Dreadful Summit (7 page)

Then all of a sudden Dr Cooper said, ‘Why are you so interested in Al Judge anyhow?'

I said the first thing that came to me. ‘I want him to get me a job.'

‘On the
Press
? For Christ's sake, that's where the gag started about the guy telling his kids he played piano in a whore house because he didn't want them to know he worked there.'

‘I don't care. I want to work on a newspaper and maybe he can help me.'

‘Why Al Judge?'

‘He's a big shot. I want to talk to him about it.' An idea was really cooking in my head now and I said, ‘Do you know where he goes after the fights?'

‘That wouldn't help you any. You just go to the personnel office of the
Press
, and tell them what you want. They'll make sure you don't get it.'

‘I have to talk to him about it.'

He shook his head and started to say something but I couldn't hear him. The bell had gone off and everybody was yelling because the fight started. And right off Rocks Abruzzo came out and started smacking Joe Shotfield around. He hit him with everything and then they got tangled up together and the referee ran over and pulled them apart and it started all over again. But what bothered me was when they started fighting the lights all went out except over the ring, and it was hard to see that white scarf. I couldn't see it out of the corner of my eye at all. I had to keep looking straight at it, and that's how I knew when the rounds were over. Because then the lights went on and it was easy to see.

Then there was a real riot and I had to look because Rocks Abruzzo got in a good one, the one everybody wanted to see, only I didn't see it, and Joe Shotfield was down and he must have been hurt bad. He couldn't even get up when it was all over. They had to carry him to his corner.

Then I felt with my foot my father's good hat was on the floor, and I picked it up and saw it was dirty all over. I was scared about that and what he would say, and I started to dust it off. Then I remembered the scarf.

I looked down quick and it wasn't there any more. I was so mad that I grabbed the glasses right out of Dr Cooper's hand, and he looked like I was nuts. But no matter how I looked around with them, I couldn't find that scarf. The typewriter was gone, the cane was gone too, and I knew for sure Al Judge would get away from me if I didn't do something quick to find him.

Then I remembered Dr Cooper might know where he went to so I grabbed his arm. I said, ‘Look, it's important. Where does Al Judge go after the fights? I mean, is there any place special? I have to know because he went away already and I have to find him.'

‘About that job?'

‘Yes. I have to get that job. I just have to.'

I was starting to get up, but he pulled me back so I was sitting down again. He said, ‘Is it Al Judge you were looking at through the glasses?'

‘I had to know where he was so I could talk to him. Does he go back to the paper now?'

‘You ought to polish up your lying, George. First it was your friend; then it was Al Judge. And all you want to do is ask for a job. You don't expect me to believe all that stuff, do you?'

I said, ‘Honest to God.'

‘Listen,' he said, ‘I'll tell you what's bothering you. You were working for the
Press
, and Judge had you fired off your job, and now you want to square it somehow, don't you?'

The way I tried to pull my arm loose was a giveaway, but I couldn't help it. All I wanted to do was get away from there and do it quick, but he held my arm so tight I was afraid it would start trouble where everybody would look. Dr Cooper said, ‘He's done that to a hundred guys, and the smart ones forget it and shop around for another job. When you tangle with him you're looking for trouble. I once saw him whack a copy boy over the head with his cane for looking at him cross-eyed. What did you expect to do? Beat him up?'

The finger was on me good now. Whatever I did, Dr Cooper would figure out who it was, and he even knew my name. The only thing to do was get him somewhere and give it to him and that would fix it up. But what about all the people who saw me with Dr Cooper, and maybe if my picture was in the papers they would put the finger on me for that.

All I wanted to do was kill Al Judge and kill him quick. I didn't want to kill Dr Cooper, because that would be murder and not like killing Al Judge. I wasn't even sore at Dr Cooper, only a little because he was getting everything balled up.

Then it hit me I could get Dr Cooper to help me, and I could do the job so good I would be all right. I would only know that when I did the job, and if it didn't turn out right, there would be time to get Dr Cooper too.

