“Down we go,” Louis said.
He pushed Tommy to his knees, and just for a second Tommy had the optimistic thought that Louis would have to pull off the sewer grate to stuff him inside, and during that interval maybe he could-if he could get his breath-run away.
But now he saw what he should have known all along. The grate had been pulled aside already. Jesus, this had been Ty’s plan the whole time.
“Down we go, asshole,” Louis said. “Just like days of yore.”
Tommy couldn’t stand it… being thrown into the same hole by the same lunatic bully he’d encountered as a child. He gasped, and bright lights glittered in his eyes. There was only one thing he could do, but if it didn’t work it might cost him his life. But why not? He’d rather be dead than go through the sewer treatment again.
Tommy shot out his fist and punched Louis Wetzel in the balls. The big man screeched and let go of his death grip on Tommy’s neck. His hand came down to his crotch but Tom hit him again, and the tormentor fell to his knees. Tommy had no idea what to do next… Panicky, he punched him in the face, and then took several pokes at Louis’s eyes.
From behind him he heard a cheer. “Brilliant,” Ty said.
“Fucking brilliant.”
Tom looked up and saw Ty’s happy, demonic smile framed by the moon.
“You really showed me something there,” Ty said.
Then he raised his arm and pounded Louis on the head with a crowbar. Tommy heard Wetzel’s skull crack, and saw blood drip down his ears.
“And one for good luck,” Ty said. He waved the crowbar over his head and brought it down again on Louis’s huge head.
The big man made a horrible gasp and fell off the curb, his head and shoulders dangling in the sewer.
Ty laughed and kicked him the rest of the way in. “Here we go, Tom,” he said, in a jovial way. “Give me a little hand with the grate, hey, pal?”
Tommy stood up, rubbing his neck, which was raw and throbbing with pain. “You’re out of your mind.”
“Well, duh,” Ty said.
“Is he… dead?” Tom asked.
“Oh, I imagine so. You can’t really live all that long without a brain, and I expect what’s left of Lou’s is a pile of jelly by now.”
They put the grate in place, then sat on the edge of the sewer, Tommy gasping for breath and both of them looking down every so often to see if Louis was going to make some kind of horror movie comeback.
“Why… why’d you do this?” Tom said.
Ty lit a Camel and smoked in a satisfied way.
“You’re gonna get a kick out of this,” he said, offering a cigarette to Tom, who took him up on it.
“I am?”
“Yeah, you are. See this whole thing started with your mother.”
“Bullshit,” Tom said, accepting a light from Ty.
“I swear,” Ty said. “See, these days I’m a physical therapist. I work over at Pinecrest, and about a week ago I get a call to go up to apartment 354, and who’s there? None other than your lovely mom, Go-Go Flo, as we call her, ’cause she’s always up to something. Hugely popular in the dining hall. Anyway, we get to talking about you and she told me you’re a big shot now and hardly ever talk to her, and after I’m working on her back awhile, she says to me, ‘We oughta take Tommy downa peg.’ So we cooked up this little trick to, you know, scare you a little. Just a gag. Believe me, I never expected Louis to go that far. I think when you told him you didn’t want to hear his story… well, that sent him around the old twist.”
“Jesus, Ty,” Tom said. “You and my mom cooked this whole sick thing up?”
“Sure did. I followed you to the theater. If you hadn’t come out soon, I was going to go in and get you, but your mother was right. She said you always go to the bathroom at least once in every movie. Sometimes two times.”
Tom felt himself blush. The enormity of it was too much for him. “The old witch,” he said. “And the Ruth Anne thing…”
“That was her idea, too. She said she knew you were in love with her when you were a kid, but she never thought the girl was good enough for you, so she told Ruth Anne to buzz off and keep away from you.”
“What?” Tom said. “She did what?”
“Yeah, Ruth Anne always liked you but your mother pushed her away. Anyway, she knew you’d come with me if I said Ruth Anne was having a party. Your mother is wild. She’s so imaginative. Man, she’d make a great con artist.”
“Yeah.” Tom suddenly felt like he was going to puke. But he had to fight it back. It just wouldn’t do to puke on a dead man’s body stuck beneath him in the sewer.
“Well, I guess we ought to be getting back home,” Ty said. “That’s enough fun for one night, huh?”
“Yeah, sure,” Tom said. “But Ty, I mean… what’s going to happen when the cops find Louis’s body?”
“In this neighborhood? Nothing. They find five or six bodies a week around here. Gangs, drugs, home invasions. This is Baltimore, son. And Louis was a scumbag. Hey, we just did Charm City a favor. Don’t you worry your Hollywood head about it, pal. They only catch killers in the movies.”
“Okay,” Tom said. “Listen, Ruth Anne? Do you really know where she is?”
“As a matter of fact I do. She’s living downtown. I wrote her name and number on a piece of paper for you. The part I told you about her divorce, coming home? That was the real deal. And she does want to see you.”
“No shit?” Tom said, as they drove away from the moonlit sewer.
“No shit,” Ty echoed, turning down the Alameda and stepping hard on the gas. “But if I were you, Tom, this time I wouldn’t say a word about it to your mom. She’ll try to sabotage it again. She’s the kind of old lady that wants you all to herself, you know?”
“Yeah,” Tommy said, suddenly flooded with a terrifying euphoria. “You got a point there, Ty. In fact, I don’t think I’m going to be seeing my mother anymore. Ever.”
“Now wait. You can’t turn your back on your moms. You know that.”
“Why, because she’s my mother?” Tom said. “Big fucking deal.”
“No, not because she’s your mother,” Ty answered, laughing. “Because she’s such a unique kinda monster. I mean, nobody could resist a monster like that.”
Tom found himself laughing along in spite of himself. “Well, I’m going to try. I really am.”
“Fat fucking chance,” Ty said. “Fat fucking chance.”
They drove on through the night. Tom looked up at the sky, hoping for some kind of cosmic release. But the stars looked like a patch of teenage acne and the moon was large and bloated, just like Flo’s demented face.
PIGTOWN WILL SHINE TONIGHT BY JACK BLUDIS
Pigtown
Everything had gone up in price since World War II ended the year before. Coddies were a nickel, so were the big, sour pickled onions. Cigarettes cost two for a nickel, but only in the little store across the street from the Carroll Park playground could you buy them by the stick.
I gnawed the first layer of the pickled onion and made a sour face.
“You been here long enough,” Mr. Butler said.
“Yes, sir,” I said.
I didn’t want to leave the store because Knucks was still on the corner smoking one of the cigarettes he had just pinched.
I was what the neighbors called “a good kid.” For a few pennies or a nickel I would go to the store for them. From old people I wouldn’t even take that. It was the way my mother taught me before she died.
Birute Ludka, the D.P. girl, was coming around the corner from Herkermer Street, watching her feet go one in front of the other and holding her arms under her breasts so they wouldn’t bounce. I watched, but I tried not to think about her breasts because I didn’t want to tell it in confession. The “e” end of Birute’s name had a tough “eh” sound. Most people couldn’t pronounce it, so they called her Ludka.