Ben wiped his hands down the sides of his Army surplus pants. “If you insist,” he said.
“Beautiful,” he kept saying all the way to Sammy’s. “Beautiful.”
And it was. As they stopped at the red light just before the turn-off for Sammy’s, they passed Ack Ack standing on the corner. His bike was in the shop for repairs again.
It was perfect.
Arthur, Charlie, and Ben all leaned out the window and yelled, waving their arms.
Ack Ack was immobilized, glued to the pavement. He rubbed his eyes as if he did not believe what he saw.
The light changed.
“Hey!” Ack Ack started to run alongside. “Where you going?”
“To Sammy’s. Follow us!”
Ack Ack made good time. He pulled up huffing and puffing outside Sammy’s at the same time the Mustang did.
“How about that?” he said over and over, looking at all of them. “If that isn’t something!”
“I almost didn’t recognize you without your mustache,” Laurie said.
“Yeah.” Ack Ack stroked his upper lip. “I feel kind of nude without it.”
Sammy flung the door open. “Do my eyes deceive me?” he asked. “Is it my friends, Ben, Charlie, Arthur, Mr. Ackerman?”
Sammy always called Ack Ack Mr. Ackerman.
“I do not believe I know this young lady,” Sammy said, his face practically splitting open with his smile.
“This is your lady friend, Ben? I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“This is just a girl I know,” Ben said, embarrassed. “Laurie, this is Sammy.”
Laurie and Sammy shook hands.
“A very snappy hat you have on,” Sammy said to her. She had on the purple hat with the yellow flowers. “If you should ever want to get rid of it, I would be happy to take it off your hands for a good price.”
They all went inside.
“Sit down, sit down,” Sammy kept saying. It was as if no time had passed since they had been there last. The tomcat lay on the pattern of sun on the floor and didn’t even open his eyes. A train rumbled past and shook the wooden skis and the old golf clubs.
“What’s new, Sammy?” Ben asked.
“Nothing much. I still got your items in the back. You never came back for your deposit and I was reluctant to sell the garments until I knew if you wanted them.” Sammy’s eyes looked very earnest.
“I do if you can wait a little while for the rest of the dough,” Ben said. “I am temporarily out of funds.”
“Sure,” Sammy said happily. “I can wait. I got nothing but time. Anyways, I like having that tail coat and top hat around. Gives the joint a little class. I would not let them go to just anyone. How’s the poetry coming?” he asked Arthur, who turned several shades of red, shuffled his feet, and tugged at his ear.
“I got a couple things I would like to ask your opinion on,” he said to Sammy.
“Any time, any time at all. Would you be interested in a raccoon coat?” he asked Laurie. “It is not in firstclass condition, but it is also not on its last legs. Did you ever see a raccoon coat on its last legs?” Sammy asked and they all laughed.
Laurie tried on the coat.
“Not a bad fit,” Sammy said, circling her. “At five bucks, it is not a bad buy.”
“If I can pay you tomorrow,” Laurie said. “I like it. It would be just the thing for skiing.”
“Tomorrow, or the next day. If you are a friend of Ben’s, I know you are good for the five bucks,” Sammy said. “How about a cup of tea? I am out of saltines but I might scare up a graham cracker or two.”
“Next week is my birthday,” Sammy said suddenly as they sat sipping the tea. “I am going to be fifty years old.” He smiled around the circle.
“A half century. Life begins at fifty, I have decided. They tell you forty, but I say fifty. It is a long time to have been around, that is all I know.”
No one said anything. There didn’t seem to be anything to say.
The tomcat woke up and surveyed them all. Then he made noises and rubbed himself against Sammy’s legs.
“I know you’re hungry,” Sammy said. “Be patient. I have guests.”
“Thanks a lot,” Laurie said as they got up to go. “I enjoyed meeting you and I will be back tomorrow with the money.”
Sammy nodded. “I look forward to your visit. And don’t forget what I said about the hat. Any time you want to get rid of it, I will give you a fair price.”
Outside, Ack Ack said to Laurie, “You want me to drive you home?”
“Thanks,” she said, “but I have my own car.”
“I know,” he answered sadly. “That’s what I meant. You want me to drive you home in your car?”
“Oh,” she said. “Well, all right, I guess. You kids want a ride?”
“It makes me nervous when there are too many people in the car,” Ack Ack said.
“Listen, it’s hairy enough driving with you when you’re cool as a cucumber,” Ben said. “We’ll play it safe and walk.”
Looking nervous herself, Laurie got in the passenger side as Ack Ack slipped behind the wheel.
“If I die tomorrow,” he said, “at least I will have had this moment.”
“My gosh,” Laurie said, “don’t say things like that.”
“It’s just a line from a Ronald Colman movie I happened to catch on the late late show last week,” Ack Ack said reassuringly.
As they pulled away from the curb Ben shouted, “Don’t forget those seat belts!”
Charlie yelled, “You are carrying precious cargo!” And Arthur chimed in, “Watch out for the fuzz!”
24
“How’d you make out with Laurie when you drove her home yesterday?” Ben asked Ack Ack.
Charlie hid behind his muffler and eavesdropped.
“I didn’t,” Ack Ack said. “Make out, that is.”
“I didn’t mean make out that way and you know it,” Ben said. “I mean how’d you do with the car?”
“It was like driving a Rolls,” Ack Ack said dreamily. “I must admit, I went a couple miles out of the way just to get maximum out of the buggy. And I saw a whole bunch of kids I know so of course I had to lean on the horn a little just to clear the streets. It was beautiful.”
