"Like what?" Stony freed his hand. He felt a little looser.

"Like you don't wanna know." Chubby finished his drink. "Take my word for it."

"Like what?" Stony persisted.

"Like that time when you first got a piece?" Chubby laughed.

Stony remembered that night when he was fourteen and drunk doing somersaults in the living room and accidentally kicking in the screen of the three-week-old color TV. Tommy went to belt his ass but Chubby got his old man in a bear hug until he cooled down. Chubby had poured them all a victory Scotch. For a second Stony was flooded with a feeling of love for his uncle. He flushed and felt a corny lump in his throat.

"You remember that, hah?" Chubby lightly punched him on the biceps. "So don't tell me I don't know."

"Every time ... every time I think about her, Chub, I get so sick. I love her so bad. She puts out like her cunt was spare change, and it hurts me, like I wanna break somethin', you know? She used to be so ... so innocent." Stony's face was twisted with grief. He searched his uncle's eyes for some kind of answer.

"I get this ... itch ... this hunger in my head when I'm around her like I got poison ivy inside me and I can't scratch it. I feel really clutchy, like I can't have her out of my sight ... out of my arms almost. I keep driven' her crazy. Sometimes it feels like anything I say comes down to 'Do you love me?' in some way or another. An' when we're screwing an' I feel like that I feel like I weigh six hundred pounds on top a her. I don't know what I want from her. It makes me so crazy sometimes. When I'm home alone I feel so lost in space I gotta put on some record that's real familiar to me, some Sly, some James Brown, an' I gotta sit down an' lissen to the music an' let it hook me back to Earth ... like I'm stoned or something. I can't swing it no more. Somethin's gotta give."

Chubby stared at the ice cubes in his drink. He wasn't laughing. He looked Stony in the eye. "Stones, you're seventeen now ... in my book that makes you a man. You're still a kid in a lotta ways but in the heart you're a man."

Stony frowned at Chubby.

Chubby chewed on his thumb and stared beyond his nephew. "O.K. I'm gonna tell you somethin'. Stones. I'm gonna tell you a story that only me an' your old man know about."

Stony felt better for telling his uncle about his grief.

"I wanna tell you about Sooky."

"Who?"

"Lissen, lemme ask you something. Whatta you think a your Aunt Phyllis?"

"Whada you mean?"

"You know." Chubby shrugged, pouting. "You know." He curved out a female form on the bar. "Whada you think?"

Stony was embarrassed. "I dunno."