driving east on Sixty-third, old man O’Brien said, his voice exaggeratedly rough:
“Who’s the hardest guy in the gang?”
“Studs,” said Johnny.
Studs blushed a little, and wanted to say something to make it appear like he wasn’t so awful tough after all, but he was secretly pleased. He sat there, trying to think of something to say, and he couldn’t get hold of a word.
“Well, some day, Studs, let’s you and I mix. I’m not so young as I used to be, and maybe I’ll be a little slow and will get winded, but just let’s you and I mix. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll tie my knees together, have one arm tied behind my back, and throw a gunny sack over my head. Now is that square?” Old Man O’Brien said.
They laughed. Studs thought that Old Man O’Brien was a pretty tough one when he got going. He remembered that night when they had all been standing at the corner of Fifty-eighth and Indiana. They had just been talking there, not doing a thing out of the way. And MacNamara, the lousy cop, came around. He blew his bazoo off, and told them to get a move on, and not be hanging around corners molesting the peace. They said they weren’t doing anything. He blew his bazoo off again, and told them not to talk back to him or he’d run the whole damn bunch of them in. He said they weren’t no good anyhow, and wanted to know what kind of fathers they had that would let them be out on the streets at night, molesting decent people and disturbing the peace. He told them to get a move on, and he grabbed Johnny’s arm and started to shove him. Old Man O’Brien had been in the drug store, and he’d taken the whole show in. He got sore as a boil and stepped up to the lousy flatfoot. He told him where to get off at in regular he-man’s language. He said he was the kind of a father these boys had, and what was there to say about it? And he told MacNamara that those boys would stand on the corner as long as they pleased, and as long as they were behaving, as they had been then, no one would try and bully them... not while he was around. And no cop could think that he was going to get away with pushing his son. And he told the damn bluecoat that if he would take off his star, he’d punch him all over the corner, and when he got through, wipe the street with him. MacNamara had walked away like a whipped dog, mumbling apologies. If he had cracked a wise one, Old Man O’Brien would have socked him. And if he had run Old Man O’Brien in, with Mr. O’Brien being in the right like he was, well, he would have been in a jam, because Old Man O’Brien had money and a pull. Studs and all the guys had wished they had an old man like Johnny had. Now, riding in the car, Studs thought what a swell old man he was. He remembered Johnny saying his dad never once hit him. And he gave Johnny plenty of spending money. He was a real old man, all right.
They drove down South Park Avenue. Old Man O’Brien said he’d take Studs and Johnny to White City some time. He and his wife had been there only last week, and had had a dandy time. Studs felt that Mr. O’Brien was different from his own gaffer. He wasn’t a putter-off, but when he said he’d do something, he did it. Old Man O’Brien turned, and said:
“Hell, you kids ain’t as tough as kids used to be in my days. When we fought then, we fought. And we all had to use brass knuckles.”
“You wouldn’t fool us, Gov’nor, would you?” kidded Johnny.
Studs thought it wasn’t every guy who could kid with his old man, like Johnny could. Most old men were, like his own, always serious, and always demanding that you show them respect and listen to everything they said, and never contradict them or think they were in the wrong. And they never understood a kid.
Johnny had some old man, all right.
“Yeh, and when I was a kid, we used to fight Indians, and if we made a slip then, well, we’d have been tommy-hawked.”
“No!” Studs exclaimed with surprise. He knew what old man O’Brien said couldn’t be true, and yet he half-believed it was. He had an imaginary picture of Mr. O’Brien wading through a field of Indians, throwing a whole tribe of them up for grabs.