Teen Angel (28 page)

“They can drop dead,” the Gooch said. “I know they’re not coming.”

“What are you going to do then?”

“I don’t care,” she said.

“But you must care,” Sonny insisted.

The Gooch looked at her. “Don’t you know anything yet? It’s all shit. They tell you that it isn’t, but it is. Shit!” she cried, turning away angrily.

“Maybe you could come with us,” Sonny began unsurely. “My mother said no, but maybe I could convince her.” She shifted her
weight from foot to foot. “Don’t worry. I’ll talk to her.”

“I know the score,” the Gooch said. “They’ll send me somewhere that’s called a school except it’s really a jail.”

“They can’t do that. You didn’t do anything. Maybe we could talk to the policeman–”

“Sonny!” her mother screamed from the doorway. “Come on already!” She walked over to the Gooch and said, “I’m sure your parents will come for you soon. Come, Sonny.”

“They ain’t coming,” the Gooch answered.

“Mom, we have to do something!” Sonny cried.

“Do you hear me?” her mother threatened. “Haven’t you caused enough trouble already.”

Sonny grabbed the Gooch’s arm. “You’re coming with us,” she said. “Come on.” She tried to pull her out of the seat but the Gooch would not move.

“Sonny,” her mother commanded. “We’re leaving and if you don’t come immediately, you’re going to feel very sorry.”

“Please, mom!” Sonny cried. “She didn’t do anything worse than me. I’m not going unless you let her come, too.”

Her mother grabbed her arm. “If you don’t come this minute–”

Sonny bent down before the Gooch. “I wish I could do something. I really do. God, I’m sorry. I never meant this to happen.”

The Gooch bolted around in her chair. Her shoulders quivered. “GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! Do you hear me, chickenshit!”

As they walked to the subway, Sonny said, “She’s going to be sent away. Why couldn’t we take her home with us?”

“Sonny, we couldn’t have helped her,” her mother said.

“Who?” Michael asked. “Who are you talking about?”

“A girl,” her mother answered. “Besides, she’s not like us.”

“What do you mean?” Sonny protested. “She’s just like me.”

“All she can think about is some hoodlum girl who hurt her and tore her clothes,” she said, shaking her head. “She doesn’t care how hard her father has to work for twenty-five dollars.”

“Who is she?”

“But I hurt her too,” Sonny insisted.

Her mother began to speak in Polish. “You didn’t do that to her face, did you?”

She nodded.

“How?” she demanded. “You don’t have nails.”

Sonny pointed to the ring on her finger.

“How could you?” Her mother was shocked. “Did you learn that at home? To hurt somebody else?”

“I had to,” she said quietly.

“What?” Michael whined. “What are you talking about?”

“None of your business.”

“No one tells me anything,” he said miserably.

“Why, Sonny? You had to hurt her? Why?”

“I had to defend myself–”

“Sonny,” her mother interrupted. “We don’t do that. Do you understand? You’re a Jewish girl. They hit each other and kill each other. But we don’t. God gave us a brain so we can think and talk-not kill each other.”

“If someone messes with me, I’ll mess right back.”

There was a terrible silence between them. Sonny regretted ever having tried to tell her mother the truth.

“Wait until your father hears about this,” her mother said.

“Tell him,” Sonny said. “I don’t care.”

They climbed the stairs into the subway station. Mike crawled under the turnstile. Her mother bought two tokens. As they waited and Mike played with the gum machine, Sonny approached her mother. “Please don’t tell dad.”

“Your father has to know.”

“What good will it do? He’ll beat me up and then start screaming and you’ll have to turn on the radio so the neighbors won’t hear–”

“Sonny,” her mother began in Polish again. “You’re a big girl. You even have your period. So soon you’ll be a full-grown woman. You can’t keep doing these kinds of things. Do you understand?”

“What did you say? Tell me!” Mike shouted over the incoming subway’s noise.

“I told Sonny she better not end up in the police station again and you better not either, little stinker.” She took his arm as they got on the subway.

“That’s not what you told her.”

“Then you won’t tell dad?” Sonny asked as they sat down.

Her mother shook her head.

“What did you say?” Mike repeated.

“Nothing that concerns you. Now just leave me alone, children.” She took her book,
Beloved Infidel
, out of her pocketbook.

“I’ll pay back the money,” Sonny said.

