The Wanderers (24 page)

"Why the hell you goin' to Africa? You got boogies in Tully."

"I don't go to Tully no more."

"I ain't gonna be goin' there no more either."

"You quittin'?"

"Graduatin'."

"Fuck you."

"Big deal. It don't make no difference."

"You gonna college?"

"Whada you kidding'?"

"Whada you gonna do?"

"I dunno. I'm gettin' the fuck outta here. That's for sure."

"Whadya mean?"

"It's no good no more. You're gone. Buddy's good as gone. I had a fight wit' Eugene so it's me an' Richie. Nobody to play with no more."

"How's Emilio?"

"I can't live in the same house wit' that fuckin' maniac."

"Jus' tell 'im I said he should dig himself."

"He should fuckin' dig himself six feet under."

"Don' worry, babe, he's gonna get hit."

"I gotta get outta here, Perry."

"You wanna come wit' me?"

"Where you goin'?"

"I got a uncle up in Boston in the Seafarers. He can get us papers an' we're off."

"Jus' like that?"

"Jus' like that ... jus' like that, Joey."

***

Thursday night after dinner Buddy went downstairs to take a ride. As he was getting in his father's car, he saw Perry sitting in the passenger seat. "La Guardian!"

"Heeeyyy!" Joey, Richie, and Eugene jumped up from behind the car, and they all grabbed Buddy. Laughing, they rammed him against the door, lifted him on their shoulders, and carried him back to his building. They dumped Buddy into the elevator and jammed in with him, still shouting and laughing. "What the fuck is goin' on?" Buddy yelled, as they tried to get him on the bottom of a pile-up.

"Bachelor party!" they shouted. They hustled Buddy into bis apartment, into a fresh Banlon shirt, and back to his car.

"Where we goin'?"

"The Duke!"

"Mom's!"

"Ain't got one!"

"The Duke!"

Joey took the wheel, heading the car toward the Duke on Central Avenue in Yonkers.

"Perry! Where the fuck you been?"

"Fuckin' Trenton, New Jersey."

Buddy took a good look at Perry. He'd lost a lot of weight. "You fat tub a shit, I missed you."

"I wasn't gonna miss this for nothin'." Perry leaned over the front seat and flicked Buddy's ear. Buddy ducked, then half leaped over the seat and wrestled with Perry. Richie and Eugene piled on. Joey laughed and swerved the car sharply to knock everybody against the door. Everybody started laughing and yelling at Joey. Eugene pulled out a pint of bourbon, and Richie pulled out a quart of Tango. By the time Joey screeched into a parking spot, Eugene's green iridescents were soaked with Tango, Perry had lost a shoe somewhere in the car, and Richie had a lump like a softball on his forehead.

After the second pitcher of seventy-sevens, Richie stood up and raised his hands to quiet everybody at the table. "We got a present here for you, Bors'lino." He staggered away from the table to the checkroom and came back with a big, shiny green package. He nipped it to Buddy. "Open it!"

"C'mon, c'mon, open it!"

"Yeah. Wait! Give 'im the card!"

"Yeah, the card!"

"Give 'im the card!"

Nobody could find the card. People at other tables were watching and took up the cry. "Where's the card! We want the card!" Soon all the people were laughing and shouting for the card. Finally Richie found the card and held it in front of the packed club. On the card was a drawing of a farmer locking a barn door and two horses running in the distance.

"Open a package!"

"Open it!" The crowd shouted encouragement.

Buddy ripped open the green paper, and four hundred foil-wrapped Trojans cascaded across the floor.

***

Perry and Joey stumbled through the dimly lit hallway to Joey's door.

"I can't fuckin' believe it." Joey giggled.

"Did you see the look on 'is face?" Perry imitated Buddy's expression, opening his mouth to a big O.

Joey doubled over in breathless laughter, extending a palm that Perry slapped loudly.

Suddenly the door opened. Emilio stood in his shorts rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He yanked Joey inside. The door slammed shut before Perry could react. Perry stood startled, staring at the closed door, a horrible fear snaking through his guts. A slap. Another. A sharp intake of breath. Muttered curses. Silence. The door slowly opened. Perry backed away. Joey emerged. His face was pinched with pain. Tears ran down his cheeks in fat tracks. Five red lines streaked across the side of his ear. He held his stomach.

"What the fuck!" Joey motioned to Perry to shut up, hesitated a few seconds, and ushered him inside the darkened apartment.

