"How come you're hanging around with Mexicans?" he said.
"I like Aurelio," I said.
"He's queer, man," Turk said.
"You think?" I said.
"A maricón," Turk said.
"That a new word you learned?" I said.
"Maricón," Turk said. "Aurelio Maricón."
"I don't know if he's queer," I said. "But if you're right, and he is, does that mean he has to get beat up every couple days?"
"How 'bout 'cause he's a beaner?" Turk said.
"Whatever," I said. "Why you want to beat him up?"
"'Cause we don't like them."
"Them?"
"Mexicans," Turk said. "You gonna protect him?"
"I'm gonna protect him," I said.
"I never had you figured for a spick lover, man."
Mr. Hartley said, "I'd like some quiet, please, in the back of the room."
We sat still, and when Mr. Hartley looked back down at his notes, I whispered to Turk, "Just leave him alone."
Mr. Hartley looked up again and saw Turk and me looking at him innocently, eager for knowledge.
Chapter 38
The low buildings of the Back Bay were dark. They looked, with the effusive sunset behind them, like a stage setting.
Standing on the little bridge, Susan and I turned and rested our hips on the bridge bulwark and looked at it.
"That's very pretty," Susan said.
"And it happens every day," I said.
"I've heard that," Susan said. "Was Aurelio really gay?"
"Don't know," I said.
"You didn't ask him?"
"No," I said.
"You didn't care," Susan said.
"No," I said. "Didn't then and don't now."
"Mexican either," Susan said.
"Nope," I said. "Mexican either. I never cared about that stuff."
I grinned at her.
"Besides, I was a little hazy on exactly what it meant to be gay," I said.
"Did they keep bothering you?" Susan said.
"Not bad, for a while. They teased us a little, but I didn't have to fight anybody."
"Were they scared of you?"
"Maybe a little scared," I said. "They knew I could fight. But, you know, I played ball with a lot of the guys. I knew most of them. They all knew I'd punched out Croy Davis, who was two years older than I was. And I kept telling them to lay off Aurelio."
"And they listened?"
"Some," I said.
"So you were able to stop walking to school with him after a while."
"I was, until a bunch of Mexican kids beat the crap out of an Anglo kid and everybody started taking sides."
"Which, unless you were more different in those days than I think you were, wasn't your style."
"No, it wasn't," I said.
"You've never been a joiner," Susan said.
"I wasn't trying to solve race relations in town," I said. "I was just trying to help Aurelio, because he was a nice little guy and because Jeannie asked me to."
"When I was at Harvard," Susan said, "the concern was mostly with larger problems, saving the world, that kind of thing."
"How's that working?" I said.
Susan smiled.
"Since I've known you," she said, "you have actually been saving the world, one person at a time."
I grinned.
"I guess I work on a smaller scale than Harvard," I said.
"Thank God," Susan said.
Chapter 39
I was leaning against the brick wall on the sunny side of the school, talking to Jeannie and Aurelio at recess. Carl and Turk came over to us along with an older guy I didn't know. All three of them looked hard at Aurelio. But nobody spoke to him. I could feel Aurelio trying to shrink into the brick wall.
"How ya doin', Spenser?" Carl said.
"Good," I said.
"Hey, babe," Turk said.
Jeannie ignored him.
"This here is Leo Roemer," Carl said.
"Leo," I said.
He nodded. He looked at Jeannie.
"Who's this?" he said.
"I'm Jeannie," she said.
Leo nodded.
"Not bad," he said.
"Gee, thanks," Jeannie said. "You're pretty cute yourself."
"Maybe someday I'll show you how cute I am," Leo said.
"Maybe," Jeannie said. "Maybe not."
"You go to school here?" I said.
"I don't go to school nowhere," Leo said. "I dumped it after the eighth grade."
"Lucky you," I said.
"It's all crap anyway," he said.
I nodded.
"Leo's gonna help us with the spicks," Carl said.
I nodded.
"And we gotta know where you stand," Carl said.
"Stand about what?" I said.
"You with us against the spicks or you with them?" Turk said.
"I'm just looking out for Aurelio," I said.
"They beat up Sal Dusack," Turk said.
"Probably getting even," I said.
"Hey," Leo said. "You with us or not?"
"Whaddya do, Leo?" I said. "Now that you're not in school."
"I work with my old man," he said.
"What did you say your last name was?"
"Roemer," he said. "What do you care?"
"Roemer Construction?"
"Yeah, whaddya know about it?"
"My father is Sam Spenser," I said. "He and my uncles do a lot of work with your father."
"Yeah? Well, I don't care," Leo said. "I want to know where you stand."
"You know any of them?" I said.
"I don't work with the subcontractors," Leo said. "You with us or against us?"
"How about neither?" I said.
"We don't like âneither,' " Leo said.
He looked around at Carl and Turk.
"Do we?" he said.
"No," Carl said.
"Come on, Spenser," Turk said. "You known us all your life."
"How can you side with them?" Carl said.
"I'm not siding with them," I said. "And I'm not siding with you."
"You're American," Turk said. "Like us."
"I might not be exactly like you," I said.
"Aw, screw him," Leo said to Carl and Turk. "He's yellow. He won't even fight for his own kind."
My father always said there was no point in arguing about crap; when you got all through, the argument was still gonna be crap.
I made no comment.
The three of them turned away.
"Better watch yourself, Spenser," Leo said.
Turk looked back at me and shook his head. I shrugged at him. And they walked off.
Chapter 40
"What's going to happen?" Aurelio said.
"Don't know," I said.
"I think there's going to be a big fight," Jeannie said.
"Do you think so?" Aurelio said to me.
"I don't know," I said.
"I don't like that Leo," Jeannie said.
"What's going to happen?" Aurelio asked. "If everybody starts fighting, you can't protect me from all of them."
"They might not be so interested in you alone," I said.
"But you'll stay with me?" Aurelio said.
"Yes."
"I don't like that Leo," Jeannie said again.
"No," I said. "I don't like him either."
"How old do you think he is?" Jeannie said.
"Sixteen," I said. "Seventeen."
"You think he really works for his father?" Jeannie said.
"He didn't know my father and my uncles. If he did much in the business, he'd know them. They do a lot of work for Roemer."