I didn't say anything. There was nothing but trouble coming out of the whole thing, and I didn't know how to stop it. “Marie, please, let's not fight about it. Benny Briggs is lying. He's making a whole big thing about it. My cousin just told them to get out. Benny mouthed off at him. My cousin has a quick temper and he wanted to get Benny. It was just a fight between a couple of kids.”
“I heard you fought Benny, too.”
“Nobody fought anybody. The caretaker came with the dog before—”
“So he did sic the dog on them.”
“No, he didn't,” I said. “Why don't you believe me? He just brought the dog along to throw a scare into them. They jumped out and left. That was all there was to it.”
“But you would have fought Benny if the caretaker hadn't brought the dog.”
When I'd come down there, I'd hoped that Marie would understand the thing better than the other people had, but she didn't. She didn't understand Cousin Ernest any more than Ernest understood her. She couldn't see that the Winchesters might be in the right. She couldn't see that the Winchesters might be in the right on anything. Now I realized why she hadn't called me. It was because I'd sided with the Winchesters against one of the town people. As far as she was concerned that was wrong. She couldn't see it any other way.
“Look, Marie, can't you understand that the Winchesters were in the right? People can't just go walking onto other people's property without permission. I mean, what if my cousin walked into your house and helped himself out of your refrigerator?” Suddenly I realized that I was talking like Uncle Foster, and I began to feel hot and prickly. I didn't want to take my ideas from him.
Marie didn't say anything. She just sat there looking at me for a long time. I looked back. Then she took her hand away from me and said, “Chris, Dad says I shouldn't go out with you. He says you're a Winchester and someday you'll go off with your own kind. He says that sooner or later you'll let me down. He says that even if you didn't want to, the Winchesters would put pressure on you to go around with your own kind. He says that they'd never let you marry a girl whose dad owns a grocery store.”
The whole thing was making me feel very upset—part angry because she was saying things about me that weren't true, part worried that I'd lose her, and part scared that all the people I'd known for years were turning against me for something that I didn't do.
“Marie, what do you mean, my own kind of people? I'm not anybody's kind of people. I'm just me.” I was beginning to shout.
“You're a Winchester, Chris,” she shouted back.
“I don't go to private school. I go to the same school as you and Benny Briggs and the rest of you go to. Why am I supposed to be some different kind of people from you?”
“What about when you grow up? Are you going to get a job in the mills? Are you going to go to work in a grocery store slicing salami and dishing out potato salad?”
There she was right, and I knew it. I wouldn't necessarily go into the family business and become an executive—I didn't know if I would want to, and anyway, the way this whole business was going, Uncle Foster might not trust me anymore. But I wouldn't go work in the mills on the line or spend my days dishing out potato salad. If I didn't go into the business, I'd probably get into some kind of social service, the way my dad did. Something like that. But I wouldn't be dishing out potato salad. And Marie would.
I said, “Maybe I'll join the Peace Corps, the way my dad did. You don't know what I might do.”
“But you won't have to go to work in the mills.”
I looked down at my hands. “No, that's true. My uncle would never let me do that.”
“Then you'll let me down, because like goes to like, Dad says.”
I looked at her. “My dad didn't go to like. He married my mom, and her folks worked in the steel mills in Pittsburgh.”
Suddenly she crumpled in on herself. She hunched forward, her shoulders got smaller, and she put her hands over her face. “Oh, Chris,” she said, “it isn't me. It's Dad. He's afraid you'll talk me into having sex with you, and then you'll go off with your own and let me down. That's what worries him. He doesn't want me to start having sex with somebody who's likely to let me down.”
It didn't seem to me that Mr. Scalzo would have talked about stuff like that to Marie.
“Did he say that to you?”
“No. Mom told me. She said they were both worried about that.”
“Marie, I never tried to talk you into having sex.”
She still had her hands over her face. She nodded. “I know. But I knew you wanted to, and maybe someday I would have changed my mind.”