“Please leave me alone. I’m very upset,” her mother said.

For the rest of the trip uptown, they were silent. But as the subway pulled into their station, Sonny asked her mother, “Do you want another girl? That’s different from me?”

“What?” her mother shouted. “Wait till we get off the train.”

“You know,” Sonny said, putting her hand on her mother’s stomach. “Another daughter when the baby comes.”

“Why do you always talk to me on the train?” she shouted. “I can’t hear you.”

“I used to be a nice girl,” she whispered. “Wasn’t I?”

As they walked up Broadway, her mother said, “Now tell me. What were you saying on the train?”

“Nothing.”

“Sonny, you wanted to tell me something …”

She looked away from her mother. “I forgot what it was.”

“How come you always talk to me on the train?”

“It wasn’t important anyway,” she said, racing ahead to knock Michael’s yarmulka off his head. He punched her in the arm.

When they turned up 161st Street, they could see a large crowd gathered in front of their building.

“Oh no!” her mother cried, grabbing Mike’s hand. “Did I forget to turn off the stove? Let me think. I rushed out of the house so fast. Oh please!”

“I don’t see any fire engines,” Sonny said.

“Fire engines? Where? I want to see fire engines,” Mike cried, running ahead of them.

A black limousine was parked in front of their building with a uniformed chauffeur sitting in the front seat.

“What’s happening?” Sonny asked Tommy Ligorry, who was standing around.

“Did a bus stop on your face?” he asked.

“I saw your mother,” Sonny answered. “What’s going on?”

“Beats me. Maybe somebody died.”

A hush came over the crowd. Everyone turned to look at Gerry standing in the doorway. Her hair was set in thousands of tiny Grecian curls. She wore a tight black strapless gown with a corsage pinned in the middle of her chest. A curly-haired guy several inches shorter than her stood holding her arm. As she posed in profile for the photographer, he smiled uncomfortably.

A woman held a microphone in front of Gerry. “Could you please tell the readers of
Rave
how you feel at this moment?”

Gerry sighed. “This is the happiest day of my life. I wished so hard for a dream date with Frankie Avalon. And it came true …”

“Why did you choose Frankie Avalon?”

“Oh,” Gerry said, tears glistening in her eyes as she spoke, “he’s the dreamiest of them all. I love when he sings, ‘When a girl changes from bobby sox to stockings, when she starts trading her baby toys for boys …’”

“I think we all love that song,” the interviewer said.

“And ‘Venus up above, please send a little girl for me to love, who’ll want all the kisses I can give, as long as we both shall live.’”

Frankie Avalon broke in, “I made reservations for eight so maybe we should–”

“Just one more question,” the interviewer interrupted. “Did you send many Dream Date entries?”

“Oh, tons!”

“Then you must have bought lots of copies of
Rave
.”

“I wanted this dream date more than anything I ever wanted in
my whole life. Well, there’s this candy store down the block. Anyway, it’s real easy to lift magazines there. You know what I mean?”

“That’s very interesting,” the woman said hastily. “We all know you’ll have a beautiful date …”

As Frankie Avalon led her to the limousine, Gerry spotted Sonny.

“Hey, Sonny!” she yelled. “Come over here!”

She shook her head.

“Come on, already!”

As Sonny made her way through the crowd, Gerry said, “Wha’ happened to you?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“Anyway, Frankie,” Gerry said, squeezing his arm. “This is my friend, Sonny. She lives on the fourth floor. Sonny, this is Frankie Avalon.”

“Geraldine,” the interviewer interrupted. “I really think you two had better be off.”

“Sure,” she said, squeezing Frankie’s arm again. “Isn’t he adorable? Ta ta, you all.” She waved and threw kisses to everyone.

As Tommy dropped to his knees and set up his cap for the next shot, he mumbled, “Just give him some head in the backseat.”

Michael and her mother stood by the elevator. When he saw Sonny, he ran to the stairs screaming, “Last one up is a cripple.”

Sonny ignored him. “What do you think’s going to happen to her?”

“Who?” her mother asked.

“You know,” she said. “Do you really think her parents won’t come?”

“I don’t know,” her mother said, pressing the elevator button again. “Someone must be holding the car.”

“Mom, what’s going to happen to her?” Sonny said, pulling at her coat sleeve.

“I told you I don’t know.” She pushed the elevator button again.

