Sneaky People: A Novel (31 page)

Ralph did not come back to real life until, rounding the town-hall corner on wingèd feet, five minutes from home, his eye was distracted from the celestial semen of the Milky Way by the clock on the fire-department annex. The time was 1:25.

As had always been his wont, he had told the truth when apprehended after breaking Bigelow’s window: and been taken for a liar. Manliness was sometimes mere folly. He must be shrewder now and do something like steal in through the outside basement door, go boldly upstairs, and if his father was staked out in the living room, profess to have gone down cellar in early evening to find a certain old issue of
Open Road for Boys
and to have fallen asleep over it, concealed behind the high stacks of discarded papers awaiting the junkman; to have awakened only now, disoriented and dismayed.

If all was quiet, the same narrative would serve in the morning. The essential thing was to deliver it with an air of confidence, so that though his father would hardly accept the details he might well, if Ralph knew the man, himself so suave in manner, bold in deed, at least respect the authority with which it was told.

T
HOMAS
B
ERGER
is the author of more than twenty novels. His previous novels include
Regiment of Women, Adventures of the Artificial Woman
, and
The Feud
, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His novel
Little Big Man
was made into a successful movie and is known throughout the world.