Suddenly I got the idea that there was something more to it than she was saying. It wasn't her folks that she was thinking about. What she really wanted was for me to promise that I'd never let her down. She wanted to know if she could trust me. She was saying all that stuff about like going to like to get me to promise I wouldn't walk out on her someday. And from the way she was talking, I had the feeling that if I did make some kind of promise, she might have sex with me.
But I couldn't promise her that I'd never let her down, because I didn't know if I would. I couldn't promise her anything like that. I sat there feeling lousy about myself. The only thing I could think of to say was, “Marie, I don't want to break up with you. I just want to keep on going the way we were going. Let's not let this whole Benny Briggs thing break us up. That was between Benny and my cousin. It didn't have anything to do with me.”
Suddenly she jumped up, came around the picnic table, and put her arms around my neck. “Oh, Chris, I'm so confused,” she said. Then she started to cry. She hugged me tight. “I love you, Chris.”
I'd never seen her cry before. I got up and we stood there hugging. I could feel my heart beating like crazy where she was pressed up against me. “I love you,” I said.
We stood there for a minute and then she broke away. She wiped her tears with her hand. “I have to get back to the store.” I took her hand, and we walked around the side of the house to the street. Benny Briggs was standing on the sidewalk out front, looking in through the window in the door to see if Marie was there.
CHAPTER 6
We stopped dead. For just a moment Benny didn't notice us, but went on looking in the store. Then he realized we were standing there, and he turned around. He didn't say anything, but just looked at us. I looked back, trying to figure out how to fight him. He was a lot taller than me—tall and gangly, with a long reach—but I didn't think he was much heavier than I was. With that reach there wouldn't be much use in trying to box him. I didn't know much about boxing, anyway. The best thing would be to tackle him and then see if I could get on top of him.
Benny said, “What are you doing with that guy, Marie? He's not your kind. You should stay with your own people.”
That surprised me. It didn't sound like something Benny would think up on his own. It sounded like something he'd heard somewhere. I said, “It's none of your business who she goes around with, Briggs.”
“Winchester, we don't want you people in this part of town. You go back to your own place. You just get out of here and stay out of here.”
I wished I didn't have to fight him. I wasn't like Ernest, always losing his temper and wanting to fight. I didn't have a quick temper, and I didn't get much of a kick out of fighting. “You can't tell me where I can go. I have as much right to come here as you do.”
“This is our place, Winchester. You got plenty of room at your own place, and you can stay there.”
That was hard to answer. I had the whole estate to run around on—the pond, the fields, the stables. He couldn't go there—why should I be able to come into his part of town? But I couldn't admit that. “This is a public street,” I said. “I have a right to walk on it.”
He looked at Marie. “And we don't want you fooling around with our girls, either, Winchester.”
That didn't sound like Benny, either. I had a feeling that a lot of those kinds of id
eas were going around. I had a feeling that it wasn't just me that was the cause of it—it was the union and the strike that was coming and all of that. People were afraid of what the Winchester Mills were going to do, and it was making them hard and rough.
“Why is she supposed to be your girl, Briggs?”
Marie looked at me. “Chris—” she said.
“I'm giving you three to get out of here, Winchester. One—”
“Don't fight, you guys,” Marie said. “Please don't fight.” She looked scared, and I knew she was upset for being the cause of the trouble. “Don't fight.”
“I told you, Winchester. I'm giving you three. Two—”
Suddenly Marie broke away and ran up the steps into the store. “Dad,” she shouted. “Dad.”
“Three,” Briggs said. He put up his fists like a boxer, and I knew he expected me to fight like that. I put my hands up, too, and took a couple of steps forward. Then suddenly I put my head down and charged him. As I rushed him he got a good sock at the side of my head, but then I had him around the waist and was toppling him over backward.
“Hey,” he shouted. “What the hell are you doing?” He gave me another slam on my head as we went down, but then we were on the ground and I was lying on top of him. He squirmed around under me, trying to get loose. I swung my fist, trying to hit him somewhere, but in that position I couldn't get in much of a punch. I swung again and caught him in the neck. He kept trying to swing at my face, but he wasn't in much of a position to hit, either.
