Studs Lonigan (92 page)

“Is it a go, Studs?”

Studs smiled, deciding that it wasn't much use arguing. Better let it pass, let them think he agreed, and just stall off any definite dates.

“Sometime it might be all right,” he said.

“How about next Monday night?” Loretta asked.

“I'll have to wait and see Catherine.”

“Well, don't just say you will and then forget about it.”

He nodded his head, squashed his cigarette in a tray.

“Any pickup in business, Phil?” Studs asked.

“No complaints, Studs,” Phil said, stretching his legs. “In a way, hard times are playing right into my hands. There's lots of people these days who've got to live on less than they used to. And, of course, the races give them a chance to pick up some extra change. For instance, every day I get a lot of women coming in to play the ponies. Married women, trying to win pin money or a few extra pennies for the household budget. And you should see how they take to the races. Just like a duck to water.”

“That's a new angle,” said Studs, smiling.

“Most of them make piker bets of fifty cents, but that all adds up in the end. In fact, I'm thinking of lowering my limit to a quarter minimum bet on week days. If I do that, I won't only be helping myself, I'll be giving plenty of people who've been socked by the depression a chance to keep their heads a little above water by winning on the races.”

“Studs, have you set a date for your marriage yet?” Loretta asked, looking at him. Studs, glancing away from her scrutinizing eyes, thinking that maybe both of them were thinking of when he and Catherine would be living together just as she and Phil were: the possibility of his kid sister thinking of such things in connection with him made him feel kind of queer.

“Oh, sometime early next year, I guess,” he said.

“Catherine's a sweet kid. And, Studs, I consider this a real compliment when I say that I think you're getting as good a wife as I got.”

“Go on with you,” Loretta said, blushing, and then throwing a smile at Phil.

“She is so natural and spontaneous, too. I like her,” Loretta said.

“Yes, I like her,” Studs said in his clipped manner, but he wasn't sure if Loretta really meant what she said and wasn't just sugaring over a catty feeling about Catherine; he felt that maybe Fritzie thought her kind of common.

“Studs, let me give you some advice. Don't go up in an airplane on your honeymoon. I did. I got dizzy and sick as a dog,” Phil said, a smile of reminiscence on his fat, contented face.

“I got so afraid. I screamed outlandishly when we went up, I saw the ground getting farther and farther away, and all the time I kept thinking suppose we fall,” Loretta added.

“It might be fun,” Studs said, succumbing to the temptation of acting devil-may-care.

“You can try. Never again for me, though. When we were landing, I said to myself, ‘Phil, you're a lad who was born to strut your stuff with your feet solid on the ground, and not with the clouds mussing your hair.'”

“Gee, it was funny, thinking about it after we came down. It was like getting terribly scared on a roller coaster. I agree with Phil, though, never again for me. If I went up again, I know I'd be so petrified that I'd faint.”

They smiled politely.

“So you're joining the Christys, huh, Studs?” Phil remarked after an interval of silence.

“Yes, I guess it's about time.”

“I wish I'd known soon enough. I'd gone through with you. I guess now I'll have to wait until the next initiation. I want to get into the same council as you do,” Phil said.

“I think I'll be in condition to play in the baseball league a year from this summer,” Studs said, noting the surprise that came into Phil's face.

“Studs, you really should take care of yourself,” Loretta said.

“I am, I'm feeling better than I've been in a long time.”

“I know. Mother told me you were turned down by an Insurance Company because of your heart and were going to join the Order of Christopher because of the insurance, and now you talk about playing baseball. Mother, you know, is more worried over you than she lets on.”

“My heart's going to get better. That insurance company doctor was just too damn finicky,” Studs protested, his pallid face flushing, a sense of humiliation driving a river of shame through his mind.

“William, stop being so foolish!” Loretta said to him as if he were a little boy who had angered her.

“I tell you, Fritzie, that this heart condition is probably not so bad as you think it.”

“I was talking to mother and she told me it's an enlarged heart and it is, too, dangerous.”

“Have it your own way, but we'll see.”

“Yes, if you live to tell the tale.”

“By the way, Studs, how's Martin?” Phil quickly asked.

“Pretty good. He's gotten to be quite a cocky kid, though, full of wisecracks. You know how a kid his age gets,” Studs answered.

“Martin's so cute. The last time I saw him he was telling me all about a dance he went to and the trouble he had with his girl. And he was so sweet. And he kept saying, ‘She's a kicker.' I didn't know what he meant, so I asked him. He looked at me as if I were so hopeless, and said he meant she was a good dancer. I could have just kissed him.”

“Why didn't you? As long as he's your brother, I won't protest. I'll even not object to first cousins,” Phil said.

“He might have been embarrassed,” Loretta said, smiling at Phil.

“Regular flapper, huh, Studs, she even has to flirt with her husband,” Phil said with affectionate irony, nodding at her.

“Yes, and her brothers,” Studs said.

“Oh, is that so” she bantered.

“How about the kid, though, Studs, is he still hitting the bottle?” asked Phil.

“Well, sometimes, I guess, but maybe it won't hurt him.”

“Studs, you should try and talk to him because you could do it better than dad. Martin's always looked up to you, and you could impress him.”

“He looks down on me now. I was trying to tell him a few things the other night and he just acted as if I was Foxy Grandpa and there wasn't any hope for me,” Studs said, and after they had laughed, he continued with vanity creeping into his voice, “Of course, what I think is that a little drink now and then is a good thing as long as you don't overdo it the way I did.”

“Studs, I'm awfully glad you've learned to be sensible about it.”

Studs turned quickly toward her, nettled, but Phil was speaking.

“Well, dear, we were just kids in the old days and didn't see life the same as we do now.”