***

Richie got home at two-thirty in the morning and called C. After two rings he remembered she was sleeping at Despie's. He hoisted himself up on the kitchen counter and lit a cigarette. He sat in the darkness, idly swinging his legs, staring down at the deserted street. An el train passed outside the window. The rocketing cars washed his face with light. The train was empty.

***

Eugene undid his tie as he sauntered into the living room.

"Ace!" Eugene's father faced a dead television. He wore his red brocade smoking jacket, a small pyramid of cigarette butts in front of him on the coffee table.

"Whada you doin' up?"

Al shrugged. "Couldn't sleep. How was your friend's party?"

"Good." Eugene took a cigarette from the coffee table.

"You get' im laid?"

"Nah."

"What kind of a send-off is that? You know when one a my friends was gettin' hitched we use to rent out a whole cat-house. There was this place, a brownstone down on Thirty-eighth Street." He lit another cigarette and exhaled through his nose. "Lefty Rao's bachelor party, we go down there," he chuckled, "and I put away ... I put away
six
chicks ...
six
"

Eugene pressed his fingers into his temples. "Look, I don' wanna hear that now, O.K.?"

Al was taken aback. "Whassamatter?"

"Nothin' ... nothin'. I jus' don' wanna hear any a that bullshit right now, O.K.?" Al raised his eyebrows and lit a fresh cigarette from the butt in his mouth.

Eugene paced the living room. "Sorry."

Al shrugged, waving his cigarette hand.

"I'm just goin' nuts. I don' know what the fuck is goin' on anymore." He jammed his hands into his pockets.

Al's eyes darted around the room. He shifted uncomfortably on his buttocks.

"I had a fight with Joey about a month ago and ever since then ... I dunno ... it feels like ... like I'm walkin' aroun' with my shirt buttoned wrong or somethin'." Al raised his eyebrows again and coughed. "An' las' week ... I had this chick upstairs..." Eugene sat down again. "An' I couldn't get it up."

Al's face tightened. Eugene shrugged. "I mean the next night I gave her a double to make up for it but like ... the thing was ... that night I couldn't get it up. I didn't give a shit. I mean I wasn't scared about it or nothing'. I just didn't care if I ever got it up again for the rest of my goddamn life ... it's weird!"

"You oughta see a doctor," Al said.

"A shrink?"

"You don't need none a that bullshit. Whyncha go over to Glassman tomorrow. Let 'im take a look."

"At what?"

"I dunno, maybe you got a pulled muscle or somethin'."

Eugene made a fist, and, forearm up, jerked off an invisible prick.

Al laughed. "You still jerkin'off?"

"Whada you kiddin'? I ain't jerked off since I was twelve."

"You got no time, hah?"

"I got better things to do with it."

Al laughed again and got up. "I'm gonna bed, Ace. You wanna see Glassman tomorrow, tell 'im to put it on my tab."

Eugene sat alone on the couch rubbing his face between his fists, feeling like he just got cheated out of something, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

***

Despie and C lay in Despie's bed staring at the ceiling.

"Whada you thinkin' about?" C asked.

"I forgot to invite Debby Tepper."

"Call her tomorrow."

"She'll be pissed off."

"So what? She's a skank."

"We're gonna get the license tomorrow."

"You scared?"

Despie shrugged. "I'm gonna be a married woman."

"How does it feel?"

Despie rolled over, her back to C. "Like shit."

***

Perry and Joey lay in Joey's bed.

"Rotten motherfucker." Joey fingered his face lightly where Emilio had slapped him.

"He'll get hit."

"Who's gonna do it?"

"Don't you worry."

"I gotta get outta here," said Joey.

Perry stared at the ceiling, his hands clasped behind his neck. "You think of comin' wit' me?"

A long silence. "Yeah."

"I'm leavin' Sunday."

"You goin' back to get your stuff?"

"No."

"You just goin' after the wedding?"

"Yeah."

"Up to Boston?"

"Yeah."

A long, slow exhale. "You takin' anybody?"

"Just you."

Another long, slow exhale. "I'm fuckin' scared, Perry."

"I'm hip."

A long silence. "How we gonna get there?"

"I got two bus tickets." He reached over Joey's chest and took his wallet from the dresser. "Two tickets, an' I copped two hundred bucks from Rosie."

"I got no money."

"Don't sweat it."

"Hey, Perry?"

"Yeah?"