Then I felt a sharp pull on the back of my shirt. Mr. Scalzo jerked me to my feet. “Cut it out, you guys,” he shouted. “No more of this.” I stood there panting and feeling sort of shaky. My face hurt where he'd hit me, and I wondered if I was bleeding. I didn't want to touch my skin, because I didn't want him to know he'd hurt me.
Briggs got up and began tucking in his shirt, like a fight was nothing to him. “You don't fight right, Winchester. Next time I'm going to fix you.”
“Shut up, Benny,” Mr. Scalzo said. “You go on home.”
“I'm not getting out of here until Winchester does.”
“Get out of here, Benny,” Mr. Scalzo said. “I'll worry about Chris.”
“I'm not going until—”
Mr. Scalzo jumped forward, his fist up. “I told you, get out of here, Benny. I'll take care of Chris.”
Just then Frankie Scalzo came around the corner of the building from the backyard, rubbing his eyes. “What's going on?”
Mr. Scalzo swung around and snapped his finger at Frankie. “You get, too, Frankie.” He snapped his finger at Marie. “You, too, Marie. All of you. Get going. I want to talk to Chris.” He stared around. Marie went back into the store. Frankie went over to Benny and said something, and then the two of them went off down the street together. It was the way I'd figured all along: Regardless of the fact that I was going with his sister, Frankie would side with Benny.
Mr. Scalzo stood there with his arms on his hips, waiting until everybody was gone. Then he turned and looked at me for a long minute. I didn't say anything. Finally he said in a soft voice, “Chris, you're a nice kid, and you're smart, and I hate like hell to do this. But you can't come around here anymore.”
I was so surprised I couldn't think of anything to say. I just stood there with my mouth open, looking at him.
He looked back. “I'm sorry, Chris, but that's the way it is.”
“But why? What did I do wrong?”
“Chris, there isn't any use in talking about it. You're a Winchester, and that's all there is to it. You aren't right for Marie.”
I went on staring at him. “Are you saying I can't see Marie anymore?”
He paused a little to think. “No, I'm not saying that. Not yet. I got enough brains not to tell her to stay away from you. She's got her own mind, and if I order her not to see you, it'd only make her want to do it all the more. I'm going to try to make her see it my way. In the meantime, I don't want you coming to the store.” His voice wasn't so soft anymore.
“But why? Why?”
He looked away. “Chris, I don't think you realize how high feelings are running in town. I own a little store. I compete with supermarkets who can sell everything for ten, fifteen percent less than me. I depend on people who know I'll let them run up a bill when they're in trouble; I depend on people who like the friendliness of a little store. I built up a lot of goodwill in this town. I can't risk losing that. I'm not going to stop Marie from coming out to visit you or going to the state park with you. But I don't want you coming around to the store.” He gave me a long look so I'd know he meant it, and then he turned and went into the store. I got on my bike, rode down to Main Street, and on out through town to where the farms and forests that belonged to the Winchesters began.
I was glad at least that I'd had the guts to take on Benny. I was proud of that. Maybe I might even have beaten him, if Mr. Scalzo hadn't pulled me off him. But that was the only thing I felt good about. For somehow, out of all of this, I'd become the enemy of everybody in town. Well, probably not everybody, but some people. They didn't want me around. What would happen the next time I went down to the Scalzos to see Marie? What would happen when I started school in the fall, which was only a month away? The way it looked, I would have to fight somebody every day. It was pretty scary, knowing that a lot of people hated you, and wanted to hurt you if they could. Oh, how I wished that Ernest hadn't started all this. Oh, how I wished I'd stayed out of the whole thing in the first place.
I wondered about Teddy Melas. I figured I'd better call him pretty soon to find out what people were saying. Would he want to stop being friends now? What about Marie? I remembered her crying and saying she loved me. That made me smile. At least maybe it was still all right with Marie.