I said, ‘That's what happened. What you said.'

‘What exactly?'

‘I was a copy boy and Al Judge didn't like me so he had me fired. Now my whole family is broke.'

‘I know how you feel. I felt that way myself ten years ago. But it's smarter to forget it.'

‘I don't care. I want to give him what's coming to him.'

We were looking at each other and Dr Cooper was moving his lips in and out over his teeth like he was thinking hard. He said, ‘If there was ever anybody who needed a good shellacking, it's Al Judge. But you're not the guy to do it.'

‘I'll take my chances.'

‘You mean that no matter what I say, you're bound to do it sooner or later.'

‘That's right.'

There was a fight on in the ring, but we didn't watch it. We were watching each other. Dr Cooper rubbed his hand around his chin. ‘I'd like to be there when it happens. And I could find twenty other guys in half an hour who'd back you up.'

‘I don't want anybody around.'

He looked at me worried. ‘You don't expect to use brass knuckles or a roll of nickels or something like that, do you?'

‘No. But I don't want anybody around.' He didn't understand if he was around when it happened I would have to get him too. And I didn't want to do that.

He shook his head and laughed. ‘George, I think you're crazy, but you're a man after my own heart. As a matter of fact, if you can do the job in style, I know three guys in the racket who'll give you jobs tomorrow.'

I said, ‘Then where is he now?'

‘If things haven't changed in ten years, he's probably over at Tuffy's, hoisting a couple. You'll never get him alone there, but you can tail him when he goes out until you get him where you want him.'

He said it so much like my thoughts that it sounded like an echo coming back to me. I said, ‘Where would he go after Tuffy's?'

‘Well, his story is in, but he might want to do a column on the fight. That means he'd head back to the
Press.
'

‘Does he go home after that?' I wanted to ask was he married or maybe living with some people, so I would know how everything stood, but I was afraid it wouldn't sound right.

Dr Cooper said, ‘Hell, nothing may be the way I told it. The best bet is to start at Tuffy's and tag along.'

‘Where's Tuffy's?'

He said, ‘Right across the street, from the Garden,' and then, when I started to push my way out, he grabbed his coat and hat and came right after me. He said, ‘I hope you don't mind my going part of the way, George. You're making an old dream of mine come true, and I owe you a drink for that.'

I wished he hadn't done that. Because the more he followed me, the more he was getting into trouble, and he was so nice it was crazy to think about killing him. I mean, he was a professor and all that, but he cursed like anybody else, and he was being friendly like Flanagan was sometime.

And here he was getting more and more into trouble, and I couldn't even tell him about it. Because the big thing was to kill Al Judge, and that might spoil it.

Chapter Nine

I
KNEW
about the guy who ran Tuffy's. His name was Tuffy Walsh, and ten, twenty years ago he was one of the best fighters around. He was only a little guy but he had plenty of heart and he wasn't afraid of anybody. He even had a fight with the heavyweight champ and he would have licked him but he didn't have enough weight. I knew all this because only a couple of months back there was a big piece in the
Press
about him, and all the old-timers in my father's bar started to argue about it.

The piece said that Tuffy Walsh was all fed up with fighting and drinking and stuff like that and he was writing poetry. It must have been good poetry too, because they were making a book out of it and there was even one of the poems in the
Press
. It told how things looked in the Wintertime when there was snow all over the ground, and it sounded all right to me. A lot of guys think poetry is dumb, but I don't. There's a couple of poems in Rudyard Kipling that are all right, and once I tried to write one but it didn't come out good. So I knew Tuffy Walsh was plenty smart if he could write good poems like the one in the
Press
.

But some of the guys started laughing and said Tuffy Walsh must be punchy from all the fights he had, and that got old Mr Reardon and Flanagan all hot. Mr Reardon started telling about the fights Tuffy Walsh had and who he licked, and Flanagan said all the Irish were full of music and poetry and it was nothing to be ashamed of. Then one of the guys said all the Irish were full of — and there would have been a fight only my father broke it up. But Flanagan went into the toilet with the
True Story
magazine and wouldn't come out for an hour.