“Mom–”

“Leave me alone!” her mother cried. “They’re different than we are. How am I supposed to know?”

“No!” Sonny cried. “They’re not!”

“Sonny–”

“Even if you say so. They’re not different,” Sonny insisted. “They’re not!”

“Now why are you crying?” her mother asked, trying to wipe her tears with a corner of a crumpled tissue from her pocket. “I made Mike promise that he wouldn’t say anything to your father about the police station. Everything’s going to be all right, Sonusha.” She tried to hug her but Sonny ran up the stairs ahead of her. “The elevator’s here!” her mother called.

As Sonny opened the door, Mike began to tease her. “You are a cripple, you are a cripple.”

She pushed him aside, grabbed the telephone in the hallway, and carried it into the closet.

She dialed. “Hello. You don’t know me but …” She waited for a response, but there was none. “Well, anyway, my name is Sonny Palovsky and I was at the police station today with your daught–”

“Listen, whoever you are,” a woman’s voice shouted, “I’ll tell you the same thing we told the cops. We don’t have a daughter. She’s dead as far as we’re concerned. Do you hear me?”

“But you don’t understand,” Sonny interrupted. “She didn’t do anything. We just had a fight and–” She heard a click at the other end of the line. Then it was silent. “But she didn’t do anything.”

“It’s Sonny!” Dot yelled, running to her as she crossed the street. “I waited and waited for you. Then I just had to leave. I didn’t know where you were.”

Sonny rushed over to where the Teen Angels stood leaning against a grey Buick. “I overslept,” she said, giving Marilyn the handshake. “How you all doing?” She put her books down.

“Not too bad,” Mary said.

“Anybody see D.B.?” Hansy asked.

“Beats me.”

“She’s probably making it with Miguel somewhere.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, shit! That was really something yesterday,” Hansy said, patting Sonny on the back. “The way you cut into the Gooch.”

“God!” Crystal cried. “I wish I was there. I skipped school so I could see you. What was it like, Sonny?”

“It wasn’t that much,” she said.

“You should have seen her!” Marilyn cried. “You looked like you were hurting real bad at first and then you gave it to her, just
like that.” She punched the palm of her other hand so it made a loud slapping sound.

“I always miss all the good fights,” Crystal complained.

“You were great,” Mary said. “Want a cigarette?”

“Sure,” Sonny said. Mary lit it for her like she was performing some honor. “The way you used your ring like brath knuckleth …”

She skimmed Dot’s face with her bare knuckles.

Dot pushed Mary’s hand. “Quit it,” she said.

“Say, who do you think you’re puthing?” Mary demanded.

“And you should have seen the Gooch bleed,” Marilyn continued.

“I wish I had seen that.”

“Yeah, it was like Campbell’s tomato soup.”

“Wow.”

Hansy shook her fist. “She had it coming to her.”

“Yeah,” Dot agreed.

“That hooknosed guinea thought she was the hottest shit going,” Marilyn said. “But you showed her. You really did, Palovsky.”

Sonny nodded.

“She was always pushing everyone around,” Hansy added.

“I never could really stand her guts,” Crystal said. “If you didn’t do what she said, she got real mean.”

“Remember that time at Alexander’s?” Marilyn asked. “Just because she wanted a mohair sweater, she made everyone else go in with her. Then she ran her ass out of there while the guards asked us all these questions.”

“She was not good,” Mary said.

“Did you get her on the face?” Crystal asked.

“I told you,” Marilyn said. “She cut her all up.”

“Is she in the hospital?” Crystal asked Sonny.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“I heard,” Mary began, “that you all got taken in a police car.”

“Yeah. So what?” Sonny said.

“What happened?” Marilyn demanded.

“Nothing.”

“Don’t be like that,” Hansy said. “You know, we’re all for one and one for all.”

Sonny shook her head. “Nothing much happened.”

“Don’t be so cheap!” Marilyn cried.

“Okay,” Sonny said. “We went to the police station. So what about it?”

“Then what happened?” Mary asked.

“Nothing. We just sat around. It was real boring,” she said. “Say, what else is happening? Anyone see Ruben and Steve?”

“How’d you get out?” Hansy asked.

“I told you it was nothing. My mother came and picked me up. And that was it.”

“What about the Gooch?” Dot asked.

“What about her?” Sonny said.

“Where’s she at?” Crystal asked.