Anything.” I said. “Except menthol.” See when you just start smoking you don’t have a favorite, anything will do. The minute Junior was out of the car Angela sprung at me from across the stick shift and kissed me and at the same time was mumbling things at me. It sounded like she was saying she missed me but I couldn’t tell because our tongues were tangled up. Then, she put her hand between my legs but it was the gun barrel she found instead of something else. “Your so hard. Do I make hard like that?” She was smiling right under my nose. “Huh” She was saying. “Tell me, do I???”
Chapter Twelve
We found Marty sitting on the roof with another girl. She was wearing cut-off shorts, and a halter-top. Her hair was piled on her head in a big bun and tied with one of those twisty things. The girl she was with was dressed identically but who noticed. The minute I’m up there and looking at her I got that familiar feeling. Well, forget about feelings, feelings doesn’t really explain it. It was more like getting hit in the head with a brick kind of thing. She took my breath away and the funny thing was I think she got a kick out of it.
“What’s the matter, you out of shape? Too many stairs?” She said, smiling at me.
“Yeah, I’m getting old. Hey listen”, I said, pointing to Angela, “This is Angela, maybe you know her from school?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen you around.” She said warily. “Where’s Erica?”
“Erica and I broke up.” I said. While I was talking I watched Angela to see how she would react. She didn’t smile or nothing. She wasn’t interested in how Marty took the news or anything. And you could tell that she wasn’t really concerned with what Marty thought about the situation either. With Angela, I could tell, there was this confidence thing, it was like she was all alone on the planet and used to going in any direction she wanted. For her, it was like the roads were empty.
“Where are the boys?” Junior said.
Marty shook her head. “The Homicides are out settling a beef.” She said. “They should be back her soon. We’re having a party tonight. My mother went over to the Bronx to her sister’s. She won’t be home till tomorrow. You guys want to stay, you can.”
“What I need permission now? Junior said.
Marty kissed Junior on the head. “What you need is I don’t know.”
“What’s the beef?’ Junior asked.
“Who cares, it’s always something, right? Oh, look at me, I’m sorry, this is Mathilda, she lives down the block. I almost forgot to introduce her. What’s wrong with me tonight?”
Mathilda giggled and almost whispered. “What’s wrong is we got high.”
I was watching Angela, mainly because it was safer than just staring at Marty. Her eyes were flickering almost the same way the river was as the lights played across her eyes.
“We brought some beer.” She said. “I like it up here. It’s a perfect place to party on a night like this.”
I popped open some cans and passed them around and we stood in a circle and clanked them together before taking a drink. “Here’s to us.” Junior said, and held up his arm flexing his muscle. It made no sense, this muscle flexing, but what did?
We were all sitting around a giant wooden spool that once must have held telephone cables or something. Marty and Angela seemed to be hitting it off and like most girls do, they were sharing a cigarette. Junior and I walked over the edge of the roof. It wasn’t like we planned it or anything but we sort of just drifted over there. It wasn’t like an apartment building roof with a wall or anything, it was flat and if you took another step you’d end up in the garbage-strewn alleyway five stories down.
Go ahead, I’m waiting.” I said.
Go ahead what? What are you talking about?” Junior said.
“Go ahead and pretend you’re going to push me off the roof. Get it out of your system.” I said.
He spit and watched it whistle down into a trashcan. “Fucking amazing aim I have. Champion spitting.”
“That was luck. Besides, how can you miss a can down there, there’s like twenty of them.” I said.
“Yeah, but I was aiming for the one I hit.”
“Do it again than.” I challenged him.
“What? Did god put me here to amuse you? You do it.”
“I don’t spit, it’s not polite.” I said. “I’m a gentleman.”
“Gentleman, my ass. If you’re a gentleman, I’m like a count, or something.” Junior said.
“Yeah, I’ll count you out.”
That’s when the fake push came except there was nothing fake about the push. It was hard enough to send my beer hurdling over the edge of the roof but he had me by my pants with his other hand.
“You happy now? Got that out of your system like I said.”
“Yup. All clear. You know I had to do it once, right?
“Didn’t I just predict that you were going to do it? I know you like a book.”
He laughed. “Angela is fucking hot.” He said. “Not for nothing, I mean.”