When I was standing outside Tuffy's with Dr Cooper I didn't think about that. The thing on my mind was if I walked into Tuffy's and Al Judge saw me and remembered me, there would be trouble. I didn't know what kind of trouble, just trouble. Because if he made some kind of crack or did something I didn't like, I might pull out the gun in front of everybody and give it to him right there.

Dr Cooper was half way in the door but I was still outside. He turned around and said, ‘What's the matter? Losing your nerve?'

I said, ‘No. But if he sees me there might be trouble right away, and I don't want that to happen.'

He said, ‘Hell, you're the one that's looking for trouble. Come on in and look him in the eye. Besides, I owe you that drink.'

I couldn't stand there and argue it out. I followed him into the bar, but I kept my hand tight on the gun and moved it a little to make sure it would slip out easy if I needed it.

The first one I saw inside was Al Judge. There were some guys all along the bar drinking, and then it curved around until it hit the wall, and he was right in the corner by the wall with a drink in one hand and a pencil in the other writing on a piece of paper in front of him. You couldn't miss him the way that white scarf stood out against the black coat, but I had to take a good look before I saw the handle of the cane hanging on the bar.

When we went up to the bar, I couldn't take my eyes off him. Dr Cooper said, ‘For Christ sake, the way you're looking at him, I think I'll lay a bet on you. What have you been doing, training on raw meat?'

Then the bartender came over and stood there with his hands resting on the bar and Dr Cooper said, ‘What'll it be?'

The way he said it and the way the bartender stood waiting made me feel good. Flanagan said nobody in the world can figure your age better than a bartender because if he makes a mistake they take his license away. Plenty of times I saw him chase away guys who looked like real big stuff only they were really kids, and he was never wrong. So when the bartender was waiting to give me a drink, I knew I would pass all right and that's why I felt so good. And I knew what to say and do too, because when you hang around a bar all the time you pick up all the angles.

I said, ‘I'll take whatever you do,' and Dr Cooper said to the bartender, ‘This is an occasion, general. Make it two Metaxas.'

That was stuff my father never had, but I didn't want to look dumb so I didn't ask about it. I figured it was brandy because the bartender poured it into brandy glasses, the very little kind, and it must have cost plenty because Dr Cooper passed over a five-dollar bill and hardly got back any change at all. He picked up the glass and said, ‘To the Greeks,' and started drinking it down slow. I started to do that but I didn't like the taste, so I slugged it all down in one shot.

It was strong all right. For a couple of seconds I couldn't catch my breath, and when I did it felt like my face was on fire and I was hot inside all the way down to my belly. But it wasn't the kind of hot you get from eating bad stuff. It was like all my juice was percolating and I was so strong I could squeeze my hand around the glass and break it into little pieces.

I looked at Al Judge, the way he was writing on that piece of paper, and I started to figure I couldn't wait much longer. If I went over and bumped into him or something he might start trouble and I could give it to him right there. Everybody would see he started it so it would be all right.

Before I could figure it out better, Dr Cooper said, ‘How about another one, George?' and I remembered about my ten dollars because it was my turn to treat. I mean, Dr Cooper gave me the ten dollars for the ticket so he knew I had it on me, but I didn't have it. And I couldn't tell him why not because it would sound dumb.

I didn't know what to say. I started poking my hands around in my pockets even though I knew there was nothing I could find except the nickel, and Dr Cooper hit me on the back and said, ‘Listen, George, this is a celebration, and it's on me. Order up and skip the details.'

I said, ‘Well, all right,' like I meant to pay only he talked me out of it, and we had another and this time it went down easier. When I looked in the mirror in back of the bar I could see myself easy because I was almost a head taller than anybody else, and it felt good with the black hat pulled down, and the glass in my hand, and seeing the white scarf out of the corner of my eye and knowing the gun was in my pocket all ready to kill Al Judge. It felt terrific, and I almost laughed the way Al Judge was standing there just waiting for me to give it to him.