Riding along on my bike, I'd been so busy thinking and feeling things that I hadn't bothered to check out my face in a store window or something. But now I was coming up to the driveway of the estate. I stopped, set down my bike, and felt over my face. It was tender where Benny had hit me, especially on my left cheek and the left side of my forehead. But I didn't feel any cuts or dried blood. So I got back on the bike and rode into the driveway and up to the gatehouse.
Of course, the first thing that Mom said when she saw me was, “Chris, what's the matter?” She looked worried and grabbed hold of my chin so she could get a good look at my face. “What happened to you?”
“I got into a fight with Benny Briggs. I would have beat him, but Mr. Scalzo stopped it.” I knew she wouldn't like the idea of a fight, but I felt proud about it, anyway.
“Did you start it again?”
“Mom, I didn't start the other fight. Ernest did. How come I always get blamed for everything?”
She let go of my chin. “Shush, shush, I'm not blaming you for anything. Tell me what happened.”
“Benny came around to Scalzo's store to see Marie. I was out back talking to her, and when we came around the corner he was there. He told me to get out of there, I had my own place and didn't have any right to come to their part of town.”
She sat down at the round oak table under the beaded lampshade. “He beat you up for coming into his part of town?”
“Mom, he didn't beat me up. If you want to know, I was on top of him when Mr. Scalzo broke it up.”
She sighed. “All right. But that was the whole reason? It wasn't to get even for threatening him when you and Ernest caught him in the pond?”
I sat down at the table with her. “I don't know, Mom.” I didn't feel so proud anymore. “Benny Briggs and those guys, they think I'm their enemy. And Mr. Scalzo, too. He told Marie that I wouldn't stick with her, I'd go off with my own people in the end. Who are my own people supposed to be? I don't want to be anybody's enemy.”
“What about Marie? What does she say about it?”
I shook my head. “I don't know. I think she still likes me, but she's worried.”
Mom ran her hand through my hair. “Poor Chris. You're caught
right in the middle, aren't you?”
“Why do I have to be anybody's enemy? I'm not anybody's enemy.”
She smiled a little sad smile. “Go look in the mirror, Chris.”
CHAPTER 7
I didn't sleep too well that night. The left side of my face hurt, and when I accidentally turned over on that side, it woke me up. Besides, I kept worrying. Benny was going to go after me again when he got a chance, I was sure of that. The only way I could stop that was if I really beat the hell out of him, and I wasn't sure I could. On top of that, I didn't know if Teddy Melas would be my friend anymore. Oh, it worried me, and a couple of times I got up and sat on the edge of my bed, staring out into the moonlight falling on the fields, just feeling lousy. Finally it came to me that I should have a talk with Teddy. I should ask him flat out if he didn't want to do things with me anymore. Whatever happened after that, would happen. Once I decided that, I felt a little easier, and I went to sleep.
When I woke up there was a light rain falling. After breakfast I put on a jacket and baseball cap and went up to the stable. Durham said that we needed the rain. Besides, it would make the ground soft and easy to cultivate, so he sent me out with a hoe to weed the cutting garden. By the middle of the morning it was raining too hard for that. I went into the stable to wait until the rain eased up, and dried off as best as I could with some rags. I was trying to get my hair dry when Ernest came out to the stable. Usually in August Ernest wouldn't have been around. The whole family went up to their summer house in Bar Harbor, Maine, for the month. But Uncle Foster couldn't go, because of the negotiations with the workers, and he wanted Ernest to stay, too. Only Anne and her mother went.
Ernest said, “I was in Dad's office and I saw you through the window. I heard you had a fight with Briggs.”
“Yeah,” I said. I liked the idea that Ernest knew I'd had a fight.
“Is he a good fighter?”
“I don't know,” I said. “He wanted to box, but I don't know anything about boxing, so I tackled him. He gave me a couple of good ones, but I gave him a couple, too, before Mr. Scalzo broke it up.”
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