“You’re not doing to bad yourself. I mean, like, I’m in love with your girlfriend.” I waited a second and then added “Not for nothing…”
“Remember that thing you were talking about?” He said, ignoring what I said or dismissing it as a joke.
“What thing?”
“That thing you mentioned about Marty and Erica, you know, like getting together.”
“You saying you’d be into it with Angela?” I asked.
“I mean, that could be cool if you know what I’m saying. No disrespect toward Erica, she’s a great girl but it just was something… Oh, I don’t know.”
“ I haven’t even slept with her yet but I’m not throwing a wet blanket on the idea either. What, are you thing about tonight? Making a move tonight?” I lit another cigarette and aimed the smoke into his face as I exhaled.”
“Cut that shit out, I’m thinking here.”
Just then, Marty called us back to the table. “Angela brought some hash with her.”
As we were walking back to the table, Junior put his hand on my back and with a crazy grin on his face said, “I think the idea of having both of them tonight is making my dick hard.”
I didn’t say anything.
Back at the table, the girls were passing around a pipe filled with a cube of hash in it. When Angela handed it up to Junior, he waved it away. “I don’t smoke that stuff, it reminds me of cow shit.”
“Where’d you ever see a cow, Junior?” Marty asked, while biting her nail.
Where else, you ever been to the zoo? There are a million cows there.” Junior said.
Angela started laughing. “I’ve been to a lot of zoos and I’ve never seen a cow once. Why would they have cows at a zoo? Like, have you ever seen a chicken at a zoo, or a pig? A zoo isn’t a farm. I think your confusing the two things.”
Junior never knew when to give up. “What are you talking about? I’ve seen a cow at the Bronx Zoo. Big fucking thing and he’s standing there up to his knees in the same shit you’re smoking.”
“Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it. This stuff is good. Goes right to your head.” Marty was swigging from her beer.
“I’m not knocking it. I’m just saying, shit has its role in life. You just not supposed to smoke it. That’s all. I’m an herbal man, myself, straight from nature. Hash is like a mixture of goat shit and mud. It even smells funny.” He said.
I took a hit off the pipe. “It does taste a little shitty, now that I think about it.” I winked at Angela. “Just a little, though.”
Anyway, the pipe went around in circles, the hash sizzling under the blue flame from the lighter as everyone huffed up their high. After a few blasts, Marty’s friend just conked out and her beer rolled down her slight belly and poured out in her lap. It looked like she had peed herself and we all giggled without making a move to get the beer.
After a while Junior picked it up and finished it. “Fucking stoned out hash-bunnies.” He said, acting proud like he was above it all.
> The hash made everything seem small and intimate, like we were in our own little world. Even though the city was just across the river, someone would have to have pointed it out to you for you to realize that it was there.
Then, some kid shows up saying something to Marty in Spanish. He was this little kid wearing a headband right over his eyebrows and above it sweat clung to his forehead like water behind a dam. He was holding a quart of beer and it was almost as big as him. I was stoned from the hash and it seemed like this kid was from another television show and somehow he ended up in ours. It was like a guest appearance or some shit like that.
Marty listened to him and then with a wave of the hand sent him on his way. It was like a queen sending away a messenger, I thought.
“The boys got themselves arrested.” She said. “I need to go down there tomorrow.”
“Jeez, you hate to get pinched on the weekend. You won’t see anyone till Monday or Tuesday. “ Junior said. “What happened?’
“The kid didn’t know. He was high on glue. But maybe it was that car you sold him?”
Junior shrugged. “He knew the score with that. Besides it was his idea. What are you going to do, bad luck, I guess.”
“My mother is going to be pissed.” Marty said, drawing out the S’s in pissed like in a song. “Really pissed.”
“Nothing you can do about that.” I said, surprised at the sound of my own voice.
“Don’t get me started, you. There’s a lot you can do, like not getting arrested in the first place. You think it’s like a joke or something.” Marty said, looking serious and at the same time seriously stoned. Her eyes were rimmed in red and teary-looking.
Junior, standing behind her, reached down and massaged her shoulders. “Take it easy, it doesn’t sound like a real beef, you know what I’m saying. He’ll be out in no time. He’s a tough kid, he knows how to jail. Plus, with the gang and all, nobody is going to bother him.”
“What, now you understand Spanish? You know what’s going on?” Marty said.