A hot one, Studs thought sardonically.

“Ever see anybody from Fifty-eighth?” he asked.

“I see Red and his wife nearly every Sunday at Church.”

“Phil ushers now at mass,” Loretta said.

“He's talking nothing but politics these days.”

“Who do you think'll win, Thompson or Cermak?”

“Cermak, of course. The Republicans have ruined the city.”

“Oh, let's not talk about that. All I ever hear discussed nowadays is politics or hard times. Isn't there anything else to talk about?”

“Well, dear, you know men like to discuss the issues of the day,” Phil said.

“I know it, only if people wouldn't bother their heads so much about it, and if they wouldn't be so pessimistic and always expecting the worst, maybe they'd be better off. If you think of the worst, you'll get it, and if you think of the best, you'll have more chance of getting it. I really believe that. It's called Telepathy, and Fran and I are going downtown to a lecture about it,” Loretta said.

“There might be something to it,” Phil said profoundly.

“Uh huh!” Studs grunted weightily.

“You know, Studs, a lot of fellows I've known from Fifty-eighth Street and from the old days at Louise Nolan's dance hall are hard up. Many of them have come around to see me asking for jobs.”

“I suppose so.”

“And, hell, I can't do anything for 'em, much as I'd like to. You see, for the protection I get from the law I've got to take care of all the fellows who are sent to me from the Hall. I hire all my men that way. Every time I've got to hire a new man, I call up and they send me somebody. I got to keep out of trouble myself, you know.”

“So that's the way it's run, huh?”

“Yeah! But here, Studs, have another cigarette,” Phil said, approaching him.

“Thanks.”

“Another thing, Studs. I've been thinking a lot about the World's Fair we're going to have in '33. That's going to be a great thing for business and the city, isn't it?”

“Yes,” Studs answered after studious reflection.

“By then I hope we'll be sitting pretty.”

“But Phil, dear, if we want to have money saved up then, or ever, we really ought to save. You know we've been spending a dreadful amount of money.”

“Yes, I guess you're right. You know, Studs, after you get married, money goes faster than you think. That car we bought, furniture, clothes, and the upkeep of a home and bookies is damn high. Cops, politicians, high salaries, because you know, as I just said, all the jobs I have to give out are politicians' jobs.”

“Yes, we'll have to economize. And Phil, dear, I'm going to watch Marie. I've been letting her do the buying and I'm sure she is stealing on me. You can never trust a nigger.”

“I guess not.”

“And she gets so much better treatment than most maids do. Why, Fran is shocked that I pay her eight and a half dollars a week these days when maids are so easy to get.”

Studs yawned. His glance, drifting toward Loretta, caught hers. She smiled, an understanding smile.

“But Studs doesn't care about such things, do you, Studs?” Loretta said.

“Let's have some music,” Phil said, dialing in upon the crooning of
Just a Gigolo.
Studs leaned back in his chair, bored during the announcement between songs. He wondered whether when he married Catherine, would they spend many evenings like this, getting fed up, talking just to make talk. And his stock, down four points, eighty times four made three twenty lost if he sold it. Suppose his father asked for the two thousand bucks. Could Phil loan him the difference?

“Well, Phil, I suppose if things keep rolling your way, you'll be coming out one of these days with a bank account to choke an elephant.”

“No danger, Studs. I got lots of expenses. But now that we're settled, and got our car and furniture, I hope to save a little.”

“Fran and Carroll are much better off than we are,” Loretta said.

It dawned on Studs. Preparing excuses in advance. He checked an angry impulse to sound off, and thought that yes, Phil was spending everything. He could just remember the Jewboy who used to be so tight in the old days and sold clothes to all his friends, he could just see him spending all his dough. He yawned.

 

“And now I present to you Mr. Horgath Kelson, the internationally renowned economist.”

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, these days many people, from the man on the corner, to radicals, politicians who are amongst the outs rather than the ins, and even a few business leaders, are issuing gloomy statements. If we were to believe these, they would convince us all that we are whistling in a graveyard.”

“Oh, get some music, Phil.”

“Yes, but let's just get what he's got to say. He's a famous man,” Phil said.

“Who is he?”

“Oh, he runs some kind of service advising business men. I've heard of him.”

“I never did before,” Studs said.

 

“To the contrary, I would say that 1931 is going to be the year of opportunity. This is no pipe dream. Statistics show us that business reached its lowest point on the index in December, 1930, and since then there has been a gradual improvement. All indications show us that within six months we will be again at a peak. That's why I believe that many who were trapped in crashing stock markets can, by buying now before the upturn reaches its full swing, recoup their losses.”

 

“Phil, darling, isn't that enough of it?”

“Yes, dear,” Phil said, arising to get a new station.

Um, Studs thought, better keep those stocks. In six months they'd make him rich.

“What he said sounds hopeful,” Studs said.

“Yeah,” Phil muttered.

“Maybe a fellow with some dough could clean up if he bought some stocks.”

“Well, maybe, but I'd feel better with my dough safe in the bank, drawing its three per. I don't know much about stocks, but that's why you won't find me sinking my money in a racket I don't know much about. When it comes to such propositions, safety first is my middle name.”

Studs felt superior to Phil. Phil was a pinching piker, wouldn't take a chance. Even after hearing that economist, he wouldn't. Well, Studs would. He was clinging to that stock until it paid him back plenty.

“Coffee, Studs?”

“All right.”

Loretta went to the kitchen to make coffee. Phil smiled affably. Studs returned the smile. Piker, wouldn't take a chance. No one would ever say that about Studs Lonigan.

“Well, old timer, I'm one boy who's going to be full of sweet contentment when the day's work is over,” Studs said to old Mort over the restaurant table: his back ached and his arms were sore.