She felt the hard, cruel metal in her hand, realized how easily and well it fitted the grip. “How do you fire this?” she asked Chino. “Just by pulling this little trigger?”

She saw Chino shrink as she raised the gun, to point its muzzle at him. “How many bullets are left, Chino? Enough for you? And you?” She pointed the gun at Anybodys, who stood against the side of the building. “We all killed him. My brother and Riff and I killed him. Not Chino!”

She held him with the gun. “Can I kill you, Chino? And will there be a bullet left for me?”

She felt a hand on her shoulder, a gentle voice in her ear, recognized the face of Doc. He told her that together they would go to Tony’s mother, for she had to be told, and she would need the comfort of another woman, especially one who had loved her son.

If ten streets and ten thousand people, even twenty, thirty thousand, knew of the tragedy, the other millions of people and the tens of thousands of streets in New York did not. Some, not many of the papers, carried a headline about the murders under the highway, but the details were scanty and incomplete.

But most of the people in the city slept or had a good time, because it was Saturday night, the one night in the week when a man just had to let go. There were people who loved, who ate, who lusted and promoted. There were people who died in peace, in pain and in violence.

And there were people who looked up at the sky and ached with loneliness, as they appealed in silence to the stars and the moon. They hoped that someplace, somewhere, someone heard them, that their own little dreams would come true, that very soon they would meet someone they could trust, could love and be happy with.

Some of the wishes came true, but it made no difference to the city because it had been built to endure beyond the lifetime of all the people that inhabited it.

That is the way things were. And if things did not change, the way it would always be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

IRVING SHULMAN (1913–1995) was a novelist and screenwriter, known for his depictions of urban life. He is the author of ten books, including the novels The Amboy Dukes, Cry Tough, and The Square Trap, which were all adapted into movies. Shulman also wrote the original treatment for Rebel Without a Cause, the film that catapulted James Dean to stardom.

FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR:
SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Irving-Shulman

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