Chapters (15)
“He better of got charged!” Tommy the Wire said. “I mean, everybody could start saying that. That’s all I need. My sleazy brother would be snaking his way into the hospital first chance he got. What a joke. Believe me, nobody wants to die.”
“I would if I was like that,” Mousy said.
“Me too,” DeCenz added.
“Well, yooz guys is fucked then,” the Wire said, successfully pulling the plug on the discussion.
Later, after we’d dropped Tommy the Wire off, Mousy brought it up again. “Seriously,” he said, “if I ever remotely resemble that guy’s brother, I hope you’d have the decency to put me out of my misery. I mean, you’d just be finishing off God’s work.”
DeCenz and I nodded. We drove several blocks.
“How bad would you have to be?” DeCenz finally asked.
Mousy didn’t answer at first. When we stopped at a red light, he said, “I don’t know. Guess I’d have to be so bad that my life obviously wasn’t worth living. I think you’d just know.”
There wasn’t much of a scene at the train station the next day. Jackie was home from the clinic, and he waited on the platform with me. The old man had given me thirty dollars and a one-way ticket.
“Look, Dildo,” the old man said. “I’m doing this for your own fucking good.”
I was very pissed-off, though, and didn’t answer.
“Hey, don’t give me that look,” he said. “My old man would’ve sent me to one of these joints, too, if he could’ve swung it. You know why? Because you’re gonna get a damn good education about people.”
Just before the train left, Jackie pulled out this grandfather clock of a wristwatch that he’d scored off Caveech. Must’ve weighed five pounds and gave the time in about ten different countries. It was some kind of scuba diver’s watch with a compass, an alarm, and a calendar; it played a tune and even contained a little foldable toothpick. Jackie said it was worth two hundred dollars, but Caveech had gotten him a bargain and it only cost $7.50.
“That’s some bargain,” I said. “I’m surprised it don’t come with its own wrist.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, and I thanked him.
There was a loud, painful hiss, and the train jerked forward. I hopped aboard, immediately regretting not having hugged my brother. Jackie rolled along beneath my window until we got to the end of the platform, and I left him behind.