Red switches to a job as night clerk in one of... Red switches to a job as night clerk in one of the flophouses on the BoweryIt's easier than dishwashing, and pays him five bucks more, twenty-three a weekHe holds on to it for the last two years before the war, drifting along through the liquid fetid heat of summer in the Bowery and the chill damp winters when the walls leak and the brown plaster becomes stained with grayLong nights pass in which he thinks of nothing, listening dully to the periodic wrangling passage of the trains on the Third Avenue el, waiting for the morning so he can go home to Lois
Several times a night he passes through the main room where forty or fifty men are sleeping uneasily on their iron cots, and he listens to the constant soft coughing and smells the harsh styptic formalin and the bodies of the old drunks, a crabbed smell, glum and souredThe hallways and the bathroom stink of disinfectant, and over the urinals there is
tiffany jewellery almost always a drunk retching his liquor, holding dreamily to the porcelain near the flush leverHe closes the door and goes into the card room, where a few old men are playing pinochle around an old round table, the floor under them black with grease and cigarette endsRed listens to their talk, mumbled and unfinished
Maggie Kennedy was a fine figure of a woman, she said to me, now, what was it she said?
I told Tommy Muldoon he had no call to be running me in, and when I got done, he let me go I'll tell you thatThey're afraid of me ever since I broke Ricchio's jaw, you know he was the precinct sergeant, back in, well, now wait a minute and I'll tell you the date, I broke his jaw with one punch back in a New Year's night eight year ago, 1924 it was, no, wait a moment back in 1933 that's closer to itHey, you rummies, pipe down goddammit we got some paying guests in the next room
They're silent for a moment and
louis vuitton white speedy then one of them says in his low mumbling voice, You ain't so smart, young feller, and ifen you don't shut your mouth I'll be obliged to whop you
Come on down in the street, and I'll take you on
Then one of them comes up to Red, and whispers to him, You better leave him alone 'cause he'll throw you down the stairs, the last night man he broke his neckI'm sorry I disturbed ya, pop, I'll be minding my manners
You do that, son, and you and me won't have no trouble
Across the street, they can hear a jukebox grinding in a barroom
Back behind the night desk, Red turns on his radio and plays it softly(THE LEAVES OF BROWN CAME TUMBLING DOWN One of the men awakens screamingRed goes into the hall and quiets him, patting him on the shoulder and leading him back to his cot
In the morning the bums dress hurriedly, and the big room is empty by sevenThey hustle along the chill streets in the dawn, their caps pulled
mens gucci watches down to their eyes, and their old jacket collars scrounged around their necksAs if they were ashamed, they won't look at one another, and like automatons most of them line up in the alleys off Canal Street for the coffee they receive from soup kitchensRed walks through the streets for a while before he catches the bus up to West 27thThe long night is always depressing
He looks at his feet striding alongNothing's worth a good goddam
But back in their furnished room, Lois is cooking his breakfast on a hotplate, and the kid, Jackie, comes running up to him, shows him a new schoolbookRed feels tired and happy
Yeah, that's nice, kid, he says, patting him on the shoulder
When Jackie has left for school, Lois sits down to eat breakfast with himSince he has been working in the flophouse they have only their mornings togetherAt eleven she leaves for the restaurant
The eggs dry enough for you, honey? she
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Outside, in the new morning, some trucks are grinding by on Tenth AvenueThe traffic has an early-morning soundJesus, this is okay, he says aloud
You like it, huh, Red
She fingers her glassListen, Red, I went to see a lawyer yesterday about gettin' a divorce from Mike
Yeah?
I can do it for a hundred dollars, a little more maybe, but should I, I mean whatthehell if nothing should come of it, maybe it'd be better not to
I dunno, kid, he says to her
Red, I ain't askin' you to get married, you know I ain't nagged you, but I gotta look ahead
It's all there before himThe choice again, but it means admitting he's throughI dunno, Lois, that's the goddam truthI like ya a lot and you're a good kid, there's no gettin' away from that, an' it's only fair to ya, but I gotta think about itI ain't made for stay in' in one place, I dunno there's just somethin', it's kind've a big countryYa gotta let me know one way or the
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