Beetlecreek

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER • TWO HEY pretended they didn't see him when he walked over to the railing of the bridge. They were standing slouched and posed with their hands in their pockets, smoking in rotation a short, wet cigarette butt. "Hiya, Pittsburgh Kid!" Baby Boy was the first one to speak. He put his arm around Johnny's shoulder and steered him toward the rest of the boys. Johnny was grateful for Baby Boy's attention. The Leader had his back toward Johnny and was busy chipping hunks of wood from the railing. "Hello, fellows," Johnny said. He tried to make himself sound casual, but he realized right away that his voice was quivering. He took a tennis ball from his pocket and began bouncing it as if it were a basketball. No one answered his greeting although all of them except the Leader grunted or hunched their shoulders in way of response . But, in spite of all this, Johnny could tell by the way the other two boys stole looks at him from the corners of their lowered eyes, that he had won new respect from them because of what had happened at Bill Trapp's. "I saw you and yo uncle last night," the Leader said, a 38 T wry smile barely concealing the nervousness revealed in his sleepy eyes. "That fart of yours sure was drunk, must of been nursed on a bottle." The Leader hoisted up his trousers and pulled on the frayed red suspender that was hanging from his shoulder. As if this were a signal, a titter circled the group and crescendoed into uncontrolled laughter. Only Baby Boy and Johnny didn't laugh. Johnny felt the very same stabbing fears and embarrassments he had felt almost two weeks before, when he first encountered the gang. He could think of nothing to say that would belittle them. He hated and at the same time envied the Leader for his way of leaning back rocking on his heels with his thumb in the red suspenders. Even the thought that they were down-home boys and he was from the big city didn't comfort him. The Leader was standing so close, Johnny could feel the rise and fall of his stomach against his own. There was a sickening , sour milk smell about him. Finally, Baby Boy asked, "What about it, Johnny? What'd he do to you?" "Oh, it wasn't nothing. . . ." There was a hole in the bottom plank of the bridge and in it was a waxy beetle struggling to get off its back. He took the beetle, and turning so they couldn't see him, he placed it carefully on the leaf of a bush. "If you wouldn't of been so slow, you could of got away easy," the Leader said, looking from one boy's face to the other as if seeking confirmation in their expressions. "He didn't do nothing," Johnny said. "Took me to the house and gave me cider, that's all." 39 He was angry with himself. This wasn't what he wanted to say at all. He had planned an entirely different story, a more exciting story that would give him more heroic importance. The Leader sat on the railing and the other boys followed his example until there was only Johnny standing in the middle of the bridge. "At first I was scared . . . he sure is a fearsome guy . . . looked at me with those funny eyes ... I didn't know what he was going to do." Johnny couldn't continue. Everything he had planned to say escaped his memory just like the time he had a Christmas recitation to say and he hadn't been able to remember whether he was supposed to say, Hail the new born King, or, Hail, the King is born. He took the tennis ball and threw it high in the air and clapped his hands once before catching it. "What do you say we go to the shanty," Baby Boy said. "D'you want to go to the shanty?" the Leader asked Johnny. "Sure," Johnny said. They had never invited him before and he felt a little nervous. They walked to the end of the bridge on the same side of the railroad tracks and climbed down through a path under a small trestle where the creek had backed up to form a small pond. On the side...