He closed his eyes and smiled. Then he opened them and said, “I fear, however, that it is you she pines for. She’s always asking about you, like who do you go out with, are you the type who gets serious right away, stuff like that. Every time I try to bring the conversation around to me, she switches it to you. It is very discouraging.” Ack Ack started to stroke his mustache, then he remembered it was gone.
“I think she is pretty nice,” Charlie said. “Even if she didn’t have her own car. She really talks to you.”
“Hey, Charl, I thought you hated girls,” Ack Ack said, teasing. “So now all of a sudden you got an eye for the chicks.”
“I do not,” Charlie protested, blushing. “I just like Laurie. She’s not like a girl, anyway, she’s more like a boy.”
“I’m not sure she’d like to hear that,” Ben said.
“Did you happen to get around to the dutch-treat system and find out where she stood on that?” Ack Ack asked.
“No,” Charlie said. “But she’s very big on women’s lib.”
“Right on,” Ack Ack agreed.
“I have come to a decision,” Ben said suddenly, “and it’s that I’m not getting involved with any more females. I am going to play the field from now on.”
Ack Ack nodded. “More power to you,” he said. “And if you can introduce the subject of dutch treat and make it work, you will have struck a blow for men’s liberation.”
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” Ben said. “That’s what my soccer coach says.”
He donned his Bogie hat and a jacket he had recently bought at Sammy’s. “I feel like a new man,” he said, putting his hands in the pockets.
“Would you believe?” he asked, an expre
ssion of wonder on his face. He drew forth a crumpled bill from the pocket.
“I knew this was my lucky hat!” he marveled. “All I do is put it on and I find a buck. I only paid fifty cents for the darn jacket.”
“It could only happen to you,” Ack Ack said. “It wouldn’t happen to me in a thousand years.”
“And I’ve reached another decision,” Ben said. “This is my day for decisions. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to pay Sammy what I owe him for the tail coat and top hat, take them home, wrap them up, and give them to him for a birthday present. What do you think of that?”
“He’ll go out of his mind,” Charlie said.
“He’ll flip,” Ack Ack agreed. “A magnanimous and mature decision. It takes a man to give up something he wants to please another.” A puzzled expression crossed his face. “I can’t remember what movie that was from,” he said.
Ack Ack was lying with his feet propped up on the wall of Ben’s bedroom. The feet were pretty dirty due to the fact that Ack Ack went barefoot now that spring was here. Charlie imagined his mother walking in and finding footprints on the wall she had painted so carefully a couple of weeks ago. He smiled, just thinking about it.
“One other thing I thought of,” Ben said.
“What’s that?”
“If I need it, I can always borrow it—the coat, I mean,” Ben said. “I know Sammy would lend it to me.”
“Thinking every minute,” Ack Ack said, tapping his head.
The telephone rang.
“Oh, hi, Laurie,” Charlie said.
“I’m out of here.” Ben turned the collar of his jacket up. “I’m gone.”
“Hey, Laurie,” Ack Ack took the receiver, turning his head from side to side to make sure the coast was clear, “will I do?”
25
“Charlie! The garbage!”
Holy creep, not again!
Charlie wrapped his muffler snugly about his neck and put his hat on. Still no pipe but Sammy had promised he’d keep his eye peeled for a good second-or third-hand one.
“And also,” Sammy had said, “should I come across one of them coats with the little cape attached, like the very one Mr. Holmes used to sport, I will pick it up for you. I do not hold out too much hope, as they are not in abundant supply, but I can only say I will try.”
Too much. The whole outfit would be too much. Whistling, Charlie went to do his job.
“I want Mary back.” Kathy nailed Charlie as he took the lid off the garbage pail. She must’ve been lying in wait for him. Sticking out her stomach and looking pretty mean and ugly, Kathy whined, “I miss her.”
In a pig’s eye, Charlie thought to himself. But he had matured and had learned the value of not always voicing one’s thoughts aloud.
“Listen,” he said in a phony voice a lot like Penny’s, “I don’t have her any more. I gave her to a little girl who doesn’t have any dolls at all. She said she would treat Mary like her own child.”
“How come she doesn’t have any dolls of her own?” Kathy asked.
“Her family is too poor to buy her any,” Charlie said, warming up to his story. “They are so poor she has to eat stale bread and mushrooms every day.”
“What’s that you’ve got around your neck?” Kathy asked. She had a short attention span.
“It’s the longest muffler in the Western Hemisphere,” Charlie said. “It’s very special. They say it was used by the Boston Strangler,” he finished, lowering his voice.
Kathy settled herself on the back steps. “Who’s the Boston Strangler?” she wanted to know.
“You never heard of the Boston Strangler?” Charlie popped his eyes out. This was too good to be true. “You fool, you. Listen, he was the most famous strangler of them all.”
“What’s a strangler?” Kathy asked.
Charlie outdid himself describing the strangler’s activities. Kathy’s eyes got bigger and bigger and eventually she got up, sort of slid by Charlie, then hotfooted it for her house, looking back at intervals to make sure Charlie wasn’t following her.
Charlie smiled. He’d really taken care of her. She wasn’t about to come back. And he wasn’t about to give Mary up. Just because the voodoo hadn’t worked the first time didn’t mean it might not work the second try. It was best to keep Mary around, in case Ben changed his mind.
About the Author
Constance C. Greene is the author of over twenty highly successful young adult novels, including the ALA Notable Book A Girl Called Al, Al(exandra) the Great, Getting Nowhere, and Beat the Turtle Drum, which is an ALA Notable Book, an IRA-CBC Children’s Choice, and the basis for the Emmy Award–winning after-school special Very Good Friends. Greene lives in Milford, Connecticut.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1971 by Constance C. Greene
Cover design by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-5040-0352-0
This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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The Good-Luck Bogie Hat Page 8