“Yeah, I do.” Junior said. “Not the individual words or anything but I know what’s being said. That kid wasn’t worked up, or anything. The way I see it, interpret it, it’s no big deal.”
“You’re everything else, and now you’re a translator, or some shit?” Marty couldn’t help herself and she was beginning to laugh. “You crack me up. That kid had like a tube of airplane glue stuck to his brain and you understood what he was saying.” Marty crossed herself. “I’m praying for all of us.” She said.
I was watching Angela now and she was looking at Junior and Marty like they were a television show she really liked and maybe I was doing the same to her. I know I keep talking about television shows but that’s what it seemed like. I was just kind of zoned in and everything was interesting to me, even the circle of perspiration that ringed my beer seemed alive. Pretty funny, right? I guess you could say I was stoned.
I sat down on a milk crate and Angela came over and sat on my lap.
“What are you doing?” I said, not really making sense.
“I’m sitting on you lap, what do you think?” She said. “Boy, that stuff is strong, isn’t it?”
I told her I was fine even though I wasn’t.
“It’s really pretty up here, kind of romantic, too.” She said, turning to me.
“You’re very pretty.” I said. “And romantic, too.” I wasn’t really thinking clearly so that any words that I could grab out of the air and use, I grabbed. Or at least the main words like romantic and pretty. Luckily she was talking about something I could use.
“You making fun of me?” She asked.
“No way.” I shook my head. “I’m trying to make out with you.” See what I was doing here? “That would be fun.” I said. “That’s what I want.”
“You don’t have to ask.” She said. “Tonight’s going to be special for us.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.” She said.
“Like how?” I tickled her.
“You know.” She whispered in my ear. “I don’t need to tell you.”
I mean, I knew what she was talking about but there was still this gaping hole in my brain thanks to the hash. I knew what she was saying but I kept thinking that maybe she meant something else. Not that I remember what else but you know what I mean. It could have been anything. Who knows what she was thinking. Better yet, who knew what I was thinking, if you could call it thinking. My brain was basically like cotton candy and it was sticking to the inside of my head.
Out of the corner of my eye I watched as Marty got up and pulled a tarp off something. It was the biggest boom box I had ever seen. I sort of made a noise when I saw it.
“What?” Angela asked me.
“Look at that thing.” I said. “People will be dancing in the city when she turns that thing on.”
“Wow. I’ve never seen one that big before. Look at the speakers.” Angela said.
From where I was sitting, Marty looked all business-like. First she folded the tarp up and put it down on the roof before putting a brick on top of it. Junior was down on his knees looking at the controls.
“Salsa time!” He said to no one in particular. He must have done something because the thing started buzzing static. The sound ripped through my head and Angela covered her ears. I couldn’t hear what Marty said to him when she smacked him in the head and reached down and shut the thing off.
“Hey, why you hitting me?” He said, before picking her up and spinning her around over his head.
Marty squealed. “Put me down.”
“You going to hit me again?”
“No.” She said.
“You promise?”
“I promise.” She said.
When he put her down, she punched him in the stomach. “Hey, that hurt.” He said.
“My ass, it did. Now get out of the way and let me turn this on.”
She turned it on and some guy was jabbering away in Spanish.
“What’s he saying?” Junior asked.
“He’s saying you’re a jerk-off. He’s announcing it to the whole city.” I said.
Marty was nodding her head. “It’s true, what can I say.”
Junior was shadow boxing, throwing punches in my direction. “Come on,” he said. “Step up to the plate,”
I got up, blocked what he threw and launched an open-handed shot through his guard, which I stopped right next to his chin. “Bam, you’re down.” I said raising my hands in the air.
“That wouldn’t knock a bird out of a tree.” He said before stumbled around and falling to his knees. I began the count. “One, two, three…”
“The Three Stooges.” Marty said, having seen our comedy routine before.
Junior ignored her and tried to struggle to his feet. “Eight, Nine, Ten…” I waved my hands counting him out. Then the music came on and Marty was slowly moving her hips. She held her hand near her face while she danced and softly snapped her fingers. While she danced, Junior opened some beer cans for us and when she took the can from him Marty barely opened her eyes.
I took mine and held the can up to Angela’s forehead. “Oh, that feels so good.” She said. Then I took the can away and kissed the wet spot on her forehead. “You happy? I asked.
Brooklyn 1975 Page 18