"I don' wanna sound like no faggot ... but I dig you ... you're my best friend."

Another long silence.

"We gonna make it, man." Perry rolled on his side.

"I ain't gonna go to no Africa," said Joey.

"Let's get outta the Bronx first."

"I just ain't gonna go to no fuckin' Africa, that's all." Joey listened to Emilio's snoring through the wall.

***

Eugene dreamed that he was dressed and in bed at a party, his dick hanging out of his fly. He rolled over in bed, but no matter which way he turned, he couldn't hide the fact that his dick hung out of his fly. Handsome men and beautiful women stood around his bed with drinks in their hands, yakking away, and he couldn't hide his dick from them, no matter how much he tossed, turned, or contorted himself.

***

Buddy came home to an empty house. His father was at work, and his mother wasn't yet home from mahjong. He had all his shirts and shit packed to move to Despie's house tomorrow afternoon. The two suitcases were still open on top of his bed. He felt like he was going away to camp for two weeks. He went over the list of records for tomorrow night's party, and that cheered him up a little. He wasn't sure if his father knew about the wedding. When he told his mother she said not to tell Vito, because he would blow his top. She would tell him. But Buddy wasn't sure when she was going to tell him. What the fuck difference did it make. Vito would be working, and Buddy didn't want him at his goddamn party anyhow. She could stay home too. He heard the door open, his mother humming opera. Buddy dumped everything off his bed and pretended he was asleep. She walked right by his room.

***

Early Friday morning the Wanderers cut school and went to Fordham Road to buy new sport jackets for the wedding party. They got off the bus at Fordham and Webster Avenue in front of Sears Roebuck and started the long uphill trek.

"Where we goin'?" asked Eugene.

"Alexander's."

"Bullshit. I ain't buyin' that crap."

"Where you gonna go, Wallachs?"

"Slak Shak."

"That's the same shit as Alexander's."

"I ain't goin' to no Alexander's."

"You wanna split up?"

"I gotta go to Alexander's."

"Yeah, I only got twenty bucks."

"They got good stuff."

"Forget it, I'll meet you guys later." Eugene started to walk away.

"Hey, Eugene!"

"What!" He wheeled around.

"What's goin' on wit' you?"

He shrugged angrily. "I don't wanna go to no shithouse for a sport jacket. You wanna in-depth report?"

"You better start diggin' yourself, Caputo," Joey said. They stared at each other, both tight-lipped and unblinking. Eugene walked back down Fordham Road. Perry made a motion in his direction, but Joey grabbed his arm. "Fuck 'im."

The Wanderers continued up the hill toward Alexander's.

In Alexander's basement Richie found a silver sharkskin jacket with green felt lapels. Buddy grabbed a pale yellow mohair with no lapels.

"Dig it." Buddy slipped it on over his muscle shirt and stood in front of a four-paneled mirror.

"That's fuckin' beautiful," said Perry.

"I got this yellow tie." Buddy outlined a tie along his throat as he stared at his reflection. "An' a tab collar shirt ... man."

"Dynamite."

"How you like this?" Richie paraded in front of them in his discovery.

"I didn't know Purina made sport jackets," said Joey.

"Hey, fuck you. Let's see what you're gettin'," said Richie.

Joey and Perry exchanged brief glances. "I think I'm gonna wear one I got awready," said Joey.

"You ain't gonna buy a jacket?" asked Buddy.

"Nah, I got a good one at home."

"I'm fuckin' insulted," Buddy said half-seriously.

"Ah, c'mon, Buddy. I got one that cost thirty-five bucks. I only wore it twice."

"I ain't gonna buy one either," said Perry. "I ain't got no dough."

"Bullshit! I'll lend you the money," said Buddy.

"I brought one wit' me," Perry excused himself.

"Fuckin' guys. Richie, you don't buy that jacket I'll cut your balls off."

"It looks like shit," Richie sulked.

"It's outtasite."

"Bullshit."

"What the fuck is goin' on here!" Buddy grasped the coat-rack with a bloodless fist. "You guys say you're gonna get jackets for the wedding an' now nobody's buyin' shit."

People turned around and stared at Buddy. Nobody said anything.

"What's goin' on? Damnit!" Richie rolled the jacket into a ball. Joey and Perry studied the floor. "Well, fuck this!" Buddy tore off the yellow jacket, flung it across the floor, and stormed out of the basement.

"Hey, Buddy!" Richie took off after him.